The Master Builder and Other Plays Read online

  BORGHEIM: Oh? Why not?

  RITA: Well, because that means you won’t be coming out this way very often from now on.

  BORGHEIM: No, that’s true. I hadn’t thought of that.

  RITA: Ah, but I’m sure you’ll still come and see us now and again.

  BORGHEIM: No, I’m afraid that won’t be possible for me, not for a long while.

  ALLMERS: Oh? Why’s that?

  BORGHEIM: Ah, because I’ve now been given another big job to do, one which I have to start on immediately.

  ALLMERS: Have you indeed? [Shaking his hand] I’m delighted to hear it.

  RITA: Congratulations, congratulations, Mr Borgheim!

  BORGHEIM: Ssh, ssh – I’m not really supposed to talk about it openly yet! But I can’t help it! – It’s a big new road – up north. With mountains to cross – and the most incredible obstacles to overcome! [Exclaiming] Oh, this great, glorious world – what luck to be a road-builder!

  RITA [smiling and giving him a sly look]: Is it only this new road that brings you here all cock-a-hoop today?

  BORGHEIM: No, not just that. It’s all the bright prospects that are opening up for me.

  RITA [as before]: Aha, might there be something even finer behind all this!

  BORGHEIM [glancing at ASTA]: Who knows! When good luck comes it tends to come like a spring flood. [Turning to ASTA] Miss Allmers, shouldn’t we take a little stroll together, you and I? I mean, as we usually do?

  ASTA [brusquely]: No. No, thank you. Not now. Not today.

  BORGHEIM: Oh, come on! Just a tiny little stroll! I feel I have so much to talk to you about before I leave.

  RITA: Maybe something you can’t talk about openly yet?

  BORGHEIM: Hm, well that all depends –

  RITA: Because you could always whisper it, you know. [In an undertone] Oh, Asta, do go with him.

  ASTA: But Rita, dear –

  BORGHEIM [imploringly]: Miss Asta – remember, this will be our last walk together – for a long, long time.

  ASTA [picking up her hat and parasol]: All right then, let’s take a little stroll around the garden.

  BORGHEIM: Oh, thank you, thank you.

  ALLMERS: And look out for Eyolf while you’re down there.

  BORGHEIM: Oh, Eyolf, of course! Where is Eyolf today? I have something for him.

  ALLMERS: He’s playing down there somewhere.

  BORGHEIM: No, really! So he’s started playing now? He usually just stays indoors and reads.

  ALLMERS: There’s to be an end to that. We’re going to make a real outdoor boy of him.

  BORGHEIM: There now, that’s the way! Out into the open air with him as well, the poor little soul! Goodness knows there’s nothing better in this blessed world than playing games. The way I see it life is just one big game! – Come on, Miss Asta!

  BORGHEIM and ASTA walk out on to the veranda and down into the garden.

  ALLMERS [watching them go]: Tell me, Rita – do you think there’s anything between those two?

  RITA: I don’t know what to say. I used to think there was. But Asta’s become so inexplicable to me lately – so completely unfathomable.

  ALLMERS: Oh? Has she? While I was away?

  RITA: Yes, over the past week or so, I’d say.

  ALLMERS: And you think she no longer cares all that much for him?

  RITA: Not seriously. Not completely and utterly. Unreservedly. No, I don’t think so. [Giving him a searching look] Would it bother you if she did?

  ALLMERS: Not bother me exactly. But it would be an alarming thought, there’s no denying it –

  RITA: Alarming?

  ALLMERS: Yes, because you have to remember that I’m responsible for Asta. For her happiness in life.

  RITA: Oh, really! – responsible! Asta’s a grown woman, isn’t she? I’m sure she’s quite capable of making her own choices.

  ALLMERS: Yes, well, we’ll have to hope so, Rita.

  RITA: I, for one, don’t think any ill of Mr Borgheim.

  ALLMERS: No, my dear – and neither do I. Quite the opposite. But still –

  RITA [persisting]: And I’d be only too pleased to see him and Asta make a match of it.

  ALLMERS [disgruntled]: I see, and why exactly?

  RITA [with growing agitation]: Well, because then she’d have to go off with him, a long way away! And then she’d never be able to come out here to us as she does now!

  ALLMERS [staring at her in astonishment]: What! Would you like to be rid of Asta!

  RITA: Yes, yes, Alfred!

  ALLMERS: But why on earth –?

