Medea Read online

  What people?

  Pause. MEDEA keeps writing.

  JASON

  I got so sick of the endless bloody conflict. Always having to find new friends because you’d fallen out with the ones we had. Always moving because you decided you didn’t like where we were.

  MEDEA

  That’s today’s, is it?

  JASON

  Today’s what?

  MEDEA

  Theory.

  Pause.

  JASON

  Why did everything have to be so bloody controversial?

  MEDEA

  I wanted honesty.

  JASON

  Your honesty made me a fucking exile.

  MEDEA

  Our life was –

  JASON

  Our life was –

  MEDEA

  about truth.

  JASON

  an ordeal.

  MEDEA stops typing and looks at him.

  MEDEA

  Was it?

  Pause.

  JASON

  Hard as it might be to believe, I still care –

  MEDEA

  Oh –

  JASON

  – about you.

  MEDEA

  – really?

  JASON

  It hurts me to see you getting hurt.

  MEDEA laughs.

  This could all have been very different. But it’s as if you’re blind – you feel but you can’t see. So you break things.

  MEDEA

  Me?

  JASON

  Look what happens when I’m not –

  MEDEA

  I do?

  JASON

  – protecting you. You start destroying things.

  Pause.

  MEDEA

  I’ll destroy you.

  JASON

  What?

  MEDEA

  I said I’ll destroy you.

  JASON

  You can’t. I’m beyond you now.

  Pause.

  I just want what’s best –

  MEDEA

  You want.

  JASON

  – for you and the boys.

  MEDEA

  You want.

  Pause.

  JASON

  God, you women. You pick it to the bones, don’t you, the fucking corpse.

  Pause.

  I just want something clean.

  Pause.

  I want to be free.

  MEDEA

  You can’t be.

  JASON

  Why not? Why –

  MEDEA

  You’re not –

  JASON

  – not?

  MEDEA

  – free. You have two –

  JASON

  Oh, the children –

  MEDEA

  – children.

  JASON

  – are fine. They’re incredibly –

  MEDEA

  They’re not –

  JASON

  – resilient. They’re finding this –

  MEDEA

  – fine.

  JASON

  – easier than you are.

  Pause.

  Most of their friends have divorced parents. It would be stranger for them if we stayed together.

  MEDEA

  There speaks the cynicism of our times.

  Pause.

  You can’t just send them –

  JASON

  Look, I need to put myself –

  MEDEA

  – back to the shop.

  JASON

  – first for –

  MEDEA

  I’m not a shop.

  JASON

  – a while.

  MEDEA

  I’m not a shop.

  Pause.

  You deformed me. You came inside me –

  JASON

  What exactly are you –

  MEDEA

  – and you grew there.

  JASON

  – accusing me of?

  MEDEA

  Twice.

  JASON

  It was entirely –

  MEDEA

  While you stayed –

  JASON

  – your choice to –

  MEDEA

  – exactly the same.

  JASON

  – have children.

  MEDEA

  You touched everything. You got into everything. Even my words have your finger marks on.

  JASON

  Look, I feel I’ve done all I can to make this all right for you. It’s in my interests, for Christ’s sake. It’s in my interests for you to be all right. Can’t you see that?

  Pause.

  MEDEA

  But I’m not all right.

  Pause.

  JASON

  I hate to say it, but you’re your own worst enemy. You play the victim. But you’re not a victim, you’re the – the opposite.

  MEDEA

  I don’t know what –

  JASON

  All I’m saying is that –

  MEDEA

  – I am. I can’t remember –

  JASON

  there comes a point where you have to accept that –

  MEDEA

  – what I was before –

  JASON

  you bring things on yourself.

  MEDEA

  – you came inside me.

  JASON

  Look, you’re not like other people.

  MEDEA

  You’re inside the children too.

  JASON

  You don’t see things the way everyone else does.

  MEDEA

  You own fifty per cent.

  JASON

  At the moment that’s a losing hand –

  MEDEA

  Can I just love my half, please?

  JASON

  – but if you exercised some self-control it could become a kind of strength.

  Long pause.

  MEDEA

  It’s funny the way, when you shaft people, you still want them to like you afterwards. Did they teach you that at your private school?

  JASON

  Oh, shut up. God, even the sound of your voice –

  MEDEA

  You think you can –

  JASON

  makes me sick.

  MEDEA

  – silence me.

  JASON (Laughs.)

  If that was true I’d be doing –

  MEDEA

  You act like I’m nothing.

  JASON

  – everyone a fucking favour.

