Brian Friel Plays 2 (45 page)

Frank
Yes …

Trish
I’m lost – where? – is it –?

Frank
Wonderful …

Terry
(
to Trish
) Directly in front of you.

Frank
Further left, Trish.

Terry
(
to Berna
) Straight out there.

Berna
I see it, Terry.

Frank
(
to Trish
) Got it?

Trish
Think so …

Terry
George?

George
See it.

Terry
See it, Angela?

She
does
not
answer.

Frank
That’s no distance out, Terry.

Terry
I suppose not.

Trish
It’s shaped like a ukulele, is it?

Frank
That’s a perfect circle for God’s sake.

Terry
So. There we are. See it, Angela? Our destination.

Angela
(
softly
,
toasting
) Our ‘destination’.

Trish
I do see it. Yes.

Terry
Wonderful, isn’t it?

Berna
It’s not circular, Frank. That’s a rectangle.

Trish
God, that’s miles away, Terry.

Terry
Is it?

Trish
Miles. And that’s in County Sligo too, is it?

Frank
Jesus.

Terry
Donegal.

Trish
Ah.

Terry
Wonderful, isn’t it?

Angela
(
softly
,
toasting
) A destination of wonder.

Frank
(
coldly
) Aren’t you going to join us, Angela?

Trish
(
to George
) Not Sligo, George. Still Donegal.

Angela
stands
beside
the
lifebelt
stand,
leans
against
it
and
sings
in
Marlene
Dietrich
style
the
first
line
of
‘Falling in Love Again’.

Frank
Angela, please –

George
accompanies
her
now.
She
sings
the
next
two
lines
and
breaks
off
suddenly.
George
finishes
the
verse
and
then
stops.
Silence
again
as
they
all
–
except
Angela
–
gaze
out
at
the
island,
each
with
his/her
thoughts.
Angela
takes
off
her
sun
hat
and
hangs
it
on
the
arm
of
the
lifebelt
stand.

Trish
You never said it was a big island, Terry.

Terry
It’s not big, is it?

Trish
That’s a huge island.

Terry
Is it?

Frank
Hard to know what size it is – it keeps shimmering.

Now
for
the
first
time
Angela
joins
them
and
looks
out
to
sea.

Angela
Has it a name, our destination?

Terry
Oileán Draíochta. What does that mean, all you educated people?

Trish
That rules me out. Where’s our barrister? (
Berna
)

Berna
Island of Otherness; Island of Mystery.

Trish
God, it’s not spooky, Terry, is it?

Berna
Not that kind of mystery. The wonderful – the sacred – the mysterious – that kind of mystery.

Frank
Good girl, Berna!

Trish
All the same it’s beautiful, (
to
George
)
Isn’t it?

George
Yes.

Trish
Dammit, I’ve lost it again, (
to
Terry
)
You’re sure it’s not a mirage?

Frank
catches
her
head
and
turns
it.

Frank
You’re looking away beyond it.

Trish
Am I?

Terry
There is a legend that it was once a spectral, floating island that appeared out of the fog every seven years and that fishermen who sighted it saw a beautiful country of hills and valleys, with sheep browsing on the slopes, and cattle in green pastures, and clothes drying on the hedges.

And they say they saw leaves of apple and oak, and heard a bell and the song of coloured birds. Then, as they watched it, the fog devoured it and nothing was seen but the foam swirling on the billow and the tumbling of the dolphins.

Trish
Will we see dolphins? God, I love dolphins.

Angela
You know that by heart.

Terry
(
embarrassed
)
Do I?

Berna
When did it stop being spectral?

Terry
On one of its seven-year appearances fishermen landed on it and lit a fire.

Frank
What was wrong with that?

Terry
Fire dispels the enchantment – according to the legend, (
to
Angela
)
You’re right. From a pamphlet about the place my father had.

Frank
Maybe it is a bit like a ukulele.

Terry
Nearly forgot – shoes off, everybody!

Frank
What?

Terry
We’re supposed to be barefoot.

Frank
You’re joking, Terry!

Trish
Why barefoot?

Terry
Don’t ask me. That’s the custom. That’s what people used to do long ago.

