LET’S DRINK

By : Kasim Matrood
Translated by : Ahlam Pairdawood



Darkness , the sound of a passing train through the stage, disappearing gradually. Pebbles and sand covering the stage expressing the severity and gloominess of the place…the hills penetrate the corners ,and a railway stretches in the depth in front of which stands a large colorless girder with pieces referring unclearly to the name of a city, or a half broken wooden piece on which few words have been written . Signs are placed here and there and two axes besides two stony seats in the middle of the stage.

The husband ( skims a look from his wife) I was a child and then grew up.
The wife (with the same look) So did I .
The husband ( pause ) It is nice to sleep in the night and wake up in the morning.
The wife really?
The husband I don’t eat unless I’m hungry.
The wife Neither do I ( pause ), I like mornings a lot.
The husband So do I.
The wife I am afraid of sunset and never go through empty streets.
The husband (nods in agreement ).
The wife I fear people.
The husband I’m just like you (pause ) who are you?
The wife your wife.

The husband walks towards railways while the wife doesn’t look at him and says (where are you going?), the husband moves his hand to show that he doesn’t know and the wife says ( come back you can not) without turning to him.

The husband (Returns to his place ,in the same time his wife leaves her place ) ,where ?
The wife I examine the dream (wondering in the place ).I feel that my complexion has changed and that years have dried my hair (pause) ,do you have a comb?
The husband I’m hungry .
The wife (Stroking her hair) Look my hair is falling and dying here
( searching the place). Look this is a white hair and this is black and
this lock is in the color of dust (holding dust in her hand). Here we build our small house and here we put our bed and build a bedroom around .
The husband They announced his arrival .
The wife who?
The husband the train.
The wife Then ….
The husband We’ll travel and take the map of the house with us and the most comfortable corner for our bed.
The wife But he is late.
The husband Who?
The husband The train (silence).
The wife Do we have children?
The wife I’ll watch myself in the mirror ( pause ) do we have a mirror?
The husband ( Standing in front of her ) this is me ,do you have a comb?
The wife And this is me too.
The husband What do you see?
The wife a sad child.
The husband In the mirror.
The wife We will have a sad child in the future.
The husband I’m afraid that this will happen.

( A man in the form of a train conductor enters and claps his hands while the husband and his wife come at once and sat in their chairs. The man gets out a pen and a notebook and writes down some words .The man looks at the husband who tries to say something but the conductor doesn’t allow him and he does the same thing to the wife. He hides the pen in his pocket and gets out. )
The husband +the wife I would like to say ……..
The husband But he didn’t have patience to listen to my demand.
The wife The same old demand.
The husband I’m just like you.
The wife He always races against me and fills my guts?
The husband I’m just like you.
The wife Really?
The husband It is time.
The wife We get rid of him.
The husband We kill him.
The wife How?
The husband With a rope.
The wife I can not.
The husband Neither can I.
The wife We poison him then.
The husband How?
The wife We put the poison in one of the bottles and give it back to him.
The husband I can not.
The wife But ……
The husband I want to scream.
The wife The same postponed desire .
The husband I feel that my breast presses my breath. I will scream.
The wife Try .
The husband He must be killed.
(a short silence )
The wife In the past ages .. were you with me?
The husband I was holding my books and finding my way through the bushes and hoped to get there .
The wife And were you with me in the worn ages?
The husband And may be because I haven’t woken up yet to know which direction my school is.
The wife The day before yesterday .
The husband We were waiting together.
The wife He is late .
The husband He will come accompanied with problems.
The wife I was playing with my doll and putting her make –up and lipstick and I dressed her the most beautiful clothes, I sat her down on the edge of the train that has been stopping for years. It had been just before I could give her a pillow and supplies she needs for the future that the train took off quickly and took my doll away. I didn’t know exactly who was screaming I or my doll.
The husband I hold my pencil and tried to sharpen it, but each time I did that I felt that I kill it , it bleeds, and I break its neck so hard that it
became so little and disappeared in the pencil sharpener.
The wife He is late.
The husband He’s stepping heavily on my heart. I would like ……..

(The man in the form of a waiter enters holding a lot of drinking-
bottles, he nods to the woman to sit and keep silent .. she sits .. he puts the bottles in front of her. The husband takes a card from his pocket and gives it to the man who looks at it, tears it and then throws it to the ground. He does the same thing with the wife and he asks them to drink before he leaves.)

