SCENE 11: THE MARRIAGE BED
1965
Alex and Stephen are returning home after a night at the opera seeing the Wiliamson Sutherland company. They are in evening dress.
ALEXANDRA
Wake up to yourself Stephen!
All you seem to do these days
Is mouth other people’s opinions.
I can’t believe it!
I can’t believe you voted for those Philistines.
STEPHEN
At least I’m not living in some dreamworld.
The man’s a joke!
He’s lost the plot!
The building will never be finished if....
ALEXANDRA
If people like you won’t let him get on with it.
STEPHEN
(for the tenth time)
The biggest hall has to be first and foremost
For concerts.
ALEXANDRA
It’s an opera house!
STEPHEN
There’s not even a full-time opera company!
ALEXANDRA
The building means there can be.
STEPHEN
Ah, what kind of twisted logic’s that?
The fact is, opera and concerts
Have different acoustic needs.
It’s just not possible to satisfy them both...
ALEXANDRA
How would you know?
STEPHEN
These multipurpose halls
are failing all over the world.
ALEXANDRA
Because they don’t have this Architect...
STEPHEN
Oh,pull your head out of the clouds!
He’s human.
He’s not god.
ALEXANDRA
Oh god how you’ve changed:
Give you a little power,
Put you on a committee...
STEPHEN
I’m there to represent the interests of the orchestra...
ALEXANDRA
What about your interests?
Our interests?
STEPHEN
They’re the same.
ALEXANDRA
Are they?
Are they?
STEPHEN
self importantly
I’m under clear instructions
To get the main hall for the orchestra
At any cost.
Any cost!
ALEXANDRA
Oh, how very cloak and dagger.
Why can’t the Maestro do his own dirty work?
STEPHEN
It’s my work too
Can’t you understand?
ALEXANDRA
You're talented Stephen
You don’t have to be an underling
Half your life.
Let’s go away,
Oh, let’s go away and...
STEPHEN
Throw away everything I’ve achieved?
ALEXANDRA
At least you’d find out what you were really worth.
STEPHEN
What’s that supposed to mean?
ALEXANDRA
not unkindly
It means ...you’re hiding here
Stephen,
You’re afraid
To pit yourself against
the world.
STEPHEN
And you’re not?
ALEXANDRA
I’ve never had a chance
Have I?
You’re so selfish.
STEPHEN
Selfish?
I’ve worked flat out
To shape your career,
To....
ALEXANDRA
What career?
Weddings, soirées,
The annual Messiah,
Highlights from Tosca
In some bloody awful wig.
A small career,
Among small minded people...
STEPHEN
That’s not fair!
ALEXANDRA
...The perfect hobby for the wife of a
Small minded husband!
STEPHEN
Thank you!
ALEXANDRA
Magda was right!
I should have gone to Zurich.
I never should have married you.
Pause
STEPHEN
I know that’s not what you really think.
ALEXANDRA
How dare you presume to know that!
STEPHEN
Spoken like a true prima donna!
ALEXANDRA
That’s exactly what I’ll be,
And if leaving you is what it takes
So be it.
STEPHEN
Aren’t you forgetting something?
Alex stands very still, breathing deeply.
ALEXANDRA
Clare comes with me.
STEPHEN
She’ll fit will she?
In the cloakroom every night
With your grand cape and hat...
ALEXANDRA
Don’t...
STEPHEN
Or will it be huddled by the heater
In some grubby London flat...
ALEXANDRA
...trample on my....
STEPHEN
While you fail your tenth audition?
ALEXANDRA
Stop it!
STEPHEN
She’s three years old, Alex!
You say you regret our marriage...
It’s that child you regret!
ALEXANDRA
Don’t torture me!
Don’t torture me!
I can’t ...
I can’t live like this...
she takes the car keys and runs out the door
STEPHEN
Alex!
Alex!
Where are you going?
Alex!
Alexandra finds herself at the opera house, dangerously unbalanced, reckless, and emotionally disturbed by its unfulfilled promise. In her movement we should get the sense of her trying to climb higher and higher but with her footing being knocked out from under her. Finally she drops out of sight. Morning finds construction in full swing