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tillerman1 · 5 years

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THE RESERVE by Ingmar Bergman

THE RESERVE (translated to the sentence by Thomas Jester)

MONOLOGUES:

ANNA: I named Anna Fromm 34 year lecturer in Slavic language and happy married then eleven years. I have two children, one boy and one girl. My husband's name is Andreas. There is no glimpse of something worrying in my daily life. My closest is nice, nice men, completely normal all but my eldest brother Albert, who is soaring to die.

ANDREAS: My name is Andreas Fromm is forty years old and is an architect of a state-owned work. My wife's name is Anna. I do not think there are many men who feel as good as me. Sometimes I almost feel that it feels a bit anxious with an existence, as is so to the degree protected for discomfort and real concern.

ANNA: It is clear that I worry about what's happening around me in the world. It's coming to me in a short moment. I can feel a breathtaking nausea, as the news itself affects me. But then the day ends.

ANDREAS: It's happening sometime that you think: when will the storm change direction. When will it cross this protected island. But it's not just the thoughts that keep you awake at night.

FIRST ACT

Anna wakes up early, but she stays immobile in the big comfortable bed. The body is itself still in one pleasant numbness; the room is dark and cool, The clock can not be more than six, it's still in the house. The big clock in the dining room strikes something (but always wrong). Henrik coughs in there in the children's room. The birds are heard in the trees outside the open window. She stretches out her hand and turns on the little white radio: it gives off a weak but penetrating voice: "Be merciful, Lord, for in my heart I am terrified. Yes, my soul is terribly frightened. Ah, Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, save my soul, save me for your mercy." She turns off the radio and sighs a bit unhappy. Then she hears trembling steps and it cracks on the door, a slight whining voice: May I come in. He gets it. Henrik, eight years old, now with coryza cum cough, comes across the floor and creeps up to Anna in bed. Are you awake already? It's hard to sleep, do you understand, because I cough all the time. I have been coughing all night. Anna pours some mineral water and gives the son a drink. Can not I stay with you? No, you're going to come in to you now, Henrik. If you take a book and read for a while so it's almost morning. Henrik descends from the bed and is gloomy. Mom, Martin Luther King has been shot. What do you say, has he been shot? Yes, no, they said in the news, says Henrik and Gäspar. Andreas Fromm thinks in principle that the morning is a bit of a big deal. He wakes up a few minutes before the alarm clock rings. Then he lies a little and enjoys being awake, being healthy and in all modesty of being Andreas Fromm. Then he stands up: counts one seated in bed, counts two puts feet on the floor, counting three stands on the floor. The window is open, it is pale, the small snow in the garden and spring has become unconscious. This generates not Andrew; he makes his small trainings program, since he has removed the pajamas jacket. Then he looks smoothly (and dancing) his bathroom, where he shaves, washes, spruces himself and cuts his toenails. He has great pleasure in all this. At eight past eight he comes down to the dining room, where Berta already presented his breakfast: squeezed orange, an egg, toast, cheese, boiled ham and tea with lemon. He looks in the newspaper. The headlines are blacks of Vietnam. Just before eight he walks into the nursery and greets Veronica, which is his love and five years. She is already eagerly engaged in the morning for her dolls and receives the father's tribute with friendly but excited eyesight. Berta tells him that Henrik is asleep and that he has been worried during the night. Andreas says he does not come for dinner today, takes the stairs in two shots and knocks on the bedside door. Anna cries in and greets him good morning. She sits in bed with her breakfast tray. Their conversation is short, polite and neutral. Anna says she will have Dad for dinner today, if he still does not come home, it's fine. He asks her to greet the old man. Anna wishes him a good day. Andreas recalls that there comes a man, like that should repair boiler today, and to heat probably comes to be off a few hours. Anna says that is not so good because Henrik is cold, but Andreas makes her feel that it's probably not going to be particularly cold in the rooms and that it's hard to get people and they come when it suits them, the devils. Anna asks if he or she is going to buy tickets for the concert. He says that his secretary arranges that matter. She asks him really not forget this. Andreas assures that he really should not forget this. They smile kindly (mornings are not clear) and Andreas does hastily farewell. Did you hear the news, Anna asks suddenly. No, why, asks Andreas. Martin Luther King is murdered, says Anna. What are you saying, is it true? Well, Henrik came in and told me he had heard it on the radio, I did not think it was true. Damn, says Andreas. They say fast farewell. Andreas takes pileus and coat, Berta vacuums in the stairs. He takes his little car from the double garage down the road and slopes gently on the wet slippery asphalt. In the car radio he hears about the murder. The queue in to the city is longer than usual due to the bad roadmap, but he will still arrive in good time to the Workshop. He takes the elevator up to his department and then the corridor to the left. His secretary, Mrs Prakt (a big girl with hanging shoulders and small intelligent eyes) is already there. She presents the entry and current visits list on his desk. She says that the Director-general calls for a call.

ANDREAS: Well, now I'm busy at four past nine, it's not possible. Did not you say that?

MISS PRAKT: Yes, I said you were busy. But the Director General said it was important and wondered if you can not postpone the meeting.

ANDREAS: Yes, I can do that. If you want to call Ray and ask him to come tomorrow instead, if he can. Would thou be able to arrange tickets to Concert Hall on Sunday also, then you are terribly sweet.

MISS PRAKT: I'll do that. Do you go for lunch?

ANDREAS: No, I do not think so. Why?

MISS PRAKT: I would to the dentist understand you and I wonder if you could dispense with me one hour after lunch. It may happen, I still have time, but I'm not sure. One must wait.

ANDREAS: Go you. I only have those sad guys from the social welfare office at one o'clock. And it will be long and obscene, you can come whenever you want. Hi.

Miss Prakt also says hello, but a bit weaker. She has respect cum toothache. Andreas walks through the corridors, takes the stairs and is soon at the head of the Director General. He is immediately admitted. Generaldirektör Ek är en storvuxen man med något bondskt över sin uppenbarelse. He is generally regarded as a "good man", an opinion he shares. They greet warmly, most kindly, and settle down in the comfortable couch, far away from the desk's services.

EK: It was fine that you could come right away. How are you?

ANDREAS: I'm fine, thank you. How are you doing yourself?

EK: Thank you. We have an infection going home. Alice is crazy and the girl is crazy and the kids are crazy. I have managed so far, but today I feel overblown, but it may be the weather of course.

ANDREAS: Yes, spring it's difficult it.

EK: Listen, Andreas, I have a boring thing to talk to you about.

ANDREAS: Oh, that was boring.

EK: I was in touch with the department last afternoon and then I met Rosén. He let me understand that they will not take your suggestion. They will relay it to us for new investigation and new proposals.

ANDREAS: So. It was boring.

EK: I wanted to tell you right away, so you do not get it through the newspapers. When the official decision was due, Rosén could not say definitely, but probably after Easter. As I said, I wanted to talk about it for you.

ANDREAS: It was nice of you.

EK: Something foolish was in the mood, I knew that. Because it took so long with the decision.

ANDREAS: Did Rosén have any motivation?

EK: Yes, you know, Rosén is a pot. He has nothing to say. He suggested that your proposal seemed a bit academic. A little on the side of development. Frankly, I did not listen so carefully. He speaks like a mill and then he has bad breath.

ANDREAS: Who will take over then?

EK: Rosén thought we would use Feldt and Bauer. There are two talented youngsters.

ANDREAS: They have no experience at all.

EK: I think they are pretty forward. And so they have a huge advantage in front of you because they are untested.

ANDREAS: (laughing) I'm 40 years, Georg!

EK: (laughing) Being 40 is almost like having a shameful illness.

ANDREAS: (laughing) What am I supposed to do now then? We'd put me away for the next year.

EK: We will talk more about it after Easter. I'll think a bit.

ANDREAS: Then I will not bother you anymore.

EK: Yes, by all means.

ANDREAS: I am grateful that you spoke so quickly. Salute your wife so much and have a nice Easter if we don't meet. Bye. Thank you.

EK: Bye. Thanks. And greet Anna so warmly.

