Poison was one of the featured plays in hotINK at the Lark 2013, an annual international festival of play readings curated by Catherine Coray and produced at the Lark Play Development Center in New York. You’ll find an interview with author Lot Vekemans and translator Rina Vergano below the play excerpt.
Part 1
We see the chapel of a cemetery: an empty, white room containing a number of chairs. A water cooler and a coffee machine. HE is seated on a chair against the wall, a beaker of water in his hand. SHE enters, damp from the rain and a little chaotic.
SHE: You’re early
I saw your car standing there and I thought: he’s early
HE: It didn’t take as long as I thought
SHE: Shitty weather
HE: Yeah
SHE: Is the weather this shitty where you are too?
HE: Where we are?
SHE: In Normandy I mean
HE: Oh yeah, I mean, yeah yeah
They look at each other.
HE: You haven’t changed a bit
SHE: Oh, well don’t look too closely
HE takes letter out of his pocket and holds it up.
HE: I only got it the day before yesterday
SHE: I didn’t know if you’d get it in time
HE: I meant to phone you to say I was coming
But em…
I’m not much of a phoner
SHE: No, no, I’ve noticed
HE: But I’m here
SHE: Yes, you’re here
You been here long?
HE: Twenty minutes
Half an hour, at most
SHE: Have you already been to his grave
HE: It looks lovely
SHE: I do my best
HE: It’s quiet here
SHE: It usually is in cemeteries
HE: Not many people I mean
SHE: Perhaps no one’s died this week
HE: Sorry?
SHE: That’s why it’s so quiet
HE: Oh I see yeah
Well anyway they probably won’t be burying any more people here will they
Considering the situation
SHE: No
No, probably not no
HE: Are we the only ones at this meeting?
SHE: They wanted to speak to everyone personally
HE: Okay
Don’t you want to sit down?
SHE: In a minute
I’ve got bulbs in the car
Tulip bulbs
I wanted to plant them
HE: Now?
SHE: Yes or in a while
When it’s less wet
HE: Right
So here we are then
SHE: Yes, here we are then
HE: I don’t really know what to say
SHE: Neither do I
HE: You look good
SHE: Do you think so?
HE: Yes, I do
SHE: That’s nice, nice of you to say so
Even though you probably don’t mean it
HE: I do mean it
SHE: Then it’s even nicer of you
…
You too
HE: What?
SHE: You look good too
HE: Thanks
SHE: France is doing you good, obviously
HE: Yes yes it probably is
Shall we sit down?
SHE: Fine
They sit down, first SHE. HE’s a bit unsure which seat to choose. Goes to sit next to her first of all, then reconsiders. Leaves a couple of chairs empty between them.
HE: Nothing’s changed here then
SHE: No
HE: Just that enormous hedge has disappeared outside I noticed
SHE: Too much upkeep
Just like those rose bushes in the middle
Someone’s got to look after them and that’s too much of a cost
HE: I though it might have been because of the poison
SHE: No, no, it’s got nothing to do with the poison
HE: Ridiculous, eh?
SHE: It’s dreadful
HE: And they’ve only just found out about it
SHE: They’re talking about moving two hundred graves
HE: Two hundred!
SHE: It was in the papers
HE: So it is as bad as it said in the letter?
SHE: Probably yes
HE: I thought it wasn’t all that serious
I mean, it said it wasn’t a public health risk
SHE: It’s in the groundwater
That’s what it said, didn’t it?
HE: Yes, well, whatever, I expect we’ll find out soon enough
…
Would you like a drink?
Coffee, tea?
Water?
SHE: No, thanks
HE gets up and walks to the coffee machine.
HE: Wow
SHE: What?
HE: They’ve got espresso, double espresso, cappuccino and latte
SHE: Yes, that’s new
HE chooses a coffee. Drinks some.
HE: Not bad
Do you think they’ll come and get us?
SHE: No idea
Long silence.
SHE: I’m finding this difficult
HE: Let’s see what the options are first of all
SHE: No, I mean sitting here together, waiting
Having to sit here…waiting
And not having seen you for years
And not having any idea how you are
And you not having any idea how I am
And not knowing what to say
And absolutely breaking my neck for a pee
HE: (laughs) Then maybe you should just go to the loo
SHE: Yeah, sorry
SHE goes. HE stays behind, hears a door opening somewhere.
HE: Hallo?
Is anyone there?
HE goes and looks in the direction the sound came from. Knocks on a door.
HE: Is anyone there?
HE tries the door, but it’s locked. HE sits down again. HIS mobile phone rings.
