ACT 1, scene ii, p12

KEN Goodnight, Dulcie [exit]

RANDOLPH Now, where was I?

DULCIE upstairs, now will you join with us?

RANDOLPH come then – and quickly. But dance for me first-

[DULCIE dances for RANDOLPH, the CHORUS accompanying with movement and harmonies to PAN’s flute. The song and dancing reaches a frenzy before the night ends with everyone asleep in the bar. Enter GUIDO from upstairs.]

GUIDO I’m here to stay, no chance I’m leaving all this for that kid to take. He’s fragrant, that one. Less than the full deck. So they just hand over the keys and tell me to piss off west. Lay low? I don’t think that’s quite right. I got a stake in this too. I made plans in my time. Can’t leave that behind, so I’ve been creeping in between the walls, keeping eyes and ears on them that want what’s mine. There’s a secret spot in the roof I’m camped upstairs. No one knows I’m there. No one cares. Hiding out I listen deep and find out the secrets others keep.

[he takes off his hat at the bar, pours himself a drink]

Like this package I hear tell young Lionel’s retrieving from the wharves. I know what’s in it pure as driven snow- the powders we use to keep control, when things get too much. That stuff. I heard it’s s’posed to come through to Frank, but the old lady doesn’t know about it. Well what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her yet. That yank- seems to have lost his rocker, since the other night he talks no sense and walks around half-dressed. I can’t imagine he’ll report – if his package happens to miss its prompt delivery, eh? If it happens to go missing while I’m out of town – who’d catch the blame? I’m starving there up in my hidey-hole, ears pressed to the other side of the ceiling while my stomach growls. Now while it’s dark I can sneak past to find some crusty bread or off-soup. What’s this? The nightly till unkept. An omen? I should pocket it for my suffering. I should plant the seeds of doubt and theft. Too many times I held my tongue, now silence is all they might hear from Guido.

[He empties the till. SHARON wakes up and sees him in the act.]

SHARON Guido!

GUIDO Fuck- oh fuck it’s you. Shh.

SHARON what are you doing here?

GUIDO don’t fuck’n say a word. I never left. Here – take this and give it out to the whores. And get me some proper food, leave it out on the upstairs balcony. You never saw me.

SHARON what’s all this?

GUIDO I got a plan. But I have to stay in hiding- where better than right under their noses? Trust me it’s the last place they’ll look. Just keep your trap – nice and tight. Right?

SHARON Guido when are you coming back?

GUIDO I’ll be listening in upstairs. You listen in down here. Alright love?

SHARON she wakes! Go- [exit GUIDO upstairs] … I know too much.

[SHARON hides the money. KAY wakes up.]

ACT I, scene ii, p11

[PAN suddenly stops playing his pipe]

RANDOLPH There was a time when I might deliver wrath at such a claim. The stories have been told. But I was younger then. Now I know there is as much to learn from disbelief as any truth you can name. So I will talk, not punish. That night we met I marked you as a man of learning. As you witnessed my transformation I confess, this notebook came into my possession somehow. I return it to you now.

KEN my notes – why?

RANDOLPH that I might glance upon the type of mind that inhabits this earth. Since last I woke, things have changed

KEN I have gone mad trying to find this.

RANDOLPH it carries your many varied thoughts. These things which put form to truths some dare not speak. A poet, yes? Your words carry our stories too, strangely fashioned into your own. You carry the sacred blessing, Slessor.

KEN I can’t deny what I do not see, nor can I believe.

RANDOLPH and you cannot see the wind except for how it cuts through life. Mostly over your head I might think! It matters not. Once I would have been angry with this unbeliever – but all I can see is me. Standing before you-

KEN Even images are just tools – let’s say you’re speaking the truth. That body is just an expression of an idea- a reflection to project. God cannot exist outside our minds.