When Andreas returns to his room, Mrs. Prakt tells that lawyer Järnberg is already waiting. Andreas says that he must first make a call. He walks into his room and closes the door. Sets himself at some desk and feels after. He knows nothing. Then he calls home. Asking for Anna. Berta announces that the wife had just left that she would first go to her brother at the hospital and then to town and that she would not come back until dinner. She would be at the Humanist Library at two o'clock she had said. Andreas puts on the handset and still does not know anything. Possibly a little headache. (It may be the weather.) Possibly a strange answering of the eyelids. Anna visits the same day, his brother Albert, who is admitted to a mental clinic. (He has an individual room, which is not very big but bright and modern.) Albert is short and coarsely built. The face is round and bright. He is at 45. He has knitted up the jacket sleeves, the wrists are worn with bracelets. Cheeks and mouth are painted. Anna takes her brother in arms and kisses him, handing out some foreign magazines and a pack of cigarettes. This employs them for a while.

ALBERT: Anna little, how it was fun to see you. I've missed you terribly.

ANNA: There has been so much to do lately.

ALBERT: Do not take it! I know how much you have to stand in. So yes set you. How are the children doing?

ANNA: Henrik is a little cold, but Veronica feels good as usual. She is with Mom over Easter. We also planned to go to the country over Easter. We'll see if the weather is going well.

ALBERT: I have nothing to offer just. Would you like a banana? A cigarette? A piece of chocolate perhaps?

ANNA: No thanks, I do not want anything.

ALBERT: Bla bla bla bla bla. (Smiling.)

ANNA: Just that.

ALBERT: Can you answer me honestly on one thing?

ANNA: I'll try.

ALBERT: Am I injured or is it myself that wants to sit here. I've forgotten the real relationship.

ANNA: There is no one who keeps you locked.

ALBERT: How do you think I look?

ANNA: I think you look much healthier, but I do not understand why you make up and dress yourself.

ALBERT: (crying) I'm over, Anna.

ANNA: But your new book.

ALBERT: It's nothing.

ANNA: What do you mean?

ALBERT: I have told everyone that I have written a new book. But it is not true.

ANNA: Your publisher said –

ALBERT: That I had read for him (smiling). I took a piece of Baudelaire, which I wrote before he came. He is not so formed.

ANNA: It's just a decline, Albert. You've been here before and you've suddenly come across something.

ALBERT: (laughing) It may be enough now. Enough of all this nonsense. I'm pulling in my contacts. There is a great silence, which is unthinkable for those who do not hear it. Do not you think I'll see how the dusk expands.

ANNA: You should not say that.

ALBERT: Destruction has taken power, that's the truth. The lie has taken power. That's the truth. Hate has dressed in righteousness's clothing, that's the truth. Remember, when you relate our meeting to Andreas and our friends. (He starts to cry.) The worst thing is that I was hoping. (Turns himself on his mouth.) I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the truth, I!

ANNA: You have to calm yourself.

ALBERT: Yes, I'll calm down. It is only hysteria, do you understand, my sweetheart.

None of the siblings come round to say something, but both express a delayed soreness.

ANNA: You make me so unresolved. Not for what you say, but because you are so afraid. It's like when I was little and you came in and sat on the floor in a corner of the nursery. I was only six years old and you were eighteen. And then you sat there in the corner and just watched me until I started crying because I knew you wanted me to understand something that I did not understand. I've never been able to comfort you.

ALBERT: You're just talking to me.

ANNA: Is not it enough, that I'm sitting here and holding your hand?

ALBERT: Well, that's fine.

They are silent and holding hands for a while.

Despite that Andreas said to Ms. Prakt that he intends jump over lunch goes he to canteen just after Twelve. He takes the macaroni pudding with a glass of milk, goes with his tray away one corner, where he glimpses a plot table only changes in and beats in down with Feldt and Bauer, as seated together with a third for Andreas unknown young man. The boys greet their older colleague with kindness. The comrade, who turns out to be a Norwegian, is presenting from Bergen for consultations. One jokes a part about canteens food in general and if the macaroni pudding in particular. Suddenly Feldt asks if Andreas has received a message from the ministry - if they have been taken out of the wagon. The question comes inadvertently and in passing, but Andreas looks at Bauers reaction, that they already know most, Bauer and Feldt are neither malicious nor cruel. They are not even particularly tactless. They are both in 28 age with pale intelligent faces boxed in neat beards. They are elegantly dressed with colored polo shirts and narrow well-cut jackets. Bauer has colored glasses. Feldt has no glasses only heel-ring. They are polite and utterly effortless. Both regard Andreas attentively and there gets some fleeting silence with question to hanging over some table. Then Andreas laughs and says that the ministry will give backlash on the proposal. He had just learned this from Ek, who in turn had received the notification of Rosén at the ministry. Will you change a lot, asks Bauer. No, it's sadly not, says Andreas, laughing. I will no longer have the project to do. It will be given to someone else. I thought maybe you had heard something about that matter. Feldt shakes his head and says, that they had wondered, since the announcement was delayed. Bauer says regret that it was sad for Andreas, who worked so long for the project. They obviously think I'm a bit old-fashioned, Andreas says, laughing. So, it was like hell, says Bauer. It was also a motivation for substantive reasons, said Feldt ironically. You said you met that Rosén a few days ago, the Norwegians innocently say to Feldt, who gets a little red in the forehead. It was a completely different business. He said nothing about this, replies Feldt. Andreas looks down into the plate, deeply embarrassed. A plot thus, he says, hilariously distracting. Now you're kidding anyway, Bauer says surprised. Yes, what do you think, Andreas answers. I think much about the new generation, but not to lick like Rosén at the end. Bauer and Feldt laugh. Anna opens with her own key. The big dark rooms in the library are filled with books. The dry little black smell. The non-smoking room. Here and there at the work tables behind the shelves and next to the windows a dark shadow, someone forgotten over the Easter promise. Otherwise empty and quiet. Anna leaves some books and searches the catalog. Down in one corner sits a contemporary woman. Her face is dissolved, weak colourless. She has her coat and long pants, not very neat, chews on a caramel, asks Anna if she wants. She wants not Anna.

ANNA: What are you doing here over Easter?

KARIN: I'm getting lost. At home there is a damn noise from morning to evening, yes, you know. Mom is visiting. And so is …

ANNA: I understand.

KARIN: Congratulations to the scholarship by the way!

ANNA: Thanks! Thank you.

KARIN: Are you going to continue the seminars this fall?

ANNA: No, I do not think so. I have requested a leave of absence. It actually gets too hard. Andreas should ...

KARIN: Yes of course.

ANNA: Why, what's up?

KARIN: No, sorry, nothing. Nothing at all.

ANNA: (surprised) I just wanted to say that ...

KARIN: No, you do not need to explain.

ANNA: Nor did I think so.

KARIN: (after break): Nice Easter time.

ANNA: Thank you the same.

Anna just wants to go when Karin shouts at her. Anna rectifies herself and Karin comes towards her with a lit cigarette. They are adhered to the smoking room. Karin sets herself on a table and says that she actually wants say about something for Anna, It should not take long.

KARIN: You may think that I have seemed quite unpleasant at the last time - no, do not interrupt me - that's why. Not as you think this is the scholarship. I am not jealous, believe for fan none to me is jealous. But I finally have a need to tell you what I think. I have always wondered what it is - but I think it is, I do not know. I think you're lying in some damn fine way. Sometimes I get an unpleasant desire to beat you. Yes, do not misunderstand, it's nothing personal, you've never hurt me. Your face is so beautiful and you are always so well dressed and you always say the right things.

ANNA: Do not know what you are talking about.

KARIN: I have not figured that either. At some point people of your variety cease to exist. You turn into impersonal surprise. Or at its height to a well-expressed disapproval.

ANNA: Is not it just that you are very tired and shabby?

KARIN: Not true? This winter has been difficult, and the children have been sick and you know my mom! Huh?

ANNA: I must go now.

