Rock 'n' Roll Read Online Free PDF Page B

a plastic bag, stands waiting.
    Jan in cold-weather gear enters in haste.
    JAN I am so sorry! It started late, and—anyway, here I am—how are you? You should have waited inside! Come in—come in—it’s upstairs—
    He talks through the light change into his flat, where they remove their outer clothes, caps, scarves, gloves, Jan helping the man, who is revealed to be Max.
    JAN (
cont.
) Is it warm enough? I went to a lecture. On Andy Warhol. Well, to be frank, the lecture was illustrated, you might say, with Rock ‘n’ Roll. How was the …? What—anniversary thing?
    MAX Somebody giving a speech for the so-many-years of…
    JAN Of what?
    MAX I forget. I didn’t go. With these jamborees, if you want to know the score, it’s best to skip the official programme.
    JAN So now you know the score.
    MAX Yes.
    He looks Jan over.
    MAX (
cont.
) You look all right. But you’re not teaching any more.
    JAN No.
    MAX Serves you right.
    Jan laughs.
    MAX (
cont.
) How do you illustrate a lecture on Andy Warhol with Rock ‘n’ Roll?
    JAN It’s a little complicated. There’s this band I like, the Plastic People of the Universe, last year they lost their professional licence—undesirable elements, you know …
    MAX Undesirable how?
    JAN Their songs are morbid, they dress weird, they look like they’re on drugs, and one time they sacrificed a chicken on stage, but otherwise it’s a mystery. So now it’s illegal for them to make a living from concert bookings. But Jirous, he’s like their artistic director, he’s legally an art historian, sohe booked the Music F Club for a lecture on Andy Warhol, but—(
He plays air-guitar.
)—illustrated.
    Max laughs.
    JAN (
cont.
) Thank you for, you know, finding me.
    MAX (
holds up the bag
) I promised Esme.
    Max gives the bag to Jan, then goes to his stuff and takes a bottle from his topcoat pocket.
    JAN (
investigates the bag
) Oh … thank you! And Eleanor … is she …?
    MAX She’s… doing fine. Glasses.
    JAN Good!
    Jan goes for two glasses.
    JAN (
cont.
) Please tell her, from my heart, and to Esme also. How is Esme?
    MAX Nineteen and pregnant, and living in a commune.
    JAN Oh. But a Communist!
    MAX Yes, we’ve done that one. She’s trying to persuade Eleanor to live on wild garlic. Skol.
    JAN Skol. Why?
    MAX The cancer came back.
    JAN Fuck. I’m so …
    MAX Yes.
    JAN Is she …?
    MAX Still teaching. Throwing up and bald as a coot, but you know Eleanor …
    JAN Yes. Bold as a …
coot?
    MAX Not bold, bald. She’s lost all her hair.
    JAN Oh … yes.
    MAX And you. You’ve still got work at the paper?
    JAN Technically yes, but now I work in the kitchens.
    Max laughs.
    MAX Husák certainly made a fool of you.
    JAN (
shrugs
) I was an optimist for … nine months. It was great. I had my own column.
    MAX A column about what?
    JAN Anything I liked.
    Max smiles at him broadly, mirthlessly.
    JAN (
cont.
) It was a question of which way to be useful. It’s not useful to be a critic of what is over and done. I was a critic of the future. It was my socialist right. But when I refused to sign the loyalty pledge I was purged into the kitchen. Kitchen porter! That was some purge, hey? Twelve hundred scientists. Eight hundred university professors!
    MAX Nine hundred.
    JAN Ah—the score. Also half my fellow journalists. Self-censorship about the Russian occupation didn’t save us. Loyalty meant kissing their Soviet arses. I would have tried to emigrate but …
    Jan removes a record album from the bag
—The Madcap Laughs
by Syd Barrett.
    JAN (
cont.
) Huh …
    MAX What?
    JAN (
misunderstanding
) She wrote on the sleeve. ‘Now do you believe me?’
    MAX But what?
    JAN (
absent, asking permission
) Is it okay?
    Max is seething. Jan doesn’t notice. He moves to put the record on.
    MAX You would have emigrated but what?
    JAN Yes …