Act One

Outside the spa hotel. The main building is partially visible to the right.¹ An open area resembling a park, with a fountain and clusters of tall mature trees and shrubs. To the left a small pavilion, almost completely covered in ivy and Virginia creeper. Outside it, a table and chair. In the background views over the fjord all the way down to the sea, with headlands and small islets in the distance. It is a quiet late morning in summer, warm and bright.

PROFESSOR RUBEK and his wife MAJA²are sitting in wicker chairs at a table laid on the lawn outside the hotel. They have finished breakfast and are now drinking champagne and seltzers;³ each reading a newspaper. The PROFESSOR is a distinguished older gentleman⁴ wearing a black velvet jacket, but otherwise dressed in summer clothes. MAJA is relatively youthful, with an animated face and cheerful, mischievous eyes, albeit with a hint of weariness in them. Dressed in an elegant travelling suit.

MAJA [sits for a while as though expecting the professor to say something. She then lets her newspaper fall and sighs]: Oh no, no –!

RUBEK [looks up from his newspaper]: Now, what’s the matter with you, Maja?

MAJA: Just listen to how silent it is here.

RUBEK [smiles indulgently]: You can hear that, can you?

MAJA: What?

RUBEK: The silence?

MAJA: Yes, I most certainly can.

RUBEK: You might be right, mein Kind.⁵ You really can hear silence.⁶

MAJA: Yes, God knows you can. When it’s as utterly overwhelming as it is here, then –

RUBEK: As here at the spa, you mean?

MAJA: I mean everywhere here at home. There was noise and disquiet enough in town. But even so – I thought that noise and disquiet itself had something dead about it.

RUBEK [with a searching look]: So you’re not particularly happy to be back home, Maja?

MAJA [looks at him]: Are you?

RUBEK [evasively]: Am I –?

MAJA: Yes. You’ve been away so much, much longer than I have. Are you genuinely happy to be home again?

RUBEK: No – to be honest – not, as it were, genuinely happy –

MAJA [animated]: There, you see! I knew it!

RUBEK: Perhaps I’ve been away too long. Have become completely detached from everything – everything here at home.

MAJA [eager, pulls her chair up]: There, you see, Rubek! Why don’t we just go off again? As soon as we can?

RUBEK [a little impatient]: Yes, yes, that is the idea, Maja dear. You know that.

MAJA: But why not now, right away? Think how cosy and comfortable we could be down there in our lovely new house –

RUBEK [smiles indulgently]: Our lovely new home, shouldn’t you say?

MAJA [curt]: I prefer to say house. Let’s leave it at that.

RUBEK [his eye lingers on her]: You really are a peculiar little person.

MAJA: Am I that peculiar?

RUBEK: Yes, I think so.

MAJA: But why? Because I have no great desire to be traipsing around up here, perhaps –?

RUBEK: Which one of us was it who absolutely insisted that we travel north this summer?

MAJA: That, I suppose, would be me.

RUBEK: Yes, well it certainly wasn’t me.

MAJA: But, God! – who could have guessed that everything would have changed so horribly back here! And in such a short time too! Just think – it’s a little over four years since I left –

RUBEK: – as a married woman, yes.

MAJA: Married? What’s that got to do with it?

RUBEK [goes on]: – became Frau Professor⁷ and got yourself a fine home – I’m sorry – a grand house, I should say. And a villa on Taunitzer See,⁸ in what has become the most elegant part –. Yes, and I dare say it is all fine and elegant, Maja. It’s spacious too. So we don’t have to get under each other’s feet all the time –

MAJA [casually]: No, no, no – there’s no shortage of living space and that kind of thing –

RUBEK: And there’s the fact that you found yourself in more elegant and less restricted circumstances in general. Moving in more elevated circles than you were used to back home.

MAJA [looks at him]: Oh, so you think that it’s me who’s changed?

RUBEK: Yes, Maja, I do think that.

MAJA: Just me? Not the people here?

RUBEK: Oh, yes, them too. A tiny bit, perhaps. Not in any very endearing direction either. I’ll certainly concede that.

MAJA: Yes, you really should concede that.

RUBEK [changes the subject]: When I look at the way people live round here, do you know what frame of mind that puts me in?

MAJA: No? Tell me.

RUBEK: It reminds me of that night we travelled up here on the train –

MAJA: But you were just sitting in the compartment sleeping.

RUBEK: Not all the time. I noticed how silent it became when we stopped at all the little stations –. I heard the silence – just like you, Maja –

MAJA: Hm – yes, just like me.

RUBEK: – and then I realized that we’d crossed the border. That we really were home. Because the train would stop and wait at all the little stations, even though there were no passengers.

MAJA: Why did it wait for so long? When there was nothing there?

