A large basement. There are several tables and many chairs, a large mirror frame off to the side. The door leading to the backroom is open CAMUS and ANN are carrying a large covered sewing machine into the backroom. SARTRE is seated at a table drinking wine.
FOUR LOUD KNOCKS everyone stares at the ceiling.
ANN
That must be Madame, again.
(puts down her end of the machine)
Let's get this away first.
CAMUS
Last one.
Ann picks up her end and they carry the sewing machine toward the backroom.
ANN
Let's see what she wants now!
(darts up stairs)
Coming, Madame.
Camus enters front room sits and sips some wine
CAMUS
Now what were you saying about freedom? I'm afraid I missed something.
SARTRE
I said "We were never so free as we are under the Occupation."
CAMUS
Oh? That's what I thought you had said.
SARTRE
Understand? We've never been more free--
CAMUS
Under this Occupation?
SARTRE
Yes.
CAMUS
On the way over here I was stopped three times and interrogated at length twice.
SARTRE
And you gave them nothing. You gave them nothing!
CAMUS
So?
SARTRE
So you exercised your freedom. Look, every thought we have is a bold act of freedom. Every word we manage to speak freely is a declaration of principle...
A door creaks open in the backroom. They freeze. The door slams shut. SIMONE de BEAUVOIR enters
DE BEAUVOIR
This will be a great place to rehearse your play, Camus. Large, quiet and, above all warm.
CAMUS
There's a bakery next door that caters to our friends at the Hotel Majestic.
Simone fixes her hair before the mirror, reapplies lipstick
DE BEAUVOIR
If the Gestapo likes them they must get all the flour they need. The streets are blocked by another military parade - the Germans and, of course, our pathetic Milice trying to outdo the Germans with their precision.
CAMUS
Our fascist militia can not compete. Don't understand that for the Germans military display is a form of sexual expression.
DE BEAUVOIR
I visited Harriet for lunch today. Poor thing, she spent two and a half hours on the food line and all she got was a Swedish turnip and some Jerusalem artichokes. She asked me how to prepare those - they are not even real artichokes
(Simone pours some wine)
I told all recipes no longer matter
(sips wine)
'cause you'll never get the butter or any of the other ingredients! This is good wine.
SARTRE
German!
CAMUS
Madame had a showing for the wives of the German officers this morning.
Sartre pours another glass of wine
SARTRE
Callabo!
DE BEAUVOIR
I'm sure it was a COMMAND performance.
SARTRE
Still a Callabo!
Simone puts bottle of wine on the other table
DE BEAUVOIR
Then perhaps you should avoid her collabo wine.
Ann returns. Camus helps her put away the sewing machine in the back room
SARTRE
When am I going to meet this Harriet?
Sartre grabs bottle and pours a large glass
DE BEAUVOIR
As soon as I'm bored with her.
SARTRE
You can at least let me meet this young lady.
DE BEAUVOIR
When I am through.
Anne & Camus return from backroom
ANN
Madame forgot to have them put away the machines this evening, she was so busy with that show.
SARTRE
Is she afraid we'll take them?
ANN
No. She locks the sewing machines away every night. She is afraid the soldiers will see them and confiscate them. She says the Germans are so clever with gadgets that they will dismantle them and use the parts to build tanks.
DE BEAUVOIR
Well, they've done just about everything else.
CAMUS
We were discussing the nature of freedom.
SARTRE
We are talking about ontological freedom.
DE BEAUVOIR
Oh... let's see... We never were so free as we are now--
Sartre slips a pill out of his pocket and swallows it, sips wine
SARTRE
Ontological! By our definition of what being human means, we are free. To be human is to be free.
DE BEAUVOIR
Did you just take something?
SARTRE
Me? No. Now, back to our subject...
CAMUS
If we are free it is a useless freedom.
SARTRE
We needn't bore Ann with our philosophical discussions.
ANN
I only studied Philosophy when I was in the Lycée back in Algiers, but Albert has lent me some of your essays, Monsieur Sartre, and some of your stories Madame de Beauvoir. We have discussed them...
DE BEAUVOIR
I bet you have!
ANN
And the differences in your points of view on the nature of Freedom are slight but significant.
SARTRE
Do tell.
ANN
Well, Monsieur Sartre, you are concerned mainly with freedom itself. Liberté! Liberté! Liberté!
SARTRE (toasts Ann)
Liberté!
