FRANZ INTO APRIL

FOREWORD

	After the war I did a degree course, at Manchester University, in psychology.  We studied Freud, Jung and Adler.

	We respected Adler, the professional clinician, (he introduced the introvert/extrovert classification) but I was never convinced by Freud - nor did I become a Jung groupie.  Years later I discovered Fritz Perls and when director Frank Hatherley asked me for a television play, I decided to write about him.

	Fritz Perls was a medical doctor from Vienna who specialized in psychiatry.  A student of Freud, he left Austria in the Thirties, escaping the Holocaust, and settled in South Africa, and then Australia.  From there he went to New York where he practised until he was forced out by colleagues for refusing to do lobotomies.  He went to California and helped to change things.

	His basic premise was tough love.  He explored with those who came to Esalen (his institute) the challenges involved in growing up.  He believed in an existentialist do-it-yourself life, and refused to be a guru.  He was a messy eater, groped girls and was as politically incorrect as you could hope for.  Here was a psychiatrist who was not inflated, minatory, exploitative or nuts.  He made sense.

	On returning from abroad, I was told that the TV production had been cancelled because it was felt that the script was too rude for the general public.

	Frank Hatherley, our director, decided to produce it as a stage-play.  It opened at the ICA starring Warren Mitchell as Franz.  The compassion, humour and insight he brought to the role had people in tears - sometimes with laughter.

	We received a rapturous response from critics and public alike.  Warren suggested expanding the text.

	The expanded version is the one printed here.  This has not, as yet, been performed.

Pam Gems

FRANZ INTO APRIL

by Pam Gems

Copyright © Pam Gems
Pam Gems is hereby identified as author of this work in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The author has asserted her moral rights. 

All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before rehearsal to Rose Cobbe, United Agents, 12-26 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LE, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 20 3214 0800.
http://unitedagents.co.uk/agents/rose-cobbe/. Assistant: Dan Usztan. Email: dusztan@unitedagents.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 20 3214 0873. No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained.

FRANZ INTO APRIL

CAST

PROFESSOR FRANZ MULLER ... German-Jewish, in his sixties.

APRIL ... English, early thirties, fair.

PAULA ... American, early twenties.

CHRIS ... American, late teens, tall and skinny.

MAX ... German-Jewish, thirties, tall and heavy.

WAYNE ... American, late twenties, an accomplished professional dancer.

FRANZ INTO APRIL

TIME: The late Sixties to early Seventies.

A terraced area, open and airy, with slatted wood and large, stylish plants in low pots, in the Japanese style.  There are Kentia palms and possibly a wooden bath tub.  On the blue backcloth are tall palm trees, Hockney style.  Overall, an impression of sophisticated `simple' life.

An inoffensively designed sign reads: `To the Pool'.  Down right is a lounging seat, with cushions in soft colours, up centre a low Japanese table with clutter including a water jug, glasses, tissues, a tin of talc.  Down centre and left an exercise bicycle, a large rubber ball with hand holds, and large soft replicas of pencils, balls, a telephone.  Some other seating.

Sitting, severally, are Max, Chris, Wayne and Paula.  April sits apart.  (NB: If the piece is played in the round, these actors may be sitting in the audience.)

Franz, middle-height, bearded, Jewish, not young, bounds on.  He is wearing a kaftan in black and brown.

			FRANZ
		Right...so...we begin.  Who is for the hot seat?  Who wishes to start?  Paula?  Max?  Come on, somebody...is not so frightening, eh?  Is it so frightening...yes, of course it is, it's not nothing we are doing here - if it didn't take courage it would be nothing, no?  Chris, what about it?  We got you this far from the tennis court...one small step, huh?...why not?  Give the muscles a rest.

			CHRIS
		Why pick on me?  (But he slouches to a chair in the centre.)

			FRANZ
		The voice of the true paranoid.

			CHRIS
		Happy to oblige.

			FRANZ
		Oh you're doing me a favour, he's doing me a favour (sudden shout, a habit) ...helping me out!  He thinks I need help.

			FRANZ
		No, you are right.  I horse around...maybe I'm nervous too, who knows?  So, what's the first thing we notice about Chris?

			PAULA
		You mean because he said -

			FRANZ
		Oh never mind what he said, that I never listen to - except the tone of voice, oh to be a vet, just to feel the nose, thermometer in the ass...(He closes on CHRIS, who stiffens) - aha, you see?

			WAYNE
		He's screwing himself up -

			FRANZ
		I enter the force field...no, don't move, stay as you are, let's try to see what's happening here... my God, Close Encounters!  (He examines CHRIS like a visiting Martian.)  What's this?  (Pulling CHRIS'S hand off the chair)  A claw?  (He claws his own hand)  Such power, tension... takes Energy to do this, I hope you got plenty.  (He drops CHRIS'S hand.  CHRIS looks up at him levelly.)  Ah, he gives me a cold look, don't come any closer, keep your distance.  OK.  So...tell us what is happening, Chris.  What you feel.

			CHRIS
		You mean right now?

			FRANZ
		No, next year.  Come On!

			CHRIS
		(Taking his time)  I don't know.  Nothing.

			FRANZ
		You don't feel anything?  Nothing at all?  No itch, pain in the ass?

			PAULA
		Come on, Chris.

			CHRIS
		(Flicks her an irritable glance)  Well obviously I'm under pressure.

			FRANZ
		You feel pressure.

			CHRIS
		Sure.

			FRANZ
		What sort of pressure?  You think I'm pressuring you?

			CHRIS
		Yeah.

			FRANZ
		Hurrying you up.

			CHRIS
		You gotta get the show on the road.

			FRANZ
		Like I said, he's doing me a favour.

			WAYNE
		(To CHRIS)  If you don't wanna work, if he doesn't want to work - you're wasting time!

			FRANZ
		Yah, yah, but still, he came to the chair - you were the first, that's always harder.  (To WAYNE)  Why didn't you come?  Max, what about it, you got glue on your ass?  (To CHRIS)  You are the first.  A brave man.  So.  What you got to share with us?  (CHRIS shrugs, doesn't reply)  Come on...

			CHRIS
		I don't know.  Frankly I don't know what I'm doing -

			FRANZ
		`Frankly?'  Oh well, if you're going to be frank - who's Frank?  If he's going to be Frank, maybe we do get the show on the road.  Come on kid, some dark secrets, eh?

			CHRIS
		Well...well, frankly...`frankly' I just wanted to see if I could stand up to you.

			FRANZ
		You wanna fight with Franz?  That what you want - a fight?

			CHRIS
		Not necessarily.

			FRANZ
		(Under his breath, sarcastic)  `Not necessarily'.  What then?

			CHRIS
		I don't know.  I don't know what I'm doing...I mean, I'm just sitting here getting ready for anything you might say...

			FRANZ
		Go on...

			CHRIS
		...trying to think up the best answer.

			FRANZ
		What is the question?  (A pause.)

			PAULA
		It's natural, you're bound to feel anxious -

			FRANZ
		Ah, anxious!  A big word, that, with the psychiatrists.  You feel Anxious.  You don't want that the performance goes wrong.  You get these feelings, inside.  So what is it, this Anxiety, that we all suffer so much?  I will tell you.

		Anxiety...is Stagefright.

		Let me ask you...the cats in the kitchen - are they anxious?  Do they suffer in this way? - they sleep right in the middle of the floor where everyone walks -

			CHRIS
		Maybe they're stupid -

			FRANZ
		(Glares) - sometimes they are fearful that the big German Shepherd will eat their kittens so they move them, but they are not anxious.  They are not sitting in the sun thinking...my God!  Suppose he is eating my kittens now, this minute, or maybe when I am eating my lunch he will creep across the yard...kkkk!  They have no stagefright, they don't make with the scenario.  But we do.  We are humans, able to look backwards and forwards in our lives, to see so many possibilities.  What is going to happen?  Will it be good, be bad for us?  Applause, or tomatoes?  And so...we fear to tread.  You want to give the best answer, not to make a fool of yourself.  OK.  But what is the question?  You don't know the question, what you will feel...if you will Like the question...maybe the question will even make you laugh, but I don't think so, for if you are only thinking of the answer, how can you enjoy the question?  How can you be spontaneous with us if you rehearse?  (Walks away, muttering.)  Maybe you want to be like Franz, show off all the time.

			PAULA
		Tell him, Chris.

			FRANZ
		(Sharp)  Don't interfere, he doesn't need helpers, let him do it on his own.  (To CHRIS)  And don't worry about your genitals, they are not about to fall off.

CHRIS'S hands fly from his crotch.  A YOUNG WOMAN in the audience rises and makes her way along the row of chairs.

			FRANZ
		Just a moment...just a moment...you are bored -upset?...not getting your money's worth? - no, please...I would like to know.

			APRIL
		I'm sorry, I have to leave.

			FRANZ
		Oh, veddy, veddy Bridish.  I didn't know you were Bridish.

			APRIL
		What's that supposed to mean?
Swooping to cut off her exit.

			FRANZ
		Nothing, I assure you.  You are leaving?

			APRIL
		I'm sorry if that upsets you -

			FRANZ
		No, no, you don't upset me.

			APRIL
		I didn't realise it would be so disruptive.  I apologise.

			FRANZ
		But you are still going?

			APRIL
		Do I have to give a reason?

			FRANZ
		Purely in the name of research.

			APRIL
		I see.  (Slight pause)  I believe I have begun to menstruate, I don't want to stain my dress.  Will that do?

			FRANZ
		The john is just outside.  There is a Tampax machine behind the door.

			APRIL
		Thank you.

			FRANZ
		You will return to us?

			APRIL
		Excuse me please...(She leaves.)

			FRANZ
		Hey...Lana Turner...(But she has gone.)

			WAYNE
		We're wasting time, Franz.

			FRANZ
		Was she in the class before?

			PAULA
		No.

			WAYNE
		So you lost one - can't win `em all -

			CHRIS
		Look, can I quit now?

			FRANZ
		Whatsa matter, you didn't even begin!

			CHRIS
		Can I quit?

			FRANZ
		(Absently)  Sure, sure.

			CHRIS
		(Bounding off the chair like a rocket)  How d'I do?

			FRANZ
		You see?  He still thinks he has to pass a test.  Listen, why don't YOU examine US?  (He punches CHRIS hard on the shoulder.)

			CHRIS
		Ow!

			FRANZ
		Just a little less time on the tennis court, eh... heh?  So...so...(He collects himself)  Paula.  (CHRIS leaves the chair and is replaced by PAULA.)

			PAULA
		(After a pause)  I have a fragment of a dream.

			FRANZ
		(Sharp)  No!

			PAULA
		What I do?

			FRANZ
		Not `I have'...`I am'!  I AM a fragment of a dream.  Remember?  The nouns into verbs, Paula, please!  Don't make a thing out of a process.  Life is a process.  Plenty of time for naming it when it is dead.

			PAULA
		OK.  (She takes out her gum, parks it under her seat.)  OK.  I'm...ah...I'm sitting here...I can hear a fly buzzing...I have some tension in my neck...

			FRANZ
		No!  You're doing it again!  What do you mean, you `have'...you mean you own it - show me this tension...you bought it from the store or something?

			PAULA
		Sorry.  I'm tense.

			FRANZ
		Just say what is happening.

			PAULA
		I'm...I guess I'm tensing myself.

			FRANZ
		Yah!  You see?  You see how different this is?  NOT...there is tension, give me a codeine, I'm being battered, it's not my fault...but...I am tensing myself.  We are not objects, rocks to be kicked about...we are living, active processes.  We tense ourselves.  Like a fat man, or a drug addict...it's not something that happens to him, it's something he does to himself, he works hard to achieve it.  OK Paula...we forget the dream for now, let's do some dialogue about the marriage.  I think you want to talk about the marriage, yah?

PAULA smiles up at him, nods.  She turns in her chair.

			PAULA
		(Slight pause)  I do love you, Bobbie.  (Slight pause)  You're a very nice guy.  (Slight pause)  It's just...well, it's just that being married, I feel restricted all the time.

			FRANZ
		OK, change seats.  (She turns slightly the other way.)

			PAULA
		(As her husband)  But Paula please...you can't talk about breaking up...you know what that would do to me, we're married, I couldn't stand it...

		(Turns again)  But that's what's just so awful, your being so dependent!  I feel I'm pumping in all the time.  If I go to the drugstore by myself I feel guilty -

			FRANZ
		(Cuts across)  No, no...not guilt.  Do it the way we said.

			PAULA
		Sorry...resent...resentful...

			FRANZ
		That's right...Guilt is Resentment!  Don't say `I am guilty'...say the truth...`I Resent'!