RUBEK: Don’t know. No passengers left the train, no one boarded. And even so, the train would wait an endlessly long time. And at each station, I heard two railway workers walking along the platform – one of them had a lantern in his hand – and talking to each other, out in the night, their voices subdued and toneless, saying nothing.

MAJA: You’re right. There’s always a couple of men walking and talking to each other –

RUBEK: – about nothing. [Switches to a livelier tone] But just wait till tomorrow. Then we’ll have the big luxury steamer coming into harbour. And we’ll board it and sail all round the coast – right up north⁹ – as far as the Arctic Ocean.

MAJA: Yes, but that way you won’t get to see anything of the country – of life. And that after all was precisely what you wanted.

RUBEK [curt, disobliging]: I’ve seen more than enough.

MAJA: Do you think that a sea voyage would be better for you?

RUBEK: It’s always a change.

MAJA: Yes, yes, as long as it does you good, then –

RUBEK: Me? Does me good? There’s nothing in the world the matter with me.

MAJA [stands up and walks over to him]: Yes, there is, Rubek. You must feel it yourself.

RUBEK: But, dearest Maja – what do you suppose that might be?

MAJA [behind him, leaning forward over the back of his chair]: Why don’t you tell me? You’ve started walking about restlessly, relentlessly. You can’t find peace anywhere. Not at home, not abroad. You’ve become a total recluse of late.

RUBEK [lightly sarcastic]: No, really – and you’ve noticed this, have you?

MAJA: No one who knows you could fail to notice. And I think it’s so sad that you’ve lost all appetite for work.

RUBEK: Oh, have I? That too?

MAJA: Just think, you, who used to work so tirelessly – all hours of the day and night!

RUBEK [darkly]: Used to, yes –

MAJA: But as soon as you finished your great masterpiece –

RUBEK [nods thoughtfully]: Resurrection Day¹⁰ –

MAJA: – the one that toured the world. That made you so famous –

RUBEK: Perhaps that was my misfortune, Maja.

MAJA: Why?

RUBEK: When I completed my masterpiece – [with a violent gesture of his hand] – because Resurrection Day is a masterpiece! Or was, at first. No, it still is. And it shall, shall, shall be a masterpiece!

MAJA [looks at him in astonishment]: Yes, Rubek, but the whole world knows that.

RUBEK [curt, dismissive]: The whole world knows nothing! Understands nothing!

MAJA: Well, it must have some idea at least –

RUBEK: About something that simply isn’t there, yes. Something that has never been in my thoughts. See, that’s something they go into raptures over! [Growls to himself.] It’s not worth the effort, going around exhausting yourself for the sake of the mob and the masses – and for the ‘whole world’.

MAJA: So you think it’s better – or that it’s more worthy of you to go around knocking off the occasional portrait bust?

RUBEK [smiles genially]: They’re not really portrait busts, the ones I go around making, Maja.

MAJA: Yes, they are – God knows they are – for the last two or three years – since you had your large group sculpture finished and out of the house –

RUBEK: They’re still not strictly portrait busts, I tell you.

MAJA: Then what are they?

RUBEK: There’s something secret, something concealed in and behind those busts – something hidden that people can’t see –

MAJA: Really?

RUBEK [decisive]: Only I can see it. And it amuses me greatly. – On the surface they’ve got that so-called ‘striking resemblance’ that people stand there gawping at in such amazement – [lowers his voice] but at the deepest level they’re all worthy, respectable horse faces, stubborn donkey muzzles, low-slung, lop-eared dog skulls and fatted swine heads – as well as the occasional brutish, flabby likenesses of oxen –.

MAJA [indifferent]: – all the best-loved farmyard animals, then.¹¹

RUBEK: Only the best-loved farmyard animals, Maja. All those creatures man has corrupted in his image. And which in turn have corrupted man. [Drains his champagne glass and laughs.] And it’s these underhand works of art the great and the good come and commission me to produce. And they pay for them in good faith – and hard cash. Almost worth their weight in gold, as they say.

MAJA [filling his glass]: Shame on you, Rubek! Now drink, and be merry.¹²

RUBEK [strokes his brow repeatedly and sits back in his chair]: I am merry, Maja. Genuinely merry. In a way, that is. [Is silent for a short while.] Because there is a certain happiness in feeling free from everything and independent of everything. To have had my fill of everything anyone could ever wish for. To all appearances, at least. – Don’t you feel the same way I do, Maja?

MAJA: Oh, yes, I do. Up to a point, I suppose. [Looks at him.] But do you remember what you promised me the day we agreed about that difficult –

RUBEK [nods]: – that the two of us should marry. It was very hard for you, that, Maja.

MAJA [remains unruffled]: – and that I would go abroad with you and live there permanently – and have a good life. – Can you remember what you promised me then?

RUBEK [shakes his head]: No, I honestly can’t. So, what did I promise you?

MAJA: You said you would take me with you up on to a high mountain and show me all the glory of the world.¹³

RUBEK [taken aback]: Did I really promise you that too?

