Irina Three sisters

“….The clock struck twelve then too.

[Pause.] I remember the band: playing when they took

Father to the cemetery, and they fired a salute. He was a

, general; commanded a brigade. All the same, not many

people came—it was a wet day of course, with heavy rain

and sleet.”

“….The clock struck twelve then too.

[Pause.] I remember the band: playing when they took

Father to the cemetery, and they fired a salute. He was a

, general; commanded a brigade. All the same, not many

people came—it was a wet day of course, with heavy rain

and sleet.”

Why bring up old memories?

“stop whistling, Masha. Really! ... And it's true that these four years l've been at the high school, I've felt my youth and energy draining-away drop by drop each day. Only one thing grows stronger and stronger, a certain longing—”

To go to Moscow, to sell the house, have done with

everything here and go to Moscow.

“Yes, to. Moscow! As soon as we can.” [CHEBUTYKIN and TUZENBAKH laugh.]

Andrew's probably going to be a professor and he won't live here anyway. There's nothing Stopping us except poor Masha here.

Masha can come and spend the whole summer in Moscow every year. [MASHA softly whistles a tune.]

I only pray it will work out all right. [Looks out of the window.] What a marvelous day! I'm in such a good mood, I don't know why. This morning I remembered it Was my name-day and I suddenly felt happy, I remembered when we were children and Mother was still alive. And such wonderful thoughts passed through my head, I felt so excited.

Oh, is her? How nice.

Is he old?

No, not really. Forty or forty-five at the most. [Plays softly.] Seems a good chap. He's no fool; you can take my word for it, only he does talk rather a lot.

Is he an interesting man?

“If your hair starts falling out, take two drams of naphthalene to half a bottle of spirit…you have a little glass tube running through it. Then you take a pinch of ordinary, common-or-garden powdered alum-”

Doctor, Doctor,' dearest Doctor!

What is it, my precious?

Tell me, why am I so happy today? I feel as if I was

sailing along with a great blue sky above me and huge

white birds soaring about. Tell me, why?

You're like a white bird yourself, my dear.

Today I woke up, got out Of bed and had a wash, And then I suddenly felt as if everything in the world made sense, I seemed to know how to live. I know everything, dearest Doctor. Man should work and toil by the sweat of his brow, whoever he is— the whole purpose and meaning of his life, his happiness and his joy. How wonderful to be a workman who gets up at dawn and breaks stones in the road, or a shepherd, or a schoolmaster who teaches children or an engine-driver. Heavens, better not be a human being at be an ox or just a horse, so long as you can work, rather than the kind of young woman who wakes up at noon, has her coffee in bed and then spends two hours getting dressed. Oh, that's so awful. You know how you sometimes long for a drink on a hot day-— well that's how I long to work. And if I don't stare getting up early and working you must stop being my friend, Doctor.

Father taught us to get up at seven o'clock. Now Irina

wakes at seven and lies in bed at least till nine, just

thinking. And looks so serious too. [Laughs]

You're so used to seeing me as a little girl, you think

it's funny when I look serious. I am twenty, you know.

You know, I've never done a thing and that's a fact. Since I left the university I haven't lifted a finger, … Aha! They want me down there, someone must have come to see me. I'll be with you in a moment. Just a second. [Exits]

He’s up to something.

“That's right. He went out looking terribly solemn, he's obviously going to bring you a present.”

How dreadful.

“Where are you going?” “Home.”

That’s a bit odd, isn’t it?

“It doesn't matter, I'll be back this evening. Good-bye, darling. Once again, many happy returns. …We'll talk later but good-bye for now, darling. I'll go out somewhere.”

Why, what's the matter with you?

“In here, old fellow. Come in, your boots aren't dirty. This is from the county council Mr. Michael Protopopov sent it. A cake.”

Thank you. Please thank him.

“Eh?”

Will you please thank him?

“I don't like that Protopopov—Michael or Matthew or

whatever he calls himself. We shouldn't ask him here.”

I didn't ask him.

A samovar! How frightful [Goes into the ballroom.]

IRINA. My dear good Dr. Chebutykin, how could you?

"My darling girls, I've no one else but you, you're more precious to me than anything in the world….I've known you since the day you were born, dear child, I used to hold you in my arms. And I loved your mother, God rest her soul.”

But why these expensive presents?

“May I introduce myself? I'm Vershinin. Delighted, absolutely delighted to be here at last. Well, you' have grown up and no mistake.”

Please sit down. This is a great pleasure.

“The Colonel comes from Moscow.”

From Moscow? You come from Moscow?

“I don't remember you, I'm afraid”

Olga! Olga! [Shouts into the ballroom.] Olga, do come here. [OLGA enters] We've just heard that CoIonel Vershinin comes from Moscow.

