INÈS ✎ — You’re very beautiful. I wish I’d had flowers to welcome you. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Flowers? Yes. I loved flowers. But they’d wilt here, it’s too hot. Never mind. We need to keep thinking positively, don’t we? You, ah … 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Yes, last week. And you? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Me? Yesterday. The funeral’s still not over. 🔊✎ (She talks quite naturally, but as though she can see what she is describing.) ✎ The wind’s blowing my sister’s veil around. She’s doing what she can to cry. 🔊✎ Come on! Come on! Just keep trying. There we are! Two tears, two little tears shining under the crêpe. 🔊✎ Olga Jardet looks very ugly this morning. She’s holding my sister’s arm. 🔊✎ She’s not crying because of her mascara, and I must admit that in her place … She was my best friend. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Did it hurt a lot? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — No. I was barely conscious. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Pneumonia. 🔊✎ (As before.) ✎ Well, all done, they’re leaving. Good morning! Good morning! All these handshakes. 🔊✎ My husband was too prostrated with grief to attend. 🔊✎ (To INÈS.) ✎ And you? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — How about you, Mr. Garcin? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Twelve bullets in the chest. 🔊✎ (Gesture from ESTELLE.) ✎ I’m sorry, I feel I’m a rather vulgar corpse. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Oh! Dear Mr. Garcin, I just wish you wouldn’t use such crude language. It’s … it’s a bit shocking, that’s all. 🔊✎ And in the end, what does it mean anyway? Maybe we’ve never been so alive. 🔊✎ If we really have to talk about this … state of affairs, I suggest that we call ourselves “absentees”, it’ll be more tasteful. You have been absent for a while? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Where are you from? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — I’m from Paris. You still have someone up there? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — My wife. 🔊✎ (Same routine as ESTELLE.) ✎ She’s come to the barracks as she does every day. They never let her in. 🔊✎ She peers through the bars of the gate. She doesn’t know yet that I’m absent, but she suspects it. 🔊✎ Now she’s leaving. She’s all dressed in black. Good, she won’t need to change. 🔊✎ She’s not crying. She never cried. 🔊✎ It’s a beautiful sunny day, and she’s walking through the empty street, with her black dress and her big victim’s eyes. Ah, she’s so annoying. 🔊✎
A silence. GARCIN goes and sits down on the middle couch and puts his head in his hands. ✎
ESTELLE ✎ — You’re sitting on my couch. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Sorry. 🔊✎ He gets up. ✎
ESTELLE ✎ — You look so preoccupied. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I’m putting my life in order. 🔊✎ (INÈS starts laughing.) ✎ The people who find this amusing might want to do the same. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Don’t worry, my life is in order. Perfectly in order. 🔊✎ It’s put itself in order all by itself up there, I don’t have to do a thing. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Really? You think it’s so simple! 🔊✎ (He wipes his hand over his forehead.) ✎ This heat! If you don’t mind? 🔊✎
He starts removing his jacket. ✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Stop! 🔊✎ (More gently.) ✎ No. I hate the casual shirtsleeves look. 🔊✎
GARCIN, ✎ — putting his jacket back on. ✎ It’s okay. 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ I spent my nights in the editing room. Always a regular sauna. 🔊✎ (Pause. Same routine as before.) ✎ There we are, sauna as usual. It’s night. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Yes, it’s night already. Olga’s getting ready for bed. Time passes so quickly on Earth. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — It’s night. They’ve sealed up my room. It’s empty in the dark. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — They’ve hung their jackets over the backs of their chairs and rolled up their sleeves. It smells of men and cigars. 🔊✎ (A silence.) ✎ I liked living with men who worked in their shirtsleeves. 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — shortly. ✎ Well, that shows we didn’t have the same tastes. 🔊✎ (To INÈS.) Did you like men in their shirtsleeves? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — It didn’t make any difference. I don’t much like men. 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — looks at the other two uncomprehendingly. ✎ But why, why have they put us together ? 🔊✎
INÈS, ✎ — trying not to laugh. ✎ What did you say? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — I look at the two of you and I think we’re going to live together … I was expecting to meet friends, family. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — A very close friend with a hole in the middle of his face. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Him too. He danced the tango like a professional. But us, why have they put us together? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Well, it’s just chance. They put people wherever, in the order they arrive. 🔊✎ (To INÉS.) ✎ Why are you laughing? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Because you’re funny when you talk about chance. 🔊✎ Are you that insecure? They don’t leave anything to chance. 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — timidly. ✎ But maybe we’ve met before? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — No. I would never have forgotten you. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Or perhaps we have friends in common? Do you know the Dubois-Seymours? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — It would surprise me. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — They know everyone. 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — surprised. ✎ They don’t do anything. They have a château in Corrèze and … 🔊
INÈS ✎ — Well, I sat behind a counter at the post office. 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — recoils slightly. ✎ Ah! Well? … 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ And you, Mr. Garcin ? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I’ve never left Rio. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — In that case, you must be right. It’s just chance that’s brought us together. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Chance. So the furniture is here by chance. It’s just by chance that the couch on the left is spinach green and the one on the right is bordeaux. Chance, right? 🔊✎ Well, try swapping them around and you’ll see the difference. And the bronze, that’s by chance too? And the heat? And the heat? 🔊✎ (A silence.) ✎ I tell you, they’ve organised everything. Down to the smallest detail, with loving care. This room was waiting for us. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — But why? It’s all so ugly, so hard, so spiky. I hated spiky things. 🔊✎
INÈS, ✎ — shrugging her shoulders. ✎ Do you think I lived in a Second Empire drawing room? 🔊✎
Pause. ✎
ESTELLE ✎ — So everything’s been planned in advance? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Everything. Us too. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — It’s not by chance that you are sitting there in front of me? 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ What are they waiting for? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — I don’t know. But they’re waiting. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — I can’t stand the idea that they’re waiting for me to do something. It makes me want to do the opposite. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Great, you do that! You do that! You don’t even know what they want. 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — stamping her foot. ✎ I can’t stand it. And you two are going to make something happen to me. 🔊✎ (She examines them.) ✎ You two. Some faces speak to me immediately. Yours don’t say anything. 🔊✎
GARCIN, ✎ — suddenly to INÈS. ✎ So, why are we together? You’ve half told us: out with the rest of it. 🔊✎
