Ca Ira (complete songteksten)
Songteksten:
ACT 1
Scene 1: A Garden in Vienna 1765
Madame Antoine, the young Marie Antoinette, sits on a swing beside a peach tree. Beyond the garden wall a Boy (Honest Bird) watches and listens whilst perched in the branches of a spreading oak. Madame Antoine daydreams about her future life as a Queen, imagining all its splendors. Her mother (Marie Therese) calls her in from a window overlooking the garden. Before Madame Antoine leaves her swing, Honest Bird, provoked by all that he has just heard, drops into the garden and challenges her. In no uncertain terms he tells Madame Antoine that her life of privilege and indulgence is made possible only by the privations and suffering of the mass of ordinary people. Unmoved, she dismisses him.
RINGMASTER
Within our humble sawdust ring
The players are arraigned
The powerful and puny
The saintly and deranged
The Honest Bird, a future queen
All innocent and green
Sparring all the livelong day
Make ready for our play
So gentles all, who will hold sway
To a garden in Vienna, let us make our way…
MARIE THERESE
Madame Antoine, Madame Antoine
It’s getting dark outside
It’s time to come in
MADAME ANTOINE
Oh Mother!
MARIE THERESE
Madame Antoine, it’s time to come in
MADAME ANTOINE
Yes, yes Mother, I’m coming
One day…
One day I’ll be queen
Live on peaches and cream
Wear satin and lace
And laugh in the faces
Of the teachers and priests
And the boys will all fawn
Fawn before me like beasts
Fa la la, Fa la la la…
MARIE THERESE
Madame Antoine, it’s time to come in
HONEST BIRD
Little princess, so sure you are right
Your endless day is their endless night
You can preen in the limelight
In your diamonds and pearls
But the children go hungry
In that other world
MARIE THERESE
Madame Antoine, it’s time to come in
MADAME ANTOINE
Little sparrow fly back to where ever you’re from
You could never imagine the plane I live on
The intricate steps of the tumblers and clowns
Are above and beyond you cock robin
So just you pipe down
The Ringmaster returns to the ring and the place and time shifts to France some years before the revolution. He describes and explains the country’s social and political situation by using the extended conceit of a small bird that is prevented from singing freely by an arbitrary authority whose violence towards the bird is encouraged by all the agents of the state (priests, soldiers, and judges). Briefly and simply, the Ringmaster alludes to both the causes and the eventual outcome of revolutionary action. One day, he says, more enlightened representatives of the state will be in place that will allow the bird to fulfill itself and sing. This, he says, will be the true revolutionary achievement.
Scene 2: Kings, Sticks and Birds
Honest Bird, who has been knocked about, then restored, by clowns in a precise mimed slapstick during the progress of the parable, is now taken in hand by Marie Marianne. Her voice is the authentic voice of liberty, reason, and the Republic. To sing freely, and without fear, Honest Bird, and all like him, need her good offices. As another mime indicates, without it he is doomed: the clowns re-enter the ring pushing a scaffold and giblet before them. Whilst Marie Marianne is restrained, the clowns goad Honest Bird up the scaffold steps to the hangman who places a noose around his head. At exactly the moment the hangman releases the trap, and Honest Bird drops into a curtained-off space below the scaffold, Marie Marianne is able to break free. Rushing to aid Honest Bird, she rips aside the curtains and reveals Honest Bird grown to maturity. He has traveled forward in time to fulfill his destiny as a Revolutionary Priest. Tearing the noose from his neck, he steps free. Together he and Marie MArianne now urge every citizen to find his or her true voice, and to express their deepest aspirations. Initially, these are ill-formed. Some citizens, for example, apparently wish to become the very people they are seeking to replace. But they grow more and more articulate, and include a succinct list of those failings that have brought France to such a pass. With added encouragement and guidance from the Troublemaker, who naturally fires them up, the people solemnly vow to create a Republic.
RINGMASTER
Ladies and Gentlemen
Imagine a bird on song in a tree
An ordinary bird like you or like me
Imagine some ruffian happening by
And beating him within an inch of his life
CHORUS
Ahh!
RINGMASTER
Then a priest from some denomination
Witnessing this abomination
Blesses not the bird but the beast
The Unknown Soldier appears on the field
And takes the bird’s feathers to put on his shield
Then a powerful judge from the high court
Decreed that the birds really ought
Not to be allowed to sing in the trees
But then one day
Some of the priests and soldiers and judges
Putting aside some old worn grudges
Changed their minds and the birds sang again
It was the Revolution
The Revolution is a story of birds
Of sticks and stones and bushes and bones
RINGMASTER & CHORUS
A story of now, a story of then
A story of women, a story of men
RINGMASTER
A story of everything to come
Of everything under the sun
MARIE MARIANNE
Honest bird, simple bird
Just longing to be spreading the word
Feeling the rain, feeling the sun
But your time has not come
Your song is not heard
Honest bird
MALE CHORUS
Singing is forbidden in the fig tree
Singing is forbidden in the olive tree
Singing is forbidden in the pear tree
No singing in the olive or the fig or the pear tree
MALE CHORUS & CHILDREN
No more singing in the fig tree
No more singing in the pear tree
Someone’s hanging in the olive
There’s someone hanging in the olive tree
Singing in the fig tree, that’s forbidden
Singing in the pear tree, that’s forbidden
Singing in the love, that’s forbidden
Someone’s hanging in the olive tree
Someone’s hanging in the olive tree
MARIE MARIANNE
You come to earth, you had no choice
Could be a seamstress or serving girl or butcher’s boy
Could be a deadbeat
Or one of the elite
Maybe the bird will find his voice
And make a choice
From all the wheat and all the chaff
It’s the knowledge that you glean
Makes you what you’ll be
And the knowledge that you lack
A rod for your own back
Leaves you in purgatory
Honest bird, simple bird
Make your choice, find your voice
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Make your choice, find your voice
CHORUS
I want to be King, Queen, Courtesan, Dauphin
I want to be Cardinal, Capitaine, King of Kings
I want to be God
SOLO BOY
I want to be the King
SOLO GIRL
And I want to be the Queen
SOLO GIRL
I want to be a Courtesan
SOLO BOY
I want to be the Dauphin
SOLO BOY
I want to be the Cardinal
SOLO BOY
I want to be the Capitaine
CHORUS
I want to be the King of Kings
I want to be God
SOLO BOY
I am a great big pig
SOLO BOY
I am the King of France
SOLO BOY
His wife likes to dance
SOLO BOY
I am the Church of Rome
I stand behind the throne
SOLO BOY
I am the public purse; they think I’m bottomless
SOLO BOY
I am the public accounts; I admit I’m a bit of a mess
SOLO GIRL
I am the American war; they say I’m rather greedy
SOLO GIRL
I am the national debt; I’m big but needy
SOLO BOY
I am a noble
SOLO BOY
I am the clergy
SOLO BOY
I am the ordinary man
SOLO GIRL
I am hungry
SOLO GIRL
I am starving!