MAJA [looks at him]: Me too? Who else?

RUBEK [indifferently]: No, no, I just meant whether I promised to show you –?

MAJA: – all the glory of the world. Yes, you did say that. And all the glory was to be mine and yours, you said.

RUBEK: It’s a sort of catch-phrase I used in the past.

MAJA: Just a catch-phrase?

RUBEK: Yes, from my schooldays. I used it to entice the neighbours’ children when I wanted them to come out and play with me in the forests and the mountains.

MAJA [looks fixedly at him]: So perhaps all you wanted from me was to come out and play as well?

RUBEK [brushes it off in jest]: Well, it has been a rather amusing game, hasn’t it, Maja?

MAJA [coldly]: I did not go away with you just to play.

RUBEK: No, no, I dare say you didn’t.

MAJA: And you never took me up any high mountain to show me –

RUBEK [irritated]: – all the glory of the world? No, I didn’t. And let me tell you this, little Maja: you’re not really built for mountaineering.

MAJA [attempts to control herself]: But you seemed to think I was once.

RUBEK: Four or five years ago, yes. [Stretches out in his chair] Four-five years, that’s a long, long time, Maja.

MAJA [looks at him with a bitter expression]: Has the time passed so very slowly for you, Rubek?

RUBEK: It’s beginning to feel a little slow now. [Yawns.] You know, every now and then.

MAJA [goes back to her seat]: Well, I won’t bore you any longer.

She sits down in her chair, picks up her newspaper and starts turning the pages.

Silence on both sides.

RUBEK [leans across with his elbows on the table and looks teasingly at her]: Is the Frau Professor¹⁴ offended?

MAJA [coldly, without looking up]: No, not in the least.

VISITORS TO THE SPA, mostly ladies, begin arriving singly and in groups through the park from the right and out to the left.

WAITERS bring refreshments from the hotel, emerging from behind the pavilion.

The MANAGER, with gloves and cane in hand, arrives from his rounds of the park, meets the guests and greets them affably, exchanging a few words with some of them.

MANAGER [walks up to PROFESSOR RUBEK’s table and politely removes his hat]: May I have the honour of wishing you a good morning, Frau Professor? – Good morning, professor.

RUBEK: Good morning, good morning, sir.

MANAGER [addressing MAJA]: May I inquire if our esteemed guests had a restful night?

MAJA: Yes, thank you very much; absolutely fine – for my part at any rate. I always sleep like a log.

MANAGER: I’m delighted to hear it. The first night in a strange place can sometimes be rather uncomfortable. – And what about the professor –?

RUBEK: Oh, my sleep has been pretty poor. Especially of late.

MANAGER [appears sympathetic]: Oh – it pains me to hear it. But a few weeks’ stay up here at the spa – should see to that.

RUBEK [looks up at him]: Tell me, sir – are any of your patients in the habit of bathing at night?

MANAGER [surprised]: At night? No, I’ve never heard tell of such a thing.

RUBEK: You haven’t?

MANAGER: No, I don’t know if there’s anyone here who is so sick as to require that.

RUBEK: Well, but is anyone here in the habit of walking in the park at night?

MANAGER [smiles and shakes his head]: No, professor – that would be against the regulations.

MAJA [becoming impatient]: For heaven’s sake, Rubek, it’s just as I said to you this morning – you’ve been dreaming.

RUBEK [drily]: Really? Have I? Thanks! [Turns to the MANAGER.] I happened to get up in the night; I couldn’t sleep. And I wanted to see what the weather was like –

MANAGER [attentive]: Yes, professor? And –?

RUBEK: So I looked out of the window – and a bright figure caught my eye over there, among the trees.

MAJA [smiling at the MANAGER]: And the professor tells us that this figure was wearing a bathing suit –

RUBEK – or something of the kind, I said. I couldn’t see that clearly. But it was definitely something white I saw.

MANAGER: Most remarkable. Was it a gentleman or a lady?

RUBEK: It seemed to me that it almost certainly had to be a lady. But another figure followed it. And it was quite dark. Like a shadow –

MANAGER [puzzled]: A dark figure? Completely black perhaps?

RUBEK: Yes, it almost seemed so, to my eyes.

MANAGER [as though beginning to understand]: Behind the white one? Close behind her –?

RUBEK: Yes. At some distance behind –

MANAGER: Aha! Then perhaps I can explain, professor.

RUBEK: Oh, what was it then?

MAJA [at the same time]: So the professor hasn’t been dreaming after all!

MANAGER [suddenly changing to a whisper as he points towards the background, right]: Sir, madam, shh! Look, over there –. Keep your voices down, now!