INÈS, ✎ — astonished. ✎ But I really don’t know at all. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — We have to know. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — If only one of us had the courage to speak out … 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — What did you do? Why did you end up here? 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — quickly. ✎ But I don’t know, I have no idea! I’m even wondering it was just a mistake. 🔊✎ (To INÈS.) ✎ Don’t smile. Think of the number of people who … who become absent every day. 🔊✎ They turn up here, millions of them, and they’re processed by junior employees with minimal training. 🔊✎ Well of course there’s going to be mistakes. Stop smiling like that. 🔊✎ (To GARCIN.) ✎ And you, say something. If they made a mistake with me, maybe they did the same with you too. 🔊✎ (To INÈS.) ✎ You as well. Isn’t it better to think we’re here by mistake? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — That’s all you have to tell us? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — What else do you want to know? I have nothing to hide. My parents died when I was young, I had to take care of my little brother. 🔊✎ An old friend of my father asked me to marry him. He was rich, he was a nice guy, I said yes. 🔊✎ What would you have done? My brother was sick, he needed a lot of care … 🔊✎ My husband and I had a happy marriage for six years. Two years ago, I met the man I was meant to love. 🔊✎ We knew at once, he asked me to leave my husband and I refused. 🔊✎ And then I got pneumonia. That’s it. 🔊✎ I suppose some people would say it was wrong of me to marry a man three times my age. 🔊✎ (To GARCIN.) ✎ Do you think it was wrong? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Absolutely not. 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ And you, do you think it’s wrong to follow your principles? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Who could blame you for that? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I was the editor of a pacifist newspaper. War broke out. What was I going to do? 🔊✎ They were all watching me. “Is he brave enough?” Well, I was brave enough. 🔊✎ I folded my arms and they shot me. Is that wrong? Is that wrong? 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — puts a hand on his arm. ✎ You did nothing wrong. You’re … 🔊✎
INÈS, ✎ — finishes her sentence ironically. ✎ A hero. And your wife, Garcin ? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Well, what about her? I rescued her from the gutter. 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — to INÈS. ✎ You see! You see! 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — I see. 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ Look, who are we trying to fool? We’re all the same. 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — indignantly. ✎ All the same? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — We’re all killers. We’re in hell, sweetie. They never make mistakes, they never damn people for no reason. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — In hell! Damned! Damned! 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Shut up. Will you shut up? I’m not going to let you say such horrible things to me. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Damned, hot little Mother Teresa. Damned, pacifist knight in shining armour. 🔊✎ We’ve had our fun, haven’t we? 🔊✎ There were people whose lives we ruined, and we enjoyed doing it too. Now it’s time to pay. 🔊✎
GARCIN, ✎ — raising his fist. ✎ Will you shut up? 🔊✎
INÈS, ✎ — looks at him without fear, but with enormous surprise. Ha ! 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ Wait! I’ve figured it out, I know why they’ve put us together … 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Be careful what you say. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — You’ll see, it’s simple. Simple as one two three. 🔊✎ There’s no physical torture here, right? But all the same, we’re in hell. 🔊✎ And no one else is coming. No one. We’re staying here together forever. Right ? 🔊✎ Now someone’s missing in this picture: the torturer. 🔊✎
GARCIN, ✎ — half aloud ✎ I’ve thought of that too. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Well, they figured out how to cut down on labour costs. Here’s the deal. 🔊✎ The users create the content themselves, like they do on Facebook. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — What do you mean ? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — The torturer, that’s each of us for the other two. 🔊✎
A pause, while they digest this new idea. ✎
GARCIN, ✎ — in a gentle voice. ✎ I’m not going to be your torturer. I don’t wish you any harm, and I really have nothing to do with you. Nothing. It’s pretty simple. 🔊✎ So look. Each of us in their own corner, that’s how we’re going to do it. 🔊✎ You there, you there, me here. And silence. Not a word. It can’t be that difficult, right? 🔊✎ Each of us has their own problems to think about. I could stay here for ten thousand years and not say a word. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — I have to keep quiet? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Yes. And we … we’ll be saved. Keep quiet. Just stay with your thoughts, don’t look up. 🔊✎ Do we have a deal? 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — after hesitating. ✎ Deal. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Then goodbye for ever. 🔊✎
He goes to his couch and puts his head in his hands. Silence. INÈS starts singing to herself: ✎
INÈS ✎ — Dans la rue des Blancs-Manteaux
Dans la rue des Blancs-Manteaux 🔊✎
Dans la rue des Blancs-Manteaux
Dans la rue des Blancs-Manteaux 🔊✎
Dans la rue des Blancs-Manteaux
Sont v'nues des dames comme il faut
Mais la tête leur f'sait défaut
Dans le ruisseau des Blancs-Manteaux. 🔊✎
Meanwhile, ESTELLE has been touching up her powder and lipstick. She looks around anxiously for a mirror. She rummages in her handbag and then turns to GARCIN. ✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Mr. Garcin, do you have a mirror? 🔊✎ (GARCIN does not reply.) ✎ A pocket mirror’s fine, anything will do? 🔊✎ (GARCIN does not reply.) ✎ If you’re going to leave me here all alone, at least find me a mirror. 🔊✎
GARCIN remains with his head in his hands, not replying. ✎
INÈS, ✎ — eagerly. ✎ I’ve got a mirror in my bag. 🔊✎ (She searches through her handbag. Angrily:) ✎ It’s gone. They must have taken it when we checked in. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — That’s so annoying. 🔊✎
Pause. She closes her eyes and sways. INÈS rushes over to support her. ✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — opens her eyes and smiles. ✎ I feel weird. (She pats herself with her hands.) Maybe it’s not like that for you, but when I don’t have a mirror I can touch myself but I’m still not sure I’m really there. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — You’re lucky. I can always feel I’m there from the inside. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Ah yes, from the inside … All that stuff that happens in your head is so vague, it just makes me want to go to sleep. 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ There are six big mirrors in my bedroom. I see them. I see them. But they don’t see me. 🔊✎ They’re showing the chair, the carpet, the window … it’s so empty, a mirror without me. 🔊✎ When I talked, I always made sure I sat so I could see myself in a mirror. 🔊✎ I talked, I watched myself talking. I saw myself the way other people saw me, it kept me alert. 🔊✎ (In despair.) ✎ My lipstick! I’m sure it’s crooked. I can’t stay here without a mirror for the rest of eternity. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Would you like me to be your mirror? Come over here, I’m inviting you to visit. Sit down on my couch. 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — indicates GARCIN. ✎ But … 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Let’s not worry about him. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — We’re going to hurt each other. You said it yourself. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Do I look like I want to hurt you? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — You never know … 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — You’re the one who’s going to hurt me. But it doesn’t matter. If someone’s going to hurt me, I’d rather it was you. 🔊✎ Sit down. Come closer. No, closer than that. Look into my eyes. Do you see yourself? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — I’m so small. I can hardly see anything. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — But I can see you. All of you. Ask me anything. I’ll be as good as any mirror. 🔊✎