			PAULA
		Sure.  (As her husband)  Naturally I worry when you're out alone...I...(in her own voice)...and he always speaks, you know, in this Reasonable voice...(Turns, speaks as herself)...but I resent it when you sit in the house worrying about me.  You say you don't like to dance, then when I go out with the girls I feel disloyal...what is more ...my family are not boring to ME...we have to see them, they're my folks, I resent the way when we go there you sit in the window and never speak, I resent that!  (Turns in her seat again, speaks as her husband)  Look...Paula...I can't pretend something I don't feel.  You wouldn't want me to fake our relationship, I try to be honest with you - you say you want it honest between us - (she pauses).

			FRANZ
		Note the pause.  It's when and where people stop that is important.  (He waves her on.)

			PAULA
		(Speaking as her husband)  Look, I love you.  I want you...I care about you.  I'll change...I'll talk to your old man, if that's what you want, I'll do anything.  (Turns, speaks as herself)  But that's no good, that's not going to work... (Speaks as her husband)  I know you need me, you were the one who - now I'm into this I want to...lookit, if I'm really nice to you, if I take care of you and play it your way you won't be able to leave, you won't have any excuse against me.  You know how you hate to be alone...you hate it, Paula.  (Pause.  A change of voice)  I'm stuck.

			FRANZ
		She's stuck.

			PAULA
		Oh sure, I know.  I'm better off than old, sick people.  What have I got to complain about... I'm lucky.  Yuch.

			FRANZ
		Say that again.

			PAULA
		Huh?

			FRANZ
		Say that last word again.

			PAULA
		Lucky.

			FRANZ
		No, the word after that.

			PAULA
		Yuch?

			FRANZ
		Again.

			PAULA
		Yuch!

			FRANZ
		Louder...

			PAULA
		Yuch!
			FRANZ
		Louder!

PAULA takes a deep breath.  And then lets it out again.

			PAULA
		I can't.  I don't feel it, Franz.  I'm putting it on...over-dramatising.

			FRANZ
		Uhuh?  So where are you?

			PAULA
		Stuck.  I'm stuck in a swamp - you don't have to tell me, I know!  I mean, you can know all about it, but not be able to do anything.  Except feel sorry for yourself.  I don't want to hurt anybody.  And I don't want to be on my own again - have to start off with somebody else.

		I'd have nobody to screw with, nobody to cuddle.  I hate sleeping alone.  I can't sleep.  Just tell me what to do and I'll do it, I just want out!

			FRANZ
		Oh really?  You don't want to wallow...wallow - is that the word?  You know it's very nice... wallow...nice and warm and messy...no?

			PAULA
		I can't get out!

			FRANZ
		So go further in.   Think all the time...say out loud - I'm stuck!  Tell the world!  Anybody who doesn't know it already...my God, I think she wants to be stuck, I think she likes it!

			PAULA
		(Screams)  Christ, what do you think I'm doing here?  What do you mean, go further in...I couldn't be in any deeper, what I need is some assistance, oh fuck, I'm doing it again.

			WAYNE
		Over-dramatising.

			FRANZ
		Making a fuss.  About nothing.  About your life.

			PAULA
		Of course it's not nothing...

			FRANZ
		Yah, that's why you want help.  You think I can help you?  Who is best placed to help you?

			PAULA
		Oh sure, I know.  Nobody can help.  I help myself.

She scratches her leg moodily.

			FRANZ
		Well, that's somebody.  That's not nobody...eh?  (Slight pause)  So go ahead.  Say it.

Slight pause.

			PAULA
		I'm on my own.

			FRANZ
		Say it again.

			PAULA
		(Dolefully)  I'm on my own.

			FRANZ
		Aw!  (He gets up, gesticulating towards her)  All alone!  Look at her, ladies and gentlemen... what a pitiful sight...so sad...so sad...

			WAYNE
		Aw!

			CHRIS
		Why don't you shut your fat lip?

			FRANZ
		Whatsa matter, you feel sorry for her?  She's in the wrong class, you're in the wrong class...(To PAULA)...if this was Doctor Reiner's session we would all now cuddle you, no?  Nice big group-grope - avoiding certain areas...my God, what you're missing, such love and tears and consolations...but not here.  Not in my class.  Sorry to disappoint, what's the matter with you, Max, I embarrassed you?  (MAX shakes his head)...try the...what is it...where you all sit about and make with the knots...?

			WAYNE
		Macramé.

			FRANZ
		Yah...try the macramé next time.

			PAULA
		(After a moment)  You know Franz, you are a bastard.

			FRANZ
		Yah, I got hairs in my ass, too.  (Shouts)  What do you think, I got solutions or something, you think I am your Daddy, what is it you want from me, you want candy...a nice shoulder to cry on?  Listen, if you need a hot hand on your butt that's a different matter -

MAX rises majestically to his feet in protests.

			WAYNE
		Aw, come on -

			PAULA
		Franz will you cut that out, look if I'm boring you I'll leave the chair -

			FRANZ
		You're not boring me.

			PAULA
		Then what are you goofing off for?  You're not fooling me.  You don't give a shit.  What I ought to do is punch you in the nose and walk right out of here.

			FRANZ
		So why don't you?

			PAULA
		I paid in advance.  (Laughter.)
			FRANZ
		Aha!...now we get it!  She doesn't want to lose out on her investment!  Profit and loss...profit and loss, hanh?  I put X amount into this relationship - so many smiles, so many kisses...I played Your music...we ate the way You wanted ...now comes the reckoning!  She sees her life in dollar bills.

			PAULA
		Of course I don't.

			FRANZ
		Now comes the blaming game.

			PAULA
		Not at all.  Naturally, when you put a lot of yourself into...it's very sad...I mean, what norms do you judge your life by.  Am I happy?  Is this normal?  Am I expecting too much...not enough...

			FRANZ
		But you are thinking always in terms of quantity ...this Much, that Much.  The balancing of the books.  The calculation.  I give a smile, I get protection.

			PAULA
		Doesn't everybody?

There is a long silence.

			PAULA
		(Quietly)  You're the expert.

			FRANZ
		(Rises)  And when the guilt takes off its mask - and when we see it revealed - as resentment - closely behind this resentment is always the demand.  And now we have some truth, because in the Demand...in the demand we have the only true form of communication.  Help me.  Look after me.  Protect me.  From what, Paula?  From Life? - But you Are life!  And all the mind-fucking analysis in the world isn't going to change that.  You say the marriage is no good.  So let the poor bastard go.

			PAULA
		But he's the one holding on!
			FRANZ
		Are you sure?

			PAULA
		Come on!

			FRANZ
		Maybe you have to take a few chances...make a few mistakes...that's no sin, you know.  You go from school to the marriage bed - maybe, after all, you could stand up by yourself on your own two legs and you would not fall over.  Who knows?  Maybe you don't need all those soft toys that you keep on your bed, all these ducks and bears and so.  They are made of nylon.  No hearts.  (He looks down at her mesmerically.)

			P/A
		(Background, loud.)  It's twelve-thirty, folks...

			WAYNE
		We didn't get to me.

			P/A
		On the menu today we have Cora's bean and celery stew, moussed eggs, mushroom pie and lots of tutti-frutti salads, courtesy of Amy, Pete and Colette.  If you're decadent, the coffee's good, too.

			FRANZ
		(Quickly)  OK.  Put by for me one of Irma's cream tarts somebody...until this afternoon, I see you then.  (He disappears.)

MAX rises, stands, disorientated...then goes, stiffly.  Music on the P/A.  WAYNE immediately starts to dance, beautifully and professionally.  PAULA watches, swaying, while CHRIS morosely stacks chairs and tidies.  PAULA moves suggestively at him but he jerks a cushion at her irritably.  WAYNE twirls.  PAULA flops back onto cushions, clapping her hands as the music comes to a halt.

			PAULA
		Great, Waynie.

			WAYNE
		I didn't work out this morning...(To CHRIS) listen, why weren't you at rehearsal, we're two guys short -

			CHRIS
		Fuck off.

			WAYNE
		No Cartier watch for you in your Christmas stocking.

			PAULA
		(Calls after him as he goes)  Wayne, do you want to see my solo?  Obviously not.  I don't know what I'm doing here.  (To CHRIS)  Do you?  (He gives her a bleak look)  I mean, you have to try everything.  I suppose.  You know something about Franz?  He should take a bath.  And like, breakfast food all over his kaftan?  Is that supposed to be cute?  I mean, he's smart, obviously.  But he comes on like some sort of displaced person.  Sometimes all this heavy number he does, I think he means it...I mean, hates us.  What's he doing here?

			CHRIS
		He was kicked off the east coast.

			PAULA
		Franz?  What he do?  What for?  Malpractice?

			CHRIS
		That's why he came to California.

			PAULA
		To Crazyland, you mean.  The lady in my cabin is experimenting with rock crystals...UFOs.

			CHRIS
		He refused to do lobotomies.  He wouldn't do surgery on peoples' heads.

			PAULA
		Franz?

			CHRIS
		He was working in this complex and the rest of the guys voted him off, he was affecting their incomes.  They said he was nuts.

			PAULA
		He should be sane, like my father.  You know what put me and my sister through college?

He shakes his head.

			PAULA
		Bloodtests.

			CHRIS
		Huh?

			PAULA
		Bloodtests.  People really love having their blood tested - you know, make sure you're not tainted.  My father has special units, he covers the whole state.  Not to mention my Uncle Joe, the hysterectomy king of Kansas City.  He owns more Impressionist paintings than the Museum of Modern Art.

			CHRIS
		I have to go practise my shots.

			PAULA
		Yeah, I was watching you crash the pain barrier out there.  Will you be at the show tonight?

			CHRIS
		You kidding?

			PAULA
		Aw come on, it's Franzie's birthday - I've bought him designer deodorant.  (He turns away to go)  Listen, Chris...you know, this aloofness of yours...(he turns, frowning at her)...I can take it but it gets a little heavy, know what I mean?  Anyway, what do you do with yourself? ...I never see you when you're not on the tennis court, what do you do?

			CHRIS
		Stay in my room.

			PAULA
		Why?

			CHRIS
		Why not?

			PAULA
		Well not tonight, buster.  I'm helping with catering, you're in for a great treat.  Believe me.  Listen, I'll meet you by the pool at ten thirty.  OK?

She goes, CHRIS watches her without expression.  A plant has fallen over.  He notices, picks it up, pushes the plant into place, patting down the earth with care and concentration.  He straightens up, looking round swiftly to make sure that he has not been observed, hoicks up his jeans and goes.

A pause.  Then APRIL appears in a plain white towelling robe, carrying towel and cap, on her way to the pool.  She pauses and, being alone, takes a quick look at the toys, with a detached curiosity.  On a whim she picks up the software telephone, puts it to her ear.

			FRANZ
		(From behind the palms)  Avon calling!  (She jumps as he peers through the parted palms like a benevolent chimp)  You want to `phone home?  Send a letter, it's cheaper...(He throws a large foam pencil at her.)

			APRIL
		(Ducking)  Professor Muller!

			FRANZ
		Franz, Franz...there is no formality here... (Approaching her as she leans back against the exercise bicycle, fiddling with the brake.)  Try it!...here we treat mind and body together, after all, they are one...allez oop...(he helps her up)...we don't HAVE a heart, we ARE a heart, no?  (To humour him she peddles)  You see?... (fiddling with the speedo)...we turn this way it goes hard...this way soft...(She moves slightly as he touches her)...you want it hard...you want it soft... come, try...(and he puts his hand on her bum.  She slaps it away with her swimming cap.)

			APRIL
		Look, would you keep your hands to yourself?

She gets off the bicycle, gathers her things swiftly.

			FRANZ
		I'm sorry.  I just wanted to show you the bike, it's not...(he lifts the bike by the seat, lets out a fearsome yowl)...Achhh!!!

			APRIL
		Are you all right?

			FRANZ
		Ach...ah...it's mein back...

			APRIL
		All right, all right.  There's no need to make a fuss.  You should learn to lift things correctly.

			FRANZ
		Please, don't give me a lecture.  Ahh!  I think I pulled a muscle.

			APRIL
		Where?  (She bends over him)  There?

			FRANZ
		No, lower down, lower down...ahh...

			APRIL
		Ye-es...sacro-iliac...you'll be sore tomorrow.

			FRANZ
		I'm sore now.

She cross to the table, talcs her hands and returns.  Soft music on the P/A...cello, bubbling and alive.

			APRIL
		Frankly, Professor Muller, it serves you right... I'm not one of your patients, you know.  Lie still please.

She begins to work on his back.  He groans.

			FRANZ
		Ooh, ahh - you are a physio?

			APRIL
		I specialised after nursing.

He puts out a hand, touching her leg.

			FRANZ
		So, we are colleagues?

			APRIL
		Could you put your arms by your sides, please?

			FRANZ
		You came with the alcoholic, no?  The little movie star?

			APRIL
		Miss Valentine made three films last year and did a world publicity tour.  She's suffering from exhaustion.