A slender LADY, dressed in fine cream-coloured cashmere and followed by a SISTER OF MERCY in black with a silver cross on a chain on her breast, enters from behind the corner of the hotel and walks through the park across to the pavilion to the left, in the foreground. Her face is pale and her features somewhat rigid; her eyelids droop, her eyes appear to be without the power of sight. Her dress is floor length and falls downs her body in regular cascading folds. A large white crêpe shawl covers her neck, chest, shoulders and arms. She keeps her arms folded across her chest. Her posture is rigid. Her steps are stiff and measured. The SISTER OF MERCY’s bearing is similarly measured, reminiscent of a serving girl’s. She follows the LADY constantly with her sharp brown eyes. WAITERS with napkins over their arms come to the door of the hotel and peer at the two strangers in curiosity. They take no notice and walk into the pavilion without looking round.

RUBEK [has risen slowly and involuntarily from his chair and stares at the pavilion door, now closed]: Who was that lady?

MANAGER: A stranger; she’s renting that small pavilion there.

RUBEK: Foreign?

MANAGER: Apparently so. They came here from abroad, at any rate. A week ago. Never been here before.

RUBEK [decisive, looks at him]: It was her I saw in the park last night.

MANAGER: It must have been. I thought that straight away.

RUBEK: What’s the lady’s name, sir?

MANAGER: She registered as a Madam de Satow and companion. That’s all we know.

RUBEK [pondering]: Satow? Satow –?

MAJA [laughs scornfully]: Do you know anyone of that name, Rubek? Do you?

RUBEK [shakes his head]: No, no one at all. – Satow? That sounds Russian. Or Slavonic at least. [To the MANAGER] What language does she speak?

MANAGER: When the two ladies talk to each other they do so in a language I can’t place. But otherwise she speaks excellent Norwegian, like a native.

RUBEK [exclaims in surprise]: Norwegian! Are you sure you’re not mistaken?

MANAGER: How could I be mistaken?

RUBEK [looks expectantly at him]: You’ve heard her speak yourself, then?

MANAGER: Yes. I have spoken with her myself. Just a few times. – Only a couple of words, come to think of it. She’s extremely taciturn. But –

RUBEK: But it was Norwegian?

MANAGER: Good, honest Norwegian. Perhaps with a slight northern¹⁵ inflection.

RUBEK [stares fascinated into space and whispers]: That too!

MAJA [a little hurt and ill at ease]: Perhaps this lady modelled for you at some point, Rubek? Think about it.

RUBEK [looks sharply at her]: Model!

MAJA [with a teasing smile]: Yes, in your younger years, I mean. Because you’re said to have had an unbelievable number of models. Back then, of course.

RUBEK [in the same tone]: Oh, no, my little Maja. I’ve only really ever had one model. One single model – for everything I’ve created.

MANAGER [who has turned and stands looking out to the left]: Yes, unfortunately I must excuse myself now. Because there’s someone who is not particularly pleasant to run into. Not least in the presence of ladies.

RUBEK [looking in the same direction]: That hunter over there? Who is that?

MANAGER: That’s Ulfheim, the squire out from –

RUBEK: Oh, Squire Ulfheim.

MANAGER: – the bear killer, as they call him –

RUBEK: I know him.

MANAGER: Yes, who doesn’t?

RUBEK: Only very slightly, that is. Is he a patient here now – at last?

MANAGER: No, oddly enough – not yet. He just passes through once a year – on his way up to the hunting grounds. – Do excuse me for a moment – [He is about to head inside the hotel.]

ULFHEIM [heard outside]: Hold on! For Christ’s sake! Why are you always running away from me?

MANAGER [stops]: Not running at all, squire.

SQUIRE ULFHEIM enters from the left, followed by a servant leading a pack of hunting dogs. The squire is in hunting dress, with tall boots and a felt hat with a feather in it. He is a tall, thin, sinewy figure with unkempt beard and hair, and a loud voice. It is impossible to tell his age from his appearance, but he is no longer young.

ULFHEIM [rushes at the MANAGER]: Is that any way to receive guests, eh? Rushing off with your tail between your hind legs – as though you had a devil at your heels.

MANAGER [calm, without answering him]: Have you just arrived on the steamer, sir?

ULFHEIM [growls]: Haven’t had the honour of seeing any steamer. [With his hands on his hips] Surely you know that I always sail in my own cutter? [To the SERVANT] Take good care of your fellow creatures, Lars. But keep them good and hungry, you hear. Fresh bones. Not too much meat on them, mind. Make sure they’re raw, reeking and bloody. And while you’re at it, stick something inside your own belly. [Kicks at him] To hell with you now!

The SERVANT takes the dogs out behind the corner of the hotel.

MANAGER: Perhaps the squire would like to go to the dining room in the meantime?

ULFHEIM: In among those half-dead flies and people? No, thank you so very much, sir, I’ll pass.

MANAGER: Yes, yes, as you wish.

