Vanya On 42nd Street Page #6

If I'm to go, I must go.

And now is the time.

Farewell, my dove.

If we keep talking, we'll be talking at noon.

Good-bye.

He's told me nothing, and yet I'm happy.

He keeps his heart and his soul from me...

yet I'm happy and I don't care.

"A beautiful man," I said.

"You have a lovely voice. "

Was that forward?

I don't care.

I - I love his voice. Why shouldn't I?

And yet...

I told him about my friend.

Oh! "A younger sister," I said...

and he didn't get a word.

Lord...

why did you make me so plain?

Last week in church,

I heard the woman behind me.

"She's so kind and generous.

What a pity she's so plain.

That she's so plain. "

End of the storm.

Such a peace in the air.

- Where's the doctor?

- Gone.

- Sophie.

- What?

How long are you going to go on

being short with me?

We've done no harm to each other.

Why should we be enemies?

Don't you feel -

Enough.

- I -

- Yes?

- I wanted to.

- I did too.

Well, let's not be angry anymore then.

With all my heart.

That's good.

Thank you.

Has Papa gone to bed yet?

No.

He's still sitting up.

Weeks at a time we don't talk to each other.

God only knows why.

Drink with me.

Brderschaft.

Out of the same glass.

I wanted to make it up for a long time,

and I felt ashamed.

Why are you crying?

It's nothing.

You're angry with me...

because you think I married your father

for my own convenience.

If you believe in oaths...

I give you my oath on this:

I married him for love.

He was a famous man,

a man of learning...

and I was captivated by it.

And it was not real.

The love was not real...

but I thought it was real.

At the time I thought it was real,

and I'm not to blame.

But, Sophie, ever since our wedding day,

you haven't stopped accusing me.

- I accused you?

- You did.

I saw it... in your eyes.

We'll have no more of that.

You mustn't look like that on people.

It doesn't suit you.

And we must trust.

How can we live if we do not?

- Can I ask you something?

- Yes.

- But honestly, as a friend.

- Yes.

Are you happy?

No.

I knew you weren't.

And can I ask you something else?

Wouldn't you have preferred

to marry a younger husband?

Oh, what a schoolgirl you are.

- Well, wouldn't you have?

- Yes.

Yes, I should have liked that.

All right. What else?

Um, do you like the doctor?

Very much.

- Do I look funny?

- Mm-mmm.

Uh! It's - It's just that

even though he's not here...

I can still hear his voice.

And if I look over by the window,

I can see him there.

God, let me say it!

Oh, my God. I shouldn't talk so loud.

Should we go to my room?

Do I seem silly to you?

Ugh. Of course I do.

Tell me about him.

- What should I tell?

- Isn't he so clever? Isn't he?

Beyond that, he does things.

He heals people, and he plants.

- Oh, my dear, it's so much more than that.

- It is?

He plants a tree,

and when he plants it...

he's - he's trying to see what comes

of his action in a thousand years.

A thousand years. Do you know?

He's thinking of the happiness of man.

- When you find such beautiful people -

- What?

They must... be loved.

- He drinks.

- Yes, he does.

He can be coarse.

When you think of his life,

he ministers to crude, barbarous folk.

Their poverty, their ignorance

around him constantly -

disease.

A man who lives this life -

I wish you this happiness.

With all my soul.

You deserve happiness.

I am a dull, second-rank character, you know.

Throughout my whole life,

that's what I've been.

When you come to think of it,

I am quite thoroughly unhappy.

Why are you laughing?

I feel so happy.

- Would you like me to play for you?

- Yes! Very much.

- Yes?

- Yes. I can't sleep.

Good. Go ask your father.

When he's ill, music sometimes upsets him.

If it's all right, then I'll play.

All right.

Oh.

So long since I've played.

I'll play and then I'll cry

like some damned fool.

He says we can't.

Okay. Let's take a little break.

It used to be so nice when you smoked too.

Now I'm the only one.

Sorry, Jer.

You know, I love to go to Milwaukee.

They have wonderful restaurants there.

- Right.

- Yes.

- Did you find anyplace good to eat in Hartford?

- No. Max's on Main.

- Do you know I have an Indian guru?

- You do?

Yes, Gurumayi is a great teacher.

So, anyway, the, uh, next two acts...

take place three months later, in September.

So you can just imagine that all the things

that have been going on...

have been going on for three more months.

The Herr Professor has been so good

as to express this -

He wishes that we should gather here

in this drawing room...

at 1:
00 this afternoon.

That'll be in one-quarter hour...

at which time he has some thing...

which he wishes to share with the world.

Some business matter probably.

But what business? He has none anymore.

He writes garbage, he grumbles,

he envies the world, and that's his life.

- Uncle!

- All right. All right.

You're right.

Oh, look at how she moves.

Morbid with laziness.

A panorama of inaction.

Must you go on always?

Is there nothing to do?

I'm dying of boredom.

There's no end of things to do,

if you wish to do them.

- Tell me one.

- Teach, treat the sick, care for the estate.

- Hmm.

- Much to do. When you and Papa weren't here...

Uncle and I used to

go to the market to sell flour.

I wouldn't know how.

Eh -

Besides, it doesn't interest me.

In ideological novels, people always jump up

and declare that they'll teach or treat the sick.

But how should I do that?

Just suddenly - Just -

I- If - If you did it, you'd be drawn to it.

You would.

I know you're bored. It's so contagious.

Uncle Vanya has it now.

He does nothing except follow you

like a cloud on a leash all day long.

I put down my work,

and I come to chat.

I've grown so lazy.

And our doctor, who used to

come here once a month, if that...

is here every single day...

and turns his back on his forests

and his medicine and lives under your spell.

But... why are you languishing, my dear,

my splendor?

Wake up!

Pulse with life!

You, when the blood of mermaids

courses through your veins...

wake up to your mermaid life.

For once in your life, let yourself go.

Rise to the heights...

and then plunge into the frothy brine.

Love with a water spirit awaits you...

in your guise as the naiad of perfection...

so that our Herr Professor and all of us...

can just throw back our heads and say...

"Who was that nymph?"

Will you shut up?

It's very cruel.

Forgive me, my joy. Forgive me.

I apologize.

- Forgive me. Peace.

- You'd try the patience of a saint.

- Hmm, as a peace offering -

- Admit it!

As an offering of peace,

I am going to bring you...

a bouquet of roses!

Flowers which I had the foresight

to have obtained this morning.

Sad roses.

Autumn roses.

For you.

Sad autumn roses.

It's already September.

How are we gonna get through the winter here?

Where's the doctor?

He's up in Uncle Vanya's room.

He's writing something.

I'm glad Uncle's gone,

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