Karin laughs, pushes the cigarette into the overflowing ashtray. She has got a dust on her hands, wipes herself on her coat, goes to the door with Anna, takes her hard in her arm.

ANNA: It hurts.

KARIN: Have you seen that I lack one tooth here on side? Does not it look freaking out? It's not for economic reasons I do not go to the dentist. It is lethargy. Do you understand what I mean?

ANNA: No. Frankly, no.

KARIN: (smiles) But I can afford myself to dislike about you and what you represent.

ANNA: Let go of my arm, please.

KARIN: Bye. Happy Easter. Health Andreas.

Anna does not answer, gets up the door and gets into the rain. When Andreas returns to his workroom, he calls Berta and asks if Anna has heard. She has not. If she would call, Berta would be so kind to ask her to call. Say it's not important, but he just wants to talk to her. It promises Berta. Is everything good otherwise? Well, everything is fine.

SECOND ACT

That afternoon, Anna meets her lover. At their meetings they use a small dark apartment on a quiet and secluded street. When she unlocks the front door, is he in kitchenette and prepares tea. The toaster, which works badly, delivers two half black discs. Anna saves them before she takes off her coat.

ANNA: You're already here. I thought I would come first for once today, and have the tea ready when you arrived. Too bad! You're so good. Hello honey, have you been here for a long time?

ELIS: I came ten minutes ago.

ANNA: We should get a new toaster. This one is really sad. It is just to toss. Should we try again?

ELIS: No, no, that's enough with the biscuits, I think.

ANNA: At least I'm not hungry. And yet I skipped lunch today. Did not have time. By the way, I need to go downstairs.

ELIS: No.

ANNA: I have to go down, I apologize for counting calories. The strange thing is that Andreas is so fond of desserts. But he goes not up one pound. I'll start playing golf again. Have you walked here? I did not see your car.

ELIS: It is on the cross street. I bought a newspaper. Did not think you were coming soon.

ANNA: Everyone greeted Albert, would have stayed longer, but I did not manage. - ELIS: Is it equally bad still?

ANNA: I do not know. I think it's worse.

Anna has removed the outerwear and loosened her hair. Stands and looks in the bathroom mirror.

ELIS: What are you doing?

ANNA: Looking me in the mirror.

ELIS: Why?

ANNA: I do not know. It is nice.

ELIS: In a few years you do not think it's nice anymore.

ANNA: It does not matter as long as you promise to like me.

ELIS: I promise.

De kysser varandra. Anna looks at him for a long time.

ANNA: You look tired.

ELIS: (smiling) I'm tired.

ANNA: Has it happened a bit boring?

ELIS: Not more than usual.

ANNA: Is everything good at home?

ELIS: Eva came home yesterday. Yes, you know that.

ANNA: And it went well? No frustration?

ELIS: The only thing is that she worries so much. And the pain is not better.

ANNA: How, then on the way she worries?

ELIS: Always when she's gone for some time, she comes home with a bad conscience and believe that something has happened. God knows what she's imagining. Then she is all nervous about her questions and starts to rule and set. It is clear that Miss Alma gets pissed off.

They have set themselves on the small couch on screen. Anna serves.

ANNA: Is it strong enough?

ELIS: Nay thanks. Have you added sugar?

ANNA: No. Can I show you a dress that I bought this morning?

ELIS: Yes, but then you put it on you.

ANNA: It will change a bit, you understand. But I did not want to buy it until you had seen it. Mrs. Arnold said it was amazing to me. I have to prepare for one thing. It is red. I've never had red before. I thought it would make me paler, but I do not think it does. I have a lot of prejudices when it comes to colors.

While Anna is talking, she slips out of the suit and puts on the red dress. She holds her hair up.

ANNA: Now you should think about it with a pair of other shoes and put the hair up. Then it's a bit too tall and does not sit well in the back and these buttons can be replaced. – What do you think?

ELIS: Well, that's nice.

ANNA: Do you really think that?

ELIS: It is tremendously attractive.

ANNA: Do you mean it. That makes me happy. I liked it immediately. Sometimes you just have to buy a red dress. Are you sure you like it?

ELIS: I think it's extremely nice.

ANNA: Then I'll go and get it changed right away tomorrow. This is almost my first red dress.

She takes off the dress and the other clothes, creeps into a white bathrobe, which hangs in the bathroom, comes back and sets herself and the drinking tea.

ELIS: How does Henrik feel?

ANNA: He's better, but he had to stay in bed today too.

ELIS: How are you going to have Easter tonight? Are you traveling anywhere?

ANNA: We travel well to the country, I believe. We have not decided yet. We have to go for a dinner on Mother's Day. You know them by the way.

ELIS: Yes, I know. The advocate Sernelius. We will also be there.

ANNA: That was fun.

ELIS: Devil strange. Invite people on Christmas eve when everyone wants to leave town as soon as possible.

ANNA: Um. We get good food.

ELIS: I have no pleasure in that.

ANNA: No, poor thing, how are you with the ulcer?

ELIS: Up and down. Right now nothing further.

ANNA: How are you having night sleep?

ELIS: Not at all if I'm to be sincere.

ANNA: Do you have any good sleep remedies?

ELIS: I took two strong rackers last night and lay awake all night. It's pure torture.

ANNA: Do not you sleep at all?

ELIS: No. I'm walking around. And playing gramophone.

ANNA: What does Eva say?

ELIS: Eva poor has probably of her own concern. By the way, there is no danger of insomnia, says my doctor. Just do not worry.

ANNA: What are you worried about?

ELIS: For everything between heaven and earth. But mostly because we have to dismiss a lot of people again. There are men in fifty years and more. They have been in business for twenty, thirty years. You should see their faces, when one informs them. And that's good men, you understand. Good professionals. Nice, caring, decent people. And so it quietly outlined the question: "You yourself? Why do you stay?"

ANNA: (smiling) You are getting old.

ELIS: (laughing) Just that. I'm getting old.

ANNA: (looks at him for a long time) If I knew…

ELIS: Knew what?

ANNA: Nothing. You tell me everything, do not you?

ELIS: Yes, I do.

ANNA: No, but it's something you hide from me.

ELIS: No, what would it be?

ANNA: Yes, I do not know. That's why I ask.

ELIS: (smiling) So grave ourselves became suddenly.

ANNA: Imagine we've lived together for eight years and not a poor week for ourselves, it's no wonder.

Anna takes over the bed and draws the curtains. It will be a mild half-moon. She throws off the swimsuit and creeps down in bed, looks and looks at Elis, who's getting dressed. When he is naked, he drinks a sip of tea. Anna is listening to this. The vague fear of night dreams and today's experiences comes back. Elis wakes slowly and reluctantly.

ELIS: I slept so deeply.

ANNA: Must go now. It's late. My old dad is going to dinner, you understand. And he would be very upset if I were late.

ELIS: No, do not go straight away.

ANNA: Yes, honey. I must.

She bows over the man and kisses him in love. He answers her kiss with tenderness and begins to chill her. They look smiling at each other.

ELIS: What still is sweet and soft and good.

ANNA: (laughing) It does not help. I do not have time. No.

Then she gives up and they sink into a warm, smiling security, not very passionate. Then she gets in a hurry, out of the bathroom, washing and blowing, talking to Elis, who stays in bed and smokes a cigarette.

ANNA: Andreas and I were going to buy some shares. Do you know what's best? We have our usual old man, of course, but he is so terribly careful and conventional.

ELIS: I can call Andreas and talk about the matter.

ANNA: We sold a plot, you understand. Andreas's father bought it shortly after the First World War for five thousand. Today it is worth astronomical money, you can imagine, twenty crowns the square meter. It's not wise. For a while there was a risk that the town would buy the area, but it was a private construction company that came before. That way, we got much better paid.

She stands at the little couch and dresses. The daylight shines through the curtains. It is a low-key contact-making issue without significance. She wears the suit, puts her hair and paints gently in the grayish light.

ELIS: I will call you tomorrow.

ANNA: I'm at the library from nine o'clock, but I'm done at half past one I would think. You can call me home at two o'clock if it suits you - I'll be alone.