ESTELLE, embarrassed, turns to GARCIN as if to call for his help. ✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Mr. Garcin! Mr. Garcin! I hope we’re not bothering you with our little chat? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Forget him, he doesn’t matter. We’re alone. Ask me something. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Is my lipstick on right? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Let’s take a look. Not too great. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — I thought so. Lucky that (she glances at GARCIN) no one’s seen me. I’ll start again. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — That’s better. No. Follow the line of your lips. Here, let me help you. There, there. All good. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — As good as it was when I came in? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Better, Estelle. Heavier, crueller. Your infernal mouth. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Hm! And that’s good? It’s so annoying that I can’t tell for myself anymore. 🔊✎ You promise it’s good? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Why don’t you call me Inès? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — You really promise it’s good, Inès? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — You’re lovely, Estelle. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — But do you have taste? Do you have my taste? It’s so annoying, so annoying. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — I have taste, because I like you. Look at me. Smile at me. 🔊✎ I’m not so bad either, am I? Don’t you think I’m better than a mirror? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — I don’t know. You’re kind of scary. My picture in the mirror did what I wanted. I knew her so well … 🔊✎ Now you’re asking me to smile. My smile’s going to go into your eyes and then God knows what’ll happen to it. I’m sorry, Ms. Serano. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — And what’s stopping you from teaching me to do what you want? 🔊✎ (They look at each other. ESTELLE smiles, a little fascinated despite herself.) ✎ You seem uncomfortable calling me Inès? It would feel friendlier. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — I find it hard to make friends with women. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Particularly with postal clerks, I imagine? 🔊✎ Oh wait, what’s that you’ve got at the bottom of your cheek? Looks like a spot? 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — starts. ✎ Oh no, not a spot! Where is it? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — There, there! You know, they use mirrors to catch larks; my little lark, I’ve got you! 🔊✎ You don’t have a spot. No spot at all, hm? 🔊✎ But suppose the mirror started to lie to you. Or if I closed my eyes, if I stopped looking at you, what would you do with all that beauty? 🔊✎ Oh, don’t worry. I can’t not look at you, my eyes have to stay open. And I’ll be nice to you, very nice. But you’re going to call me Inès. 🔊✎
Pause. ✎
ESTELLE ✎ — You … really like me, Inès? 🔊✎
Pause. ✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — with a nod towards GARCIN. ✎ I wish he’d look at me too. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Ha! because he’s a man. 🔊✎ (To GARCIN.) ✎ Okay, you win. 🔊✎ (GARCIN does not answer.) ✎ Come on, look at her! 🔊✎ (GARCIN does not answer.) ✎ Oh, stop playing games. You haven’t missed a word of what we’ve been saying. 🔊✎
GARCIN, ✎ — abruptly raising his head. ✎ You said it, not a word. I put my fingers in my ears but it didn’t make any difference, you were still talking in my head. 🔊✎ Could you just leave me alone? I have nothing to do with you. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — So you’ve got nothing to do with the girl either? I can see what you’re up to. This great-man-weighed-down-with-thought act is just to get her interested. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I said leave me alone. There’s someone talking about me at the newspaper and I wanted to hear what he was saying. 🔊✎ I totally couldn’t care less about the girl, if that makes you feel better. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I didn’t mean to be rude … 🔊✎
Pause. They are all standing up, facing each other. ✎
GARCIN ✎ — Well, here we are. 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ I told you over and over again to keep quiet. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — She started it. She came over to offer me her mirror, I didn’t do anything. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Oh right, you didn’t do anything. Except you keep looking at him and rubbing yourself up against him so he’ll notice you. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Are you both completely insane? Can’t you see where this is going? Shut up now! 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ Look. We’re going to sit down calmly, we’re going to close our eyes, and each of us is going to try and forget that the other two are there. 🔊✎
Pause. He sits down. The two women return more hesitantly to their seats. INÈS abruptly turns round. ✎
INÈS ✎ — Ah! You say “forget”. Don’t be so silly. I can feel your presence right down to my bones. Even when you say nothing, I hear it screaming in my ears. 🔊✎ You can nail your mouth shut, you can cut your tongue out, can you stop yourself from existing? Can you stop yourself from thinking? 🔊✎ I can hear your mind ticking away like an alarm clock, I know you can hear mine. 🔊✎ You can sit there on your couch but you’re all over the room, every sound I hear is dirty because you’ve heard it first. 🔊✎ You’ve even stolen my face, you can see it and I can’t. 🔊✎ And how about her? Her? You’ve stolen her too. If we were alone, do you think she’d dare to treat me like that? 🔊✎ No, no, take your hands away from your face, I won’t let you escape like this, it’s too easy. 🔊✎ You sit there ignoring us, meditating like some fake Buddha, I’ve closed my eyes and I can still feel she’s beaming every noise she makes towards you, every little rustle of her dress, sending invisible smiles in your direction … 🔊✎ Anything but that! I’d rather choose my own hell. I’d rather look at you with my eyes open and fight properly. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Great. I suppose it was inevitable ; they’ve manipulated us like we were children. 🔊✎ If I’d been sharing a room with men … men know how to keep quiet. But there’s no point asking for that now. 🔊✎ (He goes up to ESTELLE and puts his hand under her chin.) ✎ Well, little girl, I hear you’ve got a crush on me? You keep giving me those looks? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Don’t you touch me. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Aargh! Why don’t we just relax a bit. I really used to like women, did I mention that? And they really liked me. 🔊✎ Relax, we have nothing left to lose. 🔊✎ Why be polite? Why stick to the rules? It’s just us here. Pretty soon, we’ll all be as naked as worms. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Leave me alone. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Like worms. Ah, I warned you. I didn’t ask for much, just a bit of peace and quiet. 🔊✎ I’d put my fingers in my ears. Gomez was talking, standing up there between the tables, all the guys at the paper were listening to him. In their shirtsleeves. 🔊✎ I wanted to hear what they were saying, it’s hard, everything happens so quickly on Earth. 🔊✎ Couldn’t you just have kept quiet? Now it’s over, they aren’t talking anymore, all their thoughts about me have gone back into their heads. 🔊✎ Well, let’s get to the bottom of this. Naked as worms. I want to know what we’re dealing with here. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — You know. You already know. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Until each of us has admitted why they were damned, we don’t know anything. Okay blondie, you start. 🔊✎ Why? Tell us why. If you’re honest, maybe we’ll avoid the worst of it. When we know just what kind of monsters we are. Come on, why? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — I said I don’t know. They didn’t want to tell me. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — That’s right. They didn’t want to tell me either. But I know. 🔊✎ You’re afraid to talk first? Fine. I’ll start. 🔊✎ (A silence.) ✎ I’m not a very nice person. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — That’s okay. We know you deserted. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Forget about that. Don’t ever talk about that. I’m here because I tortured my wife. That’s it. For five years. Of course, she’s still suffering. 🔊✎ There she is; as soon as I talk about her, I see her. It’s Gomez I want to know about and it’s her I see. Where’s Gomez? For five years. 🔊✎ Well, well, well, they’ve given her my personal effects. She’s sitting next to the window and she has my jacket in her lap. The jacket with twelve bullet-holes. The blood stains look like rust. The edges of the holes are rusty. 🔊✎ Ha! It should be in a museum, this is a historic jacket. And I wore it! 🔊✎ Are you going to cry ? Are you finally going to cry? 🔊✎ I got home drunk as a skunk, smelling of booze and women. She’d been waiting up for me all night. She didn’t cry. 🔊✎ Not a word of reproach, naturally. Just her eyes. Her big eyes. 🔊✎ I have no regrets. I’ll pay, but I have no regrets. 🔊✎ It’s snowing outside. But aren’t you going to cry? She’s a woman who was born to be a martyr. 🔊✎
