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SCENE ONE
The music dies away as the curtain rises slowly.
BILBO is alone on the stage. He is itting at his desk
and staring at the wall. After a long pause he gets
up and looks in his pocket. Then he smokes a bit of
pipe weed. After another long pause the curtain drops
suddenly, and at the same time the music returns.
SCENE TWO
The music dies away as the curtain rises slowly.
BILBO is alone on the stage. He is sitting at his desk
and staring at the wall. After a long pause he gets
up and looks in his pocket. Then he smokes a bit of
pipe weed. After another long pause the curtain drops
suddenly, and at the same time the music returns.
SCENE THREE
Scene One
The music dies away as the curtain rises slowly.
BILBO is alone on the stage. He is sitting at his desk
and staring at the wall. After a long pause he gets
up and looks in his pocket. Then he smoes a bit of pipe
weed. There is a knock on the door. Bilbo hesitates
for a moment, and then cautiously approaches the door
and looks through the peep-hole. That calms him and
he opens the door.
GANDALF enters
Gandalf: How often do you sleep?
Bilbo: It varies -
Gandalf: Do you ever dream about the ring? Or dream
that you're in Mordor?
Bilbo: Something
Gandalf: Bilbo -
Biblo: Yes?
Gandalf: You don't doubt, do you, that we all like you
-
Bilbo I know
(There is a knock at the door)
Bilbo: Frodo, the door!
Frodo (Off stage): Just a minute!
(Pause. Bilbo is trembling with cold and rubbing his
arms.)
Gandalf: Pipe weed?
Bilbo: Yes.
Gandalf: Apart from pipe weed are you on anythinge lse?
Bilbo: Not really.
Gandalf: Bilbo -
Biblo: Yes?
Gandalf: You don't doubt, do you, that we all like you
-
Bilbo: I know
(There is a knock at the door)
Bilbo: Frodo, the door!
Frodo (Off stage): Just a minute!
(Pause. Bilbo is trembling with cold and rubbing his
arms.)
Gandalf: By all the things you did and have been doing
up to now, you've earned our respect and our love, and
in so doing you have suffered a great deal. Obviously
you are not a superhobbit, and the oppressive atmosphere
in which you have had to live is bound to have left
its mark. But all that said, I can't escape the awful
feeling that lately something inside you has begun to
collapse - as if an axis that has held you together
has given way, as if the ground is collapsing under
your feet - as if you've gone lame inside - that you
are tending more and more to act the part of yourself
instead of being yourself. Your personal life, that
vital plank, is - don't be angry - in a mess, you're
lacking a fixed point out of which everything inside
you would grow and develop - you're losing the strength
and perhaps even the will to give away the ring - you're
erratic - you're letting yourself be consumed by it,
you're sinking deeper and deeper into a void and you
can't get a grip on things - you're just waiting for
what is going to happen and so you're no longer the
self-aware subject of your life, you're turning into
its passive object - you're obviously at the emrcy of
the Dark Lord Sauron but he does not drive you in any
direction, he merely drives about inside you - your
existence seems to have become a cumbersome burden to
you and you have really settled for listening hopelessly
to the passing of the time. What happened to your perspective
on things? To your humour? Your industry and persistence?
The potency of your pipeweed? Your irony and self-irony?
Your capacity for enthusiasm, for emotional involvement,
for commitment, even for sacrifice?! I fear for you,
Bilbo - I fear for us! We need you! You have no idea
how we need you, we need you the way you used to be!
So I'm asking you to swear that you won't give up -
Don't weakn! Keep at it! Get a grip on yourself! Pull
yourself together! Straighten up!
Bilbo -
Biblo: Yes?
Gandalf: You don't doubt, do you, that we all like you
-
Bilbo: I know
(There is a knock at the door)
Bilbo: Frodo, the door!
Frodo (Off stage): Just a minute!
(Pause. Bilbo is trembling with cold and rubbing his
arms.)