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<div style="text-align: center;">@@.large;The Whisperers.@@
A play by Milo van Mesdag</div>
[[Start]]
[[Script]]
[[Content warning]]
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<<button "Toggle black on white mode.">><<if $Accessible is not "Black-on-white">><<set $Accessible to "Black-on-white">><<else>><<set $Accessible to "">><</if>><<run Engine.show()>><</button>>
<<button "Toggle white on black mode.">><<if $Accessible is not "White-on-black">><<set $Accessible to "White-on-black">><<else>><<set $Accessible to "">><</if>><<run Engine.show()>><</button>>
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<<button "Toggle easy read font mode.">><<if $FontType is not "Easy">><<set $FontType to "Easy">><<else>><<set $FontType to "">><</if>><<run Engine.show()>><</button>>This script is provided for those interested in performing //The Whisperers.// Script changes based on different choices are colour coded with coloured brackets.
This is a 'behind the scenes' view of the script and I'd advise only reading further if you have already 'played' the story as interactive fiction (see 'Start' from the homescreen) or seen it performed.
[[Continue|DetailsScript]]
[[Back|Begin]]Content warning:
Physical violence.
Mention of executions.
Mention of Holodomor (genocide by engineered famine).Welcome. Some housekeeping, before we start. I am asking you to suspend your disbelief. I am asking you to imagine that you are about to enter a theatre to watch a play called //The Whisperers//. Everything that happens between curly brackets - {} - is what is happening to //you//, the person who has come to watch the play. But mostly you will just be watching the play, concerned with dialogue, which needs no introduction, and the scene directions, which will appear in square brackets - []. The only thing you need to know about the play ahead of time is that the audience is expected to play a role (no picking on specific audience members or anything like that). The question to you, the person reading this, is whether you want to simulate the experience of being a member of the crowd by having an impact on, but not full control over, the decisions made, or would you prefer to take full advantage of the fact that you are, in fact, reading this instead of watching it and simply make all of the decisions that would usually be shared by the entire crowd? I’d recommend the second option, but if you would prefer to simulate a more realistic lack of control, then feel free to choose the first.
Once you’ve chosen, we’ll dive straight in.
[[I want to simulate just being a part of the audience.|Introduction][$Simulate = "True"]]
[[I want full control of the narrative.|Introduction][$Simulate = "False"]]<<nobr>><<if $Simulate is "True">>
<<set $r0 to random(1, 100)>>
<<set $r1 to random(1, 100)>>
<<set $r2 to random(1, 100)>>
<<set $r3 to random(1, 100)>>
<<set $r4 to random(1, 100)>>
<<set $r5 to random(1, 100)>>
<<set $r6 to random(1, 100)>>
<<set $r7 to random(1, 100)>>
<<set $r8 to random(1, 100)>><</if>><<endnobr>>{You arrive at the theatre and the first thing you notice is the seating: it is not uniform. Specifically, the seats in the first few rows are cushioned, comfortable single seats. Those behind, taking up the central third of seats, are standard theatre seats, comfortable enough but by no means luxurious. And behind those are simple benches, uncomfortable and backless.}
<<if $Simulate is "True">>{Which seat do you take?}
[[Take one of the comfortable, front row seats.|Introduction 2][$Weight = 35]]
[[Take one of the ordinary, middle seats.|Introduction 2][$Weight = 25]]
[[Take one of the uncomfortable back row seats.|Introduction 2][$Weight = 15]]<<else>>{You [[sit down|Introduction 2]] somewhere and examine the stage.}<</if>>{The stage is designed to look like the inside of a nineteen-thirties Moscow apartment. There are three rooms visible. The one on stage right is a small kitchen with a simple wooden table taking up most of the space. This is the largest of the three rooms; with the table five people could just about stand in there. The next is a small bedroom, containing a double bed, two simple chairs and not much else. The third room is a bedroom of about the same size, containing a smaller bed, a desk covered in a mess of papers and architectural drawing equipment, and a stool for the desk. Doors connect the rooms sequentially, with two additional doors leading off the kitchen, one stage right and one at the back of the room leading backstage.}
{Eventually the theatre lights fade and you can see through the residual light as the actors take their places. You will meet six people in the course of the story. For each of the following, unless stage directions say otherwise, you can assume that they are at home in their own room.}
{Nikolai Borisovich lives in the furthest room from the kitchen. He is a man in his mid to late twenties, dressed like an urban professional. He takes his place now.}
{Dariya Yuriivna lives with her husband, Georgy Antonivich in the middle room. They both appear to be in their late forties, although she looks the older of the two. He dresses neatly, while her clothes are slightly (for the period) eccentric in a way that adds to the perception that she is older. They both take their places now.}
{The rest are not yet on stage, but soon will be.}
{Agnessa Petrovna and her brother, Sergei Petrovich, live in the room upstage of the kitchen, not visible to the audience. She is in her early twenties, he a couple of years older. She wears a simple dress, while he wears the uniform of the NKVD, which is most notable for its blue cap and holstered pistol.}
{Finally, the Guide, who does not live in the apartment and who wears an NKVD uniform identical to Sergei’s.}
One last piece before we start: unless stated otherwise, //__every line is delivered in a whisper__//. In order to be heard, therefore, each actor wears a microphone, which is mostly hidden by the costumes. If a line is delivered in something other than a whisper, it will either be marked as [subdued] for voiced but quiet speech, [full] for normal speaking volume, or [shouting] for shouted dialogue.
{And with that, the Guide walks onto the stage, coming upstage centre and addressing the crowd.}
Guide [full]: Ladies and gentlemen. Members of the party [gesturing to the front row seats], the workers [gesturing to the middle rows], and … those deemed in need of re-education [gesturing to the back rows]. The Department of Agitation and Propaganda [gesturing back towards the apartment rooms] and the NKVD [gesturing to himself] would like to welcome you to this evening of moral education. This is a truly socialist play. For in this play, it is you, the people, who will decide what happens. It is you, the people, who will step forward and make the key decisions which should be yours to make. It is a very simple system. At certain points during tonight’s performance, I will come forward and ask you, the people, for your decision on what will happen next. I will present you with the obvious options one by one. You will clap, or cheer - if you so wish - for the option which you want to see acted out. I will judge which option received the most recognition from you and the actors will then perform it. Simple? Let us start with an example. Let us say that a character is considering faking an illness in order to take a day off work. Should his neighbour report him? What is the will of the people? On the motion of Report or Don’t Report, I will first hear those in favour of Report. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Don’t Report [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].