HE: Oui
Oui c’était moi
Non, je suis arrivé
…
Non non ça va
…
Non, elle n’est pas ici maintenant
…
Dans la toilette
Oui, la toilette
…
J’ai aucune idée
Je te rappelle plus tard, bien?
…
Merci
Moi aussi
Oui
A plus tard
HE turns off the mobile and puts it away. SHE comes in again.
SHE: Pfff, that’s a relief
HE smiles. SHE sits down. Short silence.
SHE: So, you don’t think I’ve changed?
HE: Not really
SHE: Not at all?
HE: You’ve got older
SHE: Yeah, what d’you expect
HE: I mean figuratively older
Wiser
Wise
Wiser
SHE: Wiser?
HE: Yes
SHE: (laughs) If only
HE: I’m glad to see you
On the way here I kept thinking:
How will she look?
How will she look now?
And I couldn’t stop thinking about the first time I ever saw you
SHE: That’s twenty years ago
HE: I couldn’t get it out of my head
I hope you’re glad to see me too
HE moves up closer to her.
SHE: No don’t touch me
HE: Sorry
SHE: Do you know what I find strange?
That things only happen when it doesn’t matter anymore
When you don’t really need it any more
HE: Are you talking about me?
SHE: Partly
HE: So it doesn’t really matter to you that I’m here
SHE: I’m not saying that
HE: You are saying that
SHE: But I don’t mean it
HE: You don’t need me any more
SHE: No
That’s positive isn’t it?
If you don’t need something any more
If you can do without it?
Not be dependent?
I mean it in a positive way
HE: So are you glad or not that I’m here?
SHE: I’m very glad you’re here
That we’re here now
Together
Washed ashore
So to speak
HE: Do you feel washed ashore?
SHE: Yeah well, no
In some way or other…yes
HE: In what way then?
SHE: Just
Yeah
Forget I said it
It’s more metaphorical
SHE gets up.
HE: Where are you going
SHE: I’m going to go and see if I can find someone
I mean
It’s nearly quarter past two
HE: I just heard a door
SHE: Where?
HE: Back there somewhere
SHE walks to the door that HE points out.
HE: It’s locked
SHE tries the door, knocks.
SHE: Hallo?
Is anyone there?
Mr. Alewijnse?
HE: Are you sure it was here?
SHE: That’s what it said in the letter
HE takes the letter and checks it through.
HE: Zuiderplantsoen 24-28
SHE: That’s here
Long silence.
SHE: 31st of December 1999
It’s a long time ago, eh?
HE: Yes
SHE: 31st of December 1999
HE: I know
SHE: At ten past seven
HE: You still know what time it was?
SHE: The door closed
I looked at the clock
Ten past seven
I can’t help it
I’ll just never forget it
HE: I’m sorry
SHE: What did you actually do that evening?
HE: I went to Plombières
SHE: To your mother’s house?
HE: Yes
A bit before midnight I stopped in a car park just outside Nancy
I was the only car there
And I watched the sky above Nancy light up
There was only light
No sound
I thought that was so strange
That I didn’t hear anything
That Nancy had entered a new millenium, silently, as far as I could hear
I felt
Yeah well actually, all sorts of things
I wanted to phone you, but then I thought: “Idiot, you just up and leave on a day like today and then go to phone her at midnight”
So I didn’t phone
SHE: I know
HE: It’s funny actually
Well, funny…
I can’t help noticing
More and more
How often you do things without really wanting to
SHE: Are you talking about that evening?
HE: No yeah, well yeah
I mean in general
For myself
That it’s funny
How often I do things without really wanting to
And don’t do what I actually want to do
That evening too, I think, yeah
SHE: You don’t need to apologise
HE: I’m not
It’s more of an insight that comes after the event
We probably all reach the same place in the end
SHE: Is that so?
HE: The same conclusion I mean
SHE: And what is that conclusion then?
According to you?
HE: That we do what we’d rather not
And don’t do what we’d rather do
SHE laughs.
That makes you laugh?
SHE: Yes, to hear you say that
I think it’s funny
HE: Oh
SHE: It is funny isn’t it?
HE: If you say so
SHE: Are you getting touchy?
You’re not going to start getting all touchy are you?
HE: No
SHE: But?
HE: But nothing
Just…
Short silence.
SHE: Don’t you think it’s bizarre seeing each other here after all these years?
HE says nothing.
I do
I think it’s bizarre
Bizarre how things turn out
HE: You could see it like that, yes
SHE: What would you call it then?
HE: I haven’t given it that much thought
SHE: You haven’t given it that much thought?
