Vanya On 42nd Street Page #4

Do you know,

you speak of your age in a tone...

that suggests that it's our fault

you've grown old?

I revolt you most of all.

You're right, of course.

You're young, you're healthy,

you're beautiful, you want to live.

Here am I, an old man,

more than one foot in the grave.

- Isn't that right?

- Oh, God.

- Of course that's right.

- Oh.

How foolish of me to still keep on living.

Please.

- Be patient.

- I'm ready to collapse.

- Soon I'll set you all free. Yes.

- What must I do? Please, be silent.

Because of me

you're all ready to collapse, all of you.

- Everyone bored.

- Oh!

Wasting their youth.

I'm the only one content. I see it.

- Oh, you're destroying me.

- Yes!

Of course I'm destroying everyone.

What do you want from me?

Nothing.

Well, then be quiet.

Fine. Let us stipulate.

I am repulsive.

I am a despot.

I am that sick egoist you all think me to be.

But have I not earned it?

I worked all my life for science,

respected and honored.

And then I'm thrust, thrust...

for no apparent reason...

into this tomb among the mindless...

every day

their prattle stuffing my ears.

I want to live.

Here, I'm in exile.

Every waking moment

I can pine for the past...

envy the success of others...

or I can fear death.

Those three choices are my life.

Have patience.

Five or six more years, I'll be old too.

Hmm?

Papa.

Papa, you sent for Dr. Astrov.

Now he's here, and you don't want him.

What am I supposed to tell him

now that we've called him here for nothing?

What good can Astrov do me?

The man knows as much of medicine

as I do of beekeeping.

What am I to tell him, please?

We sent for him.

The man's a fool!

I don't want to speak to him.

Well, as you wish then! Fine!

What time is it?

It's almost 1:
00.

I can't breathe.

Please, Sonya, my drops -

they're on the table.

Just a moment.

No, not these!

The ones I asked for, for God's sake!

Some people might appreciate

this peevishness!

I do not.

Please spare me. I don't like it.

I need my rest.

Tomorrow is a working day!

- Well, there's a storm brewing outside.

- Oh.

Did you see that lightning?

Yelena and Sonya, off to bed.

You are relieved.

Oh, please don't leave me alone with him.

He'll talk me to death.

- They need their rest.

- No.

They need their rest.

Two nights without sleep?

All right, fine.

Both of you, off to bed.

And you, too, please.

Sincerely, with thanks.

In the name of our friendship,

please leave me alone.

Don't leave me alone with him.

I'm quite serious.

You know, this is becoming funny.

Nanny, what are you doing up?

You should be in bed.

Fine. Samovar is on the table.

Easy to say "Go to bed. "

Everybody's up.

Everybody's fatigued beyond measure.

I'm the only one happy.

I'm ecstatic.

What's the matter, little father?

Your legs? Oh.

My legs hurt too.

I have the 'ralgia. 'Ralgia all day.

Sonya's sainted mother

took it so to heart when you hurt.

She loved you so, that woman. Mmm.

Well, the old are like the young.

They want someone to pity them.

But nobody ever feels sorry for the old.

Now, you go to bed now, little father...

and I'll make you some linden tea.

And I'll warm your feet for you.

- And I'll pray for you. Yes, I will.

- Oh, go on. Go on.

Now, come - Oh! 'Ralgia. Oh.

Come to bed. That's right.

I've been so tired by him,

I can hardly stand.

You're tired by him?

I'm sick of myself.

Two nights without sleep.

I'm tired to nausea.

This is not a happy home.

Your mother loathes everything in the world

except her pamphlets.

And the professor -

the professor mistrusts me.

- He fears you.

- He fears me?

Yes, he does.

Sonya's angry with her father...

pettish with me,

hasn't spoken to me in the last two weeks.

Not one word.

And you hate my husband.

You despise your mother

and you make no effort to conceal it.

I go around 20 times a day,

I'm on the edge of tears.

One would not say this is a happy home.

Oh, let's drop this discourse, shall we?

You're an educated man...

a thoughtful man.

Our world is not worsened

by fires or by robbers...

but do you understand?

By hate.

Our world's destroyed by hate...

by pettiness.

And your job should be to be strong...

and not to carp at those around you,

not to grumble...

but simply to reconcile

and to make peace.

- I'd make my peace with you.

- No, stop that.

I'd like it if you left.

Now, please.

The rain is ending.

Everything will be refreshed.

The earth exhales.

But I will not be refreshed...

by the coming and the passing

of the storm.

My whole life, day and night, I feel that...

I've squandered my past on nonsense.

My present is sunk in absurdity.

My one feeling is for you.

How can I renounce it?

My one feeling in life.

It's dying like a ray of sun

that's shone into a well.

You speak to me...

of love?

How am I to deal with that?

Forgive me. I must say good night.

Coincidentally, though,

here by my side...

another person's life

is being wasted in this house.

Whose could that be?

What are you waiting for?

For your life to end?

What stupid, pointless principle

is standing in your way?

Do you comprehend

what I'm trying to tell you?

Are you drunk?

It could very well be.

Where's the doctor?

He's spending the night in my room.

Could be. It could be.

Anything could be.

- Why have you been drinking?

- Why?

Because it gives me the illusion...

that I might be alive.

Don't scold me.

You never used to drink.

- I drink now.

- Yeah, I know.

- And you never spoke so much.

- I didn't?

Perhaps that's just -

Go to bed. You bore me.

Do I?

Oh, my enchanted one, my darling.

No, no, no. God, you disgust me!

Ten years ago...

I'd see her at my sister's.

She was 17...

and I was 37.

I could have proposed to her,

and now she'd be my wife...

and both of us would've

been woken by the storm.

The thunder frightened you.

Don't be afraid. I'm here.

Why, in the name of God, am I old?

What happened to me?

It's that damned pseudo-morality...

and that lazy, stupid intellect.

Jargon, ideas about the "ruin of the world. "

Who the hell does she think she is?

They cheated me.

I worshipped that man.

Sonya and I,

we squeezed the last dregs...

from that estate like slaves.

Begrudged ourselves food.

We sent thousands to him.

Why shouldn't we to a man of genius?

We basked in him.

Now the man retires...

it's screamingly clear.

What does he leave as his legacy?

This colossus?

What work? What -

He leaves nothing.

Not a single page.

A nothing, a fraud.

A vicious failure...

who cheated a man who loved him.

- Play something.

- No, no, no, no. The whole house is asleep.

Oh, play it.

Aww!

All alone?

No ladies, eh?

The house is flying

The stove is flying

Where can the master make his bed?

The storm woke me.

Some rain.

I heard Yelena.

Very probably.

She's a splendid woman.

God help us when doctors disagree.

Is there a town whose pharmacy's

not represented here?

The whole region must be sick of his gout.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes