(Lights up on an empty hotel room. There's a knock on the door. MACLEAN enters from offstage, dressed in his undergarments and fedora. He's drinking from a flask.)
MAC: I got it! (Another knock.) God, I love room service. (Calling offstage to Lavrenty Beria) Lavrenty, you're sure the KGB's picking up the tab for all of this?
(BURGESS enters, similarly attired. A third knock.)
BURG: Just open the bloody door, you lummox. All that knocking is upsetting Lavrenty's delicate disposition.
(MACLEAN opens the door to find ALAN pointing a gun at him.)
ALAN: Where's Lavrenty Beria?
BURG: Bloody hell.
(BURGESS scrambles to find his gun.)
ALAN: Where's Lavrenty Beria!?
MAC: Your safety's still on.
ALAN: What?
MAC: Your safety switch. Right there. It's still on.
ALAN: My what?
BURG: Get him in here.
ALAN: Shite.
(BURGESS takes ALAN's gun and forces him into a seat.)
MAC: Keep your hands where we can see them.
BURG: What's in the suitcase?
MAC: (Offstage to Lavrenty) No, Lavrenty, it wasn't room service... Yes, we'll make a Vodka run for you in a minute... Yes, everything's fine, Lavrenty.
(Having opened ALAN's suitcase, BURGESS pulls out the Delilah handset.)
BURG: He's got a Delilah. Where did you get this?
MAC: Come to think of it, he does look kind of familiar, don't you think?
ALAN: Cambridge. The Secret Apostles.
BURG: Oh God, I didn't sleep with you, did I?
MAC: Oh don't be a braggart!
ALAN: Baron sends his regards.
BURG: Gandy?
ALAN: Robin Gandy. He wants out. Now may I please speak with Lavrenty Beria?
MAC: Lavrenty's a touch... indisposed at the moment.
BURG: Wine allergies...
MAC: (Offstage to Lavrenty) Yes, Lavrenty, a gentleman caller for you. He has one of the Delilahs and says he's a friend of Gandy's...
ALAN: (Offstage to Lavrenty) My name is Alan Mathison Turing. I'm a mathematician.
MAC: I knew I recognized him.
BURG: I maintain a strict policy of not sleeping with mathematicians. One must have standards, you understand.
ALAN: (Offstage to Lavrenty) Yes, the one Robin stole the Delilah plans from... Gandy, yes... And the Enigma intercepts, yes... Yes, I suppose he's stolen quite a bit from me over the years... Well, he'd like to defect to the Soviet Union...
YOU ARE READING
The Turing Tape - a one-act play
Historical Fiction"The Turing Tape", a one-act play, is a madcap conspiracy theory about the life and times of Alan Mathison Turing, a brilliant cryptanalyst, computer visionary, and homosexual within the British intelligence community of the 1940s and 50s. The play'...
