Free Remembrance and Pantomime by Derek Walcott Page A

Terrific reaction all around. Thanks to me music-hall background. Went down great. Well, there was a party afterward. Then a big sergeant in charge of maintenance started this very boring business of confusing my genius with my life. Kept pinching my arse and so on. It got kind of boring after a while. Well, he was the size of a truck, mate. And there wasn’t much I could do but keep blushing and pretending to be liking it. But the Wonderful Vamp was waiting outside for him, the Wonderful Vamp and a wrench this big, and after that, laddie, it took all of maintenance to put him back again.
    JACKSON
         That is white-man fighting. Anyway, Mr. Trewe, I feel the fun finish; I would like, with your permission, to get up now and fix up the sun deck. ’Cause when rain fall …
    HARRY
         Forget the sun deck. I’d say, Jackson, that we’ve come closer to a mutual respect, and that things need not get that hostile. Sit, and let me explain what I had in mind.
    JACKSON
         I take it that’s an order?
    HARRY
         You want it to be an order? Okay, it’s an order.
    JACKSON
         It didn’t sound like no order.
    HARRY
         Look, I’m a liberal, Jackson. I’ve done the whole routine. Aldermaston, Suez, Ban the Bomb, Burn the Bra, Pity the Poor Pakis, et cetera. I’ve even tried jumping up to the steel band at Notting Hill Gate, and I’d no idea I’d wind up in this ironic position of giving orders, but if the new script I’ve been given says: HARRY TREWE, HOTEL MANAGER , then I’m going to play Harry Trewe, Hotel Manager, to the hilt, damnit. So sit down! Please. Oh, goddamnit, sit … down  …
    ( JACKSON sits. Nods )
         Good. Relax. Smoke. Have a cup of tepid coffee. I sat up from about three this morning, working out this whole skit in my head.
    ( Pause )
         Mind putting that hat on for a second, it will help my point. Come on. It’ll make things clearer.
    ( He gives JACKSON the goatskin hat. JACKSON , after a pause, puts it on )
    JACKSON
         I’ll take that cigarette.
    ( HARRY hands over a cigarette )
    HARRY
         They’ve seen that stuff, time after time. Limbo, dancing girls, fire-eating …
    JACKSON
         Light.
    HARRY
         Oh, sorry.
    ( He lights JACKSON ’s cigarette )
    JACKSON
         I listening.
    HARRY
         We could turn this little place right here into a little cabaret, with some very witty acts. Build up the right audience. Get an edge on the others. So, I thought, Suppose I get this material down to two people. Me and … well, me and somebody else. Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday. We could work up a good satire, you know, on the master-servant—no offense—relationship. Labor-management, white-black, and so on … Making some trenchant points about topical things, you know. Add that show to the special dinner for the price of one ticket …
    JACKSON
         You have to have music.
    HARRY
         Pardon?
    JACKSON
         A show like that should have music. Just a lot of talk is very boring.
    HARRY
         Right. But I’d have to have somebody help me, and that’s where I thought … Want to take the hat off?
    JACKSON
         It ain’t bothering me. When you going make your point?
    HARRY
         We had that little Carnival contest with the staff and you knocked them out improvising, remember that? You had the bloody guests in stitches …
    JACKSON
         You ain’t start to talk money yet, Mr. Harry.
    HARRY
         Just improvising with the quatro. And not the usual welcome to Port of Spain, I am glad to see you again, but I’ll tell you, artist to artist, I recognized a real pro, and this is the point of the hat. I want to make a point about the hotel industry, about manners, conduct, to generally improve relations all around. So, whoever it is, you or whoever, plays Crusoe, and I, or whoever it is, get to play Friday, and imagine first of all the humor and then the impact of that.