HE: No, I haven’t given it that much thought, no
SHE: You see me for the first time in ten years
HE: Nine years
SHE: In this place
And you haven’t given it that much thought
HE: No
SHE: Unbelievable
Is there anything you have given much thought?
Like what we’re going to do if it is all true
If it turns out that those two hundred graves do need to be moved
What we’re going to do then?
Where he’s supposed to go?
HE: I want to hear what they’ve got to say first
What the options are
And the costs of course
SHE: The costs?
HE: There are bound to be costs
SHE: We’re talking about Jacob’s reinterment and you’re talking about the costs!
HE: I’m sorry
I didn’t mean it like that
Not how you just said it
SHE: How then?
HE: I just meant it in general
Please don’t do this
You know I didn’t mean it like that
It’s ridiculous to act as if I meant it like that
SHE goes to say something, thinks better of it, long silence.
SHE: I’m starving
HE: I’ve got a bit of chocolate somewhere
HE fumbles about in his jacket pockets, pulls out a bit of chocolate and give it to her.
HE: You used to be addicted
SHE: Yeah
HE: Are you still?
SHE: Trying to cut down
Do you want some?
HE: I’ve already had three bars
Silence. SHE eats chocolate.
SHE: Did you know that I got addicted to sleeping pills?
My doctor said it couldn’t do any harm
That it was normal
For a woman in my circumstances
Because of everything I’d been through
Very normal, those sleeping pills
It’s a reassurance
I mean, that it’s not going to escalate
The addiction
No such luck
HE: Sorry, I didn’t know
SHE: Do you know what the worst thing is about an addiction?
HE: That it’s so hard to get rid of, I should think?
SHE: That it’s so easy to develop one
It happens before you know it
You start off with a half
And then another half
Then a whole one
But not every night
Only if it’s really necessary of course
And it is really necessary
So many things are increasingly really necessary
Things that come in pots
Or handy blister strips
And before you know it you’re taking one every night
HE: That’s the way it goes yes
SHE: For a long time I hoped that you could really put things behind you
HE: And then?
SHE: And then?
Start again of course
Yeah, load of rubbish
It’s never the same again
However hard you try
New job
New house
New friends
HE: It’s never the same again
SHE: No
HE: Is that what you’d like?
SHE: Wouldn’t you?
HE: To erase everything?
SHE: And start again, yes
HE: But where would you begin?
SHE: Where?
HE: Yeah, where would you begin?
What day?
What exact moment would you start erasing?
And how would you know that what came after would be any better?
SHE: That’s a…
That’s a…stupid question
SHE fights back tears, HE walks over to her, embraces her for the first time.
HE: Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way
SHE: I miss him
I don’t miss him any less than I ever did
Is that crazy?
HE: No
SHE: And you?
Do you miss him?
HE: I think about him every day if that’s what you mean
SHE: I mean do you still miss him
HE: I don’t know what I’m supposed to miss
SHE: So you don’t miss him?
HE: I’m resigned to it
SHE: That he’s not here any more?
HE: That I miss him
Every day
Suffering is addictive, don’t you think?
There should be rehab centres for it
With compulsory admission
SHE: Is that what you think?
HE: It sounds a bit weird maybe
SHE: Weird?
No, not that weird
More like…heartless
Maybe heartless isn’t the right word either
More like…detached
As if it’s not personal
I don’t mean to you
More to The Journalist
Your Journalistic opinion, yeah
A Male opinion as well
A Male Journalistic Opinion about life
And suffering
HE: And what is this Male Journalistic Opinion then exactly?
SHE: The idea that you’re in control of your own life
And in control of your own suffering, too
HE: Don’t you believe that then?
To a certain degree?
SHE: No, I don’t believe it, no
Do you think it makes any difference?
What you do or what you don’t do?
Whether you’re rewarded?
Or punished?
Or even worse: that it gets you anywhere to ask:
“What do I need to learn from this?”
It makes me want to puke, that question
“What do I need to learn from this?”
Nothing
That life’s shit
Sometimes
For some people
Really shit
For completely unexplainable reasons
HE: I don’t know if I agree with that
SHE: Fine
SHE gets up and fetches a beaker of water. Downs it and fills it again.
SHE: Makes you thirsty
Chocolate
Tell me
Why haven’t you been in touch for ten years?
HE: You want to know that NOW?
SHE: Did you have another moment in mind?
A better moment perhaps?
