CHARACTERS (#ulink_0c7de754-9e57-54b1-ba90-09eeae6a6519)
CHAIRMAN
FIFTH PRECEPT
FOURTH PRECEPT
SECRETARY
GUARDIAN OF THE DOOR
DELEGATES
TWO DISSIDENT DELEGATES
ATTENDANTS
GUARDS
FIRST LOW-LEVELLER
SECOND LOW-LEVELLER
THIRD LOW-LEVELLER
FOURTH LOW-LEVELLER
TWO MEDICAL ASSISTANTS
DOCTOR
ASSISTANT TO GUARDIAN OF THE DOOR
A GROUP OF PEOPLE FROM VARIOUS LEVELS
TWO LATE-COMERS
ASSISTANTS AND HELPERS AT THE ALTAR
TECHNICIAN
The Singing Door (#ulink_84646f74-c14d-5b05-a00f-6f81cb7ec057)
SCENE: Is this a cave? If so, it is a cave into which has been fitted technical equipment. Perhaps it is an underground shelter for time of war? At any rate, this place combines a rawness of earth and rock with advanced gadgetry. This last is piled up at centre back in a way which suggests an altar or a sacred place: computer, radio receiving apparatus, television set, electronic devices – any or all of these. None of these things is working. In the middle of this arrangement is set, in the place of honour, an unattached wooden door. Every item is much garlanded and decorated, but the flowers and greenery are artificial. The altar’s ATTENDANTS are wearing technicians’ uniforms. They are in attitudes of worship, telling beads, muttering mantras, and so on.
At left is a rough rocky exit into the deeper levels of this underground place.
At right is a large door, much more than man-size. It has a look of complicated and manifold function, and seems as if it might be organic, for it is hard to see how the thing is fastened into the rock. There is no jamb, lintel or frame. It seems more as if all that part of the rocky wall is, simply, door. And while it might be of brass, or bronze, or perhaps gold – any metal that by age comes to soften and glisten so that it coaxes and beguiles the eye – it might equally be made of some modern substance, glass, or plastic, or sound waves made visible. A faint humming sound can be heard, but it is more reasonable to assume that such a noise must come from the machines, even though these look dead – just as the eye is first drawn to them, in their central position, and not immediately to the great door, perhaps just because of its size and equivocal substance. Yet, once seen, the great door dominates, although, in contrast to the altar of technical objects, it looks neglected or ignored. The steps leading to it are undecorated.
At right front is a large round table with chairs set round it, glasses of water, scribbling blocks – the paraphernalia of a modem conference.One is in progress. On the breast of each DELEGATE is a large badge with his or her status on it. They have no names. Each wears some sort of uniform, or stiff, formal clothing. The DOCTOR is dressed like a surgeon in an operating theatre. The GUARDIAN OF THE DOOR wears overalls like a mechanic, but he has religious and national symbols pinned or draped on him.
There are ATTENDANTS at the exit, left, and GUARDS behind the chairs of the CHAIRMAN and the GUARDIAN OF THE DOOR.
CHAIRMAN: And that brings us to the end of our agenda. Thank you, all officers. Thank you, delegates.
[People are already beginning to get up, but]
FIFTH PRECEPT: Excuse me, not quite the end.
[CHAIRMAN leafs to the end of his agenda, looks enquiringly at FIFTH PRECEPT, then laughs. So do some of the other.]
FIFTH PRECEPT: I wasn’t joking, sir.
[They sit down again, but they still smile as if at an old joke.]
CHAIRMAN: Fifth Precept, we have been in continuous session for nearly a week.
FOURTH PRECEPT: Or for several hundred years.
CHAIRMAN: Quite, quite. Fourth Precept, I do not think this is the right time for … it makes me nervous when anyone even jokes about time, measurements of time – that sort of thing, when it takes so little to start the bickering and disagreement off again. All very sincere people, very sincere, the historians and time-keepers, but …
FOURTH PRECEPT: I wasn’t joking either, sir.
FIFTH PRECEPT: We would like to have the last item, Item 99, discussed and voted on.
FOURTH PRECEPT: Yes.
CHAIRMAN: When was the last time Item 99 was discussed, Secretary?
SECRETARY [leafing through minutes]: Just a moment. It’s been so long that …
CHAIRMAN: Oh never mind.
FIFTH PRECEPT: It was fifteen years ago.
SECRETARY: Yes. That’s right.
FIFTH PRECEPT: Which was when the problem arose last time.
GUARDIAN OF THE DOOR: There was a great deal of trouble. We had a lot of trouble, I remember.
CHAIRMAN: So I submit it can wait until tomorrow.
GUARDIAN: Or even next week.
[The DELEGATES laugh.]
FIFTH PRECEPT: No. It must be now.
