CASSANDRA: Scene Three
Here’s another installment of Bryce Duzan’s CASSANDRA play, which we’re serializing this year to help build your appetite for the festival in November. Enjoy!
CASSANDRA by Bryce Duzan
Scene Three
(The ruins of Troy. CASSANDRA enters.)
CASSANDRA
And so I return to the place of my birth. How strange it feels to be back. I could swear that years had passed since I had seen Troy last, and yet it has been a scant few months. This place…was it really Troy? It is colder now. The wind bites harder than it did. And the silence…is pervading. Where are the children, running and laughing in the streets? Where are the noble men and women, dressed in their fineries? Where…is my home?
King Priam, my father, died here. Noble Hector, my brother, died here. Paris…he is gone too. And the rest…all gone. Ashes by now. This city of splendors, once magnificent, is now just rubble and ashes.
Why did I return? What was I expecting to happen? Did I imagine that my family would be here waiting for me? They are gone now. I just…wish I could see their faces again. I wish I could bid them farewell. I wish I could tell them that I am sorry.
VOICE
Cassandra…
CASSANDRA
Who is there?
VOICE
Cassandra…you’ve returned to us…
(PRIAM enters. He is a specter, wearing torn robes and a broken crown.)
CASSANDRA
F…father? Is that you? It can’t be…
PRIAM
It is, Cassandra.
CASSANDRA
But how? I saw you die. I saw you…
PRIAM
And die I did. But my spirit lingers here. As do others.
CASSANDRA
Others? Who?
PRIAM
Your brothers, Hector and Paris, still linger.
CASSANDRA
Hector? Paris?
PRIAM
Yes. One approaches.
(HECTOR enters. He is dressed much like PRIAM, in cracked armor.)
HECTOR
Sister…?
CASSANDRA
Brother! It is really you!
(CASSANDRA rushes to embrace HECTOR, but he puts out his hand, stopping her.)
HECTOR
You cannot, Cassandra. I am sorry. If I could embrace you, I would. But I am flesh and blood no more. I am a mere phantom, a remnant of what I once was.
CASSANDRA
I see. Father…brother…I am so happy to see you both again. But…why are you here?
PRIAM
I do not know, my daughter. Something holds us here. We are unable to pass on, to descend to the River Styx.
HECTOR
I cannot go! I can’t leave this place knowing I have failed my people!
CASSANDRA
Hector, you did not fail us!
HECTOR
Look around you, sister! Look at our beloved city. Look what they have done to it! And I am to blame. If I had fought harder…
CASSANDRA
No, Hector. Blame me. It is my fault. I saw what would happen and I did nothing to stop it.
PRIAM
You saw what was to come, Cassandra. You saw the future. But we did not believe you. Could not believe you. Yet you tried. You cannot say you did nothing.
CASSANDRA
Then I didn’t do enough! If I could have made you believe me…if I could have found a way…
HECTOR
Then what would we have done, Cassandra? If you had made us believe, then what? We surrender? Give up Paris for execution and Helen to be carried away by that mongrel Menelaus? Why, the Greeks would have burned Troy to the ground anyway!
CASSANDRA
Then…the outcome would have been the same…but no, there must have been something I could have done!
HECTOR
We were at war, dear sister, with a man mad with rage and jealousy. Nothing short of total destruction would have satisfied him. You cannot reason with a man like that.
CASSANDRA
No, I can’t believe that! Father, what do you say? Do you agree with Hector?
PRIAM
What Hector says makes sense. I would like to argue against it, but I find no fault in what he says.
CASSANDRA
If that is true…then I could have done nothing? It was my fate to watch my people die?
PRIAM
Perhaps it was…but that is something we will never know for sure. What you seem to forget, my dear daughter, is that Troy has fallen. It is done. Any impact you could have made or mistakes you think you could have rectified make no difference. The past has been set down in stone, and no mortal force can change that. Do not apologize for what you think you should have done. Rather, look at what you can do now. You have a gift, Cassandra, that is raw and not yet honed. Channel that gift, realize its potential, and use it so that this…doesn’t happen again.
CASSANDRA
…is that what I needed? Simply to hear you say what I knew was the truth? I do not know what miracle, divine or natural, has brought you to me today, father, brother…but I am grateful for it. Your wisdom persists, Lord Priam, even past your untimely demise, and I heed it still.
PRIAM
I am glad that my words still hold some meaning for you, my daughter.
CASSANDRA
Of course, father. You were my inspiration in life. You…meant the world to me.
PRIAM
…and in my hubris, I shunned you.
CASSANDRA
That’s not what I meant-
PRIAM
No, I understand. Forgive me, Cassandra. You are family. You are my daughter. I should have never turned away from you.
HECTOR
Agreed. I, too, am sorry for what I have done, Cassandra.
CASSANDRA
You had no choice. That is my curse. You cannot believe me. You do not need to apologize for what happened. It too…is in the past.
HECTOR
Regardless, I am ashamed that I did not side with you.
PRIAM
It is a powerful curse indeed that would have such an effect…(PRIAM suddenly looks at his hands.) I…I feel the pull. I’m being called to Hades.
CASSANDRA
Father? You must leave so quickly?
PRIAM
It would seem so. It appears that I was waiting for you to return.
CASSANDRA
Then please, stay longer! I am not ready for you to go!
PRIAM
Forgive me, Cassandra. I must…
CASSANDRA
Father, no! Father, please wait!
(PRIAM disappears.)
CASSANDRA
He…is gone. (She turns to HECTOR.) At least you are still here, Hector. You do not feel the pull as well?
HECTOR
No, sister. I remain.
CASSANDRA
Then you still feel like you have failed us?
HECTOR
Look around you, Cassandra. This is what I see every day. Corpses of my people and our homes. How can I think otherwise?
CASSANDRA
I am still here and alive.
HECTOR
You, mother, my love Andromache…and Helen. You four are the remnants of Troy.
CASSANDRA
Do you hate her?
HECTOR
She was the love of my brother. I cannot hate her. But…I wish she had never come here. I wish she had never existed.
CASSANDRA
I understand what you mean, Hector. But she is not responsible for what happened. The gods came in their unknowable ways, cast a spell on her, and brought her here. She loved Paris, truly, and despised Menelaus. She did not wish harm on any of us.
HECTOR
That is true. She was a kind soul, and I saw how she wept with the others at my death.
CASSANDRA
She weeps still for Troy. In her heart.
HECTOR
Truly?
CASSANDRA
Indeed. (Pause.) I think you are a hero, Hector.
HECTOR
(Scoffs.) Please do not patronize me, sister.
CASSANDRA
Hector. You gave your life for us. I will never forget what you did. None of us will, alive or not.
HECTOR
I still failed.
CASSANDRA
But you did what needed to be done. You faced insurmountable odds. Lesser men would have fled, but you stood your ground and fought. It doesn’t matter that you ultimately fell. What matters is that you protected the weak and upheld your duties.
HECTOR
I did…I fought with all my strength. I fought with my dying breath. I fought until I could not move my limbs. (Pause.) Do you forgive me?
CASSANDRA
There is nothing to forgive, Hector. You are my brother and I love you. You could never do anything wrong in my eyes…and you still cannot. (Tears form in her eyes.)
HECTOR
Please…do not cry for me, Cassandra. I could not…I could not bear it.
(HECTOR reaches out to dry CASSANDRA’s eyes, but he vanishes before he reaches her.)
To be continued…