# The Happy Eyes Of Minotaur

Виктор Вениаминович Ляпин

... "Would you believe it, Ariadne?" said Theseus. "Minotaur scarcely defended himself." (The House of Asterion, Jorge Luis Borges)

VICTOR LIAPIN


THE HAPPY EYES OF MINOTAUR


Translated by Ivan Lyapin


... "Would you believe it, Ariadne?" said Theseus. "Minotaur scarcely defended himself." (The House of Asterion, Jorge Luis Borges)

...nobody can kill Minotaur.

Characters:

George (Minotaur, a bull-headed monster)

Veronica (Ariadne, King Minos of Crete and Pasiphae's daughter)

Andrew (Theseus, King Aegeus of Athens' son)

Helen (Pasiphae, Minos' wife and Minotaur's mother.)

...When I understood that I love you, honey,

When I understood that I love you more than life,

Above all that can be loved -

The children, the Gods, the gold and the acacias -

I dreamed about not pastures of Heaven, not apples of honey,

Not autumn fields with flavor of wilting,

I dreamed about the happy eyes of Minotaur,

Betrayed by Ariadne, betrayed by the Gods,

Betrayed by the all, betrayed by the fate,

The happy eyes of Minotaur,

Waiting for a punch Minotaur,

The happy eyes of Minotaur,

The deathful eyes of Minotaur.


EMAIL: snybegemota@yandex.ru


SCENE 1


There is a field beside the village. In the background, there is a wooden Palace of Culture.

George, Veronica, Andrew and Helen are sitting on the grass, made up as antic heroes.


VERONICA. We can't play today.

GEORGE. People have come to the theatre. The tickets are sold.

VERONICA. Why don't you understand? We can't play.

GEORGE (To Andrew). Do you think the same?

Andrew keeps silent.

GEORGE (To Helen). Well, you tell me...

HELEN. I can't stand you. I can't hear your voice. When I hear your voice, I'm getting sick.

GEORGE. That's what we need today. If we do not come on the stage, we won't pay for the lodging.

Remember, when we were coming here, you said it was your native-land, every dog knew you here. You were dining it into my ears. And what? We live in this Palace of Culture. We rehearse in the Palace of Culture. We have debts for the head of this damn Palace of Culture. Nobody took charge of us. Not a single dog. In the morning, I went to our best friends, as you'd sung to me, and bought there a chicken, wine and bread on our last money. If we do not play this damn show, we'll kick the bucket. And tomorrow I'll get married. I need money, guests, food, wine, musicians. Now we have sold-out. People have come to watch us... To see our acting and our shame. Do you know what they're talking about?

ANDREW. I do.

GEORGE. No, you don't. They're sure, you'll kill me during the performance. Me or Veronica. Or your mother will do that.

HELEN. I'll do that with great pleasure.

GEORGE. You see. That's why the Palace is full. That's why there is such silent here. That's why we will go to the stage. And we'll play for the last time. And we'll show everything, what I've taught you..., you, ham and shabby actors. No theatre will ever take you on. Because you worry about some outside matters, something else except that the audience dies away and the stage is empty, and the first word is escaping the lips.

VERONICA. Don't you fear?

GEORGE. I always do. I fear that my heart stops while I am making love with you. I fear that his mother will add poisonous herbs instead of flavorings in my chicken's broth. I fear that the drop-curtain is open and there is no one in the hall. Not a soul. And I won't be able to stop and I will speak, speak, and speak until I fall on dirty planks, terror and silence stricken. You can work out a whole spectacle out of my fears. Well, doesn't he fear? (To Helen) And do you?

...It's time.

HELEN. You brought us to this god-forsaken hole. You made us tell everybody that it was our homeland. I went to every family, looked into people's eyes and begged them to recognize me. And someone even did. You got laid with Veronica.

GEORGE. I fell in love with her.

HELEN. You got laid with Veronica yesterday. At night. In a haystack in the yard. Shamelessly. Insolently. When he couldn't stir out of desperation. You seduced the bride from my son. You broke his heart, or what's left after a betrayal of the best friend. You promised us the moon. We've just finished eating the last chicken.

ANDREW. We picked you up on the road. You were lying in mud. You were dying. But I stopped. You were ragged and grimy. Someone'd unmercifully beaten you and kicked you out to the roadside, far from the town. Where would you be, if I'd passed by you?

GEORGE. Most likely, I would've frozen to death in that mud.