[[Cheer for Report|Introduction 3][$c0 = "Report"]]
[[Cheer for Don’t Report|Introduction 3][$c0 = "Don’t Report"]]<<nobr>><<if $Simulate is "True">>
<<if $c0 is "Report">><<set $n to $Weight>><<else>><<set $n to -$Weight>><</if>>
<<set $result to $r0 + 2*$n>>
<<if $result gte 50>> <<set $c0 to "Report">> <<else>> <<set $c0 to "Don't Report">> <</if>>
<</if>><<endnobr>>Guide [full]: <<if $c0 is "Report">>Very good. If this scene were in our play, the neighbour would now report the work-shy bedbug to the authorities, as he should.<<else>>An … interesting decision. But tonight is a night for experimentation. If this scene were in our play, the neighbour would allow the work-shy bedbug to let all of his colleagues down by staying at home.<</if>> And that is the process. Simple. So, comrades, without further ado: the year is this very year, nineteen-thirty-eight, and we enter on the very familiar scene of a communal apartment, Moscow, as two new tenants arrive to begin their new lives in our glorious capital of Socialism.
[[Act 1, Scene 1|Scene 1]]<div style="text-align: center;">__Act 1__</div>
__Scene 1__
Sergei [full]: Moscow!
Agnessa [subdued]: Moscow.
[Both stand and look around the kitchen, Sergei smiling, Agnessa frowning.]
Sergei [full]: Are you happy, Agnya?
Agnessa [subdued]: Yes, Sergei.
Sergei [full]: There it is again: ‘Sergei’. Sister, what happened to ‘my little Seryozha?’
[Agnessa does not answer, but gestures towards Sergei’s blue cap. Sergei reaches up to touch it.]
Sergei [laughing] [full]: Yes, yes I suppose you are right! No more ‘Seryozha’, I am a grown man, a Moscow man, Sergei Petrovich of the NKVD!
[As he says this, the door, left, opens and Georgy enters, smiling, but stops when he, too, sees Sergei’s cap.]
Sergei [full]: Ah, hello! You must be our neighbour, it is a pleasure to meet you! Did you already hear my introduction?
[Georgy moves to salute as Sergei offers him his hand. There is a moment of confusion, but then they shake and Georgy exchanges shallow bows with Agnessa.]
Georgy: Georgy Antonivich. Squadron Sergeant, comrade.
Sergei [full]: What, still?
Georgy: Oh, no, sorry comrade. Retired. [Points down at his leg.] Nineteen-twenty-one.
Sergei [full]: Oh, bad luck. [Pause] So … have you been in Moscow ever since?
Georgy: Yes comrade. We’ve been here since before Lenin passed.
Sergei [full]: A glorious man, a glorious time. You were lucky to have served then. Do you miss it?
Georgy: Serving? Or the time?
Sergei [full]: Why not both?
Georgy: I miss serving my country. That is the greatest loss of my life. As for the times, well, they were glorious, but they are better today. They are better and better every day.
Sergei [full]: Well said! We live in the greatest time in the greatest country on earth! A five year plan in four, we’re so great even mathematics bow to our superiority! Still, you can never be too careful. With success comes jealousy, now that we’ve proved it can be done, the old world order is throwing everything it has at us. But we will survive, just watch them try to stop us!
[At this, Georgy hesitates, then spits on the floor. All turn to stare at him, Agnessa amused, Sergei affronted.]
Georgy: No, no, not you comrade. Wreckers, you were talking of wreckers and spies. It was for them. Please, comrade, I-
Sergei [laughing] [full]: Ah, I understand. Yes, yes, too right, too right! [Sergei spits] But be careful, Georgy Antonivich. Be careful, not-
[Dariya enters during this speech, interrupts]
Dariya: What is going on? What has my husband done, I promise you he-
[Georgy steadies his wife.]
Georgy: Comrade Sergei Petrovich, Agnessa Petrovna, this is my wife, Dariya Yuriivna.
Sergei [full]: Ah, well met Dariya Yuriivna. I am Sergei Petrovich and this is my sister, Agnessa Petrovna.
Dariya: I heard. You are with the police?
Sergei [full]: With the NKVD. [At this word, we see Nikolai, who had been trying to work in his apartment, suddenly jump up and check to see if he is presentable enough to race through to greet the new arrivals.] A new recruit, straight from the Komsomol to the training academy to here. It is odd, to have the greatest honour of your life bestowed upon you so young. All I hope is that-
[His speech is cut short by Nikolai bursting into the room.]
Sergei [full]: Ah. Hello.
Nikolai: Yes, sorry, hello. It is an honour to meet you Sergei Petrovich.
Sergei [full]: Oh. Well, it appears my reputation precedes me. But I thought-
Nikolai: Oh, no, sorry, erm, comrade. Sorry. I heard you. [At Sergei’s confused expression:] Through the walls.
Sergei: Oh. Oh, well.
[An awkward pause. Agnessa takes a couple of steps forward.]
Agnessa [subdued]: I suppose you heard my name too?
Nikolai: Yes, Agnessa Petrovna, it is an honour to meet you too.
Agnessa [subdued]: I’m sure it’s mutual, whoever you are.
Nikolai: Oh. Oh! Yes, oh, I hope you will forgive me, Agnessa Petrovna, Sergei Petrovich. I am Nikolai Borisovich. I’m an architect. I’m working on the Palace of the Soviets.
Sergei [full]: Oh, the Palace? Wonderful! I have read about it, I’ve seen so many pictures of the design, truly it should put the other seven wonders of the world to shame.
Nikolai: That is indeed the hope, comrade. I’m in the team working on the foundations. It’s a … unique challenge.
Sergei [full]: But one we’re more than prepared to meet, no?
Nikolai: Oh, of course. The soviet man is capable of all. But with a one-hundred metre statue just the adornment on the roof of the structure, the whole building is set to weigh one and half million tons. We will get it right, but it is a great deal to get right.
Sergei [full]: Well excellent, excellent. You will have to show me the worksite some time.
Nikolai: Of course, comrade.
Agnessa [subdued]: It used to be the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, didn’t it?
Nikolai: Yes. Yes it did.
Agnessa [subdued]: It was demolished, wasn’t it?
Nikolai: Yes, yes it was.
