<-- ACT ONE
There Once Was a Pirate
MELCHIOR: Are you alright, Wendla?
WENDLA: There once was a pirate who put out to sea...
His mates all around him, no maiden on his knee.
Sail for a little...
He'll sail for a little 'til she finds him.
MELCHIOR: Wendla?
WENDLA: I think so...
Yes.
MELCHIOR: There once was a maiden who wandered the mead
To gather blue violets her mama would need...
Wail through the willows...
She'll wail through the willows until she finds them.
MARTHA,THEA, HANSCHEN, & ERNST enter
WENDLA: He'll sail for a little...
HANSCHEN & ERNST: A wail through the willows...
MELCHIOR: She'll wail through the willows...
MARTHA & THEA: Sail for a little...
WENDLA: Until she find him & MELCHIOR: Until he finds her
MORITZ enters
MORITZ: Enough!
WENDLA, THEA, MARTHA, MELCHIOR, HANSCHEN, & ERNST exit
THEA account change to HERR STIEFEL
MORITZ: Enough, enough!
Awful sweet to be a little butterfly...
Just winging over things and nothing deep inside...
'Cause you know, I don't do sadness.
Not even a little bit!
Just don't need it in my life.
ILSE enters
ILSE: Moritz Stiefel?
MORITZ: Ilse?
You frightened me.
ILSE: Did you lose something?
Why did you frighten me?
...damnit.
ILSE: What are you looking for?
MORITZ: If only I knew.
So, where have you been keeping yourself?
ILSE: Priapia.
The artist's colony.
MORITZ: Yes.
ILSE: All they want to do is dress me up and paint me...
That Johann Fehrendorf's a wicked one, actually.
Chasing me and dabbing me with his paintbrush!
But then that's men... if they can't stick you with one thing they'll try another.
One morning he woke me with a gun set against my breast!
He said, "One twitch, and it's the end!"
Really gave me the goosebumps.
...but how about you, Moritz? Still in school?
MORITZ: This semester I'm through.
ILSE: God... remember how we used to run back to my house and play pirates?
Wendla Bergmann, Melchior Gabor... you and I?
ILSE: Spring and summer every other day...
Sure, when it's autumn, wind always wants to creep up and haunt you...
With its heartache, with its sorrow, winter wind sings and it cries...
MORITZ: Actually, I better go.
ILSE: Walk as far as my house with me?
MORITZ: And?
ILSE: I'll brush your hair. Curl it.
Set you on my little hobby horse.
MORITZ: I wish I could.
ILSE: Then why don't you?
MORITZ: Eighty lines of Virgil... Sixteen equations...
ILSE: Just for an hour.
MORITZ: I can't.
ILSE: Well, walk me at least!
MORITZ: Honestly.
I wish I could.
ILSE: You know...
By the time you finally wake up...
I'll be lying in some trash heap.
ILSE exits and costume change
back
MORITZ: ...for the love of God.
All I had to do was say yes!
Ilse?
ILSE!
Ten minutes ago you could see the entire horizon...
Now, only the dusk...
Ghosts.
shooting stars.
...it's so dark.
So dark...
So dark.
MORITZ disappears
MORITZ account change to THEA
Left Behind
MELCHIOR & HERR STIEFEL enter
MELCHIOR: You fold his hands and smooth his tie...
You gently lift his chin.
Were you really so blind and unkind to him?
Now to close his eyes -- never open them...
MARTHA, THEA, ILSE, HANSCHEN, ERNST, & WENDLA enter
MARTHA: The talks you never had
THEA: The Saturdays you never spent.
ILSE: All the grown up places you never went.
HANSCHEN: And all of the crying you wouldn't understand.
ERNST: You just let him cry...
WENDLA: ...make a man out of him.
HERR STIEFEL exits
HERR STIEFEL to HERR SONNENSTICH
MELCHIOR: All things he ever did are left behind...
MARTHA, HANSCHEN, & WENDLA: And it whistles through the ghosts...
MELCHIOR: All the things his mama wished he'd bear in mind...
THEA, ERNST, & ILSE:: Still left behind...
MELCHIOR: And all his dad ever hoped he know...
MELCHIOR exits; FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK & HERR SONNENSTICH enter
HERR SONNENSTICH:We must take immediate and decisive steps...