CHILDRENS CHORUS
The cake needs re-carving!
TROUBLEMAKER
I’m a ravening wolf
MALE CHORUS
I’m a, I’m a, I’m a ravening wolf
FEMALE CHORUS
I’m a, I’m a, I’m a heart of thorns
MALE CHORUS
It’s the end of the shield of divine law
TROUBLEMAKER
I’m the oak tree
CHILDRENS CHORUS
I am the oak tree and I am the columbine
I am a pig searching for truffles
CHORUS
And I am a peacock whose feathers are ruffled
TROUBLEMAKER
Let us break all the shields
And soil the ermine
Take the oak and the olive tree
Make their philosophy our own
The pigs eat acorns
The rich eat the pork
The poor eat the olives and spit out the stones
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We only ask a little tax from the nobility
The spat out stone will grow in time into an olive tree
We will smoke our pork over a fire of basilic
TROUBLEMAKER
And we will plant the laurel tree
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
To make
TROUBLEMAKER
To make
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
A wreath
TROUBLEMAKER
A wreath
A wreath to crown the Republique
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We will smoke our pork upon the pyre of privilege
The flames of castles burning will dance from ridge to ridge
We’ll break all the shields
Spit out all the stones
Make the oak and the olive tree’s philosophy our own
The pigs eat acorns
The rich eat the pork
The poor eat the olives and spit out the stones
CHORUS
We will smoke the pork on a fire of basilic
We will plant the laurel tree to make our laurel wreaths
To crown, to crown, to crown the Republique!
Scene 3: The Grievances of the People
It is now the very eve of the revolution. The Priest sits at a table at which a number of forlorn and hungry citizens are lined up. He is writing their grievances into a ledger, one of the Cahiers de Doleances established by the King for the election of the Estates General in 1789. The grievances for the most part, and certainly those of these ordinary citizens, go unregarded: the King and Queen watch the proceedings with barely concealed disdain from the royal box in the circus audience. Preoccupied, they pick at the culinary delicacies arrayed before them. The Ringmaster describes conditions in France, points to the King’s neglect and lack of concern, and reveals that the country is broke. The state, no longer able to pay its way, has cut off all payments to its agents and institutions. The bishops, so the Priest proclaims, have been hiding and hoarding grain. Ragged children distribute pamphlets, and issue appeals but no one in authority either reads, listens, or cares. We learn from the Priest that in the town of Manosque several bishops have been stoned to death, and the bakeries plundered. These are the unmistakable gestures of liberation, brutal and hardly rational as yet, but genuine and courageous nevertheless.
RINGMASTER
The sparrow, bedraggled, looks up through the rain
And dreams of a little more grain
The peacock, plump in his place in the sun
Ignores the sound of the distant guns
Their thunder falls upon deaf ears
The peacock never sniffs the air
He fails to see that a starvation diet brings
The scent of riot on the breeze
The King; The State; La France
Each of the above must with regret cut off all payment
The cupboard is bare
The State of France lies in disrepair
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The Bishops hide the grain; to the attics it’s sent
If everyone is hungry, tell me, who can be content
SOLO BOY
Altogether now!
CHILDRENS CHORUS
We hand out pamphlets, we join a club
We shout out slogans, that we make up
We thumb our noses, at those above
We hand out pamphlets, we join a club
TROUBLEMAKER
We join a club, a safety net
But it’s more like a gin trap that’s been carefully set
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We write what we can on the cow’s flayed hide
Our grievances are noted and then brushed to one side
But the pain we feel keeps us alive
TROUBLEMAKER
Bushes and bones and stick and stones
CHORUS
Now, then, women and men
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
In Manosque, the bishops get what they deserve
Stoned to death and we retrieve the grain from their reserves
FEMALE CHORUS
We plunder all the bakeries
CHORUS
Searching for our courage in…
MALE CHORUS
Searching for our courage in…
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Searching for our courage in…
RINGMASTER & MARIE MARIANNE
…this folly
Scene 4:France in Disarray
Accompanied by sounds off-stage of marching feet, of barked orders, and of guns firing, the Ringmaster tells of the march on Paris by 100,000 hungry citizens, three hundred of whom are shot down at the barricades. He adds a warning that such violence will surely beget more violence, and together with Marie Marianne, suggests that only the application of reason to all human affairs can prevent mankind from falling headlong once again into the same old cycle of folly and barbarity… only reason will establish universal acceptance of the Rights of Man. Whilst conceding that there is always a minority of good men and women dedicated to its cause, he momentarily wonders whether there is presently anyone in France who fits the bill. The general feeling is that at this moment there isn’t: even minor reforms carrying almost negligible improvements to the people’s lot are conditional upon continued obedience to the King, and to the principal of his Divine Right – obedience, in fact, to the way everything presently is. It bodes ill for the immediate future.
RINGMASTER
The winter of eighty-eight and nine
Was aching cold, it chilled the very soul
They came from the country in twos and threes
A trickle, a river, a torrent, a sea
Driven by hunger, driven by pain
A hundred thousand reached the barricade
SERGEANT
Company… Halt!
Present… Fire!
RINGMASTER
Three hundred dead, shot down like rats
Three hundred lives, snuffed out like that
Have a care if you treat your people like vermin
You could end up with bloodstained ermine
But soft as ever in the ebb and flow
Sweet reason, deft and incorrupt
Adoring of the human kind illuminates man’s plight
Should he embrace
The brute and base
Tilt blindly at the carousel
Or note, at least, that other voice
And entertain the choice
Between the darkness and the light?