Dariya: Nikolai was the one who did it.
Nikolai: I … I was a student. I helped with the placement of some of the dynamite. I wouldn’t, I would not say I was the one who demolished it. It was a long time ago.
Sergei [full]: Don’t sell yourself short, comrade! Taking credit where it is due is hardly being ‘dizzy with success’.
Nikolai: Yes comrade. Of course.
Agnessa [subdued]: You are our neighbour then, Nikolai?
Nikolai: Oh, yes. I live here. The third room.
Agnessa [subdued]: By yourself?
Nikolai: Yes.
Georgy: This is all of us.
Dariya: Now that you are here, and the Golovins are gone.
Sergei [full]: Were they nice?
[Georgy and Nikolai freeze.]
Dariya: The youngest just turned twelve. Just in time.
Georgy: They’re gone now and a good thing too. Messy, the mother was a drinker, very anti-soviet. It will be much better with you. Won’t it my love?
Dariya: Yes. Much better.
Georgy: Yes, yes, we fully believe that. Much better, we’re so pleased to have you, aren’t we Dariya.
Dariya: Yes. Much better.
[A pause.]
Sergei [subdued]: I see. Much better. Well, I’m glad to hear it.
Nikolai: I agree.
Sergei [subdued]: Good. Well, that’s probably enough for now. It’s very good to meet you. Georgy Antonivich. Nikolai Borisovich. Dariya Yuriivna. [He nods to each of them in turn]. My sister and I should probably unpack.
Georgy: Yes, yes, of course. A pleasure, comrade.
Dariya: An honour.
[Georgy and Dariya retreat to their room.]
Agnessa [subdued]: Something keeping you, Nikolai?
Nikolai: No! I mean … no. It was … yes, an honour to meet you. Both.
Agnessa [subdued]: A pleasure.
Nikolai: Yes. Yes, that also.
Sergei [full]: Anything else?
Nikolai: No, sorry. Welcome.
[Nikolai retreats to his room.]
Sergei [subdued]: They seem like good people. Nice to have an old Bolshevik for a neighbour.
Agnessa [subdued]: I like his wife.
Sergei [subdued]: Perhaps. But that is for another time. Unpack now, shall we?
Agnessa [subdued]: Certainly, Seryozha.
[[Scene 2]]__Scene 2__
[Agnessa sitting at the kitchen table. She stands up and walks to the internal door, hesitates. Georgy and Dariya both hear her movement, but only Dariya looks up. Agnessa stands with hand raised ready to knock, but doesn’t. After a few seconds, Dariya, smiling, stands up and opens the door.]
Agnessa [subdued]: Oh.
Dariya: It is Nikolai Borisovich you wish to see?
Agnessa [subdued]: Oh, yes. But-
Dariya: I heard that you like me.
Agnessa [subdued]: Um … what?
Dariya: We hear you. When you talk.
Agnessa [subdued]: Oh. [Whispered] Oh, okay.
Dariya: We heard you walk to the door. We knew you were waiting to knock.
Agnessa: Oh.
Dariya: Do you know other words?
Agnessa: Hey!
Dariya: There’s one!
Agnessa: Fine, yes. [Pause] How long did it take you to get used to this life?
Dariya: You think I am used to it?
Georgy: Let the girl go, my dear. However much she likes you, she didn’t come to see you.
Agnessa: No, no it’s nice to see you. I do like you Dariya Yuriivna. I’m not embarrassed that you know it.
Dariya: Good. I’m not sure whether I like you yet, Agnessa Petrovna. But early signs are good.
Agnessa [laughing]: You’re not the kind of person I expected to meet in the city.
Georgy [with a look of genuine sadness and a touch of fear]: Don’t expect to meet many more.
[A moment of silence. Both women look down at the floor, while Georgy looks sadly at his wife.]
Georgy: Go on, Agnessa Petrovna.
Agnessa: Okay. [She moves into their apartment, trying not to look around too conspicuously, but she stops half way across.] Thank you.
Dariya: I speak when I can.
[Georgy looks up sharply. Agnessa nods and knocks on Nikolai’s door. For most of the following, Georgy and Dariya can be seen having a conversation: Georgy in turns angry, disappointed, fearful, and sad; Dariya moving between dismissive and resigned.]
[Nikolai opens the door, flustered but not able to withhold a smile. He gestures Agnessa in. Both stand in his room for a moment: Nikolai awkward; Agnessa comfortably examining the space.]
Nikolai: So…
Agnessa: Am I allowed to see this? [She moves over to his desk, leafs through some papers.]
Nikolai: Probably not.
[He moves over to put them away, but she laughs and pushes him gently away.]
Agnessa: Are you really scared of what I’ll see? Do you think I am a wrecker, Nikolai Borisovich?
Nikolai: Anyone could be. If even Zinoviev, Kamenev, Radek, all those others, if even //they// were traitors, who knows?
[A long pause while both stare at each other.]
Agnessa: My brother’s an NKVD man.
Nikolai: They arrested Yagoda a few months ago.
Agnessa: Yes, my brother told me. Yagoda was head of the NKVD when Sergei started at the academy and he had been arrested by them by the time he graduated. [Pause.] He was scared by that.
[Another long pause. Agnessa waits expectantly, Nikolai knows he is being tested but is unsure how.]
Nikolai: Scared because the enemy has managed to infiltrate even the vanguard of the fight to protect world communism?
Agnessa: It’s socialism in one country now.
Nikolai: Of course! I’m not a Trotskyite.
Agnessa: Why?
Nikolai: Because obviously I’m not! Why would I be a Trotskyite?
Agnessa [teasing]: ‘Anyone could be a Trotskyist. If even Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Yagoda were, who knows?’
Nikolai [pause]: Who are you?
Agnessa: Agnessa Petrovna.
Nikolai: No, who are you, to say those kind of things?
Agnessa [pause]: Why //are// you not a Trotskyist?
Nikolai: I said don’t joke!
Agnessa: No you didn’t!
Nikolai: I … I implied it. Don’t joke like that. It’s-
[Agnessa moves over to his desk and picks up a pamphlet that was revealed when Nikolai attempted to hide his papers.]
Agnessa: What’s this?
Nikolai: No. No, please.
[She opens it. Nikolai is actively shaking with fear. He continues to shake his head and silently plead as she reads. By the end, he is on his knees.]