(refills glass)
ANN
Albert, you are concerned with freedom but also human nature and something like brotherhood... So Liberté and Fraternité.
ANN
And you, Madame--
DE BEAUVOIR
Simone. And call Monsieur Liberté, Jean-Paul.
ANN
And you with your focus on class and gender inequalities are the most French of thinkers--
DE BEAUVOIR
Ahh! Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité!
ANN
Yes! Egalité, indeed.
Simone shakes Ann's hand
DE BEAUVOIR
Brava!
Two loud KNOCKS from above
ANN
Madame is not even supposed to be here this evening.
(takes out a swatch of fabric)
But she has to let out all her dresses for the German ladies. The clothes of not only do not fit, they have no idea how one must wear French fashion; after all it is a totality!
(begins demonstrating)
They have not the poise and no idea of how to walk. High heels, no ve vill vear der sensible shoe. Ja ja!
(trips as she valks)
Now I must find this heavy material for Madame. She has to reinforce the bodice of each dress. She says some of the officers' wives do not have bosoms, they have udders.
(goes into backroom)
DE BEAUVOIR
You know Ann from Algeria?
CAMUS
I knew her family... she helped me get settled here in Paris.
DE BEAUVOIR (to Sartre)
I like her analysis of our theories?
SARTRE
Let's just say that she has as firm a grasp of my concept of freedom as you two.
We see Ann in the backroom measuring out several meters of fabric
CAMUS
But freedom without being free to act--
SARTRE
While the Other's existence brings a factual limit to my freedom...
(takes out pack of Gauloise)
Anyone have a match?
CAMUS
Oh Ann promised Madame--
ANN (from back)
Please no smoking. That is all Madame asks. This is her fabric room and the smell of tobacco--
SARTRE
Right. Sorry.
(puts pack away, but fidgets with one cigarette)
Ontological freedom is a given by who man is, but--
Ann cuts fabric off roll
CAMUS
I was stopped three times on the way over here--
DE BEAUVOIR
That's because your complexion is a bit darker than the average Parisian... especially over here on the right bank.
ANN
I'll bring some more wine.
DE BEAUVOIR
We don't want to impose. I think we have enough for now.
ANN
Please. Madame promised I could have all that was left over because she gave me a most humiliating task. One the neighbors will remember when liberation comes and accounts are settled.
DE BEAUVOIR
What was that?
ANN
It is quite embarrassing! She had me go around to all the other shopkeepers asking...
(begins to cry)
I had to ask if they had a portrait of the Field Marshall I could borrow.
CAMUS
A portrait of Petain?
ANN
Yes Madame hung it over the cash register as she raked in all those Reichsmarks.
(exits)
Let me get more wine.
SARTRE
So, to get back to freedom--
CAMUS
One of our Milice inspectors called me a "bogart"!
DE BEAUVOIR
Scared Woods! The actor in Scared Woods--
SARTRE
Petrified Forest, that militiaman thought you looked like a American actor, Humphrey Bogart...
(lets cigarette dangle from his mouth)
Now it is the nature of freedom--
DE BEAUVOIR
Yes, he does! Now, Paulou, you are free to smoke that ontological cigarette outside in the alleyway.
SARTRE
I am trying to make my concept of freedom clear to our friend, and maybe make it understandable to even you.
DE BEAUVOIR
"Understandable"? Don't you remember what the master said?
SARTRE
Which master?
DE BEAUVOIR
Professor Heidegger. He stated what must be his first principal.
SARTRE
What are you saying is his first principal?
DE BEAUVOIR
Es ist Selbstmord zu klären--
Sartre jumps up knocking over chair, storms out
CAMUS
What did you say about suicide, "Selbstmord"?
Sartre returns, grabs glass of wine
SARTRE
You have never documented that damned quote! I cannot find it any of my sources.
(begins to exit, pauses)
See, Camus, this is why ladies cannot do philosophy!
(gets reaction he wants)
See, I can get to her too.
(exits)
DE BEAUVOIR
"Selbstmord"?
CAMUS
Yes.
DE BEAUVOIR
Old Heidegger said"Se ist Selbstmord zu klären Philosophie." "Making things understandable is suicide for Philosophy." By the way that "Bogart" remark was a compliment. He's quite handsome.
CAMUS
I do not need compliments from our fascist countrymen.