MARIE MARIANNE
To laugh is to know how to live
To see is to know everything
To read is to hold the key that you need
The key you need to set you free
RINGMASTER
All the world can see that in this great library
There’s a good medicine against tyranny
And the movement of the heavens
Though it may last forever
Sees no right, no wrong, no weak, no strong
And the star you see in the sky and the moon and the sun
Shine on prince and pauper alike and favor no one
SOLO GIRL & CHILDRENS CHORUS
The politics of the Rights of Man
Is the sharing of apples with an even hand
To plant a tree where birds may sit
But who in France will nurture it
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Slavers, Landlords, Bigots at your door
Aristocrats, Democrats, survivors of the North American war
Some with heart, some with hate
Some with faith in the human race
And so the loan sharks
Selling dreams in honeyed tones like skylarks
And rats who speak like cats of sacred rights
The sacred rights of the family
MARIE MARIANNE
And all those brave souls both brave enough and crazed enough
To spill their blood for truth alone
That one or two ideas survive, always survive
Writ in blood on paving stones
RINGMASTER
Writ in blood
MARIE MARIANNE
On paving stones
CHILDRENS CHORUS
And the noble class who rule
Having been to all the best schools
Have thought it through and are good enough
To explain what is best for us
It came to them in a dream
In a blinding flash of light
Equality, fraternity and not just in the afterlife
And they promise us reading
And they promise us writing
CHILDRENS CHORUS & FEMALE CHORUS
If we kneel before the King
If we kneel before the King
SOLO CHILD
So this is the State of France
RINGMASTER, REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & MARIE MARIANNE
And on the street corners
The broadsheets all carry the usual story
A people dying to believe in some benign authority
To lead them down a road that’s paved with glory
To lead them down a road that’s paved with glory!
Scene 5: The Fall of the Bastille
An ominous atmosphere prevails. The Ringmaster enters. We hear the sounds of birds flocking before migration. This, in its turn, suggests the accumulation and concentration of energy that occurs immediately prior to a profound event.
The forces and conditions that inspire mass action have come together. Revolutionary ardor and activity is everywhere at large. Priest, Ringmaster, and Chorus relate the sequence of events that is the taking of the Bastille, the most potent symbol of despotism and injustice. The mob, having raided the arsenal at Les Invalides, marches on the prison, kills the jailer, and sets its three prisoners free. The Ringmaster, surveying the carnage, muses on the responsibilities that out devolving to the revolutionaries now that they are beginning to seize power. How will they exercise them? Carrying an injured child in his arms, the Troublemaker, weary though elated after the event, answers the Ringmaster’s concerns by proclaiming that the demise of this hated emblem of state oppression will eventually initiate a new order and ethical system based on justice and fairness – the Rights of Man, no less – that future generations will inherit and live by.
RINGMASTER
Birds flock, when winter settles in
The Harlequin with dunce’s cap and silver horn
All mournful, mocking eye and painted tear
Has seen it all before
The sparrows hurl in face of glazed imperium
Then stunned, affronted, fall
Then, picking up perch braggart on the wire
And launch towards the south, towards the land of fire
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
To freeze in the dead of night
To burn in a law divine
Deep in the crucible brine
The sorrow and the rage entwine
And coil and climb towards the light
The quill is poised above the page
Words like falling rain slake the thirst and dowse the flames
Cooling in the crucible an idea forms
A nugget of belief in the hearts of the poor
That maybe in the dawn’s new light
They have a right to the law
RINGMASTER
So to the streets in the pouring rain
The dispossessed and the drunk and the lame
Gathered in bands and took the Law into their own hands
Like the daring young man on the flying trapeze
Like birds flying into a storm
They took the great leap
And launched themselves into the void
CHORUS
We broke into the arsenal, Les Invalides
Found cannonball and powder, everything we need
We marched on the Bastille
The home of tyranny
Killed the jailer
And set two madmen free
RINGMASTER
When you have an army of your own
You get to choose
Who will live
Who will die
Who will win
Who will lose
TROUBLEMAKER
A piece of prison stone
Is all I have to call my own
Insight to see the other side
Strength and weakness, love and pride
Is all I have to leave my child
If my child survives
He’ll judge men by their deeds and not their smiles
He’ll keep his taste for good red wine
His pride, his friends, his lust for life
These are the things that will avail him
If my child survives…
Curtain
Scene 1: Dances and Marches
The Queen, ensconced at Versailles and aloof from the troubles, is utterly bored. She perks up only at the idea of holding a handsome ball. Her guests, the Ringmaster informs us, are all members of the army regiments still loyal to the King. The ball proceeds. True to its functions of escape and denial, it is a somewhat over-the-top affair. Many of the guests as well as the Queen are obviously drunk. According to the fashion, but no doubt either reluctantly or with heavy irony, she wears a revolutionary’s tri-color rosette in her hair. Embolden by drink, and eager to demonstrate her contempt for the revolution and all it stands for, she tears this from her head, throws it to the floor, and grinds it underfoot. Her officer guests, obliged to wear the tri-color themselves, immediately follow suit. The realities of the revolution are about to burst in on them, however. In Paris there is still nothing to eat. The march on Versailles from Paris, which includes amongst its numbers 7000 hungry and bedraggled women, arrives at the palace doors. The marchers are incensed by the Queen’s feast. The Priest tries to protect Marie Antoinette from the more aggressive elements, some of which are carrying pikes with severed heads still attached. At the same time, and in an effort to help her locate even a hint of her humanity, he attempts to remind her of her childhood meeting in her Viennese garden all those years ago. For a fleeting moment she appears to remember, but almost immediately shakes her head and turns her back on him. Together with the King, who is seized in another part of the palace, and the Dauphin, they are taken to Paris and the Tuileries, goaded en route by the crowd.
RINGMASTER
Versailles the leaves fall
It’s that time of year
Her Majesty is bored with all
This endless calling for reform
The sound of young men marching
Is like music to her ear
The sound of young men marching
Is like music to her ear
But she dreams of young men dancing
QUEEN
Dancing, dancing…
RINGMASTER
And the dream of young men dancing
Hangs like birdsong on the air
Now Hear Ye!
Her Majesty invites the regiments
To a Grand Ball
Versailles in October
The Queen is having a fling
She invites all the regiments
Loyal to the King
Wining and dining and making eyes at them all
Smiling in the limelight
The Queen is having a ball
OFFICER
The Queen is smiling
The Queen is laughing
She makes eyes at one and all
CHORUS
She’s having a ball
RINGMASTER
Flushed with wine Marie Antoinette
Casts down her red, white and blue rosette
An impetuous and dangerous vignette
OFFICER
And then with her charming little shoe
She grinds the precious symbol underfoot
What a lark, what a hoot
The regiments all follow suit
The regiments
CHORUS
The regiments
OFFICER
The regiments
CHORUS
The regiments
OFFICER & CHORUS
The regiments all follow suit
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Red, white and blue and they all follow suit
CHILDRENS CHORUS
Red, white and blue and they all follow suit
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
In Paris there is nothing to eat
CHORUS
Not a crust, not a crumb
Not a grain of wheat
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
They think that starving may weaken the man in the street
CHORUS
Not a chance, they’re used to the heat
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
In Versailles they drink wine and dine on freshly baked bread
CHORUS
The peacock sprawls upon his bed
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We choke on the bones of swallowed pride instead
CHORUS
Soon they’ll see what a feast they’ve made
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
A bitter feast
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
For the Parisians
CHORUS
…in the right flood
RINGMASTER
These hags, these shrews, these courtesans
These animals we call women
Are marching through the pouring rain
To bring the baker home again
CHORUS
Louis protests; he cries
KING
Veto, veto! I’ll give you all the bread if you’ll just let me go
RINGMASTER
These fishwives with their babies, these animals called ladies
Have carried back here to Paris
The King, The Queen and the Dauphin
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Versailles has bloomed to the regiment’s final bow
CHORUS
Versailles bloomed
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
All fawning before
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDRENS CHORUS
The Austrian cow!