He rears, making signs in the air, with little explosive sounds.

			APRIL
		What are you doing?

			FRANZ
		I'm putting in the quote signs.  We had the handout from the studio too you know.  Tell me, why are your nursemaid to this lush?

			APRIL
		(Shrugs)  Oh, just for a change.

			FRANZ
		From what?

			APRIL
		I was Head of Physical Therapy in the Denver Cardiology Unit.

			FRANZ
		My God, heart surgery...that can be heavy work.

			APRIL
		I know.

			FRANZ
		You didn't like your job?

			APRIL
		Could you put your hands under your chin, please?

			FRANZ
		(Obeying her)  You don't like the heart?

			APRIL
		Oh I didn't say that.  (She attacks him more vigorously, working into muscle.)

			FRANZ
		Ow!  Why did you leave?

			APRIL
		We-ell...the bypass was going out of fashion, we were having to fill up with valves, we were even getting down to poor people on welfare.  (She sighs)  You work yourself silly trying to get them going, but they don't do that well.

			FRANZ
		You know how to cure a bad heart - talk to the patient.  Better than the knife, get a man to change his life, he doesn't need a pig valve.

			APRIL
		Well, I wouldn't know about that.

WAYNE enters drinking a white liquid from a tall glass.

			WAYNE
		High protein.  (He watches APRIL work.)  Terrible shape.

			APRIL
		Oh, I don't know.  For a man of his age...

			FRANZ
		What do you mean, for a man of my age?

			WAYNE
		Touché, eh?  (He laughs.)

			FRANZ
		(Rearing up)  Listen, this is my lunch break -

			WAYNE
		I can see that.  (He watches APRIL as she resumes on FRANZ.)  What sad shoulders.  (She looks up.)

			APRIL
		What?

			WAYNE
		Your shoulders.  They're sad.
			FRANZ
		Now he's the therapist -

			WAYNE
		I'm going!  (He goes.)

			FRANZ
		(Calls)  Say hullo to Momma for me.

			APRIL
		He seems rather camp.  Is his mother here?

			FRANZ
		Never leaves his side.  (He barks with laughter.)

APRIL works for another moment, blows her cheeks out, and stops.

			APRIL
		There.  I think that's enough.

			FRANZ
		Aren't you going to do my front...it's very relaxing, you're very good at your job, you know.  (She gives him a dry look, but obeys.)

		Ahh, that feels good...much better.

			APRIL
		I don't think there was much wrong with you in the first place.

			FRANZ
		I am an old man.

			APRIL
		You don't act like one.

			FRANZ
		I have a bad heart!  By right I should be dead long ago - if that brilliant Ida Rolf didn't beat me into life again - such hands!...not that yours aren't wonderful too.  You know I think I'll get them to bury me on the mountain.  Ilse is telling me all the time cremation, cremation, but you know, to be frizzled all up like Ilse's chitterling when she tries to cook...not so aesthetic.  (He begins to drop his drawers.)

			APRIL
		Hang on!...
			FRANZ
		What?

			APRIL
		What's happening?

			FRANZ
		You're not going to...?  ....aren't you going to...?

			APRIL
		Certainly not!

			FRANZ
		Oh come on...please...between professional colleagues...you know you look very nice when your face is flushed.

			APRIL
		If this is supposed to be professional behaviour -

			FRANZ
		Oh for God's sake!  We are doctors and nurses! ...can't we play them a little bit?

			APRIL
		You're just a dirty old man.

			FRANZ
		So where's the harm?  Even a dirty old man needs to be loved.  Keeps him alive.  Why did you leave my session - I'm sorry, I don't know your name.

			APRIL
		Dobson.

			FRANZ
		Dobson, Schmobson - no!...I mean your name, your Christian name...your Name - if that is not too familiar.

			APRIL
		It's April.

			FRANZ
		April.  The spring.  That's nice.  Why did you walk out on me?

			APRIL
		I told you why.

			FRANZ
		Yah, yah.  Put me off my stroke, I'm telling you.  You disapprove of our work here?

			APRIL
		No, no.  I'm sure this sort of thing does extend frontiers, I'd be the first to - I mean, I'm sure you're serious -

			FRANZ
		But...

			APRIL
		It's just that it's all rather rarefied that's all.  I mean - (she gestures round the room) - all this.

			FRANZ
		You know, April...I may call you April?  (She cannot help a grin at the humble formality)... you know, I too have worked in public hospitals, for most of my life.

			APRIL
		Oh, I wasn't questioning your credentials.

			FRANZ
		Weren't you, little orthodox lady?  No, no, the work we do here - don't misunderstand. Because we are not working with schizophrenics, treating mania, this doesn't mean -

			APRIL
		Oh please, I -

			FRANZ
		Because we choose to work here with people Before...not After they destroy themselves - is that so bad?

			APRIL
		No, of course not -

			FRANZ
		I bring here my life experience -

			APRIL
		Oh, please, you don't have to -

			FRANZ
		Is it such an indulgence? - these people here, they fascinate me!  All immigrant - hybrids!  The vigorous children of the bold, the restless...centuries of deprivation and suddenly abundance - no wonder some of them fill their faces like there is no tomorrow.  And so many choices!  Shall I be President, go to the moon, fuck all the movie stars?  No more jackboot, confessional, custom, class...but - no more the old grandmother by the fire to take out the wasp sting and teach you how to cheat at cards...To be free to make your own life, that's exciting ...but...

		People want experience, all the good things - but the risk...the pain...that's not so hot.  If you are going to improvise your life you are going to make mistakes.  At least when you are in prison there is someone to take care of you.  When you get outside it's - oh, doctor, help me please, I want this new happiness pill...(she smiles)  

			FRANZ (Cont’d)
		Oh, help me, who am I, I don't know who I am, please let me lie nice and quiet on this couch.  (Snarls)  Cut out a bit of my brain if you want.

			APRIL
		Doesn't sound as though you like psychiatry.

			FRANZ
		It's not too fond of me - haha...we did a little experiment a while back.  Some of my graduate students masqueraded as case histories, got themselves admitted.

			APRIL
		That's going a bit far.

			FRANZ
		Oh, no ulterior motive.  Just to discover what it was like, for the patient.  My God!  Three of them they wouldn't let out...diagnosed as criminal lunatics!  The scandal - believe me, ranks closed fast.

			APRIL
		I'm not surprised.

			FRANZ
		April, come on, what does it say, traditional psychiatry...lie down please, tell me your symptoms so that I can help you fit in better.   Fit in to what?  Listen, we had a movie star here last year -

			APRIL
		Oh, who?

			FRANZ
		- never mind...seven years with the most distinguished shrink in LA, a man I know well, very impressive.  He was hypnotising the movie guy, only that day he didn't go under, but he played along, you know, to be civil, and this high class psychiatrist, you know what he does when he thinks the guy is under...he says: "When you are leaving pay my receptionist your bill in full because she is too embarrassed to remind you - cash please, no cheques!"  (APRIL laughs)  

			FRANZ (Cont’d)
		No.  We can't afford these prima donnas, these impresarios any more...their expenses are too high.

			APRIL
		I know plenty of social workers - they certainly aren't overpaid.

			FRANZ
		Please don't give me those masochists, bleeding hearts make me nervous.  We have to explore together...no Helpers getting their rocks off...and no bloody theory - you know, this I hate the most, Theory!  This lodestar for the boys after prizes!  No, no, no.  A simple search, hah?  For honest use and nothing certain.  No guarantees.

			APRIL
		(Doubtful)  Hmmm.

			FRANZ
		They ask to me, they say to me "What shall we put on the syllabus, Franz, for your course?"  I say "Messing About".  "Oh come, old man, a bit chancy, don't you think?"  I say "So is life".  (Chuckles to himself.)

			APRIL
		I've no doubt it's all very interesting, if you've got the time and money to -

			FRANZ
		Sure, sure.  I too have nursed a ward of incontinent geriatrics with one drunken night sister.  People die from lack of funds and here we take money, and your Miss Valentine is paying good bread and if we did not charge her high enough she would think us cheap skates and we need new equipment and many come without money so your patient is also benefactor, this was always so with medicine, which you know.  You see, April...here we break new ground.  Together, not as Doctor and Patient.  I do not Treat people.  Un-orthodox, hanh?  (His voice is hypnotic.  She shivers and he gently puts a wrap around her shoulders.)

			APRIL
		Thank you.  (He offers her a cigarette, she shakes her head.)

			FRANZ
		They are low-tar...?  (She shakes her head again.  He throws the pack away.)  And you are right!  When will Franz learn?  Food and cigarettes!  All my life I have tried to give up both, all my life I have failed...and I'm a Genius!  Founder of the new School of Psychology which puts Freud where he belongs - as the Thomas Edison of Psychiatry.  You know I knew him?

			APRIL
		Edison?

			FRANZ
		Freud!  I was student - so brilliant that by seventeen I was in the university already, so at the Vienna Conference they allowed me...they promised me...well, in any case I was determined to meet him.  I went to his house.

			APRIL
		To Freud's house?

			FRANZ
		Yah.  He didn't let me in, but he came to the door ...which was wide open, by the way...also every door in the house...I could see right through.  No, he was polite, agreed that I should join his table after the symposium.  You can't imagine how I felt.

			APRIL
		You admired him?

			FRANZ
		He was my Master!  I worshipped him.  Oh, there were the mistakes, of course - we are not held in a timeless prison of childhood trauma as Freud would have it...imagine the chutzpah - I am barely shaving and I'm wanting to say, Freud, you are wrong!  I looked forward to the discussion over the table...the cigar smoke drifting up, and Freud, Freud nodding at me with those appalled eyes of his.  I wanted to convert -

			FRANZ (Cont’d)
		or to be converted, though of course I knew I was right.  (Pause.)

			APRIL
		So you had lunch with him?

			FRANZ
		Yah, yah.  He was late.  But, when he arrives, so grave...distinguished...impossible not to be impressed.  I was there with my Professor, and Jeff Waites...Dr Shultz from the gymnasium... others I don't remember.  Then begins the farce.

			APRIL
		Mmmm?

			FRANZ
		He arrives where we are sitting and first we must all move, the table is no good.  So, I move my umbrella, my briefcase, in those days we were very correct, it was all part of the act, I'm telling you.  They give us a table in the corner, for privacy...but no, Freud is on his feet again, and we must move to the worst table in the room, by the door in a great draught...the door is open, at Freud's request.  At last we are served and he says not a word, not a word throughout the meal.  One sentence, one sentence alone he addresses to me...I should be so favoured.

			APRIL
		What was that?

			FRANZ
		`Would you be so good as to pass the salt?'  (They laugh.)

		Of course at that time I didn't know about Freud's obsessions and the claustrophobia and so on - you know why the couch, this ikon of psycho-analysis?  Freud couldn't bear to look anyone in the face, he was too phobic!  So...as a result...I cease to worship.  I give up my guru.  I give up my leader, my maestro, and I give up all this crap on the couch for my own kind of crap...though at least with Freudian analysis the patient gets only more and more dead...unlike these new con-men, the instant new life

			FRANZ (Cont’d)
		merchants, the quick rebirth boys.  Just say the chant please...scream......no, April... nobody can do it for us.

			APRIL
		You seem to have quite a following.

			FRANZ
		Oh yah, I make a fool of myself.  But if they listen to me, I kick them in the butt - of course for the masochists this is bliss so with them I am weak and trembling...(his shout)...to Wake Them Up!!  No, no...no gurus...you do it for yourself, we are catalyst here, no more.  The management accepts no responsibility, and I can see you don't approve of that.  Tell me, your Miss Valentine, these are her own tits?

			APRIL
		If you mean has she had plastic surgery, the answer's no.

			FRANZ
		(Whistles)  Fantastic.  You don't like sex?

			APRIL
		It's not a question of liking or disliking.

			FRANZ
		You are indifferent.

			APRIL
		No of course not.

			FRANZ
		You can take it or leave it.

			APRIL
		I didn't say that.

			FRANZ
		You're not a virgin?

			APRIL
		No.  (She straightens up)  I think I'll take my swim...no, no, please don't get up.  I just want to do a few lengths for the exercise.

			FRANZ
		Well take it easy, the pool is empty for cleaning.  (He cackles at his own joke.)

			APRIL
		I shall go for a walk then.

			FRANZ
		As you wish, pale lady.  Enjoy yourself.

			APRIL
		(A flash of flirtatiousness now that she is safely on her way.)  Now, now, don't be catty.  (She bends to pick up her things, is arrested by the entrance of MAX with a tray.)

			FRANZ
		Ah, Max.  Thank you, dear friend, you don't forget me.

			MAX
		Coffee.  I have brought you a Danish pastry.

			FRANZ
		Fantastisch.  (He looks up, smiling.)  You look nice today.  Something happy?

