Delirium
Enda Walsh
WHO Mitya, twenty-seven.
TO WHOM Alyosha, twenty-three, Mitya’s brother.
WHERE A room in a Travelodge.
WHEN Present day.
WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED Delirium is based on The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky. It follows the story of three brothers, Mitya, Ivan and Alyosha, their dissolute father Fyodor and their servant Smerdyakov. Mitya is engaged to be married to Katerina, but is in love with his father’s whore, Grushenka. Here, Mitya, who has just returned from a holiday in Benidorm, confesses to Alyosha that it is Grushenka, not Katerina, that he loves. He needs to find three thousand pounds in order to pay Katerina back and break off their engagement.
WHAT TO CONSIDER
• | The heightened realism. The style of the play could be described as Expressionistic. You can therefore be bold in your playing. |
• | The play’s theatricality. Its use of multimedia, dance, song and puppetry. |
• | Mitya is described by his father as ‘a pumped-up ladies’ man with more cock than conscience’. |
• | Alyosha is the only decent person in the play and represents its moral conscience. |
• | The significance of ‘the Karamazov insect’. |
WHAT HE WANTS
• | To make confession. |
• | For Alyosha to forgive him. |
• | For Alyosha to help him find the money. |
KEYWORDS (there are many) Technicolor magnificent dirty shite vice indignity groping chafing grinding buzzing glowed scooped ashamed
Mitya
Where’s the mini-bar?! I need a little confidence for what I’m about to tell you. You have no idea what it’s like living with this brain. It’s like I’ve been wired by a blind, evil man who’s cracked my skull open and thrown a food mixer inside… with a fox! A normal person would see a pattern to the day. Like a series of tasks and challenges that have to be undertaken, that must be completed. But for me the world lives in Technicolor, it’s a Disneyland with the rides replaced by pure emotions. Can you imagine such a place? It’s magnificent! And it’s SO fucking expensive! I need that three thousand! Can I speak honestly to you? Will you look past the drink? (Slight pause.) I really would like to be good. (Slight pause.) So this is it, this is why I’ve called you here, this is the first part of my confession. […] I love dirty women. I’ve had a lot of ladies, of course, but I’m always drawn to the back alleys behind the main road, to the precious gems in the shite. I’m speaking figuratively to protect you from the details. But I love vice. I love the indignity of vice. Besides the indignity of vice there are other things I love about the world of vice of which I’m trying very, very, very hard not to speak about to protect your innocence. The things I’m trying very hard not to speak about are the firm naked backsides in the alleyways. The pert nipples that accompany these backsides. The groping… The exchange of bodily fluids… The chafing… The dull grinding… The slap-happy sound of skin against skin. Oh Jesus! Jesus Christ!! (He adjusts his penis.) So this is my world, and into this world stepped Katerina. Back then I was a lieutenant in the army. I looked great in the uniform. My colonel, who hated me, had a daughter, Katerina. She was smart, elegant. Cultured people buzzed about her like buzzing, cultured things. Everything she touched glowed. The way that she could turn a phrase. Beautiful details! Once I tried to speak to her, but she looked right through me, Alyosha. I didn’t like that. Not long after I discovered that her father owed a lot of money and if he didn’t pay it back his family would be fucked. All of a sudden I saw a way to get my own back. I wrote to her. ‘If you need the money, come to me in secret; I’m sure we can work something out. 