The husband ( Takes one of bottles ) let’s drink.
The wife ( She takes one also ) we have to drink.
The husband ( With a low voice) But ……
The wife (With a low voice also ) We have to kill him.
The husband So, this is another day .
The wife Is it for you or for me?
The husband For you my d…a…r…l….i….n…….g ( he says the word with great difficulty.)
The wife (The bottle falls down from her hand) I’m just like you.
The husband It is nice to sleep in the night.
The wife I’ll arrange everything. (she steps to the middle of the stage) Here I will give birth to my child.
The husband (with a low voice ) And here we will die.
( short silence)
The wife Do the newly-married couple celebrate like this?
The husband I think so.
The wife with you.

The husband this is a postponed desire. ( the wife gets near him .. we hear the sound of pop music outside the stage .The husband holds his wife’s hand gently and embraces her quietly. There enters the man holding the recorder that plays the pop music. He puts it on one of the seats and sits on the other and asks them to dance. They try to dance but they stumble … and stop. The man orders them to continue, they try but don’t dance in harmony with the music…. They get tired, the man asks them to stop. He holds the recorder and puts it off. He gets out of the stage but before that he says, do newly married couple dance like this?
The wife I think so.
The husband We must get rid of him.
The wife We can throw him in the sea.
The husband How?
The wife By finding the sea first.
The husband (pause) This is our bedroom.
The wife The wind is sweeping us and sand is our food.
The husband Here will my little baby sleep and there sleeps the eldest .
The wife They will sleep in one room.
The husband Where?
The wife There.
The husband There.. there .. there. I would like to pray and drink alcohol until I am drunk.

( We can hear clapping, the husband and the wife hurry to their places and sit … the man enters pulling a large box and puts it in front of the husband and the wife. He opens the box and gets out a lot of bottles and two towels. He hangs one of them around the wife’s neck and he does the same thing to the husband. He gives each one a knife and a fork… he gets dishes full of food out of the box. The man claps and they start eating and claps again ordering them to stop eating and put the knife and fork on the box. The husband looks at his wife while moving the knife and reminds her of killing time…they tremble and the knives fell to the ground .The man orders them to set everything in order again… he gives them tooth brushes and orders them to brush their teeth just like children .They give back the brushes... the man greets them and appreciates what they have done … he pulls the box and goes out .)

The husband I don’t eat unless I am hungry.
The wife Neither do I.
The husband I can feel reverence (he holds some bottles …goes towards the middle of the stage … he implants them in the sand), here I will pry, here …I’ll scream (pause…drinks) but against who shall I scream? Never mind I will scream and certainly someone will hear me.

( He tries to scream but he can’t…. he tried two and three times … he
falls to the ground )
The wife This is our wedding party and we can’t celebrate it better than this but there isn’t any other alternative and what a nice and gorgeous dance…when my spirit discovered life, I started loving it and could see my smile in the mirror. I was dreaming of this promising night with you, but you sleep ,you may dream and you may not wake up again and we have to drink, I will burst out, but we celebrate like this anyway .The dream went away and we die thousand times but we celebrate like this
anyway …amazing and fantastic .

(The man enters in the form of a teacher with two school bags in his
hand , he steps towards the bar …he hangs the bags there and gets out)

The husband I have been lying here for many years , I should have woken up (he goes near the bags and takes one of them ), how are you my son? Did you sleep well? But don’t sleep long ,wake up and smile.
Can you laugh? Try one or two times even if you can not after million times don’t give up, you may smile one day. (He approaches the second bag and gets some paintings out of it) And you my little ,are you still drawing? From where did you get these sad faces and dry flowers? You are only five years. Go on drawing, you may able to shout and wake me up from my fearful nightmares and slumber.