RANDOLPH Yes, an idea, I am just that – one of many, brought into flesh. One that persists without your knowing nods. In any case, knowledge is a vastly overrated practice. Old as I am, what else should I know of this upside down earth? Eh? It is much to fathom this world can shift so far in – how long have I slept?

PAN about two thousand years, sire.

RANDOLPH is that a lot?

PAN It is if you’re awake.

RANDOLPH but dreams strip away in a moment what seems like years of learning. I care not for wisdom suffered through sophistry and reason. A toast to foolishness! Hah!

PAN not all of them are able to hear us in the ways we are used to.

RANDOLPH how does he hear us then? How do you hear us?

KEN I’m not sure what you mean.

RANDOLPH Pah! Meaning is the stuff of philosophers’ futile raving, eh? You, poet have the gift of vision – but furiously reason against the muse. Something you may already feel pressed against you. enclosing your mind, wet, sharp and howling like the wind. But still.

KEN what is it you want to know exactly?

RANDOLPH I do not suffer wants, mortal, I dream, it becomes my will. Your choice is yet to come.

CHORUS You hear us now as you have heard us many nights. Reaching. For what? To embrace the unknowable. The imagined. Security in a truth that fits the world you do see?

RANDOLPH You may see the gods as mythical, friend – and you would be right to worship reason as gospel and here I stand tall against such unanswerable gains of science, but these steel machines you ride have no such power as Olympus once regained. And I ask you this one thing- may your answer be truer than the soundest bell-

[The women of the CHORUS are undressing him in a comely manner. RANDOLPH increasingly becomes distracted by them]

KEN ask me what?

RANDOLPH Ah – where was I?

PAN The question, sire-

RANDOLPH Question?

KEN You were asking me a question-

RANDOLPH Well, let’s have it?

KEN Have what?

RANDOLPH Eh?

KEN I’m not following you.

RANDOLPH Good, good. For you must lead your own path.

KEN On that note- I’ll leave you to your riddles.

RANDOLPH it is so

KEN and thanks for my notebook. We can talk of this another day. Goodnight, Dulcie [exit]

ACT I, scene ii, p10

[enter PAN & RANDOLPH, the CHORUS begins to surround him]

DULCIE My lord!

KATIE where is that fucker anyway?

RANDOLPH ahha! Sweet choral relief – surround me

FRANK Guido?

KATIE no the other fucker – Len.

RANDOLPH come unto my girth

FRANK I got him working down at the wharf for a few nights.

KATIE what for?

PAN Your wine, sire.

FRANK I just need some eyes and ears. It’s no drama

KATIE better not be.

RANDOLPH dance with my desire. Touch the ring-

KATIE Just keep it tight. You. New girl, why you lingering over here?

RANDOLPH listen to the moonlight sing across the night.

KATIE Go with the others.

KAY No- I just heard you talking about Lionel.

FRANK what you want with him?

KAY Where is he?

FRANK He’ll be back, never you mind.

KATIE go on then. Find your friends. Watch that one. Questions don’t agree with this business. [KAY goes back] I get the sense she’s getting up above her station. Plus, she’s not been schooled in by Guido yet. Keep her close. Get Sharon across it. I don’t like you send out our barman on while the spick is out of town, but it’s good young Len is out of the way for now. Good kid, but soft, and not too bright. In future – just tell me when you start some private mission.

FRANK it’s an easy job- just a pick up.

KATIE I don’t need to know every top and tail. Just remember we’re in lockdown til the leather backs off on this murder case. Yeah?

FRANK not a problem

KATIE [referring to the chalkboard] that meant to be fuck’n funny?

FRANK it’s a play on words, i think.

KATIE I’m upstairs for the night. And I will take the bar tomorrow morning. Keep our guests happy will you?

FRANK ‘night Kate. [she goes up] Get some rest.