ANDREW. We felt pity for you and took you along. Formerly we had a very good performance, a funny comedy. It was a success. Both grownups and children laughed in the hall. We easily earned a living. I bought a second-hand car. Veronica and I were going to get married.

GEORGE. Why are you talking about it? What for? It's time to go.

ANDREW. Not yet. Not all the spectaculars have gone mad with waiting. Can I recite a verse, I wrote last night, before we start?

GEORGE. You can do whatever you want. The main thing is to go on the stage.

ANDREW. ...while Veronica and you were romping like animals in hay under my windows.

GEORGE. I told you: do whatever you want. It's time.

ANDREW. ...while I was standing by the window, unable to move, nor to take my eyes off, nor to close them, nor to whisper, nor to exclaim, nor to mumble: Veronica!

... It is not time yet.

HELEN. They are dairymaids and tractor drivers. They are book-keepers, carpenters, and fishermen. They are drunkards, deaf little old men and women. They never heard of Minotaur. I made the round of the suburbs. No labyrinth is present. I questioned old bones and children. Nobody ever heard of a man with a bull's head. Never. You deceived us. This creature didn't exist. They lead their bulls either to a farm, or to a slaughter. They do not need Minotaur, and they are not to blame for this.

GEORGE. Do you hear their breath? They're sitting at an unheated hall and waiting.

HELEN. Waiting, but not for Minotaur. They're waiting for me to kill you.

GEORGE. It's time.

VERONICA. But me? What about me? What'll be with me?

GEORGE. The play will come to an end. We'll have some wine. You'll put a wedding gown on. I'll spend all my money on a buffet and musicians. All the country will come to us. They'll celebrate our wedding. They'll kiss us like near and dear ones. They'll break wooden tables with passion and sadness.

VERONICA. Won't he kill us?

GEORGE. Silly, this is just theatre.

HELEN. We lived so joyfully before you came.

GEORGE. Did you? Look at me. I'm frightful, awkward, hunchbacked. There is nothing to attract a beautiful girl. But she fell into my arms. She broke out of your "joyfully" with the first comer. Didn't she? Ask: why? Ask yourself. Ask your son.

HELEN. I have nothing to ask.

VERONICA. How odd. Probably we did live joyfully..., up to that day when Andrew and you..., you and he..., the mother and the son..., my sweet one, my fiancИ and his better half mammy..., at the shed, hidden like moles...

HELEN. It was just a harmless game.

ANDREW. We were drunk. We didn't answer for ourselves. Your eyes deceived you.

GEORGE. Her eyes deceived her... The same did her heart. Why to talk in vain?

HELEN. You're right. Why to talk in vain? It's really time to go.

VERONICA. We still have some time. I adjure you, we still have time.

HELEN. You don't know what means to be a mother. You've never been one. And most likely you'll never be. The country is too remote. The car is broken. I am exhausted.

You don't know what loneliness means, a first gray hair, impossibility to breathe from feeling that your life is irreparably lost, but a desperate thirst to make your only child happy. I so much wanted you to be happy. I so much wanted to teach him everything. I so much wanted you to deliver a grandson for me..., courageous, angry, free and strong like his father.

ANDREW. That's why you betrayed me.

HELEN. No.


Pause.


GEORGE. I've always dreamed to narrate a story about Minotaur. Since childhood, babyhood, since maternal womb, a black star spiral, where I was going around, waiting and praying.

I heard this story for the first time at a railway beer shop. A consumptive bum, puking with vodka and joy, choking with tears, imparted to me what I wanted to know so much. He told me that here, in this part of the world, where nothing had happened before, where the field was overgrown, and people coolly saw action films at the Palace of Culture ... one old countrywoman gave birth to a boy with a bull's head.

I gave him everything I had: all my money, the suitcase and all the documents. He became me, and I became different. I had to come here. I didn't know that it'd be so painful and unbearable. If you had not picked me up on the road..., if you had not warmed me..., if you had not allowed to stay with you... I'd have surely died...

VERONICA. (To Andrew) Who is your father? (To George) And who is yours? ANDREW. I don't know.

GEORGE. I don't know.

HELEN. I don't know. I am so old. I forgot. I don't know. ... It's time.


They stand up and put the costumes straight. George puts on a bull's head and turns into Minotaur.

Spectators are whistling.

