Free The Anarchist by David Mamet

Ann, seated at a desk. A telephone is on the desk. An intercom sits on a conference table. Also on the desk are several files, a loosely bound manuscript and several books. A briefcase sits on the floor. Cathy is standing .
    ANN : Will you sit down? How are you?
    CATHY : No, I think I’m well. Thank you for asking.
    ANN : What have you been doing?
    CATHY : I’ve been studying. As usual.
    ANN : And what have you learned?
    CATHY : In the larger sense . . .
    ANN : . . . all right.
    CATHY : I hope that I’ve learned to be reasonable. At least I have studied it. Most importantly.
    ANN : Most importantly.
    CATHY : Yes.
    ANN : Reason more than patience?
    CATHY : One might think the pressing study would be patience. But patience, of course, implies an end.
    ANN : “Patience implies an end.”
    CATHY : Well, yes.
    ANN : As?
    CATHY : One may be patient only for something.
    ANN : Such as?
    CATHY : A deferred desire , or the cessation of discomfort . . .
    ANN : Revenge?
    CATHY : Well, that would fall within the rubric of desire deferred.
    ANN : And Reason teaches?
    CATHY : Reason would teach the abandonment of the unfulfillable wish; and, so, of the need for patience. It therefore may be said to be the higher study.
    (Cathy gestures back, toward upstage. Pause.)
    Lovely girl.
    ANN : Yes?
    CATHY : In the anteroom. (Pause) I find when conversation stalls it never indicates a want of subject—one may always talk about the weather—but rather some subject’s repression. What is it?
    ANN : I’m leaving.
    CATHY : Yes, we were expecting that announcement quite some time. Well. (Pause) Everything ends. That is neither a new nor a monumental understanding. But it’s true.
    ANN (Points to the large manuscript on her desk) : I’ve been reading your book.
    CATHY : Is it a book?
    ANN : Isn’t it?
    CATHY : Well. You are the first to read it.
    ANN : I’m honored.
    CATHY : And, you know, I’ve been thinking of it, so long, as a . . .
    ANN : . . . “A” . . .?
    CATHY : A manuscript, a “work-in-progress” . . . A “collection of . . .”
    ANN : Why would that not be a book?
    CATHY : No, I’ll take your comment as an endorsement. Thank you.
    ANN : You’re welcome, Cathy.
    CATHY : If it is a book, it remains only to see what a publisher . . . And what the Public, but, of course, I am ahead of myself.
    ANN : No, of course it’s a book . . . (Picks up the manuscript and reads) “When he came. The first time. He questioned me.”
    CATHY : . . . oh, yes . . .
    ANN (Reading) : “And I said, in answer to him, ‘I revere Jesus, though I do not worship him. But I have the utmost respect, and I might say “love,” for those who do.’” It’s quite beautiful.
    CATHY : You chose that phrase purposefully.
    ANN : In order to?
    CATHY : To compliment me.
    ANN : No. But I would have. As with much of the book.
    CATHY : Thank you.
    ANN : And that was the first meeting.
    CATHY : What was the first meeting?
    ANN : You describe here . . .
    CATHY : With?
    ANN : The priest.
    CATHY : The meeting with the priest?
    ANN : Yes?
    CATHY : The first time? I don’t know if that was it. But some time. During that first year.
    ANN : In the first year yes.
    CATHY : Not regularly. He came, of course, as part of the rotation.
    ANN : The rabbi also came, during that time.
    CATHY : That’s right, and the Protestant . . .
    ANN : Yes.
    CATHY : . . . minister. The word is minister. (Pause) I forgot a French verb yesterday.
    ANN : The minister.
    CATHY : Came regularly.
    ANN : Would you like some coffee.
    CATHY : No, thank you.
    ANN : Did they give you breakfast.
    CATHY : I wasn’t hungry. (Pause) “Who came when.” Poor clerks. Copying Notations in the Logs, no one would see.
    ANN : I saw them.
    CATHY : I meant no disrespect.
    ANN : I understand.
    (Pause. Then, simultaneously:)
    CATHY : How is your daughter? ANN : And during that time . . .
    CATHY :