ULFHEIM: But get the housekeeper to get my supplies ready as usual. Make sure there’s plenty of food. Lots of drink –! And tell her that if she doesn’t, either Lars or I will come and ram the very devil into her –

MANAGER [interrupting]: We know all this from before. [Turns] Shall I tell the waiter to bring you anything, professor? Or perhaps something for Mrs Rubek?

RUBEK: No thanks; nothing for me.

MAJA: Nor for me.

The MANAGER goes into the hotel.

ULFHEIM [stares at them for a moment; he then raises his hat]: Well, death and damnation! What frightfully refined company for a mongrel peasant to be mixing in!

RUBEK [looks up]: What do you mean by that, sir?

ULFHEIM [more gentle and better mannered]: It seems that I’ve bumped into Rubek the famous sculptor¹⁶ himself!

RUBEK [nods]: We have met socially once or twice. The autumn I was last in the country.

ULFHEIM: Yes, but that was many years ago now. And at that time you weren’t as well known as I gather you are now. Because back then, even a filthy bear hunter would dare to approach you.

RUBEK [smiles]: I don’t bite now either.

MAJA [looks at ULFHEIM with interest]: Are you a real, genuine bear hunter?

ULFHEIM [sits down at the next table, closer to the hotel]: Yes, bears, when I can, madam. Otherwise I make do with anything wild that happens to cross my path. Anything from eagles to wolves, women to elk and reindeer –. As long as they’re healthy and vigorous and full-blooded, they’re – [He drinks from his hip flask.]

MAJA [looks at him fixedly]: But a bear hunter, given the choice?

ULFHEIM: Given the choice, yes. Because if things get tricky, you can easily use your knife. [Smiles a little] We both work with awkward material, madam – your husband and I. I expect he struggles a bit with that marble. And I struggle with tense, throbbing bear sinews. In the end both of us manage to subdue our material. Make ourselves lord and master¹⁷ over it. Don’t give up till we’ve got the better of what resists us so fiercely.

RUBEK [musing]: That’s true enough, I suppose.

ULFHEIM: Yes, because even the stone has something to fight for, I’d say. It’s dead, but will resist, with might and main, being hammered into life. Just like the bear does when someone comes along and prods it in its den.

MAJA: Are you going hunting up in the forests now?

ULFHEIM: Right up high in the mountains. – You’ve never been up among the peaks, I expect, have you, madam?

MAJA: No, never.

ULFHEIM: Death and damnation. See you get yourself up there this summer, then! Along with me, if you like. I’m happy to take both you and the professor.

MAJA: Thanks, but Rubek has a sea voyage in mind this summer.

RUBEK: Coastal, round the inner skerries.

ULFHEIM: Eugh! – what the devil would you do in those putrid, hellish gutters! Just think about it – floating around aimlessly on brackish water. – Puke-water, more like.

MAJA: Hear that, Rubek?

ULFHEIM: No, you’d be much better off coming up into the mountains with me. There you’re free of people, no taint of people. You can’t imagine what that means to me. But a little lady like – [He stops.]

The SISTER OF MERCY comes out of the pavilion and walks into the hotel.

ULFHEIM [follows her with his eyes]: Would you look at her over there. The black crow. – Who’s being buried?

RUBEK: I don’t know that anybody here is –

ULFHEIM: Well, either that or someone’s lying here ready to croak. Somewhere or other. – The sick and dying should have the decency to go and get themselves buried sooner rather than later.

MAJA: Have you ever been sick yourself, squire?

ULFHEIM: Never. Wouldn’t be sitting here if I had. – But my nearest and dearest – they have been sick, poor things.

MAJA: So what did you do to help your nearest and dearest, then?

ULFHEIM: Shot them, of course.

RUBEK [looks at him]: Shot them?

MAJA [moves her chair back]: Shot them dead?

ULFHEIM [nods]: I never miss, madam.

MAJA: But how can you even contemplate shooting people dead?

ULFHEIM: I’m not talking about people –

MAJA: Your nearest and dearest, you said –

ULFHEIM: My nearest and dearest; they’re the dogs, of course.

MAJA: Your nearest and dearest are your dogs?

ULFHEIM: I’ve no one closer. My honest, faithful, impeccably honourable hunting companions –. When one of them gets sick and weak, then – bang! And with that a friend is expedited – into the hereafter.

The SISTER OF MERCY comes out of the hotel carrying a tray with bread and milk on it. She puts it down on the table outside the pavilion and then goes back inside.

ULFHEIM [laughs scornfully]: That stuff – is that supposed to be food for humans! Milk and water¹⁸ and soft, mushy bread. Ha, you should see my comrades eat! Would you like to see that?

MAJA [smiles at the PROFESSOR and stands up]: Yes, I would.

