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Copyright © Glyn Maxwell, 2008
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PB ISBN: 9781840028690
E ISBN: 9781786820013
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EVARISTE GAMELIN
a struggling artist, later a Revolutionary Magistrate
PHILIPPE DEMAY
a supplier of food to the Revolutionary Army
MAURICE BROTTEAUX
formerly the Duke of Ilettes, now a puppet-maker
ELODIE BLAISE
an embroidress
ROSE CLEBERT
a comedienne at the National Theatre
LOUISE ROCHEMAURE
formerly a socialite, now a businesswoman
Magistrates at the Tribunals:
TRUBERT RENAUDIN
DUPONT BEAUVISAGE
The Section Police:
NAVETTE BELLIER
GUENOT DELOURMEL
The Prison Guards:
CHALIER JAVOGUES
LACROIX
SANSCULOTTES
SETTING
The play begins outside Paris in May 1793 (Prairial, Year 1). France is ruled by the Committee of Public Safety, whose most important figure is Maximilien Robespierre. Louis XVI was executed in January; Marie-Antoinette is in prison. Revolutionary France has declared war on all its neighbours.
Liberty was first performed in August 2008 at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, with the following cast:
EVARISTE GAMELIN, David Sturzaker
ELODIE BLAISE, Ellie Piercy
PHILIPPE DEMAY, Edward Macliam
ROSE CLEBERT, Kirsty Besterman
LOUISE ROCHEMAURE, Belinda Lang
MAURICE BROTTEAUX, John Bett
TRUBERT, DUPONT, BELLIER, GUENOT, LACROIX, JAVOGUES, Gregory Gudgeon
RENAUDIN, BEAUVISAGE, NAVETTE, DELOURMEL, CHALIER, Jonty Stephens
Director Guy Retallack
Designer Ti Green
Composer William Lyons
Choreographer Paul Harris
Liberty was commissioned by Sue Scott Davison for Lifeblood Theatre Company and produced in association with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
Act One
Act Two
Act Three
Act Four
Act Five
DAY VII, MONTH OF MEADOWS, YEAR I
SANSCULOTTES Brothers, sisters, the sun is rising
Darkness flees and the world is white
Tyrants swing from the branches bending
Princes pale in the morning light
Sing, Citizens
O sing, Freedom
The page is turning and it shines so bright!
Sunlight crosses every stream and meadow
Sunlight enters every house and tower
Sharp as steel it will find each shadow
Cut them down where they cringe and cower
Sing, Citizens
O sing, Freedom
Now begins your everlasting hour!
Blue is the sky for the hour is glorious
White are the hearts of the virtuous poor
Red are the rags of the rich man helpless
France is free and for ever more
Sing, Citizens
O sing, Freedom
Fly your tricolours and march to war!
EVARISTE alone, on a Picnic Day
EVARISTE Men are…
Men are born and remain…
Men are born and remain…free…and equal…
Men are born and remain free and equal!
Can you hear, that, Citizens, can you remember
what we – no…when we – no…
Can you hear that, Citizens, can you hear that echo
out through space and time? All of the earth
can hear us, the future can – no…We are at war,
my friends, we are…no no…
Long live France! – no no that’s at the end…
We are at war, my friends,
for freedom, for equality, and yet…
we live while others – no –
we feast while others – what –
we feast while others starve, we are at war!
War with the ones who – no…
The world is at war with us, on the battlefield,
in the mind, in the very halls of the Assembly,
and here we are, alone…
one Nation, one People, the first ones…
and here we stand, alone…
ELODIE applauds
ELODIE You’re not alone,
Monsieur Gamelin, you only think you are.
EVARISTE I did – I’m sorry – I thought –
ELODIE You found a space,
you found a natural audience in the meadows!
You’re an orator, Monsieur Gamelin, or you are
when no one’s looking.
EVARISTE I’m just – you were very quiet.
How did you find me?
ELODIE Easy!
This is the highest place for miles. Of course
you came here, you can see the world!
EVARISTE I came here
to be alone.
ELODIE You failed!
