Doris Lessing - Play With a Tiger and Other Plays

ANNA: Miss Stevens, do let’s stop this. Listen to me. I haven’t seen Dave for weeks. Is that what you came here to find out?

JANET: I know that you are such old friends. He talks about you a great deal.

ANNA: I’ve no doubt he does. [ She waits for JANET to go on, then goes on herself .] There’s a hoary psychological joke – if I can use the word joke for a situation like this – about the way the betrayed women of the heartless libertine get together to lick their wounds – have you come here to make common cause with me over Dave? Because forgive me for saying so, but I don’t think you and I have anything in common but the fact we’ve both slept with Dave. And that is not enough for the basis of a beautiful friendship.

JANET: No! It wasn’t that at all, I came because … [ she stops ]

ANNA: I see. Then you’ve come because you’re pregnant. Well, how far have you got?

JANET: Five months.

ANNA: I see. And you haven’t told him.

ANNA: I knew if I told him he’d give me money and … well I love him. It would be good for him to have some responsibility wouldn’t it?

ANNA: I see.

JANET: Yes, I know how it looks, trapping a man. But when I was pregnant I was so happy, and only afterwards I thought – yes, I know how it looks, trapping a man, but he said he loved me, he said he loved me.

ANNA: But why come and tell me? [ as JANET doesn’t answer ] He’s ditched you, is that it?

JANET: No! Of course he hasn’t. [ cracking ] I haven’t seen him in days. I haven’t seen him. Where is he, you’ve got to tell me where he is. I’ve got to tell him about the baby.

ANNA: But I don’t know where he is.

JANET: You have to tell me. When he knows about the baby he’ll … [ as ANNA shrugs ] Ah come on now, who do you think you’re kidding? Well I’ve got his baby, you haven’t. You can’t do anything about that, can you. I’ve got his baby, I’ve got him.

ANNA: Very likely.

JANET: But what can I do? I want to be married. I’m just an ordinary girl and I want to be married, what’s wrong with that?

ANNA: There’s nothing wrong with that. But I haven’t seen Dave, and I don’t know where he is, and so there’s nothing I can do. [ finally ] And you shouldn’t have come to me.

[JANET goes out. ]

ANNA [ almost in tears ]: Oh Christ. [ stopping the tears, angrily ] Damn. Damn.

[ She goes to window. At once MARY comes in. ]

MARY: Well who was she? [ANNA turns her back to hide her face from MARY.] Was she one of Dave’s girls? [ANNA nods. MARY moves so that she can see ANNA’S face. ] Well, you knew there was one, didn’t you? [ANNA nods. ] Well, then? [ANNA nods. ]

ANNA: All right, Mary.

[MARY is in a jubilant mood. She has been flirting with HARRY. Now, seeing ANNA is apparently all right, she says what she came in to say. ]

MARY: Harry and I are going out. There’s a place he knows we can get drinks. I told him you wouldn’t be interested. [ The telephone starts ringing. ] Aren’t you going to answer it? [ as ANNA shakes her head ] Odd, we’ve known each other all these years. He’s really sweet, Harry. You can say what you like, but it’s nice to have a man to talk to for a change – after all, how many men are there you can really talk to? [ The telephone stops. ] Anna, what are you in this state for?

ANNA: What I can’t stand is, the way he makes use of me. Do you know Mary, all this time he’s been letting her know I’m in the background?

MARY: Well you are, aren’t you?

ANNA: ‘But Janet, you must understand this doesn’t mean anything, because the woman I really love is Anna.’ He’s not even married to me, but he uses me as Harry uses Helen.

MARY: [ not wanting to hear anything against HARRY at this moment ] Oh I don’t know. After all, perhaps Helen doesn’t mind. They’ve been married so long.

ANNA: It really is remarkable how all Dave’s young ladies turn up here sooner or later. He talks about me – oh, quite casually, of course, until they go round the bend with frustration and curiosity, and they just have to come up to see what the enemy looks like. Well I can’t be such a bitch as all that, because I didn’t say, ‘My dear Miss Stevens, you’re the fifth to pay me a social call in three years.’

MARY: But you have been engaged to Tom.

ANNA: Yes. All right.

MARY: It’s funny, me and Harry knowing each other for so long and then suddenly …

ANNA: Mary! The mood Harry’s in somebody’s going to get hurt.

MARY: It’s better to get hurt than to live shut up.

ANNA: After losing that little poppet of his to matrimony he’ll be looking for solace.

MARY [ offended ]: Why don’t you concern yourself with Tom? Or with Dave? Harry’s not your affair. I’m just going out with him. [ as she goes out ] Nice to have a night out for a change, say what you like.

[ The telephone rings. ANNA snatches off the receiver, wraps it in a blanket, throws it on the bed.

ANNA: I’m not talking to you, Dave Miller, you can rot first.

[ She goes to the record player, puts on Mahalia Jackson’s ‘I’m on My Way’, goes to the mirror, looks into it. This is a long antagonistic look. ]

ANNA [ to her reflection ]: All right then, I do wear well.

[ She goes deliberately to a drawer, takes out a large piece of black cloth, unfolds it, drapes it over the mirror. ]

ANNA [ to the black cloth ]: And a fat lot of good that does me.

[ She now switches out the light. The room is tall, shadowy, with two patterns of light from the paraffin heaters reflected on the ceiling. She goes to the window, flings it up. ]

ANNA [ to the man on the pavement ]: You poor fool, why don’t you go upstairs, the worst that can happen is that the door will be shut in your face.

[ A knock on the door – a confident knock. ]

ANNA: If you come in here, Dave Miller …

[DAVE comes in. He is crew cut, wears a sloppy sweater and jeans. Carries a small duffle bag. ANNA turns her back and looks out of the window. DAVE stops the record player. He puts the telephone receiver back on the rest. Turns on the light. ]

DAVE: Why didn’t you answer the telephone?

ANNA: Because I have nothing to say.

DAVE [ in a parody of an English upper-middle-class voice ]: I see no point at all in discussing it.

ANNA [in the same voice ]: I see no point at all in discussing it.

[DAVE stands beside ANNA at the window. ]

DAVE [ in the easy voice of their intimacy ]: I’ve been in the telephone box around the corner ringing you.

ANNA: Did you see my visitor?

DAVE: No.

ANNA: What a pity.

DAVE: I’ve been standing in the telephone box ringing you and watching that poor bastard on the pavement.

ANNA: He’s there every night. He comes on his great black dangerous motor bike. He wears a black leather jacket and big black boots. He looks like an outrider for death in a Cocteau film – and he has the face of a frightened little boy.

DAVE: It’s lurve, it’s lurve, it’s lurve.

ANNA: It’s love.

[ Now they stare at each other, antagonists, and neither gives way. DAVE suddenly grins and does a mocking little dance step. He stands grinning at her. ANNA hits him as hard as she can. He staggers. He goes to the other side of the carpet, where he sits cross-legged, his face in his hands. ]