INÈS, ✎ — almost gently. ✎ Why did you hurt her so much? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Because it was easy. You just needed a word to make her change color; she was a real sensitive flower. 🔊✎ Ha! Never a word of reproach! I enjoy giving people a hard time. I waited, I kept on waiting. But no, never a tear, never a word back. 🔊✎ I rescued her from the gutter, you understand? 🔊✎ She’s running her hand over the jacket without looking at it. Her fingers are feeling blindly for the holes. 🔊✎ What are you waiting for? What do you hope will happen? I tell you, I have no regrets. 🔊✎ Basically it’s simple, she admired me too much. Can you understand that! 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — I can’t. No one admired me. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — All the better. All the better for you. Well, this story must seem a bit abstract. 🔊✎ So, here’s a little anecdote. I invited a girl to move in with us, a half-Indian. 🔊✎ Incredible nights! My wife’s room was just above ours, she must have heard everything. 🔊✎ She got up first, and since we were usually still asleep she brought us breakfast in bed. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Yes, yes, totally her darling piggy. 🔊✎ (He looks distracted.) ✎ No, nothing. It’s Gomez, but he’s not talking about me. 🔊✎ Did you say pig? Of course. Otherwise, what would I be doing here. So how about you? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Well, when I came out they all said I’d go to hell. Directly to hell. 🔊✎ So I can’t say this is a big surprise. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — No, there was the affair with Florence as well. But that’s more a story about death. Three deaths. First him, then her and me. 🔊✎ There’s no one left up there, I can relax; just the room. I see the room from time to time. Empty, with the shutters closed. 🔊✎ Ah ! ah ! They’ve finally removed the seals. To let … 🔊✎ It’s available to let. There’s a sign on the street door. It’s … pathetic. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Three. You said three? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — A man and two women? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Got it. 🔊✎ (A silence.) ✎ He killed himself? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Him? He wouldn’t have been able to do it. Though not for lack of having suffered enough, I might add. 🔊✎ No, he got run over by a streetcar. Complete joke! I was living with them, he was my cousin. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Florence was a blonde ? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — A blonde ? 🔊✎ (Looks at ESTELLE.) ✎ You know, I don’t have any regrets, but it’s not much fun to tell you this story. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Go on! Go on! You made her hate him? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Bit by bit. A word here and a word there. 🔊✎ For example, he made a noise when he drank. He sort of breathed out into the glass through his nose. Little things like that. 🔊✎ Oh, he was pathetic, the vulnerable type. Why are you smiling? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Because I’m not the vulnerable type. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Remains to be seen. I got under her skin, she started to see him through my eyes … 🔊✎ In the end, she was all mine. We rented a room at the other end of town. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — And then the streetcar. I told her every day: well sweetheart! We killed him. 🔊✎ (A silence.) ✎ I’m a cruel person. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — No, you … you’re not cruel. You’re something else. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — I’ll tell you some other time. Me, I’m cruel. I need to hurt other people to exist. 🔊✎ A consuming fire. A consuming fire in their hearts. When I’m on my own, the flame goes out. 🔊✎ For six months, I burned in her heart until there was nothing left to burn. 🔊✎ She got up one night while I was asleep and opened the gas tap, then she got back into bed next to me. That’s it. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Nothing. Just that it’s so nasty. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Yes, it’s so nasty. And? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Oh, you’re right. 🔊✎ (To ESTELLE.) ✎ Your turn. What have you done? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — I told you I have no idea. No matter how much I ask myself … 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Fine. Well, why don’t we help you. The guy with the messed up face, who was he? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — You know very well. The one you were scared of when you came in. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — He was a friend. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Why were you scared of him? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — You have no right to start cross-examining me. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — He killed himself because of you? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Of course not, that’s crazy talk. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — So why were you scared of him? He shot himself in the face with his rifle, correct? That’s what blew his head off? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Shut up! Shut up! 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Because of you! Because of you! 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Blew his head off because of you! 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Leave me alone. You’re frightening me. I want to get out! I want to get out! 🔊✎
She rushes to the door and shakes it. ✎
GARCIN ✎ — Go for it. Fine with me. But the door’s locked from the outside. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — presses the bell-push, but nothing happens.
INÈS and GARCIN laugh. ESTELLE turns to face them, her back to the door. ✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — her voice hoarse and slow. ✎ You’re disgusting. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Absolutely, disgusting. So? The guy killed himself because of you. He was your lover? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Obviously, he was her lover. And he wanted you all to himself. Correct? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — He danced the tango like a professional, but I’m guessing he was poor. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — The question is: was he poor. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Yes, he was poor. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — And then you had your reputation to think of. One day he turned up, he begged you to leave, and you laughed in his face. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Right? Right? You laughed in his face? That’s why he killed himself? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — You used to look at Florence with those eyes? 🔊✎
Pause. ESTELLE starts to laugh. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — You aren’t even close. 🔊✎ (She stands up straight and looks at them, still with her back to the door. In a dry, provocative voice:) ✎ He wanted to have a child with me. Are you satisfied now? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — But you didn’t want one. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — No. But I got pregnant all the same. I went to Switzerland for five months. No one else knew. 🔊✎ It was a girl. Roger was with me when she was born. He thought it was nice to have a daughter. But I didn’t. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — There was a balcony overlooking a lake. I’d brought a large stone. He shouted out, “Estelle, please don’t, I’m begging you”. 🔊✎ I hated him. He saw everything. He leaned out and watched the circles spreading in the water. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — That’s it. I went back to Paris. He did what he’d decided to do. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — He blew his head off? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — That’s right. It was completely pointless. My husband never suspected a thing. 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ I hate you. 🔊✎
She bursts into a fit of dry sobbing. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Useless. There are no tears here either. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — I’m such a coward! I’m such a coward! 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ If you just knew how much I hate you! 🔊✎
INÈS, ✎ — taking her in her arms. ✎ You poor little thing! 🔊✎ (To GARCIN:) ✎ The case is closed. You can take off your torturer’s face now. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — My torturer’s face ... 🔊✎ (He looks around.) ✎ I’d give anything to be able to see myself in a mirror. 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ It’s so hot! 🔊✎ (He mechanically removes his jacket.) ✎ Oh! Sorry. 🔊✎