Lest we be considered one of those institutions...
Afflicted by the veritible epidemic of adolescent suicide.
FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK: Indeed, sir.
It's war -- naturally there must be casualties.
HERR SONNENSTICH: Bring the boy in.
MELCHIOR enters
HERR SONNENSTICH: It would seem, young man, that all roads end in you.
You do know what I mean?
MELCHIOR: I'm afraid --
HERR SONNENSTICH: -- as well one would be!
Two days after he learned of the young...
FRAULEN KNUPPLEDICK: Moritz Stiefel.
HERR SONNENSTICH: -- Moritz Stiefel's death...
The boy's father found a certain depraved and atheistic document...
Which made terribly clear the moral corruption of the young man.
A corruption which, no doubt, hastened the boy's end.
WOMEN: We have examined the handwriting of this obscene and atheistic document...
MELCHIOR: If you could show me only one obscenity --
HERR SONNENSTICH: You must now answer only the precisely stated question!
FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK: Melchior Gabor...
FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK & HERR SONNENSTICH: Did you write this?
MELCHIOR: There's a moment you know...
You're fucked.
ERNST: You're fucked if you just freeze up.
Can't do that thing -- that keeping still.
HANSCHEN: But you're fucked if you speak your mind.
And you know, uh-huh, you will.
ILSE: Yeah, you're fucked alright!
THEA: And all for spite!
MARTHA: You can kiss your sorry ass goodbye!
HANSCHEN: Totally fucked
WENDLA: Will they mess you up?
ERNST: Well you know they're gonna try.
HERR SONNENSTICH: Herr Gabor, answer me!
MELCHIOR: Blah blah blah...
HERR SONNENSTICH: For the last time!
HERR SONNENSTICH & FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK: Did you write this?!
MELCHIOR: YES!
Everyone swarms the stage. Do not wait on anyone who takes more than a couple seconds to say their line -- the order is irrelevant, the lines just can't all be said at once or lag will be a killer.
ILSE: BLAH
HANSCHEN: BLAH
MARTHA: BLAH
ERNST: BLAH
THEA: BLAH
WENDLA: BLAH
MELCHIOR: BLAH
ILSE: BLAH
HANSCHEN: BLAH
MARTHA: BLAH
ERNST: BLAH
THEA: BLAH
WENDLA: BLAH
MELCHIOR: BLAH
ILSE, HANSCHEN, MARTHA: TOTALLY
ERNST, THEA, WENDLA & MELCHIOR: FUCKED!
HERR SONNENSTICH, FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK, ILSE, MARTHA, THEA, WENDLA & MELCHIOR exit
ILSE equip letter, THEA account change to DIETER, HERR SONNENSTICH costume change to DOCTOR VON BRAUSEPULVER and FRAULEIN KNUPPLEDICK costume change to FRAU BERGMANN
HANSCHEN: Those bells... so peaceful.
ERNST: I know.
Sometimes... when it's quiet in the evening like this...
I imagine myself as a country pastor.
My red-cheeked wife, my library, my degrees...
HANSCHEN: ...you can't be serious.
The pious, serene faces -- it's all an act.
Trust me.
There are only three ways a man can go.
He can let the status quo defeat him -- like Moritz.
He can rock the boat, like Melchior, and be expelled...
Or he can bide his time and let the system work for him.
Just... skim off the cream.
Like me.
ERNST: Just skim off the cream?
HANSCHEN: Right.
He laughs
ERNST: You're laughing -- what?
Hanschen.
HANSCHEN: Come cream away the bliss...
Travel the world within my lips...
Haven't you heard the word of your body?
HANSCHEN:
When we look back thirty years from now...
Tonight will seem unbelievably beautiful.
ERNST: ...and in the meantime?
HANSCHEN: Why not?
They kiss.
ERNST: I love you Hanschen... as I have never loved anyone.
HANSCHEN: And so you should.
HANSCHEN & ERNST exit; FRAU BERGMANN, WENDLA, & DOCTOR VONBRAUSEPULVER enter.
HANSCHEN account change to RUPERT & ERNST account change to REINHOLD
FRAU BERGMANN: So that's all it is then, doctor -- anemia?
