scene eleven

“the carnival-beauty and the beast”

A carnival occupies a section of the public playgrounds. It is like the set for a rather fantastic ballet as the play progresses further from realism: this may be justified, if necessary, by Ben’s increasing intoxication and the exaltation of love in the Girl.

At stage right is a booth containing a perpendicular roulette wheel of a sort, surrounded by the usual assortment of prizes: a beautiful Spanish shawl or mantilla and brilliant cheap jewelry among other articles being touted by the Barker.

Immediately adjoining this is a little box stage with brilliant red and gold silk brocade curtains: the footlights are burning, the curtains closed. Beneath the stage there is a placard that says: PETIT THEATRE PRESENTS “BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.” PERFORMANCE: MIDNIGHT.

Above these gorgeously colored little structures, always turning at some distance, the upper half of it visible, is the glittering Ferris wheel which had originally drawn our two protagonists into adventure. The carousel, not visible, can always be heard, however: it has a light repetitious music, somewhat minor—sometimes fast and sometimes slow—with many starts and stops and now and again the distant, indistinct childlike laughter and shouting of the pleasure seekers who ride upon it.

Six or eight people compose the “CROWD” and “AUDIENCE” before the wheel and the stage. They may very well be the same actors as in the office scenes. They wear loud holiday clothes, straw hats with brilliant bands, etc. They are feverishly eager to laugh, desperate for movement, impatient of anything but the trivial distraction: these are the hungry-souled captives of the city let out for a night.

On the real stage, Ben and the Girl are discovered before the gambling concession. Ben is the player and his luck is amazing. Again and again the wheel goes around and he is once more the winner. Under his arms are his winnings: a huge Kewpie doll, a great red stick candy cane, a child’s scooter.

The wheel is spinning again.

A broken-hearted Clown enters from left.

clown: Lost, lost! Never to be found again!

[He holds above a lovely spangled hoop of the kind that is used for jumping trained animals. Everyone ignores him deliberately but the Girl.]

girl [sympathetically]: What have you lost?

clown: My little trained dog who used to jump and jump and jump! Right through the middle of this hoop!

girl: What happened to him?

clown: He jumped too high and disappeared completely! [He goes off sobbing, noticed only by the Girl.]

[Loud shouts and cheers. Ben has won the gorgeous Spanish shawl. He turns and drapes it about the Girl making her look like one of those resplendent Mexican Madonnas—Our Lady of Guadeloupe. Her momentary sorrow for the clown is gone and she laughs with the others. A trumpet is blown. The curtains divide on the little box stage. A Mummer steps out in a mask and announces:)

mummer: Presenting—“Beauty and the Beast.”

[Two other Mummers appear. One a lovely dark girl in tights and sequins. The other an ugly giant-like creature in the robes of a monk. The backdrop is a medieval castle with a park about it. The First Mummer reads from a scroll as the acting couple perform the little morality play.]

the reader: Beauty, who was young and dark and lithe,

Came on a beast-like creature in her drive.

She would have passed him but he blocked the way

And, in the guise of monk, said—

beast: Let us pray!

reader: But Beauty, who was young and dark and clever,

Warily stepped aside and answered—

beauty: Never!

reader: The Beast was raging—

[Aside, the Beast has stage business showing his rage.]

But remained polite.

He gravely bowed to her and said—

beast: Good night!

reader: As Beauty passed him, she tossed back her hair,

And lightly cried—‘I leave thee—to thy prayer!’

[Blackout. Brief applause. A placard says ACT TWO.]

Next day the Beast again stood in her drive.

Again she passed him, young and dark and lithe.

Again he smirked and bowed as she went past,

But this time followed—treading on the grass

So lightly that his victim heard no sound

Until he plunged—and pressed her to the ground!

[The above verse is pantomimed by the Actors. Blackout. Hissing. Another placard says ACT THREE.]

reader [continuing, before the curtain]:

How long she lay with cold, averted face,

Beneath the Beast, enduring his embrace,

I cannot say—but when his lust was spent

And from his veins the scorching fever went—

[The curtains part again.]

He rose above her and was cold as she.

Then, shivering in equal nudity,

One faced the other with a speechless look,

The sky had darkened, now the branches shook—

[Blue gelatine lights show the Beast standing above Beauty. He has dropped the monk’s robe and the ugly mask and is now shown as an austere and handsome young man in pink tights and fig leaf.]

