Journey Through the Impossible (9 page)

The stage represents an immense crypt, with depressions and openings on all
sides, as far as the eye can see. Stalactites hang everywhere. Negotiable rocks,
at the reap; make it possible to get down to the floor of these natural catacombs. George, Ox, Volsius, and Eva are standing on the rocks.

(Enter Tartelet and Valdemar)

Tartelet: Hurry along, young Valdemar.

Valdemar (appearing at the top of the rocks): Here I am! Here I am!

Tartelet: Damn! This road isn't good for a dancer's legs. (To
Valdemar): Be very careful not to twist an ankle.

Valdemar: Don't worry.

Ox: Come on, George Hatteras, onward, ever onward!

George: I'm right behind you, doctor. This is the abyss. It draws me
on, and I'll go down to the very bottom of it.

(They begin to descend.)

Volsius (to Eva): Don't be afraid, my child. This is not where the
danger lies.

Eva: I'm not afraid for myself, but only for him.

Volsius: We are going to stop here for a bit.

George: Where are we?

Volsius: Why, at my home.

Ox: Indeed! This, I believe, is the farthest point reached by Master
Lidenbrok.

Volsius: I might mention, if anyone is interested, that these caverns
lie under central Europe, under France, and more precisely, at the
point where we are standing now, under Paris.

Valdemar: Under Paris! Directly over my head is Paris, which I have
visited with great affection, and the noise of that great city cannot
be heard. (A few distant rumblings are heard.) Yes, it can! It sounds
like a great rattling of carriages. We must be right under "accident
corner."22

Eva (to Volsius): But what is this noise?

Volsius: It's a rumbling that occurs at intervals deep inside the earth.

Valdemar: It's an earthquake! Let's get away from here. (Exit)

Ox: Well, George Hatteras, what do you think of these immense spaces
going on and on forever under oceans and continents, and containing cities and mountains? Did you expect to find a whole underground vegetation here, where the warm and humid environment
turns the humblest of earth's plants into trees? Or this air, made
luminous by pressure, which lights up the silent catacombs?

Volsius: Surely the contemplation of these wonders is enough to satisfy your ambitions for travel.

George: What would be the use of the new vital power that Dr. Ox
has given our bodies if we were only going where others have
gone before, where you yourself have gone? This is simply the
extraordinary,23 not the impossible.

Ox (aside): Good, good!

(Valdemar utters a loud shout offstage)

Eva: What can that be?

Tartelet: It's Valdemar's voice.

(Enter Valdemar)

Valdemar (terrified): Ah! Here you are!

Tartelet: What happened?

Valdemar (showing him a stone): This stone.... Do you see this stone?

Tartelet: That's a funny-looking stone.

Valdemar: It's not an ordinary stone, so I'm keeping it. But another
thing that's unusual is the force with which it was thrown at my
back.

Tartelet: Thrown? By whom?

Valdemar: By whom? That's what I'd like to know. There must be
people here. And feel how heavy it is for its size.

Volsius: Everything is heavy here, young man.

Valdemar: What do you mean, everything is heavy here?

Ox: Of course. It's the natural effect of gravity.

Valdemar: Gravity?

Volsius: And if we reached the center, even your wallet would become
so heavy it would make a hole in your pocket.

Valdemar: My wallet? Mine? As heavy as that? Now that would be a
surprise.

Ox: And that's not all. Even the acoustics are different in this place
where the air is under enormous pressure.

George: You mean that noises and sounds take on a tremendous
intensity here?

Tartelet: So they do! When young Valdemar shouted just now, it
sounded like cattle bellowing.

Valdemar: Cattle bellowing!

Tartelet: Well then, the violin I use for my dancing lessons would
have a completely different tone here.

Volsius: Try it.

Tartelet: Right away. (He picks up his violin and plays a gavotte with a
surprisingly powerful sound.)

Valdemar: That's amazing!

Tartelet: It's wonderful. Let's keep on playing.

(While Tartelet is playing, a few creatures with bizarre faces, very low
foreheads, a wild look in their eyes, and disheveled hair; appear between
the rocks upstage, listening and showing signs of the greatest surprise)

Eva (sees them and screams): Oh! Look at those monsters!

George (moving upstage): Good God!

Eva: George! George! Stop!

(Tartelet stops playing. The monsters disappear

Ox: Yes, stay here. Anyway, as you see, they've disappeared.

George: What are these strange creatures?

Ox: This is the first of the mysteries that will be revealed to us. In the
subterranean depths there's a whole population of living creatures.

George: A whole population!

Valdemar: A whole population!

Tartelet: Of living creatures! All right, then, we'll introduce them to
the elementary principles of the dance.

Valdemar: Perhaps it was one of those gentlemen who threw the
stone at me.

George: But how could a race of human beings have come into being
and live way down here?

Volsius: Ask the learned Dr. Ox to answer that question.

Ox: Nothing could be more simple. All that was needed was for some
inhabitants of the earth to be swallowed up here during one of the
natural catastrophes that occurred thousands of years ago. They
probably populated these vast solitary spaces, and their descen dants, gradually modified by the environment in which they lived,
lost their resemblance to the human race and became the lower
creatures that you have just seen .14

Valdemar: Really!

Eva: It seemed to me just now that music had a sort of fascination for
them.

Volsius: Yes, that's true.

George: What became of them? Let's go and look for them.

Eva: No, no!

Ox: What we need to find now is the route that will take us to our
goal.

(A loud subterranean noise is heard.)

George: Listen to those noises coming through the earth's crust.

Valdemar: It's having convulsions now.

Ox: Soon, perhaps, the fire will open a path for us, leading from the
earth to the crater of Vesuvius.

Volsius: And would you dare to travel that path?

George: Yes, yes.

Ox: We will dare!