He starts putting it on again. ✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Oh, don’t bother. I mean now ... 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Yes. 🔊✎ (He throws his jacket on the couch.) ✎ Don’t hate me, Estelle. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — I don’t hate you. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — And me? Do you hate me? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Well, Garcin? Here we are now, naked as worms. Are things any clearer? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I don’t know. Maybe a bit clearer. 🔊✎ (Timidly.) ✎ Couldn’t we somehow try to help each other? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — I don’t need help. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Inès, they’ve tangled all the strings together. If you make the smallest gesture, if you just raise your hand to fan your face, Estelle and I feel the tug. 🔊✎ None of us can save ourselves on our own. Either we all go down together or we all escape together. Choose. 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ What? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — They’ve rented it out. The windows are wide open, a man is sitting on my bed. They’ve rented it out! They’ve rented it out! Oh, come in, come in, don’t mind me. 🔊✎ Now there’s a woman. She turns towards him and puts her hands on his shoulders … 🔊✎ Why don’t they switch on the lights, you can’t see a thing. Are they going to fuck? 🔊✎ This is my room! It’s mine! And why don’t they switch on the lights? I can’t see them anymore. 🔊✎ What’s that they’re whispering ? Is he going to fuck her on my bed? She tells him it’s noon and bright sunlight. So it must be me, I’m going blind. 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ All over. Nothing left. I can’t see anything, I can’t hear anything. Well, I suppose I’m done with the Earth. No more alibis. 🔊✎ (She shivers.) ✎ I feel empty. Now I’m really dead. Completely here. 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ You were saying? Something about helping me? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — To figure out what they’re up to. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — And what’s my end of the deal? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — You’ll help me. You don’t have to do much, Inès. Just a bit of kindness. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — A bit of kindness … Where do you expect me to find that? I’m rotten inside. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — And me? 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ All the same, why don’t we try? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — I’m dried out. I can’t take anything, I can’t give anything. How can I help you? I’m a dead branch, ready to start burning. 🔊✎ (Pause. She looks at ESTELLE, who has her head in her hands.) ✎ Florence was a blonde. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — You know this little girl is going to be your torturer? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Maybe I’m starting to suspect that. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — They’ll get you through her. As far as I go, I … I … I can just ignore her. If you on your side … 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — It’s a trap. They’re watching you to see if you’ll fall in. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — I know. And you, you’re a trap. Do you think they haven’t anticipated your words? And that there aren’t traps here we can’t see? It’s all a trap. 🔊✎ But so what ? I’m a trap too. A trap for her. Maybe I’m the one who’ll catch her. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — You won’t catch anything. We’re all chasing each other like horses on a carousel, we can never catch the one in front: you can be sure they’ve fixed it like that. 🔊✎ Give it up, Inès. Open your hands, let go. Otherwise you’ll drag all three of us down. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Do I look like someone who just lets things go? I know what’s waiting for me. I’m going to burn, I’ll burn and I know it will never end. I know all of this. Do you think I’ll let go now? 🔊✎ I’ll have her, she’ll see you through my eyes, just like Florence saw the other one. 🔊✎ Don’t bother telling me about your pain: I tell you, I see the whole thing, I can’t even feel sorry for myself. 🔊✎ A trap, ha! A trap. Of course I’m in a trap. So what? Too bad if it makes them happy. 🔊✎
GARCIN, ✎ — puts his hand on her shoulder. ✎ Well, I can feel sorry for you. Look at me, we’re naked. Naked right down to the bones, I see all of you to the bottom of your heart. That ties us together: do you really think I want to hurt you? 🔊✎ I have no regrets, I have no complaints. I’m dry too. But I can feel pity for you. 🔊✎
INÈS, ✎ — she has not objected while he’s been talking, but now shakes off his hand. ✎ Don’t touch me. I hate people touching me. And keep your pity. 🔊✎ Come on! Garcin, there are plenty of traps for you in this room. For you. Prepared just for you. Why don’t you look after your own business. 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ If you can just not bother us, the chick and me, I’ll try not to hurt you. 🔊✎
GARCIN, ✎ — looks at her for a moment, then shrugs his shoulders. ✎ That’s fine. 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — raising her head. ✎ Help me, Garcin. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — What do you want? 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — getting up and moving over to him. ✎ Me, you can help me. 🔊✎
INÈS has come closer, she moves just behind ESTELLE, without touching her. During the following scene, she talks almost in her ear. But ESTELLE, turned towards GARCIN, who looks at her silently, replies to him as though he were the one talking. ✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Please Garcin, you promised, you promised! Quick, quick, I can’t stay alone. Olga’s taken him to a club. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Pierre. They’re dancing together. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Just a silly little boy. He called me his clear spring. He loved me. She took him to a club. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — You loved him too? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — They’re sitting down again. She’s all out of breath. Why does she even dance? Perhaps it’s to lose weight. 🔊✎ No, of course I didn’t. Of course I didn’t love him. He’s eighteen, I’m not some kind of cougar. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — So leave them to it. What’s it got to do with you? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Nothing on Earth is yours anymore. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Yes, he was … Try to take hold of him, try to touch him. Olga can touch him. Right? Right? She can hold his hands, she can brush his knee. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — She’s pushing her fat disgusting cleavage against him, she’s breathing in his face. 🔊✎ Sweetie, sweetie, why don’t you just laugh at her and leave her standing there? Oh, all I’d have needed to do was give her one look, she’d never have dared … 🔊✎ So I’m really just nothing anymore? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Not anymore. And nothing on the Earth is yours now: everything that belongs to you is right here. 🔊✎ Do you want the paper-knife? The Barbedienne bronze? The blue couch is all yours. 🔊✎ And little one, I’m yours too, yours for all eternity. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Ha? Mine? Well, which of you two is going to call me their clear spring? I can’t fool you now, you know I’m just a piece of shit. 🔊✎ Think about me, Pierre, keep thinking about me, protect me: as long as you’re thinking about your clear spring, your sweet clear spring, I’m only half here, I’m only half damned, I’m still a clear spring up there, next to you. 🔊✎ She’s as red as a tomato. This can’t be happening, we’ve laughed at her together a hundred times. 🔊✎ What’s the piece that just started? I used to love it so much. Oh yes, Saint Louis Blues. 🔊✎ Go on, dance, dance. Garcin, you’d think this was so funny if you could see it. She’ll never know I can see her. 🔊✎ I can see you, I can see you with your hair coming undone and your sweaty face, I can see you stepping on his feet. You’d kill yourself laughing. 🔊✎ Come on! Faster! Faster! He’s pushing and pulling her round the floor. It’s gross. Faster! He used to tell me, you’re so light. Come on, come on! 🔊✎ (She dances as she speaks.) ✎ I said I can see you. But she doesn’t care, she’s dancing away from me. 🔊✎ Poor Estelle! What do you mean, poor Estelle? Oh shut up. You didn’t even cry at my funeral. She said “poor Estelle”. She has the nerve to talk to him about me. 🔊✎ Come on! Follow the beat! She’s never been able to talk and dance at the same time. 🔊✎ But what … No! No! Don’t tell him that! You can have him, take him away, he’s all yours, do what you like with him, but don’t tell him … 🔊✎(She has stopped dancing.) ✎ Great. Oh well, you can keep him. She told him everything, Garcin: Roger, Switzerland, the baby, the lot. 🔊✎ “Poor Estelle wasn’t really …” No, that’s right, I wasn’t really … 🔊✎ He’s shaking his head sadly, but you can’t say this piece of news has knocked him over. 🔊✎ You can have him. I’m not going to fight over his long eyelashes or his smooth girlish face. Ha! He called me his clear spring, his bright crystal. Well, I think the crystal just got hit with a hammer. 🔊✎ “Poor Estelle”. Dance! Dance, come on! And hold the beat. One, two. 🔊✎ (She dances.) ✎ I’d give anything to go back to Earth just for a moment, just for one moment, and dance. 🔊✎ (She dances. Pause.) ✎ I can’t hear properly. They’ve dimmed the lights like they do for a tango, but why have they turned down the sound? Louder! It’s so far away! 🔊✎ I … I can’t hear anything at all. 🔊✎ (She stops dancing.) ✎ All gone. The Earth has left me. Garcin, look at me, hold me. 🔊✎
