Diane Stubbings - The Parricide

FEDYA wins again—

FEDYA: See—

But with each win he loses a little more self-control.

MITYA: You’re a brave man. A brave man who dares do nothing.

FEDYA: She’s with your father.

MITYA: You think you can make me kill him? Make me run there and strike his brains out? No. It’s her I’d kill. Or myself. Anything to stop this craving…

The torment of believing the woman you want is in another man’s bed. The only thing, brother, we’ve ever had in common.

MITYA exits.

In a rush, FEDYA places his bet—it’s all he has.

The wheel stops.

ELENA ’s flat.

FEDYA barges in. He is agitated.

FEDYA: Are they lovers?

ELENA: Who?

FEDYA: Anna and Kolya.

ELENA: This is what you’ve rushed here to ask me?

FEDYA: Are they lovers?

ELENA: What difference to you if they are?

We see MITYA throwing rocks against the wall of his father’s house.

FEDYA: Where were you last night?

ELENA: With a man—

FEDYA: You taunt me with your men—?

ELENA: You fret about your secretary—?

FEDYA: About her loyalty—

MITYA: Where is she?

We hear commotion on the streets. See the shadows of people running.

ELENA: I like to be with men who aren’t scared of what Russia might be. That was you once upon a time. Or was it just your way of seducing me?

FEDYA: It was you who seduced me.

ELENA: I was an honest wife when I met you. Not an idea of straying.

FEDYA: Then you shouldn’t have struck me.

ELENA: I struck you because you deserved it.

FEDYA: It was an invitation.

ELENA: A rejection.

A beat.

She slaps him. She slaps him again—fiercely. He takes her.

As they make love, MITYA throws the rocks more emphatically.

MITYA: Where. Is. She?

While MITYA continues throwing rocks, fires spread across the city.

The fires rage.

Sounds of chaos as people panic, the LANDLADY ’s broom banging incessantly against her ceiling. Her cries of God Save Us! etc.

Then sudden, stark silence. A beat of darkness.

The sound of a ball going around a roulette wheel at a furious pace.

We see KARAKOZOV . He has a gun—he is aiming it. He shoots.

KARAKOZOV surrenders.

The LANDLADY ’s broom.

LANDLADY: [ off ] They’ve shot the Tsar!

Are you there, Fyodor Mikhailovich?!

They’ve shot the Tsar.

Pounding. Loud. Slow. Steady.

FEDYA ’s flat.

The room is in shadow.

FEDYA sits at his table. He is lost in thought. Almost catatonic.

MITYA and GRUSHENKA together.

MITYA: If they come…?

GRUSHENKA: They won’t…

MITYA: If he’s dead?

GRUSHENKA: It wasn’t you.

MITYA: It’s all been fixed.

No-one else will be suspected.

GRUSHENKA: You didn’t kill him.

MITYA: But the freedom. The freedom I felt when I heard it was done. That he was dead. My father dead. At last. The exhilaration. Like a new life…

I wanted it. Wanted him dead. Wanted it with every cell of my being.

GRUSHENKA: You can’t be hung for a wish.

FEDYA: He killed his father…

GRUSHENKA: [ to FEDYA] He was here. With me./ I’ll tell anyone who asks.

FEDYA: He killed his father. He must’ve done. He must have. Or I don’t know what this is.

A commotion outside. Heavy footsteps. Loud voices.

The pounding, loud again. Deafening.

It morphs into the banging of the LANDLADY ’s broom.

LANDLADY: [ off ] Hide everything, Fyodor Mikhailovich! They’re coming for you! They’re coming!

OFFICERS barge into the room. As they open the door, some light comes into the flat. The OFFICERS roughly open the shutters, lighting the room even more.

FEDYA is alone. He can do nothing but watch helplessly as the OFFICERS ransack his flat, searching through every book, every piece of paper.

GRUSHENKA transitions into ELENA ; MITYA transitions into KOLYA.

[KOLYA]: Karakozov missed.

The hand of God had intervened.

He recedes.

[ELENA]: When word that the Tsar lived made its way through the streets, the people fell down on their knees in thanks. And there they stayed.

The Commission set up to investigate the shooting—the fires—was given unprecedented powers. And all in the name of avenging the Tsar.

She recedes.

The OFFICERS are finished. Just FEDYA alone in his room. It is utter chaos.

The banging of the broom.

LANDLADY: [ off ] Are you there, Fyodor Mikhailovich?

The broom again.

Fyodor Mikhailovich, are you alive?

FEDYA: I’m here.

A beat.

LANDLADY: [ off ] I have tea. It’s hot. Come and share it.

A long beat.

FEDYA exits.

KOLYA ’s office.

FEDYA enters, sees that ANNA is there with KOLYA.

FEDYA: She tells you my secrets and you tell the Third Section.

KOLYA: What are you talking about?

FEDYA: [ to ANNA] I trusted you—

KOLYA: Stop this—

FEDYA: [ to ANNA] How much did you tell him?

ANNA: Nothing—

FEDYA: Then why did the dogs tear my flat apart—?

KOLYA: I warned you—

FEDYA: That you’d go running to the Third Section the first chance you could—?

KOLYA: What would I tell the Third Section—?

FEDYA: [ to ANNA] What did you tell him—?

KOLYA: What interest could I possibly have in putting your life in danger?

FEDYA: Oh, don’t believe a woman’s tears…

KOLYA: That mad student is likely sitting in his prison cell reeling off the names of every person he’s ever met. You think your name’s not going to come up?

FEDYA: [ to ANNA] What did you tell him?

ANNA: Nothing.

A long beat. FEDYA stares at ANNA.

No longer able to hold his gaze, she looks away.

FEDYA: What other business do you have with him, eh? Apart from my life—?

KOLYA: She wants to help you./ We both do—

FEDYA: You were due at 10. Yet today of all days/ you stay away.

ANNA: I’ve been there at 10 for the last three days. And no answer./ Never an answer.

KOLYA: Because she can never find you,/ that’s why she’s here—

FEDYA: You knew the dogs were coming./ That they’d tear my flat apart—

KOLYA: She came here begging me to find you—

FEDYA: It’s over—

ANNA: Please, Fyodor Mikhailovich—

FEDYA: Let them take all I have. Let them put me in the debtor’s prison. I don’t care. I don’t care. If I never write another word… it’s you who’ll bear the blame.

FEDYA exits.

A dark alleyway. FEDYA has no idea where he is. He is uncertain which way to go.

ALYOSHA is with him.

ALYOSHA: What will happen to Mitya?

FEDYA: Let me be. I don’t want this—

ALYOSHA: What will happen to him?

FEDYA: It’s done. Finished.

ALYOSHA: You know where he’ll be sent. You know that/ he won’t survive.

FEDYA: Let. Me. Be.

I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what it’s meant to be. What it’s doing to me.