MAX stands, and then, very slowly he bends and kisses FRANZ on the cheek.  FRANZ smiles, pleased, then busies himself with the coffee.  MAX watches him intently.

			FRANZ
		(Sips)  Ah.  Perfect.

MAX relaxes very slightly.

			FRANZ
		And you got me one with the cherry on the top.  I always...(He puts the cherry to one side)...eat the cherry last.  There are those who eat the cherry first, but not me.  Except sometimes.  Sometimes we break the rules.  Why not, it's fun.  And after that, maybe time to remake the rules...somebody has to do it, maybe it's our turn.  Then maybe we throw away the whole Goddam book - make up the game as we play it.  That's hard, no?  That's the big league.

Pause.

			MAX
		I don't understand.

			FRANZ
		Why don't you trust me a little bit?  I am, after all, your Professor.

			MAX
		You make fun of me.

			FRANZ
		So laugh!

			MAX
		(After a moment)  I do trust you.

			FRANZ
		No, no.  If you did you would listen to me.

			MAX
		I do listen.

			FRANZ
		But you don't hear.  Maybe you talk too much to yourself, maybe that's why you don't hear.

			MAX
		I hear perfectly.  I don't know what you mean.

			FRANZ
		Then do for me a little favour.  Yes?  Eat at the third sitting today, not the second.  And choose a new seat.  Sit on the other side, you can see the lake, it's beautiful.  And why not some dessert...a little fruit maybe - no, I ask too much.  Do one of these things.  Just one.  For me.  For my sake.

			MAX
		(Slight pause)  I shall, of course, do exactly as you say.

He gives a slight formal bow, and goes.  FRANZ slaps his hand hard on the table, making the cups and APRIL jump.

			FRANZ
		God, I don't know!

			APRIL
		What a mournful looking chap.

			FRANZ
		(Drily)  You want to cheer him up?  You know, that man - every minute of the day, organised!  Two and a half minutes to brush his teeth, forty seconds the hair...I go to his cabin for a little visit, what is he doing, he is ironing his socks!  You know what his job is?  Inorganic chemistry ...it's poetic.  (He rocks with laughter)  Inorganic chemistry!  These people!  They think if they stop their arms and legs will fall off... that the earth with cease to turn, the sun to rise ...most of all that immediately they will be arrested, tried and convicted.  For what?  My God, what it is to be a Puritan.  You know what I think?  I think the man who dreamed up original sin, he had an impotence problem.  Has to be.  Come, drink.

			APRIL
		Oh, are you sure?

			FRANZ
		Only if you promise not to rape me.  (She gives him a look of honest puzzlement)...I beg your pardon.  Come, you can have half my Danish.

She joins him, finding a glass for herself, sniffing at it suspiciously, washing it, using water from the jug, and wiping it with a tissue.  All of which he notes alertly.  They share the cake and she helps him to more coffee and gets him a napkin...he is a messy eater.

			FRANZ
		(Mouth full)  This is very nice...very nice.  I love so much this short rest between session... everything quiet.

			APRIL
		Oh, I'm so sorry...I'm intruding.  I didn't realise.

			FRANZ
		Not at all, not at all, sit down.  Believe me, if I had wanted you to go away, I would have said so.

			APRIL
		But you need to rest.

			FRANZ
		You don't want to stay?

			APRIL
		Why should you want to talk to me, I'm not a patient.

			FRANZ
		You don't want to talk with me?

			APRIL
		But you're a director, you must have a thousand -

			FRANZ
		Oh...Herr Direktor...zu befehl, mein Herr...we must not be forgetting with the hierarchies... fraternisation ist verboten...bad mark!

			APRIL
		(Mildly)  I am supposed to be working.

			FRANZ
		Come - be idle...

			APRIL
		I ought to see if Miss Valentine wants me.

			FRANZ
		Don't worry.  She and the Italian boy have found each other.  She won't thank you, believe me.

			APRIL
		I am getting paid.

			FRANZ
		Sit down...where's the harm...maybe we trade a few secrets, eh?  April, I don't want that you disappear...I think you do that very easily.

She picks up her cup, sips politely.

			FRANZ
		So...tell me everything.

			APRIL
		Don't tell me you don't know it already.  I can see you get the lot out of people.

			FRANZ
		But not you?

			APRIL
		There's nothing to tell.

			FRANZ
		Your life is too ordinary...too banal...

			APRIL
		I hardly think there's anything in it that might interest you.

			FRANZ
		How do you know?

			APRIL
		I should think most people who come here have fairly exotic lives, no wonder they need to simmer down.  Some of us aren't so lucky.

			FRANZ
		Luck, what has luck to do with it.  My God, what's wrong with you?  There's nothing wrong with you, you're not ill-favoured, I can see most of what you got -

			APRIL
		Look, please!  I know all the Americans here go in for this head-on stuff.  I find it a bit much, that's all.

			FRANZ
		A bit too much out in the open?

			APRIL
		I'm not sure I'm prepared to bare my soul at the drop of a hat.  Not in public, anyway.

			FRANZ
		You prefer the privacy of the consulting room?

			APRIL
		If I needed it, yes.

			FRANZ
		I was in analysis myself - as a young man.  My God!  (He laughs)  Well, I was getting around a bit, so at first I couldn't think of anything proper enough to reveal to the old boy.  I would come in, lie down...(He demonstrates)...all I needed was a chinstrap and a lily between my thumbs...but soon I realise...when I start to confess that what I really enjoy is to look at women's genitals, suddenly there is the scrape of his chair and he is sitting closer, closer.  Every week I must think up better stories, he can't get enough of it!...in the end he is waiting mit the schnapps to help loosen me up - you are a Don Juan, he says, and when he sees me in the street he lifts his hat!  Ach, what we do to please! - you know that the patients of Freud had Freudian dreams, those of Jung had Jungian dreams - anything rather than pleasing themselves, eh?  (He turns, regards her)  Me, I work in the group, as in life.  You don't care to share with others?

			APRIL
		I don't see there's any fault in being reticent.  People have a right to privacy.

			FRANZ
		Anyway, you got nothing worth sharing.

			APRIL
		Oh, believe me, I've no false ideas about my charms.

			FRANZ
		You believe you are unattractive.

			APRIL
		I'm realistic.  (Slight pause)  I remember once, when I was a little girl -

			FRANZ
		Aha!

			APRIL
		What?  What have I said?

			FRANZ
		Your voice, when you said `little girl'.  You spoke kindly of yourself.  You liked yourself then.  Go on.  What were you going to tell me?

			APRIL
		Nothing.

			FRANZ
		Tell me.

			APRIL
		Oh, it was a long time ago.  I was playing in the back yard one day...my mother was folding washing in the sun.  I asked her if I was pretty.

			FRANZ
		What did she say?

			APRIL
		(Slight pause)  She said no.  (Slight pause)  So I asked her if I was ugly.  She said...no - she was very good-looking herself, we were all very proud of her.

Pause.

			APRIL
		I was playing with some seedpods at the time... lupins...she said not to eat them, in case they were poisonous.  So I said if I wasn't pretty and I wasn't ugly, what was I?  I thought she was going to say beautiful because that's all there was left.

			FRANZ
		What did she say?

			APRIL
		She said I was plain.

FRANZ gives a little hiss.  Slight pause.
			APRIL
		I didn't know what she meant.  I hadn't heard the word in quite that context - you know how you get it wrong when you're a kid.

			FRANZ
		Why did she say that?  It's not true.

			APRIL
		Oh I was nothing special.  She wasn't a bad mother, I didn't mean that.  She was very imaginative.  She used to have ideas..."Oh come on, Beryl, enough of that silly nonsense"... then she'd have a good sing.  (She smiles briefly)  Lovely voice.

			FRANZ
		She's dead now.  (APRIL nods.)

		Brothers...sisters?

			APRIL
		A brother in New Zealand.

			FRANZ
		Lovers?

			APRIL
		Well, there have been...you know.  I did nearly get married, once.

			FRANZ
		(Whistles ironically, then)  Nothing going now.

			APRIL
		I'm not exactly in my first bloom.

			FRANZ
		My God, what has that got to do with it?  My God, if screwing stopped at thirty-five, where would we all be?

			APRIL
		(Slightly crushed)  I'm thirty-two.

			FRANZ
		(It's the first time we see him slightly out of face.)  Prrh!...I...I don't suggest you look older ...I use figure of speech.  You're skinny enough to look very young, it's a nice body, believe me ...I've made love to a lot worse.

APRIL rises abruptly, fetches up by the bicycle, where she fiddles about.

			APRIL
		Yes, well, you obviously go in for all that.  I've nothing against it - I could have gone in for - there are plenty of...one night stands, that sort of thing.

			FRANZ
		But you despise that?

			APRIL
		In some ways.    Take Samantha - Miss Valentine -

			FRANZ
		Rather a lot, eh?

			APRIL
		She's very experienced - I mean, with her looks...apparently it started she can't even remember when - she can't remember men not wanting her.  All the time.

			FRANZ
		But they don't want you?

			APRIL
		Oh come on, look at me!  Bones sticking out all over the place, bee-stings for tits.

			FRANZ
		(Slight pause)  Tell me, why do you dislike your body so much?  You apologise for yourself every time you move.  You ask us to despise your limbs, your ass...why do you lay this task upon us?  Is it to demonstrate the cruelty of your mother?  For God's sake, forgive her!  Don't bother us with these old resentments.

			APRIL
		Nothing of the sort, she was trying to protect me!  She didn't want me to get ideas...ideas that I couldn't...she Knew!  She Knew what it was going to be like...she knew I'd have to stick it out, like most people.  She was doing her best for me.

			FRANZ
		And so you, in your turn, you, too, become the nurse.  You wish to spend your life `helping others'.

			APRIL
		I think there are worse things to do.

			FRANZ
		Trained...efficient...making no demands...just a clean apron, and your little diary with the padlock that you carry around.  And what happens down there?  What you think you got it for?

			APRIL
		You know, you're cruel.

			FRANZ
		And THAT'S why you walked out of my session, no?  Because you were indignant, you're not bleeding, you don't have a period, do you?

			APRIL
		No.

			FRANZ
		I can always tell, I know a lot about women.  So tell me - why, if you thought I was being so cruel, why didn't you speak out?

			APRIL
		It wasn't any of my -

			FRANZ
		Oh no, none of my business, as the man said guarding the gas chamber...anyway, as you say, you are reticent.  So Coarse to speak up, so Unladylike.  So you just leave...`quietly'... meantime you wreck the concentration of my session, and the concentration of Chris who for the first time was beginning to work with me -

			APRIL
		Work with you?  You were poking fun of his balls!

			FRANZ
		Not at all, not at all.  I was suggesting that he...that there was no reason for him to hide them...that they were perfectly OK, all accounted for, and Not too Small!  And I would have gone on to make my spiel about size being unimportant anyway.

			APRIL
		Hah!

			FRANZ
		What do you mean - hah!

			APRIL
		What I said - hah!

			FRANZ
		No, what is supposed to mean, this Hah!

			APRIL
		It is important!  Of course it's important, size.  Only we have to pretend it isn't just so you lot can get it up, honestly it makes me laugh, the way women have to -

			FRANZ
		But...excuse me, excuse me...what do you suggest?  If a man is small, what is he to do?

			APRIL
		Find a small woman, for God's sake!  Really, I don't know how I got into all this.  I'm going to my room!  (He lumbers after her.)

			FRANZ
		Please...please stay, April...April, don't go, don't go.  Ah, you are upset...

And he murmurs, stroking the side of her face, pulling her down to the seat beside him.  At first she averts her face, trying to rise and step round him.  Then, suddenly, she starts to cry.  He puts his arms around her.

			FRANZ
		April...you are so beautiful - forgive me...but you are lovely when you cry.  Here, lean on my shoulder...how good your hair smells, what is it...what do you put on your hair...?

			APRIL
		(Into his shoulder, muffled)  Eucalyptus shampoo.
			FRANZ
		No really, it's wonderful...like the woods above here, the pine woods...(He cuddles her)...you must take me there, I get breathless, but they are lovely...mimosa and pine trees...a lot of small flowers...very pretty...mmm, your hair - you are a lady, you know that?...you have class, April!......what is it about you English girls, you excite me so much...do you find me attractive, April?  No, I am too old...I disgust you...be honest with me...I am so ugly...I've never been an attractive man for women...

			APRIL
		(Sniffing)  Not at all.  Of course you are.  you're very...you've got a lovely voice.

			FRANZ
		If only I were taller.

			APRIL
		No, no, you're all right as you are, really.

			FRANZ
		April...April, take off your bathing costume, please...I got my hand trapped up your leg.

She rolls back, laughing.

			FRANZ
		No, please...you're breaking my wrist...April, please, don't laugh so much, please...