[FRANK gestures to SHARON among the group of women to join him, she does so and he whispers to her, she looks back over at KAY and smiles assent. FRANK returns behind the bar and pours a round. RANDOLPH dances with DULCIE to gentle music played by the CHORUS accompanying PAN. FRANK continues pouring drinks for himself and KEN, placing an amount of cocaine to share with the CHORUS, who move between their stations and the bar in a cycle syncopated with the dialogue. KEN and DULCIE refuse the drug but drink instead.]

RANDOLPH Where is my queen?

DULCIE Am I not she?

RANDOLPH I would not proceed without her by my seed. Too easily you wink- it carries no taste of triumph yet, I smell victory. A monarch’s scent is ripe, potent, poisonous – yours is sweet. Step back, it overpowers such a lasting trace. What leads upstairs to she who rules these streets?

DULCIE am I rejected?

RANDOLPH there are many at some high standing as yourself, of great esteem to those of poetry, perhaps. But would you challenge she? We have been close and still, I can never abandon you entirely, such is my way, to share! Now forgive, for I must attend.

DULCIE As you desire.

KEN wait a moment, I would ask you something. How can you lay claim to this? By what trick have you taken hold of these women’s will?

RANDOLPH my good man! You recall the hour on which we met, yes?

KEN and my friend Dulcie would hardly look upon you twice, then- yet here she’s at your feet.

RANDOLPH I was still weak, newborn into this slovenly sack of flesh. Not quite forgotten yet, and with belief comes our strength. My kind cannot abide doubt, you see. Even gods feel fear of becoming irrelevant…

KEN I can’t imagine why! For all your charm and likely dress- arrogance is still a human custom- you are not God.

[PAN suddenly stops playing his pipe]

ACT I, scene ii, p9

LIONEL R- S- T?

FRANK No just don’t fuck it up. Now get.

LIONEL I’m gone- [exit]

FRANK good. You right for a drink?

KEN wouldn’t hurt me.

FRANK you’re down here a lot this last week.

KEN good a place as any to get out of the heat.

FRANK this fuck’n little turd. I told him to fix that board. What’s this supposed to be?

KEN that’s partly me, I’ve been teaching him letters. We use the board for practising.

FRANK He can’t read?

KEN he’s getting there.

FRANK Fuck me Jesus.

KEN I’ll fix it. [picks up the chalk and considers the board for a moment before settling on the word ‘cuisine’ writ underneath ‘hot’.]

FRANK I’ll take that as a compliment-

KEN stretch of the imagination.

[enter DULCIE through the main door. Her clothes are stricken with bits of native plant life]

DULCIE I return ahead of those that come before-

KEN what’s happened to you? Where have you been?

DULCIE we took into the mountains, where I have been taught the ancient ways, where I communed with an immortal-

KEN You know I don’t believe in-

DULCIE Should seeing be enough you will know this truth- to learn mysteries so inexplicable as these, Ken – you would do well to cease your doubts and follow.

KEN what mysteries?

DULCIE elaboration is forbid.

KEN Forbid?

FRANK well this is all too fuck’n Greek to me, I’m going up to check our ladies’ progress. [he goes upstairs]

DULCIE I herald their return. You must learn as I have. Such things are not forgotten- quick pour some wine, I’m flushed. And more, we must prepare for the arrival. Any moment-

KEN what trick is this? Such men you speak that would have your service so quick, to submit is not in the style of your spirit, not the poet I know. Dulcie Deamer’s spirit’s free –

DULCIE irrepressible I know, and dancing on tables is just to show that squared off cities cannot contain my ways. Projections, devices, constructed personae to keep critics at my whim, to keep unwanted men from getting too far in. My wilder witty self could not bear the scrutiny of higher planes, of supernatural study such as I have not attained – until today.

KEN what is all this?

DULCIE the mystery of a woman’s soul is that she yearns for such release as only can be gained by another being’s control. I would run my own wilder ways and free, but just as a façade, my masks all slip away in the presence of a god.

KEN gods again? other planes-

DULCIE hush – their arrival is imminent.

KEN have a drink.

DULCIE any moment – sh!