The wife (Takes one of the bags from her husband ) you are late to the school, this is your bag, be careful when you cross the road and avoid people. Don’t be misled by others, don’t look at the distant stars, let them alone and eat your food and dance. (She holds the other bag )I love you my little, but I have freed your sparrow, I couldn’t see it
suffering, the thin thread was cutting its leg just like a knife, it should fly. ( little silence) Come on, it is school’s time ( she holds both of the bags and moves out of the theater but suddenly the man enters and stops her .. steps towards her …she goes back slowly and she is about to fall but the man takes the two bags from her before she falls, she tries to keep them but useless, he drags the bags violently …and goes out quietly ). Oh my God take care of them .
The husband Let them live their life.
The wife How?
The husband by strangling the bird, tearing the paper and mixing the blood with the white feathers of the pigeon .
The wife Shall we dance?
The husband The sounds … here ,there .. praying time has passed away.
The wife Who will kill the sparrow?
The husband The sound of the wind.
The wife Who will tear the paper?
The husband the blood.
The husband How long have we been married, a year ,two ,ten.
The wife More or less.
The Husband And the dream.
The wife It has been broken on the threshold.
The husband And the ceiling …the house is without ceiling for many years ago, oh my God, I always wished I could stand on the roof and count the stars, (pause) you must have encouraged me to build the ceiling.
The wife The first step in the dream was mine.
The husband We must build the ceiling.
The wife And the walls .
The husband I don’t know (pause). He is late.
The wife Impossible .
The Husband Let’s clean the table ( they arrange the bottles that are on the earth …the man enters holding more bottles … puts them ..and goes out ).
The wife We kill him.
The husband how?
The wife What?
The Husband The killed. ( Pause ) Who shall we kill?
The wife Let’s drink.
The husband We have to drink.( They drink ) ( Little silence )
The wife He will come back.
The husband We will kill him certainly.
The wife He’ll kill us and then we’ll dance.
The husband And then we’ll sleep.

The wife He’s late.
The husband Impossible.
(The man enters holding more bottles and a piece of white cloth…he stretches it on the seats and tries to arrange the bottles on the floor and the stairs ).
The wife We kill him.
The husband Who?
The wife Ok. Let’s drink.
The husband There’s no other choice.
The wife so?
The husband ( Stands up with a bottle in his hand ) We should postpone killing. We kill him tomorrow.
The wife We have been postponing this for many years.
The husband The suitable time for killing has not come yet.
The wife And the house.
The husband Let’s drink ..let’s drink then. I’ll leave you a little while.
The wife Where are you going?
The husband I’ll look my face in the mirror.
The wife Then ..?
The husband Then I’ll look my face in the mirror.
The wife Then..?
The husband I’ll count the years.
The wife Then…?
The husband I’ll wait tomorrow.
The wife Then ..?
The husband I’ll wait the following.
The wife Then?
The husband Then we may kill him.
The wife And what about the ceiling?
The husband Then let’s drink.
The wife (She examines the place as if she feels her loneliness and alienation ) The hope may come (she collects the bottles in her arm so that her arm is full of them and she continues putting one bottle while the other falls down), I’ll bury all of these bottles, I’ll dig the ground and build our house there and our child’s room, we’ll store the dreams and toys.
( She goes on collecting the bottles and puts them on the stairs … she
takes an axe ) I’ll dig the ground ( she digs as if she does a religious
ritual ) What is this? The bottles again ( she gets out some of the bottles )
who stole the dream ? … look ,they are old bottles ..why didn’t you tell me that you wanted to build a house ?

The husband I haven’t dug before and dream’s time is but one. I have been with you long years ago. I haven’t dug here or there .
The wife But they are the same bottles ( she cleans the mud and dust that covers the bottles ), look there is something inside.
The husband (Takes the bottle from her and tries to clean it also ) this is a paper ( he opens the bottles and gets the paper out … he tries to read silently). You buried the bottles yourself .
The wife No..
The husband Then I am crazy.
The wife May be.
The husband And may be you also.
The wife (she takes the paper from her husband… reads ) I was a child and then grew up.
The husband ( He goes quickly to the ditch ..gets out another bottle and opens it quickly , he gets out another paper…. reads) I’m just like you (he gets a lot of bottles and throw them to the wife who breaks one of them and reads ) it is nice to sleep in the night and wake up in the morning.
The husband Really?
The wife I don’t believe what happened ..this is what you say everyday.
The husband And what you do say also.
The wife I will not leave things like that, I must do some change, I must ( she became so tired that she falls ).
The husband I’m very tired.
The wife The years have slipped away under our feet and escaped among the trees.
The husband I want to urinate.
The wife Can you?
The husband I’ll postpone it tomorrow.
The wife Can you?
The husband To build the ceiling?
The wife No, to urinate in the place you are in now .
The husband I’ll urinate on the television .
The wife Really? Do we have a television?
The husband We’ll have two in the future.
The wife I haven’t heard a song since along time.
The husband The singers have died.
The wife So, let’s dance.
The husband Together ( they try to dance ).
The wife Imagine that you are on the roof and I’m swimming in the space just like fresh air.
The husband How sweet and wonderful you are!
The wife I didn’t know that you could speak romantically before.
The husband You’re my wife.
The wife You’re my husband.
The husband I remember this whenever the dogs howl.
The wife Toxic gases will not be confined here.
The husband He is late.
The wife Death is continuous.
The husband He is late.
The wife The sounds horrify us.
The husband He is late.
The wife (the man enters holding more bottles and white sheets ) He has come at last.
(The man puts the bottles in different places, arranges the sheets … and he gets out ).
The husband (With a low voice) The holocaust horrifies us.
The wife I am worried about my sons, they have been led to it.
The husband They’re late.
The wife We haven’t heard anything of them.
The husband Maybe.
The wife Where are they now?
The husband We haven’t got any letters from them.
The wife They’re late.
The husband He was not in the mood when he left wearing the khaki military uniform and the dark heavy boots (pause) my little son, you are not born for the khaki color, you’re yourself a combination of all the colors of the world and your spirit is wonderfully created, how can you replace your paintbrush with a machinegun, what a lovely face you have my dear son, they have forced you to leave your classroom and
imprisoned you in this military uniform and this iron helmet and
heavy boots which are made from the skin of oxen. These became your imaginary limits but, really, your start is in the middle of the sky and have no end. (pause) How do you react against hunger, fear, the cold weather and the sad night. Only God knows how I feel ,I’ll get mad, I want to scream.
The wife When they are back we’ll build the ceiling .
The husband I’ll build a solid ceiling and fortified walls against bullets
( pause , they are late.
The wife Impossible.
( We hear shooting outside ..silence moments then shooting continues …
The husband and wife keep sitting in their places … shooting becomes less and stops then …two bags are thrown from the ceiling consequently followed by books and drawings. Down behind the girder two dolls fall, in the same time the man enters and throws a lot of bottles which forced the husband and his wife to stay in their places without any movement).
The husband You should have left the thread around the sparrow’s leg. It could not be lost in the darkness.
The wife I didn’t want his hands to be stained with blood.