“My name is Vershinin.”

Colonel Vershinin, you're from Moscow. That really is a surprise.

“You see, we're moving to Moscow.”

We hope to be there by autumn. It's our home town.

We were born there, in the Old Basmanny Road.

I'm nearly forty-three all the same. Is it long since you left Moscow?

Eleven years. But why are you crying, Masha, you silly

girl? [Through tears] You'll have me crying too.

“She was a wonderful woman, may she rest in peace.”

Mother's buried in Moscow.

“That's Andrew playing, our brother.”

He's the clever one of the family. He's bound to become a professor. Father was a soldier, but his son's chosen an academic career.

“We did tease him terribly today. We think he's a bit in love.”

With one of the local young ladies. She'll be visiting us today, very likely.

“I'm afraid your sisters must be rather bored with me already.”

Look what Andrew gave me today, this little picture

frame. [Shows him the frame.] He made it himself.

Yes. Quite something, isn't it?

And you see that frame above the piano? That's his work too.

“And I want to call you the lovesick fiddler.”

Or the lovesick professor.

“He's in love. Andrew's in love.”

[clapping her hands]. Three cheers for Andrew! Encore! He's in love!

“…And here are you complaining you know much too much.” “I'm staying to lunch.”

[with a sigh]. You know, what you've just said ought

really to be written down.

“Permit me, Irina dear, to wish you many happy returns…In this book you'll find a list of all the pupils who've been through our school in the last fifty years. Feci quod potui, faciant meliora potentes.”

But you’ve given me this book before, last Easter.

You aren’t going, are you? We can’t allow that.

You must stay to luncheon. Please do.

“I think I'll have a little of this dark vodka. [Drinks.] Your health. It's so good to be here.” [Only IRINA and TUZENBAKH are left in the drawing-room.]

Masha's in a bad mood today. She got married at eighteen when she thought him the wisest of men. Now things have changed. He's the kindest of men, but hardly the wisest.

“What are you thinking about?”

Oh, nothing much. I don't like your friend Solyony, he frightens me. He says such stupid things.

“He's a strange man. I'm sorry for him—he annoysme too, but I feel more sorry than annoyed.…You're twenty and I'm not yet thirty. What a lot of years we have ahead of us—so many, many days, all full of my love for you.”

Don't talk to me about love, Nicholas dear.

“I feel such a tremendous zest for life. I want to work and struggle, and this urge has become part of my love for you, Irina. And just because you're so beautiful I find life beautiful too. What are you thinking about?”

You say life is beautiful. But what if it only seems so? As far as we three girls are concerned there hasn't been any beauty in our lives so far, life has been choking us like weeds in a garden. I'm crying. I mustn't. [Quickly dries her eyes and smiles]. We must work, work, work. That's why were so miserable and take such a gloomy view of things—because don't know the meaning of work. We're descended from people who despised it.”

“I say, this wine is good. What's it made of?” “Black-beetles.”

Oh! How disgusting!

“Do come and see us this evening, all of you.” “Am I invited too?”

Yes, please do come.

“You can move now if you want to, Irina. [Takes another snapshot.] You do look nice today. [Takes a humming-top from his pocket.] By the way, here's a top. It's got a wonderful hum.”

Oh! how lovely!

“I have a triple-barrelled name, Baron Tuzenbakh-Krone-Altschauer, but I'm just as much of a Russian as you are. There's not much trace of any German ancestry aboutme, except perhaps that I'm so persistent and stubbornabout inflicting myself on you. I walk home with you every evening.”

I'm so tired.

“And I shall go on calling for you at the post once and bringing you home every evening. I'll keep it up for the next ten or twenty years if you don't tell me to go away. [Noticing MASHA and VERSHININ, delightedly.] Oh, it's you. Hallo.”

Well, here I am, home at last. [To MASHA.] Just now a woman came into the post once and wanted to send a telegram to her brother in Saratov to tell him her son died today, but couldn't remember the address. So she sent it without a proper address, just sent it to Saratov. She was crying. And I was rude to her for no reason at all, told her I'd no time to waste. Wasn’t that stupid of me? Are those carnival people calling tonight?

“Yes.”

Must have a rest. I’m so tired.

“When you come back from work you always look so young and pathetic somehow. [Pause.]”

I'm tired. Oh dear, I don't like working at the post office, I really don't.

“It's the way you do your hair.”

“I must find another job because this one doesn't suit me. The things I'd hoped for and wanted so much—they're just what it doesn't give me. It's sheer drudgery with nothing romantic or intellectual about it. [There is a knock on the floor from below.] That's the doctor banging. Would you give him a knock, Nicholas? I can't, I'm too tired. [TUZENBAKH knocks on the floor.] He'll be up here in a moment. Something ought to be done about this business. The doctor went to the club with Andrew yesterday and they lost again. I heard Andrew was two hundred roubles down.”

