Alexander Revisited:
The Final Cut

Philip:
Is that the best you can do, Cleitus? Back to the phalanx with you, I’ll ride him myself.

Black Cleitus:
No one will ride that beast, Your Majesty. Not with your leg. He’s been beaten far too often.

Horse seller:
My noble king, he’s a high-spirited animal, yes. High-spirited and worthy of Philip of Macedon. For three and a half talents, I couldn’t possibly make a profit of him, but for you --

Philip:
Why would I need such a beast? I already have a wife.

Olympias:
(To Alexander) Do I seem so old?

Horse sellers:
Stay down, stay down. Hold him!

Philip:
A broken neck comes free. He’s too nervous for battle. Sell him for meat.

Young Alexander:
Buy him for me, father. I’ll ride him.

Philip:
And if you don’t?

Young Alexander:
I’ll pay for him myself.

Philip:
With what, your singing voice?

Young Alexander:
I’ll pay you!

Philip:
I tell you, that horse can’t be ridden, lad. His mind is broken.

Young Alexander:
He can be ridden. By me.

Philip:
If you can rule that horse, I’ll make him yours. (To the horse seller)…at half the price.

Black Cleitus:
That horse will kill him, Philip. He’ll break the boy in two.

Philip:
Will he? Perhaps she’ll make a musician out of him yet.

Young Alexander:
(To Bucephalus) You don’t like your shadow, do you? It’s like a dark spirit coming up to get you. Do you see? That’s us. It’s just a trick of Apollo’s. He’s the god of the sun.
But I’ll show you how to outwit him (Apollo), you and me together.

Parmenion:
The boy doesn’t have the craft, Philip. He could hurt himself.

Philip:
He’ll have to figure that out for himself. It’s time.

Attalus:
Good idea. Indeed there are times, Philip, when I wonder if he is your blood.

Parmenion:
I only worry that --

Philip:
What was that, Attalus?

Attalus:
Nothing. I was just noticing how the people like seeing you and Eurydice together.

Philip:
(To Alexander) You go, boy!
You ride that horse and by Zeus I say, you can rule the world.

Young Alexander:
Bucephalus. That’s what I’ll call you. Strong and stubborn. Bucephalus and Alexander. Come now, let’s ride together.

Philip:
He got some titans in him, yet. Attalus! Cleitus! For Zeus’ sake, he beats you, man!

Young Alexander:
Now, Bucephalus, show them.

Philip:
My son. My son!

Macedonia - 9 Years Earlier.

Ptolemy:
Ah, come, Alexander, drink this sadness away.

Alexander: If only thirst could quench sorrow, Ptolemy.

Philip:
There’s only one thing better than winning a battle, son... and that’s the taste of a new woman. You’ll find it far sweeter than self-pity.
(To Pausanias) Pausanias, you bore me.

Cleitus:
Alexander!

Philip:
(To Pausanias) Be gone with you.

Cleitus:
Alexander, I found you the right girl.
(To Antigone) What’s your name, darling?

Antigone:
Antigone.

Cleitus:
(To Antigone) What’s your name?

Antigone:
Antigone.

Cleitus:
(To Alexander) I love you.

Alexander:
And I love you, Cleitus.

Pausanias:
Please, no!

Philip:
There you go.

Cleitus:
I’ll sleep in my grave, Hephaistion. While alive, I prefer dancing.

Philip:
Pausanias. Who’s your new friend? There’s your new friend.

Pausanias:
Please don’t! Don’t! Please, no! No.

Attalus:
A toast. A toast! I drink to our Greek friends and to our new union Macedonia and Greece, equals in greatness! And to Philip, our king, without whom this union could not be possible.

Philip:
Come, Attalus, leave some damn air in the hall!

Attalus:
And last, I drink to the king’s marriage to my niece, Eurydice, a Macedonian queen we can be proud of! To Philip and Eurydice, and to their legitimate sons!

Ptolemy:
Don’t!

Alexander:
What am I? Son of a dog? Come, then!

Guest:
What a disgrace.

Philip:
Shut up! Shut up, all of you!

Ptolemy:
Please.

Philip:
This is my wedding, not some public brawl.

Guest:
Insolent pup.
Philip: Apologize, by Zeus, before you dishonour me.

Alexander:
You defend the man who called my mother a whore and me a bastard. And I dishonor you?

Philip:
Ah, you listen like your mother. Attalus is my family now, the same as you.

Alexander: Then choose your relatives more carefully. Don’t expect me to sit here and watch you shame yourself.

Philip:
Shame?

Attalus:
You insult me!

Alexander:
I insult you! A man not fit to lick the ground my mother walks on.

Philip:
Shame?

Alexander:
You dog, questioning your queen.

Philip:
Shame?! I’ve nothing to ashamed of, you arrogant brat. I’ll marry the girl if I want, and I’ll have as any sons as I want. There’s nothing you or your harpy mother can do about it.

Alexander:
Why, drunken man, must you think everything I do and say comes from my mother

Philip: Because I know her heart, by Hear, and I see her in your eyes! You covet this throne too much. Now we all know that she-wolf of a mother of yours wants me dead. Well, you can both dream, boy.

Parmenion:
Come, Philip, this is the wine talking. Leave the boy. It’ll wait till morning

Philip:
Now! I command you. Apologize to your kinsman. Apologize!

Alexander:
No kinsman to me. Good night, old man. And when my mother remarries, I’ll invite you to her wedding.

Philip:
You bastard! You’ll obey me. Come here.

Alexander:
This is the man who is going to take you from Greece to Persia? He can’t even make it from one couch to the next.

Philip:
Get out of my palace! You’re exiled, you bastard! Banished from the land. You’re not welcome here. You’re no son of mine.