The King in Yellow: Opening Night

Stranger: (Voice) Like yours.

Camilla: And that hair, so dark and curly.

Stranger: (Voice) Like yours.

Camilla: And she has (pause), a birthmark on her...on her cheek...

Stranger: (Voice) Like yours.

(CAMILLA stares at the painting, then cries out, almost falling, catching herself, wheeling away from the portrait, hand to her mouth.)



(Enter THE KING IN YELLOW from left, a handsome older gentleman, immaculately dressed. His cloak is gold, as are his gloves, and his boots, and his sash, and the buttons on his coat. He bows very deeply to CAMILLA, who tries to regain her composure, and then he kisses her hand once, tenderly.)

King: At last.

Camilla: Are you...are you my patron?

King: For longer than you have known.

Camilla: That man in the painting, he is you?

King: When I was much younger, yes. I often think that I was then a different man entirely.

Camilla: And that girl?

King: My youngest daughter. That portrait was painted twenty years ago, when she was but three years old. I have not seen her since.

Camilla: (Voice shaking) But that's me, isn't it? And that's why I'm here?

King: (Smiling) A happy reunion at last.

(Camilla sinks down into a chair, dazed. The KING removes and hangs his cloak, waistcoat, gloves, sash, and boots one by one as he speaks his next lines.)

King: Of course you're shocked. I was too when I realized I had finally found you after all these years. But here we are, Camilla. Or should I call you Ythill? That was your name before your mother changed it.

Camilla: (Dazed) Yhtill? My mother?

King: Ah, she was an incomparable woman, even more beautiful than you. She married me not knowing the truth about where my money and influence came from. When she found out, she left with you and your sister, saying she could never raise her daughters on the wages of sin.

Camilla: She took us away?

King: (Sits opposite CAMILLA) Yes. I tried to reason with her, but she was beyond it.

Camilla: But I never knew my mother?

King: I found out that she died shortly after leaving, and because she refused to accept anything from me you and your sister were left with nothing. She had changed your name, and hers, and left no trace of where to find you, and ever since then I‘ve never stopped looking.

Camilla: Why didn't you tell me from the beginning?


King: Because I wanted to see what kind of woman you had grown into, what sort of life you had made, by yourself, with no one else to rely on. I saw everything, through this. (He touches the Yellow Sign) Wherever my symbol goes, I go with it. I saw you last night. I could not be more proud.

Camilla: Proud?

King: I admire the way you handled Aldones. I couldn't have taught you better myself.

Camilla: Aldones? (Slowly, as though realizing for the first time) You killed him. Because I asked you to?

King: Yes, that is what I do, that is where my fortune comes from; when people want something terrible they come to me, because I will get it for them. Do you feel remorse? That's normal. The first time is always the hardest. Soon you won't care about such things anymore. To live is to desire, to desire is to destroy.

Camilla: Why did you send only for me? Why not Cassilda too?

King: Perhaps I will, but now she has her own life, and I would leave her to it for a time. I am principally interested in you, and in your just reward: Everything you ever wanted.

Camilla: Everything?

King: Everything. (Pause) Provided you pay the price, of course.

Camilla: What do you mean?

King: We have an agreement. I will fulfill your every wish, if you spend one night with me first. Everything in Carcosa has a price, and that is mine.

(For a moment CAMILLA cannot speak, then she bolts to her feet, backing up against the wall. The KING watches, his face neutral.)

Camilla: No! You can't mean it!

King: Did you not find the offer reasonable when you agreed to it?

Camilla: But I'm your daughter! Your own daughter, by blood!

King: And I am the king of all that is forbidden, and taboo. What are rules to me?

Camilla: You can't mean that?

King: (Blandly) Leaving is the price of arriving. Forgetting is the price of knowing. Dying is the price of living. Nothing is permanent, and man's laws are as impermanent as his nature.

Stranger: (Voice) The sins of the father...

Camilla: It's horrible!

King: More horrible than asking for your ex-lover's heart?

(CAMILLA breaks down, sobbing.)

Camilla: I will not consent!

King: Consent is not necessary. (Forcefully) Stop crying.

(CAMILLA stops crying.)

King: Stand up.

(CAMILLA stands up, looking confused as she does.)

Camilla: What is this?

King: It is the Yellow Sign. Didn't you know? When you accept my seal, it puts you in my power. It is how I dealt with Aldones, and with those who displease me. Weak-minded people never know what they want, so my desires become theirs.

Camilla: (Breathing heavily) Aldones...did I ask for him to be killed, or did you make me?

King: You really don't know? If only you knew what you wanted it would be easy to figure out, but you don't. That is why I could not send Cassilda the Yellow Sign. Only you.

Camilla: I don't care. I won't pay your price.

Stranger: (Voice) The Truth will set you free.

King: (Forcefully) Go to the bed.

(CAMILLA walks to the foot of the bed.)

King: Lie down.

(CAMILLA trembles, but does not move.)

King: (Angry) Lie down!

Camilla: No.

King: Obey me!

Camilla: I will not.

(Still trembling, she wrestles with the pendant, eventually tearing it off and throwing it onto the bed. The KING looks shocked, but also oddly pleased. He takes a few steps closer to CAMILLA, who backs away.)

King: Well. It seems you do know what you want after all?

Camilla: No. But I know what I don't want.

King: We made a deal, and I held up my end of it. You will renege?

Camilla: I will.

King: (Resigned) Well.

(He goes to a jewelry box on the nightstand and removes a second golden pendant and chain, holding it up for her to see.)

King: Do you recognize this? You saw it first when you were three years old. It was a jeweler's mistake, a miscast locket, but for some reason you loved the shape of it and begged me to buy it for you. When I lost you, I adopted it as my seal, as a remembrance. It is only right that you should have it back now.