INÈS, still behind ESTELLE’s back, gestures to GARCIN that he should move away. ✎
INÈS, ✎ — imperiously. ✎ Garcin! 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — moves a step back and indicates INÈS. ✎ Talk to her. 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — clutching on to him. ✎ Don’t go! You’re a man, aren’t you? 🔊✎ Come on, look at me, don’t turn your eyes away. It can’t be that bad, right? Don’t you like that beautiful golden hair, someone actually killed himself for me you know. 🔊✎ Please, please, you’ve got to look at something. If it’s not me, it’ll be the bronze or the table or the couches. Whatever you think, I’m more fun to look at than that. 🔊✎ Oh please listen, I’ve just fallen out of their hearts like a little bird falls out of her nest. Pick me up, put me in your heart, you’ll see how nice I feel there. 🔊✎
GARCIN, ✎ — pushing her away with difficulty. ✎ I said talk to her. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Her? But she doesn’t count, she’s a woman. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — I don’t count? Oh, my poor little lost bird, don’t you know you’re already safe in my heart? 🔊✎ Don’t be afraid, I’ll keep looking at you, I won’t even blink. 🔊✎ You’ll be there forever in my eyes like a speck of gold in a sunbeam. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — A sunbeam? Give me a break. You’ve already tried that one and it didn’t work. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Estelle ! My clear spring, my bright crystal. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Your bright crystal? That’s just stupid. Who do you think you’re fooling? 🔊✎ Come on, everyone knows I chucked the brat out of the window. That crystal’s been smashed to bits and I don’t give a fuck about it. 🔊✎ I’m just a body. And my body’s not for you. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Come to me! You can be what you like: clear spring, dirty spring, you’ll find yourself in my eyes just the way you want to be. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Let go of me! You don’t have any eyes. What do I have to do to make you let go? How about this. 🔊✎
She spits in her face. INÈS abruptly lets go. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Garcin! You’ll pay for this! 🔊✎
Pause. GARCIN shrugs his shoulders and turns to ESTELLE. ✎
GARCIN ✎ — So? You want a man? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Not a man. You. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — You don’t need to pretend. Anyone would do. I happen to be here, it’s me. Fine. 🔊✎ (He takes her by the shoulders) ✎ I know I’m not your type: I’m not a silly little boy and I don’t dance the tango. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — I’ll take you as you are. Maybe I’ll change you. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I don’t think so. I’ll be … preoccupied. I’ve got other things to think about. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — They wouldn’t interest you. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — I’ll sit on your couch. I’ll wait until you’ve got time for me. 🔊✎
INÈS, ✎ — bursts out laughing. 🔊✎ Ha! You little bitch! That’s right, crawl! Crawl! And he’s not even good-looking! 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — to GARCIN. ✎ Don’t listen to her. She’s got no eyes, she’s got no ears. She doesn’t matter. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I’ll give you what I can. It won’t be a lot. I won’t be able to love you, I know too much. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Do you want me? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — That’s all I need. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Estelle! Garcin! Are you out of your minds? But I’m right here! 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I can see that. So? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — In front of me? But you aren’t … you can’t! 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Why not? I used to get undressed in front of my maid. 🔊✎
INÈS, ✎ — clutching on to GARCIN. ✎ Leave her alone! Leave her alone! Don’t you touch her with your dirty man’s hands! 🔊✎
GARCIN, ✎ — pushes her away violently. ✎ Okay, that’s enough. I’m not a gentleman, I’m not afraid to hit women. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — But you promised, Garcin, you promised! I’m begging you, you promised! 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — You’re the one who broke off the deal. 🔊✎
INÈS moves away and retreats to the back of the room. ✎
INÈS ✎ — Do what you like, I can’t stop you. But remember, I’m here and I’m watching you. I won’t take my eyes off you, Garcin, you’ll have to do it under my eyes. 🔊✎ God, I hate both of you! Well start fucking, start fucking! We’re in hell and it’ll be my turn sometime. 🔊✎
During the following scene, she watches them without saying a word. ✎
GARCIN, ✎ — turns back to ESTELLE and takes her by the shoulders. ✎ Right, give me your mouth. 🔊✎
Pause. He bends over her and then suddenly straightens up again. ✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — with an angry gesture. ✎ Ha !… 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ I told you to ignore her. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — It’s not about her. 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ Gomez is at the paper. They’ve closed the windows, it’s winter. Six months. It’s six months since I … 🔊✎ I warned you I’d be preoccupied? They’re shivering, they’ve left their coats on … 🔊✎ It’s funny they’re so cold up there, and I’m so hot. This time, they’re talking about me. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Is this going to take long? 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ Well tell me what they’re saying, anyway. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Nothing. He’s saying nothing. He’s a shit, that’s all. 🔊✎ (He listens attentively.) ✎ A dirty little shit. Aargh! 🔊✎ (He moves back closer to ESTELLE.) ✎ Where were we. Are you going to love me? 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — smiling. ✎ We’ll find out, won’t we? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Are you going to trust me? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — What sort of question is that? You’ll never be out of my sight, and I don’t think you’ll be fooling around with Inès. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Obviously. 🔊✎ (Pause. He lets go of ESTELLE’s shoulders.) ✎ I didn’t mean trust that way. 🔊✎ (He listens.) ✎ Go on! Go on! Say what you fucking like. I’m not there to defend myself. 🔊✎ (To ESTELLE.) ✎ Estelle, you have to trust me. ✎
ESTELLE ✎ — You just spoil everything. You’ve got my mouth, my arms, my body, it could all be so simple … 🔊✎ My trust? But I don’t have any trust to give you, you shouldn’t ask. Oh, you must have done something pretty terrible if you want my trust this much. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — I know. You refused to fight. So? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I … I didn’t exactly refuse. 🔊✎ (To the air.) ✎ He talks well, he makes a good case, but he never says what I should have done instead. 🔊✎ Was I supposed to go to the general and say “Sir, I am not leaving for the front?” That would have been pretty stupid. They’d just have put me inside. I needed to witness, that was my role, witness! I wasn’t going to let them silence me. 🔊✎ (To ESTELLE.) ✎ I … I took the train. They arrested me at the border. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Where were you going? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — To Mexico. I was planning to start another pacifist newspaper. 🔊✎ (A silence.) ✎ Well say something. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — What am I supposed to say? You did the right thing if you didn’t want to fight. 🔊✎ (Frustrated gesture from GARCIN.) ✎ Ah ! darling, how should I know what I’m supposed to say? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Sweetheart, he wants you to say that he ran away like a lion. Because that’s what big boy did, he ran away. That’s what’s got him all upset. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Ran away, left, you can call it what you want. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Well you had to run away. If you hadn’t, they’d have put you inside. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Of course. 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ Estelle, am I a coward? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — But darling, I don’t know, I’m not you. You have to decide that yourself. 🔊✎