Agnessa: Stalin was out swimming one day, but he began to drown. A farmer who was passing by jumped in and saved him. Stalin started to ask the farmer what he would like as a reward when the latter realised whom he had saved. ‘Nothing!’ he said, ‘Just please don’t tell anyone I saved you’. [She laughs, looks down at Nikolai and stops.] It’s funny!
Nikolai: Please.
[Agnessa smiles kindly, places the pamphlet back on the desk and covers it with a loose piece of paper.]
Nikolai: What, what do you want?
Agnessa: What do you mean?
Nikolai: What do you want? In return for not telling your brother? What do you-
Agnessa: No, no. I will not tell my brother.
Nikolai [pause, breathing heavily]: Why?
Agnessa: Why aren’t you a Trotskyist?
Nikolai: Please. Agnessa Petrovna. Please.
Agnessa [sitting down to join him on the floor]: I’m a Trotskyist.
[Nikolai stares, overwhelmed.]
Agnessa [mocking]: Don’t tell my brother. Please, please!
Nikolai: You’re mad.
Agnessa: Yes. We all are in the USSR.
Nikolai: Wha-what?
Agnessa: This has been a lot, hasn’t it?
Nikolai: Yes. Yes, it has.
[Both sit in silence. Then, slowly, Agnessa takes Nikolai’s hand.]
Agnessa [gently]: I’m scared.
Nikolai: Of what?
[Agnessa laughs and shakes her head.]
Agnessa: What do you live for, Nikolai Borisovich?
Nikolai: The joy of the coming day and the glory of the soviet… [he trails off]
Agnessa: I don’t like liars, Nikolai. Don’t be a liar.
Nikolai: Then I won’t lie to you.
Agnessa: What do you live for, Nikolai?
Nikolai: A lie.
Agnessa [smiling]: At least you have something.
[Nikolai smiles and lets out a long, shaking breath.]
Nikolai: I feel as if I just jumped from the top of a skyscraper.
Agnessa: Have you hit the bottom yet?
Nikolai: I don’t know, have I?
Agnessa: Yes, yes, today you have. Flat on a nice, soft feather bed. Duvets stacked twenty-five high!
Nikolai: I’m too winded for that. Make it fifteen.
Agnessa: Done! Now tell me, Nikolai Borisovich, what is your favourite flower?
Nikolai: Orchids. White orchids. Why?
Agnessa [standing up]: Because, Nikolai Borisovich, I am going to buy you white orchids. I shall attach a beautifully written little apology note to them to say sorry for everything I’ve put you through.
Nikolai: Oh, oh, you don’t have to.
Agnessa: Yes, yes I do. Because of this: it’s all true. Everything I’ve said. See you later, Nikolai Borisovich. [Exits, ignoring Dariya and Georgy, and going through the kitchen and though her bedroom door. Nikolai remains on the floor, holding his chest and looking up at the ceiling. A slight smile starts to creep across his face as the light fades and the Guide enters, coming downstage.
Guide [full]: Comrades, I know, I know that you are eager to put this situation right. But just as the foundations of our great Palace must be laid perfectly first, I insist that you wait. All will come in time and your first time will come soon. [Exits]
[[Scene 3]]__Scene 3__
[Georgy is cooking something in the kitchen when Sergei walks in, looking tired. Nikolai is out, but we can see a bottle acting as a makeshift vase for a number of white orchids on his desk.]
Sergei [subdued]: Ah, Georgy Antonivich. How … how are you?
Georgy [standing up straight and turning away from his work]: I am well, thank you comrade. And you?
Sergei [subdued]: Good, yes good. [pause, then whispered] Is my sister at home?
Georgy: No, I believe she went out.
Sergei: Oh, good. Good.
[Sergei walks to one of the cupboards, rummages around inside. There is the sound of a catch (or something else to indicate the presence of a secret compartment) and he takes out a bottle of vodka.]
Sergei: Can I interest you in a glass, comrade?
Georgy: Of course, thank you.
[Sergei takes out two shot glasses, sits down at the table and fills both glasses to the brim. Georgy hesitates for a moment, then joins him.]
Sergei: To the party?
Georgy: Yes, to the party.
[Both men drink. Sergei fills both glasses again.]
Sergei: Did my sister say where she was going?
Georgy: For a walk, I believe.
Sergei: Ah, shame. Shame. I’m fully in support of her going out, but I wish she would go out with some purpose. [Sergei drains his glass, refills it and leans forward to refill Gerogy’s, but finds it untouched.] Ah. To Comrade Stalin?
Georgy: To Comrade Stalin.
[Both men drink and Sergei refills both glasses.]
Sergei: Do you have any sisters, Georgy?
Georgy: Three. I was the only son.
Sergei: Oh, how did you manage it?
[There is a pause, until Georgy realises the question was not rhetorical.]
Georgy: Well, I was second youngest. There wasn’t much to manage.
Sergei: Still, you were the man of the house. [pause] What are they doing?
Georgy: My sisters?
Sergei: Yes.
Georgy: Mariya died and Anna became an economic planner for the People’s Commissariat for Agriculture.
Sergei: Huh, impressive. And the third one.
Georgy: Anna was the youngest.
Sergei: No, I mean, what did your other sister do? The one you haven’t mentioned.
Georgy: She left. Emigrated, in nineteen-nineteen.
[Sergei sits back in his chair and stares across at Georgy. Finally, he reaches down and picks up his glass.]
Sergei: To loyalty, Georgy Antonivich.
Georgy: To loyalty.
[Both down their drinks, Sergei pours out another.]
Sergei: Your sister, the economic planner, how is she doing?
Georgy: She’s no longer working. She’s married, she lives with her husband in Stalingrad.