  MEDEA

  You act like it was nothing, what I did.

  JASON

  What did you do?

  MEDEA

  But it’s you that’s nothing.

  JASON

  Come to think of it, what did you actually do?

  MEDEA

  I made you what you are.

  JASON

  I made –

  MEDEA (Laughs.)

  You wouldn’t have been –

  JASON

  myself.

  MEDEA

  capable of leaving me –

  JASON

  Jesus, your arrogance.

  MEDEA

  if I hadn’t tarted up your brain.

  JASON

  You women really have –

  MEDEA

  You didn’t even know how to –

  JASON

  a God complex.

  MEDEA

  fuck a woman –

  JASON

  You think you’re –

  MEDEA

  until I taught you.

  JASON

  the creators.

  MEDEA

  I rather regret that now.

  JASON

  But you’re just the vessel. You don’t make anything.

  MEDEA

  I made our children.

  JASON

  You wanted them!

  Pause.

 
MEDEA

  Didn’t you?

  JASON

  Of course I wanted them. All I’m saying –

  MEDEA

  Didn’t you want them?

  JASON

  is that you made –

  MEDEA

  Didn’t you?

  JASON

  a free choice. To be perfectly honest –

  MEDEA

  Go on.

  JASON

  I mean, you know I love the boys, but –

  MEDEA

  Go on.

  JASON

  – no, it wasn’t essential for me. Not the way it was for you. I mean, obviously I’m glad we did but I’m not sure I’d have actually –

  MEDEA

  Say it.

  JASON

  – chosen it.

  Pause.

  To be perfectly frank, I think a lot of men feel that way. They just don’t admit it.

  MEDEA

  But you do.

  JASON

  I do what?

  MEDEA

  Admit it.

  JASON

  I’m being honest.

  MEDEA

  That’s not –

  JASON

  I thought you were all –

  MEDEA

  – honesty.

  JASON

  – for honesty. Or is it only you that’s allowed to be honest?

  MEDEA (Shouts.)

  That’s not honesty!

  JASON (Raising his hands.)

  Look, no one can say I haven’t tried. But I can’t deal with this any more. From now on, you’re on your own.

  Pause.

  MEDEA

  I think I always was.

  JASON

  If that’s true, then it’s because you deserved to be.

  They stare at each other.

  MEDEA

  I can’t save them, because I can’t ever have them whole. You couldn’t even leave me that.

  They walk in separate directions off the stage.

  SCENE 13

  The WOMEN are waiting outside the school gate.

  W1

  I don’t feel like it today.

  W2

  I know what you mean.

  W1

  I feel like I can’t be bothered.

  W2

  I know what you mean.

  W1

  You know how sometimes you think, you know –

  W2

  I know.

  W1

  – sod all this, I just want –

  W2

  I know.

  W1

  – to have some fucking fun.

  Pause.

  W3

  John’s in Paris this week.

  W1

  I mean, I love the kids –

  W4

  Is he?

  W1

  you know I –

  W2

  Oh, I know.

  W1

  – do, I mean we all –

  W3

  For work.

  W1

  – love our kids –

  W2

  Exactly.

  W1

  – don’t we?

  Pause.

  W3

  He says the women are amazing.

  W4

  Where?

  W3

  In Paris.

  Pause.

  As in, you know, beautiful. He says he’s never seen such beautiful women.

  Pause.

  W1

  But sometimes you just want –

  W2

  I know what –

  W1

  – some glamour.

  W2

  – you mean.

  W1

  You want someone to just –

  W2

  Exactly.

  W1

  – fuck you over the –

  W2

  I know.

  W1

  – fucking kitchen table.

  Pause.

  Do you know what I mean?

  Pause.

  W3

  It’s something to do with their mouths, apparently.

  MEDEA enters and stands at a short distance. They look at her.

  W1

  Mind you, things could be worse.

  W2

  Exactly.

  W1

  Things could definitely be worse.

  W2

  Exactly.

  W1

  Imagine being stuck with it all on your own.

  W2

  I know.

  W1

  It’s not fair, is it?

  W2

  I know.

  W1

  I mean, the facts speak for themselves, don’t they?

  W2

  Exactly.

  W1

  I mean, you’ve got to ask yourself – how do they get away with it?

  Pause.

  Don’t you?

  Pause.

  W2

  How does who?

  Pause.

  W1

  How do men.

  W2

  Oh, right. Yes exactly.

  W4

  She looks so –

  W1

  Doesn’t she?

  W4

  – so sad.