ULFHEIM [also stands up]: You’re a truly game lady, you are, madam. Come with me, then. Big, fat meaty knuckles, they swallow them whole. Spew them back up and wolf them back down again. Oh, it’s sheer joy to watch. Come here, and I’ll show you. And we’ll talk a bit more about this trip up to the mountains –

He goes out round the corner of the hotel. MAJA follows him. Almost at the same time the STRANGE LADY comes out of the pavilion and sits down at the table. She lifts the milk glass and is about to drink but stops and look across at RUBEK with empty, expressionless eyes.

RUBEK [stays seated at his table and stares seriously and intently at her. He eventually stands up, walks a few paces closer, stops and says in a low voice]: I have no difficulty recognizing you, Irene.

THE LADY¹⁹ [in a toneless voice, setting the glass down]: You’ve guessed, have you, Arnold?

RUBEK [without answering]: And you recognize me too, I see.

THE LADY: That’s a completely different matter.

RUBEK: Why?

THE LADY: Because you are still alive.

RUBEK [does not understand]: Alive –?

THE LADY [after a short pause]: Who was the other one? The woman you had with you – there at the table?

RUBEK [slightly hesitant]: That? That was my – my wife.

THE LADY [nods slowly]: I see. That’s good, Arnold. So she’s no concern of mine –

RUBEK [uncertain]: No, that goes without saying –

THE LADY: – someone you found yourself after my lifetime then?

RUBEK [suddenly looks stiffly at her]: After your –? What do you mean by that, Irene?

IRENE [without answering]: And the child? The child too is well? Our child lives on after me. In honour and glory.²⁰

RUBEK [smiles as though in a distant recollection]: Our child? Yes, that’s what we called it – at the time.

IRENE: During my lifetime, yes.

RUBEK [tries to shift to a cheerful mood]: Yes, Irene – can you believe it, ‘our child’ is now famous the world over. You’ve read about it, I assume?

IRENE [nods]: And has made its father famous too. – That was your dream.

RUBEK [more quietly, moved]: It’s you I owe it all to, all of it, Irene. Thank you.

IRENE [sits a little and ponders]: If only I had done then as I should have done, Arnold –

RUBEK: Oh? What was that?

IRENE: I should have murdered that child.

RUBEK: Murdered it, you say!

IRENE [whispering]: Murdered it – before I left you. Crushed it. Crushed it to dust.²¹

RUBEK [shakes his head reproachfully]: You wouldn’t have been able to, Irene. You didn’t have the heart.

IRENE: No, in those days I didn’t have that kind of heart.

RUBEK: But later? Since then?

IRENE: Since then I have murdered it countless times. In the light of day and in darkness. Murdered it in hatred – in revenge – and in torment.

RUBEK [walks right up to her table and asks in a quiet voice]: Irene – tell me now at last – after so many years – why did you leave me that time? Flee quite without trace – impossible to find –

IRENE [slowly shakes her head]: Oh Arnold – why tell you this now – now that I’m in the hereafter?

RUBEK: Was there someone else you fell in love with?

IRENE: There was someone, who had no use for my love. No longer had any use for my life.

RUBEK [changing the subject]: Hm – let’s not talk any more about what is past –

IRENE: No, no, just don’t talk about the hereafter. What for me is now the hereafter.

RUBEK: Where have you been, Irene? You vanished – despite all my efforts to find you.

IRENE: I walked into the darkness – while the child stood there transfigured²² in the light.

RUBEK: Have you travelled round the world much?

IRENE: Yes. Travelled to many realms and lands.

RUBEK [looks compassionately at her]: And what have you been doing with yourself, Irene?

IRENE [turns her eyes on him]: Wait a moment; let me see –. Yes, I have it now. I’ve stood on revolving platforms in variety shows. Stood like a naked statue in tableaux vivants²³ – made a lot of money. I wasn’t used to that when I was with you; you didn’t have any. – And I’ve been with men I could drive insane. – I wasn’t used to that with you either, Arnold. You, you were better at resisting.

RUBEK [quickly moves on from the question]: And I suppose you married as well?

IRENE: Yes, one of them.

RUBEK: Who’s your husband?

IRENE: He was a South American. Senior diplomat. [Looks away with a stony smile] I drove him insane; mad – incurably mad, hopelessly mad. – It was extremely amusing, believe me – while it lasted. Could still be laughing to myself about it. – If I had a self, that is.

RUBEK: And where is he living now?

IRENE: Down in some churchyard somewhere. With a tall, impressive monument standing over him. And a lead bullet rattling around inside his skull.

RUBEK: Did he kill himself?

IRENE: Yes. He was considerate enough to do it for me.

RUBEK: Don’t you mourn him, Irene?

IRENE [uncomprehending]: Who should I be mourning?

RUBEK: Herr von Satow, of course.

IRENE: He wasn’t called Satow.

RUBEK: No?

IRENE: My second husband is called Satow. He’s Russian –

RUBEK: And where’s he?

