THE CHORUS
PART ONE:
England and America: 1945–1975
JEREMY CROWTHER
PAVEL LERMONTOV
MARTIN GLASS
JAMES GRAIN
PHIL
AMANDA
BRYONY
JUDY
PHYLLIS WEINER
POLICEMAN
DETECTIVE
PAPERSELLERS
TWO LIBERTARIANS
MRS GLASS
SMOKER
MOLLY
END OF PART ONE:
Glienicke Bridge: 1978
KGB OFFICER
AMBASSADOR
SVETLANA DANILOVA
MIKLOS PALOCZI
The Eastern Bloc: 1956–1971
CLARA IVANOVNA
ERICA MOLNAR
OLD WOMAN
SOVIET SOLDIERS
SOVIET SERGEANT
YOUNG SOLDIER
HUNGARIAN PRISONERS
PUGACHEV
SKURATOV
GUARDS
KOROLENKO
PRISONER
OFFICER
DOCTOR
CHIEF OFFICER
PART THREE:
England: 1978–1984
REPORTERS
CAMERAMEN
OFFICIAL (HEATHROW)
SIR HUGH TRELAWNEY
WAITER
TANYA
Suggested Doubling
For a cast of ten:
JEREMY, PARTYGOER, SERGEANT, SKURATOV, OFFICER
MARTIN, YOUNG SOLDIER
JAMES, PALOCZI
CLARA, JUDY, 6TH PAPERSELLER, LIBERTARIAN, SVETLANA
PHIL, 1ST PAPERSELLER, SMOKER, 1ST SOLDIER, KOROLENKO, WAITER
BRYONY, 4TH PAPERSELLER, LIBERTARIAN, MOLLY, 2ND SOLDIER, TANYA
PHYLLIS WEINER, 3RD PAPERSELLER, MRS GLASS, PARTYGOER, OLD WOMAN, KGB OFFICER, DOCTOR
LERMONTOV, 2ND PAPERSELLER
DETECTIVE, 5TH PAPERSELLER, PARTYGOER, AMBASSADOR, PUGACHEV, CHIEF OFFICER, TRELAWNEY
Although people speak in Russian and Hungarian, all languages are rendered in English. When Lermontov is speaking English, he does so with a Russian accent. Palozci speaks Russian well enough not to need an accent; his English is good too, but accented. When Lermontov and Paloczi speak to each other, without wishing others to hear, they speak in Russian, rendered as accentless English.
On a couple of occasions, Lermontov asks Paloczi for an English word. So, when he is groping for the word ‘novelty’, we assume that the phrase ‘new thing’ is, as it were, the Russian words for ‘novelty’.
A forward slash (/) indicates when the next speaker begins speaking.