( A loud applause is heard from out the theatre …the wife hurries to
the chair and sits down .. the husband does the same but more slowly …. they sit down and look at the audience … the man enters with more drinking bottles which he puts in front of the husband and his
wife ) .

The husband He had to withstand it.
(The man puts more bottles in front of the wife )
The wife He had to continue.
The husband ( Putting a bottle in front of him) war is for men .
The wife The death.
The husband (Hurries) for our enemies.
The wife We will cast them in the sea.
The husband Even if we sacrifice the last drop of blood.
The wife We sacrifice the holocaust with our bloods.
( they repeat the last sentences many times without understanding their
meanings… war is for men …we sacrifice the holocaust with our bloods …we’ll cast them in the sea … death for our enemies … even with the last drop of blood…the man smiles and leaves after putting all the bottles ).

The husband We drink.
The wife ( Attempting to view the two dolls but she hears the sound of bottles breaking and she gets back to her place frightfully ). We have to drink.
The husband I was a child and grew up then.
The wife So I am.
The husband Do we have children?
The wife Two.
The husband I was worried about this.
The wife We drink.
The husband We haven’t another choice.
The wife So, this is another day.
The husband For whom?
The wife I don’t know.
The husband Do the parents get sad like this?
The wife I think so.
The husband Here sleeps my eldest son and younger son.
The wife They sleep in another land.
The husband Where?
The wife There.
The husband I want to scream.
The wife Scream !
The husband How?
The wife Just like me.
The husband I told him to draw, he could have shouted and stopped my silence.
The wife He’s moaning.
The husband We have to drink.
The wife We have.
(The man in the form of a guide enters and has hanged many bottles around his neck and pulls the same number behind …he goes towards the girder...lifts it …and passes under it … he stands with his back to the
audience, he whistles and we can hear the sound of a train coming from a far place and approaches gradually…it stops …a little silence he whistles again pointing to the train to move again … the train moves and we hear the same sound that we heard at the beginning of the show.
While the train moves, the man throws all the bottles he has to the
husband and his wife … he forces them to drink. During this scene, the last sentences are repeated by the husband and his wife with voices one can hardly understand ….. we sacrifice our lives for the sake of the holocaust , war is for men, we’ll cast them in the sea, death for our
enemies, even with the last drop of blood … now the concentration is mostly on the faces of the husband and his wife while they look to the audience with tears falling down on their cheeks but without crying .)

The husband (Difficultly speaking, we can hardly hear him ) We drink.
The wife (Difficultly speaking, we can hardly hear her ) We must drink, there isn’t any other alternative.
The husband + the wife We drink. We have to drink ( they continue repeating the same speech , consequently the words become vague …
The lights disappear slightly so that the theatre stage is darkened .)

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