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turning to page one
turning to page one
A superbly appointed space full of great and expensive art. MICHAEL has taken his coat off. ILANA MATHER appears, elegant, well-dressed - on the surface, the spirit of prosperous New York. She is now in her early fifties.
MICHAEL
Ms Mather?
ILANA
Yes. You’re Michael Berg. I was
expecting you.
ILANA
So you must tell me: what exactly
brings you to the United States?
MICHAEL
I was already here. I was at a
conference in Boston.
ILANA
You’re a lawyer?
MICHAEL
Yes.
ILANA
I was intrigued by your letter but
I can’t say I wholly understood it.
You attended the trial?
MICHAEL
Yes. Almost twenty years ago. I was
a law student. I remember you, I
remember your mother very clearly.
ILANA
My mother died in Israel - a good
many years ago.
MICHAEL
I’m sorry.
MICHAEL hesitates for a moment.
ILANA
Go on, please.
MICHAEL
Perhaps you heard. Hanna Schmitz
recently died. She killed herself.
ILANA shakes her head.
ILANA
She was a friend of yours?
MICHAEL
A kind of friend. It’s as simple as
this. Hanna was illiterate for the
greater part of her life.
ILANA
Is that an explanation of her
behaviour?
MICHAEL
No.
ILANA
Or an excuse?
MICHAEL
No. No. She taught herself to read
when she was in prison. I sent her
tapes. She’d always liked being
read to.
ILANA shifts slightly.
ILANA
Why don’t you start by being honest
with me? At least start that way.
What was the nature of your
friendship?
MICHAEL
When I was young I had an affair
with Hanna.
ILANA looks at him for a moment.
ILANA
I’m not sure I can help you, Mr.
Berg. Or rather, even if I could
I’m not willing to.
MICHAEL
I was almost sixteen when I took up
with her. The affair only lasted a
summer. But.
ILANA
But what?
MICHAEL just looks at her.
ILANA
I see. And did Hanna Schmitz
acknowledge the effect she’d had on
your life?
MICHAEL stares back, understood for the first time.
MICHAEL
She’d done much worse to other
people. I’ve never told anyone.
ILANA
People ask all the time what I
learned in the camps. But the camps
weren’t therapy. What do you think
these places were? Universities? We
didn’t go there to learn. One
becomes very clear about these
things.
ILANA looks at him, unrelenting.
ILANA
What are you asking for?
Forgiveness for her? Or do you just
want to feel better yourself? My
advice, go to the theatre, if you
want catharsis. Please. Go to
literature. Don't go to the camps.
Nothing comes out of the camps.
Nothing.
ILANA looks at him, unrelenting.
MICHAEL
What she wanted...what she wanted
was to leave you her money. I have
with me.
ILANA
To do what?
MICHAEL
As you think fit.
MICHAEL reaches for his briefcase. He takes out the lavender tea-tin, which he sets down on the table in front of ILANA.
MICHAEL
Here.
ILANA lifts the tin.
ILANA
When I was a little girl, I had a
tea-tin for my treasures. Not quite
like this. It had Cyrillic
lettering. I took it with me to the
camp, but it got stolen.
MICHAEL
What was in it?
ILANA
Oh. Sentimental things. A piece of
hair from our dog. Some tickets to
operas my father had taken me to.
It wasn’t stolen for its contents.
It was the tin itself which was
valuable, what you could do with
it.
She sits a moment, overcome, her hand on the tin.
ILANA
There’s nothing I can do with this
money. If I give it to anything
associated with the extermination
of the Jews, then to me it will
seem like absolution and that is
something I’m neither willing nor
in a position to grant.
MICHAEL nods slightly.
MICHAEL
I was thinking maybe an
organization to encourage literacy.
ILANA
Good.
There’s a silence.
ILANA
Good.
MICHAEL
Do you know if there’s a Jewish
organization?
ILANA
I’ll be surprised if there isn’t.
There’s a Jewish organisation for
everything. Not that illiteracy is
a very Jewish problem.
There is the shadow of a smile.
ILANA
Why don’t you find out? Send them
the money.
MICHAEL
Shall I do it in Hanna’s name?
ILANA
As you think fit.
ILANA smiles slightly. She puts her hand on top of the tin.
ILANA
I’ll keep the tin.