CHORUS
Fawning on bended knee
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The party’s over
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDRENS CHORUS
Take down the marquee
CHORUS
Hang up your dancing shoes in the hanging tree
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We’ll take the baker back to Paris
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDRENS CHORUS
Back to Paris
TROUBLEMAKER & MALE CHORUS
He’ll make bread for the price we decree
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, CHILDRENS CHORUS & FEMALE CHORUS
The shrews, the hags and the courtesans
TROUBLE MAKER & MALE CHORUS
These animals we call women
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, CHILDRENS CHORUS & FEMALE CHORUS
Will take back the King to Paris
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDRENS CHORUS
The crowd now seven thousand strong
TROUBLE MAKER & MALE CHORUS
Bore the royal coach along
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDRENS CHORUS
With trophies raised on pikes aloft
TROUBLE MAKER & MALE CHORUS
The guardsman’s heads they had cut off
TROUBLEMAKER
Adieu Versailles
MALE CHORUS
It rains, it pours, the crowd roars
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Hold the severed heads on high
TROUBLE MAKER & MALE CHORUS
It rains, it pours, the crowd roars
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Bonjour Paris
CHORUS
Adieu Versailles
COMPANY
Bonjour Paris, adieu Versailles
Scene 2: The Letter
Although he has accepted the Declaration of the Rights of Man, made provision for the free circulation of grain, and outwardly advertises heartfelt support for revolutionary reform by wearing a red revolutionary cap, Louis, along with the Queen, is a virtual prisoner in the Tuileries Palace. He spends his time fiddling at his hobby as a locksmith. He is seen occasionally pausing over his locks to sip coffee from a cup on his desk. Eventually, he breaks off entirely to write a letter. Reciting its contents out loud, he reveals his true feelings and appeals to his cousin, Bourbon of Spain, to help him whip the revolutionary dogs back into their kennels. The concessions he has had to make, the lies he has had to tell, and the red cap he has to wear in order to retain some semblance of power and authority, are repugnant to him. When he finishes the letter, the King seals the envelope then rings for it to be collected. The Ringmaster enters, takes the letter, and the King’s empty coffee cup. He walks away fro the King’s presence, and addresses the audience, commenting almost in wonder at the King’
s rapid fall from grace. The pace of change is by no means slowing, however, nor is the stunning sequence of events at an end. Reminded by the empty coffee cup in his hand that trade of all kinds has been stifled under the present conditions, the Ringmaster hints at disturbances overseas.
RINGMASTER
Imprisoned in the Tuileries
The King makes locks
To the sound of the ticking of clocks
And the rain falling on his window pane
Makes him think of this cousin Bourbon
Safe in his castle in Spain
KING
My dear Cousin Bourbon of Spain
This letter I entrust to a courier faithful and sure
Is to calm your fears and tell you cousin dear
My heart is pure
This red cap I wear
These lies they’ve made me swear
Are repugnant to my soul
My very bones cry out in pain
Cousin Bourbon of Spain
You know my feelings well
You’ve heard what I’ve had to say
But now all my beliefs
Have been snatched by these thieves
And cruelly torn away
But none of the scum who run through the streets
Taking law from a bottle of wine
Could presume to assume the fealty due
To me or to you from your subject or mine
My dear Cousin Bourbon of Spain
Let’s make a pact, let’s campaign
Let us whip back to their kennels again
These dogs who speak of virtue
Help me, cousin
Help me cousin Bourbon of Spain
RINGMASTER
The ship of state is all at sea
The King confused
‘Tis hard enough to place one foot before the last
To tread a path preordained by a law divine
But to pad all aimless on a shifting sea
Each man an island free to choose his fate
God’s death; what dizzy, giddy, fall from grace
Commerce, that barometer of faith
Tolls warning of the coming storm
No coffee in the marketplace
No peace on earth for rich or poor
Scene 3: Silver Sugar and Indigo
Mirroring events in France, French colonies in the Caibbean, especially Santo Domingo, erupt. Planters and landowners try to wrest power from the royal governors, and ordinary mulattos rise in revolt. In France members of the National Assembly (Robespierre, Brissot, and Condorcet) call for the emancipation of slaves. This is affirmed by the Ringmaster, the Chorus, a Revolutionary Slave, Marie Marianne, and Condorcet. There is, as always, opposition to this measure. The profit motive oils the wheels of commerce and misdirects mankind’s finest and wisest impulses, generating shame and misery in their place. The outrage of slavery, both Marie Marianne and Condorcet agree, must be abandoned for all time.
TROUBLEMAKER
How can you sleep?
How can you think?
How can you live with no coffee to drink?
You’d better pray you don’t have a sweet tooth
The price of sugar is through the roof
Robespierre, Brissot and Condorcet all agree
We must set the blackbird free
But sugar and silver and indigo make even the wisest man “idiot!”
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
To the Windward Isles
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
It comes today
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
The wind of change
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Blows this way
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
In Santo Domingo and elsewhere
To slaves of sugar and despair
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Silver, sugar, indigo
Silver, sugar, indigo
Silver, sugar, indigo
Silver, sugar, indigo
Silver, sugar, indigo
Silver, sugar, indigo
Silver, sugar, indigo
Silver, sugar, indigo
Make even the wisest man “idiot!”
Make even the wisest man “idiot!”
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
Bring freedom to the
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Colonies
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Act on principal
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
Equality, fraternity and
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Liberty
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
Are
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Not just word after all
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
But
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Sugar is sweet
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
And
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Coffee is strong
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE
And
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Hope goes down with the sun
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
And the sun goes down behind
CONDORCET & MARIE MARIANNE
Mountains of silver
Valleys of sugar
And shiploads of indigo
Make even the wisest man “idiot!”