  RITA [throwing her arms passionately around his neck]: Ah, because then at last I’d have you to myself alone! Or, no – not even then! Not all to myself! [Bursts into floods of tears] Oh, Alfred, Alfred – I can’t let you go.

  ALLMERS [gently disengaging himself]: Now Rita, dearest – be reasonable, please!

  RITA: No, I don’t care a whit about being reasonable! All I care about is you! No one in the world but you! [Throwing her arms around him again] You, you, you!

  ALLMERS: Let go, let go – you’re choking me –!

  RITA [letting him go]: If only I could! [Regarding him with flashing eyes] Oh, if you knew how I’ve hated you –!

  ALLMERS: Hated me –!

  RITA: Yes – all those times when you were sitting in your study. Poring over your work. Long – long into the night. [Plaintively] So long – so late, Alfred. – Oh, how I hated your work!

  ALLMERS: But that’s all over now.

  RITA [with a bitter laugh]: Oh, yes! Only now you’re wrapped up in something even worse.

  ALLMERS [appalled]: Worse! You call our child something even worse?

  RITA [vehemently]: Yes, I do. Where our relationship is concerned that’s what I call him. Because, on top of everything else, that child – that child’s a living human being, you know. [Voice rising to an outburst] But I won’t stand for it, Alfred! I won’t stand for it – I’m telling you!

  ALLMERS [softly, eyeing her steadily]: Many’s the time when I’m almost afraid of you, Rita.

  RITA [darkly]: I’m often afraid of myself. Which is exactly why you mustn’t rouse the wickedness18 in me.

  ALLMERS: Oh, in the name of God – do I do that?

  RITA: Yes, you do – when you tear apart what is most sacred between us.

  ALLMERS [earnestly]: But think about it, Rita. This is your own child – our only child, we’re talking about here.

  RITA: The child is only half my own. [Her voice rising again] But you should be mine alone! All mine you should be! I have the right to demand that of you!

  ALLMERS [shrugging]: Oh, Rita dear – it does no good to go demanding things. Everything must be given willingly.

  RITA [regarding him intently]: And that you can’t do from now on?

  ALLMERS: No, I can’t. I’ll have to split myself between Eyolf and you.

  RITA: But what if Eyolf had never been born? What then?

  ALLMERS [evasively]: Ah, that’s another matter. Because then I would only have you to care for.

  RITA [softly, voice quivering]: Then I wish I had never borne him.

  ALLMERS [outraged]: Rita! You don’t know what you’re saying!

  RITA [trembling with emotion]: I gave birth to him in unspeakable agony. But I bore it all joyfully and with a glad heart for your sake.

  ALLMERS [tenderly]: Yes, yes, I know you did.

  RITA [firmly]: But that should be the end of it. I want to live my life. With you. No one but you. I can’t just be Eyolf’s mother. Just that. And nothing more. I won’t, I tell you. I can’t! I want to be everything to you! To you, Alfred!

  ALLMERS: But you are, Rita. Through our child –

  RITA: Oh – wishy-washy mealy-mouthed rubbish – and nothing but. No, no, Alfred, that sort of thing’s not for me. I was made to be mother to the child. But not to act the mother to it. You’ll have to take me as I am, Alfred.

  ALLMERS: But you’ve always loved Eyolf so dearly.


  RITA: I felt so sorry for him. Because you left him neglected.19 Just left him to swot and study. Hardly even noticed him.

  ALLMERS [nodding slowly]: No, I was blind. The time had not yet come for me –20

  RITA [looking at him]: I see – but now it has come?

  ALLMERS: Yes, now at last. Now I see that my highest task in this world is to be a true father to Eyolf.

  RITA: And to me? What will you be to me?

  ALLMERS [gently]: You I shall continue to love. With quiet ardour.

  He reaches for her hands.

  RITA [shying away from him]: I’m not interested in your quiet ardour. I want to have you completely and utterly! And all to myself! The way I had you during those first glorious, passionate months. [Vehemently, harshly] I’ll never let myself be fobbed off with scraps and leftovers, Alfred!

  ALLMERS [softly]: I’d have thought there was more than enough happiness here for all three of us, Rita.

  RITA [contemptuously]: Then you’re easily pleased. [Sitting down at the table to the left] Now listen.

  ALLMERS [coming closer]: Well? What now?

  RITA [regarding him with a dull gleam in her eyes]: When I got your telegram yesterday evening –

  ALLMERS: Yes? What then?

