Foe
adapted by Peter
from the novel by J.
Glazer
M. Coetzee
Cast of Characters
Three actresses share the role of Susan Barton, the central character and narrator of J. M. Coetzee’s novel and this play. In each act, one of the three actresses takes the lead, living in the time and world of scenes more than the other two Susans, who act as narrators or a kind of Chorus. Each of the three Susans takes this lead role in successive acts – FIRST SUSAN is the castaway on Cruso’s island in Act I, SECOND SUSAN pursues Mr. Foe in England with FRIDAY in Act II, and THIRD SUSAN confronts Foe in his lodgings in Act III. The lead Susan’s name is marked with *asterisks*. Stage directions “in quotation marks” are taken directly from the novel. Indented lines indicate the beginning of paragraphs in Coetzee’s book, when appropriate. “Double quotation marks” denote dialogue, as opposed to narration. ‘Single quotation marks’ are used to set off SUSAN’s letters to MR FOE . The layout of the dialogue on the page is meant to support both the rhythm of Coetzee’s language and sometimes the way the stories and ideas make meaning through the language. This layout is a suggestion, not an edict.
Women
FIRST SUSAN – a British woman in her late 20s or early 30s; incisive, educated, persistent, her ideals intact
SECOND SUSAN – the same; a bit more mature, cynical, on edge THIRD SUSAN – the same; more suspicious, stubborn; both more vulnerable and manipulative.
THE GIRL/SAILOR/NARRATOR – The Girl is a mysterious child of 12 to 15 who claims to be Susan’s daughter; cheerful, unflappable, willful.
Men
CRUSO – a British man in his 50s, decades away from civilization; resourceful, sullen, gaunt, stolid, private.
FRIDAY – an African man in his 20s or early 30s; mute, serious, distant.
MR. FOE –Daniel (De)Foe, mid-50s; brilliant, worldly, elusive.
CAPTAIN SMITH/NARRATOR
DEAD CAPTAIN/SAILOR – also assists with costume changes, prop hand-offs, etc.
Time – Early 18th Century
Setting – An island in the South Atlantic off the coast of South America, and various locations around England.
Set – An open space, hopefully configured as a thrust or in the round. A stage of angled, raked surfaces might evoke the rocky, dry island of Act I which then haunts the successive acts. A ribbed structure upstage can serve as Cruso’s hut, and as a backdrop for the other acts, evocative of the ribs of a sunken ship or the skeleton of a whale.
Simple furniture – benches, tables, chairs, a desk, a bed – define the various locales, along with hand props and, crucially, the lighting. In the original production, there were no practical doors, windows or walls.
Costuming – Costumes should be simple, but of the period, except as indicated for the last scene. Each Susan is dressed in keeping with the part of the story she enacts –
FIRST SUSAN in a ragged petticoat and chemise, SECOND SUSAN in a drab dress and apron, THIRD SUSAN in a more attractive dress, though dirty from her recent travels. In the world premiere, each Susan’s costume was of a different color. In the program, they were referred to as Susan in White (FS), Susan in Brown (SS), and Susan in Green (TS).
Sound Design – an original score, composed by cellist Alexander Kort, accompanied the first production, underscoring nearly every scene and transition.
Acts and Scenes
Act I – The Island
I.1 Arrival
I.2 Cruso
I.3 Dream of the Dead Captain
I.4 Remember
I.5 Dream of the Two Islands
I.6 Friday
I.7 Fever
I.8 Petals
I.9 Terraces
I.10 Spirits
I.11 Rescue
Act II – Seeking Foe
II.1 Clock Lane
II.1.a The Substance She Has Lost
II.1.b Watch and Do
II.1.c Unopened Letters
II.2 Stoke Newington
II.2.a Not As She Imagined It Would Be
II.2.b A Stranger, A Girl
II.2.c The Burden of the Story (A Triologue)
II.2.d The Forest
II.2.e Robes and Flutes
Act III – Foe’s Refuge
III.1 Silences
III.2 Ghosts
III.3 The Manner of the Muse
III.4 Writing
Epilogue – Diving Into the Wreck
In the original production, the play was successfully performed with two intermissions, between Act I and Act II, and between Act II and Act III.
Scenes from the world premiere production of Foe at the University of California, Berkeley. Sets by Kate Edmunds, Costumes by Clare Henkel, Lighting by David K.H. Elliot, Music by Alexander Kort, Directed by Peter Glazer.
