Brian Friel Plays 2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

Marconi’s voodoo derange those kind, sensible women and transform them into shrieking strangers. Or maybe it was because during those Lughnasa weeks of 1936 we were visited on two occasions by my father, Gerry Evans, and for the first time in my life I had a chance to observe him.
    The lighting changes. The kitchen and garden are now lit as for a warm summer afternoon.
    Michael, Kate, Gerry and Father Jack go off. The others busy themselves with their tasks. Maggie makes a mash for hens. Agnes knits gloves. Rose carries a basket of turf into the kitchen and empties it into the large box beside the range. Chris irons at the kitchen table. They all work in silence. Then Chris stops ironing, goes to the tiny mirror on the wall and scrutinizes her face.
    Chris When are we going to get a decent mirror to see ourselves in?
    Maggie You can see enough to do you.
    Chris I’m going to throw this aul cracked thing out.
    Maggie Indeed you’re not, Chrissie. I’m the one that broke it and the only way to avoid seven years’ bad luck is to keep on using it.
    Chris You can see nothing in it.
    Agnes Except more and more wrinkles.
    Chris D’you know what I think I might do? I think I just might start wearing lipstick.
    Agnes Do you hear this, Maggie?
    Maggie Steady on, girl. Today it’s lipstick; tomorrow it’s the gin bottle.
    Chris I think I just might.
    Agnes As long as Kate’s not around. ‘Do you want to make a pagan of yourself?’
    Chris puts her face up close to the mirror and feels it.
    Chris Far too pale. And the aul mousey hair. Needs a bit of colour.
    Agnes What for?
    Chris What indeed. ( She shrugs and goes back to her ironing. She holds up a surplice. )Make a nice dress that, wouldn’t it? … God forgive me …
    Work continues. Nobody speaks. Then suddenly and unexpectedly Rose bursts into raucous song:
    Rose ‘Will you come to Abyssinia, will you come?
    Bring your own cup and saucer and a bun …’
    As she sings the next two lines she dances – a gauche, graceless shuffle that defies the rhythm of the song.
    ‘Mussolini will be there with his airplanes in the air,
Will you come to Abyssinia, will you come?’
    Not bad, Maggie – eh?
    Maggie is trying to light a very short cigarette butt.
    Maggie You should be on the stage, Rose.
    Rose continues to shuffle and now holds up her apron skirt.
    Rose And not a bad bit of leg, Maggie – eh?
    Maggie Rose Mundy! Where’s your modesty! ( Maggie now hitches her own skirt even higher than Rose’s and does a similar shuffle. )Is that not more like it?
    Rose Good, Maggie – good – good! Look, Agnes, look!
    Agnes A right pair of pagans, the two of you.
    Rose Turn on Marconi, Chrissie.
    Chris I’ve told you a dozen times: the battery’s dead.
    Rose It is not. It went for me a while ago. ( She goes to the set and switches it on. There is a sudden, loud three- second blast of ‘The British Grenadiers’. )You see! Takesaul Rosie! ( She is about to launch into a dance – and the music suddenly dies. )
    Chris Told you.
    Rose That aul set’s useless.
    Agnes Kate’ll have a new battery back with her.
    Chris If it’s the battery that’s wrong.
    Rose Is Abyssinia in Africa, Aggie?
    Agnes Yes.
    Rose Is there a war there?
    Agnes Yes. I’ve told you that.
    Rose But that’s not where Father Jack was, is it?
    Agnes ( patiently )Jack was in Uganda, Rosie. That’s a different part of Africa. You know that.
    Rose ( unhappily )Yes, I do … I do … I know that …
    Maggie catches her hand and sings softly into her ear to the same melody as the ‘Abyssinia ’ song:
    Maggie
    ‘Will you vote for De Valera, will you vote?
    If you don’t, we’ll be like Gandhi with his goat.’
    Rose and Maggie now sing the next two lines together:
    ‘Uncle Bill from Baltinglass has a wireless up his –
    They dance as they sing the final line of the song:
    Will you vote for De Valera, will you vote?’
    Maggie I’ll tell you something, Rosie: the pair of us should be on the stage.
    Rose