GEORGE (Shouting the whistle down). Dear ladies and gentlemen! We are going to show you our play! Please, do not whistle. We are already beginning. (He introduces the actors) Ariadne - The Queen Pasiphae's daughter. Pasiphae - The Queen of Crete. Theseus - the son of Aegeus, King of Athens. And me - Minotaur, a bull-man, Pasiphae and Poseidon's son. The same as those who go free in your forests. A joke. I am just kidding. Jeering you. And inviting you. If you do not believe in this story, just go to the field, and then come up to the forest, and then call him and wait till his coming. And stay there forever.

(To Andrew) Theseus!


ANDREW (THESEUS). ...When I understood that I love you, honey,

When I understood that I love you more than life,

Above all that can be loved -

The children, the Gods, the gold and the acacias -

I dreamed about not pastures of Heaven, not apples of honey,

Not the autumn fields with flavor of wilting,

I dreamed about the happy eyes of Minotaur,

Betrayed by Ariadne, betrayed by the Gods,

Betrayed by the all, betrayed by the fate,

The happy eyes of Minotaur,

Waiting for a punch Minotaur,

The happy eyes of Minotaur,

The deathful eyes of Minotaur.


Andrew, Helen and Veronica leave the stage. George is alone.


SCENE 2


A labyrinth of Minotaur. Minotaur is alone. He's talking with an imaginary second Minotaur.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Hail, Minotaur.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Hail, Minotaur.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). How long I have been waiting for you. All my life. I knew you would come. I know that you exist.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). From now, we will always be together.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). And I will never be lone?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). And you will never be lone.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Oh, god, at last my nightmare is over. I rushed to anyone coming here, hoping that it was you. But each time they were just people: miserable, coward, armed with swords and daggers. They snatched their swords,

but they were unable to do anything and fell in their own blood. Why did they hate me so? Why did they take my love and joy for the death?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Because they are only humans. They do not know how to behave with the son of Deity.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). You are so beautiful. Do I really look like you?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). You and I are like twins. Too many corpses are here!

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Yes. This is how I was looking for you. What do they say about us?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). They say we are mad. They say we're not like them.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). No, we are not. We are the Gods. Sometimes I feel sorry for people.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). They cannot be the Gods.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). They do not know what freedom is.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). They do not know what eternity is. The only thing they have is love.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Yes. I like their women better.

Second Minotaur disappears. Ariadne comes.


GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Is it you, Ariadne?

VERONICA (ARIADNE). It's me, my darling.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). I did not think you would come so early.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). I can no longer endure this torment. Every hour without you feels like eternity to me. I want to be your skin, cling to you and feel your warmth.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Everyone says you are beautiful. You say the same. There must be so many men falling in love with you in the town.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). I need only you.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). In people's eyes, I am hideous.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). You are beautiful like a star's lightning, dashing around an empty labyrinth. I want to take care of you, like of a child, and to strive for your protection, like for Deity.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Sometimes I want to send you packing. You take my precious time. You bother me. You prevent me from expecting the Second Minotaur.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). If you send me away, I'll just die.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). What do people say in the town?

VERONICA (ARIADNE). They are coward panic-mongers. Your visit has driven them mad. But how did you manage to get out?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). I am God and you are only a woman. It was not tough. You always come here with a clew, to find the way back. Last night, when you fell asleep, tired of my love, I just followed in the tracks of yours and came out of the labyrinth.

There was my sky there, my starry sky. I did not mean to do harm to those shepherds and wine-growers. I was just happy, looking at the starry sky and breathing a fresh sea air.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). You trampled them down, as if they were grapes.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). They made me sad. They should have been happy to see me. But there was no joy in their eyes. What did I have to do? I wandered around a bit and decided to return. I was afraid he would come without me, and we would miss each other.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Who is he?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). The same as I am. The one, who will save me from loneliness. The one, I can talk to without condescension, anger and sadness.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). But there is nobody like you. That cannot be. Why are you looking for someone? Isn't my love enough for you?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Your love! Can your love give me anything I do not have?

VERONICA (ARIADNE). When I'm near you, I feel myself a grain of sand in the desert.

Oh, my God! It's hard to believe you are my brother. From my childhood, from the first time I saw you, I forgot maidenly modesty and lost the will. I wanted only you. I envied Mother because you'd come out of her womb. I stroked my belly and begged the Gods for giving me an opportunity to feel such happiness.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). All women are the same. You are the same as your mother.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). What?

Pause.


