ANNA: Why didn’t you write Anton the truth?
KNIPPER: Why upset him? Eight weeks earlier I had been in Moscow! Not Yalta.
ANNA: Ah! Your quick trip in the middle of the theater season! (with indignation): I see you loved theater life more than you loved your famous husband…
(Anna upset throws off “Ranevckaia’s” coat, and starts to collect her belongings)
KNIPPER: Anna, what’s the matter?
ANNA: Why didn’t you tell Anton the truth about your pregnancy?
KNIPPER: I didn’t want to upset him… Both Anton and I wanted a child…
ANNA (accusingly): How could you?… Chekhov a great writer!
KNIPPER: I’m a great actress!
ANNA: I’d better go… I have to talk with Vadim…
KNIPPER: The lesson is not over!
ANNA: Vadim knows that I went to the doctor…
KNIPPER: You’ll have enough time to speak with Vadim… Sit down… Anna, I want you to practice just one final moment. It’s when Ranevskaya is leaving the estate;
АNNA: I better will read you another monologue.
KNIPPER: Good, I’m listen you.
(Пауза)
АNNA: «Я – чайка! Нет, не то… Помните, как подстрелили чайку?
Случайно пришел человек, увидел и от нечего делать
погубил. Сюжет для небольшого рассказа… Не то… О
чем я? Я говорю о сцене… Я – актриса! Теперь уж я не
такая… Я настоящая актриса, я играю с наслаждением,
с восторгом, пьянею на сцене и чувствую себя прекрасной»…
КНИППЕР: Excellent! Why did you chose this monologue?
АNNA: I’ m feeling like the heroine from this play.
KNIPPER: Excellent! Anna, listen, your idealism and naivety are out of place… You should know life deals a heavy hand, especially to an actress. (Gradually becoming inspired). Look at my spine…
ANNA: Straight…
KNIPPER: Exactly. I’m 85 years old. I’ve survived two revolutions, two world wars, a civil war, and Stalin…If you are serious about being an actress, be ready to sacrifice your private life…
(Pause)
ANNA: Did you really want children?
KNIPPER: We didn’t have time… He was only 44 when he died.
(Pause)
ANNA: What do you advise me?
KNIPPER: I didn’t finish my story… Sit down… Have tea…
(Anna sits… refuses tea)
Listen… Our theater was growing in stature, it helped the people to think about their own lives. It was an uncertain time… Time before revolution… But in spite of this people were standing in lines, the whole night in winter, to buy tickets for our theater…
ANNA: Olga Leonardovna, you were lucky to have taken part in the creation of the Moscow Art Theater… to have given people meaningful entertainment… but…
KNIPPER: Now times are uncertain too… and I hope theater can still help people to think and build their lives…
ANNA: You are happy… You lived in “Epoch Theater”, but now…
KNIPPER: Anna, somebody must continue our work. You are my best student, talented, serious… I visualize…
ANNA: Olga Leonardovna, after so much success, aren’t you lonely now?
KNIPPER (sadly): Our glory and camaraderie has passed…
ANNA: Just a minute… I don’t want to be lonely in my old age… I came here today thinking about whether I’d have an abortion or not… Now I have decided…
KNIPPER: Yes?
ANNA: I want to be not only an actress…
KNIPPER: The defining question: is art truly so important that it occupies your whole soul? Do you dream of being the best in the world?
ANNA: I want a real life…
KNIPPER: So be it!
ANNA: Thank you! Olga Leonardovna, may I go?…
KNIPPER: Now, you can go… Consider this my “Master Class”… My last “Master Class”.
ANNA: Goodbye, Olga Leonardovna!
KNIPPER: Farewell, Anna. Good luck!
(Anna begins very slowly to collect her things and then sits down and continues to listen Knipper)
KNIPPER: Once, when I asked Anton:” What is a real life?” He answered: “That is like asking: what is a carrot? A carrot is a carrot and nothing more”… It was strange, but the idea that Anton could soon die never came in my mind… (Pause) Why I didn’t asked him: «And what is death? Anton, what is death?(Pause) Anton died 44 years old.
When Anton died I came to him and looked at Anton’s beautiful face, his expression was calm now and seemed to be smiling as if he just understood something that still remains a mystery to me…
(Pause)
I didn’t know then, that Anton would become immortal… and… that I would not ever part from him… during my long, long life…
THE END
CAST:MOTHER: Thirty-five years old
KATYA: Daughter, twelve years old
SCENES: It’s night, by lamp light Katya is kneeling, bowing to the floor, and crossing herself. It’s the Soviet era. A picture of Stalin is on the wall. Mother enters quietly closing the door. She stands stock still, resigned, watching her daughter pray. Finally she strides up to her daughter.
MOTHER: Katya! Dear, Katya! What are you doing?
KATYA (frightened, jumping to her feet): I… I was looking for a crayon. It dropped on the floor.
MOTHER: Don’t lie to your mother. You were praying! I saw you crossing yourself!
KATYA: You yourself told me that I shouldn’t spy on people…
MOTHER: Enough! Who taught you to lie?
(Pause)
KATYA: Why shouldn’t I pray?
MOTHER (concerned): It’s very… very dangerous… and… you are still too young and carefree to know more. You wouldn’t understand yet.
KATYA: Mama, I understand more than you think.
MOTHER: What if a neighbor should see you bowing like I did?