(He holds it up, and she flinches.)

King: It's all right, it can't harm you now. I only wanted you to have something to remember me by.

(He moves behind her, putting the chain around her neck.)


King: There. And now, dear daughter, business is business...

(The KING pulls on the chain and begins to strangle CAMILLA with it. She fights, but he overpowers her, pushing her to her knees in front of him. She claws at her throat, gasping, and he stares ahead, cold-eyed, expressionless.)

King: I thought you took after me, but I see now that you're just like your mother, willful and defiant.

(CAMILLA gasps and struggles, to no avail.)

Stranger: (Voice) The Truth will set you free.

King: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living god. If it's any consolation, I'm actually proud of you.

(CAMILLA is becoming weaker, her frame drooping, eyes rolling back. The KING's knuckles are white and his arms shake with exertion.)

Stranger: (Voice) But there will be a price. Everything has a price.

King: At least I have one daughter still. It will be harder to manipulate her, but I'm sure it can be done, once the husband is disposed of. Unless of course you're having second thoughts?

(CAMILLA is fading.)

Stranger: (Voice) Will you pay the price? Will you?

King: This is your last chance.

(The KING's grip slackens a bit, allowing CAMILLA to gasp out response:)

Camilla: (Weakly) I will pay the price...

King: Yes. You will.

(Enter the STRANGER, left. He still carries Aldones' rapier. The KING releases CAMILLA, who falls to the floor, and confronts the intruder.)

King: Who are you? How did you get in here?

(The KING reaches for the silver bell on the nightstand, ringing it once before the STRANGER stabs him through the heart. He screams and collapses, bleeding, onto the bed.)

(The KING writhes in pain. He looks at the STRANGER, wild-eyed.)

King: You! I know you...

Stranger: You do.

King: Camilla...

(He dies. The STRANGER looks on. CAMILLA stirs, pulling herself up by the bedpost, clutching her throat. When she speaks her voice is hoarse. She gasps.)

Camilla: You killed him?

Stranger: It was the price.

(Enter the MESSENGER, right, carrying a tray.)

Messenger: You rang, m'lord? (Drops the tray) What have you done?

Camilla: No! It wasn't me! It was-

Messenger: Guards, guards! (Exits right.)

Stranger: Every sin hangs upon the sinner, like weights in the water.

Camilla: Who are you, really?

Stranger: I am the Truth. You may know me.

Camilla: May I?

(She reaches for the STRANGER's mask, and the STRANGER takes it off. The STRANGER turns so that the audience can see it is CAMILLA's own face underneath.)

Stranger: This (handing the mask to CAMILLA) is my real face. This (points to face) is my disguise. Do you see?

Camilla: I-I-

(The STRANGER exits left. CAMILLA chases after, snatching at the edges of the ragged robe, but it comes off, leaving her standing alone onstage, clutching the Tattered Raiment and the Pallid Mask. She opens her mouth, but has nothing to say.)



(Enter from right the MESSENGER, FIRST GUARDSMAN and SECOND GUARDSMAN.)

Messenger: That's her!

Camilla: No! It wasn't me, it was the Truth!

Second Guardsman: The truth?

Camilla: Yes! The Truth is-

First Guardsman: Why don't you give us the truth, Miss?

(CAMILLA is about to say something more, but then stops. She lays the Tattered Raiment on the bed, and then hands the Pallid Mask to the FIRST GUARDSMAN. Then, without a word, she lets the SECOND GUARDSMAN lead her away, exiting right, with the MESSENGER.)



(The FIRST GUARDSMAN looks at the mask, then at the KING's body. He seems disturbed, and unsure what to do. There is a flutter of movement at stage left, and he looks suddenly frightened. He throws the mask down on the bed, and exits after the others.)



(The stage goes dark except for a spotlight on the bed, illuminating the sword, the robe, the body, and the mask. The spotlight dwindles down to a small circle on only the mask, and then it disappears entirely, and everything is dark.)



(Curtain falls.)



(Fin.)

***

A man and a woman sit in the dark. He is in the orchestra pit, she is at the back of the highest balcony, They shout at each other across the void, and they do not see the man in the mask who stands between them.

The man checks his watch. "Well, I thought it was quite good, all things considered," he shouts. "But I don't see what the big deal is. Why should people have been so afraid of a story like that?"

"I thought the ending was awful!" the woman shouts back.

"Well, I suppose the incest theme was crass, but-"

"Incest?"

"Yes. The King in Yellow was her father, and when she would not sleep with him he tried to kill her, and then the Stranger killed him. We just saw it?"

"That's not how it ended!" the woman shouts back. "The King in Yellow was Thale! It was all a ruse of his to seduce Camilla and convince her to murder Cassilda for him! But the Stranger tells Cassilda, and she poisons them both thinking that Camilla is in on it, and then she goes off to the convent to have her baby, and kill herself after. We just saw it?"

The man frowns. "But that's now how it happened at all!" he shouts.

"It was!" she shouts back.

And so it goes. And though they argue long and loud, they cannot agree. Finally she comes down from the balcony, and he up from the orchestra, and they meet, but when they try to leave they see the man in the mask blocking the door.



"Do you see that?" asks the man.

"I do," says the woman, "but I don't know who it is. Do you?"

"I don't know him at all," says the man.

And so neither of them knew the Truth.

Instead of leaving, they sit down, side by side, in the third row.

"I don't remember ever buying tickets to this," the man says.

The woman looks at the stub in her hand. "We didn't buy them, they came in the mail. They say 'Special invitation only.'"

The man looks around at the empty seats. "Then why were we the only ones invited?"

The woman does not know.

And the play began again, and again, and again, and each time it ended, they still could not agree, and they were always in the dark, and they moved further and further apart but never realized it.

And they never knew the Truth.