VERONICA (ARIADNE). What did you say about my mother?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Before you came I had a dream. I saw the eyes of one of those wine-growers whom I had trampled down. There were horror and contempt in his eyes. He screamed that my time was near. Why are people so afraid of death?

VERONICA (ARIADNE). People are afraid of everything. They are afraid of giving birth and of dying. Afraid of lying and of telling the truth. Most of all, they are afraid of themselves and their own kind.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). How can one be afraid of that? It is a great happiness when at last you find someone like you... Who can understand you... Who is vigorous enough to kill you.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). We should be afraid of them in the first place. You speak like the God, but we are just people.

Why wasn't I there, among the shepherds and wine-growers?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). I could crush you many times. Every minute I can crush you.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). That's why my love is so sweet.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Tell them I will not come out any more. Deity cannot appear often. Crunch of their bones annoyed me.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Fools, they placed detachments of soldiers at each exit from the labyrinth.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). They are truly foolish people. They have not deserved to see Deity.

Come here. I need you now.

VERONICA (ARIADNE) (Clinging to him). You can be so gentle and merciful.

Today, today I can conceive a son.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). You say this every time. Will he akin to me?

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Like two peas in a pod. He will shine like the sun. He will be as furious as the ocean.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). You go away from here alive just because I believe you. But with every day passed, I believe you less and less, Ariadne. Watch out, if you are deceiving Minotaur.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). You will have a son, Minotaur.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). This is one of your last nights. I wish I slept with your mother instead of you. At least she has already given birth to one Deity. And she is a pretty woman too.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). When did you see our mother?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). There are other clews at the Palace.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Please, don't mock at me. Say that you're joking. I know, you love only me.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Gods do not know what love is. Gods themselves are love. Love is a human passion.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). You can belong only to me, because you are mine.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). What makes you better than other women?

VERONICA (ARIADNE). I've taught you to talk like humans. I've given you everything what I have. I... I love you.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Everyone is supposed to do so for the God. There is nothing special.

I must have many women to give birth to many sons. If not for my contempt and fastidiousness...

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Only I can give birth to Minotaur!!!

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Yes. I know. You are right. Unfortunately. Apparently, it is so. Only you. And your mother.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). She is too old.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR) (Paying no attention to her words). What kinds of wines did you bring today?

VERONICA (ARIADNE). I will block up all exits to the labyrinth with stones, so that nobody except me could come here.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). I am terribly hungry. I always feel hungry before the sacrifice time.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). But you just trample them down.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). It is another hunger. A spiritual one. It is a hunger of God.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Sometimes you are hard to understand.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). A human cannot understand God.

Come here. I miss a human love.

VERONICA (ARIADNE) (Her arms again round his neck). You won't trample me down today, will you?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). If I do not fly into a rage from your coldness.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). I will be hot and tender as a flame of a sacrificial fire.


Ariadne kisses Minotaur. Minotaur embraces her.


SCENE 3


A Palace of Pasiphae, Minos' wife and Minotaur's mother. Pasiphae's talking to Theseus, the son of Aegeus, King of Athens.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Am I not Pasiphae? Am I not the Queen of Crete? Aren't Minotaur and Ariadne my son and daughter? Why? Why? Why? Why am I the last to learn everything? Why does everyone treat me like a servant? Why do I have a lump in my throat, Theseus? Why does everything go dark before my eyes and my hands reach for a dagger when I see her - laughing, running through the Palace rooms, running away from home?

Even you, Theseus, even you, the son of Aegeus, King of Athens...

ANDREW (THESEUS). I am your only friend, Pasiphae. The only one, who wants to help you. I'll do anything you want, if you help me to get Ariadne. Did you talk with the King?

HELEN (PASIPHAE). I did. He doesn't want to see you, Theseus. He says, he'll never give our daughter in this marriage.

ANDREW (THESEUS). I love Ariadne.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). I know. But she is indifferent to you. By the way, do you know where she is now?

ANDREW (THESEUS). People saw her near the labyrinth of Minotaur.

HELEN (PASIPHAE) (Furious). Harlot! I forbade her! I put the soldiers at each entrance to there and told them to keep her off with whips.

ANDREW (THESEUS). I'm afraid she is already inside. It's the talk of the town.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Stupid bone-heads! What are they talking about?

ANDREW (THESEUS). About Ariadne and Minotaur.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). It's a lie! It's a damned lie! That is my Minotaur. He is my son!

ANDREW (THESEUS). Only I can save her from Minotaur.

