Margot Page #4

The government is

desperate to discredit him.

I don't know why they bother. He's perfectly

capable of doing that himself. Mummy!

Hello? Yes, Gritti Palace Hotel.

He's expecting my call.

No roses tonight, Dame Margot.

Hello, Tito? Oh, I see.

Perhaps you could ask him to

call me, as soon as he can.

It's his wife.

Margot.

Please tell him it's important.

Cathy, did you put these in here?

Oh, yes, Mrs Arias.

They were left on the bedside table.

When?

When Dr Arias was last here.

SHE GROANS:

MUSIC:
"Giselle"

'Darling, I am so sorry.'

Tito, enough.

I've had enough.

I think we should meet to talk

about a divorce, don't you?

Does the boy know?

Not yet. I feel like the

most, awful, awful failure.

Oh, for God's sake darling.

No-one knows how you've

put up with it all these years.

Is that really what people think?

Hmm? Sod what people think.

Anyway, you'll probably never be

able to pin Tito down long enough

to get him to sign divorce papers.

When it comes down to it, we're

all failures, one way or another.

Fred, you're a genius!

Everyone says so.

Oh, no-one's all they're

cracked up to be, are they?

Every time I get into a studio I haven't

a clue what I'm doing, you know that.

Complete agony.

And whatever comes out isn't a patch

on what I had in my head

when I first heard the music and

saw what it might be. Never!

Ballet demands perfection, always.

But perfection

is impossible in this life.

So why the hell you said we'd

do this awful piece

in this bloody gala,

I simply have no idea(!)

So, we work.

Bloody cheek!

What's the rest of the

costume going to be?

It's contemporary darling, no tutus.

Just me in jockstrap.

No-one will look at your feet.

There'll be plenty of other things to look at

if they don't lengthen my tunic just a bit, Fred.

Tits and teeth darling! Never fails!

Come on, chick. You'd better

go first, through the back way.

There was swarms of the

buggers when we left the studio.

They're determined to get

something on the two of you.

Very intrepid, these hacks. Maybe I

hold Fred hand, see what they say.

Don't you dare! Is that all?

Everything all right?

Bit tired.

You know what a slave driver Fred is.

And Rudolf, for that matter.

I was going to knock.

The reporters. Is Tito.

He's been shot.

Margot!

Margot!

SHE WEEPS:

He is alive.

But Tito's brother says

you must come to Panama.

You can tell me a bit more now.

He was in the car,

at traffic lights.

They catch the man.

Jimenez? Jimenez.

No, that can't be right. He and his wife

are two of our closest friends in Panama.

That is name. It can't be!

Oh, God, Rudik, it's really

the most awful timing.

Obviously the shooting came

as the most terrible shock.

It was very hard to know what to do.

I suppose I simply took it

one day at a time.

And I prayed.

He was always in my thoughts.

I'm not going to Panama. I'm not!

What's the world going to think?

Well, they can think what they like.

Harmodio says he believes

Tito is going to pull through.

That's good enough for me. God knows, Tito's the

last person in the world who'd want any kind of fuss.

Fuss? This has happened, Margot!

You can't put it in one of those

little boxes of yours and lock it away.

I hear as much company

gossip as you do.

I know you were

thinking of leaving him.

He has someone else.

She'll be there at the hospital.

She'll be the one he wants.

Oh, chick.

You're his wife.

And you need to explain yourself to

the papers. It looks so heartless.

I'd made up my mind,

I'm not missing the gala.

If you won't do it for him, think

of the company. Think of Madam.

All we've worked for.

Your duty, Margot. My duty?

God, mummy! 30 years, more, most of

them in pain of one kind or another.

I've done everything you and

Madam and Fred have asked me to.

I changed my name, my bloody nose, God

knows we made damn sure there were no,

no babies to get in

the way of my dancing.

Fred even stopped me smoking, do you

remember? "Ballerinas don't smoke".

It was worth, every bit of it.

Look where you've got to. Yes, look!

Sometimes I think if I see another flower, I'll actually

have to scream! It's lovely, to be given so much.

Yes, don't tell me, all the lessons, leaving Daddy,

scrimping for costumes, I do know. It was worth it.

Every scrap. I'm just not going to see

you throw it away. But what about me?

It's a bit late for that.

MUSIC:
"Swan Lake"

AIRPLANE ENGINE RUMBLES

PA ANNOUNCEMENT IN SPANISH

SHE GASPS:

MACHINE HISSES AND CLICKS

Tell Fred they'll have to get Lynn

for Sunday's performance, if they can.

I don't know. There's no question

of me coming back now, Mummy.

Everything's...

Everything's changed.

I can't talk to Rudolf, not now.

Tell him.

I just can't.

HE GROANS:

I'm sorry, darling,

I can't give you any more, I can't.

HE GASPS:

HE MUMBLES:

They get him?

Jimenez? Of course not.

Modi says the Chief of Police

knows where he is.

Of course.

They're buddies.

Tito...were you "friendly"

with his wife?

You English...

are obsessed with sex.

HE LAUGHS HOARSELY

Oh, Dr Vallarino...

I think my husband needs to be taken

to where he can get the best care.

STRETCHER RATTLES For goodness'

sake, be careful with him.

Tito, darling, I have to go now, to

catch a plane for this damned festival.

I'll telephone from Spoleto. I am

so sorry. I hate having to do this.

They are paying you in lira?

No, sterling, as you said.

I insisted.

What is the ballet?

Raymonda. Ah.

I know. But imagine how beautifully

I'll be able to dance that scene

where she sees her lover

off to the Crusades.

All our goodbyes, my darling.

All my waiting for you.

Now I wait.

APPLAUSE:

Thank God you taught me

to get paid in cash.

Is all for this hospital?

Well, it is the best place

in the world.

If anyone can get Tito

moving again, they can.

And what if it's not possible?

I'm not going to think about that.

I speak to Lynn in London.

She is very upset.

You and me, we dance first

performance of Romeo And Juliet.

Surely not. Kenneth made it on her

and Christopher. It's not our ballet.

Margot, we are Coca-Cola now.

Everybody want to see Fonteyn and

Nureyev, and not Seymour and Gable.

SHE SIGHS:

Maybe Seymour and Nureyev.

DOOR BURSTS OPEN

Miss Fonteyn!

You must come to hotel. It's the

telephone. Very bad. It's your husband.

Margot!

You've had a terribly

high temperature. Convulsions.

But you're not to worry, Tito.

Tito, the consultant says you're

going to be perfectly all right.

I'm going to stay here.

Try to get some more sleep.

Shh, shh, shh.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

So, now you are a saint.

SHE SCOFFS:

Hardly. Yes, you are saint.

Sleep at hospital, into class, back

to performance, back to hospital.

Anyone would do the same, believe me.

Rudolf, he can't do

anything for himself.

He has to have a catheter

in his penis just to urinate.

If it were me, I would say,

"Let me die."

He has.

Every day now, when I try to give

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes