1) MAMA WHO BORE ME/THE STORK
WENDLA enters
WENDLA: Mama who bore me
Mama who gave me no way to handle things
MARTHA: Mama, the weeping
THEA: Mama, the angels
WENDLA: Who made me so sad...
FRAU BERGMANN enters
FRAU BERGMANN: Wendla!
Goodness, look at you in that...
Kindergarten dress!
WENDLA: Let me wear this one, Mama.
It makes me feel like a little fairy queen!
FRAU BERGMANN: You almost made me forget all our good news!
Just imagine, Wendla.
Last night the stork finally visited your sister!
Brought her another little baby girl!
WENDLA: I can't wait to see her, Mama...
FRAU BERGMANN: Now, put on a proper dress and take a hat!
WENDLA: Mama, I'm an aunt for the second time now...
And I still have no idea how it happens.
You can't imagine I still believe in the stork!
FRAU BERGMANN: I honestly don't know what I've done to deserve this kind of talk!
WENDLA: I'll kneel at your feet!
You can talk as if I weren't even here.
FRAU BERGMANN: Very well, I'll tell you.
In order for a woman to conceive a child, she must...
Love her husband!
Love him with her whole...
Heart!
There, now you know everything!
WENDLA: Everything?
FRAU BERGMANN: Everything, so help me!
WENDLA: Mama!
MARTHA and THEA enter
MARTHA: Some pray that one day Christ will come a-calling
THEA: They light a candle and hope that it glows
WENDLA: And some just lie there crying for him to come and find them
But when he comes
MARTHA & THEA: They don't know how to go!
FRAU BERGMANN exits; HERR SONNENSTICH, MELCHIOR, MORITZ, ERNST, & HANSCHEN enter
FRAU BERGMANN costume change to FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK
MARTHA: Mama, the weeping
THEA: Mama, the angels
WENDLA: No sleep in heaven
WENDLA, MARTHA, & THEA: Or Bethlehem!
WENDLA, MARTHA, & THEA exit
2) CLASS/ALL THAT'S KNOWN
HERR SONNENSTICH: Herr Rilow, from the beginning.
HANSCHEN: Arma virumque cano
Troiae qui primus ab oris
HERR SONNENSTICH: Herr Robel.
ERNST: Italiam fato profugus
Laviniaque venit
HERR SONNENSTICH: Herr Stiefel.
...Herr Stiefel!
MORITZ: Sir?
HERR SONNENSTICH: Continue, please.
MORITZ: Laviniaque venit...
HERR SONNENSTICH: Yes?
MORITZ: Litora, multum...
Olim.
HERR SONNENSTICH: Multum olim?
Do you have any idea what you're saying, Herr Stiefel?
MELCHIOR: Please, Herr Sonenstich!
Can't we consider multum olim as a plausible conjecture for how the text might read?
HERR SONNENSTICH: Our world is littered with more than sufficient critical commentary on textual conjecture.
MELCHIOR: Are you suggesting there is no further room for citical thought or interpretation?
HERR SONENSTICH: I am suggesting no such thing.
I am asking, nay, demaning, that you amend Herr Stiefel's faulty text and proceed from there.
Do I make myself clear?
Herr Gabor?
MELCHIOR: ...yes, Herr Sonnenstich.
Litora, multum ille.
HERR SONNENSTICH: All of you -- together with Melchior Gabor!
Laviniaque venit...
HANSCHEN: Litora, multum ille...
MELCHIOR: All that's known in history and science...
ERNST: Et terris iactatus et alto
MELCHIOR: Overthrown at school, at home, by blind men.
MORITZ: Vi superum, saevae memorem
MELCHIOR: Thought is suspect and money is their idol
HANSCHEN: Iunonis ob iram
MELCHIOR: And nothing is okay unless it's scripted in their bible
ERNST: Multa quoque et bello passus
MELCHIOR: You watch me -- just watch me
MORITZ: Dum conderet urbem
MELCHIOR: I'm calling and one day all will know.
LEGS IN SKY BLUE STOCKINGS/BITCH OF LIVING
HERR SONNENSTICH: Thank you, gentlemen.
Prepare to write the next seven lines -- from memory.
MORITZ: Melchi, thank you.
MELCHIOR: It's nothing.
MORITZ: Still, you didn't need to.
I should have known it.
It's just, I didn't sleep, all night.
I suffered a visit from the most horrific dark phantasm.
MELCHIOR: You mean a dream?
MORITZ: A nightmare, really.
Legs in sky blue stockings...
MELCHIOR: Oh, that kind of dream.
MORITZ: Have you ever suffered such mortifying visions?