A wind sprang up and Beauty was revived,

She likewise rose and stood upon the drive.

He was astonished—she was not besmirched.

Her face was holy as a nun’s at church.

[The erstwhile Beast—business of astonishment and shame, kneeling before her.]

She took his hand and whispered—

beauty: Do not grieve—

I owned no beauty till it felt thy need,

Which, being answered, makes thee no more Beast,

But One with Beauty!

reader: Shining as a priest,

He walked beside her, clinging to her hand

As cool rain fell upon the fevered land. . . .

[With the sound of rain and wind, the curtains close on the little stage. Applause. The curtains divide again for the actors to take a bow, but something has gone wrong. The Beast has resumed his ugly mask and is choking Beauty. The Reader flings off his mask and shrieks:]

Help! Hey Rube!

[There is a crowd expression of confusion and dismay. Ben, quick-witted, jumps upon the little box stage and feints at the Beast with his candystick cane. With a growl the Beast releases Beauty and advances menacingly toward Ben.]

Hey Rube! The Beast’s gone crazy!

ben [feinting with the cane]: Now, Beast, be reasonable. —Be sensible, Beast. Let’s submit the problem to arbitration!

[But the Beast still advances, growling. Ben continues to the Reader, aside.]

What nationality is this guy?

reader [frantic]: Russian! He don’t understand no English! Rube, hey, Rube!

ben [suddenly smiling]: Tovarishch! Nitchevo, nitchevo! Tovarishch!¹

[Instantly the rampant Beast is changed to a gentle lamb. He purrs and extends his hand to stroke Ben’s head. Ben offers him a bite of the cane. He accepts and beams. Cheers. Ben is a public hero. From the crowd there are cries of “Speech! Speech!”]

Me? A hero? Naa, naw, naw, I’m just a successful linguist! Call any guy a brother in his own language and hostilities are over. Peace is re-established! The peppermint stick is broken in friendship! That, my friends, is the secret of international good fellowship!

[This, of course, is interpreted as a plea for appeasement. There is an instant reversal of public opinion. Loud hostile booing follows, together with a shower of popcorn, peanuts and pennies.]

Okay, okay, I don’t know nothin’! I’m just an impractical idealist!

zoo keeper [shooting off pistol in air]: He’s a thief! He just escaped from the zoo with fifteen foxes!

[He jumps on the box stage pursuing Ben around the Beast. They dodge this way and that.]

beast [grasping zoo keeper and holding him off]: Tovarishch?

ben: No tovarishch!

[The Beast catches the Zoo Keeper under his arm and Ben leaps off the platform and makes a spectacular getaway on the child’s scooter won on the wheel. The Girl starts after him but gives up with a cry of despair. The curtains close on the little box stage. The gambling concession is shut down and the lights go out. Quietly, rapidly the crowd disperses. The Ferris wheel stops moving and its lights flicker out; the song of the carousel is slower and fainter and sadder and finally stops altogether. The Girl stands alone in all of this sudden desolation which has the eerie blue atmosphere of a landscape by Salvador Dali. She makes a number of turns and futile gestures. Then in her beautiful shawl she leans broken-heartedly against the closed concession and sobs to herself. From some improbable place Ben suddenly reappears—perhaps he is still on the scooter. He approaches her noiselessly and grins.]

ben [in an altered voice]: I beg your pardon, lady—do you have a match?

[Still not recognizing him, the Girl turns slowly and produces a match from her pocketbook and strikes it. In the match light she sees it is Ben and utters a startled cry of relief. They stare at each other silently for a moment. Then with a grateful childlike laugh she nestles into his arms. He continues softly.]

Tears? Tears? For me? You’re a woman of miracles, Alice. One moment you’re a swan—the next you’re a bird of paradise. . . Now all of a sudden, and most miraculous of all, you’re a woman—shedding real honest-to-God tears for me, the first time that has occurred since I came home to Mother with my first black eye some twenty years ago!

[Back of the curtains on the box, stage music commences again. The Clown comes by joyfully leading his little fox terrier on a brilliantly jeweled collar and chain.]

clown [softly and rapturously]: Found! Found! Never to be lost again!

[They jingle away offstage. Ben and the Girl embrace. The curtains of the box stage open to reveal Beauty and the Beast—in a ghostly white radiance—locked in a corresponding embrace.]

curtain

[Mr. E chuckles offstage.]

¹Tovarishch: Comrade; Nitchevo: Nothing.