DE BEAUVOIR
You know Sartre started rewriting his latest play after meeting you. He likes your personality, it helped him salvage the play.
(slides close to him)
He needs the character, Joseph Garcon, to be a coward, but until he met you he did not know how to make him likable--
CAMUS
So... I'm a amiable coward?
DE BEAUVOIR
No, no. But, he rebuilt the character using your best qualities.
CAMUS
I see.
DE BEAUVOIR
He's gonna ask you to play the lead.
CAMUS
Well, I have my own play to work on and--
DE BEAUVOIR
We can hold rehearsals in my hotel room. That way it will be more social. We'll have a good time!
CAMUS
Still--
DE BEAUVOIR
You can come to rehearsals early that way we can get to know each other better.
(runs hand through his hair)
There's a woman in the play. I believe she's called Estelle. She realizes that she lusts over manly men, and realizes she knows she can bring out the best in Joseph Garcon if he--
CAMUS
My work is very demanding...
(moves away)
And I have a deadline if I want to see it produced.
DE BEAUVOIR
I see. At least you did not use the excuse that you are a married man; I know your views on marriage.
CAMUS
I don't mean to disappoint you, but it would make thing too complicated.
DE BEAUVOIR
You have to understand that both Sartre and I realize that our relationship is essential to our well being. Essential in the philosophical sense also. We depend on each other.
CAMUS
And I'd never do anything to interfere with your co-dependency.
DE BEAUVOIR
Admittedly, we are, as you put it, very co-dependent. Always have been! But, we allow each other tangential affairs. We even share the details of out intimacies with each other.
CAMUS
No, it would be too complicated.
DE BEAUVOIR
Not that I'd use your real name when I talk to him.
CAMUS
I understand.
DE BEAUVOIR
So?
CAMUS
But, I must be frank with you. You don't know how deep my passions run in me.
DE BEAUVOIR
I do. That's what makes you so attractive!
CAMUS
If I were to have you, I would need to have you exclusively. I would put an end to your elemental co-dependence.
DE BEAUVOIR
I see. I understand.
(she starts to leave)
Thank you, Camus!
CAMUS
Are you alright?
DE BEAUVOIR
I just to need to check on him.
(comes back)
He's been so crazy since he took that position here in Paris. What do you know about the Lycée Condorcet?
CAMUS
Lycée Condorcet? Just that people like Henri Bergson went there. Proust too, I believe. It must be a good school.
DE BEAUVOIR
There's something about that school. It's made him... It has brought out something in him that is at times irrational.
Sartre returns, pours glass of wine
SARTRE
So who else is coming to this play reading?
CAMUS
It's not a reading. We are just going to discuss my doing this play.
DE BEAUVOIR
The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan is coming--
SARTRE
Jacques Lacan? Didn't he declare that he will publish nothing while the Nazis are running things.
CAMUS
I believe he has.
SARTRE
You have to make these decisions for yourself, young man.
CAMUS
I just wanted--
SARTRE
You want us to help you decide what to do with your play?
CAMUS
Certainly not!
SARTRE
As you know I do not like to give advice, but these are exceptional times. With the Nazis here everything we do is equivocal! The farmer goes on planting his fields to feed his family knowing that the Germans will seize much of his crop to feed their troops. Yet, no one suggests he set fire to his fields to starve the Germans. Everyone knows the troops will just seize more of his neighbors' crops to make up for the loss while his family starves. But now the writer in France gets flack if he continues in his occupation. However, if he chooses to stay silent like Lacan, there are plenty of Homo-collabo writers they can promote for propaganda purposes--
DE BEAUVOIR
Homo-collabo?
SARTRE
Yes. A mixture of masochism and homosexuality is no unusual recipe for a collaborator!
CAMUS
If you were active in the Resistance you'd not be saying that.
SARTRE
Wasn't Jean Marais rejected because of homosexuality?
DE BEAUVOIR
No, Cocteau went back to his opium again, and you know how impossible he gets... running his mouth off day and night. No. Bragging about his boyfriend's exploits ended Marais' career.