Sergei [chuckling] [subdued]: Of course. You see that’s the problem. Agnessa should do something, something for the good of the USSR. She spends so much of her time reading and improving herself; she was a good student at school and she hasn’t stopped studying since. It would be such a waste if she never //did// anything with that. It’d be an act of sabotage! When we were younger, I kept telling her "you have to get party membership, you have to get a job with the party!" But she didn’t apply herself where it mattered; she was good Pioneer, but she didn’t make it into the Komsomol. And if you don’t make it into the youth wing of the party, how do you expect to make it into the party! It’s not that she doesn’t work hard, she’s one of the most improved young women I know - although maybe standards are higher here in Moscow - but she just doesn’t apply it. I worry that it’s a question of will. A … [Sergei slurs a word here, a mixture of drunkenness and an inability to vocalise his fears. Perhaps it is ‘hatred’, or simply ‘dislike’?] for the party, or the proletariat. [A long pause. Sergei takes a shot, pours himself another. He sees that Georgy has yet to drink his, but does nothing.] But then there’s the problem. She’s twenty-one! If she gets a job now, then she’ll just be out of it in a couple of years when she’s pregnant. Or not! She’s … wilful, is Agnya. Maybe I should count my blessings. You hear of those women, who get so lost in their work that they never marry at all. Maybe that’s fine for those old Bolshevik women, but we’re in a new age now. Out with abortions and no-grounds divorce and all that anti-soviet Trotskyite nonsense. "The family is the primary cell of our society". It would be a waste. If she didn’t pass on all that improvement. To her children. But she’s twenty-one already. [He takes the next shot, refills, does not even look at Georgy’s glass] What does she do all day? Sit on the bed reading when I’m out and going out for her walks so she doesn’t have to be here when I get back. Is that it, is that all she does? [Georgy hesitates, clearly reluctant to answer, but Sergei does not seem to notice] She’s wasting away. And we. Can’t. Have. Waste. [He reaches for his glass, but stops himself] She needs a push. She needs to be told where to go. Georgy. If you had your sister back, the one who went. How would you have saved her? Work or marriage?
[The lights dim over Sergei and Georgy. As the following takes place they (in mime) finish talking, each take their last drink, and then go their separate ways: Sergei into his room at the back and Georgy back first to his now ruined meal, and then through to Dariya.]
[Guide enters, coming downstage.]
Guide [full]: Comrades, I said your time would come and here it is. You have seen our wayward soul: Agnessa Petrovna. You have heard her brother’s worries for her, although you and I both know more than poor Sergei Petrovich. Still, his suggestions are fitting for a woman of Agnessa Petrovna’s position. The dictatorship of the proletariat demands that those who benefit from its glories show their gratitude for its generosity by providing their labour for the building of communism and the good of the USSR. But in this enlightened age, we recognise the vital work that women do, not just on the economic, but also on the family front. But which, dear comrades, do you recommend? What is the will of the people? On the motion of Work or Family, I will first hear those in favour of Marriage. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Work [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].
[[Work|Scene 4][$c1 = "Work"]]
[[Marriage|Scene 4][$c1 = "Marriage"]]<<nobr>><<if $Simulate is "True">>
<<if $c1 is "Work">><<set $n to $Weight>><<else>><<set $n to -$Weight>><</if>>
<<set $result to $r1 + $n>>
<<if $result gte 60>> <<set $c1 to "Work">> <<else>> <<set $c1 to "Marriage">> <</if>>
<</if>><<endnobr>>__Scene 4__
Guide [full]: Very well. Georgy Antonivich recommends finding Angessa Petrovna <<if $c1 is "Marriage">>a husband<<else>>work<</if>>, and Sergei Petrovich agrees.
[Guide exits. Lights come back on as Agnessa walks in. She makes to slam the front door, but thinks better of it, instead pacing quickly back and forth for a moment, looking cramped, before knocking on and then opening Dariya and Georgy’s door. Dariya hurriedly throws a blanket over the icons she was praying in front of. Georgy is out.]
Agnessa: Dariya Yuriivna. Is Nikolai Borisovich home?
Dariya [badly covering her shock]: Yes.
Agnessa [too caught up in her own world to notice.]: Thank you.
[Agnessa steps over to Nikolai’s door, knocks. Nikolai stands, looks nervously at his desk, smiles and makes a dismissive gesture, then checks himself in his hand mirror, brushes something off his trouser leg, and answers.]
Nikolai: Agnessa Petrovna.
[He hesitates, clearly looking for something to say, but she brushes past him into his room.]
Agnessa: My brother has decided I need to find myself a <<if $c1 is "Marriage">>husband.
[Nikolai very slowly finishes the act of closing the door, his back to Agnessa.]
Nikolai: Is that so?
Agnessa: It’s terrible. He’s taking me everywhere to meet men. The parties are the worst. They’re not called that, but that’s what they are. I just came from one. It was a birthday: one of Sergei’s friends. All NKVD men and a few wives. They’re all either lard or gristle, dumb bulls or weasels. The only one who took off his cap was the commander; everyone already knows him by sight I gather. They were the only people drinking in the restaurant, the only ones laughing, the only ones shouting. And do you know what they talked about?
Nikolai [finally composed enough to turn around]: No, I don’t.
Agnessa: The German Operation. They were saying they’ve caught almost forty-thousand spies.
Nikolai: Isn’t Germany the greatest of our enemies?
Agnessa: Is it? That’s what we’re told. But Marx was German. Engels was German. And they are socialists there now.
Nikolai: National Socialists. They’re anti-communist socialists, pro-national socialists.
Agnessa: How is that different from us?
Nikolai: "Socialism in one country".
Agnessa [nodding]: And what do we really know about National Socialism? How do we really know it’s as evil as we’re told it is?
Nikolai: How do we know it’s not?
Agnessa: They say Trotkyism is evil, but it’s not. They say that the-
Nikolai: Just because they lied about Trotsky doesn’t mean they’re lying about Hitler.
Agnessa [after a pause]: They lied about Trotsky?
Nikolai: I … I read the book you gave me.
Agnessa: Then you see? You see the problem? We shouldn’t be pushing all these other nations away. They say "We’re building communism over one-sixth of the earth", but I say "What about the other five sixths?" We have a responsibility. Permanent, world revolution. It is our duty to bring the freedoms we have to the proletariats of the world.
Nikolai: You really think so?<<else>>job.
Nikolai: Oh? What are you wanting to do?
Agnessa: No, you don’t understand. What matters is what //he// wants me to do. Which is something, anything that can get me a party card.
Nikolai: Maybe he just wants what’s best for you? All the best jobs go to party members.
Agnessa: Or maybe he just wants what’s best for the party.
Nikolai: That’s a compliment, isn’t it? If he thinks you’d be an asset to the party?
Agnessa: Oh, Nikolai Borisovich, you think you are clever, don’t you?
Nikolai: Not usually. But I’ll accept the compliment if it comes from you. Anyway, what about your search for work?
Agnessa: Oh, yes. Today it was teaching. I don’t actually dislike children-
Nikolai: That surprises me.
Agnessa: You’re full of it today, aren’t you?