  RITA: – then I dressed all in white –

  ALLMERS: Yes, I noticed you were dressed in white when I came home.

  RITA: Had let my hair down –21

  ALLMERS: Your thick, fragrant hair –

  RITA: – so it fell down over my shoulders and my back –

  ALLMERS: I saw it. I saw it. Oh, how lovely you were, Rita!

  RITA: There were rose-coloured shades on both lamps. And we were alone, the two of us. The only ones awake in all the house. And there was champagne on the table.

  ALLMERS: I didn’t drink any.

  RITA [eyeing him bitterly]: No, that’s true. [Laughing shrilly] ‘You had champagne, but you touched it not’22 – as the poet says.

  She gets up from the armchair, walks almost wearily across to the sofa and half reclines on it.

  ALLMERS [walking across the room and stopping in front of her]: My head was so full of weighty thoughts. I’d made up my mind to talk to you about our future life, Rita. And above all about Eyolf.

  RITA [smiling]: And so you did, my dear –

  ALLMERS: No, I didn’t get round to it. Because you began to undress.

  RITA: Yes, and you talked about Eyolf all the while. Don’t you remember? You asked how little Eyolf’s stomach was.

  ALLMERS [eyeing her reproachfully]: Rita –!

  RITA: And then you climbed into your bed. And slept so soundly.

  ALLMERS [shaking his head]: Rita – Rita!

  RITA [lying down flat and looking up at him]: Alfred? Alfred?

  ALLMERS: Yes?

  RITA: ‘You had champagne, but you touched it not.’

  ALLMERS [rather sharply]: No. I didn’t touch it.

  He walks away from her and stands by the French windows. RITA lies for a while unmoving, with eyes closed.

  RITA [suddenly jumping up]: But I’ll tell you one thing, Alfred.

  ALLMERS [turns in the doorway]: What?

  RITA: You shouldn’t feel so sure of yourself, you know.

  ALLMERS: Sure of myself?

  RITA: Yes, you shouldn’t be so complacent! Not so certain that you have me!

  ALLMERS [drawing closer]: What do you mean by that?

  RITA [with trembling lips]: Never by a single thought have I been untrue to you, Alfred! Never for a moment.

  ALLMERS: Of course not, Rita, I know that. I, who know you so well.

  RITA [eyes flashing]: But if you slight me –!

  ALLMERS: Slight you –! I don’t know what you’re getting at!

  RITA: Oh, you’ve no idea of all that could rise up in me, if –

  ALLMERS: If –?

  RITA: If I ever felt that you no longer cared about me. No longer loved me as you used to.

  ALLMERS: Oh, but Rita, my dearest – the process of human change over the years – this is bound to take place in our life too. As it does in everyone else’s.

  RITA: Not in me! And I won’t hear of any change in you either. I wouldn’t be able to bear it, Alfred. I want to keep you all to myself.

  ALLMERS [giving her a worried look]: You have an awfully jealous mind –

  RITA: I cannot change the way I am. [Ominously] If you divide yourself between me and someone else –

  ALLMERS: What then –?

  RITA: Then I’ll have my revenge on you, Alfred!

  ALLMERS: And how would you have your revenge on me?

  RITA: I don’t know. – Oh, yes, I think I do!

  ALLMERS: Oh?

  RITA: I’d go and throw myself away –

  ALLMERS: Throw yourself away, you say!

  RITA: Yes, I would. I’d throw myself into the arms of – of the first man who came along!

  ALLMERS [gazing at her, eyes burning]: You’d never do that – not you, my honest, proud, faithful Rita.

  RITA [wrapping her arms around his neck]: Oh, you don’t know what I might become if you – if you would have no more to do with me.

  ALLMERS: Have no more to do with you? How can you say such a thing!

  RITA [with a little laugh, letting go of him]: I could always cast my net for him – that road-builder who’s always around.

  ALLMERS [with relief]: Oh, thank goodness – you were only joking.

  RITA: Not at all. Why not him as well as any other?

  ALLMERS: Well, because he appears to be pretty well tied already.

  RITA: All the better! Because then I’d be taking him away from someone else. Which is exactly what Eyolf has done to me.

  ALLMERS: You’re saying that our little Eyolf has done that?

  RITA [pointing]: See! See! No sooner do you mention Eyolf’s name than you soften and your voice quivers! [Menacingly, clenching her fists] Oh, I could almost be tempted to wish – ah!