MELCHIOR: Moritz, of course! We all have.
Georg Zirshnitz even dreamt he was seduced by his piano teacher.
MORITZ: Fraulein Grossenbustenhalter?!
HERR SONNENSTICH: Moritz Stiefel!
I will not warn you again.
MORITZ: God, I dreamed there was an angel who could hear me through the wall...
As I cried out, like in Latin
"This is so not life at all -- help me out of this nightmare."
She said, "Love may make you blind, kid, but I wouldn't mind at all."
HANSCHEN & ERNST: It's the bitch of living!
ERNST: Then there's showering in gym class...
HANSCHEN: Bobby Malor, he's the best
Looks so nasty in those khakis.
ERNST: God, my whole life's like some test.
HANSCHEN: It's like, just kiss some ass, man.
Then you can screw 'em all!
MELCHIOR: You watch me, just watch me!
MORITZ, HANSCHEN, & ERNST: It's the bitch of living!
MELCHIOR: God, is this it?
This can't be it!
MELCHIOR, MORITZ, HANSCHEN, ERNST: Oh God, what a bitch!
HERR SONNENSTICH: I will see you tomorrow -- seven AM!
HERR SONNENSTICH exits
AFTER CLASS/A COMET ON ITS WAY
HANSCHEN: Well, I'm off.
ERNST: Me too.
HANSCHEN: I'll walk with you, Ernst.
HANSCHEN and ERNST exit
MORITZ: Melchi, why?
Why am I haunted by the legs of a woman?
By the deepening convinction...
That some dark part of my destiny may lie there between them!
Christ, such a whole like, deal...
Nightly too unreal.
ERNST: Through the darkness comes the laughter
HANSCHEN: All the stars bend over sideways
ERNST: Oh my darling, there's a heaven
HANSCHEN: Such a comet on its way.
MELCHIOR: Alright then, I'll tell you everything.
MORITZ: No -- no!
Not here.
Do me a favor?
Write it down? All of it.
If you like, you can add some illustrations in the margins...
MELCHIOR: One question, Moritz.
Ever seen a girl naked?
MORITZ: ...of course.
MELCHIOR: No illustrations necessary, then.
MORITZ: Well, a few might be useful... actually...
MELCHIOR: Everything?
MORITZ: ...everything.
MELCHIOR and MORITZ exit; HERR SONNENSTICH and FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK enter.
HERR SONNENSTICH: Unfathomable, Fraulein Knuppledick.
Melchior Gabor, who could be our finest student...
Polluting himself with that... that...
FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK: Neurasthenic imbecile, Moritz Stiefel.
HERR SONNENSTICH: Thank Heaven the upper grade only holds sixty!
HERR SONNENSTICH and FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK exit; WENDLA, MARTHA, and THEA enter.
HERR SONNENSTICH costume change to HERR RILOW and FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK costume change to FRAU GABOR
MY JUNK
THEA: Wendla, what will you wear to Greta's wedding?
WENDLA: Mama says we cannot go.
She thought it was a little improper.
THEA: Well, I certainly hope your mama approves of the man I marry!
WENDLA: Well, we all know who Thea longs to marry!
MARTHA: Melchior Gabor!
THEA: Who doesn't?!
MARTHA: He is rather handsome...
WENDLA: So wonderful...
MARTHA: But not so wonderful as that sad, soulful sleepyhead...
Moritz Stiefel.
THEA: Moritz Stiefel?!
How can you even compare them?!
Melchi Gabor -- he's such a radical!
WENDLA: In the midst of this nothing, this miss of a life...
Still there's this one thing just to see you go by.
HANSCHEN: [backstage] Have you prayed tonight, Desdemona?
You don't look like you're praying, darling...
HERR RILOW enters
HERR RILOW: Hanschen, are you all right in there?
HANSCHEN: [backstage] Just my stomach again, Father, but I'll be fine!
HERR RILOW: All right then.
HERR RILOW exits
THEA: May not be cool but it's so where I live.
HANSCHEN: [backstage] It's sucking the marrow from my bones seeing you lie there, motionless...
Staring at me so innocently...
MARTHA: It's like I'm your lover or more like your ghost...
I spend the day wondering what you do, where you go.
HERR RILOW enters
HANSCHEN: [backstage] Don't you see that it's your terrible chastity that's driving me to this --
HERR RILOW: Hanschen, that's enough in there!
Back to bed!
THEA: And I try and just kick it but then what can I do?
HANSCHEN: [backstage] ...yes sir.
HERR RILOW exits
HERR RILOW costume change to HERR SONNENSTICH and then account switch to ILSE
THEA: We've all got our junk.