Nikolai: Sorry. I just-
Agnessa: As I was saying: I didn’t think it would be a terrible idea. But what they asked during interviewing: it wasn’t anything to do with children, or even learning. It was all about Stalin. It wasn’t about communism, it wasn’t even about socialism. It wasn’t about Marx, it wasn’t about the future. It was all about Stalin.
Nikolai: Really, every word?
Agnessa: Well they didn’t call it ‘Stalin’, not all the time. Sometimes it was the party, sometimes they even had the gall to call it ‘Leninism’, when Lenin would be spinning in his grave. Lenin wanted Trotsky. Did you know that? That’s why Trotsky became the enemy: because he was the real person who Lenin wanted in charge. Because Trotsky actually wanted to free people, to work for the good of the world proletariat, rather than just wallow like //Comrade// Stalin. Rather than just-
Nikolai: I know. I read the book you gave me.
Agnessa: Then you know! You know that we have a responsibility to actually build communism. Not to back-pedal on women’s freedom, not to suppress all attempts at democratization, not to have people executed because ten years ago they said something that Stalin did not like. It is our responsibility, as enlightened young communists, to create the true communism.
Nikolai: You really think so?<</if>>
Agnessa: Have you read Marx?
Nikolai: Yes, although maybe not as closely as I should.
[Agnessa holds up one finger, indicating that Nikolai should wait, while she runs back through Dariya’s room, through the kitchen and into her own room. She reappears a moment later, a large book (Marx’s //Das Kapital//) clutched in her hands. Nikolai spends the whole time standing in the centre of his room, breathing heavily.]
Agnessa [coming back into the room]: This is my copy. Let’s compare notes. Where’s yours?
[Nikolai crawls under his desk, appearing a moment later with his own copy of the same book: significantly less worn.]
<<if $c1 is "Marriage">>Agnessa: Oh Nikolai Borisovich, you had me worried. I didn’t tell you, but Sergei sent me to a ‘study group’. I think he thought I’d find people more like myself there. I have to say, I was almost hopefully myself.
Nikolai: Did you find anyone?
Agnessa: Of course not. They were reading //Don Quixote//. Which is fine, we’ve all read it, it’s good, but when I mentioned Marx this one man proudly told me that they’d already done //The ABC of Communism.// He got out his copy, they all did. I looked through the notes. Nikolai, they all had the exact same notes. They were told what to write. They didn’t have to think about it at all, they just wrote what they were told. And none of them had read Marx at all!
Nikolai: //The ABC// is good. It’s how most of us were introduced to communism. I have my own copy, I’d show it to you but I fear that my school-boy notes will be too basic for you. Although they are //my// notes.
Agnessa: But not to have read Marx? This man wasn’t young. And he wasn’t a true proletarian. None of them were. They’re all snobs, with their army jobs and ministry careers. I think I was the only one there without a party card.
Nikolai: I have a party card.
Agnessa: Yes, but you’re handsome. And a revolutionary.
<<else>>Agnessa: I didn’t really doubt that you had a copy. But I’m always a little bit worried. There were so many people in my home village who didn’t. And it was just as likely to be members of the Komsomol or the party. I used to want to work for Agitprop when I was younger. I used to think ignorance was the problem. The older generation of party members were the ones who destroyed the old order, they were soldiers. The next generation were builders, physical builders, the ones actually putting up the walls that one day would contain the house of communism. And then my generation-
Nikolai: Not my generation?
Agnessa: Why not?
Nikolai: Well I’d like to think I would be of the generation of builders. Maybe not building the walls, but certainly laying the foundations of the house of communism.
Agnessa: Oh yes, I suppose! But it was all a metaphor anyway. You can be of my generation, just with the wrong job for it. You can be one of us, the people who will actually live in the house. But that won’t be easy, it’s just as much of a job as soldier or builder. Because we’ll be the ones to actually practice what has been preached. We are the ones who will have to know every word of Marx, cover to cover, word for word. And not just know, //understand//. We will not be fighters for communism, or builders of communism, we will //be// communism. Or, at least, that’s what I thought.
Nikolai: What changed?
Agnessa: I realised I was the one who was ignorant. I realised that the revolution is not finished. Not the real one. We don’t need agitprop workers, or school teachers. We need revolutionaries.
<</if>>Nikolai: Aren’t we //supposed// to be revolutionaries?
Agnessa [coming very close to him]: Real revolutionaries. Like you. You want to see Stalin dead.
Nikolai [hesitating, moving as if to step back, but nonetheless held in place]: No, no I don’t want that.
Agnessa: I saw your joke book.
Nikolai: //Jokes//, Agnessa Petrovna. Just jokes.
Agnessa: You’ve read Trotsky. In nineteen-thirty-eight, you’ve read Trotsky. You know what that makes you.
Nikolai: I … I…
[Agnessa reaches out and takes his arm with her left hand, holding up her copy of //Das Kapital// with her right.]
Agnessa: Shall we compare notes?
[She pulls him to the bed, where they both sit. She takes his copy and gives him hers.]
Nikolai: You make me dizzy, Agnessa Petrovna.
Agnessa: No, I make you feel alive.
[She smiles, then looks down at his book. He stares for a moment longer, then, not knowing what else to do, he opens her copy, flicking slowly through.]
Nikolai: Agnessa Petrovna, there are more margin notes here than words in the text!
Agnessa: And there are fewer in yours! But there’s time, you’ll learn. Get a pencil. We’ve got serious work to do here.
[Lights fade as the two of them mime talking and pointing to sections in their books.]
[[Scene 5]]__Scene 5__
[Only Dariya is home as the lights come up. Nikolai comes in through the front door, moves efficiently to Dariya and Georgy’s door, knocks, waits a moment, then pushes through. He nods and smiles to Dariya as he moves to his own door, but her words stop him as he places his hand on the doorknob.]
Dariya: You have feelings for Agnessa Petrovna.
Nikolai [blushing]: She has-
Dariya [laughing]: Do you not?
Nikolai [pause]: How do you know?
Dariya [pause]: I am not sure I should tell you.
Nikolai: Tell me.
Dariya [shaking her head]: I have lived beside you for seven years. I know.
Nikolai: Have you heard us? Tal-[‘Talking about’ cut off]
Dariya: I have heard nothing. But I have seen what I need to see.
Nikolai: How can you see it? Is it in my face? [Dariya smiles, but does not answer. Nikolai shakes his head, turns away, then turns back.] I like her.
