Doris Lessing - Play With a Tiger and Other Plays

CHAIRMAN: Delighted to see you all.

GUARDIAN: Do come in.

SECRETARY: You are more than welcome.

DELEGATES: Hear, hear. Yes. Of course. Welcome.

ONE OF THE GROUP: Oh, I’m so glad. We thought we might not believe it.

CHAIRMAN: No, no, we think every Level should be represented. Every one, mark you, including Levels 50 to 100. You will all be welcome at the Ceremony. And indeed, we were just about to start the rehearsal for tomorrow.

GUARDIAN: And it is time to start. Do join us.

[ He stands facing the pile of machinery, as if heading a procession. The DELEGATES and officers start forming behind him. ]

ONE OF THE GROUP: But why does there have to be a Ceremony? Aren’t we just going to walk right out?

[ This person, then others of the group, look at the Door propped up on the altar, look at each other, shake their heads, then start looking around. One sees the big Door right, indicates it to the others. This group moves over towards it. ]

CHAIRMAN: Doctor, you have some more patients.

FOURTH PRECEPT: I’m glad you made it. But be quiet. Don’t argue. Don’t fight.

[ This new group, the FOURTH PRECEPT, his two allies, are now close to the big Door. It is hard now to doubt that it is brighter. And surely the humming sound is louder. ]

FIRST LOW-LEVELLER: I’ve never seen any of that lot before.

THIRD LOW-LEVELLER: I wonder what Level they are from?

ONE OF THE NEW GROUP: We come from all the Levels. Not just from one.

FOURTH LOW-LEVELLER: Are you from ‘The Door Will Open Soon’ Society?

ANOTHER OF THE NEW GROUP: From all the societies.

ANOTHER: Or from none.

GUARDIAN: Shouldn’t we be getting on? Chairman?

CHAIRMAN: Of course. Assistant to the Guardian of the Door …

[ One of the DELEGATES whose function this is starts shepherding members of the Conference, and the LOW-LEVELLERS, into a neater line behind the GUARDIAN. He hands them garlands of plastic and paper flower. ]

GUARDIAN: I’ll just run through my opening lines. [ as if delivering a sennon, but rather fast ] Many thousands of years ago, no one knows how many, a natural disaster or a war sealed us in this Under Place. We understand from the old records that a few survivors, known to us as The First People, laid the basis of this our society, excavating the First Level of the Under City. Water supplies were discovered and ensured, and the cultivation of mushrooms, our staple food, begun. The Sacred Machines were placed here, at the gate of the Outside, for it was revealed to the First People that it will be the Sacred Machines which will announce to the Door the moment it must open … Etcetera and so on.

A DELEGATE: Lovely old stuff, isn’t it?

ANOTHER: I’ve done this so often I could do it in my sleep.

ANOTHER: If the Door did actually open some of us would get the shock of our lives.

ANOTHER: We take it for granted there is something outside.

ANOTHER: Speak for yourself. I, for my part, am quite sure there is not.

ANOTHER: My attitude is that since we don’t know, we should keep an open mind.

ANOTHER: Then why are you in this Ceremony at all? It is just hypocrisy.

CHAIRMAN: Nonsense, it is part of our ethic. Part of the fabric of our society.

DELEGATE: It does no harm and it may do some good.

SECRETARY: Refusing to take part in the Ceremony creates a disturbance. It is anti-social. It just draws attention to yourself, that’s all.

GUARDIAN: Your reasons for being here are not important. There are many paths to the Door. [ to his ASSISTANT] The regalia?

ASSISTANT: Here. [ He hands GUARDIAN the regalia, and assists him – a plastic smock with silver lightning flashes, a mitre, a small transistor radio in one hand, a telephone in the other. The latter is a child’s toy, in a bright colour. ]

GUARDIAN: I think that’s all. Assistant?

ASSISTANT: Lights. Lights. Turn down the lights.

[A TECHNICIAN vainly clicks switches on the side of the computer. ]

TECHNICIAN: Sorry, but they don’t seem to work. I’ve turned off the usual number of lights but it is no darker.

FOURTH PRECEPT: Look at the Door.

A MEDICAL ATTENDANT: It’s much brighter.

DOCTOR: It’s an optical illusion.

[ But now there is no doubt that the Door is brighter. ]

ONE OF THE NEW GROUP: It’s getting brighter all the time.

GUARDIAN: Well, never mind. I’m sure the technicians will get everything right in time.

ANOTHER OF THE NEW GROUP: ‘Wait and watch for the sudden time,

The song that’s bright,

The singing light.’

[ASSISTANT TO THE GUARDIAN tries to push FIRST and SECOND LOW-LEVELLERS to the back of the procession. They resist. He tries with the THIRD and FOURTH LOW-LEVELLERS.]

FIRST LOW-LEVELLER: You don’t seem to have got the point. Those days are over.

ASSISTANT: Everyone has to go where he is allocated.

FOURTH LOW-LEVELLER: No. Take your hands off.

CHAIRMAN: Move up here, behind me. We have got the point, I assure you.

[ASSISTANT pushes FIRST and SECOND LOW-LEVELLERS up to the head of the procession behind GUARDIAN.]

THIRD LOW-LEVELLER: Very nice.

ASSISTANT: You can’t all four be up at the front.

GUARDIAN: Of course they can. The youth are our most precious possession, the gold of our future. Let them come.

[ASSISTANT pushes THIRD and FOURTH into the procession behind FIRST and SECOND LOW-LEVELLERS.]

THIRD LOW-LEVELLER: I’m sorry, but our status is just as relevant as their status.

FOURTH LOW-LEVELLER: It’s not fair to those we represent.

ASSISTANT [ to FIRST and SECOND LOW-LEVELLERS]: I am sure you are much too mature to mind. [ He pushes THIRD and FOURTH in front of them. ]

FIRST LOW-LEVELLER: No, I’m sorry. That won’t do.

SECOND LOW-LEVELLER: It’s the principle of the thing.

A DELEGATE: What is that noise?

[ All now look at the big Door, now glowing brilliantly. But is it responsible for that soft deep note? ]

THE SAME DELEGATE: Remember the old saying:

‘When the Door begins to sing,

That’s a sign of coming spring.’

GUARDIAN: We all know these old tales. But remember, there is no agreement about their origin.

ONE OF THE NEW GROUP: The First People left them for us as a signpost.

A DELEGATE: No. My father, and he was an expert in the field, said they were anonymous. They come spontaneously from the populace.

A DELEGATE: What is spring?

ANOTHER: They say that Outside it is beautiful in spring.

ANOTHER: What is beautiful? We all use the word, but what does it mean?

ANOTHER: Anything gets called beautiful.

ANOTHER: It was flowers and leaves. [ holding up some paper flowers ] Like this.

GUARDIAN: We have flowers and leaves.

THE DELEGATE WITH THE FATHER: My father said spring was a metaphor.

ANOTHER: My grandfather who was an expert said that flowers and leaves Outside are not like this, they are made of flesh.

THE DELEGATES, VARIOUSLY: Oh how disgusting. Revolting. Horrible. Repulsive. Ugh!

DELEGATE WITH THE GRANDFATHER: My grandfather had the theory that the word spring meant when Outside was covered all over with live tissue in different colours. You know, like our flesh, but different.

A DELEGATE [ shuddering ]: Like a sort of cancer.

DELEGATE: That would take a lot of getting used to for a start.

ANOTHER: That’s what I’ve always said. I mean, we take it for granted that Outside would be better than here. But, ugh, flowers and leaves made of flesh, living flowers and leaves, I mean to say. [ He looks as if he is going to be sick. ]