CAMUS
Stop sitting in your armchair and get active in the Resistance; you'll meet all sorts of outcasts. Let me introduce you to Jean Genet's lover. His cell needs someone with a journalistic background to write up--
SARTRE
Thank you, but right now, we are concentrating on your writing career. Now as I've said I do not advise people--
CAMUS
But--
SARTRE
Please let me go on. I chose to write and, yes, some point their finger at me - How dare I! But, I wrote - I saw it gave our countrymen hope. French intellectual thought was still going on. And, many saw the subversive message that had passed right under the censor's eyes. It restored their feelings of self-respect. Yes, the German's will take advantage and say say to the world - See Sartre still writes! But because Sartre still writes people see there is still hope.
Ann returns with two bottles of wine, fills each glass
DE BEAUVOIR
Perhaps we should listen to what Camus is asking.
SARTRE
Well, I can't give him advice only speak of my own experience.
CAMUS
I never asked for advice.
ANN
Madame has a surprise.
(gulps a slug of wine, pause)
She's invited Jean Cocteau. Being that this evening is about theater she thought--
KNOCKS from above
DE BEAUVOIR
She thought we'd be delighted?
ANN
Yes.
(looks at Sartre's face)
Sorry!
(long silence as she exits)
SARTRE
That fop... that collabo fop! No one's spoken to him since he wrote that despicable review of Arno Brecker to suck up to the German authorities. Not only is Brecker Hitler's favorite sculptor, but the Germans looted every town square, war memorial and cemetery in France to get enough bronze for his enormous monstrosities.
DE BEAUVOIR
Cocteau did not know that they got the bronze that way.
SARTRE
Look, I'll be polite to the man. After all Picasso warned me that he is now terribly famous - you can find his works at every hairdresser's.
CAMUS
Perhaps--
Perhaps, he and Lacan can debate!
CAMUS
Debate what?
SARTRE
Be it resolved whether Albert Camus shall have his soul sullied be submitting a play for the German censors to approve--
DE BEAUVOIR
Stop it!
SARTRE
I'll save you the trouble.
(sits, gesticulating with both hands imitating Lacan)
Producing a play under the Nazis will enable them to reinforce their illusion that everything is absolutely fine and dandy. Normal! Everything is normal in gay Paris even with our tanks and roundups and lists of people executed--
DE BEAUVOIR
Paulou, please!
SARTRE
Siehe Glitzernde Paris! They will boast Behold Glittering Paris! Albert Camus will betray his nation by helping the Nazi enterprise if he goes ahead with his play. How dare he even think of producing anything.
(stands, campy imitation of Cocteau)
Nein! Nein! Our works will help our countrymen hold fast to their ideals! We will just hint at subversion and still get past the censors. People will say we are ever so clever!
(sits)
We'll show the Germans our disdain. Our silence will crush them!
(stands)
No! We may have mixed feelings about being violated and raped by the Germans, but we can still make ourselves fabulous for them.
(sits)
Mais Non! In the context of the History of this period etc. etc.
(stands)
We are artistes! We must be creative. Those Germans want the world to see Glitzernde Paris? Let us dance through the streets and cover the city with magic fairy dust... the town will glitter!
(gulps wine)
God! I need another cigarette.
(exits)
DE BEAUVOIR
I found a stash of his pills last week... flushed them down the toilet. Speak to him about his new play.
(takes unopened wine bottles, places them on a back table)
You have been the only positive person in his life recently. It's about a type of Limbo.
(slips corkscrew in purse)
The vacuum created between us in our need to communicate suspends us each in his own Limbo.
CAMUS
But Simone--
DE BEAUVOIR
Call me Castor.
CAMUS
Castor... The Beaver?
DE BEAUVOIR
Castor.
CAMUS
Beaver... because of the way you are always so busy working?
DE BEAUVOIR
I hope so. But, you should see the way our Sartre is working late into the early mornings... no sleep. Please ask him about his play. It will be a stepping stone for you too.
CAMUS
Let me see the progress I'm making on my own play.
DE BEAUVOIR
But, see how irrational he gets!
CAMUS
Yes. He knows I'm no virgin. I've published under the German censors. I've even self-censored... to my shame I eliminated that important chapter on Franz Kafka because I knew it would not pass Heller's office. So, I am compromised enough already.
DE BEAUVOIR
He sees mounting a play a bigger compromise. It does involve much more cooperation with the... the Authorities. It was torture for him to go through the process of producing, The Flies.
CAMUS
Even though we saw The Flies as--
Sartre returns
SARTRE
He's coming. I saw him turn into the alley. And it is true what they said.
DE BEAUVOIR
What?
SARTRE
The longer he collaborates, the more he looks like an old cocotu!