			APRIL
		I can't help it, you're so funny...(She laughs.)

			FRANZ
		(Laughing too)  Yes I am.  I am funny man...yes, it's true.  (He embraces her and she doesn't seek to escape.)  Your skin is so white ...beautiful.  There's too much sun here, it's not good for the skin.  Do you know the women with the best skins in the world?  Irish, because of the rain...such skins.  Kiss me.

			APRIL
		Why should I?

			FRANZ
		Just once, that's all...just to make me feel good.  (She leans towards him obediently.)  Wait.  (He takes off his glasses, puts them on the table.  She bends and kisses him, slightly challenged into proving it before she draws back.)

		Oh my God...my God...April you are brilliant girl...you taste so good, you know...these American women they taste all the time of chemicals, God knows what they do to themselves.  (He hugs her)  I should have sought you out the day you arrived instead of making eyes at that damn drunk employer of yours.

			APRIL
		Poor girl.  She's frigid.  Her father and mother raped her when she was eight?

			FRANZ
		(Bark of laughter)  The mother too?

			APRIL
		(Little giggle, then)  Honestly you'll have to help her.  She can't sleep, and every time she behaves badly the studio give in to her and that makes her feel worse, she doesn't know what to do.  D'you think you could help her?

FRANZ looks up from planting little kisses on her palm and forearm.

			FRANZ
		You are a queen.  The queen of England.  I shall arrange a coup d'etat - I shall be king of course.

			APRIL
		Oh you old fool.

			FRANZ
		(With a quick look at his watch)  Make a date with me for tonight, for the party.

			APRIL
		Party?

			FRANZ
		For my birthday.  You will be my date.

			APRIL
		Oh...well, I don't know about that - anyway, I've got nothing to wear.

			FRANZ
		People don't wear anything! - I mean, you wear what you want.  Listen, we could be together, go somewhere, you know?  You would like that ... really...believe me...

			APRIL
		Don't...you're impossible.

			FRANZ
		Sure, sure.  You'll come?

			APRIL
		(Picking up her things)  I'll think about it.

			FRANZ
		I so love European women - I've been so Homesick for them!  Such cadence...here they are all on one note, if you whisper little something in the ear they think you got a strep throat.

			APRIL
		I think you've bewitched me.  Is it all part of the treatment?

			FRANZ
		Not at all, not at all, I like you, I'm attracted to cool blondes, it's the attraction of opposites, no, I mean it.  Believe me, I've had a lot of women, I know what I'm talking about -

			APRIL
		(Cheerful)  Oh, don't keep showing off!

She goes.  FRANZ walks about, in a good mood.  This is somewhat shattered by MAX'S looming appearance.

			FRANZ
		Ah...Max.

			MAX
		I have it here.

			FRANZ
		(Puzzled)  Yah?

			MAX
		(Proffering a few pages of script)  It is my monologue...I spoke to you...you remember?

			FRANZ
		Oh...yah, yah...for tonight.  Mrs da Souta was telling me that you are going to do a turn.  What a sense of humour, that woman...she is a big bully.

		(He peruses the papers.)

		She says that you wrote it yourself...it's good... (He manages a chuckle)...good...

			MAX
		It's dreadful.

			FRANZ
		Yah, it's pretty bad.

			MAX
		Better for all, I think, that I kill myself.

			FRANZ
		Not at all.

			MAX
		It becomes a comedy.

Behind his back FRANZ reacts to this, stifles a laugh.

			FRANZ
		Max...my boy...(He tries to pat MAX on the shoulder, but MAX is too tall)...why must you, all the time make impossible goals for yourself, in order that you smash your snoot in the ice?  I know that you have a sense of humour - not so much as me, the little Jew from the wrong suburb of Berlin who thinks he's good with women...but somewhere in you I discern a truly cosmic merriment.

		Why don't you let it out?  Why hold back?  Sigmund, no doubt, would have described you as analistic but I myself -

			MAX
		Was is das...analistic?  (He breaks into further urgent German.  FRANZ replies in German, using his hands expressively.)

		Jah, jah, I understand...of the rectum.  But I am always most regular, I am most careful mit the diet.

			FRANZ
		(Sour)  So I noticed.

They move off together.  MAX stops short.

			MAX
		I think that you don't like me.

FRANZ stops likewise.

			FRANZ
		What makes you say that?

			MAX
		You have no sympathy.  It is wrong to treat without sympathy.

He stalks off with dignity.  FRANZ collapses onto a seat.  He sits, muttering to himself in German.  Then he rises.

			FRANZ
		(Going)  Also Franz, don't forget...the food here is good.

He shambles off, looking small, old and unprepossessing.

ACT TWO

CHRIS enters with fairylights.  He leaps about dangerously, fixing them.  During the next section he comes and goes with large bamboo poles with Chinese lanterns which he slots in the floor at an angle.  He also brings on a large dead tree in a pot.

WAYNE enters in a hurry.  He is wearing a director's visor which he dashes to the ground.

			WAYNE
		Wouldn't you know!  I work my ass off rehearsing a row of club-footed -

PAULA enters carrying several large cardboard boxes which she sets down.

			PAULA
		Oh now Wayne...listen, I told you -

			WAYNE
		I should never have agreed to work with those cripples -

			PAULA
		Wayne, will you listen?

			WAYNE
		And where's Coral?  Have you seen Coral?  I don't have Coral and I don't have a replacement, where's my replacement?

			PAULA
		(Screams)  I'll do it, I've said I'll do it!  I Told you I'd do it if anyone dropped out, I said all you had to do was ask, why didn't you ask?

He stops dead, prowls round her speculatively.

			PAULA
		I can do tap, I told you...look!  (She demonstrates.)

MAX enters, stands stiffly near the exit.

			MAX
		Excuse, please.

			WAYNE
		You don't know the routines.

			PAULA
		I can learn.

			MAX
		Excuse me...

			WAYNE
		There isn't time!

			PAULA
		OK!!

			WAYNE
		Maybe if I solo and we go straight into the Joplin -

			MAX
		There is no session now?

			PAULA
		Sure.  Could you hold this for me?  (She gives him a flower with a dazzling smile which petrifies him.)  Thanks!

			WAYNE
		(Helping CHRIS)  Who've you picked out for the action...listen, jeans-type will get you nowhere tonight, borrow my shot-rayon frontier shirt.

			CHRIS
		Fuck off.

			WAYNE
		OK!

			CHRIS
		I mean it.

			PAULA
		Thank you.  (To MAX as he hands her large red poppies to tie on tree.  To CHRIS)  Are you coming tonight?

			CHRIS
		You kidding?

			PAULA
		But you don't do anything - I mean, just the tennis.  Why'd you come here?

			CHRIS
		It was my parents idea.
			PAULA
		But why did you -

			WAYNE
		(Together)  You should have told them...sorry, folks -

			PAULA
		(To WAYNE)  Sorry.  (To CHRIS)  Why are you here?

			CHRIS
		(With the exasperated sigh of a parent for a stupid child)  I put a dead cat in a girl's bed.  `A morbid act'.

			WAYNE
		Some mating call.

			CHRIS
		You kidding, she was a creep.

			MAX
		(Clears his throat)  You think the professor is forgetting us?

			CHRIS
		Who cares.

			WAYNE
		Maybe he's had a coronary.

			PAULA
		(To CHRIS)  So why'd you do it?  Put the cat in her bed?

He ignores her.

			PAULA
		Revenge?

			WAYNE
		I told you why he did it.  Pretty crappy come-on.

			CHRIS
		What you talking about, you mean screwing, you talking about screwing?
			PAULA
		Chris -

			CHRIS
		Screwing's screwing, what's the big deal?

			WAYNE
		I was wrong.

			CHRIS
		What's it got to do with screwing?

			PAULA
		Chris will you shut up, you're embarrassing Max.

			WAYNE
		Yeah, maybe we don't all have your extended experience.  (He jumps, ties a garland.)  When'd you start?  Screwing -

			CHRIS
		Ten, eleven.

			PAULA
		Ten?  Eleven?

			CHRIS
		Same as everyone else.

			WAYNE
		See, Miss Debbie Reynolds.

			PAULA
		I was at a girl's school.  We kissed pictures of Steve McQueen.  (To CHRIS)  Who did you do it with?

			CHRIS
		Girls mostly.

			PAULA
		You mean girls in class?

			CHRIS
		Sure.  (He hops around on the rubber ball.)  Teachers.  Coaches.  People's mothers.  (He gets off the ball, gangly.)  They're the worst.
			PAULA
		People's mothers?  Why?

			CHRIS
		They're vicious.  About their husbands.  (He flops on the floor.  PAULA comes and sits by him.  WAYNE decorates the tree.  MAX sits apart, waiting for the afternoon session to begin.)

			PAULA
		(To CHRIS)  Didn't you ever fall for anybody?

			CHRIS
		You kidding?

			PAULA
		What's that supposed to mean?

			CHRIS
		Who needs it?

			PAULA
		And who dropped you on your head?

			CHRIS
		What's the matter?

			PAULA
		Nothing!

			CHRIS
		You wanna fuck, is that it?

MAX rises to his feet but, characteristically, is unable to make the next move.  He takes a step towards the exit.

			PAULA
		No!  Of course not!  Anyway, I'm married.

			WAYNE
		Don't we all know!

			CHRIS
		Yeah, what you wanna get married for?

			PAULA
		There doesn't have to be a reason, you don't have to give reasons.  I was pregnant.

			WAYNE
		Why didn't you have an abortion?

			PAULA
		I didn't want to fuck up my tubes.  I wasn't on the Pill because of side effects and altering my consciousness, so, wham, I get pregnant and all the girls in my feminist group are saying why, what for, what's the reason, like it was some sort of aberration and anyway, I miscarried, but by that time I'd already chickened, I was married.

			WAYNE
		What's he like?

			PAULA
		He suffers from P/E.  Premature ejaculation.

MAX reacts.

			WAYNE
		Tough.  Does he see you off first or what?

			PAULA
		No.  I go to the bathroom.  When we're together I simulate.  I've never - you know.  Come.  (Sighs)  It really must be something.

MAX reacts.

			WAYNE
		Get Chris to bring you off.

			PAULA
		(To CHRIS)  D'you think you could?

			WAYNE
		Sure he could.

			PAULA
		Chris?

			CHRIS
		(Climbing down)  OK.  But don't expect anything fantastic.

This is too much for MAX.  He wheels to leave, bumps into FRANZ who seems unaware of the collision.  FRANZ stumps about, black, muttering to himself.

			PAULA
		Maestro, what's the matter?
			FRANZ
		You know, there's one thing I can't stand, that's a woman who puts a man down.  They think they are the oppressed...oy, (To PAULA) if you knew!  You don't understand...how can they understand it...they alla this...and this...(He gestures)...they walk about, showing off...

			WAYNE
		What happened, you get in a fight?

			FRANZ
		It can be very wounding, you know.  I never was a...a Gary Cooper.  There's no need to be personal.  Look - I don't think I can work with you this afternoon.  I'm sorry that you all came here, and so, and so.

			WAYNE
		What did she say?  Who was it?

			FRANZ
		Coral.

			WAYNE
		(Highly incensed)  That armpit?!  What do you want to mess with her for?...why do you have such terrible taste in women!

			FRANZ
		I'm not a young man.  I can't be choosy.

			PAULA
		Franzy, stop trailing your coat.  It's your birthday.  (She whispers in his ear.  He cheers up.)

			FRANZ
		OK, everybody.  Please.  Museum time!  Memory Lane!  Wayne, you going to start?

			WAYNE
		You bet!

He sits in the centre.

			FRANZ
		(After a pause)  Tell us about your mother.

			WAYNE
		Oh for God's sake.
			FRANZ
		Tell us.  You're obviously very close, you take her around with you everyplace.  (PAULA stifles a giggle.)

			WAYNE
		So what, it's a free country.

			FRANZ
		She's dead.

			WAYNE
		Not to me she isn't.

			FRANZ
		She's sitting on your mantelpiece...she's a bunch of ashes in a bowl.  She's dead.

			WAYNE
		Not to me! - well in one sense she's dead - dead as mutton -

			FRANZ
		Note the tone of voice.

			WAYNE
		What do you mean, she's not dead in my heart, she's still my dearest friend, I stick to her standards - believe me, when I saw those chalets I almost cancelled, she'd die!  So tacky!  The only place available for her...I can't put her on the low table people use her for an ashtray... there's only that softwood shelf, it's not even painted, just creosote - not to mention the coffee stains and cigarette burns -

			FRANZ
		Listen, you don't have to bother.

			WAYNE
		What!

			FRANZ
		Don't bother.  Oh, maybe for the onyx bowl, that's a handsome piece.  But forget what's inside.  Those ashes...they're not your mother.