ELIS: Do you still love me?

She looks up, smiling, shaking her head.

ANNA: You hide something for me and I do not know what it is and it hurts me.

ELIS: I do not know that I have any secrets for you.

ANNA: Is there anything about Eva?

ELIS: You are not jealous?

She comes up to him and sets herself on the bedside. Looks at him, smiling but seriously.

ANNA: I'm jealous, but we're not talking about that. We are not talking about something that is bothersome or that hurts. It's a secret agreement, right?

ELIS: (laughing) It was colossal, what made you deep.

ANNA: Not true? But now I have to leave. Dad will be furious. Do not lie and fall asleep now.

ELIS: I'll just smoke out this cigarette. Drive carefully!

ANNA: Yes, honey. Give me a kiss.

She leans his face against him and blows. They kiss each other. She opens her eyes and laughs at him. So caressing her his cheek.

Andreas has a meeting: The men from the National Board of Social Affairs are generally gray. One of them suddenly finds that now you have been sitting for four hours and have not come anywhere, but the case looked pretty simple from the outset. One other regrets in the context to Schmidt from project's insertion office none had could attend at some together tree. It had simplified quite a bit. A third assures that one can say with certainty that any startup will not be talked about until late autumn, no matter how much is the case in all instances. Of course, the best of course, says the fourth, that the whole thing was speeded up in the highest place, because nobody really knows who will take responsibility. Andreas says, then, that the money is there, it has been told. Who knows if they are after the election, says the first gloomy. Yes, anyway, I have to go now, says number three bored. I would pick up my car at two o'clock and now she is already half past five and you never know when such a crooked workshop closes. This becomes a general burst signal. Should we not get a new meeting as soon as possible, says Andreas. Four serious men nod and nets front their almanacs and look and murmur. Everyone agrees that before Easter there is no idea. The week after Easter, two of the men are available and one in England. Finally, you agree on a Tuesday in the future. Everyone is satisfied and believes that archetypes have advanced to that and that Schmidt in the design office can also be involved, only one says in time. Stimulated of this new thought takes you hearty farewell and vacate room. Ms Prakt comes in and cleans and opens the window. She confronts the bad smell and all tobacco smoke and says that most men are pigs. We have to write letters, says Andreas, as sitting to at some desk. Where do you have the letter from MIRAGET ET CONSEILLE? I have not received that, says Ms. Prakt a little accusation while she is spraying in the air with some kind of fresh air spray. You have known that, replies Andreas irritated. You got it yesterday, we would have answered yesterday, but I was prevented. You kept it, because you would think about it, says Ms. Prakt. Please, stop spraying and go out and get the letter, I know you have it, it's not here at all. Ms. Pratt becomes even heavier than usual and her round shoulders become even more round, but she immediately puts out the spray bottle, goes front to Andreas and looking one moment in one of paper boxes, which is on the right and fishes up the letter, puts it on pad front Andreas and disappears off room. Well, we'll write the letter now then, or should we not, says Andreas with sore voice. I should only retrieve paper and pen, responds Ms. Prakt with one submissive tone. She immediately comes back and sits down on the other side of the desk, round the back and gazing intently in the block. Andreas dictates an address - letter is half-private understand you. We send it to his home, you check the address, please. Ms. Prakt nods silently. Do not be mad now, Britt, says Andreas tired. I am not acid, responds Ms. Prakt. By all means I apologize, says Andreas. You're always right, you know, so there's nothing to bother about. Right? Ms. Prakt is still looking down. The back is curved and the round shoulders hang out hopelessly. I know how careful you are, please Britt, says Andreas. You, there is no human that I appreciate more. I have apologized. It is not that, says Ms. Prakt very low and shaking of head. What is that then, asks Andreas. Nothing, nothing, of any significance. No little old woman, I do not feel sorry for that, says Andreas with one last patience. Now you can either tell me where it's pinching or we'll get back to work. It's not me who has started talking, says Ms. Prakt stubbornly.

ANNA: What do you say about the murder of Luther King, daddy, is not it terrible? Do you think it will be civil war? I met Sidney this morning and he said that now you can expect anything. People learn to be desperate of horror.

FATHER: Do you hear Anna, I would not say anything, but I can not help you. You invite me to dinner, and it is by all means good of you, but it suits you to come an hour late.

ANNA: Twenty minutes, Dad. And I have explained.

FATHER: Why fits you never the time? Is it hereditary? Your mother was the same. I was going to go my way. Precisely when you came in by door figured I trip me and go. I thought you had forgotten my existence. I got the damned madam, but what she's calling your husband and ask him if he knew where you were. If you could possibly have told him something. Of course you did not. And at the library expedition they did not know anything either. Do not you understand that I'm getting pissed off? Huh?

ANNA: Sure, please poppa, but now is it great. Can not we talk about anything else. I have asked forgiveness. Moreover.

FATHER: You just reels out a few phrases. It's easy to say I'll say. I heard Henrik is cold.

ANNA: It's no big deal. Should I ask him to come down?

FATHER: No thanks. I do not want his bacilli. Unless he is not school sick, of course. You spoil him. Where is Veronica by the way? It is the only human in this house that you can meet with. Where have you hidden the kid? Get her out and I'll be in a good mood. I promise.

ANNA: She's actually with Mom. I have said that.

The father gives her a furious eye. But silent. The head dares a bit. He draws heavily after his breath.

ANNA: Should not dad to calm down now.

FATHER: Why should Gertrud always take care of Veronica? Why can she not get be with me sometimes? The kid is feeling well at home with me, I will talk.

ANNA: (patiently) Your housekeeper says she is not able to cope with any children and now she has pain in her back.

FATHER: Esther is an old fool. She will always make it. I'm thinking of getting me a younger person. One that is a little cheerful. You become disgusted to hear of all the bloody ailments and everything creaking. I think the woman has had a small stroke, by the way.

The idea makes managing Egerman on better humor. He bowls with Anna, who has taken a sherry for company. The old man regards her willingly.

FATHER: I read in the magazine that you received a scholarship. I congratulate. What are you going to do with the money?

ANNA: I'm going to travel, I guess.

FATHER: Is it tax-free?

ANNA: Yes, I think so.

There is silence. The old gentleman sinks in own thoughts. Anna sits and looks at him, seized with a sudden tenderness.

ANNA: How are you, Dad?

The father looks up, listening to the unusual tone. Looking first suspicious, then he becomes even in the face, takes a sip.

FADERN: It's worst in the mornings. I can not say that I'm afraid to die. It's not that. I'm soon afraid of the day. As long as I had a lot of work, it went well. But now the last month, when I stopped - it does the same. I'm doing fine. I'm just sad I would think.

He is silent. The head dares, he gives Anna a shadow of sight, the glass holds him between his hands.

FATHER: I'll tell you, old age is a hell.