Dariya: I believe you believe you love her.
Nikolai: You’re right. I do love her. [subdued] I love her! [whispering] She’s clever, she’s … funny, she’s beautiful. She’s exciting. [Nikolai looks at Dariya, who smiles. Pause] I’ve never met anyone like her. [Dariya nods, does a ‘there it is’ gesture, but Nikolai is not looking] She … she makes me feel awful. When I’m not with her, I just want to be with her. I feel like … it’s not that I’m incomplete. It’s not that meeting her was like suddenly seeing colour for the first time, it’s not like being with her is like having, I don’t know, having electricity running through me. It’s like, like I’m just //bad// when I’m not with her. Not morally, or … I think, but just bad at being a person, a man. Like I remember, when I was a young child, so young that I barely do remember, there were things to wake up for. Even if before whatever it was - reading or playing or spending time with mother – even if before it I had something else, like school or chores or something, there was still //something// to wake up for. No, no, that’s not right either. I have things. Now. I have things now, I love my work, I love my books, I love … things, life! But sometimes, no, all the time; sometime, sometime, a long time ago, when I was a child, something changed. Dreams became safer than life. Yes, there were reasons to wake up. But there were reasons to stay asleep too. As well. I was scared, I guess. And I became bad. But now I wake up, straight up, childishly up, because I know that I might get to be with her. And then when I’m dressed, I feel awful, because I’m not with her, and I’m ‘bad’ again, I’m weak and worried again and just bad. But I know I could be good. I know that that ‘something’ hasn’t changed back, that something that changed sometime, but I know I could get it back.
Dariya: But not when you are with her?
Nikolai: No. No, not when I am with her. When I am with her, I feel bad in a different way. In a much more ordinary way, I suppose. Or maybe, maybe it just seems more normal. I don’t know. Does it matter? When I’m with her, I feel slow, stupid, blunt. Like a rock next to a knife, or, or, excuse me, a fart next to a flower. She makes me feel awful. [Pause, while smiling] It’s amazing. It’s so exciting. And I get to be there. I… [pause]
Dariya: She wants you there.
Nikolai: Yes. Yes. Yes she does. [Pause] Isn’t it amazing?
Dariya: Why wouldn’t it be?
Nikolai: Exactly. <<if $c1 is "Marriage">>She told me recently that her brother wanted her to marry, that he’s been trying to find her a husband. She told me that she – that she didn’t like any of them. But oh god, it hurt. Thinking that she might. Thinking that other men were looking at her that way. I hated it. I felt sick, I really did feel like I might throw up, like my body might just push me out of it.<<else>>She told me recently about her philosophy and how it’s changed. She told me about her childhood. Not much, but a bit. And I realised I wasn’t listening. I was thinking about how much I wish I knew her then. I was thinking about how amazing it is, that this woman, this being, with so many great plans, so much greatness, was here, in my little room, talking to me.<</if>> That has to be love, doesn’t it?
Dariya [laughing]: It certainly might be!
[Nikolai laughs, then shrugs.]
Nikolai: What should I do?
Dariya: What do you mean, Nikolai Borisovich?
Nikolai: I mean … what do I do now?
Dariya: What do you want to do?
Nikolai [laughing]: Be with her of course!
Dariya: But how?
Nikolai: What-what do you mean?
Dariya: I mean, how do you want to be with her? What is it you want to do with her? No, no, I do not mean what you are thinking. And do not give me that look, Nikolai Borisovich! I am old, I am married, do not looked shocked, I know more of those things than you do. Nikolai Borisovich, pick your jaw up off the floor! Now, think, what is it that she likes? And what is it that you want?
Nikolai: I … well she likes talking. And work. Self-improvement, political work. She likes people who act and people who study. That is what I should do. I should read and study, then we could discuss. And I should work harder, if I were higher in the party, if I had a more prestigious position, then maybe… I mean, yes, I should work, I should study, I should self improve. That’s what she’ll want.
Dariya: That is one part of it, what you //think// she would like. But what is it that you want?
Nikolai: I said, to-
Dariya: Yes, to be with her, but how?
Nikolai: I could study…
Dariya: Are you listening, Nikolai Borisovich? Will you not listen to a wise old woman?
Nikolai: Oh, I am sorry, Dariya Yuriivna.
Dariya: What is it that you //want//? Not about her, but in life, that is what I am asking now. What is it that you want?
Nikolai [pause]: Is it okay if I say ‘to be happy?’
[There is a pause, then Dariya stands up, walks over to Nikolai, and embraces him. She takes a step back and takes his hands in hers.]
Dariya: Of course. Of course it is okay to say that. Isn’t it what we all really think?
Nikolai: Is it?
Dariya: I think that it is. And if it is…
Nikolai: Then it is what Agnessa wants?
Dariya: The girl needs some joy in her life. Just as you do.
Nikolai: I do not know.
[A sudden clap from offstage. Guide enters and comes downstage.]
Guide [full]: The young man does not know. Does he believe he is pondering a question of the heart? Whether to impress the woman, or charm the girl. Do you believe that is the question? Or is the real choice between work, Trotskyite work, or bourgeois-liberal play? [Pause] Did I just put that into your minds, comrades? [A sharp look towards the back rows.] Did I? [Look down, to smile at the front rows.] Of course not, comrades. You are the people and you think for the people. So do. Nikolai Borisovich must make a decision, one he believes is personal, but which we know is not. He would make the decision for you, but instead, you will make the decision for yourselves. So. What is the will of the people? On the motion of ‘work to impress’ or ‘show her happiness’, I will first hear those in favour of ‘work to impress’. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of ‘show her happiness.’ [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].
[[Work to impress.|Scene 6][$c2 = "Impress"]]
[[Show her happiness.|Scene 6][$c2 = "Joy"]]<<nobr>><<if $Simulate is "True">>
<<if $c2 is "Joy">><<set $n to $Weight>><<else>><<set $n to -$Weight>><</if>>
<<set $result to $r2 + $n>>
<<if $result gte 65>> <<set $c2 to "Joy">> <<else>> <<set $c2 to "Impress">> <</if>>
<</if>><<endnobr>>__Scene 6__
Guide [full]: Very well. <<if $c2 is "Impress">>Nikolai Borisovich will attempt to impress Agnessa Petrovna.<<else>>Nikolai Borisovich will try to show Agnessa Petrovna a more joyous side of life.<</if>>
[Guide exists, lights fall, scene begins.]