Act I Scene 1 – Arrival “Let me tell you my story.”
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Act II Scene 2.a – Not As She Imagined It Would Be “Alas, will the day arrive when we can make a story without strange circumstances?”
Act III Scene 1 – Silences
“You have not told me all I need to know of Bahia.”
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Epigraph
I came to explore the wreck. The words are purposes. The words are maps. I came to see the damage that was done and the treasures that prevail. I stroke the beam of my lamp slowly along the flank of something more permanent than fish or weed the thing I came for: the wreck and not the story of the wreck the thing itself and not the myth the drowned face always staring toward the sun
the evidence of damage worn by salt and sway into this threadbare beauty the ribs of the disaster curving their assertion among the tentative haunters.
We are, I am, you are by cowardice or courage the one who find our way back to this scene carrying a knife, a camera a book of myths in which our names do not appear.
Adrienne Rich from her 1971 poem “Diving into the Wreck”
Frontispiece from original printing of Robinson Crusoe
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Act I
Cruso’s Island
[Throughout the pre-show period, we hear music, perhaps music of the period, and/or sounds of the island. Projected on a piece of sail hanging over the stage is the frontispiece of the original book Robinson Crusoe. The fabric and the lettering give it a weathered, tenuous feeling. It may be rippling and drifting, very slowly and unpredictably, as if in a breeze. Throughout the pre-show, an old copy of Robinson Crusoe is laying open center stage on a low book stand in a pool of light. As the house lights go to half, the three Susans enter with some urgency, gather around the book and stare at it. One kneels down and turns a page. It unsettles them. They look up at the sail. After a moment, it falls to the floor as the lights fade.]
I.1 Arrival
[Utter darkness and sounds of the ocean. Lights gradually establish on the three Susans, spread around the stage on benches, rowing in unison with great effort. Their voices speak as one, then begin to define themselves individually.]
ALL THREE SUSANS
At last I could row no further.
*FIRST SUSAN*
My hands were blistered,
SECOND SUSAN my back was burned,
THIRD SUSAN my body ached.
*FIRST SUSAN* With a sigh,
SECOND SUSAN making barely a splash,
ALL SUSANS I slipped overboard.
[They now lie prone on three benches, face down, swimming desperately.]
*FIRST SUSAN*
With slow strokes, my long hair floating about me, like a flower of the sea,
SECOND SUSAN
like an anemone, like a jellyfish of the kind you see in waters of Brazil,
THIRD SUSAN
I swam towards the strange island, for a while swimming as I had rowed, against the current,
ALL SUSANS then all at once
*FIRST SUSAN* free of its grip,
SECOND SUSAN carried by the waves into the bay
THIRD SUSAN and onto the beach.
[They roll from the benches onto the floor of the stage, now lying on their backs, exhausted. Lights build to the brightness of the island.]
*FIRST SUSAN*
There I lay sprawled on the hot sand, my head filled with the orange blaze of the sun, my petticoat (which was all I had escaped with) baking dry upon me, grateful, like all the saved.
[FRIDAY enters and moves across the space towards FIRST SUSAN. He wears weathered pants and carries a fishing spear.]
SECOND SUSAN
A dark shadow fell upon me, not of a cloud but of a man with a dazzling halo about him.
*FIRST SUSAN* “Castaway,”
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SECOND SUSAN
. . . my thick dry tongue.
*FIRST SUSAN*
“I am cast away. I am all alone.”
SECOND SUSAN
I held out my sore hands.
[All the SUSANS raise their arms and hold out their hands; *FIRST SUSAN* does so in the direction of FRIDAY, the others towards the sky as though FRIDAY were standing over them. The three then painfully raise themselves up on their elbows.]
THIRD SUSAN
[First looking at FRIDAY, then turning to address the audience, moving from inner monologue to narration in a few lines. This move exemplifies the different narrative positions the choral Susans can take – in this case, experiencing the scene as it happens and then describing it to the audience.]
He was black: a negro with a head of fuzzy wool. I studied the flat face, the small dull eyes, the broad nose, the thick lips, the skin not black but dark grey, dry as if coated with dust.
*FIRST SUSAN* “Agua,”
[She makes the sign for drinking. FRIDAY says nothing.]