THEA, MARTHA, & WENDLA:: And my junk is you!
THEA, WENDLA, & MARTHA exit
SHAME/TOUCH ME
MELCHIOR enters
MELCHIOR: The question is: shame.
To my mind, shameis nothing but a product of education.
And yet, old Father Kahlbach insists that it is deeply rooted in our sinful human nature.
This is why I now refuse to go to church!
FRAU GABOR enters
FRAU GABOR: Melchior?
MELCHIOR: Yes, Mama?
FRAU GABOR: Moritz Stiefel to see you.
FRAU GABOR exits; MORITZ enters
MELCHIOR: Moritz!
MORITZ: Sorry I'm so late!
I was up 'til three in the morning reading that essay you gave me.
Look at me! I'm trembling!
Last night I prayed like Christ in Gethsemane...
Please, God.
Give me consumption and take these sticky dreams away from me.
MELCHIOR: With any luck he'll ignore that prayer.
MORITZ: What you wrote -- about the female... I can't stop thinking about it.
* Is it true?
MELCHIOR: Absolutely!
MORITZ: But how can you understand that, Melchi?
What the woman must feel...
MELCHIOR: Where I go, when I go there, no more memory anymore...
* Only drifting on some ship.
* A wind that whispers of the distance to shore...
MORITZ: Where I go, when I go there, no more listening anymore
* Only hymns upon your lips...
* A mystic wisdom rising with them to shore.
MORITZ: You must admit, it truly is daunting.
Not that I'm saying I wouldn't want...
* Would ever want to not -- would ever not want --
* I have to go.
MELCHIOR: Moritz, wait!
FRAU GABOR enters
FRAU GABOR: Melchior, what is it?
MELCHIOR: Nothing, Mama.
FRAU GABOR: Has Moritz gone?
MELCHIOR: Yes.
FRAU GABOR: He does look awfully pale, don't you think?
FRAU GABOR exits; ERNST, HANSCHEN, WENDLA, THEA, ILSE, MARTHA and MORITZ enter
ERNST: Touch me, just like that
And that -- oh yeah, now that's heaven
MELCHIOR & MORITZ: Touch me, all silent
MARTHA & ILSE: Tell me, please, all is forgiven
ERNST & HANSCHEN: Consume my wine
WENDLA & THEA: Consume my mind
MELCHIOR, MORITZ, HANSCHEN, & ERNST: Love me
WENDLA, THEA, MARTHA, ILSE: Just for a bit
WENDLA exits -- equip flowers for next scene
MORITZ, THEA, & HANSCHEN We'll wander down where the winds sigh...
MORITZ, THEA, HANSCHEN exit
ERNST, MARTHA, & ILSE: Where the winds sigh...
ERNST, MARTHA, & ILSE exit
ILSE account change to HERR SONNENSTICH
MELCHIOR: Where the winds sigh...
WENDLA enters
WENDLA: Melchior Gabor?
MELCHIOR: Wendla Bergmann!
What are you doing alone up here?
WENDLA: Mama's making maywine -- I thought I'd surprise her with some woodruff.
And you?
MELCHIOR: This is my favorite spot.
How have you been doing?
WENDLA: Well, this morning was wonderful.
We brought baskets of food and clothing to the day laborer's children.
MELCHIOR: I remember when we used to do that together.
Do you think our little acts of charity really make a difference?
WENDLA: They have to. I mean, what other hope do those people have?
MELCHIOR: I fear that industry is fast turning itself firmly against them.
WENDLA: Against us all, then!
It seems to me...
What serves each of us best is what serves all of us best.
MELCHIOR: Indeed.
Wendla Bergmann, I've known you all these years and we've never truly talked.
WENDLA: We get so few opportunities now that we're older.
MELCHIOR: True.
Won't you sit for a moment?
WENDLA: I have to be back before five...
...but for a moment, maybe.
Watching the words fall from my lips...
MELCHIOR: Playing with her in your fantasies...
MELCHIOR & WENDLA:: Haven't you heard a word -- how I want you?
WENDLA: The sun's setting, Melchior, truly I better go.
MELCHIOR: We'll go together.
I'll have you on the bridge in ten minutes.
MORITZ PASSES/MARTHA'S SECRET
MELCHIOR & WENDLA exit; HANSCHEN, ERNST, & MORITZ enter
HANSCHEN: Did you get caught?
MORITZ: No -- no, thank God!
ERNST: But you're trembling!
MORITZ: For joy! For pure and certain joy!
MELCHIOR enters
ERNST: Oh, Melchi!
