A Play for Everyone and Nobody

Requiem Aeternam Deo

by Fulya Peker

Page IV

VI. OVERCOMING DISGUST

[All the characters sit in front of a big door upstage. Their backs to the audience.

Zarathustra roams around in his cave alone. Frustrated.]

ZARATHUSTRA

Disgust, disgust, disgust! The great loathing for the human being! Eternally it recurs…the human being….Ah the human being recurs eternally! The small human being…Ah! Disgust, disgust, disgust…Woe to me!

[He sits down finally; calms himself.]

O solitude you are my home! Too long have I lived wild in wild! Now just threaten me with your finger, as mothers threaten, now smile to me, as mothers smile! O Solitude! You are my home! How blissfully and tenderly your voice talks to me! We do not question each other! We do not complain to each other! We go openly with each other through open doors! With you it is open and clear and even the hours here run by on lighter feet. For in the dark, time weighs more heavily than in the light. One should live upon mountains. With blissful nostrils I again breathe mountain-freedom! Redeemed is my nose at last from the smell of all humankind!

[Solitude rises under the fabric. Sitting, she embraces Zarathustra like a mother. The tableau is reminiscent of the pieta.

Zarathustra leans against her, putting his weight onto her.

From within the fabric, she touches his hair gently.]

SOLITUDE

O Zarathustra, I know all: and that among the many you were lonelier, you singular one, than ever you were with me! Loneliness is one thing, solitude is another: that you have learned now! And that among human beings you will always be wild and strange: wild and strange even when they love you: for they want to be treated gently by everything!

[Zarathustra sleeps and Solitude disappears under the fabric.

Dream begins. Surreal vision.

The lines of Disciples are heard during the dream.]

ZARATHUSTRA

GOD! Who carries his ashes up the mountain? GOD! GOD! God! Who carries his ashes up the mountain?

[Characters rise one by one.
They represent earthly and grotesque figures.]

Are you not yourself the wind with the shrill whistling that tears open the gates of the Castle of death?

Are you not yourself a coffin full of colorful wickedness and masks of life?

[The characters hover over Zarathustra, their arms rising up and down as they howl, hiss, shriek, and emit wind sounds.

The Madman, who is standing center backstage with his back to the audience, opens his arms like Jesus on the cross.]

Like a thousand peals of child’s laughter Zarathustra comes into all death chambers, laughing!

A child’s laughter will ever well up out of coffins now a wind will ever come victoriously to all death-weariness.

You will frighten and over throw the gravediggers with your laughter.

[The characters enclose Zarathustra in their arms while the Madman remains with his arms open like Jesus.

Life laughs wildly from under the fabric.

The big door suddenly opens, bright light fills the stage. All characters run backstage through the door, laughing.]

LIFE

[Whispers]

Of them you dream, gravediggers: this is your heaviest dream! But just as you awake from them and came to yourself, so shall they awake from themselves—and come to you!

[Zarathustra awakes horrified; he stares out and beyond. . .

Life rises from under the fabric as if the earth is shaking.
Life supports Zarathustra, who is splayed on her, back to back.

Life first prevails, then Zarathustra.]

ZARATHUSTRA

Into your eye I looked of late, O life! And into the unfathomable I seemed then to be sinking.

LIFE

So runs the talk of all fishes. What they do not fathom is unfathomable. But changeable am I only and wild and in all things a woman, and not a virtuous one. Even though you men call me The Profound or The Loyal, The Eternal, The Mysterious.

ZARATHUSTRA

The Incredible! From the ground up I love only life and most of all I hate her! I am fond of Wisdom and often too fond: that is because she reminds me so much of Life!

LIFE

Who is this Wisdom?

ZARATHUSTRA

Ah yes now! Wisdom! One thirsts after her and is never sated, one looks through veils, one grabs through nets.

LIFE

Is she beautiful?

ZARATHUSTRA

How should I know! Changeable she is and stubborn; I have often seen her bite her lip and drag her comb against the grain of her hair. Perhaps she is wicked and false, and a female in every way, but she speaks ill of herself, precisely then is she most seductive. She is a woman and always loves only a warrior.

LIFE

But of whom are you talking? Perhaps of me?

[She laughs and disappears under the fabric.

Zarathustra collapses.

The Adder comes closer and closer to Zarathustra from under the fabric.
His naked torso becomes visible.
His legs are still covered as if he is a part of the black fabric.
He reaches and bites Zarathustra.
Zarathustra screams and growls.]

ZARATHUSTRA

Oh no…You have not yet accepted my thanks, you vicious circle! You woke me at the right time; my way is still long.

ADDER

Your way will be short. My poison is deadly.

ZARATHUSTRA

When did a dragon die from the poison of a snake? But take your poison back! You are not rich enough to bestow it on me.

[Black out.
The Adder disappears under the fabric.
Scream of need.]

VII. CONFRONTATION

[The Madman enters and sits next to Zarathustra.]

MADMAN

All is the same, nothing is worthwhile, world is without meaning, knowing chokes.

ZARATHUSTRA

Welcome! You soothsayer of the great weariness!

MADMAN

O Zarathustra, you have been up here for the longest time—in a short time your boat shall sit on dry land no more!

ZARATHUSTRA

Am I sitting on dry land?

MADMAN

The waves around your mountain are rising higher and higher, the waves of great need and sorrow: soon they will lift up your boat and carry you away. Do you still hear nothing? Is there not a rushing and roaring from out of depths?

[They listen.

The scream of need is heard from afar.]

ZARATHUSTRA

You proclaimer of ill tidings! That is a cry of need and the cry of a human being. But what does humans’ need matter to me! My ultimate sin that has been saved for me [recognizes]—perhaps you know what it is called?

MADMAN

Pity! O Zarathustra, I come that I might seduce you to your ultimate sin!

Do you hear, do you hear, Zarathustra? The cry is meant for you, it is calling you. Come, come, come, it is time, it is high time.

[Scream of need.]

ZARATHUSTRA

And who is it that is calling for me?

MADMAN

But surely you know! What are you hiding from yourself?

O Zarathustra! You do not stand there like one whose happiness sets him spinning, you will have to dance in order not to collapse!

Happiness! How could one ever find happiness among such recluses and solitaries! All is the same, nothing is worthwhile, no seeking avails…

[Exits.]

ZARATHUSTRA

I will, I desire, I love, for that reason alone I laud life! Here laugh, laugh, my bright and wholesome wickedness! From high mountains throw down your glittering scorn-laughter! With your glittering, bait for me the most beautiful human fishes! On out, on out! Bite, my fishing-rod, into the belly of all black sorrow! On out, on out, my eye! Unclouded silence! Laughing lions must come! Dying will I give human beings my richest gift.

[Black out.
Scream of need.]

END OF EXCERPT OF PLAY

The author has chosen to publish only a portion of the play. If interested in producing or directing the play, write to the author, Fulya Peker, at: catharsist@gmail.com

To read the Nietzsche Circle’s interview with Fulya Peker about Requiem Aeternam Deo, visit here.

For a PDF of The Brooklyn Rail interview with Fulya Peker: here.

To read George Hunka’s review of the play, visit here.

FULYA PEKER © 2006, TURKEY, NEW YORK CITY.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PERMISSION FOR USAGE OF TEXT GRANTED BY TRANSLATOR GRAHAM PARKES AND THANKS TO OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.

(published in Hyperion: On the Future of Aesthetics, a web publication of The Nietzsche Circle: www.nietzschecircle.com, April 2008)

To download the excerpt of the play, Open PDF: | Requiem Aeternam Deo

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