SECOND SUSAN
He regarded me as he would a seal or a porpoise thrown up by the waves, that would shortly expire and might then be cut up for food.
*FIRST SUSAN* “Agua!”
THIRD SUSAN
[to herself, fearfully – narration of Susan’s interior monologue that is infused with the emotion of the moment.] I have come to the wrong island. I have come to an island of cannibals.
[FRIDAY drops to his haunches next to *FIRST SUSAN* and touches
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her arm with the back of his hand. We hear her thoughts.]
*FIRST SUSAN*
He is trying my flesh!
THIRD SUSAN
But by and by my breathing slowed. He smelled of fish, and of sheepswool on a hot day.
[*FIRST SUSAN* signs for a drink of water.]
SECOND SUSAN
I had rowed all morning, I had not drunk since the night before, I no longer cared if he killed me afterwards so long as I had
*FIRST SUSAN* “water!”
THIRD SUSAN
[During this next speech, FRIDAY rises and motions to *FIRST SUSAN* to follow. She reaches out a hand for FRIDAY's assistance, which he either doesn't see or ignores. She stands, with difficulty, on her own. SECOND SUSAN and THIRD SUSAN stand together at center while FRIDAY and *FIRST SUSAN* begin to circle around them, hiking up from the beach.]
He led me, stiff and sore, across sand-dunes and along a path ascending to the hilly interior of the island.
[The two circle the stage with FRIDAY leading, as SECOND and THIRD SUSAN describe their trek. As they do, they see, feel and touch the landscape around them.]
SECOND SUSAN
For readers reared on traveler’s tales, the words desert isle may conjure up a place of soft sands and shady trees where brooks run to quench the castaway’s thirst and ripe fruit falls into his hand
THIRD SUSAN
But the island on which I was cast away was quite another place: a great rocky hill with a flat top, rising sharply from the sea on all sides except one, dotted with drab bushes that never flowered and never shed their leaves. There were ants scurrying everywhere, of the same kind we had in Bahia.
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[The two continue their trek, a slow, repeating circle around the two narrating Susans. *FIRST SUSAN*, completely exhausted, plods on, desperate for water. She takes in the unusual sights around her as they climb. Suddenly, she steps on a thorn and yelps in pain.] And long, black-tipped thorns.
[She limps painfully. FRIDAY offers his back. She gets half-way on, with her good leg skipping or dragging along the ground.]
SECOND SUSAN
I saw no snakes, but lizards came out in the heat of the day to sun themselves. Also there were apes and birds, birds everywhere.
THIRD SUSAN
And in the sea porpoises and seals and fish of all kinds. So if the company of brutes had been enough for me, I might have lived happily on my island.
SECOND SUSAN
But who, accustomed to the fullness of human speech, can be content with caws and chirps and screeches,
THIRD SUSAN and the barking of seals,
SECOND SUSAN and the moan of the wind?
[FRIDAY and *FIRST SUSAN* pass between SECOND SUSAN and THIRD SUSAN at center, who split left and right.]
THIRD SUSAN
At last we came to the end of our climb
[FRIDAY drops *FIRST SUSAN*.]
I found myself on a level plateau not far from some kind of encampment. On all sides stretched the shimmering sea, while to the east the ship that had brought me receded under full sail.
[CRUSO enters upstage on the roof of his hut. He wears a jerkin and drawers made of ape skin and a conical hat.]
SECOND SUSAN
At the gate of the encampment stood a man, dark skinned and heavily bearded.
*FIRST SUSAN* “Agua,”
[CRUSO gestures to FRIDAY, who goes off.]
SECOND SUSAN
I saw I was talking to a European.
*FIRST SUSAN* “Fala inglez?”
SECOND SUSAN
I had learned some Portugese in Brazil.
*FIRST SUSAN* “Fala inglez?”
[CRUSO nods FRIDAY returns with a bowl of water and gives it to SUSAN. She drinks it all, hands it back, FRIDAY gets more.]
SECOND SUSAN
It was the best water I ever had.
[*FIRST SUSAN* drinks. FRIDAY moves to one side and sits, looking off. CRUSO studies *FIRST SUSAN* SECOND and THIRD SUSAN study CRUSO. When she's done drinking, *FIRST SUSAN* rises stiffly to her feet.]