DOCTOR VON BRAUSEPULVER: C'est tout!
FRAU BERGMANN: And the nausea?
DOCTOR VON BRAUSEPULVER: Not uncommon!
Trust me, child, you'll be fine.
Frau Bergmann, may I have a word with you?
FRAU BERGMANN: Certainly, doctor.
FRAU BERGMANN & DOCTOR VON BRAUSEPULVER exit. After a moment, FRAU BERGMANN enters.
DOCTOR VON BRAUSEPULVER costume change to HERR GABOR
WENDLA: Mama?
FRAU BERGMANN: Wendla...
What have you done?
To yourself? To me?! Wendla!
WENDLA: ...Dr. Von Brausepulver said I'm anemic.
FRAU BERGMANN: Well probably -- you're going to have a child!
WENDLA: A child?
But I'm not married!
FRAU BERGMANN: Precisely!
And now I need his name.
WENDLA: His name? What are you --
...that?
But how can that...
...I just wanted to be with him, to hold him and be close to him!
FRAU BERGMANN: Wendla, please, no more -- you'll break my heart!
WENDLA: My God! Why didn't you tell me everything?!
FRAU BERGMANN: No more!
And now I need his name.
Wendla, I'm waiting.
Georg Zirshnitz?
Then who?
Hanschen Rilow?
Melchior Gabor?
Wendla sobs
FRAU BERGMANN: Melchior Gabor?! Wendla!
FRAU BERGMANN exits
FRAU BERGMANN costume change to FRAU GABOR
WENDLA: Whispering...
Little miss didn't do right.
Went and ruined all the true plans...
Such a shame. Such a sin.
See the father bent in grief, the mother dressed in mourning...
Sister crumbles and the neighbors grumble.
The preacher issues warnings.
FRAU GABOR & HERR GABOR enter
HERR GABOR: We have given Melchior room and now we must eat of the bitter fruit.
He has shown himself utterly corrupt.
FRAU GABOR: He has not!
HERR GABOR: Hear me out.
This afternoon Frau Bergmann came to see me...
Bearing a letter Melchior wrote to young Wendla.
Telling her he has no regret for what transpired in our hayloft.
FRAU GABOR: Impossible!
HERR GABOR: That he only longs, again, to find that bit of paradise.
So you tell me, Fanny. What shall we do?
FRAU GABOR: ...what you will.
A reformatory.
FRAU GABOR & HERR GABOR exit
FRAU GABOR costume change to FRAU BERGMANN and HERR GABOR account change to THEA
WENDLA: Had a sweetheart on his knees...
So faithful and adoring.
And he touched me -- and I let him love me.
So let that be my story.
WENDLA exits; RUPERT, REINHOLD &DIETER enter
DIETER: Each of you animals put in a coin!
RUPERT: Reinhold can put in for both of us.
REINHOLD: I beg your pardon!
DIETER: Whoever hits 'em... gets 'em.
MELCHIOR enters
REINHOLD: What about Herr Philosophy?
DIETER: Gabor?
MELCHIOR: No thank you.
HANSCHEN: Saving it for better things.
REINHOLD: A good girl, wasn't she?
DIETER: No one taught the poor boy what parlor maids are for!
MELCHIOR: How do you know?
RUPERT: Read it to us!
DIETER: His latest little love letter!
MELCHIOR: Where did you get that?!
RUPERT, DIETER, & REINHOLD exit and MELCHIOR chases after them.
ILSE: Mama who bore me...
Mama who gave me no way to handle things.
Who made me so sad...
FRAU BERGMANN & WENDLA enter
WENDLA: Where are we, Mama?
The streets so narrow and dark.
Who lives in this house?
Mama?
FRAU BERGMANN: This is someone who can help us.
WENDLA: With what?
WENDLA & FRAU BERGMANN exit
ILSE: Where I go, when I go there...
No more listening anymore.
Only drifting on some ship...
A wind that whispers "someone lived here before"...
REINHOLD, RUPERT, and DIETER enter and form a human barricade perpendicular to the bookcase. MELCHIOR enters behind them.
MELCHIOR: Let me out of here!
DIETER:
My dear Melchior...
I only pray this letter reaches you.
I have written so many and heard nothing back!
-- hang on.
MELCHIOR: Son of a bitch!