GARCIN, ✎ — with a tired gesture. ✎ I can’t decide. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — You must be able to remember. You must have done it for a reason. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — But was that the real reason? 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — annoyed. ✎ Why do you have to make it so complicated? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I wanted to bear witness, I … I thought about it a lot … But was that the real reason? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Right! There’s the question. Was that the real reason? You thought it through, you didn’t want to do it lightly. 🔊✎ But fear and hate and all that dirty stuff underneath, those are also reasons. So I think you need to ask yourself some more searching questions. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Shut up. Do you think I want your advice? 🔊✎ I paced round my cell, all night, all day. From the window to the door, from the door to the window. I spied on myself. I tracked my movements. It feels like I spent a whole life cross-examining myself, but all I found was what I’d done. 🔊✎ I … I took the train, that’s the one part I’m sure about. But why? Why? 🔊✎ In the end I thought, okay, my death will decide. If I die well, that’ll prove I wasn’t a coward … 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — And how did you die, Garcin? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Badly. 🔊✎ (INÈS bursts out laughing.) ✎ Oh, it was a simple physical failing. I’m not ashamed. But now everything’s been left hanging for ever. 🔊✎ (To ESTELLE.) ✎ You come over here. Look at me. I need someone to look at me while they talk about me on Earth. I like green eyes. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Did you hear that! He likes green eyes. And how about you, Estelle? Do you like cowards? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — You wouldn’t believe how little I care if he’s a coward or not. As long as he’s a good fuck. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — They’re nodding their heads and puffing on their cigars. They’re bored. They’re thinking, Garcin’s a coward. Faintly, indistinctly. Just so that they have something to think about. 🔊✎ Garcin’s a coward. That’s what they’ve decided, my so-called friends. In six months they’ll say, cowardly as Garcin. 🔊✎ You two are lucky, no one on Earth is thinking about you anymore. It’s worse for me. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — And your wife, Garcin? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Ah what, my wife? She’s dead. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I must have forgotten to tell you. She just died. About two months ago. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Obviously, of grief. What did you expect her to die of? 🔊✎ So it’s all worked out for the best. The war is over, my wife is dead, and I’ve entered into history. 🔊✎
He utters one dry sob and covers his face with his hand. ESTELLE puts her arms round him. ✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Darling, darling. Look at me, darling. Touch me, touch me. 🔊✎ (She takes his hand and puts it on her breast.) ✎ Feel my tits. 🔊✎ (GARCIN is about to move away.) ✎ Leave your hand there. Leave it there, don’t move. They’ll die, one by one. It doesn’t matter what they think. Forget them. It’s just me left. 🔊✎
GARCIN, ✎ — removing his hand. ✎ They won’t forget me. They’ll die, but others will come and pick up the job. I’ve left them in charge of my life. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Oh, you think too much! 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — What else am I supposed to do? I used to be able to act … 🔊✎ Aargh, if I could just go back and see them for a single day … I’d put them in their place! 🔊✎ But I’m out of the loop now. They’re writing it up themselves, without caring about me, and they’re in the right because I’m done. Done and dusted. 🔊✎ (He laughs.) 🔊✎ I’ve become part of the public domain. 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — gently. ✎ Garcin ! 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — You’re still there? Well, listen, there is something you could do for me. No, don’t back away like that. I know, it seems strange that someone might be asking you for help, you aren’t used to it. 🔊✎ But if you want it, if you make an effort, maybe we could really love each other? 🔊✎ Look, there’s thousands of them saying I’m a coward. 🔊✎ But what does that mean, thousands of them? If there’s one single person who says with all her heart that I didn’t run away, that I couldn’t have run away, that I was brave and decent, then I … I’m sure I’ll be saved! 🔊✎ Do you want to believe in me? I’ll love you more than I love myself. 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — laughing. 🔊✎ You idiot! You dear, sweet idiot! Do you think I could love a coward? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — I was just messing with you. I love men, Garcin, real men, with rough skin, with strong hands. 🔊✎ You don’t have a coward’s chin, you don’t have a coward’s mouth, you don’t have a coward’s hair. I look at your chin and your mouth and your hair, and I love you. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — You mean that? You really mean that? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Do I need to put my hand on a bible? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Then I defy all of you, the people up there and the ones down here. Estelle, we’ll get out of this place. 🔊✎ (INÈS can’t stop laughing. He breaks off and looks at her.) ✎ What’s up with you? 🔊✎
INÈS, ✎ — laughing. 🔊✎ But she doesn’t believe a word of it, how can you be such a sucker? “Estelle, am I a coward?” If you knew how little she cares! 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Inès. 🔊✎ (To GARCIN.) ✎ Don’t listen to her. If you want me to trust you, you need to trust me first. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Right, right ! You trust her. 🔊✎ She needs a man, you can definitely believe that much, she needs a man’s arm round her waist, a man’s smell next to her, a man’s desire in a man’s eyes. 🔊✎ As for the rest of it … well, she’d tell you you were the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost if she thought it would turn you on. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Estelle! Is that true? Answer me. Is that true? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — What do you want me to say? I don’t know what the fuck this is about. 🔊✎ (She stamps her foot.) ✎ It’s all so stupid and boring! Look, even if you were a coward I’d still love you. There! Is that good enough? 🔊✎
Pause. ✎
GARCIN, ✎ — to the two women ✎ You both disgust me! 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — What are you going to do? 🔊✎
INÈS, ✎ — quickly. ✎ You won’t get far, it’s locked. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Well they’ll have to open it then. 🔊✎
He presses on the bell-push, but there is no sound. ✎
INÈS, ✎ — to ESTELLE. ✎ Don’t worry, it doesn’t work. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I tell you, they’ll open it. 🔊✎ (He hammers on the door.) ✎ I can’t stand you, I can’t take any more. 🔊✎ (ESTELLE runs to him, he pushes her away.) ✎ Get lost! You’re even more disgusting than she is. 🔊✎ I don’t want to get trapped in your eyes. You’re soft, you’re slimy, you’re like an squid, you’re like a swamp. 🔊✎ (He beats on the door.) ✎ Are you going to open? 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Garcin, please, please don’t go, I won’t talk to you anymore, I’ll leave you alone, but please don’t go. 🔊✎ I’ve seen Inès’s claws, I’m scared to be alone with her. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — You sort it out. I didn’t ask you to come. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Coward! Coward! Oh, you really are a coward. 🔊✎
INÈS, ✎ — moving up to ESTELLE. ✎ Well, my poor little lost bird, you’re not happy? You spat in my face to please him and he got us fighting with each other. 🔊✎ But now he’s going off to make trouble somewhere else, and us girls will have the place to ourselves. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — This won’t help you. If the door opens, I’m going as well. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Wherever. As far from you as I can get. 🔊✎
GARCIN has not stopped beating on the door. ✎