REVOLUTIONARY SLAVE & CHORUS
Make even the wisest man “idiot!”
MARIE MARIANNE
So come ye ships
Across the sea
Let’s cast into the deep
This shame and misery
In Paris they condemn our rage
Condorcet stands his ground and says:
CONDORCET
My friends if we believe in freedom
Then we must unlock this cage
COMPANY
Vive Condorcet, hear him scold them
The frigid reactionary old men
Good God above it’s over
Enough is enough!
Enough, enough, enough
To the Windward Isles
Revolution has arrived
They will only free us when
They need us to fight for them
CONDORCET & MARIE MARIANNE
Cast into the deep sea
This shame and this misery
Silver, Sugar and Indigo
Makes even the wisest man “idiot!”
CHORUS
Even the wisest man “idiot!”
COMPANY
“Idiot!”
Scene 4: The Papal Edict
Back in Europe, the Pope condemns the Rights of Man, the Declaration of which was passed by the National Assembly in 1789, and which has subsequently taken on the aspect of a political manifesto, as a sin. News as well as revolutionary ideas now reach the streets almost at once via the printing press and pamphleteering, and no edict of any kind can hold the latter back. The Priest (from a pulpit), the Troublemaker, and various others vent their anger at the Pope’s attempted intervention, and vow to continue to strive for the universal application of the Rights of Man regardless of this new sanction.
RINGMASTER
Trade winds
Buffeting the sweet molasses smoke of burning cane
Push, swelling East the spreading ripples of unrest
Back to Europe and the rain
The Holy See safe on Tiber’s shore
Surveys the flotsam on the tide
Ignores the cries of drowning men and
Passes on the other side
TROUBLEMAKER
In Paris there’s a rumble under the ground
It’s a sound of the printing press
And like a volcano when it blows
It spews out ideas like confetti, like snow
BOY
Read all about it!
Hold the front page!
The street’s a theatre
Each café…
CHORUS & CHILDREN
…A stage!
RINGMASTER
But under every café awning
There appears this papal warning
TROUBLEMAKER
His Holiness the Pope, I fear
Believes the Rights of Man to be a bad idea
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The Pope does not want the Rights of Man
COMPANY
The Pope does not want the Rights of Man
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
He finds them too profane
COMPANY
He finds them too profane
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
When a man bites the apple
COMPANY
When a man bites the apple
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
He gets a taste for liberty
COMPANY
He gets a taste for liberty
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
He gets…a taste for liberty
MALE CHORUS
He gets…a taste for liberty
ALTAR BOY
The Pope declares that it’s a sin
MALE CHORUS
The Pope declares that it’s a sin
TROUBLEMAKER
So let us raid the apple tree
Although the Pope does not agree
He blesses us with sleight of hand
He doesn’t want the Rights of Man
ALTAR BOY
The Pope declares that it’s a sin
MALE CHORUS
The Pope declares that it’s a sin
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The Pope declares that it’s…a sin
People are sharing the apples
The Pope says, “Bless you but it’s still a sin”
COMPANY
The Pope says, “Bless you but it’s still a sin”
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The Pope gives his blessing with sleight of hand
COMPANY
The Pope gives his blessing with sleight of hand
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
He doesn’t want the
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & MALE CHORUS
Rights…of Man
ALTAR BOY
The Pope declares that it’s a sin
MALE CHORUS
The Pope declares that it’s a sin
TROUBLEMAKER
But the Pope can change his mind like that
Like trying on a different hat
Turning on the stars above the politics and God and love
Turning like an apple that shrivels on the sand
And when the core is rotten
No one tastes the Rights of Man
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
You never taste the Rights of Man…
CHORUS
He does not want the Rights of Man
The Pope does not want the Rights of Man
He’s made his stand
He washes his hands
The Pope does not want… the Rights of Man
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Nothing but a prayer to hope for
Nothing but a little wine to dream
Nothing for this hunger but a handful of grain
The horizon always the same
REVOLUTIOANRY PRIEST & TROUBLEMAKER
Rooted in this earth
Like our parents dead and gone
Like the trees which are our emblem
The horizon just goes on and on
We’ll change it with a forest
REVOLUTIOANRY PRIEST, TROUBLEMAKER & CHORUS
The olive and the oak tree
Will be our flags!
Curtain
Scene 1: The Fugitive King
From the circus ring the Ringmaster reminds us that change, still relentlessly underway, has already weakened the power of the crown. In fact, one by one all the political presumptions of the ancient regime have been attacked and destroyed. As the Ringmaster retreats into the shadows, we are taken back to the Tuileries Palace where both the King and Queen bewail their plight: the good times at Versailles are gone; their children play outside in a garden which is hardly more than a prison, and they have even been prevented by the mob from a visit to St. Cloud, where they hoped “to breathe freely” for a moment. With their safety no longer guaranteed, Louis and his family attempt to flee Paris for the Provinces. The Ringmaster reveals the details of their failed escape, their capture, and their return to Paris. As he does so various incidents are acted out for the audience by circus performers. Assuming the title of Baroness Korrf, the Queen, with the King disguised as her valet, sets out to join the Marquis of Bouille, a loyal royalist, in the Alsace Lorraine. On the way, a keen-eyed postmaster recognizes Marie Antoinette and raises the alarm. The party is intercepted at Varennes. Distrust of both King and Queen, already general, is greatly exacerbated by their attempted flight. Despite threats of foreign intervention (the Brunswick Manifesto proclaimed Prussia’s intention to invade France) to protect the King and his interests, he and the Queen are escorted back to Paris and its openly hostile crowds. The atmosphere grows more and more charged. The National Assembly, having temporarily suspended the King’s remaining powers, but still keen to retain a constitutional monarchy, now exonerates the King of any potentially treasonable intentions in his failed escape. The people, however, represented here by the Chorus, express increasingly vehement Republican sentiments. A crowd of 6000 march to the Champs du Mars to sign a Republican petition. The National Guard opens fire, and fifty unarmed citizens are mown down. Even now the National Assembly advocates preserving the monarchy, and in the Constitution of 1791 does precisely this. The King, still dressed as a valet from his flight to Varennes, is escorted from the royal box to the center of the ring. There, he is re-invested with all the trappings of the monarchy. Bowed down by the weight of his vestments, which include the crown, orb and scepter, and by the responsibilities that accompany them, he drags himself, now an unwilling and pathetic figure, back to the box.