MELCHIOR: Moritz, I've been looking for you!
HANSCHEN: He snuck into the headmaster's office.
MELCHIOR: Moritz, what were you thinking?!
MORITZ: I had to, Melchi, I just had to!
The good news is I passed!
HANSCHEN: The middle term, that is.
MORITZ: ...yes.
Everything will now be determined by the final exam.
But still -- I know I passed!
Truly, heaven must feel like this!
MELCHIOR, MORITZ, HANSCHEN & ERNST exit; HERR SONNENSTICH and FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK enter
HERR SONNENSTICH: Well, well, Fraulein Knuppledick.
FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK: Herr Sonnenstich.
HERR SONNENSTICH: Now that that skittish moron...
FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK: Moritz Stiefel.
HERR SONNENSTICH: Has somehow passed our middle term exams...
It would appear we face a certain dilemma.
The upper grade only holds sixty.
We can hardly promote sixty-one.
FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK: Hardly, Herr Sonnenstich.
But let us look to the finals ahead...
Remember, it is I who shall be marking them.
HERR SONNENSTICH: Then I am assured that the good name of our school is secure.
HERR SONNENSTICH and FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK exit; THEA, WENDLA & MARTHA enter
FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK account change to ILSE and HERR SONNENSTICH costume change to HERR STIEFEL.
WENDLA: Shall we take the short way home?
THEA: No, no -- by the bridge!
MARTHA: Someone wants to see -- has Melchi Gabor taken a raft out?
THEA: Last one there has to hold hands with Hanschen!
WENDLA: Careful, Martha, your braid's coming loose!
THEA: Just let it. Isn't it a nuisance?
WENDLA: Tomorrow I'm bringing scissors!
MARTHA: For God's sake, Wendla, no!
Papa beats me enough as it is!
THEA: ...really?
MARTHA: No, no -- it's nothing.
WENDLA: Martha...
We're your friends.
MARTHA: When I don't do as he likes...
Some nights Papa yanks out his belt.
WENDLA: We must tell someone.
MARTHA: No, no, please!
They'll throw me out for good!
THEA: Like what happened to Ilse, you mean...
MARTHA: Just look at what's become of Ilse now!
Living who knows where with who knows who.
WENDLA: I just wish I could somehow go through it for you.
MARTHA: Every day it's like the same old question...
Do I have to stay?
ILSE enters
ILSE: Every night you let a little death in...
You hold him and hear him sigh.
All numb -- you get screwed then you're through with it.
MARTHA: All numb, then you sink back in the ocean.
MARTHA & ILSE: All numb!
WENDLA & THEA: All numb...
ILSE, WENDLA, THEA, & MARTHA exit; MELCHIOR enters.
ILSE account change to FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK and costume change to FRAU GABOR and equip letter.
MELCHIOR: The trouble is the terrible perogative of the parentocracy in secondary education...
Where teachers, like parents, only view us as so much raw material...
For an obedient and productive society.
Where all that is weak must be hammered away.
WENDLA enters
WENDLA: Melchior?
MELCHIOR: You!
WENDLA: I was lying by the stream when I saw you here. So...
MELCHIOR: So... the stream?
Dreaming again?
WENDLA: I was, I guess.
MELCHIOR: What were you dreaming of?
WENDLA: It's silly.
MELCHIOR: Tell me.
WENDLA: I dreamt I was a little girl who spilled her father's coffee.
And when he saw what I'd done...
He beat me.
MELCHIOR: Beat you?
Wendla, that sort of thing doesn't happen anymore.
Only in stories.
WENDLA: Martha Bessel gets beaten almost every evening!
It makes you boiling hot to hear her tell it...
Lately I can't think about anything else.
MELCHIOR: Someone should file a complaint.
WENDLA: You know...
I've never been beaten.
Not once.
I can't even imagine it...
MELCHIOR: I don't believe anyone is ever better for it.
WENDLA: I tried hitting myself...
To find out how it feels, really, inside.
Maybe if you hit me...
MELCHIOR: Hit you?
Wendla, what are you thinking?
WENDLA: Nothing.
MELCHIOR: I could never beat you.
WENDLA: But if I let you?
MELCHIOR: Have you lost your mind?
WENDLA: If I asked you to?
MELCHIOR: Wendla, you can't envy someone being beaten!
WENDLA: But I've never been beaten!
My entire life I've never felt...
MELCHIOR: What?
WENDLA: Anything!
Please Melchior?
He hits her.
WENDLA: I don't feel it.
He hits her, and so on.
WENDLA: You're barely stroking me.
MELCHIOR: Wendla...
WENDLA: Come on!