DIETER: In my bed each night I have so many dreams...
Of the better world that we will build together...
With our child.
MELCHIOR: Child?
REINHOLD: You didn't know?
HANSCHEN: Put a pup in the bitch and didn't even know!
DIETER: Forget the coins -- we'll use Mommy's little!
MELCHIOR: No!
MELCHIOR "breaks free" and chases DIETER, RUPERT & REINHOLD and exit.
DIETER account change to MORITZ, RUPERT account change to HANSCHEN, REINHOLD account change to ERNST
ILSE: Touch me, all silent...
Tell me please, all is forgiven.
WENDLA: Mama, don't leave me!
Mama!
ILSE, MARTHA, & THEA enter
ILSE:Ilse -- I have been running for days but at last I am back.
Now I beg of you -- for the sake of our old friendship...
Bring Wendla to meet me tonight in the graveyard behind the church.
MARTHA: Oh no!
ILSE: I will be waiting there at midnight -- Melchior Gabor
THEA: So he hasn't heard?
MARTHA: Waiting for Wendla...
THEA: Poor Melchior!
MARTHA: Poor Wendla!
ILSE, THEA, & MARTHA exit; MELCHIOR enters
ILSE unequip letter
MELCHIOR: You spend your life running from the church and where do you wind up?
My God...
All these little tombs.
And here -- a fresh one.
Here rests in God Wendla Bergm --
Born the... died... of anemia...
Wendla too.
No!
No, please, no...
MORITZ enters
MORITZ: Those you've known and lost still walk behind you...
MELCHIOR: Moritz?
MORITZ: All alone... they linger 'til they find you.
MELCHIOR: Well, you had the right idea!
No mortal ever wandered among graves with such envy...
They'd scatter a little earth and thank their God!
WENDLA enters
WENDLA: Those you've pained may carry that still with them...
MELCHIOR: Wendla!
WENDLA: All the same, they whisper all forgiven.
Still your heart says the shadows bring the starlight!
And everything you've ever been is still there in the dark night.
MELCHIOR: All alone...
But still I hear their yearning.
Through the dark -- the moon alone there, burning.
The stars, too, they tell of spring returning.
And summer with another wind that no one yet has known.
MORITZ: You know there's so much more to find.
Another dream, another love you'll hold.
Still you know to trust your own true mind.
And to say there's a way through this.
MELCHIOR: Now they'll walk on my arm through the distant night.
And I won't let them stray from my heart.
Through the wind, through the dark, through the winter light...
I will read all their dreams to the stars.
I'll see their thoughts are known -- and not gone!
MORITZ & WENDLA: Not gone...
MORITZ & WENDLA exit
MELCHIOR: You watch me...
Just watch me.
I'm calling...
I'm calling and one day all will know.
MELCHIOR exits; ILSE enters.
ILSE: Melchior?!
Melchior Gabor?
MARTHA & THEA enter
THEA: I guess they caught him.
And now they'll lock him up again.
MARTHA: Or maybe he got away?
Who knows...
ILSE: Listen to what's in the heart of a child.
You'll hear and you'll recall...
The sadness, the doubt, all the loss, the grief...
Will belong to some play from the past.
A summer's day...
A mother sings a song of purple summer at the heart of everything.
MARTHA: And Heaven waits...
So close it seems to show her child the wonders of a world beyond her dreams.
THEA: And yet I wait...
The swallow brings a song of what's to follow.
ILSE: The glory of the spring...
ERNST & HANSCHEN enter
HANSCHEN: The fences sway
ERNST: The porches swing
MORITZ & WENDLA enter
MARTHA & ERNST: The clouds begin to thunder
THEA & HANSCHEN: Crickets wander, murmuring.
MELCHIOR enters
MELCHIOR: And all shall know the wonder...
I will sing the song of purple summer.
ERNST & MARTHA: The earth will wave with corn
THEA & HANSCHEN: The day so wide, so warm.
WENDLA & MORITZ: And mares will neigh with stallions that they mate
MELCHIOR & ILSE: Foals they've borne.
ILSE, WENDLA, THEA, MARTHA: And all shall know the wonder
MORITZ, MELCHIOR, HANSCHEN, ERNST: Of purple summer
CURTAIN CALL