HELEN (PASIPHAE) (Looking at Theseus' eyes). She is unworthy of his love.

ANDREW (THESEUS). Minotaur scarcely loves her.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). What are you going to do?

ANDREW (THESEUS). I'm going to kill Minotaur.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Madman, he's my Minotaur. I could have ordered my soldiers to strip the skin off you for such words, if I didn't know that it's impossible. Nobody can kill Minotaur. He will crush anyone who challenges him to a duel.

ANDREW (THESEUS). Anyone?

HELEN (PASIPHAE). So it is predestined.

ANDREW (THESEUS). Even himself?

HELEN (PASIPHAE). What madman would kill himself?

ANDREW (THESEUS). Yes. What madman would kill himself?

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Well, Ariadne's passed all bounds. I do not want to hear about her any more. But she is my daughter.

ANDREW (THESEUS). So, give her to me.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Do you have enough force to take her, Theseus?

ANDREW (THESEUS). I have plenty.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). But remember - Minotaur is my son.

ANDREW (THESEUS). Yes, Pasiphae, he is. He is more than just a son.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). You are a perspicacious young man, Theseus.

Take Ariadne and run away from the town.

ANDREW (THESEUS). Thanks, wise Pasiphae. That's exactly what I will do.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). I give you time till dawn. In the morning, I will order to catch the fugitives and bring them to the Palace. Alive. Or dead. Dead are always easier to bring.

ANDREW (THESEUS). Thanks, wise Pasiphae.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). But don't waste time on Minotaur. Remember about the predestination of the Gods. Minotaur is out of your depth.

ANDREW (THESEUS). Ariadne will be mine.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Good luck to you, Theseus.


SCENE 4


The labyrinth. Minotaur is alone. Theseus comes in. Minotaur attacks him. Theseus dodges easily.


GEORGE (MINOTAUR) (Surprised). Why did not you prostrate yourself? Why do not you take out a sword in terror and despair? Why are you not dreaded?

ANDREW (THESEUS). Because I am the same as you.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). What? Are you Minotaur?

ANDREW (THESEUS). I am your brother. I am the one you've been waiting for so long.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). We are completely different.

Minotaur takes out a knife and rushes to Theseus. Theseus evades, but Minotaur wounds him in the arm. Theseus stares at his wound.


ANDREW (Touching the wound). It is blood. My blood.

GEORGE. I have ground the knife at a butcher's. Did you really think I would give in without a murmur?

Do not be afraid. Go on.


Pause.


ANDREW (THESEUS). At sleepless nights, you begged the Gods to send me to you. You wanted to see somebody equal to yourself and the Gods harked to your prayers.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). You are by no means equal.

ANDREW (THESEUS). I am your brother. I am your elder brother. And I am sent to save you. To deliver you from your loneliness, from stupid people, from this crumbling labyrinth. I'll give your sky back to you.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). You are telling me the things I think about all the time. But you look so much like those unworthy fellows that are offered to me as sacrifices.

ANDREW (THESEUS). Your eyes just got tired of a long wait. If I were one of them, I would have died long ago.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Yes. This is true. You are in blood, but you are not dead. An ordinary man cannot stand my presence.

ANDREW (THESEUS). Now you see.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). How did you find me here?

ANDREW (THESEUS). With Ariadne's clew. Tell me, where she is now?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). She is sleeping. She is tired of love. It's not easy for her. And I am bored with her.

ANDREW (THESEUS). I will deliver you from Ariadne, from her tiresome love. I'll give your sky back to you.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). My starry sky?

ANDREW (THESEUS). ...the sky you dream of day and night ... that beckons you... that seems unattainable.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). I begin to believe that you are my brother. ... believe that when I was dying on the road, you picked me up not accidentally. ... believe that all the spectators have gathered to see the two equal and the two similar.

Hail, Minotaur.

ANDREW (THESEUS). Hail, Minotaur.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). How long I have been waiting for you. All my life.

ANDREW (THESEUS). Now you'll never be lone.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). I will show you every corner of my labyrinth, of my home. From now this is our home.

ANDREW (THESEUS). It's not necessary. We do not have much time.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). But I would so much like to enjoy the feast of sacrifice together. Today, I will get new victims. I feel hunger, rage and hunger. They are already inside. We will trample them down and enjoy the fact that we are the Gods.

ANDREW (THESEUS). It's all over, Minotaur. I have come to give you a new life. A new joy and a new happiness. I will teach you to be happy as we are.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Who are we?