HE: It’s not something you can just
That I can just…
Here and now…
You mean that I…
Right here
Right now
I’ve got to explain…
SHE: You must have thought about it
HE: Yes
SHE: Or maybe you’d rather say why you left in the first place?
HE: You know very well why I left
SHE: Do I?
HE: Yes
SHE: A bit of explaining doesn’t hurt, you know
HE: And then?
If I explain, what then?
Or if I say I’m sorry?
Does it make any difference?
SHE: Sometimes it’s nice to know you were right retrospectively
HE: Being sorry’s not the same as being right
SHE: So, you’ve really given it a lot of thought, eh?
Sorry, I’m a bit fucked up
It’s this whole mess here
HE: We could go outside for a bit
Go for a walk
SHE: In this weather?
HE: You used to like rain
Walking in the rain
SHE: Yes
HE: Well then
SHE: I’m not sure
HE: I’ll go on my own then
HE is about to go.
SHE: Don’t…
HE: What?
SHE: No, nothing
I’ll have another look and see if I can find someone
HE: I’ll be right back
SHE: Yes, of course
HE goes. SHE stays behind, takes a drink and sits down.
Interview with Lot Vekemans and Rina Vergano
IT: Please describe the process of your collaboration–how it came about, how you worked together, what you found most rewarding, challenging, surprising, and so forth.
RV: I first came to work with Lot on her award-winning play Truckstop (2005), and I think I was recommended to her by either the Dutch Theatre Institute (TIN) or another playwright whose work I’d translated. With Truckstop we worked together pretty closely–but first I had to meet her in person, and at first she was very protective of the play and I felt like I had to win her trust. I think it’s a very intimate thing, really, to allow a stranger access to “your baby,” which is what a play is to a playwright. But anyway, we met and we liked each other and I think she took a chance on me. She is quite cautious by nature, and (rightly) protective of her work.
I’m very fortunate in my work in that I’ve translated work by Dutch playwrights whom I consider to be the best in their field. It takes time to build up a strong relationship-and if you do, it’s a bit like a marriage! You come to understand their style, their ideas, their obsessions, and that makes it easier to translate their work. I am also a playwright and dramaturg myself, so that does help, and I’ve been working in and around the theatre for 35 years now, so I (hope that) I have a very good understanding of the genre. I develop special relationships with some writers, and I would say that Lot is one of them–I really admire her work, and I think there is a lot of mutual trust and understanding between us.
The story with translating Poison isn’t that exciting, I’m afraid. Lot just emailed me and told me that she’d really like to submit the play to hotINK, that the deadline was quite short and could I please translate it for her…. She sent it to me and I read it and thought it was a really strong play, so I immediately agreed. So the translation I made is especially for hotINK insofar as it’s a “first version”–this means that it’s not a “final version” or an “authorised version.” It’s perfectly suitable for a reading, or a script-in-hand production, but if it were to have a full professional production I would go through the whole play again almost word for word with Lot and make an authorised version.
I like to actually physically sit next to the playwright and read the translation through together, with the original Dutch next to it. This used to be much easier when I lived in Amsterdam, which I did for 20 years. I now live back in the UK in Bristol, so I have to make do with telephone calls, emails, and Skype–which is actually very useful. So, Lot and I haven’t worked intensively together on this play, because there was not the time or the opportunity to do that. Instead, I sent her my first draft, which she read through, and then she emailed me back with some comments and questions. Then I made some adjustments and emails went back and forth until I was happy with my first version. It sounds a little cold-blooded, working like this, but actually in general it works really well!
LV: As Rina told you, we did not really work together on this translation simply because there was no time. I asked her to make a working draft translation as she had translated another play of mine (Truckstop) in the past and she’d done a really good job with it. Rina did an amazing job, and she had only a couple of weeks. I read the working draft and was very happy with it. What was important for me was that Rina would find the correct tone of the play, as I believe this is an important issue.
IT: Lot, could you describe how, if at all, the play has evolved in production?
LV: The play was written without a commission and developed within a playwrights’ group in Amsterdam. I tested it there in different stages with other playwrights and two actors (I wrote the play for them), and then finally in a reading with an audience. When NTGent decided to produce the play it was already finished. I only changed some minor things during the rehearsals.
IT: In Poison, what remains unspoken seems as important as–if not more important than–what is said. Lot, what interests you about the unspoken or unspeakable, and how did you decide what to have your characters disclose and what to have them withhold? And Rina, how did you work with the dialogue’s elliptical quality?