[they wait. Enter KATIE through the main entrance.]

KATIE what’s all this? Where the fuck is everyone?

DULCIE they’re coming!

KATIE Frank! What’s going on down here? It’s six o’clock. [approaching the bar] You paying for those I hope-

[Enter FRANK from upstairs]

FRANK under control –

KATIE Where’s the barman? Where’s the girls?

FRANK Lenny’s on an errand for me, I’m covering.

KATIE don’t forget with the spic out of the picture we’re already short-handed

FRANK I’ve got it Kate.

[enter the CHORUS from upstairs]

KATIE should I even be asking this?

FRANK So it’s business as usual. Have a seat.

KATIE Don’t worry, I’ll do it myself.

[enter PAN & RANDOLPH, the CHORUS begins to surround him]

ACT I, scene ii, p8

KEN How long have we been at this?

LIONEL I dunno – week or so.

KEN Where were we?

LIONEL You were just about to tell me about ‘silent’ letters.

KEN no, fuck that. Let’s revise. Vowels?

LIONEL vowels, right – ‘A’

KEN on the board.

[LIONEL uses the blackboard to write up his letters]

LIONEL A –E –I –O -U

KEN good

LIONEL I remember those last three in particular

KEN yeah but the only thing you owe me is another drink for helping you out.

LIONEL pace yourself- still early you know

KEN ahh fuck yourself

LIONEL daily. For the road. I have to make a break for it in a minute. Help me with this can you? [he scrubs the blackboard clean]

KEN what do you want to say?

LIONEL just a sign for the counter lunch. Hot Food. Free grub, something like that.

KEN free grub? I think it sends out the wrong message. Keep it simple. Hot food.

LIONEL so how does that go?

KEN you tell me-

LIONEL well…

KEN sound it out

LIONEL Hhh- Ohh – T

KEN Hhh- right?

LIONEL Hhh- what’s that one again?

KEN Hhh – think

LIONEL [counts on his fingers] a-b-c-d-e-f-g- ache?

KEN this is painful- ‘H’

LIONEL ‘H’ – Ahah!

KEN now write it- then what?

LIONEL ache – Ohh

KEN ‘O’ – good

LIONEL Ache – Ohh – Tea

KEN right – ‘T’

LIONEL [writing] Ohh – Tea. Hot!

KEN second word.

LIONEL Food. Hm, ‘Ffff’ –

KEN ‘Ffff’

LIONEL ‘Ffff’- ‘oooo’

KEN yes?

LIONEL Ffff – Fuck this is doing my head in!

KEN don’t give up now you’re almost there-

LIONEL I’ve got it! [writes] H-O-T F-O-D.

KEN Christ. Close enough

LIONEL Eh?

[enter FRANK from upstairs]

FRANK gentlemen – what’s all this?

LIONEL I’ve fixed the sign, Frank!

FRANK I’ll fuck’n fix you if you aren’t down at the wharves tonight looking for my package.

LIONEL Sorry boss – I’m just about to go

FRANK it took a lot of swag to get you in down there. So mind your P’s and Q’s

LIONEL R- S- T?

ACT I, scene ii, p7

[LIONEL escorts CAPTAIN JONES through the back exit. KEN regards the letter for a beat, then speaks directly to the audience]

KEN This girl’s the sort – who’ll leave the window open but not the door. I don’t know how to tell this bastard how: he’s on a slow boat back to where he started. Not that it’s any of my business to poke around in. He’s the barman, I should be telling him my problems, not listening to his. As it happens, I got my own. Lost my notebook for start. I’ll come back and look for it again tomorrow. It’s a good place, this hole in the ground. Kings Cross and misfits still laughing. You know, it wouldn’t be so bad to lose – the city blazes with ideas every place I look. This book is just a few marked down shorthand so I don’t have to remember. Or was it so I can forget? Ah- doesn’t matter there’s plenty more where that came from, all up here – right? Bugger that. I can’t unblock a thing. Not since Joe – I need that book if I could just get at it- the verse might flow again

[pours another drink] I’ll come back and find it next week.