ANDREW (THESEUS). We are those, who collects the stars with handfuls. The elder brothers.

Are you ready, Minotaur?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). People say we are mad. Are we? We are just the Gods. I am ready, Minotaur.

ANDREW (THESEUS). I will fasten a sword in a crevice of a rock, so that its edge will look onto your chest. You're brave, Minotaur. You will fly on the sword and cut your chest...

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). ...I will fly on the sword and cut my chest...

ANDREW (THESEUS). ... so that its edge will spear your heart...

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). ... so that its edge will spear my heart...

ANDREW (THESEUS). ...And then...

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). ... And then I will never be lone, and I will get my starry sky.

ANDREW (THESEUS). Absolutely right. You understood me perfectly, Minotaur.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Thank you. You have taught me to be free. You have ground the sword at the butcher's, have not you?

ANDREW (THESEUS). Of course, I have. It was my duty.

Good bye, Minotaur.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Good bye, Theseus.


Minotaur takes his run and throws himself on the sword, spearing his heart. Blood fills the clothes.


ANDREW (THESEUS) (Leaning over Minotaur). ... Did you say - Theseus? Did I call my name?

You were trully brave, Minotaur. Forgive me. I had no choice.


Ariadne comes running in.


VERONICA (ARIADNE). ...Noise in the head. ...As if everything went black... I do not see anything... I drank water behind the scenes. Who'd put it there? What had he mixed in it? ... So long I slept ... (Sights Minotaur) ... My love!


Ariadne embraces Minotaur and gets stained with blood.


VERONICA (ARIADNE). ...What is it? ...It's blood... it's not paint ... it's blood...

ANDREW (THESEUS). He is dead, Ariadne.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). No! Minotaur! My love! Minotaur! (Shakes him and sobs.)

ANDREW (THESEUS). Come on, Ariadne. Few hours are left till dawn. Pasiphae will not forgive us this murder.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). You killed my Minotaur.

ANDREW (THESEUS). No one could kill Minotaur. You know it. He killed himself.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). ... My one and only. Minotaur, my Minotaur... Go away ... I'll stay with him. I won't go anywhere from here...

ANDREW (THESEUS). Then I will take you away by force. You must belong to me, and you will be mine. Because I love you. For your sake, I have sent to heaven the equal to me - your lover and brother, her son, and my friend...

VERONICA (ARIADNE). You turned out to be strong, Theseus. I did not think ... I did not believe in it. Why are you so strong, Theseus? Why were you stronger than him?

ANDREW (THESEUS). Because I love you, and he loves only the stars.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). How did he die?

ANDREW (THESEUS). He flew on the sword.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). ...My Minotaur...

Well, I will go with you, Theseus. But we will go where I want, not you...


The clew appears in Ariadne's hands. She reels it off, entangling Theseus and herself with threads.


VERONICA (ARIADNE). I will do everything to make your death just as beautiful as his, Theseus.

ANDREW (THESEUS). You have become mine, Ariadne..., you have become mine.

... Why are you reeling it off, Ariadne? ... Ariadne?

VERONICA (ARIADNE). You are so funny, Theseus. He's dead, and you're funny. You are so cute and funny. Almost like him.

The clew... Oh, yes, my clew. Forgot about it. Look, the thread is so delicate. Look, it's swelling with blood. Look, it's flowing on your clothes, on your neck, on your hair. Do you like its quiet touch? Doesn't it excite you?

... We do not need the clew anymore, Theseus. ...This clew.

... Because we are at home forever ...


Curtain. Darkness. Applause.


SCENE 5


The same field near the village.

On one side, the wedding procession is going on - Veronica and George, her new fiancИ. Musicians are playing cheerfully. Veronica looks dazzling at the rays of the setting sun.

From the opposite side, another procession is coming. Elena, harnessed herself to a cart, dead Andrew on it, goes to bury her only son.

They meet each other. The music lapses. Silence.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Get out of the way, strumpet. Don't hinder Mother to bury her son. Look at your bride, son. You are still unburied, but she is going to church in a wedding-gown with this Judas and ragamuffin.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). It's you who killed him. It's your silly shrewish thirst for possessing him. You did not want to share him with me. You emaciated his heart.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Why are you here? People, why is she here? (To George) And you? Are you grinning? Are you silent? I tell you how it happened, how my beloved son died, my Andrew died. After this damned show, when you came out for the last call, as if nothing had happened, when all the crowd came running to look at you, suddenly raised from the dead - only Andrew left, escaped, only he disappeared.