Martha's father uses his belt -- he draws blood, Melchi!
MELCHIOR: How's that, then?
WENDLA: Nothing.
Nothing!
Nothing!
MELCHIOR: You bitch, I'll beat the hell out of you!
He chases her etc. MELCHIOR & WENDLA exit; MORITZ & HERR STIEFEL enter.
MORITZ: Father?
HERR STIEFEL: Moritz, yes?
MORITZ: I was just wondering...
Hypothetically speaking...
What would happen if...
HERR STIEFEL: If?
MORITZ: If one day, I...
...failed?
HERR STIEFEL: Are you telling me you failed?
MORITZ: No, no...
HERR STIEFEL: You've failed, haven't you?
I see it in your face.
MORITZ: Father, no...
Herr Stiefel hits Moritz
MORITZ: Father, please!
HERR STIEFEL: So it's finally come to this.
I can't say I'm surprised.
Failed...
Thank God my father never lived to see this day.
And Then There Were None
HERR STIEFEL exits; FRAU GABOR enters.
HERR STIEFEL account change to ILSE
FRAU GABOR: Dear Herr Stiefel...
Moritz.
I've spent the entire day thinking about your note.
I was saddened to hear your exams came off rather...
Less well than you'd hoped, and that you won't be promoted come fall.
But I must say...
Fleeing to America is hardly the solution.
And even if it were, I cannot provide the money you request.
MORITZ: Uh-huh, well, fine!
Not like it's even worth the time.
FRAU GABOR: Should you like, I am ready to write your parents...
I will try to convince them that no one could've worked harder last semester...
MORITZ: You'll write my folks? Well, okay.
Babe, that's how it goes.
WOMEN: Still, Herr Stiefel...
One thing in your letter disturbed me.
Your, what shall we call it? Veiled threat?
That should escape not be possible you would take your own life...
MORITZ: They're not my home, not anymore...
Not like they so were before...
Still, I'll split, and they'll like -- well who knows...
HANSCHEN & ERNST enter
FRAU GABOR: Head high, Herr Stiefel!
HANSCHEN: You wanna laugh, it's too absurd.
ERNST: You try to ask -- can't hear a word.
MORITZ: You wanna crumble up and close that door.
FRAU GABOR: Unchangingly and most fondly yours...
Fanny Gabor.
MORITZ: Just fuck it, right, enough, that's it!
Another day of utter shit!
And then there were none...
HANSCHEN & ERNST: And then there were none...
MORITZ: And then there were none!
MORITZ, HANSCHEN, ERNST, & FRAU GABOR exit; MELCHIOR enters
MELCHIOR: My soul is a bride looking out from inside...
Of the bones of a ghost -- I'm a man and a child.
I'm locked out of peace with no keys to my soul...
WENDLA enters
WENDLA: So here you are.
MELCHIOR: Go away!
WENDLA: Everyone's at church -- I slipped out.
Your friend Moritz Stiefel is absent.
Someone said he's been missing all day.
MELCHIOR: Well.
WENDLA: Melchior, I'm sorry about what happened.
I don't know what I was thinking.
MELCHIOR: No, it was me -- all me.
Something in me started when I hit you.
WENDLA: Something in me, too!
MELCHIOR: But I hurt you!
WENDLA: But still...
MELCHIOR: No more!
My God, no more...
You should go.
WENDLA: It's dark in here and stuffy...
We can run through the rain.
Get soaked to the skin and not even care.
MELCHIOR: Forgive me.
WENDLA: It was me. All me.
MELCHIOR: I can hear your heartbeat, Wendla...
WENDLA: ...and I hear yours.
He kisses her.
ILSE: I believe...
THEA: I believe...
HANSCHEN: I believe...
WENDLA: Wait -- I can't, we're not supposed to!
MELCHIOR: Not supposed to what?
Love?
I don't know, is there such a thing?
MARTHA: There is love in heaven
ERNST: All will be forgiven
They kiss
WENDLA: No, no, it's just it's...
MELCHIOR: What, sinful?
WENDLA: No!
I don't know.
MELCHIOR: Because it's good?
Because it makes us feel something?
She kisses him
ILSE, MARTHA, THEA: Peace and joy be with them
MELCHIOR: Don't be scared.
HANSCHEN & ERNST: Harmony and wisdom
They move out of sight
WENDLA: Melchior!
ILSE, MARTHA, THEA, HANSCHEN & ERNST: Oh, I believe!
END OF ACT ONE.
THEA change accounts to ILSE and costume change, ILSE change accounts to THEA, FRAU GABOR costume change to FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK
ACT TWO -->