IRENE: Far away in the Urals. Among all his goldmines.

RUBEK: He lives there, does he?

IRENE [shrugs her shoulders]: Lives? Lives? Actually, I murdered him –

RUBEK: Murdered –!

IRENE: Murdered him with the fine, sharp dagger I always take to bed with me –

RUBEK [in an outburst]: I don’t believe you, Irene!

IRENE [smiles gently]: You can well believe me, Arnold.

RUBEK [looks sympathetically at her]: Have you never had any children?

IRENE: Yes, I’ve had several children.

RUBEK: And where are these children now?

IRENE: I killed them.

RUBEK [sternly]: Now you’re lying to me again!

IRENE: I killed them, I tell you. I murdered them, I can assure you. The minute, the very minute they came into the world. Oh, long, long before that. One after the other.

RUBEK: [heavily, seriously]: There’s something hidden behind everything you say.

IRENE: I can’t help that. Every word I say is whispered into my ear.

RUBEK: I think I must be the only person who can guess at the meaning of this.

IRENE: You should be the only one.

RUBEK [rests his hands on the table and scrutinizes her]: Some strings inside you have snapped.

IRENE [mildly]: That always happens when a warm-blooded young woman dies.

RUBEK: Oh, Irene, try to put these wild ideas behind you. You’re alive! Alive – alive!

IRENE [slowly rises from her chair and says emotionally]: I was dead for many years. They came and bound me. Tied my arms behind my back.²⁴ Then they lowered me into a tomb with iron bars for a lid, with padded walls – so that no one in the world above could hear the screams from the grave –. But now, I’m half beginning to rise up from the dead.

She sits down again.

RUBEK [after a pause]: Do you think I’m the guilty one?

IRENE: Yes.

RUBEK: Guilty – of what you call your death?

IRENE: Guilty of the fact that I had to die. [Switches to a tone of indifference.] Why don’t you sit down, Arnold?

RUBEK: Do I dare?

IRENE: Yes. – You mustn’t be afraid of cold shivers. I don’t think I’ve quite turned to ice yet.

RUBEK [moves a chair and sits down at the table]: Look at this, Irene. We’re sitting together, just as we used to.

IRENE: Keeping a slight distance between us. That too, just as we used to.

RUBEK [comes closer]: It had to be that way back then.

IRENE: Did it?

RUBEK [decisively]: There had to be a distance between us –

IRENE: But did there, really, Arnold?

RUBEK [persists]: Do you remember what you answered when I asked you if you wanted to come far away with me?

IRENE: I raised three fingers in the air²⁵ and promised I would follow you to the ends of the earth, to the end of life. And that I would serve you in all things –

RUBEK: As a model for my work of art –

IRENE: – in full, free nakedness –

RUBEK [moved]: And you did serve me, Irene – so boldly – so joyfully, so recklessly.

IRENE: Yes, with all the throbbing blood of my youth I served you!

RUBEK [with a grateful look, nods]: You may well say that.

IRENE: Fell at your feet²⁶ and served you, Arnold! [Shakes her fist at him] But you, you – you –!

RUBEK [defensively]: I never committed any sin against you! Never, Irene!

IRENE: Yes, you did! You sinned against my innermost being –

RUBEK [recoils]: I –!

IRENE: Yes, you! I exposed myself completely and wholly to your gaze – [More quietly] And you never once touched me.

RUBEK: Irene, didn’t you understand that there were many days when I was driven almost wild by all your beauty?

IRENE [continues unperturbed]: And anyway – if you had touched me, I think I would have killed you on the spot. Because I had a sharp pin with me. Hidden in my hair – [Strokes her brow thoughtfully.] Yes but – no, anyway – anyway – that you could –

RUBEK [looks emphatically at her]: I was an artist, Irene.

IRENE [darkly]: Precisely. Precisely.

RUBEK: An artist above all else. And I went around aching with ambition to create my masterpiece [loses himself in memories], it was to be called Resurrection Day. To be presented in the form of a young woman waking from the sleep of death –

IRENE: Yes, our child –

RUBEK [continues]: It was to be the world’s most noble, pure, ideal woman, awakening. Then I found you. I was able to use you for everything. And you threw yourself into it so happily and willingly. Abandoned your home and your family – and came with me.²⁷

IRENE: Following you was my childhood resurrection.

RUBEK: Which was precisely why I was able to use you. You and no other. To me you became a sacred creature, one that could only be touched in contemplative adoration. I was still young then, Irene. And filled with the superstition that if I touched you, if I desired you sensually, my mind would be profaned and I would not be able to complete what I strived to create. – I still believe there is some truth in that.

IRENE [nods with a hint of contempt]: The work of art first – then the human child.

RUBEK: Yes, you may judge it as you will. But at the time I was completely in the power of the task I had assumed. And felt so jubilantly happy with it.