When Andreas comes out of the work it rains. Ms. Prakt is standing on the stairs and watching the cloud out. She has no umbrella and wears something, which is probably a new spring cap. Andreas offers to drive her because they have the same route. She laughs graciously but says that this is too much trouble. Andreas försäkrar motsatsen och hämtar sin bil på parkeringsplatsen. He asks if she wants possess a cigarette and that wants her gladly. They smoke and travel under silence. Pardon you if I stop here one moment. I'm just going to buy the newspapers, says Andreas, and parks a little carelessly in front of a tobacco shop. He squats for the rain, gets his newspapers. He throws them in the back seat and starts. A blue Volkswagen stands in front of him. He takes out the turn a bit too tight and strikes the front of the car with a loud and scary sheet noise. Oops! says Ms. Prakt. It was certainly not so dangerous, says Andreas annoyed and passes the empty cart. Soon after, he had to stay in the street corner to drop a truck. At the same moment, the car door is pulled up and a furious, fat man sticks his head in and screams: Are you going to sneak! Take it easy, strains Andreas completely blocked. Get out instantly, roars man, dressed in leather jacket, blue pants and cap. Was it your car I ran against, asks Andreas silly and rises. Was it your car, imitates man contemptuously. Would it make any difference, huh! They go the few steps back to Volkswagen. On the left wing there are two barely noticeable scratches and the bumper has become slightly curved. So you thought about it, it is neat. I was not going to sneak, Andreas defends himself. I was just going to park my car on the cross street over there and then go back. Oh, are you lying, at least not for it makes you damn bad. The man takes out paper and pen. What's your number? I have forgotten that, Andreas desperately answers. What's your name, then, have you forgotten that too? Could we not make up this here in benefit, asks Andreas. In benefit what is it? This is going to be fucking unpleasant for you. Miss Prakt has come and set herself at Andreas's side. Her new spring coat darkens of rain. You can at least be polite, she says angrily. I testify that you were rude and practically started fighting. I'm going to testify about that. Be sure and tune the tone before you continue to argue about this bauble. A small crowd of interested spectators has gathered. Now listen, don't try to talk like a nice lady because you are just whore to that gangster, the man says. You hear how he speaks, says Miss Prakt furiously. There is no police nearby, who can take care of this. Everyone stands. It rains. The man walks around with paper and pencil, notes the car number. Such as you should be fixed, he says. Andreas tries to ask if he is not ready now, so he can go. You stay as long as I want, the man answers. Then comes the car's owner. It is a younger person, can be in his twenties. He has glasses and is barbed, dressed in an old shabby raincoat. He stares in astonishment at the assemblies. Forgive me, I happened to encounter your car when I turned out, I took the turn too tight, so I have made two scratches and bent to your bumper. It was not so dangerous, says the young man. He was thinking of throwing it, says the fat, but I stopped that. Actually, I didn't think so, says Andreas. I would stay around the corner and then go back and see what happened to your car. Yes, anyway, there is no harm done, says the young person surprised. I actually have a hurry, so if you'll excuse me. If you want compensation, says Andreas, you can call me. My name is - The young man shakes his head on his head and sticks out with a tear start. The curious assembly is dissolved. What are you going to do now, says Andreas plagued. Fucking upper class walkers, says the man and goes to his own car, where there is a lean and uninterrupted woman with resentful looking eyes. Andreas and Miss Prakt return to their car. Andreas doorbell to Dr. Farmans practice. It takes a while. Then sounds rapid footsteps and the door opening. It's sister Ester, doctor's assistant and helper for many years. (She is thirty-five, has a beautiful, slightly angular face with very bright eyes and a large well-shaped mouth. She is tall and wide-shouldered, dressed in white coat and manageshappenhat, her hair is thick, blond and set in a big knot.) When she knows again Andreas smiles her smooth and releases in him.

ESTER: Hello, architect Fromm. The doctor just walked out a few minutes. Han är tillbaka på ögonblicket. We have just completed our last patient. So be it and sit down here for so long.

Andreas takes off his coat and settles in the large, airy and modernly decorated waiting room. Opposite him, he has a considerable aquarium. Sister Ester walks in and out of the expedition to the treatment rooms, cleans, picks up, sorts paper. This was our last patient of fourteen days, she says and packs down some x-rays in a brown envelope. Well, you shut that long. We take a little vacation. The doctor takes the family with him and goes to the mountains. I think he does the right thing because he has certainly been working this winter. I never think people have been as sick as this year. How then in a way? Well, I don't really know, Sister Ester thinks. But it's as if people didn't have the strength anymore. The winters are getting longer and longer and all infections become more agitated and last longer. People are so tired so they don't know where to go. She laughs. The phone rings. She answers Dr. Farman's reception, Sister Ester. Well, what do you say, yes, but it was difficult. Architect Fromm is here. No, I don't know what he wants. You can talk to him yourself. Sister Ester hands over the handset. Hi, says Andreas. So terribly annoying, Ernst says sincerely worried. Farewell. Cheerio then, says Andreas. See you! Yes, then I have to thank you, says Andreas. You have two dead fish in the aquarium, he adds on the way to the hall. It's some disease, they die in a chorus. It is not precisely anyone advertising for our internship, says Ester and looking out on a small landing net and begins fish after the small bodies. We have changed both water and sand and plants, but it does not seem to help. One must probably scour the entire aquarium with some disinfectant. She turns around and looks a little surprised at Andreas. He has sat on a chair inside the door, has got on his coat and has his hat in his hand. How are you? asks Ester professionally. Andreas shakes his head. She stands center at room with the small snare with one hand. It has begun to obscure. The sun has suddenly gone out of the thick cloud of snow. How is it? Nothing, says Andreas. I do not know. But I don't want to go home. Ester looks at him and suddenly smiles. Well, don't go home then, she says objectively. Here you can stay for as long as you want. Call and say you've been busy. There is canned food in refrigerator. You can watch TV and read books and newspapers. Then you go home tonight, or in the night or tomorrow morning. Stay with me then, says Andreas. I don't think I can, Ester replies. I have those who are waiting for me and, unlike you, I find it fun to come home. So you are happily married, asks Andreas. Yes, you can say that. I feel good in every way, says Ester. She goes to Andreas and puts her big dry hand against his cheek. I do not know what it is, says Andreas, but I feel it as if I was being choked. It sounds so damn melodramatic. But that is the only adequate expression. I'm about to - He stops. Sister Ester goes in in doctor closet and retrieves up a bottle brandy, turns up a glass and hands him. He drinks in silence. It's ridiculous, he says. I certainly have no reason to complain. You don't do that either, replies Sister Ester immediately. Can't sister sit down for five minutes, asks Andreas. Well, I really can. She smiles again. I suddenly came to think of something. Esther asks what then, because it was silent. It's something ridiculous and maybe I'm unfair. Say it anyway. We never touch each other. We show each other tenderness only when we lie with each other and then in passing. We caress and kiss each other never to time where. And the kids get very little physical tenderness. They get all the damn vitamins they should have but no bodily closeness. They rarely touch each other, except when they fight. Isn't it remarkable? It's probably different with that, Ester says quietly. They sit quietly for a few minutes. Andreas drinks out, and puts the glass next to him on the table. The aquarium lights mysteriously at dusk and the sick fish moving in solemn dance. He gets up and walks toward the door. Sister Ester sits there over at dusk. Now you can no longer see her face. He goes into a bar around the corner and orders paper and envelopes and a brandy, settles down in a corner of the shady inspired room and listens for a few minutes to an inexhaustible pianist. Two young people are sitting at the counter and are joking: The girl is very young and bare-armed, she occasionally turns her little makeup face towards Andreas. The boy (a few years older) tries to explain something to her. Andreas puts the pen on the paper: Dearest Anna. It is so strange to sit here and write letters to you, but I have to try to express something that I must never say when we are together. He pauses and ponders. Then he writes with determined letters. I think we're wrong somewhere. It is perhaps so that we are simply wrong. Isolate us in a small clan of people, all of whom enjoy a privileged life far on the side and above the reality of the majority. He stops again. Then writes it with fierce movements and bigger letters. Isn't it so that our marriage is a damned parody of what it should be, what it was originally intended to be. Isn't everything a miserable lie? Can we change this? Can we? Or are we stuck. Trapped in our reserve. In our comfortable… He stares in amazement at what he has written and tears the letter. The barbarian, eye-made young girl looking curiously.