“It's a bit late to do anything about that now.”

He lost money a fortnight ago and also in December. The sooner he loses the lot the better, it might mean we'd leave this place. My God, do you know, I dream about Moscow every night? I feel as if I'd gone out of my mind. [Laughs.] We're moving there in June, but it's, let me see—February, March, April, May—almost six months till June.

“The only thing is, Natasha mustn't find out about his

gambling.”

I shouldn't think she'd care.

“Oh, look who's come. Has he paid his rent?”

[laughing]. No. We haven't had a thing from him for eight months. He's obviously forgotten.

[laughing]. He looks so pompous sitting there. [Everyone laughs. Pause.]

Why don't you say anything, Colonel?

“I've had nothing since breakfast.” “Irina.”

What is it?

“Balzac got married in Berdichev.”

[sings softly]

“I really must put that down in my little book. Balzac got married in Berdichev.”

Balzac got married in Berdichev.

“I've just bought you some crayons at Pyzhikov’s in the Moscow Road. And this pen-knife.”

You always treat me like a child, but I am grown up, you how. [Takes the crayons and pen-knife, delightedly.] Oh, aren't they lovely!

“Isn't there? I'm fed up with winter, I've forgotten what summer's like.”

It's going to come out, this game of patience." So we shall go to Moscow.

“Bring some here please, Nanny, I'm not going in there.”

Nanny!

“I say, what happened to the chocolates?”

Solyony ate them.

“Well, do let me sit down. [Jumbles up the cards on the table.] Playing cards all over the place. Drink your tea.”

You are in a bad temper, Masha.

“Il parait que mon Bobik déjå ne dort pas, the little chap's woken up. He's a bit off color today. I must see to him, excuse me.” [Goes out.]

Where did Colonel Vershinin go?

“When's the carnival party coming?”

About nine, they said, so they'll be here any moment.

“Doctor!” [Says something to CHEBUTYKIN then goes out. quietly. CHEBUTYKIN touches, TUZENBAKH on the shoulder and whispers to him.]"

What’s the matter?

“Good-night. Time to go”

But look here, what about the carnival party?

“There won't be any carnival party. The fact is, my dear, Natasha says Bobik's not very well and so—oh really, I don't know and l certainly don't care either.”

[shrugging shoulders]. Bobik's unwell.

[The door-bell rings. There is a pause and then it rings

again. Voices and laughter are heard.]

[Comes in] What’s that?

“The carnival party.” [The bell rings again.]

Tell them there's no one at home, Nanny. They'll have to excuse us.

“No one here. But where is everybody?”

They've gone home.

“That's funny. Are you on your own then?”

Yes. [Pause.] Good-night.

“I rather let myself go just now and was a bit tactless. But you’re different from the rest, you’re such a fine, decent person, and you have so much insight. You’re the only one who really understands me, no one else can. I love you so profoundly, so infinitely much—”

Good-bye. Do please go.

“I can't live without you. My happiness! My joy! Your glorious, wonderful, dazzling eyes, I've never seen another woman with eyes like yours.”

Please stop, Captain Solyony

“Oh, you are tired, poor child. You should go to bed a bit earlier.”

Is Bobik asleep?

“Yes, but he's rather restless. By the way, dear, I keep meaning to ask you, but either you've been out or I've been too busy. I think Bobik's nursery's too cold and damp. But your room's just right for a baby. Darling, would you mind moving in with Olga for a bit?”

Move in where?

“It's very funny. I only left half an hour ago, and they were expecting some people from the carnival then.”

They've all gone away.

“Has Masha gone too? Where did she go? And what is Protopopov doing outside in a carriage? Who's he waiting for?”

Don't ask questions. I'm tired.

“I'm tired, you'd better count me out. I'm so tired. Has my wife gone home?”

She must have.

“…My goodness, isn’t that nice! I have the day off tomorrow and the day after too. How my head does ache.” [Goes out.]

[alone] Everyone's gone away. There's nobody left.

“I’II be back in half an hour, I'm just going for a little airing.” [Goes out]

[alone] Moscow, Moscow!

“Then I suddenly remembered the woman I killed on Wednesday, it all came back to me and I felt rotten, dirty, twisted inside. So I went and got drunk.”

[IRINA, VERSHININ and TUZENBAKH enter]

Let's sit here a bit. No one will come in here.

“Well after three. It's starting to get light”

They're all sitting in the dining-room, nobody seems

to be going, Your friend Solyony's there as well.