He drowned you know. It’s hard to lose a friend, worse when pain that will not end bars any words for expression. I blunt such edges night after next and the blades return still keen to sting – why, Joe? Did you have to cross the black harbour night? To leave me here– to leave for nowhere. Such a young and burning mind to fall into saltwater mouths. I’ll still come back and find you, I’ll not forget. I can’t write it yet. Can’t express. You drunken prick, Joe – to haunt me in this bar still. With that face. You keep the words you took and grin at me in the dark – I’ll look to some distraction in your stead. Fucker. [still drinking, he toasts the ringing bells off in the distance] So I come back, day-to-day and teach this kid his letters, read aloud so they might run into words and words into letters again. Some stranger combination of the things I forget. My sentence is I come back each day to turn away from my lost friend. And drown myself in spirit, to join you Joe – in spirit and follow what I can’t describe.

[enter LIONEL on this last phrase]

LIONEL what are you fuck’n on about?

KEN You find my notebook yet?

LIONEL it’s gone, Ken. I told you. You must have dropped it somewhere else.

KEN How long have we been at this?

LIONEL I dunno – week or so.

ACT I, scene ii, p6

[Ken gestures at him the ‘drink’ motion]

LIONEL ohh- right. No worries, constable, of course

JONES Captain

LIONEL My Captain. [passes him a drink, the one left over from PAN’s morning micturation]

JONES And if I might venture a glance at the lunch menu, if it’s not too early yet?

LIONEL Counter lunch is free, sir.

JONES Ahah. Do you think it wise?

LIONEL Allow me. [he stirs the pot and serves up a ladle full] It’s a hearty stew. Sydney Special: Soup-Plus! And still warm…

[Captain Jones sets himself up at a table with his food and drink]

JONES Regardless of her faults I cannot make a complaint against the madame’s hospitality. Gentlemen, salut.

[LIONEL and KEN nod their replies]

KEN what was it you wanted to ask me, before?

JONES Tell me squire- is there a trace of nutmeg in this stew?

JONES My palate is untrained, but I fancy there is more than a touch of spice to match the saltiness.

LIONEL Who’s it from?

KEN a woman by the name of Kay

JONES [smacking his mouth] Can’t quite put my finger on it…

KEN Dear Lionel, after we spoke into the night-

LIONEL Don’t read it all out – just give me the basics.

KEN Well- reading between the lines, she’s asking for your help.

JONES Ah, sweet wine to wash it down.

LIONEL between the lines? How’s that work?

KEN Well she doesn’t say it up front, but it’s all there. What’d you say to her anyway?

LIONEL fucked if I know. I can’t remember anything.

KEN well she seems to think you’ve hit it off alright. “you have opened my eyes to the pain I keep bringing myself back to bear, the dreams I have forsaken…” it goes on like that. And on.

LIONEL yeah?

KEN you should learn to read it.

LIONEL too much hassle.

JONES If I may impose upon you sirs- a basin?

KEN If you say so-

JONES I feel amiss, sirs? The devil has taken root in my gullet.

LIONEL I beg your pardon?

JONES something in that meal has dispute with my stomach.

LIONEL I have no fuck’n idea what this guys talking about.

JONES sick, man- I’m sick! I beg you-

LIONEL Not up there– out back is closer. Watch the bar would you? [KEN nods and resumes reading the letter]

JONES I feel faint.

LIONEL that’s it – let’s have a bit of air then, right?

[LIONEL escorts CAPTAIN JONES through the back exit. ]

ACT I, scene ii, p5

[Enter KEN looking frantic & dishevelled]

KEN ah – excuse me, I was in here last night – do you remember?

LIONEL you can count what I remember about last night on no hands.

KEN well I lost my notebook at some point, I don’t suppose-

LIONEL sorry.

KEN just a little book.