			WAYNE
		What do you mean, how d'you mean they're not my mother, of course they're my mother, I was there when she died, I did her hair in the casket-

			FRANZ
		Maybe you got a little bit of her, that's possible.  These crematoria, they got to watch the costs.  You don't get a personalised service, they burn when they get a load, usually ten, twelve - depends on the size of the oven.

			PAULA
		Franz, what are you doing!

			FRANZ
		She's probably in there with a coupla bums and a garment salesman, who knows?

			WAYNE
		(Slight pause)  You're asking for trouble. (Slight pause)  That was totally off.  (His voice wavers.)

			PAULA
		Don't pay any attention, Wayne.

			FRANZ
		It's the truth.

Pause.

			FRANZ
		You want to quit?

They lock gazes in mutual hostility.

			WAYNE
		She was perfect.

			FRANZ
		What about your father?

			WAYNE
		(Dismissive)  I don't know.

			FRANZ
		She had no man?

			WAYNE
		You kidding, she was the toast of New York... Josh Logan was Crazy about her work, we had a Great time!

			FRANZ
		Is that why you're full of shit?

			WAYNE
		It has nothing to do with my mother, look, I don't want to deal with this -

			FRANZ
		So get off the stage.

			WAYNE
		What?

			FRANZ
		This is museum time, we bring out the old turds.

			WAYNE
		I don't have to deal with -

			FRANZ
		So get off the stage.  I don't want to work with you, you're a dishonest man.

			WAYNE
		Why are you being so hostile?

			FRANZ
		You're a saboteur, I don't work with saboteurs.

			WAYNE
		How can you say that?  I'm here to work, I want to work.

			FRANZ
		Then cut the chickenshit.

			WAYNE
		Because I happen to love my mother, that's chickenshit?  Listen...listen, compared to her you...you don't even exist -

			FRANZ
		Say that to them.  Say it to them!

			WAYNE
		All right!  (To the others)  Compared to my mother you're all nobodies!

			FRANZ
		That's not the same thing.

			WAYNE
		So I forgot the exact words!

			FRANZ
		So get off the hot seat - you're a saboteur!

			WAYNE
		I will not, I haven't even begun, you won't let me begin!  He wants to flush me down the toilet, you think that's fair?

			FRANZ
		Note the voice.  I'm not being fair.  I'm trying to work.  Go back to your seat.

			WAYNE
		Oh thank you, that's great!  Just because I'm not giving you some schtuck about how I hated Mom, and how she was never home, and all the guys paying me off to get close to her, you wanna know all that stuff, it's B movie, I'm telling you, you shitty old bastard.  You're just a fucking old crapbag.  With a small cock.

			FRANZ
		Thank you.  At last some co-operation.

			WAYNE
		What do you mean?...you haven't won!  You think you've Won?  I'm standing up to you!  I'm not moving!  You think you can dominate me, you old crapbag - listen, I've got your number...you just want to feature...same as everyone else.

			FRANZ
		OK...OK.  You win.

The others laugh.

			WAYNE
		Oh great.  Now they're all laughing, that's what you want, isn't it?  I look ridiculous, and you come out on top.
			FRANZ
		So play him.  Play the topdog.

		Play me...play Franz.

			WAYNE
		Play you?  (He pulls a face)  Jesus.  (But he goes into a wicked mimicry of Franz's amble and physical gestures.  The others laugh.  He exaggerates.  They laugh more.)

		(In Franz's accent)  What are you...what do you think you are, hanh?  You want to screw with me, I'm the beeg man around here...you're nothing...little shithead...nothing at all...you don't exist, you're the fucking wallpaper... (losing the accent)...I don't even see you... you're not there...you don't exist...

			FRANZ
		OK.  Change seats.  Play the other one.

			WAYNE
		Who?  You mean me?  The one you're trying to put -

			FRANZ
		Yah.

			WAYNE
		Oh very clever.  You come out on top, the big wise guy, I come out nothing...just a pair of hands for picking up the shoes, why should I play your game, it's not my - listen, I'm a star ...I have talent.

			FRANZ
		You're playing the top guy - you're on the wrong script...you see?  You don't co-operate.

			WAYNE
		(Takes a deep breath, frowns, pauses, breathes deep again)  OK.  OK.  I'm nothing...I'm co-operating!  I'm nothing...just the fucking leavings.  Fucking dregs in the fucking cup...a nothing, right?  That's what you want, isn't it?  Just a fucking empty hole in...oh, that's great... great...
			FRANZ
		What do you feel?

			WAYNE
		What do you think I feel?  I feel nothing.  I'm squashed flat, you bitch...how can I...I can't... that's why I...

			FRANZ
		Tell us what you feel...this minute...

			WAYNE
		I don't feel anything!  Get your fucking yellow teeth out of my face, I tell you I don't...I can't ...how can I dance when I don't feel anything?

			FRANZ
		You feel nothing...at this minute?

			WAYNE
		No!

			FRANZ
		But you are trembling.

			WAYNE
		No...nothing.

			FRANZ
		You don't feel your arms...(WAYNE shakes his head)...your legs?

			WAYNE
		No.  (Pause)  No.  I can't feel my legs...I can't feel my face, I can't feel my prick...you just fucking won't let me exist, will you?  You just want to stamp me out.

			FRANZ
		Change seats.

			WAYNE
		I can't.

			FRANZ
		Go on.  Go on, Wayne - play the top dog again.

			WAYNE
		I...it's not...I can't find him.  (Slight pause)  You're nothing.  A piece of shit.  A big hole... nothing...no right to exist...no talent...

			FRANZ
		Now say all these things again, but after each other say - it's a lie.

			WAYNE
		I'm nothing...it's a lie...I'm a piece of shit... it's a...it's a...(he starts to cry)...I do have legs...I do have arms...I do have feet.  (He cries)  I'm here.  I do have a right...I don't know......but I AM here.  I do exist.  Oh Christ.  (Cries.)

			FRANZ
		Just think.  You are competing so much with your mother, the star, that you got to carry her around with you all the time taking a peek to make sure she's really dead!

WAYNE cries.

			FRANZ
		Well, that's not so bad.  (Slight pause)  Not so bad as the one who's really putting you down all the time, eh?

WAYNE cries.

			WAYNE
		(Through his tears)  You don't know how tough it is.

			FRANZ
		So why compete with yourself all the time?  (Pause)  That's what you're doing.

			WAYNE
		I have to be self-critical, judge myself, in order to -

			FRANZ
		Not at all.  (Slight pause, WAYNE sniffs.)  You mean, to discover new things, new ways to express your talent you got to nitpick, be a carrion eater of yourself?  No wonder you don't want to get up in the morning, no wonder you don't feel your legs...you got a bloody enemy waiting there for you, not even with a nice cup of coffee!  `Come on, Wayne, wake up so that I can start beating you into the ground, you nothing'...`I think I stay in bed, I don't feel so good...'

WAYNE'S shoulders droop.  He sits, miserable.

			FRANZ
		Don't worry...don't worry, kid...don't think to find it easy.  The journey proceeds.  When you confront, you find you manage...the fear disperses...

WAYNE recovers slightly, lifts his head.  PAULA makes to give him a Kleenex, but FRANZ waves her back.

			PAULA
		(Not to be denied)  You're a great dancer, Wayne.

			FRANZ
		(Gently)  No.  Don't praise him.  Doesn't help.  Already he depends too much on the opinion of others.

They wait.  WAYNE clears his throat.

			WAYNE
		She was a lousy mother.  I didn't love her.  (Pause)  I liked her.  Very good legs.

			FRANZ
		Good.  That disposes of Mother.

			WAYNE
		She never really made it.

			FRANZ
		Doesn't follow that you won't.  Of course if you keep sabotaging - maybe you do it to disappoint her for neglecting you and not getting you a father, anyway, being such a good son the shit has to go some place -

			WAYNE
		I'm not good.

			FRANZ
		He thinks he's bad - even more arrogant.

			WAYNE
		(Sarcastic)  Thank you.
			CHRIS
		What's wrong with dependence?  Plenty of parasites in nature -

			FRANZ
		Ah, the genetic biologist!

			CHRIS
		Dependence is very efficient.

			FRANZ
		(Growls)  Not against fascism it ain't -

			CHRIS
		I'm not talking about politics -

			FRANZ
		Politics is people, and if we don't evolve from carnivorous predators pretty soon we're going to be extinct!

			CHRIS
		What do you suggest?

			FRANZ
		(Tired, he doesn't want to get into this)  That we evolve from imperialism -

			PAULA
		Huh?

			FRANZ
		...from systems designed to protect the strong from the weak...from training our children to maintain this system by proffering love only as reward for good behaviour, thus creating races of automata with murderous tendencies...(His energy seems to have dissolved.)

			CHRIS
		(Slight pause)  How you going to fix all that?

			FRANZ
		I'm not, you are.

			CHRIS
		You kidding?
			FRANZ
		Darling, you got just the qualities for it, you're a romantic, thank God.  (This puts CHRIS totally out of face.)  I've seen you with the plants, taking care of things.  No...... (He pauses, a long pause, thinking.)

		Our parents don't own us.  Neither does the state...nor God, for if everything is determined and we're just puppets what the fuck is anything for?  No...better we develop our own support systems - you never know when you're going to need them.  Keep in trim...the mind...the heart... the soul, as well as the body.  You have to live with yourself, so it's better to like it, accept ourselves, as we are - let's face it, we can never fulfil the hopes of others.  If we are a failure they are outraged, even worse if we are a success, then the green eye.  And no good playing the regular guy, there are degrees of regular did I tell you the story of the rabbi?

		The rabbi stands before the congregation and says, Lord, I'm a fine rabbi, but I am nothing.  Then the cantor, he steps forward and he says... Lord, I'm a very fine singer, but I too am nothing - notice he pauses a little bit longer than the rabbi...he's an upstager.  And a little guy gets up from the congregation and says, Lord, I'm not such a bad tailor, but I too am nothing.  And the rabbi looks at the cantor, and the cantor looks at

			FRANZ  (Cont'd)
		the rabbi and says: Who does he think he is to think he's nothing?
			
		It's not your mother...your father...the cold-water apartment on the seventh floor without elevator.  It's not your sex...it's not your nationality...your colour.
		
		All here.  (He touches his head.)  Here.  We are our own battlefields.  We believe that we see things straight...that we have perspective.  But it is OUR perspective.  From our eyes only.  Maybe a Martian sees light as pink champagne.  Maybe, to an ant, a baked bean is a geodesic dome.  Who knows?  As Albert Einstein has told us...I knew him well, by the way...never was able to beat me at chess, no head for figures...(they laugh)...the world exists only for us because only WE see it.  It's all ours!  When you got it, flaunt it...but do we?  Do we hell!  How can we properly fulfil ourselves when we constantly permit ourselves to be regulated by outside pressure?  The kittens learn from the cat, but do they want to fulfil Mom's ambitions?  And what about Mommy?  Does she exist solely for my tabby son the lawyer, my ginger son the famous doctor?  Are you kidding, the mommy cat is out screwing someplace, she has other things on her mind.  (To WAYNE)  I like your mother, she sounds a real woman.

		Once we project some part of our potential, then this potential turns against us.

			PAULA
		I don't understand, what do you mean?

			FRANZ
		Once we live only through the eyes of others, we don't see, we are only seen.  We don't hear, we exist only to be overheard.  We see ourselves as an imagined sum of the judgements of others.  And thus we become automata.  We become rigid.  We become phobic.  We become paranoid.  We are invalids.  Needing attention.

			FRANZ  (Cont'd)
		Only when we reject the demands from without, becoming as it seems - but only SEEMS selfish ...only then can we truly consult ourselves, discover, with open minds, what it is that we need...and then, abracadabra, what it is that we can contribute.  It may be something more risky ...or something entirely less grandiose than we expected, or was expected from us by others.  But surprise is refreshing.  A shower of rain, beautiful.  We are, you see, directional.  As plants are.  A tulip becomes a tulip, a dahlia, a dahlia.  So we, too, must become people, turning towards the light...open...alert...curious ...ready...and alive.

		And now I must stop hypnotising you.  Thank you.  We worked well today...you helped me and I gave you my wisdom.  Now I go to make myself pretty.  I hope you all got nice presents for me, I am a greedy man.
			PAULA
		You said gifts were consolations!

			FRANZ
		So console me!  And don't listen to anything I say.  I see you all tonight.

He goes.  The others leave severally.  Pause.  Light change.  Scramble of sounds on the P/A.

			P/A
		Norman Levy...Norman Levy please...you're wanted in reception.

			P/A
		Could somebody move the truck in the garbage area please...could you remove the blue Chevvy truck in the garbage area, you're blocking the driveway.

Loud burst as the P/A is switched on.  Mess of sound as adjustment is made.

Light change.  The stage gets darker.