He was found in the woods. The sword was fastened in the crevice. The same sword that your butcher had ground. When did he take it? When did you give it to him? He stuck his heart on the sword. Like a piece of meat on a skewer. How many skewers were on your wedding table?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). I am grinning. And I am silent. You won't hear anything else.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). It's just love. Andrew dreamed of it, didn't he? He dreamed of me, loving and being loved every second, every moment. He enjoys looking at me from Heaven. He is happy with me and with my new love. Because everything is a lie but love. All your tears and howls are just a pathetic comedy, that's not worth a twopence. We will not cry today. We will drink and have fun. We will love each other. I open all the windows for Andrew to see us from Heaven, to see how happy I am and how worthy of his memory and his love I am.

Get out of my way, poor eunuchs! If you do not have enough strength to enjoy life, at least do not prevent others from doing this.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Witch. Animal. You are crazy.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Hey, musicians! Play louder! What is it - a wedding or a funeral?! What did we give you all our money and the best wine for?! Or your road leads to the cemetery?! Come on, my falcons, come on! And let everyone, who wants, join our fun!


Musicians are silent.


HELEN (PASIPHAE). For a few seconds I believed that there, on the stage, you truly died.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Well, you are an old actress. You know everything. A death cock, hidden at the proper time, a pale face, streams of blood, a picture-postcard pose...

HELENA (PASIPHAE). My boy, my boy should have known that you just trifled with him...

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). He knew.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). He did not know. He did not want to know. Why did not I manage to find him right after the show, to stop him, to persuade him?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). May be because you are a bad mother? You did not believe that we both loved Veronica. And she had to choose one of us. If she had made another choice, I swear, nothing would have stopped me.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Shut up, windbag, blasphemer.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). It's your right.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Andrew, Andrew, my Andrew. He will come to you. He will sit at the table, drink wine, and take what he considers necessary.


Suddenly, the musicians begin to play bravura cheerful music.

Helen goes through the wedding and departs.

George and Veronica are sitting on the grass. Musicians are dispersing, strumming something in the end. Music is dying away. Finally, it subsides.


GEORGE (MINOTAUR). What will we do now?

VERONICA (ARIADNE). They had no right to drive us out. They had no right to turn us out of our own wedding. We fed them and made them drunk. They had no right to drive us out of our village.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). The old priest said so. We shouldn't have invited these crazy musicians. What kind of music did they play? The guests were dancing on the tables to this music.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). I was drunk. I'm still drunk. All the same, they had no right to turn us out.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). There's no use talking about it now. You'd better think what to do next. We're penniless.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). You are a man. You think.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). I have neither relatives, no friends here.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Well, where do you really come from?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). I told you. At a station, I heard a story. About the man. About the bull. Next - you know.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Who is he to you?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Who?

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Who is that man to you? Father?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Sometimes I have a dream...

VERONICA (ARIADNE). I do not even know your true name?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Does it matter?

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Yes, it does. Name is like heart. If you call somebody by a false name, he may forget himself and get crazy.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). I gave my passport to another man. And forgot about it.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). So, now you are just "nobody".

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). It seems so.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Lucky I am! How old are you?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Forty-two.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). My Andrey and I are both twenty.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Did you really love him?

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Didn't you see?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Then, what happened?

VERONICA (ARIADNE). You appeared.

Do you like me?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). A bride does not usually ask such questions at the first wedding night.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Go away, if you want. I can do alone.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). I will not go anywhere. Not now.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Do you know why she killed him?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). She did not. He killed himself.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). He could not do anything by himself. He could not even brush the hair on his own.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). It's cold. I will pick up some twigs for the fire.

He walks and stumbles on Helen, a jug of milk and a loaf of bread in her hands.


HELEN (PASIPHAE). You are still here. Where are the musicians?

VERONICA (ARIADNE). They have gone. Do you want to mourn over me?

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Why should I? You are nothing to me. I mourn only over my family.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Where is he?

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Good people helped to bury.

Are you ... still together?

VERONICA (ARIADNE). He is my husband. We got married and had a wedding kiss.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). People gave milk and bread to me. Let's go.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Where?

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Let's go with me. We will travel over theatres and play funny comedies. I'll be telling you about Andrew, and you'll be telling me about Andrew.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). What about him?

HELEN (PASIPHAE). We can take him along, if he wants.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). I cannot. Do you ... have space for us?