  ALLMERS [regarding her apprehensively]: What could you wish, Rita –!

  RITA [vehemently, walking away from him]: No, no, no – I’m not telling you! Never!

  ALLMERS [going up to her]: Rita! I beg you – for your sake and mine, don’t be tempted to do anything wicked.

  BORGHEIM and ASTA come in from the garden. They both show signs of restrained emotion. Their faces are solemn and downcast. ASTA stays out on the veranda. BORGHEIM steps into the living room.

  BORGHEIM: There. Now Miss Allmers and I have taken our last stroll together.

  RITA [giving him a puzzled look]: Ah! – And there’s to be no longer journey to follow that stroll?

  BORGHEIM: For me, yes.

  RITA: Only for you?

  BORGHEIM: Yes, only for me.

  RITA [glancing darkly at ALLMERS]: Do you hear that, Alfred? [Turning to BORGHEIM] I wouldn’t mind betting that evil eyes23 have been playing tricks on you here.

  BORGHEIM [staring at her]: Evil eyes?

  RITA [nodding]: Evil eyes, yes.

  BORGHEIM: Do you believe in evil eyes, Mrs Allmers?

  RITA: Yes, I’ve begun to believe in evil eyes. Particularly in evil child-eyes.

  ALLMERS [shocked, whispering]: Rita – how can you –!

  RITA [under her breath]: It’s you who makes me mean and wicked, Alfred.

  Distant, confused shouts and screams are heard down by the shore.

  BORGHEIM [walking over to the French windows]: What’s all the noise –?

  ASTA [from the doorway]: Look at all those people running down to the jetty!

  ALLMERS: What can it be? [Glances briefly outside.] Probably those street urchins up to their tricks again.

  BORGHEIM [leaning over the balustrade and shouting]: Oy! You lads down there! What’s going on?

  Sound of several voices all answering, indistinctly, at once.

  RITA: What are they saying?

  BORGHEIM: They say there’s a child drowned.

  ALLMERS: A child drowned?

&nb
sp; ASTA [uneasily]: A little boy, they say.

  ALLMERS: Oh, but they can all swim, those lads.

  RITA [crying out in alarm]: Where’s Eyolf!

  ALLMERS: Calm down. Calm down. Eyolf’s in the garden playing, you know that.

  ASTA: No, he wasn’t in the garden –

  RITA [hands in the air]: Oh, please don’t let it be him!

  BORGHEIM [listens then calls down]: Whose child is it, did you say?

  A babble of indistinct voices is heard. Both BORGHEIM and ASTA utter muffled cries and rush down into the garden.

  ALLMERS [in anguish]: It isn’t Eyolf, it isn’t Eyolf, Rita!

  RITA [on the veranda, listening]: Hush; be quiet! Let me hear what they’re saying!

  With a piercing shriek RITA flies back into the room.

  ALLMERS [coming after her]: What did they say?

  RITA [collapsing into the armchair on the left]: They said: Look – the crutch! It’s floating!24

  ALLMERS [stunned]: No! No! No!

  RITA [hoarsely]: Eyolf! Eyolf! Oh, but they have to save him!

  ALLMERS [distraught]: How can they not! Such a precious life! Such a precious life!

  He dashes off through the garden.

  Act Two

  A small, narrow glen in Allmers’s wood down by the beach. On the left, the spot is overhung by tall old trees. A stream tumbles down the hillside in the background and loses itself among the rocks on the edge of the wood. A path winds alongside the stream. On the right, a few solitary trees through which the fjord can just be made out. In the foreground the corner of a boathouse is visible, with a boat drawn up outside it. Under the old trees on the left is a table flanked by a bench and a couple of chairs, all made out of slender birch timbers. It is a dull, rainy day with low clouds drifting past overhead.

  ALFRED ALLMERS, dressed as before, is sitting on the bench, his arms resting on the table. His hat lies in front of him. He is staring fixedly, blankly at the water.

  Moments later, ASTA ALLMERS comes walking down the path through the wood. She is holding an umbrella over her head.

  ASTA [approaching him, softly and hesitantly]: You shouldn’t be sitting down here in this grey weather, Alfred.

  ALLMERS nods slowly but does not reply.

  ASTA [closing her umbrella]: I’ve been out so long looking for you.

  ALLMERS [expressionlessly]: Thank you.

  ASTA [pulling up a chair and sitting down next to him]: Have you been sitting down here long? The whole time?