Addend 18—Adam Adammovich
Act 3
©
Adam: Ra-zhannychka, go ask your mothers,
if the priest Tiresias
is among those
who have come for me?
Tell your mothers to lay
away the knives,
and ask the high priest
to come and
speak with me by himself.
Ra-zhannychka: Yes, father,
I know him, I saw him.
He comes dressed with a
‘thing’ four feet long.
Adam: Ra-zhannychka, that is unusual,
Is it not?
Ra-zhannychka: Yes, father,
he’s already told,
he’s come to see you without
yours.
Adam: That is curious. Why?
Has someone told him what
ails me?
Ra-zhannychka, be so
good,
Bring me my three-foot
long one,
It hangs on the peg
behind the door,
and bring your
handkerchief.
And tell your mothers to
prepare
us a lethal dose of
cocaine.
And, Ra-zhannychka,
Something else ….
Ra-zhannychka: Yes, father.
Adam: Ra-zhannychka,
I want you to do as I
ask,
and when you are done,
steal yourself away and
run
to your grandmothers and
hide among them.
Do not come back to this
house,
until you bear us a son.
He will be of you, your
mothers, and me,
whoever the father be.
Chorus: (aside) My son, he, like me
must have four wives
and a girl like you,
Razhannyk, to carry on the fight
in the event that he like
we lose it.
Now, go! And bring with
you your handkerchief!
(Ra-zhannychka exits…)
Story Teller: Well, I have said it before: there works
within us a greater intelligence, a genee with a memory that is more enduring
than our own. The French were the first to take notice of it and called it longue
duree http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Braudel
. Perhaps this is because the French were called, at an earlier time, Franks;
and the Franks came from an area now known as Romania
When the Franks were near
defeat a second time,this time by the English (that was only six hundred years
ago), and their would-be king (dauphin) was not king because of timidity and
lack of conviction, there came from the midst of the Franks one Joan of Arc http://www.biography.com/people/joan-of-arc-9354756
, also called the Maid or Pucelle, the last which may mean boy-girl. This name
has its own longue duree history: puika
means boy in Estonian (of a Uralic language group http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_language
), and puishele (boy-girl) may be the
equivalent of ‘pucelle’. How this
came to be, I do not know. In any event, the role of Joan is like that of Ismene.
Ismene was the only survivor of the court of Oedipus the King, who (no one said
a word about it) did not have the nerve to slaughter enough Turks to keep Byzantium
Perhaps it was meant to
be, so that today, she may reincarnate herself as Ra-zhannychka. Having lived
her young life in incest with her mothers and father, she grew up as a
boy-girl. Like the Earth-Mother of the Aztecs, Coatlicue, Lady of the Serpents
Skirt, who lived on Snake Mountain, and swept the floor of her temple until a
feather drifted into her lap bearing the Sun’s own seed, Ra-zhannychka was sent
after her father’s three foot Other-self, which men of the day—they wore no
pants—hung from their belts and carried between their legs, to community events.
Of course, I have made this up, but it fits the story.
Incidentally, one does
not have to be an anthropologist to think or speak about ancient myths.
(Ra-zhannychka reenters…)
Ra-zhannychka: Everything
is alright, father.
Mothers are entertaining
our guests.
Dressed in socks to
their thighs
And gloves to their
armpits,
they are all running
naked through our field of nettles.
If you listen, you can
hear them scream
(She laughs:)
Here’s your thing.
and my handkerchief.
Adam: Thanks, Ra-zhannyk.
Now turn your back while
I get dressed.
(Ra-zhannychka turns her back to her father, while Adam puts the ‘thing’
between his legs, straps on the belt, and hooks the ‘thing’ to it. He does so
in full view of the audience. When done, he takes the handkerchief and places
it over the head of the penis. The lights on stage dim slowly.)
Adam: Ra-zhannychka , When I am done,
do not forget to put the
kerchief into your zhanka.
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