Philippe told everyone in the whole picnic
to meet here in an hour – he won’t say why!
To listen to you, do you think? Are you practising your
picnic speech?
EVARISTE I – no –
ELODIE You know it off by heart, are you an actor?
Philippe says you’re an artist, but I thought
he meant with paint.
EVARISTE I am, I was, with paint,
indeed, when we were students, as you say.
ELODIE But now you’re a Patriot first.
EVARISTE I am. Of course!
ELODIE But everyone says they are, you may as well
announce you have two eyes. I’m more excited
by someone being an artist! Now on this picnic
we have two artists, you and Philippe; that actress,
and she’s a kind of artist, an artiste!
and that old man, I don’t know what he does,
and Mme Louise, she knows important people;
then me, I don’t do much!
EVARISTE You play your part
I’m sure.
ELODIE I play my part in the Revolution!
Where would we be without embroidery?
We’d be overrun by tyrants! That was my joke,
Monsieur Gamelin, you don’t have to look so
shocked.
You can chuckle if you like, it is a picnic.
We’re not in Paris now.
EVARISTE I realize
we’re not in Paris. I’m not sure where we are…
I do know we’re at war with all the world’s
tyrannies, and if we lose that war
we’ll be wiped from history.
ELODIE Well. It’s nice to chat.
EVARISTE I – look, I’m sorry
– you caught me in –
ELODIE I caught you in full cry!
EVARISTE
Well as you say, I mean, I’m full of thoughts
I need to say aloud, does that make sense?
ELODIE
It does, it’s just like me, I have thoughts too,
but then I’m already speaking when I have them,
or I have them the next week. And today’s Sunday,
Monsieur Gamelin, so I shan’t have any!
Except to say it’s not called Sunday now,
it’s Picnic Day, see I can make new laws.
It’s our day away from everything, it’s Philippe’s
grand idea! And he wanted you to meet me.
EVARISTE And so I did, at the great fat feast of plenty.
I met you, I’m enchanted.
ELODIE Picnic Day,
in the Month of Flowers!
EVARISTE Prairial, Month of Meadows.
ELODIE Meadows, Flowers, it all smells as sweet
on a holiday.
EVARISTE If one requires a holiday
from history.
ELODIE You do. Look at you,
all pale. And I’m still calling it May
myself, that’s warm with memories, don’t you think,
it’s colourful! The new word, how’d you say it?
EVARISTE Prairial.
ELODIE It sounds as pale as you are.
EVARISTE I’m naturally pale, Mademoiselle Blaise.
ELODIE How naturally interesting! And Blaise,
that’s only my daddy’s name, the old regime,
I swept it away in a blaze of Elodie!
EVARISTE Elodie.
ELODIE Yes and you’re Evariste Gamelin,
who’s naturally pale.
EVARISTE And tired, and hungry.
ELODIE ’Course you are, you’re naturally hungry!
There’s us all having a picnic by the stream
and you just march right off, don’t you remember?
Was it my company?
EVARISTE No no of course not,
It was – company, it was I don’t know, I’m sorry,
there were words that needed saying –
ELODIE Elodie…
EVARISTE Elodie.
ELODIE That needed saying!
EVARISTE It did…
Elodie.
ELODIE You’ve forgotten where you were!
You were at war!
EVARISTE I was, we are, of course,
so I put my mind to a speech, about the war –
because…we set a picnic on a blanket,
as if there is no war but there is a war,
our brothers fighting, dying for our beliefs –
ELODIE The world is at war with us, on the battlefield,
in the mind, in the very halls of the Assembly,
and here we are, alone.
EVARISTE Did I say that?
ELODIE You did! And now I have! I’m like a parrot,
my daddy always says, I hear things once
and don’t forget them. Don’t know what they mean,
but I can cry them out from my little cage!
Feed me on nuts and seeds and I’m more than happy.
I should have been good at school but I stayed home.
Who was it for?
EVARISTE For?
ELODIE Who’s your speech for?
EVARISTE For – the People.
ELODIE What people? The Tree People!