IRENE: And you succeeded in your task, didn’t you, Arnold?

RUBEK: Thanks to you, and bless you for it, I did succeed in my task. I wanted to create the pure woman as I imagined her awakening on the day of the resurrection. Not marvelling at anything new, unfamiliar or unimagined. But filled with a blessed joy at finding herself unchanged – she, the earthly woman – in higher, freer, more joyful realms – after the long, dreamless sleep of death. [Lowers his voice] That is how I created her. – I created her in your image,²⁸ Irene.

IRENE [lays her hands flat on the table and leans against the back of the chair]: And then you were finished with me –

RUBEK [reproachful]: Irene!

IRENE: – no longer had any use for me –

RUBEK: How can you say that!

IRENE: – started to look around for other ideals –

RUBEK: Found none – none after you.

IRENE: And no other models either, Arnold?

RUBEK: To me you were no model. You were the origin of my creation.

IRENE [is quiet for a moment]: What have you wrought since? In marble, I mean? Since the day I left you?

RUBEK: Nothing since that day. I’ve just pottered around, modelling things.

IRENE: What about that woman you now live with –?

RUBEK [interrupts fiercely]: Don’t talk about her now! It brings on a burning pain in my chest.

IRENE: Where do you plan to go with her?

RUBEK [limp and tired]: On a slow journey, northwards, along the coast.

IRENE [looks at him, smiles almost imperceptibly and whispers]: Go up into the mountains instead. As high as you can get. Higher, higher – always higher, Arnold.

RUBEK [tense, expectant]: Do you want to go up there?

IRENE: Do you have the courage to meet me one more time?

RUBEK [struggling, unsure]: If only we could – oh, if only we could –!

IRENE: Why can’t we do what we want? [Looks at him and whispers imploringly with hands folded] Come, come, Arnold! Oh, come up to me –!

MAJA, radiantly happy, comes from behind the corner of the hotel and hurries over to the table where they had been sitting earlier.

MAJA [still at the corner, without looking round]: No, you can say what you like, Rubek, I – [stops when she sees IRENE]. Oh, sorry – you’re already acquainted, I see.

RUBEK [curtly]: Renewed our acquaintance. [Stands up.] So what did you want from me?

MAJA: I just wanted to tell you – you can do what you like – but I will not be joining you on that ghastly steamer.

RUBEK: Why not?

MAJA: Because I want to go up in the mountains and into the forests – that’s what I want. [Ingratiatingly] Oh, you have to let me, Rubek! – I’ll be so good, so good afterwards!

RUBEK: Who’s been putting these ideas into your head?

MAJA: It’s him. That horrid bear killer. You can’t imagine all the wonderful things he’s been telling me about the mountains. About the life up there. It’s ugly, horrible, frightening, repellent, most of it, he lies as well –. Yes, I rather think he is lying. But it’s so wonderfully enticing even so. Oh, I do have permission to go with him, don’t I? Just so I can see if what he says is true, you know. Can I, Rubek?

RUBEK: Yes, as far as I’m concerned you can. Off you go, up into the mountains – as far and for as long as you like. I might be going the same way myself.

MAJA [quickly]: No, no, no, you really don’t have to! Not on my account!

RUBEK: I want to go up into the mountains. I’ve made up my mind now.

MAJA: Oh, thank you, thank you! Can I tell the bear killer right away?

RUBEK: You can tell the bear killer whatever you please.

MAJA: Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! [Tries to take his hand; he pulls it away.]

Oh, no – how sweet and kind you are today, Rubek!

She runs into the hotel.

At the same moment the pavilion door half opens slowly and noiselessly. The SISTER OF MERCY stands in the doorway, on guard, looking out. No one sees her.

RUBEK [decisive, turns to IRENE]: So, are we meeting up there?

IRENE [stands up slowly]: Yes, we certainly are. – I’ve been looking for you for so long.

RUBEK: When did you start looking for me, Irene?

IRENE [with a touch of joking bitterness]: From the time I realized I had given you something rather irreplaceable, Arnold. Something people should never part with.

RUBEK [lowers his head]: Yes, that’s so achingly true. You gave me three or four years of your youth.

IRENE: I gave you more, much more than that. Spendthrift – that I was in those days.

RUBEK: Yes, you were extravagant, Irene. You gave me all your naked loveliness –

IRENE: – for your gaze –

RUBEK: – and glorification –

IRENE: Yes, for your own glorification. – And for the child’s.

RUBEK: For yours too, Irene.

IRENE: But the most precious gift you’ve forgotten.

RUBEK: The most precious –? What gift was that?

IRENE: I gave you my young, living soul. Then I stood there, empty inside. – Soulless. [Stares at him stiffly.] That’s what I died of, Arnold.

The SISTER OF MERCY holds the door wide open for her.

She goes into the pavilion.

RUBEK [stands and watches her, then whispers]: Irene!