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Nobody in the world knows my Andrew. Nobody can tell me about him. Except you and him.

I have a car. Nights are cold. It is easier to spend nights in the car.

VERONICA (ARIADNE) (To George). What do you think?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). I'd rather stay here, by the fire.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Well, I am not afraid. I could go with this old woman.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Why do you call me "old woman"? I am the same age as your husband.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). For me, you are an old woman anyway.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Ah, whatever you want. I don't care. ... How was the wedding?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). No matter. At first guests sat and whispered to one another. Then they got drunk. They danced and shouted. Some of them started hurling picked bones to us. And then they turned us out neck and crop.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). People are coward.

ELENA. Not at all.

Helen stands up by the fire. On her left is George. Andrew appears at the right of her. Helen looks straight ahead.


HELEN (PASIPHAE). Did you come? Why do you come? Have you left anything behind? Maybe this milk? Or bread for the journey?

Don't be silent. Talk to me. I feel so hard, when you are silent.

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). I do not know what to say.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). You have to tell me, where you were today. Did you have a good day?

ANDREW (THESEUS). An ordinary one. Like all others. Our whole life is one long day. In the morning, you bought milk and bread. I remember your hands, smelling of bread and milk. Then there was our performance. It was a feast: people were happy. I met my love again. I spoke to her. She was Ariadne. I could not take my eyes off her.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). You met your death.

ANDREW (THESEUS). She danced and sang. Then she walked me to the field, to the river, to the woods. She smelled like you.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). No, she didn't.

ANDREW (THESEUS). Her skin smelled like yours, like bread and milk.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). I should've run after you. I should've locked all the doors ...

ANDREW (THESEUS). Why? I could have broken all the locks.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Where's she?

ANDREW (THESEUS). She's near. She is beautiful. She is so pure.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Am I not? Are my hands not so white and tender? Did not I kiss you with the sweetness, that only mother can give?


Helen discards her black clothes. The decrepit skin and the gray hair disappear - she turns into a young girl.


HELEN (PASIPHAE). Don't you love me?

ANDREW (THESEUS). You're beautiful. And I love you.


Andrew goes to Helen, picks her up and lays her down on the grass. He leans over her and ... disappears.


ANDREW (THESEUS) (Disappearing). Why did you love me? Honey, why?

HELEN (PASIPHAE). The herbs and the sea, the sun and the birds - all are filled with love. And all of them have your eyes.


Veronica stands up and takes Andrew's place, at the right of George.


VERONICA (ARIADNE). If you want, I'll adorn his grave with the flowers. I'll sell my wedding dress. Anyone will buy it here. I'll cry over him day and night.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). I don't want. I don't need you any longer.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). It's strange. Why did we become strangers?

GEORGE (MINOTAUR). It just happened. No use feeling sorry. You are young and strong. You will manage to stand up for yourself.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). You shouldn't have come between us. Take the knife.

HELEN (PASIPHAE). I'll take the knife. She is right. We're both tired of you. You're not my son. You took my love, but it does not belong to you. You are just a thief. You got here by deception. You laugh at our grief.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). I wish I hadn't met you. Maybe you are good. But I know - I love him. I will always love him. Your caress wounds me. You'll always be a stranger to me.

George stands between the two women. The bride is at the right of him. Mother is at the left.


GEORGE (MINOTAUR). Well. That was just bad weather. I kind of lost my way. I was freezing on the roadside. Chance people picked me up. We played only one show. I met a woman. Instead of a funeral she brought me to a wedding. The wedding, where the air was saturated with madness of loss and loneliness... Where only musicians had fun. I saw it all. I could leave. But then who would have listened to you? Who you would have damned? Who you would have given the last drops of your hatred and love to?

HELEN (PASIPHAE). Forgive us. You've chosen your place yourself.

VERONICA (ARIADNE). Remember us. Wherever you go, remember that we are with you.


Veronica and Helen simultaneously strike blows with knives. The knives pass through the Groom, as if through the air. Veronica's knife hits Helen's heart. Helen's knife hits Veronica's heart. George, standing between them, remained unharmed.


GEORGE (MINOTAUR). They simultaneously struck me in the chest. The knives went through me, as if through the air. The bride's knife hit the Mother's heart. The Mother's knife hit the bride's heart. I was standing between them, but I remained unharmed. I took milk and bread. And I left.


He picks up milk and bread. And he leaves.


A curtain.


2