LV: For me the most interesting thing about theatre writing is that you only have the dialogue as an instrument. You can only work with the spoken word. But the beautiful thing about spoken language is that it both reveals what you want to say and what you do not want to say. Words are therefore also an entrance to what remains unspoken. I think this is true for all theatre writing but especially in this play, since there is so much emotional pain in both characters that has closed the door to communication. Bringing them back together after many years of separation does not automatically open that door. On the contrary, they try to avoid speaking about what has happened, they try to avoid the obvious questions to each other. Especially in the first part every sentence is careful, as the woman is trying to keep herself together and the man is doing his very best not to hurt the woman. Of course they cannot keep up with this. I think that what I tried to do is show how we use language to defend ourselves, because we feel unsafe as we muddle through our deepest emotional pain. On the other hand it is also the gateway to awareness and connection. We sometimes truly open up because someone says something profound to us. Both characteristics of the spoken word are in the play, although I must say that I was never aware of this when I started to write it. It is therefore not something I did deliberately-it more or less happened this way. When I started to rewrite the play, I could better choose their outflanking moves, because I knew where the characters would end.
RV: To work with the elliptical quality I actually have to hear their voices inside my head while translating and think–
SHE: I’m very glad you’re here
That we’re here now
Together
Washed ashore
So to speak
HE: Do you feel washed ashore?
SHE: Yeah well, no
In some way or other…yes
HE: In what way then?
SHE: Just
Yeah
Forget I said it
It’s more metaphorical
I think this is a great little exchange. It contains the fact that they don’t really understand each other, it’s awkward, uncomfortable, and yet they are trying their best. Also it contains a lost intimacy–they used to be married and had a child together, but now they are a bit like strangers. It’s all in the nuances of the text, so I try and reproduce that in English with the same kind of atmosphere and feel that it has in Dutch. I very much look at the dynamics–I’m constantly asking myself: what’s actually going on here between these two people. He said this, and she said that, but what’s really going on? And I also really listen out for the musicality of language–I like my translations to have strong beats and good cadence, so that actors can actually say the words. I talk to myself out loud a lot when translating to check that an actor could say what I’ve just typed! I don’t always succeed. But I see translating as a process of profit and loss-on one page you might get what I call a gift from the writer: a phrase in Dutch which translates brilliantly into English, which is in fact far better in English than in Dutch. That’s profit–it’s pure luck really! On another page I might get a phrase that is so perfect in Dutch, whatever I do I can’t make it that strong in English, or I have to use an approximation–that’s loss. And that’s kind of how it goes.
IT: What other aspects of the characters’ speech were you most concerned about preserving in translation?
LV: As a playwright, I work very specifically on the sound of my text. Although my language seems to be very natural and accessible, it is written as a music score. The rhythm, timbre, and sound are very important and work together with the literal meaning of the words to communicate with the audience. When my work is translated it is important that the translated play finds a new, coherent sound that has a comparable effect to the original Dutch sound. I truly believe that the emotional work needs to come from the words–it needs to lead the actors and the audience to the deeper layers of the play. The effort is not for the actor to lead the words, but to follow them. Therefore, the translation needs to have this specific quality. I think Rina did a great job in this.
RV: Lot’s work is very well written–so well that it almost translates itself. Then it really is a joy to translate something, if all the beats of the language are in the right place to start with, if the writer is spare with text and very precise with the words they use (as Lot is), with shades of meaning. Lot has a very economical style and her sentences are sometimes like small bombshells. It’s a very dramatic style and her plays are what I would call real actors’ plays–and real directors’ plays too. What I mean is that they seem to jump off the page and onto the stage themselves, because she’s such a good writer. When I’m translating her work, even if I haven’t seen the play in the first place, I can almost see it playing itself out in my head. In fact, that’s how I always know it’s a good play–if I feel like I’m watching it inside my head and hearing those voices, as I translate.
With this play, the challenge is to get the intention right–so in a few places (also because I hadn’t seen it, and because her work needs to be interpreted by a director, by actors) I had to check with her what the intention of the character was with a line. Also, it helps if you know the Dutch–Lot is very Dutch–because they are pretty forthright, they don’t mince their words. They say what they mean. So perhaps there is less subtext in a Dutch play than in an English play, because the English never say what they mean directly!
A common theme with both plays of hers that I’ve translated is the way that characters in the plays experience the same thing from their own point of view. So they might have a totally different personal experience of something that’s happened–in this case, the loss of a child. They each have their own memories, and keep checking with each other to find out how the other remembers things. This is very clever, nuanced writing, very observational and quite psychological. It’s also very soulful and intelligent. That’s why I love to translate Lot’s work. There’s so much in it–it opens up like a box of tricks in front of you.