Scene Two
from The Bells of Amersfoort
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2019
Summary
TAMI enters the first world. She is carrying two wine bottles in a plastic bag. She walks unsteadily, obviously not completely sober. It is very cold and she is dressed accordingly. Lights rise on the second world and LUTHANDO enters. It is important that when the two lovers talk they are not looking at each other. They do not address each other directly since they are, in reality, thousands of kilometres apart. It must therefore be clear that they communicate with each other without seeing each other.
LUTHANDO: Dear Tami, years have passed. The world you knew is no longer the same. It is changing every day. Even we who live in it can no longer recognise it. Cannot keep up with the changes. There are talks about talks. And then there are talks. We are now talking with the enemy, Tami. Freedom is coming. It is a different world. One thing hasn't changed though: floods continue to steal our soil into the rivers and into the seas. The land is left emaciated, with contours of ribs showing on its surface. Everyone has left for better places. No one has stayed to heal the land. I cannot hold on any longer, Tami. Many years have passed.
TAMI: You promised, Luthando, that you would wait for me … that we'd heal the land together. You have been strong for so many years. You cannot give up now.
LUTHANDO: Dear Tami, exiles are coming back home in droves. Where are you? We do not see your face among the throngs that are arriving.
TAMI: I am coming … I am coming. Let me battle with my demons first. Let me come home in victory. Not in shame.
LUTHANDO shakes his head and prepares to go. For the first time TAMI turns and looks at him appealingly. She tries to reach for him.
TAMI: You can't give up on me now, Luthando.
But he is too far away. He exits as darkness falls on his world.
TAMI [frantically and drunkenly]: Dear Luthando, did you receive the postcards that I sent you? Did you see how beautiful Amersfoort is? It is a quiet and serene place. Yet there is no quietness in me. Because of the demons that have got hold of me. They started first with loneliness, and then they grew into something unrecognisable.
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- Information
- Fools, Bells and the Habit of EatingThree Satires, pp. 120 - 123Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2002