[To CHEBUTYKIN.] Why don't you go to bed, Doctor?

“Everyone's asking me to get up a Concert, in aid of the fire victims.”

Oh, I shouldn't have thought anyone would—

“…plays the piano beautifully.” “Indeed she does. Beautifully.”

She's forgotten how to. She hasn't played for three or four years.

“I heard the same. Ah well, the town will be

deserted and no mistake.”

We're going away as well.

“A valuable object like that—good heavens, Doctor, whatever next! Take nought out of ten for conduct.”

That clock belonged to mother

Burnt to a cinder. Not a thing left! [Laughter]

It isn’t exactly funny. Have you really lost everything?

“…I was going .to give you a little notebook, but that went up as well.” [SOLYONY comes in.]

Oh, please go away, Captain Solyony. You can't come in here.

“Very well; I'll take a note of it. ‘I could develop my idea, But might annoy-the geese, I fear.’ Chuck, chuck, chuck.” [Goes out with VERSHININ and FEDOTIK.]

That beastly Solyony's filled the place with scent. The baron's gone to sleep. Hey, Baron!

“Darling Masha, Masha my dear”

She's tired out. Better let her rest, Theodore.

“You're tired. Have half an hour's rest, and I'll just sit and wait. Go to Sleep. I'm happy, happy, Oh so happy.” [Goes out.]

I must say, poor old Andrew has gone to seed. Living with that wretched woman has put years on his life and knocked all the stuffing out of him. At one time he was aiming to be a professor, and there he was yesterday boasting he'd got on the county council at long last. He's on the council and Protopopov's the chairman. The whole town’s talking about it, everyone's laughing at him and he's the only one who doesn't know or see what's going on. And when everyone rushed off to the fire just now, there was he sitting in his room not taking the slightest notice and just playing his violin. [Upset.]' Oh, it's frightful, absolutely frightful. [Cries.] I've had as much I can take, I just can't stand any more. [OLGA come in][sobs loudly]. Why don't you get rid of me, throw me out? I can't stand it any more.

“But What's the matter, darling?”

[sobbing]. What's become of everything, where's it all gone? Where is it? Oh my God, I've forgotten, forgotten everything, my head’s in such a whirl. I can't remember the Italian for ‘window’—or ‘ceiling’ either. I'm always forgetting things, I forget something every day. And life is slipping away, it will never, never come back again, and we shall never go to Moscow either, I just know we shan't.

“Don't, dear, don't,”

,

Oh, I'm so miserable, I can't, I won't, I will not work. I've had enough. I used to be at the post office and now I work for the town council, and I loathe and despise everything they give me to do. I'm twenty-three, I've been working all this time and my brain's shriveled up. I’ve grown thin and ugly and old and I've nothing to show for it, nothing, no satisfaction of any kind, while time passes by and I feel I'm losing touch with everything fine and genuine in life. It's like sinking down, down into a bottomless pit. I'm desperate. Why am I still alive, why haven't I done away with myself? I don't know.

“Don't cry, child, please, it upsets me so.”

I'm not crying, I'm not. I won't. Look, I've stopped now. I must stop, I really must.

“My dear, let me tell you something as your sister and your friend. If you want my advice, marry the baron.”

[Cries quietly]

“After all you do respect him, you think so much of him. He may not be all that good-looking, but he's a fine, decent man. One doesn't marry for love, you know, it's only a matter of doing one's duty. .That's what I think anyway, and I'd marry without love. I'd marry the first man who, came along provided it was someone honest and decent. I'd even' marry an old man.”

I've been waiting for us to move to Moscow all this time, thinking I'd meet my true love there. I've dreamed about him, loved him, but that was sheer foolishness as it's turned out.

“Where's Masha? Isn't she here? This is most peculiar” [Goes away.] [The alarm ,sounds. The stage is empty.]

Olga, who's that knocking On the floor?

“The doctor. He's drunk.”

It’s been one thing after another all night. [Pause] Olga! Have you heard? They're moving our brigade, posting it somewhere far away.

“That's only a rumor.”

Then we'll be all on our own.—Olga!

“Yes?”

I respect the baron, Olga darling, I think very highly of him, he is a very good man and I will marry him, I will, I will, only do let's go to Moscow. We must go. Please! There's nowhere in the world like Moscow. Let's go, Olga, do let's go!

“You're a good fellow, we've always got on well together. Once more then. Good-bye, my dear fellow.”

Au revoir.

“Who knows? [Wipes his eyes and smiles.] Now I'm crying too.”

We'll meet again some time.

“Halloo-oo!” “Good-bye.” [Rode and Fedotik exit]

They’ve gone. [Sit in chair next to CHEBUTYKIN]