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.So why do we pretend? Why do we not say plainly that we will use any means necessary to keep things the way they are? We will never be intimidated.Your violence will be met by violence and we are stronger than you.A close-up of VERNON WARREN, the accused.His face is calm and doesn’t change while the JUDGE speaks.Vernon Warren, you have attempted to overthrow the established institutions of this realm and you have urged others to do so.That you have failed in this shameful enterprise is due to your own ineptitude and the great vigilance of the police.But are you to be rewarded for this failure with a light sentence so that you may rest for a while at the state’s expense perfecting your schemes and try to do better a second time?A close-up of the JUDGE.No, you must be punished according to your intention.WARREN’s MOTHER is standing in her kitchen.She is in her fifties, shapeless, lined, tired.Tears are running down her face.A close-up of PEG, an Irish girl in her twenties, her hair tied back off her face, wearing an apron.PEG.That was a heavy sentence, sir.PEG, the JUDGE and CAROLINE, the JUDGE’s wife, are in the hall of the house.The JUDGE has just come in.CAROLINE has come to meet him.PEG stands further off, by the door to the kitchen.CAROLINE.Go, go back to the kitchen at once.How dare you speak to the Judge like that?JUDGE.We shall have no more Irish girls.The JUDGE is standing in the bathroom by the bath, which is running.CAROLINE undresses him.He is completely passive.He stands naked, fat, old, defenceless.WARREN is sitting at a kitchen table with uneaten food.After a moment he looks round, half draws a gun out of his pocket, slips it back.His MOTHER comes in.She has been crying.She puts her arm round WARREN and he leans his head against her.PEG is banging veal escalopes in the kitchen, and goes on banging while CAROLINE talks.CAROLINE.You’re very lucky he managed to keep his temper.I hope you realise that.The judge is exhausted.He has been listening for twelve days.I’m sure you never listen for five minutes.His summing up took fourteen hours.Could you speak intelligently for fourteen hours? At a time like this he needs our support and comfort.Try to make up for your insolence by cooking a perfect dinner and all may yet be forgiven.PEG goes on banging.The JUDGE is lying in the bath, his eyes closed.The phone rings, off.He opens his eyes.CAROLINE(lifting the phone).Yes? (She listens a moment, closing her eyes, then puts the receiver down.)The JUDGE is wide-eyed in the bath.CAROLINE comes in, holds out a large towel for him.He gets out.She wraps him in it.They start out of the bathroom.He slips on the wet floor and almost falls.JUDGE.Damn your eyes, Caroline, be more careful.The JUDGE and CAROLINE’s bedroom: twin beds, a dressing-table, a small portable TV on the table.We can see the screen but only as one of many things in the room, not close up.The sound is low but audible.The JUDGE’s clothes are laid out on the bed.TV.At the Old Bailey today Vernon Warren, leader of the –The JUDGE turns the sound right down.The TV shows stills of VERNON WARREN and the JUDGE, film of demonstrators with placards, arrests, scuffles, general violence.This is never close up, but in a small intense corner of the large, still bedroom where the JUDGE goes on slowly getting dressed, not looking at the TV.CAROLINE helps but he is more active now and sometimes pushes her off irritably, tying his own tie.When he is dressed he goes out of the room.When he has gone CAROLINE looks at the TV but it is on to a different item.BARBARA meets the JUDGE on the stairs.He starts, then indifferent, cold, nods impatiently.She stops and looks at him hard with dislike, watches him go down, then goes on up.BARBARA and CAROLINE are in the bedroom.BARBARA’s face is in profile.We see CAROLINE full-face in the mirror of the dressing-table, and the back of her head.She is sitting at the dressing-table making up her face.They are sisters and both about sixty.They have similar faces but BARBARA, with no make-up, short untidy hair, and indifferent clothes, is an old woman.CAROLINE, as she makes up, looks far younger, bland, without character.BARBARA.Do you always agree with what he does?CAROLINE.Oh yes.BARBARA.I know Warren had to be found guilty.But weren’t you at all shocked by the sentence?CAROLINE.Shocked? by the sentence? I was shocked by the crimes.BARBARA.Yes, Laurence said he was shocked by the crimes.CAROLINE.I am his wife, Barbara.You don’t seem to understand about marriage.BARBARA.If you thought he was wrong would you say so? Or does his wife keep quiet?CAROLINE.Sentencing is his job.It’s a very technical matter.I wouldn’t expect to know if he did it wrong.Some other expert might.My job is looking after him.BARBARA.Are you frightened of him?CAROLINE.What a funny idea, Barbara.Are you?BARBARA.What would he do to you if you said what you really think?CAROLINE.But I really think he’s absolutely right.Don’t start on politics, please darling, or he won’t sleep tonight and nor will I.BARBARA turns away.CAROLINE looks at herself steadily and miserably.She smiles radiantly, holds it for a moment, then lets it go and stares at herself as before.The living-room.The JUDGE is striking matches and putting them out between his finger and thumb.The phone rings.He answers with a grunt.After a moment he hangs up.He sits impassive.CAROLINE, holding a small dog, is watching the JUDGE.BARBARA is also watching him.He starts striking matches again.CAROLINE.I don’t see why we don’t get the police to tap the phone and find out where he is and deal with him in the proper way.WARREN comes out of phone-box, gets into cab (the same one as at the beginning) and drives off.Back in the living-room.CAROLINE.I’ve always said our number should be ex-directory.We get these endless calls from cranks of all sorts.JUDGE.I like to hear how I’m hated.I wouldn’t be doing my job if everyone liked me.BARBARA.You’ve gone too far this time, Laurence.I used to think you were an old fool but meant well.Now I think you’re bloody dangerous.JUDGE(to CAROLINE).Tell your sister that a plain old spinster doesn’t make herself more interesting by being rude.And give me another whisky larger than the last one.And tell that slut in the kitchen that last night’s dinner was so incompetent that I suspect her of deliberate sabotage.BARBARA.If you want to hear how you’re hated you should get her to tell you some time.CAROLINE.Barbara, you haven’t been talking to the cook?BARBARA.The number of sharp knives she has in there I’m surprised you can sleep.CAROLINE(giving the JUDGE whisky).Barbara, how can you?JUDGE.The good girl is angry with me for being so horrid to the pretty young man.There’s no death sentence unfortunately.No one is being flogged.Do you think your whining, Barbara, has any effect on me? I know your namby-pamby politics.Do you think I care if five thousand people are out tonight rioting in protest at my sentence? Ha, I only wish I had made it double.WARREN is driving the car with the JUDGE beside him.The car pulls up by the edge of the wood.WARREN and the JUDGE get out exactly as before, the whole sequence being repeated till the JUDGE is lying dead.The JUDGE, CAROLINE, and BARBARA are sitting at the dinner-table.There is soup in their bowls but only CAROLINE has started to eat.JUDGE.I shall retire to a remote island.BARBARA.I wish you would.JUDGE.I will.The west of Scotland.Guillemots.Cormorants.Shag.CAROLINE.There are things one would miss.Not people perhaps.JUDGE.There’s no shortage of whisky in Scotland.CAROLINE.I wonder if Harrods would deliver?BARBARA.In fact, you’ll dodder on till you’re eighty and completely senile with all your judgements reversed by the Court of Appeal.JUDGE.Do you know that’s never happened to me yet?BARBARA.It will now.They’ll halve Warren’s sentence.JUDGE.My judgements stand.CAROLINE.Which island have you in mind, Laurence?BARBARA
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