THIRD ACT

Thursday morning's evening at seven, attorney Sernelius and his wife Inger give dinner for some of the closest friends. The large, old-fashioned villa is situated on a promontory in the lake and you have lit small lanterns at the gate and along the way up to the house. Anna and Andreas are slightly delayed. The other guests have already arrived. Drinking champagne and advocates lively. Anna and Andreas go round and greet. Everyone is more or less familiar and fairly equal in both income and age. It is thus host Fredrik Sernelius, a somewhat furrowed youthful lord of 50 years age with sounding voice and vigorous tennis hand. His wife Inger is warm, cordial and superficial. After fifth baby has she given her natural laziness and indulgence free play. She is with other words quite fat. There are booker Elis Andresen and his wife Eva. Elis we have already met and his wife Eva is a very beautiful woman in her thirty-five years, but with the sickly's at-open, vulnerable face. There is also Ernst and Magda Farman. He is a prominent physician private practice. A friendly, somewhat mannered fifty-year-old with calm, happy eyes. Magda is a painter, heavy, female, somewhat closed of intelligent face and one suddenly erupting laugh. Then is it engineer Stone Ahlman and his other wife Petra. Mr. Ahlman is tall and casual with strikingly large nose and very strong glasses. His wife is the youngest of the ladies and new in the company. She is a child psychologist and a little uncertain in an environment unfamiliar to her. She has a quiet but somewhat empty face with beautiful features. Finally, it is Count Edward Albrekt and his Countess Karin. He is successful despite his youth, CEO and general influence. It is a friendly, unassuming person with rather pale traits. He is short and has started to lose hair seriously. His wife is tall, dark and beautiful with big brown eyes and black hair. She is lively or rather nervous. It is thus 10 guests, host and hostess, 12 people all that all. Well-behaved people with incomes. Decent people. Liability-conscious.

FREDRIK: <But hi> {sic}. Nice to meet you.

INGER: I'm sorry you had to wait.

PETRA: And how does little Kristina feel? It was so long ago.

MAGDA: She had been very difficult the last weeks. But she should have two new teeth.

STEN: Marie Mayer, you say. Yes, she received the Nobel Prize. That's right.

ANNA: (smiling) You see, I don't know how to wear myself. Still, does the theater have to be part of today's society?

MAGDA: I don't know, I never go to the theater.

ANNA: You just go to art exhibitions.

MAGDA: No, but I think the theater has become so sad.

KARIN: What you make me nervous when you talk like that. I don't understand what you're saying, but it scares me.

INGER: Have you seen stuff like the moonlight that is? Pure magic.

ERNST: Imagine what a fantastic view you have in any case.

INGER: Oh, you have no bad view either.

ERNST: How long have you been living here?

INGER: Wait, let me see. I always expect after my birth because I confuse the years in a mess. Yes wait. We came here to Sweden just before Margareta was born and when Elisabeth was newborn we moved in. It's nine years ago.

ERNST: Is it really nine years ago?

INGER: Forgive me, please Ernst. I have to go and make sure everything is ready, so we can go to the table. Bye for now.

ANNA: Are you alone here in the moonlight?

ERNST: Yes, you know everyone is talking to each other in the mouth.

ANNA: Those new pills you prescribed for me is not good at all. I have small bleeding and feel bad.

ERNST: Are you sure it's the pills?

ANNA: I do not know. How are you?

ERNST: I'm doing fine.

ANNA: I have known you for twelve years and always, when you asked yourself, you have answered: Well thank you, I feel excellent.

ERNST: I'm sorry, Anna. But I almost always feel excellent. Look at the practice after Easter, so we can talk. If you need to talk I mean. And then we can print out the old pills because they didn't feel bad. Right?

ANNA: No. Presently believe I we should go to table finally.

ERNST: Yes, I'm hungry like a wolf. I haven't eaten anything late this morning except two bananas for lunch.

ANNA: You are a sweet man, Ernst. I like you.

ERNST: I like you too.

The hostess calls to the table. The doors to the dining room have been opened. It is bright and beautifully set. Placement around the round table is made with strategic finesse: The host of the Countess Albrekt and the hostess take care of the count. (It's for their honor dinner is arranged: a farewell before their long journey abroad). Anna has got Elis and Andreas has got Mrs Eva. Sten Ahlman accompanies Magda Farman and the doctor may take care of Mrs Ahlman. The dinner is exceptionally well prepared. It consists of soup, dilammstek (suckling lamb steak) and some refined sweet till dessert. You drink a good vintage wine. The house's two eldest daughters help to suit up.

ANDREAS (till Eva) : Think I imagine that my wife is so beautiful. I can still be amazed, and just sit and look at her. It's abnormal, isn't it? After so many years of marriage.

EVA: Do you never have complications?

ANDREAS: Well, we do. But we have always been able to talk to each other and I think that is the main thing in a marriage.

EVA: So you are dear in your wife completely easy?

ANDREAS: Yes. That am I. (sic)

FREDRIK: You Edward, will you meet them on travels?

EDWARD: No for high Faro. It is not worth to nag. In addition, it may be a matter of time before it becomes public. And then the lords are sitting there.

FREDRIK: But the factories are not put down.

EDWARD: They change into another property. From one day to another. So that detail is already prepared. In any case, with us.

ELIS: So nice to sit here next to you.

ANNA: It was an unexpected surprise. I sometimes wonder if there is someone who knows.

ELIS: Think you Inger knows till example?

INGER: (shouting) I heard enough that you said something about me!

ELIS: ( artigt) Vi sa bara att du alltid ser till, att gästerna föräter sig!

ELIS: (polite) We just said that you always make sure that your guests get lost!

ANNA: Do you still have your good Miss Johansson? INGER: Yes only now will she stop, can you imagine!

ANNA: What are you saying ?! It was sad.

INGER: Nobody is more distressed than I am. But she has something wrong on one knee and now she will be operated and then she wants to travel to her sister in the archipelago and stay there. Yes, you know how it sounds!

ANNA: How old is she really?

INGER: She's over seventy. Charlotta little. It's probably time to invite. Do not you think my daughters are nimble little maids?

ERNST: Charlotta has grown enormously.

INGER: Dear, it's a young lady now.

ELIS: You have such a beautiful neck... Beware, so I don't kiss you.

ANNA: (Smooth) Andreas!

ANDREAS: Yes, my darling.

ANNA: Elis is sitting here saying that he wants to kiss me in the neck. Well, don't he get that?

ANDREAS: (laughs) Because you ask so kindly, it may well pass. But I don't want any scandal.

EVA: Imagine your marriage is almost the only happy marriages I know of. Well, it's strange.

ANDREAS: Your and Elis are fine.

EVA: I'm gone so much. I have pain all the time, do you understand and then I have to take pills and then I become a little stunned. It makes that Elis and I comes in from each other. But now we have found something.

ANDREAS: Well, you've found something.

EVA: Yes, actually, it is Elis, who has found it. And I think that is so touching. He goes with me to Bad Gottheim and stays there for two months. He takes his entire vacation and three weeks leave, for that we should be able to be together incessantly. He will write an investigation and take all material with him and a secretary, you know our excellent Mrs. Wettstein and so has he rented one villa with view of Lugano lake, so we don't have to stay in the spa hotel. I can take the car every morning to the treatment, doesn't it get amazing? Do you know when Elis came home and told me this and said he had already arranged everything, I was so happy that I started crying. It's typically Elis, to come up with such sudden surprises. Cheers Elis!

ELIS: Cheers my wife! How you look cheerful outward.

EVA: Yes, we have our secrets Andreas and I.

ANNA: That is always what I have suspected. (Laughing) Cheers Eva. We'll talk to you later, right?

ANDREAS: Eva told just about your fine idea. That's what you should do.

ELIS: Yes, just that. Toast Andreas.

ANNA: (smiling) What is that great idea, Elis?

ELIS: It's just that I follow Eva to the health center, so she doesn't have to be alone there.

ANNA: (smiling) How long will you be away?

ELIS: I would think five, six weeks.

ANNA: (smile) When do you travel?

ELIS: Today a week.

ANNA: Can you be away so long from your work?

ELIS: I have an investigation in progress. I'll take it with me.

ANNA: (smiling) It was a great surprise, Elis.

ELIS: (blushes) I understand you think so.

The dinner finally ends. Anna follows Elis into the salon and speaks a few minutes with Inger Sernelius. She stands with a coffee cup in her hand and the smile remains. Slowly, the feeling of unreality comes, a slight poisoning. Elis turns to her and asks her if she doesn't feel good. She shakes her head, but says she feels great, that she should just go and powder herself. Inger takes her under her arm and says quickly that they can go to her room together. There is quiet and cool and (a) primed (condition) for the night. The bedside lamp burns, it smells good and clean. Anna asks Inger not to light the ceiling light. She is sitting on the bed and breathing deeply again and again. She strokes her palm over the blanket, which she wanted to smooth out an invisible fold. Inger asks if she is pregnant. Anna smiles and says sorry, she is not. Inger asks her if she wants a tablet. She doesn't want that. Inger asks if Anna simply wants to be alone for a little while. Anna nods gratefully to the round, friendly woman. Inger pats her a little on arm and rustles out completely tranquil in her fine evening dress, sitting too closely over the bottom and bosom.