			P/A
		(Urgent)  Coral...could we have Coral, please, to the lower patio?

One after the other the banks of fairy lights come on, and the Chinese lanterns.  The effect is magical.  Pause.

PAULA enters.  She is wearing a red bikini decorated with small pieces of black fur.  She has a large black fur tail and fur cat ears.  She teeters on high heels, putting down a tray of goodies in order to blow up large blue balloons.

APRIL enters.  She is wearing a soft, silky dress, makeup.  She looks comely.

			PAULA
		Hi.

			APRIL
		(Jumps slightly)  Oh...hullo...(She looks round at the decorations)...oh, it's lovely!

			PAULA
		You wanna try one of my patties?

			APRIL
		Thanks.

			PAULA
		They're really good...strawberry and tuna fish... (APRIL'S hand is arrested in midair.)

			PAULA
		No, go ahead...try one.

She takes one herself and chews thoughtfully.

			PAULA
		Original, huh?  (APRIL'S smile is wan.)

She gives APRIL a hefty drink.  APRIL drinks, likes it, drinks some more.

			APRIL
		This is rather tasty.

			PAULA
		My special brew.

She refills APRIL'S glass, then cranes dangerously affixing balloons.

			APRIL
		(As the drink rises to her head)  Whoo!

She looks up, watching PAULA work.

			PAULA
		(Head in the palms)  What's your problem?

			APRIL
		Beg pardon?

			PAULA
		What are you here for?

			APRIL
		I'm here with a friend.

			PAULA
		Aw, come on.

			APRIL
		No, really.

			PAULA
		OK.  Is he getting any help?

			APRIL
		It's a woman.

			PAULA
		(Cheerfully)  Gay, huh?

			APRIL
		No, no!  That is...I've nothing...I'm sure it must be...(slightly out of her depth)...fun.  If you...you know...

			PAULA
		Sure.  What's your friend's problem?	

			APRIL
		I'm here with Miss Valentine.

			PAULA
		Wow, really?  I saw her in the solarium - listen, there's something I'd like to know.  Are those her own -

			APRIL
		Yes.  And no, she hasn't had surgery.

			PAULA
		They're beautiful.  I have a real thing about breasts, maybe because my mother gave me formula - were you formula fed?

			APRIL
		Oh, well...I don't know...I can't remember!

They laugh.

			PAULA
		I'm going to do it.  Feed my baby.  To hell with the sag, you can always get a couple of tucks after.

			APRIL
		(The nurse speaking)  Oh yes, it's SO much better for baby.  Are you expecting...are you pregnant?

			PAULA
		Hell no - why, are you?

			APRIL
		Heavens no.  (She grimaces.  A pause.  She moves away, restless, and then returns to watch.  She hands PAULA a balloon, watches her tie it.)

			PAULA
		(Looks down)  Why d'you quit the session?  You really threw the old guy.

			APRIL
		Oh dear, I didn't mean to.

			PAULA
		He gets nervous.

			APRIL
		The Professor?  You do surprise me.  (Slight pause)  Tell me...is...I mean, is the work here recognised?  I mean, can you be referred by your doctor?

			PAULA
		Watcha mean - you pay your money you choose, it's your life.  People go by results.

			APRIL
		I wouldn't have thought humiliating people was a good way to get -

			PAULA
		Oh don't pay any attention to Franz -

			APRIL
		But he's so rude!

			PAULA
		Yeah, but never unintentionally, huh?  (Laughs.)

			APRIL
		He does seem able to lay on the charm when he wants.

			PAULA
		Horny old bastard - hey, you wanna watch me dance?  Come on!

APRIL follows her off, pausing to affix two balloons.

Slight pause.  MAX appears, in a white tuxedo.  He loses his nerve, goes back the way he came.

On the P/A, sounds of party...laughter, glasses, a chorus of `Happy Birthday' followed by cheers.  During this MAX walks determinedly across the stage towards the sound, his present clutched in both hands.

The sound of a Viennese waltz, elegiac.

Loud applause and whistles.  The music up again, and WAYNE dances on.  PAULA and FRANZ follow, arm in arm, and sit to watch him dance.  As the music ends he collapses stylishly on the cushions.  They applaud.

			PAULA
		Wayne, you're fantastic.

			FRANZ
		My boy, you're a fine artist.

			WAYNE
		(Breathless)  I know that.  (Goes.)

			PAULA
		You helped him.

			FRANZ
		Nah, nah.  Not my affair.

			PAULA
		Monster.  (She kisses him lightly, pulling his beard.)

			FRANZ
		Be careful, I'm a dirty old man.

			PAULA
		And I'm a dirty young girl - hey, you know what I'm gonna give you for your birthday?  (She whispers in his ear and screeches with laughter.)

			FRANZ
		(Wincing)  Listen - listen, Paula, you want to do me a favour?

			PAULA
		Anything, Master, I'm off the hook tonight!

			FRANZ
		Be a little bit nice to Max for me.
			PAULA
		Sure, why not, how far you want me to go?

			FRANZ
		I think he is ready for maybe a little gentle flirtation.  A couple of drinks...(He waggles his hand.)

			PAULA
		(Sing-song)  I get your dri-hift!

			FRANZ
		But Paula...Paula, listen, whatever you do don't seduce  him, that's going to terrify him, you know?  And don't talk dirty.  (She peals with laughter, climbs off him and goes.  FRANZ walks about, looks at his watch, smooths his head.  APRIL appears.)

		Ach.  I was looking for you.

			APRIL
		They needed a hand in the bar.

			FRANZ
		Let me see.  (He inspects her soberly.)  Very nice.

			APRIL
		It's too formal, I'm afraid.

			FRANZ
		Not at all, very nice.  May I get you a drink?  (He pours wine.)  We grow it here, it's very good.

They sip formally.  Then he puts down his glass, takes hers and puts it aside and makes a sudden dive up her skirt, his head disappearing.  She gives a loud shriek of alarm.

			APRIL
		What are you doing?  No, please...ah!...what are you Doing!  Oh...ah!  Professor Muller, stop it...stop it, please...!

He throws her flat on her back on the seat, whips off her knickers and tosses them over his shoulder, dives under again.

			APRIL
		No!...please...what are you doing?

CHRIS enters.

			CHRIS
		Franz, are you ready to judge the tango?

APRIL, horribly, embarrassed, tries to pull down her skirt, turning her head away from CHRIS to hide her identity.

			CHRIS
		Franz...Franz?  You wanna take a look at the tango?

A muffled reply from FRANZ.  APRIL, helplessly, pinned, grimaces up at CHRIS with a little social smile.

			APRIL
		Look, could you go away?

			CHRIS
		What do you want me to do, they're waiting!

FRANZ emerges, highly irritable.

			FRANZ
		For God's sake, my boy, what do you want?  You want to spoil this lady's orgasm, is that what you want?

This is too much for APRIL.  She jumps up, evading FRANZ.  Since FRANZ is being so ratty, CHRIS appeals to her.

			CHRIS
		Look, how long d'you want?  I'll tell them to hold it up...how long you going to be?

But APRIL hops away, trying to put on her knickers.

			FRANZ
		(Roars)  Get Out!!!

			CHRIS
		(Highly irritable)  What's the matter with you?  (He stumps off irritably.)

			FRANZ
		(To APRIL)  April, what you doing, what you doing?  Aw, come on...come on...

			APRIL
		I'm just...(pulling away from him unsuccessfully) ...I'm just...look, would you let go of my knickers, please, I really think this farce has -

He leaps on her.

			APRIL
		Get out!  Get Off me!

They pull at the knickers and she is swung round, lets go, and tries to evade him across the seat.

			APRIL
		(Very ruffled, managing to get possession of her knickers at last)  Now that's ENOUGH!

			FRANZ
		Whatsa matter, whatsa matter?

			APRIL
		This is too bloody much!...honestly!...

			FRANZ
		Bloody much, bloody much...we got nothing yet...what are you talking about?

			APRIL
		I see - what do you want...a performance?  Give them a turn on the floor?

			FRANZ
		Oh come on...April...come on...

			APRIL
		He'll be having a wonderful time in there, telling all his friends -

			FRANZ
		So what?  Who cares?  The poor bastard hasn't got any friends...you should be nice to him... and to me.

			APRIL
		Why should I?

			FRANZ
		You know why.  Come...no, come please... look, we take our drinks...no, please...it will be nice...you like me, why don't you look at me, come...nobody will see us...(He persuades her to a space upstage left where there are palms in pots)...then you can look at me, we can talk and nobody will see us...we have a drink...(by this time he has got her down on the beach mattress under the palms)...we have our drinks later...

		(He lies on top of her and APRIL'S knickers come flying over the foliage.)

		Oh my God...my God!...

			APRIL
		What is it, what's the matter?

			FRANZ
		(Very excited)  You are wearing brasseer...a brasseer...you are wearing brasseer - no, no, don't take it off...please...please keep it on for me...oh my God, it's going to be all right... April, April...oh mein Gott...you smell so good ...be a nice girl for me, I'm going to do it, no question, you are a brilliant girl, a brilliant girl ...oh, your smell...what is this smell...

			APRIL
		Yardleys.

			FRANZ
		(Groaning with delight)  Yardleys!  Oh...so beautiful!  (He begins to grunt and pant.)  Beautiful...oh, oh, oh...what a delight for me...you are so pale, my darling...like a peeled almond...your skin is gleaming - oh, oh ...oh, oh, oh...oh, say something to me, in mein ear, say something dirty for me...quick, quick, quick...

			APRIL
		Shut up, I'm trying to concentrate...I could kill you I could kill you I could kill you...oh!!

			FRANZ
		You came already?

			APRIL
		Oh...oh......all right you wicked old sod, what do you want, I'll tell you what you are, you're a dirty, wicked old man, I know what you want, you want me dirty, dirty, dirty...but I won't, I won't, I won't!

He grunts passionately.

			FRANZ
		Oh!  Ah!  We came together...

They breathe deeply, gasping, getting their breath back.

			FRANZ
		Oh mein Gott.  You got a bite inside you, you know that, liebling?

			APRIL
		(Giggles)  I thought you were going to throttle me.

			FRANZ
		I didn't hurt you?

			APRIL
		No, no.

			FRANZ
		Really?

			APRIL
		No, no, no.

Silence.  They doze.

MAX enters, clutching a script.  Walking across nervously, he comes across April's knickers.  He looks down at them, transfixed.  He looks about, to make sure that he is not observed, picks them up, looks round again, just manages, with a leap of fright, to stuff them in his pocket as PAULA appears.

			PAULA
		What you doing?

He stands, gibbering in terror, unable to reply.

			PAULA
		Hey, I liked your act!

			MAX
		(Stammers)  Thenk you.  (He manages a stiff little bow.)

			PAULA
		No I mean it.  Needs more pace - you know?... but once or twice you really hit the spot!

			MAX
		You think so?

			PAULA
		I know so.  (She loops her forefinger into the front of his trousers and begins to pull him towards the exit.)  I really understood what you were trying to say, Max...you know, you have a truly tender imagination, that is so rare in a man...

			MAX
		(Groans)  Ohhh...

			PAULA
		Why don't we go down by the lake - (She manhandles him off.)

A slight pause.

			FRANZ
		Darling -

			APRIL
		What?

			FRANZ
		I can't breathe.

She climbs off him.

			FRANZ
		(As she does so)  Ooh...ah...ah...ah!

			APRIL
		(Kneeling up)  Oh, I think the skirt's gone.  It's my Jean Muir dress.

			FRANZ
		And you kept it on for me.  You don't know what this means...this rustle, whisper of silk...

			APRIL
		It's rayon.

			FRANZ
		No matter...so soft...shining...

She moves apart, crosses to table, finds paper tissues, wipes herself fastidiously, cleans up.  She looks for her knickers but cannot find them.  FRANZ suddenly barks with laughter, making her laugh.

			APRIL
		What's the matter?

			FRANZ
		I was thinking of old Schoenfeld.  I used to go to his seminars, when I was working for my doctorate - Heinrich Schoenfeld, disciple of Freud, but not uncritical.  Very strict man... you know, stiff collar, pince nez...always the spats, the umbrella, the Homburg hat.  

			FRANZ (Cont’d)
		One day we were dozing through his seminars as usual when he says suddenly, in that Bavarian accent of his "You can never fuck enough"......"fuck" ..."geshrecht"...just like that!  We all, you know - (he sits up rigidly, his eyes wide, then laughs).  We listened for two whole terms after but he never says another rude word, we begin to think, were we dreaming?  I have wondered so many times - what made him say it?

			APRIL
		Perhaps it's true.

			FRANZ
		Oh yah - sure!  But Schoenfeld?  And if he knew That!...

He gets up heavily, crosses to seat, wincing slightly as he sits, making himself comfortable with cushions.

			APRIL
		What's the matter?