They
slip
out
of
their
shoes.
And
again
they
gaze
out
to
sea.

Berna
There are bushes on it.

Frank
Come on, Berna! And clothes drying on the hedges?

Berna
Whins, I think. Yes; they’re whins. And a small hill away to the left.

Trish
God, you’ve all powerful eyes.

Frank
Looks more like clouds to me.

Berna
A low hill. At the end of that side.

Angela
(
to
Terry
) You’re our expert. Is there a hill there?

Terry
Expert! I was there just once with my father. I was only seven at the time.

Trish
I never heard that story.

Terry
We fasted from the night before, I remember. And for the night you were on the island you were given only bread and water. (
to
George
)
Like some of our digs when we were on the road!

George
nods
and
smiles.
Frank
now
takes
a
series
of
photographs
–
of
the
others,
of
the
island,
of
the
furnishings
of
the
pier.

Trish
And what did you do out there?

Terry
I don’t remember a lot. There were three beds – you know, mounds of stone – and every time you went round a bed you said certain prayers and then picked up a stone from the bottom of the mound and placed it on the top.

Frank
Trish! (
Photograph
.)

Trish
Oh, Frank!

Terry
And I remember a holy well, and my father filling a bottle with holy water and stuffing the neck with grass – you know, to cork it. And I remember a whin bush beside the well –

Trish
There! Good for you, Berna!

Terry
And there were crutches and walking sticks hanging on the bush; and bits of cloth –
bratóga,
my father called them – a handkerchief, a piece of shawl –
bleached and turning green from exposure. Votive offerings – isn’t that the English word? And there’s the ruins of a Middle Age church dedicated to Saint Conall. (
to
Frank
)
Isn’t that the period you’re writing your book about?

Frank
Something like that. Close enough.

Trish
But it’s not a pilgrimage island now?

Terry
No, no; that all ended years and years ago.

Trish
Why?

Frank
People stopped believing, didn’t they?

Terry
Nobody does that sort of thing nowadays, do they? And when the countryside around here was populated apparently they made poitín out there – that wouldn’t have helped the pilgrimage business. There were even stories of drunken orgies.

Angela
(
salute
)
Saint Dionysus!

Trish
But years ago people went there to be cured?

Berna
To remember again – to be reminded.

Trish
To remember what?

Frank
George! (
Photograph
.)

Berna
To be in touch again – to attest.

Frank
Angela! (
Photograph
.)

Terry
People went there just to make a pilgrimage, Trish.

Frank
And to see apparitions. Patricia! (
Photograph
.)

Trish
But you saw crutches on that bush. So people must have been cured there.

Frank
Apparitions were commonplace in the Middle
Ages. Saint Conall must have seen hundreds of apparitions in his day. Terry! (
Photograph
.)

Trish
Don’t be so cheap, Frank.

Frank
Thousands maybe.

Trish
(
to
Terry
)
Do you believe people were cured there?

Terry
All I know is that at seven years of age just to get sitting up all night was adventure enough for me. The first time I ever saw the dawn. I remember my head was giddy from want of sleep.

Trish
And father?

Frank
Berna! (
Photograph
.)

Trish
Why did Father go out there? He believed in nothing.

Frank
You’re beautiful.

Trish
Why did Father go out there?

Terry
For God’s sake, Trish! That was another age. To pray – to do penance –

Berna
To acknowledge – to make acknowledgement.

Terry
You had another word, Berna – to attest!

George
makes
a
sound.

What’s that, George?

Trish
To attest to the mystery, he says.

Terry
And why not! (
He
laughs
.)
I’m a bookie for God’s sake. All I know is: that’s where we’ll have our party tonight. OK?

Angela
Once when the Greek god Dionysus was going to the island of Naxos he was captured by pirates who took him to be a wealthy prince –

Frank
You’d never guess. My wife teaches Classics.

Angela
But suddenly his chains fell away, and vines and ivy sprouted all over the pirate ship, and the sailors were so frightened they jumped into the sea and turned into dolphins.

Trish
Will we really see dolphins? God, I love dolphins.

Frank
is
now
up
on
the
catwalk.