They’re very quiet, Monsieur Evariste Gamelin.
EVARISTE They are, they’re deep in thought,
though when the wind gets up they start applauding.
ELODIE I think they’re thinking that it’s four years now,
four years of liberty, equality,
speeches, songs and anthems, four years
marching on palaces and heads on pikes,
men hanging from the branches or the lampposts
and massacres and ghastliness, I think
they’re thinking what I’m thinking – can we not
take one day of rest? I mean the Lord did.
Am I meant to say ‘the Lord’?
EVARISTE You are free, Elodie,
to do as you please. Four years ago you were not.
ELODIE Oh I know, I only think we maybe earned
a holiday, don’t you? You don’t at all.
I’m surrounded by your followers!
EVARISTE You are.
These trees can hear you, Elodie. You can see them
swaying, that’s them thinking.
ELODIE Trees, trees,
you are free, trees, to stand where you want to stand,
to stroll about, to dance! Oaks and poplars,
shrubs and hedges, hand in hand, rise up,
march on the town!
EVARISTE It’s true,
you’re joking but it’s true!
ELODIE May I go on joking
whether or not it’s true?
EVARISTE You see at the birth
of all of this was a man who found in Nature
what Man had lost.
ELODIE At the end of this is a girl
trying to say hello to you!
EVARISTE I’m – sorry –
ELODIE You’re sorry, bit late for that, here comes the
Committee
of Public Safety!
PHILIPPE, ROSE
PHILIPPE Guilty as charged, in the flesh!
Now this man’s face is white on a summer’s day:
aristocrat!
ELODIE He’s not going to laugh, Philippe,
I tried that, it was hopeless. When I found him –
no that’s our little secret…
PHILIPPE Genius,
you and this girl have grown a little secret?
Now that’s quick work. Hey Clebert, don’t you think,
can we not work that quickly?
ROSE In your dreams
I’m sure we do, Philippe, but that’s not me,
I send my understudy.
PHILIPPE She does nicely,
Clebert, can I keep her?
ROSE If you pay her.
ELODIE Rose, can I call you Rose, I’ll give away
nothing about the secret but a clue is:
you may not be the only star performer
hereabouts!
EVARISTE The First Law of Picnics:
you go in search of solitude, you find
everyone.
PHILIPPE That’s Genius in a nutshell.
Finds the loneliest spot and the loveliest view
and thinks it belongs to him.
EVARISTE I made the mistake
of thinking I was free, on – Picnic Day.
ELODIE That’s what it’s called, Philippe, we changed its name!
PHILIPPE So you like my little friend the embroidress?
EVARISTE Ah, you’re a friend of his, well then I blink
and you’re gone on the merry-go-round.
ELODIE But I come back
waving, don’t I, Evariste?
PHILIPPE First names,
I see.
ELODIE Now I’m a friend of Evariste’s,
and [PHILIPPE] who are you? I’ve forgotten…
PHILIPPE I sell tickets
for the merry-go-round and this boy owes me money.
PHILIPPE draws EVARISTE aside
PHILIPPE Where did you disappear to?
EVARISTE Thin air.
Clear air. Air that’s pure. And don’t call me
Genius.
PHILIPPE Or what’ll the Genius do?
EVARISTE I’ll call you Prodigy.
PHILIPPE But I don’t mind that,
plus it’s true, I am a Prodigy,
I’m just getting on a bit, I’ll get round to it,
that masterpiece up my sleeve, but in the mean time,
Genius, she can’t take her eyes off you.
EVARISTE When the Revolution’s over I’ll wave.
PHILIPPE Yes you can stroke what’s left of her white hair.
‘When the Revolution’s over…’
EVARISTE I don’t need
to forget, Philippe, I don’t need a day off
anything.
PHILIPPE You need to eat, Genius,
not nibble at your lettuce like some rabbit
when everybody’s eating what they want to
for the first time in weeks. You made them all feel guilty.
EVARISTE So they were guilty. I wasn’t hungry.
PHILIPPE Of course you’re fucking hungry, we’re all hungry.