COCTEAU
Hello?
DE BEAUVOIR
We are in here, Jean!
COCTEAU enters looking disheveled
COCTEAU
How good to see you, my Simone. And, you, Monsieur Camus, we've all been very impressed by the work you have been doing since you arrived in Paris... but, no wonder look at the people with whom you spend your time.
(grabs Sartre hugs him, holds him tight)
I must say I was very moved by that letter you sent me when Mama died! I've been so isolated since that unfortunate article on Brecker. I've been a complete exile from the Left Bank.
Ann enters
ANN
What happened to you, Monsieur Cocteau?
COCTEAU
What?
DE BEAUVOIR
Look at yourself in the mirror.
Cocteau goes over to the mirror
COCTEAU
Just a bunch of theater critics.
SARTRE
Theater critics?
COCTEAU
Yes, the group of right-wing hooligans who riot at the opening of each of my plays. I did my best to avoid that parade--
DE BEAUVOIR
And, well you should after what the did to you last August.
CAMUS
Yes, we heard about that! They attacked you on the Champs Elysées. You refused to salute the Nazi flag. Bravo!
COCTEAU
Then I was unprepared. This time I had my walking stick and fought back. They backed off eventually and took off after a bunch of Zazous they spotted leaving a cafe and trashed the cafe.
CAMUS
Looking for Benny Goodman records no doubt.
ANN
Zazous?
DE BEAUVOIR
Jazz fans. The dress in zootsuits to defy Vichy.
ANN
Let me take you upstairs to clean you up, monsieur.
Ann & Cocteau exit
SARTRE
Case in point - the perfect recipe for a traitor.
DE BEAUVOIR
No, he's one tough old bird.
SARTRE
For a cocteau... What letter is he talking about?
DE BEAUVOIR
We were discussing your new play--
SARTRE
What did you--
DE BEAUVOIR
I simply sent a brief, brief letter of condolence.
SARTRE
And signed my name!
DE BEAUVOIR
Our names.
(pours him some wine)
Now, tell us about your new play.
SARTRE
Ahh! My Purgatorio.
(pours wine, only drop left)
DE BEAUVOIR
I thought you had decided on Limbo?
SARTRE
No, Purgatory.
(look for wine bottles)
The way we torture one another due to our innate lack of true communication purges us of our illusions and even our hope.
(spots them on back table, grabs one)
The way we manipulate each other must result in an eventual...
(opens purse finds corkscrew)
An eventual realization that...
(opens wine, pours)
Well, I'll show you what I have so far. There may be a part in it for you, Camus. A great role!
CAMUS
I'm flattered.
DE BEAUVOIR
Now, tell us about your play.
SARTRE
We cannot tell you what you should do.
CAMUS
I should hope not!
DE BEAUVOIR
But tell us...
CAMUS
Well, remember in my novel The Stranger, the hero Meursault, is fascinated by an old newspaper clipping while he is in jail.
DE BEAUVOIR
The one he finds under his mattress?
SARTRE
About a man murdered by... hmmm?
CAMUS
A man murdered by his mother.
DE BEAUVOIR
Yes, he was taken away from her early in life, she does not recognize him. He checks into her hotel?
CAMUS
Exactly. Now, I need your opinion not about the moral vicissitudes of producing under the censors, but the possibility of its standing alone as a theatrical piece. Making a play out of it.
SARTRE
Hmm?
DE BEAUVOIR
Well...
CAMUS
And I invited Jacques Lacan to maybe explain why I'm so haunted by this story. I thought I got it out of my system putting it into the novel. Meursault is obsessed with it. He reads it thousands of time, but why can't I let go of this story.
SARTRE
Your Oedipal--
DE BEAUVOIR
Of course, Sartre has no Oedipus complex--
SARTRE
True, my father died at such an early age...
Cocteau returns without his jacket carrying a wet facecloth
DE BEAUVOIR
Are you--
Cocteau give Heil Hitler salute
SARTRE
That's for your Thursday night friends--
Cocteau shushes them, points upstairs
All freeze, except Cocteau who stands at the mirror wiping dirt off his face and shirt collar
The door to the alley CREEKS
A head pokes in
LACAN
Bonjour!
All turn and shush him silently
Lacan greets each silently
Finally, THREE KNOCKS from above
SARTRE
Well?
COCTEAU
Camus looks like that American actor...