GARCIN ✎ — Open ! Open up! You can do what you like: the red-hot pokers, the molten lead, the pincers, the garrotes, anything that cuts, anything that burns, I want real suffering. 🔊✎ I’d rather be bitten and whipped and poisoned than take any more of this pain in the mind, this ghost pain, this pain that teases you and strokes you and never hurts you enough. 🔊✎ (He grabs the door handle and shakes it.) ✎ Are you going to open? 🔊✎ (The door suddenly opens, and he almost falls over.) ✎ Ha! 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Well, Garcin? Off you go. 🔊✎
GARCIN, ✎ — slowly. ✎ I’m wondering why the door opened. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — What are you waiting for? Go on, leave now! 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I’m not leaving. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — How about you, Estelle? 🔊✎ (ESTELLE does not move; INÈS bursts out laughing.) ✎ Well? Which one? Which of us three? The door’s open, what’s keeping us here? 🔊✎ Ha! It’s so funny! We’re already inseparable. 🔊✎
ESTELLE jumps on her from behind. ✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Inseparable? Garcin! Come on, help me. We’ll drag her outside and shut the door. Then she’ll see. 🔊✎
INÈS, ✎ — resisting. ✎ Estelle! Estelle! Please, please, let me stay. Not the corridor, don’t throw me out in the corridor! 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — You’re crazy, she hates you. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I’m staying because of her. 🔊✎
ESTELLE lets go of INÈS and looks at GARCIN with a stunned expression. ✎
INÈS ✎ — Because of me? 🔊✎ (Pause.) ✎ Fine, well, shut the door. It’s ten times hotter when it’s open. 🔊✎ (GARCIN goes to the door and shuts it.) ✎ Because of me? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Yes. You know what it means to be a coward. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — You know all about evil and shame and fear. 🔊✎ There’ve been days when you looked into yourself and saw what was in your heart, and it almost paralysed you. And in the morning, all you could do was think normal thoughts, and you couldn’t understand the strange and terrible things you’d glimpsed the day before. 🔊✎ Yes, you understand how evil works. And if you say I’m a coward, it’s because you know what that means, right? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — You’re the one I need to convince. You’re like me. 🔊✎ Did you really think I was going? 🔊✎ I can’t leave you here, believing you’ve won, with all those thoughts in your head. All those thoughts about me. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — You really want to convince me? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I can’t do anything else. I can’t hear them anymore, you know. I guess they’re done with me. 🔊✎ It’s all over. They’ve lost interest, I’m nothing on Earth now, not even a coward. 🔊✎ Inès, we’re on our own here, there’s only you two left to think about me. She doesn’t count. But you, even though you hate me now, if you ever believe in me you’ll save me. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — It’s not going to be easy. Look at me. I’m a hard one to convince. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — It’ll take the time it takes. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — You’ve got all the time in the world, all the time. 🔊✎
GARCIN, ✎ — taking her by the shoulders. ✎ Listen, everyone’s got things they want to do, right? I wasn’t interested in money or love. I wanted to be a man. Someone with strength and integrity. I bet everything on achieving that goal. 🔊✎ Can you be a coward when you’ve always chosen the most dangerous path? Can you judge a whole life by one act? 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Why not? You dreamed for thirty years that you were a great-hearted hero. And you glossed over a thousand little weaknesses because a hero can do no wrong. It’s too easy! 🔊✎ And then, when things got really dangerous, when you were at the crossroads … you took the train to Mexico. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I didn’t dream of being a hero. I chose that path. You are what you want to become. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Prove it. Prove it wasn’t a dream. Only your acts show what you really wanted. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — I died too early. They didn’t give me time to carry out my acts. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — You always die too early – or too late. But your life’s there all the same, finished. You draw the line, you add up the total. All you are is your life. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — You snake! You have an answer to everything. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Come on! Come on! Don’t give up yet. It should be easy for you to persuade me. Find arguments, try harder. 🔊✎ (GARCIN shrugs his shoulders.) ✎ Well, well. I said you were vulnerable. Ah, you’re going to pay now. 🔊✎ You’re a coward, Garcin, you’re a coward because I want you to be a coward. I want it to be that way, you hear me, I want it! But at the same time, see how weak I am, no more than a breath. I’m just eyes looking at you, formless thoughts thinking you. 🔊✎ (He moves towards her, his hands open.) ✎ Ha! There are your big male hands getting ready to grab me. But what are you going to do? You can’t catch thoughts in your hands. 🔊✎ So you don’t have a choice. You have to convince me. I’ve got you. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Don’t get mad, get even. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Come over here and kiss me, you’ll hear her squeal. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — She’s right, Inès. You’ve got me, but I’ve got you too. 🔊✎
He bends over ESTELLE. INÈS cries out loud. ✎
INÈS ✎ — Ha! Coward! Coward! Go find a woman to console you. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Squeal, Inès, squeal! 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Oh, you’re a such a lovely pair! If you could see his paws on your back, wrinkling up your skin and your dress. His ugly, damp paws. He’s really sweating. He’s going to leave wet marks there. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Squeal! Squeal! Hold me tighter, Garcin. I think it might just finish her off. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Absolutely, hold her tight, go on! Feel your body heat reach out to hers. 🔊✎ Isn’t love good, Garcin? It’s warm and deep as sleep, but I’m going to keep you awake. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Don’t listen to her. Just think about my mouth. I’m all yours, you can do what you like with me. 🔊✎
INÈS ✎ — Well what are you waiting for. Do what she said, Garcin the coward is holding Estelle the baby-killer in his arms. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Will cowardly Garcin kiss her? 🔊✎ I see you, I see you, just on my own I’m a whole crowd. Garcin, can you hear it? 🔊✎ (Murmurs.) ✎ Coward! Coward! Coward! Coward! No use running away, I won’t let go. 🔊✎ What are you looking for on her lips? Forgetfulness? But I won’t forget you. I’m the one you need to convince. Me. Come here, come here! I’m waiting. You see, Estelle, he’s dropped you, he’s obedient as a dog … You won’t have him! 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — Is it never going to be night? 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — You’ll always see me? 🔊✎
GARCIN leaves ESTELLE and takes a few steps through the room. He goes up to the bronze. ✎
GARCIN ✎ — The bronze ... 🔊✎ (He strokes it.) ✎ Well, this is the moment. The bronze is in front of me, I’m looking at it, and I know I’m in hell. 🔊✎ I tell you, they’ve planned everything. They knew I’d be standing in front of this mantelpiece, pressing my hand against this bronze, with all these eyes staring at me. All these eyes eating me up alive … 🔊✎ (He turns round quickly.) ✎ Ha! Are there only two of you? I thought there were so many more. 🔊✎ (He laughs.) 🔊✎ So this is hell. I would never have believed it … you remember, the sulphur, the fire, the rack … Ah, what a joke. You don’t need a rack. Hell is other people. 🔊✎
GARCIN ✎ — pushing her away. ✎ Leave me alone. She’s in between us. I can’t do it when she’s watching. 🔊✎
ESTELLE ✎ — Ha! Well then, she won’t be watching us any more. 🔊✎
She grabs the paper-knife from the table, jumps on INÈS and stabs her several times. ✎
INÈS, ✎ — resisting and laughing. ✎ What are you doing, what are you doing, you crazy bitch? You know I’m already dead. 🔊✎
She drops the knife. Pause. INÈS picks it up and stabs herself furiously. ✎
INÈS ✎ — Dead! Dead! Dead! It won’t work, not with a knife, not with a rope, not with poison. It’s already happened, get it? And we’re together forever. 🔊✎
ESTELLE, ✎ — bursts out laughing. 🔊✎ Forever! Oh my God that’s so funny! Forever! 🔊✎
GARCIN, ✎ — laughs as he watches the other two. 🔊✎ Forever! 🔊✎
Each of them falls back onto their own couch. A long silence. They stop laughing and look at each other. Garcin rises. ✎
GARCIN ✎ — Well, let’s get on with it. 🔊✎
CURTAIN ✎