They travel home through quiet, dark front streets. Anna runs. Andreas sits comfortably reclined, has taken off his glasses, is a little drunk. They do not care to drive the car into the garage, even though it is cold and snowy. In the living room the TV is on, it roars and crackles. In a large chair, Henrik sits and sleeps wrapped in a blanket and with a Coca-Cola next to him on the floor. Anna accompanies him quickly to bed, he whines a little and gets water to drink. Before he falls asleep, he complains that the TV was so scary. He gives the mother a sleepy kiss. Veronica sleeps with an array of dolls and bears and favorite books in bed. Anna picks up most things and sneaks from there. On the way to bathroom pull her off the it long dress. The man comes from the other room and embraces her from behind. She turns to him and starts kissing him with sudden vigor, yet smiling and playful.

When Andreas left her, she has trouble falling asleep. The body resists, she is scared and tense. The thoughts wander, she lies in the dark and listens. She wakes up violently in her husband standing in the room, she glances at him in the floating night light, becomes very scared.

ANNA: What is it, Andreas? Are you sick?

ANDREAS: Sorry if I scared you.

ANNA: What is it?

ANDREAS: I want to talk to you.

ANNA: Now!

ANDREAS: Yes, right now.

Anna sits up and lights the lamp. Andreas is very upset.

ANNA: What time is it anyway? Half past three. Lord God, what is it?

ANDREAS: I've been deceiving you.

ANNA: Have you deceived me?

There will be a few moments of deep confusion. The two spouses consider each other. Anna knows how her cheeks begin to heat. Andreas sits down on the chair away at the dressing table. He arranges the objects on the line and on the stage.

ANDREAS: I don't understand how it went. I was up with Ernst to talk a little with him about my health. I felt so miserable, but he had just gone and his nurse remained, you know Sister Ester. And so - yes, nothing happened. But then called me to her in going in the morning and asked if she had lust of a drive and it had she for her man was out with the children. At the cinema or whatever it was. And then I picked her up and so we went out the country for a while. Then we went to Ernst's reception and there we were with each other. It has never happened before on honor's words, I have never deceived you in the years we have been married, there has been no reason.

ANNA: Has there been reason now?

ANDREAS: No, I don't understand.

ANNA: Are you in love with her?

ANDREAS: She is beautiful and kind and warm and yes kind and warm. But I'm not in love.

ANNA: Do you think it will happen again?

ANDREAS: How should I know?

ANNA: So you can't answer! Do you or don't you want it to happen again?

ANDREAS: I don't want it to happen again. I'm in love with you. I don't want to be with anyone else. The whole situation is completely unreal. What scares me is that it could happen at all. And that I don't know why.

ANNA: Why do you sound so submissive? Do you have a bad conscience? Have you that?

ANDREAS: I have a bad conscience. That's why I'm talking about everything.

ANNA: Are you sure it wouldn't have been better that you had kept quiet?

ANDREAS: (amazed) But we have agreed to...

ANNA: Isn't it just something you say. (turns over) No, I didn't mean anything. Everything is so hopelessly tangled.

ANDREAS: (confused) How do you mean now?

ANNA: Nothing.

ANDREAS: Yes, I ask you. Say what you think.

ANNA: I do not want your sincerity.

ANDREAS: Yes, but I have deceived you.

ANNA: You say you love me and you're not going to do it again. Well then. It is enough. We never talk about the matter again. It's forgotten.

Anna cannot look at her husband without fingers on the nightstand lamp screen. There will be a long, uncertain silence.

An hour later. Andreas has picked up a glass of cognac. The bottle stands next to him on the floor.

ANDREAS: Andreas Fromm and his wife Anna. There were no more successful people. We were talented, we were young and we had money and so we were really in love with each other, right? And we had agreed that we would do something magnificent, never before seen by our marriage. And so suddenly or slowly without noticing how it has happened.

ANNA: It is not like that.

ANDREAS: A comfortable failure. All the same, right? But the failure is a fact.

ANNA: (Refrigerated) What do you do about it?

ANDREAS: What you sound indifferent.

ANNA: How do you want me to sound then?

ANDREAS: I want you to understand what I'm talking about.

ANNA: I understand what you're talking about, but I think not as you. I think you whine, what do you want? Should I feel sorry for you? Is it pardon you want have? I forgive you. Here you are. Then you can go in and lie down and sleep for a few hours, then you see that life fiasco feels much less onerous in the morning.

ANDREAS: Wouldn't we be able to talk to you and me. Listen to each other, take us to a marital consensus. Didn't we say that before? Everything could solve itself, only one talked to each other.

ANNA: If you no longer know each other, you cannot speak.

ANDREAS: So you mean we don't know each other.

ANNA: I don't know you and I know you don't know me.

ANDREAS: But can we not get to know each other?

ANNA: Would you want that?

ANDREAS: A thousand times more than this.

ANNA: Is not it better that we try to live each one's life in parallel without penetrating each other's territory. Each behaves as well as he understands. So we take shared responsibility for one another. Isn't it much wiser in any case?

ANDREAS: I do not think so.

ANNA: You don't think so?

ANDREAS: I think you and I have the conditions for another life.

ANNA: You don't know what you're talking about.

ANDREAS: Don't say things all the time. It's just humiliating. I'm trying to reach you. The words may not be the right ones, but I want to reach you!

ANNA: It's like you've read everything in a quiz for ladies.

ANDREAS: So it must be then. I'm going to bed now.

Pause. He gets up and walks toward the door.

ANNA: No, stop. (pause) If I could trust you really mean what you say.

ANDREAS: I know anyway that I love you.

ANNA: (with deep spiritual shaking) If I could believe it.

ANDREAS: You could try.

ANNA: (after a long break) I have lived with another man for eight years. I'm not in love with him, but I'm addicted to him. He satisfies me or how to say. We usually meet a few times a week. It has been going on for eight years. I have lied to you all the time, when I have said that I am well with you. It has never been good. Now you know everything. Now you know how I got it.

Andreas sits a few moments and fingers on his nails, he looks at his hands, on the carpet and the wall. Long silence.

ANDREAS: Who is he?

ANNA: Do I have to say that?

ANDREAS: I do not know. It depends on what we intend to do with this truth outbreak.

ANNA: It's Elis.

ANDREAS: So. Elis would not go away in a few months with his wife? Did you know that he was traveling or was it a surprise to you?

ANNA: He was too cowardly to talk about it. Or maybe he thought it didn't matter. But I had never intended to tell you about Elis. You yourself asked me.

ANDREAS: I understand exactly. It suited perfectly, right now to start a marriage based on the truth. Now it was worth the effort. Now that your lover has given up for good. That you do not see the pattern.

ANNA: (furiously) If so. Does it matter? If the motives are bad and low and morally questionable, what does it do. Is it you who decides what is good or bad? Do you have any kind of moral advantage?

She's silent. Andreas knocks on the cognac glass with his index finger so that a sounding sound arises.

ANNA: I can handle myself on my own. I do not need you. The children I am capable of taking care of alone. Don't you think I wanted to live with you after all. I didn't want to break our marriage. I belonged to you. Don't you understand that?

ANDREAS: (screaming) I have trusted you. There has never been anyone else but you. Try to get it into your fucking high-fat thick skull.