RINGMASTER
And high above
Homing in the restless sky
Rooks, melancholy, proclaim a schism between
God, sacred, and the Crown, profane
Between the heavens and the King
The dark horizon cracks a crooked grin
Admitting one small grain of change
Then two, then four, then bit by bit
Then tock by tick
All the old presumptions hove in range
KING
The King is afraid that his kingdom is slipping away
QUEEN
The Queen pines for the good times at Versailles
KING
He works on his locks to the sound of the ticking of clocks
QUEEN
The children play in a garden that’s ringed with steel
KING
They wanted to visit St. Cloud to be able to
KING & QUEEN
Breathe in the air
OFFICER
The National Guard forbade them to leave
KING & QUEEN
But the Marquis of Boulli had a trump card up his sleeve
RINGMASTER
The Marquis of Boulli a good General
And fiercely loyal to the crown
With his army in the East
Hatched a plan to see the King released
QUEEN
The Queen assuming the title Baroness Korrf
Her papers signed by the King of course
Set forth before the break of day
To join up with Boulli in Alsace Lorraine
OFFICER
From the shadows King Louis disguised as a humble valet
Sneaks out to make his getaway
With a small entourage of course
OFFICER & CHORUS
Just a few hundred light horse
TROUBLEMAKER
Well let him go, let him run, with his Austrian whore
TROUBLEMAKER & MALE CHORUS
Let him go to Prussia
OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
Let him go to Austria
Let him go and die there
TROUBLEMAKER & MALE CHORUS
Let him go
OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
Let him die
TROUBLEMAKER, OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
Let him rot with his Austrian Queen…
CHORUS
That the Republic at last can come into being
But wait, fate would intervene
OFFICER
A keen-eyed postmaster by chance
OFFICER & CHORUS
Recognized the King and Queen and
CHORUS
Rode ahead to raise the alarm
RINGMASTER
In Parliament the moderates have their say
CONDORCET
The King has not fled
He was kidnapped instead
And spirited away
OFFICER
To suggest that the King would run is a damnable lie
CONDORCET
It sticks in our throats and conflicts with our national pride
OFFICER
But the Austrian court
And Brunswick of course
Say they’ll declare war
If the King’s not restored
TROUBLEMAKER (mimicking Brunswick)
You must leave the King alone
Or all Paris will be torn down
Down to the very last stone
TROUBLEMAKER & OFFICER
Paris will be pulverized
Down to the very last bone
QUEEN
When the carriage returned
The acrid smoke of bridges burned
Hung heavy, like stifled sigh
And they say the Queen had a tear in her eye
OFFICER CHORUS
When through the carriage windows A few drops
Louis turned to face his peers in her eye
A loyal friend, the Comte de Dampierre A nice touch, a good try
Doffed his cap with elegance Too little
In deference to the King too late
A brave and foolish thing to do For a last roll
In light of the prevailing mood of the die
QUEEN
Witness the act of an honest man
To stand with cap in hand before the baying throng
Was a brave gesture but a foolish one
RINGMASTER & CHORUS
The crowd in a gesture less than elegant
RINGMASTER
Brutally remove his head
CHORUS
Brutally remove his head
CHILDRENS CHORUS
To take your hat off
Is the gesture of a toff
But even his lordship needs a head
To take his hat off of
So Dampierre lost his life
By being somewhat too polite
In face of all the pain and fear that festered
For more than a thousand years
SERGEANT (off stage)
By the left, Quick March!
CHILDRENS CHORUS
Dampierre has lost his head
The King has lost his crown
The carriage rolls through the streets
The crowd jeers, the wheels squeak
Hey, hey, what goes around
Always comes around
MALE CHORUS
In Germany and England
They celebrate our liberty
Over there by and by
They’ll have their 14th of July
In Germany and England they fete our
MALE CHORUS & CHILDREN
Liberty
OFFICER
The National Assembly try to whitewash the King
MALE CHORUS
His brothers in law
Are camped on every border
They fear to depose him
Would mean war
MARIE MARIANNE, RINGMASTER, OFFICER & CHORUS
But feelings run deep
And the man in the street
Hungry, weak but unbowed
Scents the taste so sweet of peacock meat
As it wafts over the crowd
So they march to the Champs du Mars
To demand Republic now
CHILDRENS CHORUS
We sing in the Champs du Mars
We sing of what we want
Republic with no delay
SERGEANT
Company Halt!
CHILDRENS CHORUS
Republic here, now, today
The National Assembly
Has got it wrong
SERGEANT
Present…
CHILDRENS CHORUS
We sing in the Champs du Mars
SERGEANT
Take Aim…
CHILDRENS CHORUS
We sing of what we want
SERGEANT
Fire!…
CHILDRENS CHORUS
Repub…
RINGMASTER
The echoes never fade from that fusillade
Lafayette fired upon
An unarmed crowd, six thousand strong
The fragile ship of State
Sinks beneath the waves
The crashing sea of blood
Drowns out the sound of the parade
They tidied up the Champs du Mars
They piled up the dead
The dead whose only crime had been
To dream of freedom
The dead who’d never get to see
The King would be restored instead
Scene 2: The Commune de Paris
With the monarchy restored despite the growing tide of opposition, Louis’ future, as well as that of the Crown’s, seems even more in doubt. In Parliament, from where the Ringmaster addresses us, the various factions argue over the fate of the Capet dynasty. The moderates (the Girondins) cognizant of the threats from Austria and Germany to support the King with military action, are loath to bring him down. Republican fervor, however, now concentrated in the people’s insurrectionary Commune de Paris, seems irresistible. The National Guard, including the Marseille contingent, arrive in Paris to protect the city should the Austrian army endanger it, and, lending its support to the Commune, demands that Louis be deposed on the spot. Only Swiss guards defend the royal family at the Tuileries Palace. The Priest and the Chorus (the people of the Commune) condemn the moderates in Parliament who eventually fall in line. The battle for the Tuileries Palace commences. Hundreds of people are killed before the palace is taken. The Priest appears to be the only man left standing. The National Assembly, he informs us, now takes the stand of the dead and the dying: the monarchy is finished.