  W1

  Doesn’t she?

  W5

  She looks frightening.

  W1

  Doesn’t she?

  W3

  It’s the kids you’ve got to worry about.

  W4

  Just so –

  W3

  I mean, is anyone monitoring this situation?

  W4

  – sad.

  W3

  I mean, she wasn’t the most normal mother in the first place.

  Pause.

  Was she?

  W5

  Archie said something the other day.

  W3

  Did he?

  W5

  The other evening, in the bath. I saw this thing on his arm and I said –

  W3

  What sort –

  W5

  – you know, what’s that and he said –

  W3

  – of thing?

  W5

  – a certain person bit me.

  Pause.

  W3

  That’s a bit much.

  W5

  I thought, you know –

  W3

  That’s a bit –

  W5

  – I know they’re having a hard time and everything but –

  W3

  – much, isn’t it?

  W5

  – there’s got to be, you know, a limit. I mean,

  W3

  Did you –

  W5

  Just because her kids are suffering doesn’t mean –

  W3

  – report it?

  W5

  – our kids should suffer too, does it?

  Pause.

  I mean, whatever’s happening in our personal lives, we’ve got to control our kids, haven’t we?

  Pause.

  W1

  To be honest, I’d rather be dead.

  W2

  I know.

  W1

  I’d rather be cleaning toilets in Siberia.

  W2

  I know.

  W1

  Anything but that.

  W2

  But what?

  W1

  Being stuck with it.

  W2

  Oh, I know.

  W1

  On my own.

  Pause.

  W4

  Weren’t you offended?

  W3

  What?

  W4

  When your husband said that.

  W3

  Said what?

  W4

  About Paris. Weren’t you offended?

  W3

  Not really.

  W4

  I mean, if my husband rang me up from a busi
ness trip and said that, I’d be really offended.

  W3

  He was only being honest.

  W4

  I mean, he’s basically telling you that he’s looking at other women.

  W3

  They all do that.

  W4

  And that they’re more attractive than you are.

  W3

  That’s what men do.

  W4

  I mean, you’re stuck at home with the kids.

  W3

  They just don’t admit it.

  W4

  And he’s in Paris staring at women’s mouths.

  W3

  I’d rather he admitted it.

  W4

  Did you really not mind?

  W3

  Not really.

  W4

  Well I must be different then.

  W3

  I suppose so.

  W4

  I must be more sensitive.

  W3

  I suppose so.

  W4

  I feel upset just thinking about it.

  W3

  That’s a shame.

  W4

  Men are so – horrible.

  SCENE 14

  MEDEA and the two BOYS in the boulder landscape. She sits writing. The WOMEN stand like trees around the stage.

  B1

  What’s a delinquent?

  Pause.

  Mum, what does it mean to be a delinquent?

  MEDEA

  Why do you ask?

  B1

  That’s what Grandma says I’m going to be when I grow up. She says it’s because I come from a broken home.

  Pause.

  What’s a broken home?

  MEDEA

  A home that’s been divided into two homes.

  B2

  There’s no such thing. There can only be one home. If you have two homes then you have no home.

  Pause.

  B1

  How long are we staying here?

  MEDEA

  I don’t know.

  B1

  Can’t we go back to our house?

  MEDEA

  Our house has been sold.

  B1

  But can’t we get it back?

  MEDEA

  It was too big for us.

  A MAN in a suit walks across the stage and stops when he reaches them.

  MAN

  Excuse me, can’t you see I’m trying to pass?

  They get out of the way and the MAN walks on.

  B2 (Looking at his phone.)

  Dad says he won’t be here this weekend, by the way.

  B1

  But we’re meant to be going there.

  B2

  Well he says he won’t be here.

  Pause.

  He says he’s going to Paris.

  B1

  He’s taking us to see Arsenal this weekend.

  B2

  He can’t take us to see Arsenal if he’s in Paris.

  B1

  Mum, is Dad taking us to see Arsenal this weekend?

  B2

  He’s probably going with her.

  B1

  Mum, is he?

  B2

  She probably said, We can’t take that horrid little boy to Paris – he’ll get the Eiffel Tower dirty!

  B1

  Mum?

  The WOMEN start to gather around MEDEA.

  Mum?

  MEDEA

  Once I was driving on a road in the mountains.

  W1

  What on earth were you doing there?

  MEDEA

  I was going somewhere in my car.

  W2

  Where were you going?

  MEDEA

  I don’t remember. But I remember wanting to get there.

  W3

  On your own – that was brave!