SARTRE
Humphry Bogart... Now, what happened upstairs.
COCTEAU
Ann started fixing me up and Madame comes in and whispers that there are German officers up front... so, she had me sneak back down here and went up front to meet...
(Ann enters)
What did they want?
ANN
They were officers--
SARTRE
What rank?
ANN
I was too scared to look at their uniforms.
DE BEAUVOIR
What did they want?
ANN
They were looking for some papers a general left behind here this morning. And they were looking once again for Diane's boyfriend! Diane Belrose is learning to be a seamstress. Madame uses her to model - she is exceptional in her beauty! She has taken up with a German - a private - aptly named Fritz. She makes heads turn when she walks down the street. We tell her if she must have a German she should at least have a lieutenant. All she ever got from this private was a pair of stockings he won in a card game!
CAMUS
The soldiers have left?
ANN
Yes. Madame had found the papers and sealed them in an envelope and hid them behind that damn portrait of Marshal Pétain. They found Fritz sleeping upstairs and dragged him off for another week of latrine duty. So, we can all now relax.
CAMUS
Ann Daniau, this is Jacques Lacan, the psychoanalyst.
ANN
Delighted to meet you Dr. Lacan! Your services must be very much in demand these days.
DE BEAUVOIR
How exactly do you get people to adjust to a world that is insane?
LACAN
Well... I don't. I work as a medical doctor these days. Our German visitors do not want us to think, let alone analyze things.
SARTRE
Where are you working?
LACAN
Val de Grâce, the military hospital.
DE BEAUVOIR
How do you find the work of healing the body instead of the psyche?
LACAN
There are some satisfactions...
ANN
I imagine you see ways to use your special skills.
LACAN
Indeed, for one thing I spend more time listening to what the patients are trying to say. And there are some cases where my expertise comes in handy.
CAMUS
Such as...
LACAN
Well, there is one older guy, a sergeant stationed in the rail yards at Drancy. An interesting fellow - very conflicted!
SARTRE
Who isn't?
LACAN
He was placed there to insure that there is no sabotage. Right after the Occupation there was lots of sabotage on the SCNF.
ANN
And the Germans have executed hundreds of railway workers.
COCTEAU
More. Substantially more.
LACAN
Now, when there is any breakdown or delay the assume it is sabotage.
SARTRE
And, not our typical French inefficiency!
DE BEAUVOIR
Their railroads were always superior to ours!
LACAN
This sergeant had been having a hard time of it. Watching the rail workers and watching out for the Germans was bad enough, but then there came all those deportees.
ANN
Oh my God! The deportees!
LACAN
The hardest thing for him was listening as the trains pulled out.
ANN
Listening to what?
LACAN
The deportees always sing La Marseillaise as the train starts.
ANN
La Marseillaise?
(pause,sings)
"Allons enfants de la Patrie, Le jour de gloire est arrivé!"
CAMUS (mutters)
No. "Aux armes, citoyens, Formez vos bataillons"!
DE BEAUVOIR
What?
CAMUS
Finish with your patient Dr. Lacan.
LACAN
Well, he was in the yards. A workman was having trouble coupling some cattle cars to the rest of the passenger cars.
COCTEAU
The Germans themselves were shocked to hear that managers of our SCNF charge the price of a regular third class ticket for each person in a cattle car!
LACAN
So the sergeant goes to help the workman link the cars. They have an engine behind the cattle cars push it forward. Then, feeling their train moving the deportees begin to sing.
ANN
Oh no!
LACAN
Hearing La Marseillaise so close upsets our sergeant, he slips and his leg in pinned between the cars and crushed. He winds up in my ward in traction and deep despair.
DE BEAUVOIR
So, how did you help him.
LACAN
I listened to him for the eight weeks it took for the bones to knit and knew he was not ready to return to the rail yards. So, I did what I had to do.
DE BEAUVOIR
You got him some sort of administrative transfer?
LACAN
Impossible. You know the Germans.
ANN
So how did you help him.
LACAN
I broke his leg again.
ANN
What?
LACAN
He's still laying there in traction. I wrote up that the bones had not been set properly and smashed his leg.
Long silence
SARTRE (to Cocteau)
Say, you seem to have a lot of inside information...
CAMUS
And, he passes it along to the right people.
