Exit Ghost

(Gordon catches some well earned shut-eye.  An apparition appears. It is the ghost of Chairman Mao.)

Mao: Get up, Brown. You shouldn’t be sleeping . Remember what I said? It’s still too early to tell…

Brown: (Mumbles) Early to tell? Tell what?

Mao: How can your memory fail you? A time like this? The French Revolution! Too early to tell the outcome of the French Revolution.

Brown: Oh… Yes. That revolution. I thought you meant…

Mao: I didn’t ask you to think.

Brown: No. But…

Mao: No buts.

Brown: But the outcome, I thought that…

Mao: You thought?

Brown: Yes, I thought that, you know, power. The name of the…

Mao: Yes, the name of the game. A game by any other name. We’ve been here before.

Brown: We’ve been here before.

Mao: So where did you go wrong? Did you not study the examples of Deng?

Brown: Deng?

Mao: Yes, Deng.

Brown: You hated Deng. So I thought.

Mao: Says who?

Brown: Historians?

Mao: Deng kept the revolution alive whilst tolerating the filthy rich.

Brown: Good point.

Mao: (Wearily) Good… point… You tell me that? Good point?

Brown: I’m tired. (Yawns). What do I do now?

Mao: Hold on to power at any cost.

(The apparition starts to fade.)

Brown: (Mumbles) At any cost. Yes. At any cost. Hold on to power.


(Mao stares angrily at Brown as he vanishes)

Brown: At any cost.

(Exit Ghost. Enter Blair)

Blair: 'Tis not gone.