Drowning by Numbers

The 'Hangman's Cricket' scene from Peter Greenaway's film, Drowning by Numbers. "The object of Hangman's Cricket is for each competitor to retain his allotted nine lives by scoring runs with the 'Cat', or bat, defending his lower leg from being struck by the ball. There is no limit to the number of players as long as each has an identity agreed by the two referees. Each identity has its own characteristic which must be obeyed. The more important identities are the Emperor, the Widow, the Judge, the Hangman, the Ghost, the Red Queen, the Fat Lady, the Dunce, the Businessmen, the Adulterer, the Harlot, the Gravedigger, the Maiden, the Twins, the Chinaman, the Savage, the Cook, the General, the Prisoner, the Beggarman, the Thief and the Priest. The Adulterer can only pair with the Harlot when each has an even number of lives above twelve, though the Dunce can cancel this, provided the Sailor is not batting. The Mother-in-Law is only allowed five runs at a time after which she must defer to the Gravedigger who is allowed to add the number of lives or runs of each competitor he bowls out to his own.  The Maiden is always obliged to be a spectator unless she is partnered by the Twins. The Businessman is never to be trusted. His score is determined by the number of runs scored by his predecessor at the wicket. He is at liberty to change the rules of the game only when he hits a catch. Although it goes against the grain, he naturally tries to get players to catch him out. The Businessman can be saved if he submits to a Red Queen - but in doing so, he must pay a forfeit. The full flavour of Hangman's Cricket is best appreciated after the game has been played for several hours. By then every player has a fair understanding of the many rules and knows which character he wants to play permanently. Finally an outright loser is found and is obliged to present himself to the Hangman...who is always merciless. Hangman's Cricket is a set-piece game played by a large community - a fine opportunity for Madgett and Smut to elaborate the children's game of French cricket into something rich and strange. According to Sacha Vierny, the French don't call it French cricket but Turkish Bowls or la Boule Turque, on account of the Turks being known to wear baggy trousers. The English call it French Cricket in disparagement that someone should use his own legs as a wicket for the object of the game is to hit the batsman's legs below the knees - the batsman being permitted to protect his legs with a bat and strike the ball in any direction - hitting it hard enough such that he can run to a new batting position as far as possible from where the ball is picked up. As in orthodox cricket, a player can be out with a catch, but unlike orthodox cricket, each man plays for himself. Any number of people can play. If these are the ground rules then Madgett and Smut together have all but hidden them in a complex system of regulations and imperatives whereby every player has his, or her, own characteristic game-play, running-order and scoring-tally. The game has something of the Tarot-Pack and something of the Commedia dell'Arte and its derivative, Punch and Judy; and something of a mediaeval social hierarchy as in Brueghel's "Ship of Fools" or "Chaucer's Tales". All society is represented with its archetypes - the kings and fools, the professional men and the drudges, the criminals and the police, the cardinals and the apostates, the virtuous and the unvirtuous. There is a chant in the English nursery for counting the fruit stones around the edge of the dessert-plate: "Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy, richman, poorman, beggarman, thief..." The runs of each player are governed by luck and by a player's own ability but, most importantly, are also circumscribed by the condition, favour and handicap of his place in society. In the end, when the runs of each player are added up, the outright loser - not the outright winner - is the player of interest. He, or she, has to present himself, or herself, to the hangman - the loose alias for Death. "...at the very last light of twilight, stripped and hung from the gibbet beside the tideline, the loser's body is pecked by the gulls until the dismembered corpse falls into the sea and is eaten by the fishes." (From Smut's notes - a presage of his interest in the ignominious death by hanging)." - Peter Greenaway