COCTEAU
Thank you! It was not easy for me to first go to the German Institute, nor to Florence Gould's salons. I went because some young friends of mon compan, Jean, had been detained by the Gestapo. They were rounded up in the Tuileries, they had been loitering to...huh... meet other young men.
CAMUS
And the Germans thought they were members of the Resistance?
COCTEAU
Exactly. So, I went to the Institute one evening to try to see if anyone might help. I discreetly walk in the door and that idiot, Louis Ferdinand Céline, spots me and calls out my name. All heads turn... I am exposed! He drags me over to his circle of friends saying I must meet... get this... "the Intelligensia".
DE BEAUVOIR
I can't imagine!
COCTEAU
It was beyond insanity! I wanted to run out of the place and jump in the Seine just to feel clean. Fortunately, a young lady came by and whisked me away. She warned me that the Germans had no respect for that crowd and asked why I had come.
DE BEAUVOIR
So, you told her?
COCTEAU
I told her the situation. She told me such matters were best handled at the more informal gatherings at Florence Gould's, but she would see what she could do.
DE BEAUVOIR
What did she do?
COCTEAU
She went upstairs.
(pours more wine)
ANN
And?
COCTEAU
A half-hour later an officer comes up to me and introduces himself, "I am Sonderfuhrer Heller." And then--
CAMUS
Lieutenant Gerhard Heller, the chief of censorship?
COCTEAU
The Propagandastaffel, himself!
DE BEAUVOIR
What was that like?
COCTEAU
Most impressive and personable. He knew me, has read some of my plays, and looks forward to seeing some while he's here--
SARTRE
A sound gambit! He knew you well...
COCTEAU
Lt.Heller then discreetly whispers that calls have been made concerning my friends.
ANN
Oh good!
COCTEAU
And, then he laughed, "Jardin des Tuileries! Our friends at the Gestapo discover young men patrolling the Tuilleries at dusk - Must be the center of the insurgency!"
CAMUS
Well, a last German with a sense of humor!
COCTEAU
As you should know. You've had dinner with him several times!
CAMUS
Yes...
SARTRE
Oh? How could--
DE BEAUVOIR
So, were your friends released?
COCTEAU
As I was leaving. An officer comes up behind and whispers that Sonderfuhrer Heller wants me to know that those lads are on their way back home. And...
DE BEAUVOIR
And?
COCTEAU
Sonderfuhrer Heller looks forward to seeing you Thursday at the Florence Gould's solon.
SARTRE
Checkmate!
COCTEAU
What?
SARTRE
You played right into their hands, Dummkopf!
(plays with cigarettes)
DE BEAUVOIR
Jean-Paul!
SARTRE
I need some fresh air!
(exits)
DE BEAUVOIR
You must excuse him, Jean.
COCTEAU
Oh... I'm not surprised, my dear.
DE BEAUVOIR
No. He's been like that ever since he started at that damned Lycée Condorcet. What do you know about that school?
COCTEAU
Lycée Condorcet?
(thinks)
A fine school..Henri Bergson and Marcel Proust went there... Mallarmé, himself, taught there... A good school.
DE BEAUVOIR
But, is there something about the school that could make Jean-Paul so out of sorts?
COCTEAU
Not the school... But, maybe how he got there...
LACAN
Albert, we must go upstairs and say bonjour to Madame.
CAMUS
Well--
ANN
Oh yes! She'll be terribly put out if you don't show your face.
(grabs Camus' arm)
ANN, CAMUS, and LACAN quickly exit.
DE BEAUVOIR
What do you mean - "How he got there"?
COCTEAU
Please, forgive me. I don't know why I said that.
DE BEAUVOIR
Tell me.
COCTEAU
I am sorry. It was my mistake. I confused your husband's story with somebody else... a university professor, in fact.
DE BEAUVOIR
I must insist--
COCTEAU
See, I just called him your husband, and I know that is not a fact. See how confused my thinking is! As a result, I must make a confession to you, but please keep what I say confidential... I have been chasing the Dragon again.
DE BEAUVOIR
What do you mean?
COCTEAU
This war has taken its toll on everyone. The night I went to the German Institute I knew I did not have the courage to just walk in there... No... So, I dug out my old pipe and found a connection.
(takes out small packet then shows her his lighter, opium pipe, and a few chunks of opium - LONG SIGH)
I found an alleyway and I was back on my opium again.
DE BEAUVOIR
You were so brave writing that book on kicking the habit!
