Play With a Tiger and Other Plays

ANOTHER: We take it for granted there is something outside.

ANOTHER: Speak for yourself. I, for my part, am quite sure there is not.

ANOTHER: My attitude is that since we don’t know, we should keep an open mind.

ANOTHER: Then why are you in this Ceremony at all? It is just hypocrisy.

CHAIRMAN: Nonsense, it is part of our ethic. Part of the fabric of our society.

DELEGATE: It does no harm and it may do some good.

SECRETARY: Refusing to take part in the Ceremony creates a disturbance. It is anti-social. It just draws attention to yourself, that’s all.

GUARDIAN: Your reasons for being here are not important. There are many paths to the Door. [to his ASSISTANT] The regalia?

ASSISTANT: Here. [He hands GUARDIAN the regalia, and assists him – a plastic smock with silver lightning flashes, a mitre, a small transistor radio in one hand, a telephone in the other. The latter is a child’s toy, in a bright colour.]

GUARDIAN: I think that’s all. Assistant?

ASSISTANT: Lights. Lights. Turn down the lights.

[A TECHNICIAN vainly clicks switches on the side of the computer.]

TECHNICIAN: Sorry, but they don’t seem to work. I’ve turned off the usual number of lights but it is no darker.

FOURTH PRECEPT: Look at the Door.

A MEDICAL ATTENDANT: It’s much brighter.

DOCTOR: It’s an optical illusion.

[But now there is no doubt that the Door is brighter.]

ONE OF THE NEW GROUP: It’s getting brighter all the time.

GUARDIAN: Well, never mind. I’m sure the technicians will get everything right in time.

ANOTHER OF THE NEW GROUP: ‘Wait and watch for the sudden time,

The song that’s bright,

The singing light.’

[ASSISTANT TO THE GUARDIAN tries to push FIRST and SECOND LOW-LEVELLERS to the back of the procession. They resist. He tries with the THIRD and FOURTH LOW-LEVELLERS.]

FIRST LOW-LEVELLER: You don’t seem to have got the point. Those days are over.

ASSISTANT: Everyone has to go where he is allocated.

FOURTH LOW-LEVELLER: No. Take your hands off.

CHAIRMAN: Move up here, behind me. We have got the point, I assure you.

[ASSISTANT pushes FIRST and SECOND LOW-LEVELLERS up to the head of the procession behind GUARDIAN.]

THIRD LOW-LEVELLER: Very nice.

ASSISTANT: You can’t all four be up at the front.

GUARDIAN: Of course they can. The youth are our most precious possession, the gold of our future. Let them come.

[ASSISTANT pushes THIRD and FOURTH into the procession behind FIRST and SECOND LOW-LEVELLERS.]

THIRD LOW-LEVELLER: I’m sorry, but our status is just as relevant as their status.

FOURTH LOW-LEVELLER: It’s not fair to those we represent.

ASSISTANT [to FIRST and SECOND LOW-LEVELLERS]: I am sure you are much too mature to mind. [He pushes THIRD and FOURTH in front of them.]

FIRST LOW-LEVELLER: No, I’m sorry. That won’t do.

SECOND LOW-LEVELLER: It’s the principle of the thing.

A DELEGATE: What is that noise?

[All now look at the big Door, now glowing brilliantly. But is it responsible for that soft deep note?]

THE SAME DELEGATE: Remember the old saying:

‘When the Door begins to sing,

That’s a sign of coming spring.’

GUARDIAN: We all know these old tales. But remember, there is no agreement about their origin.

ONE OF THE NEW GROUP: The First People left them for us as a signpost.

A DELEGATE: No. My father, and he was an expert in the field, said they were anonymous. They come spontaneously from the populace.

A DELEGATE: What is spring?

ANOTHER: They say that Outside it is beautiful in spring.

ANOTHER: What is beautiful? We all use the word, but what does it mean?

ANOTHER: Anything gets called beautiful.

ANOTHER: It was flowers and leaves. [holding up some paper flowers] Like this.