Volsius: As I told you before, this goes beyond recklessness, it's ....

Ox: It's courage, plain and simple. Do you know what courage is, Professor Lidenbrok?

Volsius: Go wherever your pride drives you, then. (To Eva) I will pray
fervently for you, you poor child. You are the soul of resignation,
virtue, and piety. (To Ox) Do you know what piety and virtue are,
Dr. Ox? (Exit)

Eva: He's going away.

Ox: Let him go. He can spare us his cowardly advice. (Another noise,
louder than before) Listen, listen again. The route we're looking
for will open up in that direction.

George: Come. We'll look for it together.

Eva: George. (Exit Ox and George) George!

Valdemar: I think the other one was wiser. I'll try to catch up with
him. (Exit on the other side)

Eva: Ah! He doesn't even hear my voice.

Tartelet: That was a bad idea of your grandmother's, to call this
damned doctor to the castle.

Eva: He would have come anyway, my friend, sooner or later.

Tartelet: What do you mean?

Eva: Sooner or later, he would have taken over George's imagination
in the way he did, not to give him peace of mind, not to cure him,
but to destroy him.

Tartelet: And to what end?

Eva: This man is the one who was always following me.

Tartelet: Him! Ah! Now I understand. He has the audacity to love
you. Ah! Dr. Ox, what a pretty dance this dancing master would
teach you, if only I could!

Eva: Don't attack him, my friend. He has some strange, supernatural
power. (Enter Ox upstage) Everything about him terrifies me: his
imperious, dominating voice, the irresistible fascination of his
glance. (Ox, who has slowly come downstage, now approaches Tartelet)

Tartelet: It's true that the expression in his eyes is strangely diabol....

Eva: Him!

Tartelet (catches sight of Ox staring him in the face): Strangely diabol.
... No.... I ... I mean.

(Ox holds out his arm and gestures to him to leave)

Tartelet: Allow me, doctor.... You wish.... You want.... (Aside)
Oh! That look! That look!

Ox: Leave us!

Eva: Don't go, Mr. Tartelet.

Ox (more imperiously than before, and looking Tartelet straight in the
face): Do as I say!

Eva: No, no!

Ox (as before): Leave us! I want you to leave.

Tartelet: What is the matter with me? I try, but I can't.... I can't....

(He backs out)

Eva (calling): George, George!

Ox: George is far away. He can't hear you.

Eva: I'll find a way to get to him. (Calling) George!

Ox (blocking her way): I have to talk to you, Eva. Do you know why I
used to follow you around wherever you went? Why I was always
wandering around your home?

Eva: I don't want to know!

Ox: Because I love you.

Eva (sarcastically): You love me? You?

Ox: I didn't come to Andernak Castle for your grandmother or your
fiance George. I came for you, and no one else. I wanted to be
close to you. I wanted to see you and hear you, because I love you.

Eva: That's enough! Not another word!

Ox: And do you know why I told George who his father was, why I
pushed him along this path, why I gave him the power to accomplish all these dreams? Because I don't want George to become
your husband. (His voice rises.) And because I love you.

Eva: When George finds out what your intentions are, and why
you're pushing him along toward this impossible world, he'll
come to his senses and drive you away like an evil genie that has
finally been unmasked.

Ox: You won't tell him, Eva. That would set us against each other, like
two rivals. And you know very well that the struggle would be
more dreadful for him than for me.

Eva: I will speak....

Ox: Then you'll kill him. I'll have no further reason to drive him mad.
You will have driven him to his death.

Eva (terrified): My God! George! George! This man would kill you.

Ox: Understand what I'm saying, Eva. I love you. I love you!

Eva: Ah! Don't profane that word. Go ahead, threaten me! I prefer
your anger to your threats.

Ox: Very well, so be it. Your pleading is a waste of time. But
remember my final words. Soon you'll come yourself and implore
me to have pity on George. You'll beg me to stop him on the road
he's following. You'll ask me to spare his sanity ... his life. But it
will be too late.

(He moves away from hey.)

Eva: Have pity. Have pity on him.

Ox (turning around): It will be too late. (Exit.)

(Enter Eva. She comes downstage, distraught and exhausted.)

Eva: My God! What shall I do? What will become of me? He'll kill
him! Ah! I feel faint. I can't do anything more. I think I'm dying.
(Calling) George! George! George!

(Her voice trails away and she falls unconscious. At this point, behind the
rocks upstage and on the sides, the wild inhabitants of this subterranean
region reappear. They advance cautiously. One of them, who is their
leader; guides them to center stage, where the unconscious young woman is lying. They approach her and watch her with the keenest surprise.
They bend over her The leader kneels, lifts her head, lets down her hair,
touches her face and hands, then listens to see whether she is still
breathing. He looks around, signals to his companions to move aside,
then lifts her up and is about to carry her off. Eva regains consciousness,
notices the monsters all around her, and utters a cry of horror)

Eva: Oh!

(Eva manages to break free and is about to run away when the leader
seizes her again)

Eva (struggling): Help!

he leader picks her up in his arms and rushes upstage)

(Enter George, running in from stage left.)

George: Those cries! (noticing Eva in the hands of the natives) Eva!

Eva: Help! Help!

George: I'll save you, Eva. I'll save you or die with you!

(He rushes at the leader, but the others seize him and throw him to the
ground.)

(Enter Dr. Ox, stage right, then Valdemar, Volsius, and Tartelet,
stage left)

Tartelet: Ah! My God!

Valdemar: Those horrible monsters!

Ox (coldly): They're doomed!

he natives turn toward them, then grip George and Eva by the
throat.)

Eva and George: Ah!

George: Save her! Save Eva!

Tartelet: Let's run!

Volsius: Silence! (He seizes the violin that Tartelet is carrying)