COCTEAU
Mention this to no one. I do not want mon ~ami, Jean--
DE BEAUVOIR
Of course, I'll keep your secret. Now tell me about Jean-Paul's transfer to Condorcet.
COCTEAU
No.
DE BEAUVOIR
I need to reach him. He's so deep into his pain, I need to reach in and comfort him.
COCTEAU
Believe me, it is out of even your reach.
DE BEAUVOIR
But, in order to help him I must know--
COCTEAU
You must know you can not help him on this. He's a very moral man so the pain is too deep.
DE BEAUVOIR
Then to relieve my anxiety, please let me know.
COCTEAU
No!
Simone takes a piece of opium, stares at it. Grabs pipe rubs opium in bowl, holds flame from lighter under bowl - Inhales twice
DE BEAUVOIR
Then, I too need solace!
COCTEAU
Does he understand you love him that much?
Simone coughs, breaks into tears
DE BEAUVOIR
Now... tell me.
(inhales once more)
COCTEAU
You must never tell him that you know.
DE BEAUVOIR
I understand. Please, before he comes back.
COCTEAU
He has taken the position ... He took the place of a Jew.
DE BEAUVOIR
No.
COCTEAU
It's possible he didn't know. But, the Germans knew!
DE BEAUVOIR
Knew? There's more?
COCTEAU
What better person than the leading intellectual in Paris to take the place of Henri Dreyfus Le Foyer! It was at the time of the "Arianization" of secondary education and--
DE BEAUVOIR
Henri Dreyfus Le Foyer... the nephew of--
COCTEAU
Grand nephew of Col. Alfred Dreyfus himself! And, they get Jean-Paul Sartre to take his place...
Friday, October 15, 2010
Monday, September 14, 2009
1) Those of us with Traumatic Brain Injuries are often thrown off by simple TYPOS.
Try to PROOFREAD your copy before Posting.
The best way to do this is to type out your copy on a word processor and do a grammar and spell check.Then copy & paste on to this site.
If you need help doing this contact me
I am making this the first suggestion, because TYPOS make reading difficult for those of us with Traumatic Brain Injuries.I found it very difficult for example to follow stories in the NY Times if there was a Typo or Grammar Error - confused me.
2) Send in TOPICS for us to post.
We will list them and everyone can add information under the Comments section.
I will try to garner short pieces of information and Post it right under the topic, but trhis is only to give you the flavor of the content of the Comments. Please read all the Comments. You will discover information I have overlooked.
Some LINKS (please send Links) will be also posted right under the Topic. This mainly is to boost our ranking in the Google Dance. So please read all the comments.
3 )We want to keep this Blog operative. If you have something very negative to say about a service provider, insurance company or doctor Please simply list your email address in your comment so interested parties can read what you have to say without the attorneys.
4) Our name is TBI SNAFU. We are not affiliated with any association, group or institution.
5) I apologize for the nature of my Profile, but I need to keep it this way for my other Blog:
which is POLITICAL in nature.
6) This site:
Try to PROOFREAD your copy before Posting.
The best way to do this is to type out your copy on a word processor and do a grammar and spell check.Then copy & paste on to this site.
If you need help doing this contact me
LarryHayesNYC@aol.comand I will be glad to assist you.
I am making this the first suggestion, because TYPOS make reading difficult for those of us with Traumatic Brain Injuries.I found it very difficult for example to follow stories in the NY Times if there was a Typo or Grammar Error - confused me.
2) Send in TOPICS for us to post.
We will list them and everyone can add information under the Comments section.
I will try to garner short pieces of information and Post it right under the topic, but trhis is only to give you the flavor of the content of the Comments. Please read all the Comments. You will discover information I have overlooked.
Some LINKS (please send Links) will be also posted right under the Topic. This mainly is to boost our ranking in the Google Dance. So please read all the comments.
3 )We want to keep this Blog operative. If you have something very negative to say about a service provider, insurance company or doctor Please simply list your email address in your comment so interested parties can read what you have to say without the attorneys.
4) Our name is TBI SNAFU. We are not affiliated with any association, group or institution.
5) I apologize for the nature of my Profile, but I need to keep it this way for my other Blog:
http://rottenrottenrotten.blogspot.com/
which is POLITICAL in nature.
6) This site:
TBI SNAFUis and shall remain NON-POLITICAL
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
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