KATYA: So what? I would say I was practicing for a play, crying…
MOTHER: Where did you learn to pray?
(Pause)
KATYA: Grandmother… She talked to me while we baked cookies. She talked to me about prayers, about sins.
MOTHER: What prayers do you say?
(Pause)
KATYA: “Our Father whom art in Heaven”… “Virgin Mary Mother of God…”
MOTHER: Does your friend Lucy know those words?
KATYA: I asked her once, but she said she had never heard them.
MOTHER: Why do you think she doesn’t know the words?
KATYA: I don’t know. Maybe because she has no… Grandmother and she doesn’t need to pray…
(Pause)
Lucy is not alone all the time… She has a brother. I am alone, and It’s dark out. I hear creaks and bumps. The house shakes. When I get afraid I say Grandmother’s prayers and cross myself. They make me feel better… I forget my fear.
MOTHER (resigned): I’m trying to change my shifts at the hospital, but I just have to work… There are so many things to buy and food…
KATYA: But I have to talk to somebody.
MOTHER: You… you talk to God?
KATYA: Yes…
MOTHER: What about?
KATYA: My sins… I ask his advice….. I tell him about my fear…
MOTHER: He answers you?
KATYA: Sometimes. It depends on his mood.
(Pause)
MOTHER (sighs and confidently): So! Katya, we have to live; we have to live in this society… Soon you must be a “Komsomol” member…
KATYA: I know. Every body has to be.
MOTHER: What will you say when they ask if you believe in God?
(Long pause. Katya silent. Her attitude, posture by director)
MOTHER: And if they find out or see that you do believe in God you know they will throw you out of “Komsomol”. They will make your life even harder… miserable for as long as you live… you will not be able to go to the university… no matter how many “A’s” you get… you will only be able to work as Lucy’s mother works…
KATYA: I don’t care… I’m not afraid of them, because God will stand by me.
(Long pause)
MOTHER (sadly, lovingly): Katya, your Grandfather thought that God would stand by him, but God didn’t…
KATYA: Mama, tell me about him…
MOTHER: Later…
KATYA: Why later? Now!
MOTHER: I’ve told you before. I was born in a little town named, Kaluga… My father was a teacher… There…
KATYA: It’s a lie! He was not a teacher! He was a priest!
MOTHER: He was a teacher!
KATYA: Grandmother told me the truth! You have never told me the truth! It is you, who taught me to lie!
MOTHER (angry): Insolent!
(Mother slaps the daughter on her cheek)
You are talking to me! Your mother!
KATYA (angry and horror stricken, cries): I hate you!
(Long pause)
MOTHER: Never say “I hate you!” again to anyone.
(Pause)
Words… all words… just words… are the most dangerous thing in our life… I’m your mother! You must show me respect even if you think I’m only telling you half truths.
(Pause)
You don’t know how my life was… What I have endured…
KATYA (crying, shouts): You hit me, but I told the truth… Your father was a priest…
MAMA (frightened): Katya, don’t speak so loudly… The neighbors could hear you…
(Pause)
All right… I’ll tell you some truth… May be you’ll understand how my life was… All my life I have been afraid that somebody would find out that I’m the daughter of a priest!
KATYA: Mama, what happened to Grandfather?
MOTHER: I was just about your age… It was dinner time… There was a knock on the door… Papa opened it. There were three big men. The leader said they had to talk to my father.…
KATYA: Who were they?
MOTHER: NKVD, KGB… Not important… They said that he would be back soon… He went away with them without even a jacket… I ran after him and gave him his jacket and piece of bread… He took the bread from my hands and… there in the middle of the street… he made the sign of the cross on me… Then turned to the men… I never saw him after that…
KATYA: Why did they take him?
MOTHER: He was a priest… Almost all priests were arrested not just my father…
KATYA: Mama, why were priests arrested?
MOTHER: Because Lenin said: “Religion is opium for the people”. It means that the priests deceived the people and they had to be punished… We found out later that all arrested priests were shot…
KATYA: Your father was shot!
MOTHER: No one ever knew anything exact…
KATYA Did you try to find out about him?
MOTHER: No… Not wise… We quickly moved away to Moscow…
KATYA: Why have you never told me?
(Pause)
MOTHER: I was afraid… You would tell somebody about my father…
(Pause)
If the KGB had ever found out that I was the daughter of a Priest, I would never have been able to go to the university, never would have been able to be a doctor, and never would have been able to support you and Grandmother… I’ve always been afraid for myself. Now I’m afraid for you… Can I trust you?
KATYA (slowly): Mama you can trust me… But, Mama, your identification book must have said that you were the daughter of a priest?
MOTHER: I burned my papers. I got a new identification book. I changed my origin and my past… With the new papers I could go to the university…
KATYA: I didn’t know about your identification… You didn’t tell Grandmother, that you burned it…
MOTHER: Of course not! I was afraid, that she would tell somebody… Now… you see why I’m afraid, and why I’m afraid for your future? Remember, our Grandfather was a teacher. Do you understand? He was a teacher…
KATYA: Yes!
MOTHER: Repeat!
KATYA: My Grandfather was a teacher…
MOTHER: Where was your Grandfather a teacher?
KATYA: I don’t know where he lived…
MOTHER: Good! And soon you will have to join the Komsomol. What will you say when they ask you if you believe in God?