RINGMASTER
The Monarchy restored
The Crown sits tilted and uneasy now
The Girondins, one eye cocked nervous in the East
Are loath to bring it down
TROUBLEMAKER
But at the gates
Beyond the palsied grip of limp and timid politics
The Marseillais are girded for the fray
With pike and pick and bloodied stick
They’ll plant the laurel tree
And their song will be a fanfare for the Commune de Paris…
MALE CHORUS
Vive la Commune de Paris
For the love of God
In the name of freedom
For the crippled and the poor
RINGMASTER
The bells ring out the tambourines beat
The rise and fall of voices
The sound of marching feet
Signals the demise of the Capet dynasty
TROUBLEMAKER
It’s not whether now but when
The King and Queen have only men
From Switzerland to defend the Tuileries
Remorseless as a rising tide
The san colottes prepare to die
Vive la Commune de Paris
CHORUS
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Vive la Commune de Paris in God’s name
CHORUS
In God’s name
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Vive la Commune de Paris
For the
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
Halt and the maimed
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Who have no Pope and no hope of paradise
CHORUS
No hope of paradise
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
And nothing to lose but their miserable earthly lives…
CHORUS
Nothing to lose but their lives
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Everyone under the sun has the power
To change the way the world is arranged
MALE CHORUS
If you don’t use it
The powers that be will abuse it
Give up but half of your power
And you’ll get shafted
CHORUS
Vi……ve la Commune de Paris
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
Vive la, vive la, vive la Commune
Vive la, vive la, vive la Commune de Pairs
RINGMASTER
The National Assembly is confused
The Girondins blow back and forth
Like flags and ashes scattered by the truth
BOY
Oi, Mister…What is a Girondin?
RINGMASTER
A Girondin is careful of the company he keeps
He looks to find a sign before he leaps
TROUBLEMAKER
Like ranks of Marseillaise, six hundred deep
Arranged before the Tuileries
CHORUS
It’s the end of the monarchy
Vive la Commune de Paris!
RINGMASTER
The presence of the Prussians on the border
Is a worrisome thing
The Brunswick manifesto
Serves only to stiffen the sinews
And weaken the King
To depose him now
Fills the Girondin hearts with fear
But the Prussians cross the border
And the order of the day becomes clear
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDRENS CHORUS
The monarchy is over
No more days in clover
CHORUS
The monarchy, c’est fini
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDRENS CHORUS
Brunswick is a liar
Just listen to our cannon fire!
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The National Assembly comes in line
With the halt and the maimed
And the dead and the dying
The monarchy, c’est fini
Scene 3: The Execution of Louis Capet
The war against Austria and Prussia, breaking out in the Spring of 1792, provides grounds to accuse Louis of treachery. The Ringmaster tells us that the people have been to see the King, demanding that he drink the health of the nation and again wear the red cap of liberty rather than look for comfort to his émigré brothers and their foreign allies in Austria. Apparently, the King no longer really cared. Donning the red cap too late to satisfy his visitors, they unceremoniously ripped it from his head. Now he is resigned to his fate. As a guillotine is rolled into the ring, the revolutionary dead appear to rise as ghosts. The Ringmaster gives a running commentary whilst the King, “a simple soul not bad, not mad”, approaches the scaffold. As he mounts the steps to the blade, Marie Marianne asserts that too many people have died for the cause of freedom at the battle of the Tuileries for him to escape death now. Besides, the Priest adds, the King has betrayed the crown’s sacred trust. It is necessary to take his life to wipe the slate clean, to begin again. The Troublemaker reiterates this notion. The ghosts raise their arms, pointing to the guillotine. As the blade falls, they lower them. Everyone stands motionless as the guillotine is trundled from the ring. The Queen, and her son, the Dauphin, who have been watching from their places in the royal box, descend to the ring, and move amongst the stationary ghosts. The Queen turns to her son. Terror, blood, and the blade are ever the constants, she sadly tells him.
RINGMASTER
In the spring of ninety-two
The Austrians and the Prussians too
Crossed the line
The war had come
The people went to see the King
Reluctantly he let them in
RINGMASTER & CHORUS
And over tea they said that
He must choose one hat
RINGMASTER
A crown in Koblenz with his friends
Or if he choose to make amends
He might adopt
CHORUS
He might adopt
RINGMASTER & CHORUS
Their scarlet bonnet
RINGMASTER
Surprise, surprise, when left to choose
Too late he choose “The Bonnet Rouge”
MARIE MARIANNE
Adieu Louis for you it’s over
Too many carpenters and bookkeepers and gardeners
Gave their ordinary lives to be free
On the battlefields of the Tuileries
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
To be King is a sacred trust
But you betrayed us
Poor King Louis
We must take your life
Clean the slate, start anew
Poor Louis, it’s over for you
TROUBLEMAKER
The time for grief is not yet here
It’s to build a world without tears
That we toll the funeral bell
And shed our precious blood
Poor Louis and your precious blood as well
CHILDRENS CHORUS
Poor King Louis, you’ll soon be dead
Poor King Louis, far from your bed
TROUBLEMAKER
Far from your bed
CHILDRENS CHORUS
Life must always end to start anew
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Poor King Louis
It’s over for you!
QUEEN
It’s always the terror you can rely on
To eat its way into your heart
Like rust and there to spy on
The blood, the blade, the speeches made
That mingle in your very entrails
Scene 4: Marie Antoinette – The Last Night on Earth
The Ringmaster returns. The ghostly figures remain. The Ringmaster tells us of the Queen’s subsequent plight. Bereft and hated, she is imprisoned with her son. We see her in the company of the boy, treating him with courtly deference, as if he were King. This, so the Ringmaster informs us, naturally reminds her enemies of the threat of succession. The boy is therefore taken away. The Queen now appears to be utterly lost, shorn of everything. In a trance, she ‘dances’ with the ghostly specters. The light changes, the dance ends. A jailer brings her writing materials. In the freshly changed scene, the window, and the oak tree from the garden in Act 1, Scene 1 become apparent. Reading aloud as she writes a final letter to her sister-in-law, the Queen now movingly expresses the pain she feels at having to abandon her children. It is her consuming regret. God, how she misses them! she is unaware of the Priest who has been attentively listening. This is the same Priest who was in the garden with her when they were both children, the same Priest who tried to remind her of that occasion in Act 2, Scene 1. Now he tries to remind her again. when she hears his voice, the Queen freezes as if startled. Yet she still doesn’t turn to face him. In an echo from the past her mother seems to be calling her in. With her back to the Priest, the Queen protests that she knows him not. The Priest gently persists, urging her to remember the oak and the peach tree, and her mother calling. Quite suddenly the Queen begins to remember. In shock, she clutches at her throat. Taking his cue, the Priest continues a silent appeal. Finally, the Queen turns to him, and, in a moment of fleeting recognition, clasps his outstretched hands. He pulls her to his breast in a desperate embrace. Having recognized in him her childhood friend, she welcomes him, but as a man rather than a Priest. The Priest kneels, closing his eyes in supplication. Unknown to him whilst he prays clowns lead her to a waiting tumbrel, and she is drawn away. When he eventually opens his eyes and sees her leaving, he tries to follow, but is prevented from doing so by one of the clowns. The Priest and Marie Antoinette then raise their arms to one another, but the Queen slowly and relentlessly departs on her final journey.