LIONEL I’ll keep an eye open. Wet your whistle?

KEN bit early. Oh why not. Might help me think back to what I did with it. Such a night. I remember playing cards – and the strangest of dreams. Like everything opened up. The whole world in a flash of stars and sky. All of it at once. Like drowning in the universe. Detached. Now I feel split in two.

LIONEL that’s called a hangover mate. This’ll sort you out.

KEN thanks

LIONEL On the house. Listen, maybe you can help me with something.

KEN what’s that?

LIONEL Nah, it’s not anything

KEN sure about that?

LIONEL Well, just this letter – I can’t read it, see. Maybe you can give me the gist?

[enter CAPTAIN JONES]

LIONEL hang on a tic. Can I help you, officer?

JONES perhaps you might be of assistance, is the lady of the house in siteu?

LIONEL sorry?

JONES the madame. Is she in?

LIONEL Katie? Nah mate she’s out.

JONES I see. No matter. It is not for whom I seek. Her man at arms, regularly seen here, swarthy in complexion, my height in approximation, wears a moustache. Has he passed this way?

LIONEL I can’t understand a word this bloke’s saying.

KEN have you seen a dark guy with a moustache, about his size?

JONES his name is unknown to me but the moniker that has been ascribed to him is some reference to his ethnic heritage.

LIONEL eh?

JONES Guinea? Or possibly Guido?

LIONEL ohh Guido – yeah, sneaky little fucker, moustache, Italian or something. Face like a dropped pie.

JONES Quite. You know him?

LIONEL nah. Not really

JONES I see.

LIONEL look he’s in here from time to time but I haven’t seen him for a few days now.

JONES is that so. In that case I should take advantage of your hospitality for a moment’s respite from the morning sun, if you should be so kind. Perhaps my mark will simply stroll through the door whilst I wait.

[Lionel looks blankly – Ken gestures at him the ‘drink’ motion]

ACT I, scene ii, p4

[Enter GUIDO from upstairs]

FRANK Well, man of the hour. Good time last night Guido?

GUIDO not too foul

FRANK you should be about halfway to Bathurst by now, right?

GUIDO what?

FRANK make yourself scarce. the polis are hunting for you, son.

GUIDO fuck I got nothing to hide from them.

FRANK you kill that undercover cop?

GUIDO I didn’t know he was police!

FRANK it’s talk like that gets you locked up, right. It’s my recommendation that you piss off for a while so things can cool down. Young Lionel here will look after your patch.

GUIDO He what?

FRANK he’s my new man on the spot, aren’t you? So get on your walkabout trail, ‘cause we haven’t seen you in days around here.

GUIDO fuck that boss. This cunt wouldn’t know where to begin-

FRANK well you had better start acquainting him then, because you’re off the streets til further advisement. Now kiss and make up. I’ll be back tonight and you’ll be playing possum, right. Glad we had this little chat. [exit]

GUIDO this is your lucky fucking day innit. Don’t think it’s quite so simple as that. This is my patch. My girls, my street.

LIONEL funny I thought this was Katie and Frank’s place.

GUIDO I pay the fuck’n rent though don’t I. So now it’s your turn.

[LIONEL shrugs, palms up]

GUIDO it’s a temporary situation, right. So watch your back. You never know who’s listening. Now if you’ll excuse me. I have to let my girls know how things stand before I take my little holiday.

LIONEL I’ll be here.

GUIDO just don’t get too comfy in my bed, skip. [exit GUIDO upstairs]

LIONEL That’s working on the docks by day on the hunt for a mysterious package, run the bar by night, not to mention running the girls to boot… times are tough too bloody right. Hundred thousand people out of work in this city and me? Three jobs, no sleep. How the fuck does that happen anyway? Just yesterday things was simple. Now?

[he looks at the letter, turning it this way and that]

And this note…

[Enter KEN looking frantic & dishevelled]

ACT I, scene ii, p3

In which our hero gets the message…