ACT ONE

SCENE 3

Love

(NOTE: For supplementary information about this play, its cast details, etc., start here.)

(The scene is populated with Olympias's retinue of friends at court: Thessalonike, Deïdameia, Pothos, Sophia, and Demarete, a young slave girl who plays the lyre, Attalus, Hecataeus, Euxenippus, Gorgias, Timaeus, and Gorgatus together with others; a youth who is Olympias's cup-bearer, several young men who act as her bodyguards; and other nobles. Olympias leaves the table to take her place on the throne as Polyperchon enters.)

OLYMPIAS

My Poly.

POLYPERCHON

My queen, the army is waiting to move. As I said in my letter, I have come to request that you now resume your throne, and guard the child Alexander. Your quarrels with Antipater were ended when he died. The people await their venerated queen to act as my deputy while we make war against Cassander.

OLYMPIAS

My dear Polyperchon, I have considered and conclude that I will be pleased to do my duty.

POLYPERCHON

Thank you, lady. And now to the battles- He bows, turns and starts for the exit.

OLYMPIAS

Come now, my dear- -Poly.

(rising )

Do you handle snakes?

POLYPERCHON

No, my dear-

(pause)

--Oly,

(caressing her hand)

but I could try.

(She gives a lingering look, and signals Demarete to play.)

OLYMPIAS

Demarete plays beautifully. When Demarete plays, she is the sun, and we are the sunflowers.

(Demarete begins to play the lyre, and Deïdameia and Thessalonike begin to hum an accompaniment. Olympias withdraws her hand reluctantly, signals her cupbearer to fetch two goblets of wine and then reaches for a basket with a lid.)

And this is my pet.

( She removes the lid and shows the inside to Polyperchon, who begins to put his hand inside, but is stopped by:)

Is your hand clean?

(Polyperchon looks at his hand.)

I only feed him the purest food. Do you have any snakes?

POLYPERCHON

Yes, only one.

OLYMPIAS

Is it large?

(She puts down the basket. She signals a young bodyguard to bring a chair for Polyperchon.)

POLYPERCHON

It gets very large after it has been petted and fed.

(He gives and receives a knowing look, but maintains the pretense.)

In India, we saw very large ones. Alexander sent several samples back to Aristotle. They were very long and about--

(He goes close to her, pauses a moment to size her up, and encircles her waist with his hands.)

--this big. Let me see your mouth.

(She opens her mouth, and he goes close to look.)

Do I see no fangs?

OLYMPIAS

Of the snake or the lion? One to poison, one to tear. Your choice.

( She hisses, snarls and smiles.)

POLYPERCHON

Your breath is sweet.

OLYMPIAS

(pause)

Delicacies.

POLYPERCHON

Delicious.

(They kiss, the most delicate, but passionate and prolonged kiss, without embracing: no hands or arms.)

OLYMPIAS

Befitting our age.

POLYPERCHON

Our circumstance.

OLYMPIAS

Our desire.

POLYPERCHON

Our time.

(The playing and humming have stopped. Without looking away from Polyperchon, Olympias snaps her fingers. The music continues.)

OLYMPIAS

You are going to make war.

POLYPERCHON

Yes.

OLYMPIAS

What do you make for the opposite of war?

POLYPERCHON

Peace is the end of war.

OLYMPIAS

What do you make for the extreme of peace?

POLYPERCHON

I know what you intend.

(The chair is brought and set down next to the throne. They sit and the wine is brought. Their eyes continue to be locked in a gaze-embrace.)

You are a snake charmer. In India, it is done with a pipe and a tenderness of movement to the most deadly of creatures. To show dominance and command of darkness, where evil abounds. But such enchantment cannot compare to yours.

(Demarete and the singers play and sing a poem in the style of Sappho, while Olympias and Polyperchon nuzzle each other.)

DEMARETE, THESSALONIKE, DEÏDAMEIA

No time for words,
mere bundles of mind.
As the wind in whirls,
bends the mighty oak to earth,
Eros beats my heart down.
I am near death with joy.

This much I know.
If death were a joy,
all the gods would die for it.
Then I would pray to you,
my new Aphrodite,
for another death.

OLYMPIAS

This much I know: As the wind in whirls, bends the mighty oak to earth, Eros beats my heart down. I am near death with joy.- Would your snake fit into my basket?

POLYPERCHON

(drinking)

The shape-shifting god of the vine could fit in anywhere. But, I, dear Oly, could not go where the lord of all gods has been without bringing his jealous wrath down upon my poor head.

(sighing deeply and audibly)

(thumping his heart)

--through all I must go to endure. The son of Alexander needs the most courageous efforts because of his orphaned state and the greediness of his commanders to seize control of all that young Alexander is heir to. Many of our friends have gone over to Cassander. And more. Eurydice has taken King Philip Arrhidaeus and assumed the administration of the regency. You have the throne of Macedonia, but she has an army now in Macedonia challenging our dominion.

OLYMPIAS

(deeply affected)

Good! O, great, great good fortune! At last! A wedge between those little ones! And she has driven it, with the help of treacherous At\em\. She has served us a rare feast of opportunity, which needs only the sharp knife of my presence to carve on it. We go, my dear Poly, to meet her. Follow me! You, to confront Cassander! And I, to defy Eurydice!

(He backs away a few paces, bows, turns with a gesture to give way to her, and they go smartly off.)

END SCENE THREE