THIRD SUSAN
The stranger’s eyes were green, his hair burnt to a straw color. I judged he was sixty years of age. He wore
SECOND SUSAN
let me give my description of them all together
THIRD SUSAN
a jerkin, and drawers to below his knees, and a tall cap rising in a cone. In his belt were a short stick and a knife.
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SECOND SUSAN
A mutineer . . . yet another mutineer, set ashore by a merciful captain, with one of the Negros of the island, whom he has made his servant!
*FIRST SUSAN*
[to CRUSO]
“My name is Susan Barton. I was cast adrift by the crew of the ship yonder. They killed their master and did this to me.”
THIRD SUSAN
And all at once, though I had remained dry-eyed through all the insults done me on board the ship and through the hours of despair when I was alone on the waves with the captain lying dead at my feet, a handspike jutting from his eye-socket, I fell to crying.
[*FIRST SUSAN* drops to the ground and sobs.]
SECOND SUSAN
The stranger gazed at me more as if I were a fish cast up by the waves than an unfortunate fellow-creature.
[*FIRST SUSAN* gathers herself, moves to a rock or bench, sits, and begins her tale.]
*FIRST SUSAN*
"Let me tell you my story, for I am sure you are wondering who I am and how I came to be here.
My name is Susan Barton, and I am a woman alone. My father was a Frenchman who fled England to escape the persecutions on Flanders. My mother was an Englishwoman. "Two years ago my only daughter was abducted and conveyed to the New World by an Englishman, a factor and agent in the carrying trade. I followed in search of her. Arriving in Bahia, I was met with denials and, when I persisted, with rudeness and threats. I lived in lodgings, and took in sewing, and searched, and waited, but saw no trace of my child. So, despairing at last, and my means giving out,
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I embarked for Lisbon on a merchantman.”
[CRUSO takes something out of his belt and hands it to her, “a needle made of fishbone with a hole pierced through the broad end.” She starts to work on the thorn in her foot as SECOND SUSAN takes up the story.]
SECOND SUSAN
[moving just behind *FIRST SUSAN*. This is the first time in the play that this convention will be used – that the choral Susans take over the dialogue of the principal Susan.]
“Ten days from port, as if my misfortunes were not great enough, the crew mutinied. Bursting into their captain’s cabin, they slew him heartlessly even while he pleaded for his life. They put me in a boat with the captain’s corpse beside me, and set us adrift.”
THIRD SUSAN
“As chance would have it – or perhaps the mutiny had been so ordered –I was set adrift in sight of this island.”
ALL
“‘Remos!’
*FIRST SUSAN*
shouted the seaman from the deck,
SECOND SUSAN
[She crosses, sits and enacts the scene in the rowboat. She hears the jeers of the crew, rows against the waves, etc.] meaning I should take up the oars and row.
All morning, while the ship drew away, I rowed with the dead captain at my feet.
*FIRST SUSAN*
My palms were soon blistered – see! but I dared not rest, fearing that the current would draw me past your island.
THIRD SUSAN
Worse by far than the pain of rowing was the prospect of being adrift at night in the vast emptiness of the sea.”
*FIRST SUSAN*
“Then at last I could row no further. My hands were raw. My back was burned, my body ached. With a sigh,
making barely a splash, I slipped overboard and began to swim towards your island. The waves took me and bore me onto the beach.
The rest you know.”
[The flashback ends. SECOND SUSAN stands.]
THIRD SUSAN
[to the audience]
With these words I presented myself to Robinson Cruso,
SECOND SUSAN in the days when he still ruled over his island,
*FIRST SUSAN* and became his second subject, his first being his manservant Friday.
[FRIDAY, who has been paying no attention to the proceedings, stands up upon hearing his name and looks at CRUSO. Everyone looks back at FRIDAY. Lights dip. Transition.]
I.2 Cruso
[Action is continuous as SECOND SUSAN begins the next narration. CRUSO's encampment consists of the area designated as his hut, with a straw mat for a floor, rocks nearby or a hole in the deck marking a fire pit, and a few other items as needed. FIRST SUSAN and CRUSO settle near each other.]
SECOND SUSAN
I would gladly now recount to you the history of this singular Cruso, as I heard it from his own lips. But the stories he told me were so various, and so hard to reconcile with one another, that I was more and more driven to conclude age and isolation had taken their toll on his memory, and he no longer knew for sure what was truth, what fancy. Thus one day he would say
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