Suddenly he embraces her and kisses her. She gets scared first, but lets herself be jerked. They tumble down on the bed and kiss each other. Caress each other clumsy. Then gets she of one cold, lies first still, then begins to fight against to come up. He gets furious and starts to beat her. She scratches him in the face and screams. She comes loose and rises. He sits left on the bed puffing and broken-clawed. They stare at each other with frightened surprise. Then goes him in till himself. When, after a while, she hears him coming through the hall, she locks the door. He takes the lock knob and asks her to open. She is not responding. He asks her again to open. She says no, I don't open. Then he shouts: Open for hell otherwise it goes bad. I'm not going to open, she screams back. It will be quiet for a few moments. He moves away, but right back. Then sees her the axe edge in the door's middle, then one time more. She immediately turns the key and opens: you are not wise, what are you? I do not want to hurt you, he says, out of breath and trembling. I don't want to hurt you, but you can't lock yourself in. She grips of a hatred, that almost detonates her. Should you not beat me now then, or should you beat to death me. Forgive me that I hit you, it wasn't the point, he answers confused. I don't know what took me, it was short-circuited. Forgive me, please. Should I forgive? she says calmly and with a foreign voice. You can go to hell with your pardon. They are staring at each other without power. He releases the ax into the floor, takes her in the shoulders and pushes her up against the wall, striking her face. She gets more and more dizzy in her head, her nose bleeds and she tries to protect herself with her hands. She shuffles back against the wall to the floor. Then she begins to vomit. He has sat himself on the bed. The rage has gone out of him, he's just scared. He tries to take her shoulders, but she shouts violently. Do not touch me. Don't take me. Lie down, he says, then will I wipe up. If I don't have to see you, I feel better, she answers and gets up on her knees. Despite her rejection, he gently takes her under her arms and leads her to the bed. She is bloody on her face, on her hands, in her hair. I have to wash myself, she says and wavering in the bathroom, locks in herself and begins flush and splash. He goes out into the kitchen and picks up a scrubber and bucket. She comes in again, when he is on all fours and wiping up. She settles deep in the bed. He takes the bucket out, comes back with a blanket, which he spreads over her.

A few hours later. It has begun to brighten, and it rains heavily. Anna looks up Andreas in his room.

ANNA: I have thought a little forward, if you are interested.

ANDREAS: Yes.

ANNA: We let everything be as usual these months, which are left. In mid-June, I travel to Poland on my scholarship. Then I can stay away for half a year. Under the time can we think after on where one's direction, how we want it.

ANDREAS: I don't need two months to know how I want it. I can say that right now.

ANNA: Can you?

ANDREAS: I do not want to live with a human being who has lied to me continuously throughout our marriage.

ANNA: So you don't even want to try?

ANDREAS: It is totally unthinkable.

ANNA: Yes, then there is nothing to talk about.

ANDREAS: It is remarkable what it shows up a lot. I do not get it, how I should clear it. Every thought, every memory, every situation is poisoned. Everything falls apart, every time we have been with each other and you have said that it has been fine. It is so disgusting that I can hardly touch it with my thoughts. All of our talks about fidelity, that one would be sincere. I do not even know if I am the father of the children. I wish you had never said anything.

ANNA: I wish that.

ANDREAS: I think you have to lie and deceive in order to live together. How the hell is otherwise possible?

ANNA: We are the ones who have come crazy from the beginning.

ANDREAS: Everyone comes crazy. It's all crazy. It is crazy basically and therefore it goes to hell. It's crazy from start to finish.

ANNA: (suddenly) Dearest, dearest Andreas.

ANDREAS: No, damn it, don't talk to me in that tone. Then I don't know where to go. Please stay on your own floor. Immerse yourself not your boundless generosity and cheerful outlook on life.

ANNA: Now you play such a bad theater that I almost have to laugh.

ANDREAS: The truth Anna, the truth is that there have been holes in me. There was nothing left.

ANNA: You. I have an idea. We make a good sandwich. It's sad to admit, but I'm hungry. Aren't you? A little hungry?

ANDREAS: By all means.

ANNA: Food always helps.

ANDREAS: Once, I asked you, if you didn't think I was dry and boring, remember that? If you didn't think it was sad with a man who was so conventional, you always argued that I was so conventional. Do you remember what you said that time? For me, you are the best man in the world. You said that. Was it just a lie? Or comfort?

ANNA: Not that too!

ANDREAS: Was it a lie?

ANNA: You're hopeless.

ANDREAS: So.

ANNA: You're hopeless.

ANDREAS: Yes. Perhaps.

She looks at her husband with cold eyes. He meets her gaze with gray shadows, touching her fingertips at the wound on her cheek.

ANNA: Should we make that sandwich now?

ANDREAS: (tired) As you like.

But she doesn't move. He asks her low, what she thinks about, but she doesn't answer.

ANNA: I can take responsibility for my children, that's what it should be. And I have to take responsibility for myself, that is also obvious.

Andreas trying mediate after what he should say at this specific moment. But he can't formulate himself. His fingertips touch the wounds of the cheek. It will be a long silence. In the end he finds something to say. He knows himself that this is not the right word in the current situation. But he hears himself say: I do not know how it will be without you. She shakes her head as if to ask him to be quiet, not to humiliate himself.

ANDREAS: What is it, Anna?

ANNA: It hurts.

ANDREAS: Are you not feeling well?

ANNA: I do not want to. No, I do not want to.

ANDREAS: What do you want?

She does not respond, but always looks at him. He intends to answer something, but stops.

Fårö in May 1969

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Afterword by Jan Holmberg

Ingmar Bergman has often been accused (or hailed, depending on who you ask) to be untimely. It is hardly fair either criticism or praise, because Bergman is much more than what is usually acknowledged has been quite anxious to follow his time. Ibland rentav ängslig. For example, in the late sixties, he took quite a big impression of the new wave of film aesthetics, its VERFREMDUNG [Alienation] effects and community engagement. It is noticeable in THE LIE, which already in the beginning breaks the illusion that has not even begun by letting its characters turn directly to the reader/spectator. The fact that THE RESERVE has rarely been noticed in Bergman literature is because it never became a film in his own direction (it was Jan Molander who made a television film of the manuscript 1970). But the film story is undoubtedly Bergmanesque, and was also published as such together with THE RITE, THE TOUCH and CRIES AND WHISPERS in the book Movie Stories 3 (1973). The text originated in the workbook's notes in 1968 around the planned project "Annandreas", which immediately became two different stories of two different couples named Anna and Andreas: the PASSION OF ANNA (1968) and THE RESERVE, which was completed in May 1969. In retrospect, it is almost at hand to consider THE RESERVE as a preliminary study of the much-known SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE with which it has great similarities. But it is much more than a sketch. Targets are indeed common for the two pieces, and it's not just the marriage institution itself, but the bourgeois indifference and narrow-mindedness in general. But the differences between the two works are interesting. Of SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE is it spouse Johan that deceives his wife Marianne; in THE RESERVE it is Anna who has a lover. Over home time is it as that Bergman from the one marriage portrayal till the other has cast about the traditional sexual roles, switched between active and passive, between subject and object. "Is not it better," says Anna to Andreas in THE RESERVE, "that we try to live each one's life in parallel without penetrating each other's territory. Each behaves as well as HE understands." The emphasis, which is mine, wants to emphasize how Anna's choice of pronoun suggests that Bergman is fully aware of gender as a social construction. "She" can be "he", "Anna" can be "Andreas", like me or you could be another. The fact that Bergman abandoned the work name "Annandreas" was probably wise (it sounds a little clever), but the figure of thought remains. Of SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE is the relationship Johan-Marianne hermetic. The outside world affects them, but is only suggested: their respective work as a researcher and a lawyer, the two daughters, Johan's mistress Paula and so on are mentioned, but no more. In THE RESERVE, on the other hand, the profession, children, lover Elis etc. gestalt, agent and function. It is hardly a coincidence that other impressions of the outside world in SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE consist of fiction, as when the couple have been to the theater and seen Ibsen's A DOLL'S HOUSE. THE RESERVE refers contrariwise to a day's current world event. Annas and Andreas's reaction to the news is also significant: Martin Luther King is murdered, says Anna. What are you saying, is it true? Well, Henrik came in and told me he had heard it on the radio, I did not think it was true." As all Bergman figures are, they are fully occupied with themselves and horrible messages from the great world are barely feasible, as would be the scenes in a nasty theater play. Is that true?

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