RINGMASTER
The window now bereft, abhorred
Counts numbered days the summer long
In Temple Prison with her spawn
On pretext of ‘unnatural acts’
With jests and jibes and guile and facts
The ‘sans culottes’ prune the tree
Now a sister to the dispossessed
The halt, the maimed and all the rest
Like a leaf on a pitiless sea
Shorn of family and rank
Humbled in the dank air
She mingles with the dancers macabre
And the ghostly dancers twirl
In the dread minuet
And beggar the illusions of that little Austrian Girl
QUEEN
Adieu my good and tender sister
I am condemned to die
My only regret is to abandon my children
My children, my God, how it tears me to leave them
My love for them was always first and last
My God, I miss my children so
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Madame Antoine, if we could only turn back the clock
To that garden in Vienna
MARIE THERESE & FEMALE CHORUS
Madame Antoine, Madame Antoine
Mother is calling, darkness is falling
QUEEN
Monsieur, I know thee not
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The oak tree without and the peach tree within
Your mother was calling
The darkness was falling
QUEEN
My little cock robin pray kneel here beside me
The dance is about to begin
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Courage Madame, in this great rebirth
Like wind-fallen fruit we return to the earth
QUEEN
I saw but a priest
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
I am but a man
Madame, please take my hand
QUEEN
Monsieur, please take my hand
Scene 5: Liberty
The Queen is dead. All who have witnessed her execution reflect on the contradictions and ambiguities inherent in the use of the guillotine. Can the use of violence and terror, even be justified to achieve liberty? A question that haunts us to this day. Marie Marianne, the Ringmaster and the Priest separately and finally together express the hope that lasting peace and a full realization of the dreams of improvement that animated the revolution will come. This hope, this dream, they say, needs to be fully understood and appreciated, as do the reasons that promote unhappiness and civil unrest. Relative security, sufficiency, and serenity are the right of all. No one should thrive at the expense of another. This Republic, this great possibility, is within us all. Ca Ira.
TROUBLEMAKER
We want to get rid of the Guillotine
And abolish pain somehow
But to make a world free of tears
We build these scaffolds now
OFFICER
Come dry your tears and pray explain
How can we abolish pain?
If we don’t build these scaffolds now
These instruments of injustice
These tools of execution
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We’ve given to the Guillotine
More blood than you have ever seen
What end could justify these means?
OFFICER
We’ve given more of our blood
MALE CHORUS
We’ve given
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We’ve given more of our blood
MALE CHORUS
We’ve given
OFFICER
We’ve given more of our blood
MALE CHORUS
More of our blood
CHORUS
We’ve given, we’ve given
More blood, than we could turn to love
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & OFFICER
Than we could ever hope could turn to
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Love
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & OFFICER
More blood, than we could
Ever hope could turn to love
CHORUS
We’ve given, we’ve given
More blood, than we could turn to love
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Come angels of mercy
Come doves of peace
Shine a light on all these warring clubs and cliques
OFFICER
The jackal and hyena who prowl these city streets
Would turn in their own mother for a little extra meat
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
From the piles of dead the Republic comes to life
Her mutilated body reeling like a drunken fishwife
Gives birth to the future
OFFICER
Gives birth on the street
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, OFFICER & CHORUS
Impure and exultant she gives birth to the dream
RINGMASTER & MARIE MARIANNE
When the dream
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
When the dream
RINGMASTER & MARIE MARIANNE
Is understood
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Is understood
RINGMASTER, REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & MARIE MARIANNE
That no man should live in chains
That the great and the small are equal after all
RINGMASTER
And in the bushes where they survive
The winter hail and the slaughter
The birds were attacked by the dogs and the rats
Hiding round every corner
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
When you’re a rat caught in a trap with not even cheese you get mean
CHILDRENS CHORUS
But we are not rats
OFFICER
When you’re a rabid dog you need to spread your disease
CHILDRENS CHORUS
But we are not dogs
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & OFFICER
When you’re a man and they say you should be an angel
CHILDRENS CHORUS
We’re not even human
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
When you’re less than nothing
OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
Less than nothing
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, OFFICER & CHILDRENS CHORUS
Less than nothing as sure the sparrows sing
MARIE MARIANNE
If wishes give us power to make it all come right
If we could walk through mirrors
If we could touch the light
We’d shrug off our illusions and what was left would be
The strength and bravery
To feel what we feel
And be what we’d be…
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Of all the women none can hold a light to liberty
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
With wings to fly and eyes to see
TROUBLEMAKER & CHORUS
She’s the one who loves us
The one that we adore
When you’re laughing with the sun out
Or lying wounded in a dug out
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
With wings to fly and eyes to see
Freedom is her name
OFFICER
She makes a fearsome ally
If you stand up with no shame
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
But liberty is nothing if you love her on your knees
OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
And liberty can’t hear you!
When you’re hanging from an olive tree!
RINGMASTER
If we don’t founder in pursuit of luxury
In forgetfulness of others needs
And in the depths of our own beliefs
MARIE MARIANNE
If we don’t hide in that solitary dream
Safe in our shells
In respect for the powers that be
And in fear of ourselves
CHILDRENS CHORUS
If wishes could come true
If mirrors could be seen through
No more mystery
Only the strength and bravery
To help one another
To see what it’s like to be…
Happy!
No bird needs to be afraid
To leave his nest and to parade
Up and down the boulevard all day
All day
All day!
No bird must be greedy
And eat up all the seed
‘Til every bird has had enough
Every bird
Be he rich or be he poor
Be he great or be he small
every bird, every bird, every bird, every bird
Will go to the ball
RINGMASTER
If this life’s a journey we take
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
If the secret the sharing of cake
MARIE MARIANNE
Holds the key, holds the key to joy
RINGMASTER
And unlocks these doors inside
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Where Republic must surely hide
MARIE MARIANNE
If wishes really could come true
RINGMASTER
If we see through the illusions
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
And abide by the constitution
MARIE MARIANNE
There’ll be human rights for everyone
CHORUS
Unique and universal
COMPANY
For everyone
Under the sun!
RINGMASTER, REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, MARIE MARIANNE, TROUBLEMAKER & OFFICER
If we are not lost in these towers of ivory
In respect for the strong
And in fear of our need to belong
The promise of Republic lies within
Ca Ira
COMPANY
Ca Ira
Curtain
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