			FRANZ
		Arthritis in mein hip.

She finishes combing her hair and comes and sits beside him.  And combs his beard.
			APRIL
		You look like a Greek Colonel.

			FRANZ
		More like a Hamburg pork butcher.

			APRIL
		Not at all.  (Pouring drinks for them.)

			FRANZ
		Ilse says so.

			APRIL
		(Arrested, drink in hand)  Oh dear.  How on earth am I going to look her in the face?  Your wife?

			FRANZ
		(Surprised)  Ilse?  Ach, don't worry.  She is not concerned.  Our little affair will not incommode - it's not important to her, anyway, believe me, she hates messy women.

			APRIL
		I see.

			FRANZ
		Hey, I don't say it's not important to me, April.  I am not some plausible flirt.  I am in love with you.  Doesn't that make you happy?

			APRIL
		Oh come on.

			FRANZ
		How can you doubt it?  We have just proved our love...I would have proved it twice, maybe, only you winded me little bit...

			APRIL
		(Amused)  Twice!

			FRANZ
		(Pursues his advantage)  Twice!...three times... four...five...why not?  We are alive!

He embraces her.  She draws back after, smiling.  But catches him giving her a shrewd, objective look.  She jerks away abruptly.

			FRANZ
		What's the matter?

			APRIL
		Nothing.

			FRANZ
		No, no...come on...what is it?

			APRIL
		It's nothing.  (But he shakes her arm.)  Why did you look at me like that?

			FRANZ
		Like what?

			APRIL
		I'm not a fool, you know.

			FRANZ
		What are you talking about?...

			APRIL
		Please stop it, Professor.

			FRANZ
		...if I look at you it's because -

			APRIL
		Oh don't!

			FRANZ
		- why can't I look at you - what's wrong?

			APRIL
		You looked at me like something under a microscope.

Slight pause.

			FRANZ
		I...wanted to see if you are happy...if I had pleased you.

			APRIL
		Oh rats.

			FRANZ
		Not at all, not at all.  A man is never sure.  Women...dissemble.  And, yah...I am doctor too...it is my nature.  I wish to observe our little experiment.

			APRIL
		I see.  An experiment.

			FRANZ
		A very nice one.

			APRIL
		All part of the treatment here, no doubt...every inmate guaranteed a quick screw...is it in the brochure?  If I were you I'd be a bit more careful, one of these days somebody's going to -well, I'd hardly call it ethical.

			FRANZ
		Oh!  Hoho!  You think I take advantage of you?  You think I break my Hippocratic oath?  My God, if you think I risk my career...my reputation for you, April...you should be very flattered, that a man would take this risk for you.

		Look, don't bully me.  I have no more status here than you - reputation, maybe, status, no.  You come as you are - no paper credentials.  Here we are responsible for ourselves and To, but not FOR one another, so don't insult me with these cheap threats.  I love you, isn't that enough, doesn't it please you? - it should, I am an important man.

			APRIL
		An experiment.  You said so yourself.

			FRANZ
		I am greedy!  I wanted to see what you were feeling, that maybe, maybe I had gratified you.  And yes, of course, naturally I don't want that you make a fool of yourself, that wouldn't be convenient for either of us.

			APRIL
		You see?  You're a cruel man.

			FRANZ
		April, why should I give you crap?  I may drop dead tomorrow.  Yes, I withdraw from you - you find that irresponsible?  Why be depressed, we can't make love all night, at least I can't, I don't know about you.

			APRIL
		Bloody men!  As soon as they get what they want they can't wait to be out of the door - a couple of days and you wouldn't know me in the street!

			FRANZ
		No, no, no...longer than that!  But OK, maybe not, after a while.  I am a busy man, I meet so many people, I'm famous now, I don't have time to remember.

			APRIL
		Get it while you can.

			FRANZ
		Yes!  Yes!

			APRIL
		It's all so self-centred!

			FRANZ
		While you think only of others.

			APRIL
		Somebody has to.

			FRANZ
		Keeps you busy.

			APRIL
		Better than all this wallowing.

			FRANZ
		Oh yah.  And better than looking at the holes in your own personality.  But WE have to look at them - WE see them.  Loving sister, dutiful daughter who wishes only to help us, but we can't help you, oh no, that's not permitted.  Perhaps we, too, need to stroke someone, but you don't want to be stroked...only I know different - (pulls her cruelly by the hair) - I found out!  Didn't I?

			APRIL
		(Pulls away)  If you're going to be destructive, I'm off!

			FRANZ
		Sit Down!  Can't you see?  This is where he was Wrong!

			APRIL
		Who?

			FRANZ
		Freud...Freud!!!  He thought a person would not mature because of a childhood trauma - it is the other way round!  I never yet listened to one of these kiddies' traumas that wasn't a lie!  We Cling to lies!  Lies!  Anything to justify our unwillingness to grow up.  To leave such cosy prisons of invented memory, to be responsible for our own lives, to make ourselves up, existentially, day by day, knowing that we, and only we create

			FRANZ (Cont’d)
		the world - my God!  Such courage we need! - who would want to be mature?  Rebirth?  Satori?  The coming to the senses?  No thank you, not for me, please...let me stay in the trance and masturbate!  April, I tell you - we are the Living Dead, most of us - Zombies!  Ah ha ha ha ha - To force ourselves awake?  To take control?  I tell you - not so easy.

		Listen my dear, you renew me, and I know that I please you, fascinate you little bit.  I see it in your face.  Isn't that something?  Isn't that enough?  I want us to be mutual.  Whether we meet or not...to be friends...whether we make love or not...to be friends.  But not to possess, exclusive...

			APRIL
		Oh it's fine for you.

			FRANZ
		What do you mean!  I am Old!  What do you want, that I become obsessed with you...go round with a carving knife every time I see you talking with a young man - I know all about jealousy, believe me.

			APRIL
		Well anyway I daresay you've more then enough handmaidens ready to make a fuss of you.

			FRANZ
		You want to join them?  Sit in the sun, become the guardian of the great man, of the shrine - is that what you want?

			APRIL
		I don't know.  I daresay I could make myself useful.

			FRANZ
		Oh yah.  And wouldn't you do it well, my dear, writing up the notes, so unselfish, never answering back when I shout so they all pity you...totally indispensable...and evaporating completely into Franz.  Do you know what I say to that?  I say - get off!  Get off me!  Get off my back and stop choking me, I can't breathe!

			APRIL
		I haven't said a word!  What are you talking about, I don't want anything from you, it's ridiculous!

			FRANZ
		Can I give you marriage, children - it's what you want!

			APRIL
		Nothing of the sort!

			FRANZ
		I'm telling you, if you stay here to stroke Franz for the last years of his life you'll be past it.  I am a beautiful, attractive man, but a little old for you.  You need a young man of forty to father your kids.

			APRIL
		If I get any.

			FRANZ
		Your mother managed, poor, deprived lady you so want to be like.  She even managed to sing!  April, when we are small those around us force a shape on us to suit themselves.  We have to find ourselves again, re-inhabit the city.  We have to take charge.

			APRIL
		I think I'm perfectly capable of that.

			FRANZ
		No, no, not with discipline, force - with love, imagination!  Discover...create your own life.  Create circumstance for it to happen.  Insist.  Only by making appropriate demand can we be truly unselfish.

			APRIL
		Nonsense, we have to deny ourselves, otherwise we'd be monsters -

			FRANZ
		Does a tree deny itself?  Does a cloud?  A cloud is not selfish, it seeks only its place - not the place of others, nor more than one place.  It lives...here...now.

		If you think that by sitting very still, hoping that nothing will come and eat you...if you think that by this you make no demands, you are mistaken.  You demand enormously.  We all have to find our Kingdoms.  Do you want to be like the boy Kay, with splinters of ice in his heart?  Like the Snow Queen?

He crosses to her, bends over, and shouts, very loud, into her face.

			FRANZ
		Wake Up!!!

Then he kisses her tenderly.

			FRANZ
		I...your Prince Charming...kiss you awake.

Despite herself she smiles up at him, entranced.  He takes her hand.

			FRANZ
		April, those around us are not houses to be lived in, meals to be eaten.  But neither are they fearful forests...deadly swamps.  And nor...and this is most important for you...nor are they some race of gods and goddesses with access and rights to some privileged existence from which you are both unqualified and forever exiled.  To live free you must - ach!  (He strikes himself heavily on the chest.)

			APRIL
		(Alarmed)  What's the matter?

			FRANZ
		Must...Should...I am telling you what to do, I am giving you Solutions, the thing I most hate!  (He kisses her hand.)  Don't listen to Franz.  Listen to yourself - listen to April, let April speak.  Only you can make your life.  Only you.

			APRIL
		You make it sound as if we're all on our own.

			FRANZ
		Well aren't we?  We arrive alone, we leave alone.  A little participation in between.  When we face this, that there is no insurance, then we can enjoy our lives, no?

		A bit of heart...that's all......

He suddenly seems very tired, and old.  A long pause.

			FRANZ
		God, I could eat a buffalo.  I'm hungry!

			APRIL
		I'll get you something.

But she sits, thoughtful, playing with the skirt of her dress.

			APRIL
		Yes but -

			FRANZ
		Forget the buts...forget the buts...

			APRIL
		Oh!  (She gets up)  What do you feel like?

			FRANZ
		Anything.  A lot.

APRIL goes.  PAULA enters, in merry mood.

			PAULA
		Here I come, ready or no!
			FRANZ
		Oh my God.

			PAULA
		What's the matter, don't you feel in the mood?  Listen, I promised, and you're gonna get it!

			FRANZ
		What about - why don't you go find Max -

			PAULA
		I already did.

			FRANZ
		Yah?  How was it?

			PAULA
		I blew it.  He thinks we're engaged.

			FRANZ
		You mean you seduced him?...but I told you not to -

			PAULA
		Yeah, well you know how it is...look, let's forget -

			FRANZ
		My God, I'm going to have to listen to him for days, and he's so boring!

			PAULA
		I'll take your mind right off it -

			FRANZ
		No, Paula, please...please darling, I'm very tired - it's my heart, I think it's my heart -

			PAULA
		I know the very thing for it...(she begins to grope).

			FRANZ
		Believe me, Paula, believe me,...nothing would please me more -

		Paula, this is so embarrassing for me...

APRIL returns with a large tray piled high with food and drink for the two of them.  She stops short.

FRANZ looks up, gives her a silly little smile and a gallant wave of the hand.

PAULA lifts her head and sees the tray.

			PAULA
		(Shrieks)  Food!  You managed to get near the food, how d'you do it, you're a genius, fantastic!  Here, lemmee take the tray - boy, it's a feast...(To FRANZ)...come on, baby, this'll give you strength...(To APRIL)...you got some pie, great!

			PAULA (Cont’d)
		Here, baby...(she ties a napkin round FRANZ'S neck.)

APRIL stands motionless as PAULA sets down the food, draws up a low table, arranges the food for the three of them, getting glasses, and pouring swiftly.  She grabs a piece of pie and throws herself down on the further side of FRANZ, offering him food.

APRIL stands.

FRANZ looks up at her and pats the vacant space beside him, his other hand about PAULA'S waist.  It is an indication of the space rather than a positive invitation for APRIL to sit.

APRIL looks down at the space contemplatively.  Then, moving slightly stiffly, she approaches the seat and looks down at FRANZ.  He looks up at her with a neutral expression.

Slowly, delicately, arranging her skirt, APRIL sits by his side.  He puts his other arm about her as PAULA puts food into his mouth.

On the P/A, a violent burst of Hendrix.  APRIL leans forward, takes a piece of pie, puts it down again as a thought occurs.  She turns to FRANZ.  He turns to her.

			APRIL
		Do you know something?

			FRANZ
		What?  (He raises his voice above the music.)  What?

			APRIL
		I've just thought - (She gazes into space, picks up the piece of pie.  She turns to him, her face urgent.)

		Most people have awful lives!

			PAULA
		What?

			FRANZ
		What did you say?

The music finishes just before she speaks.

			APRIL
		(Shouts)  I said...

She modifies her voice in the sudden silence.

			APRIL
		I said...most people have awful lives.

She speaks as though she has made a wondrous discovery.  He turns and gazes at her.   They regard each other.

			FRANZ
		No.  (He shakes his head...speaks, after a pause.)  We said, if we had a daughter, Ilse and I, we would call her Joy.  I always liked that word.

			APRIL
		Joy?  Yes.  Simple and straightforward.

He smiles briefly at her reaction, leans forward, strikes his chest.

			FRANZ
		And here - in here!  A beautiful emotion - joy - for all - not just the privileged but for sharing, yah?

APRIL looks at him, nods slowly.  They smile at each other, well pleased with their evening.  He puts an arm around her.  PAULA looks up, and snuggles into his other side as he extends an arm.

THE END.