<<if $c2 is "Impress">>[All at home: Sergei shifting through papers in the kitchen, Dariya and Georgy sitting talking in their room, and Agnessa and Nikolai reading books in his, sitting on his bed.]
Nikolai [nervous]: I didn’t tell you yet, did I? I applied for a promotion at work. Well, it’s a slight step up, it’s mostly a lateral move. It’s to junior works overseer.
[Agnessa slowly places her book down on the bed beside her. Nikolai mimics the movement a moment later.]
Agnessa: Why?
Nikolai: At the moment my job is mostly just working with other architects, or just by myself, so-
Agnessa: I thought you liked that?
Nikolai: Yes, I //like// it, but the new job is one that will put me in direct contact with the workers. I know so few true proletarians, it will be the perfect opportunity to learn. And, of course, carry out agitation. True agitation…
Agnessa: Yes … yes! Yes, it’s perfect. [pause] It’s good. The workers need to be truly shown what is going on. They need to be taught the importance of proletarian internationalism. Can you teach them that? That the reason they are not free is because they are being kept from their brothers?
Nikolai: I … I believe that I could.
Agnessa: Hmm. And why is it that permanent revolution is so essential?
Nikolai: We will never be truly free until all are free?
Agnessa: Uh-huh.
[Lights go down. Pause. Lights come back on, the rest of the cast having shifted positions/activities but still in their rooms. Nikolai and Agnessa sit slightly closer together. Nikolai looks //slightly// more worn out (loosened tie/ruffled hair/top button undone/etc). Time has passed. Start mid-conversation.]
[//Author’s note: A longer, more detailed version of this speech is provided [[here]], which can be used if desired. I (the author) prefer it, but acknowledge that not all have the same appetite for detailed philosophical rants that I do (and also because its full inclusion creates a lack of balance between narrative paths)//]
Nikolai: The proletarian is the only true economic force. That is you: the worker, the builder, the creator of new things. All that is achieved in this world is achieved by you. But while you are free, here, you are alone. In Germany, in England, in America, your brothers still suffer under the yoke of capitalist-imperialism!
Agnessa [imitating a gruff-voiced worker (badly)]: And why should we care?
Nikolai: Because your freedom, and the world of justice we are building here, is under threat. The proletariat is the only true economic force, but the capitalist-bourgeoisie of Europe and America control that force in their own countries and they will, they //do// use it against us! They have harnessed the greatest force in the world and they will do everything they can to prevent that power breaking loose. And we will break it loose, unless we are stopped.
Agnessa [imitating]: Who could stop us?
Nikolai: The world proletariat, those still living under the capitalist yoke! They will fight against us, they will march before their masters’ whips and tear down their own freedom. And why? Because //we// have given them no reason to rise with us. "Socialism in one country" is a cry, a simple message to the world: "We will not help you!" Our leaders have given them no reason why they should not allow themselves to be driven against us, to use the might of the proletariat against itself. Marx himself said we will have no peace until the "competition between the proletarians of these countries ceases".
Agnessa [imitating]: And how do we achieve this‽
Nikolai: We must rise! Demand justice! Demand eternal peace! Demand perpetual revolution!
[Agnessa quietly claps]
Agnessa: Oh, wonderful! Wonderful! [pause] What do you think, if you were to sing //the international// afterwards? But in German? Or English, or French?
[The lights fade. Again the rest of the cast shift. Again Nikolai and Agnessa sit closer together. Again Nikolai looks more worn out.]
Nikolai [singing, to the tune of L'Internationale, his French awkward]: C’est la lune
finale. Groupons-…
Agnessa [laughing]: ‘This is the final moon’? I suppose it is, we do only have one after all!
Nikolai: Oh, yes, I’m sorry.
Agnessa [singing, much better]: C’est la lutte finale.
Nikolai: Ah, yes. [singing, still awkward] C’est la lutte finale. Groupons-nous, à demain-
Agnessa: Yes, I hope so.
Nikolai: Excuse me?
Agnessa: //À// demain: see you tomorrow. Which I hope I will. But for now, I believe you’re looking for //et// demain.
Nikolai: Oh, yes, of course. Right. [singing, still awkward] C’est la lutte finale. Groupons nous, et demain, l’internationale, c’est la comedie humaine!
Agnessa: Balzac Nikolai, Balzac!
Nikolai: Oh God! I’m so bad at this.
Agnessa: You aren’t the most gifted student. But you’re passionate! And funny. Try again.
Nikolai [singing, still awkward]: C’est la lutte finale. Groupons nous, et demain, l’internationale sera le genre humain!
Agnessa: Perfect! That’s one whole line!
[Ibid. The two are sitting very close together now. Again mid conversation.]
Nikolai: I am … relieved. I knew little of the nineteen-twenty-one Kronstadt rebellion. Makar really was almost convincing: he really made it sound like a movement for democracy, for the freedom of the people, for the power of the proletariat against the party bureaucracy.
Agnessa: Of course. It’s very important to listen to the workers, //your// workers, Works Supervisor Nikolai Borisovich, but you must remember that while they hold the future in their hands, they must be guided. You know now that those Kronstadt rebels who were not imperialist agents were anarchists, [proudly quoting] "a fully anti-revolutionary doctrine", in Trotsky’s own words, and that said bureaucracy was Lenin’s bureaucracy. We are not against bureaucracy, we are against its misuse.
Nikolai: Of course. Thank you.
[ibid. Sitting very, very close now.]
Nikolai: Ich habe angefangen, Deutsch zu lernen.
Agnessa: Oh, ausgezeichnet! Was kannst du sagen?
Nikolai: Ich liebe dich.
Agnessa [pause]: Really?
Nikolai: Yes.
Agnessa [Throwing her hands in the air]: Bellissimo!
[They kiss and the lights fade.]<<else>>[Sergei is shifting through papers in the kitchen and Dariya and Georgy are sitting talking in their room. Nikolai is putting the finishing touches on the spread he’s arranged over his desk: blinis, caviar, a candles, a vase of flowers. He himself is dressed up (perhaps just wearing a jacket). Agnessa enters.]
Sergei: Agnya! You were at the young academics conference today? <<if $c1 is "Marriage">>Did anyone catch your eye?<<else>>Did you find a chance to talk to any of the employers?<</if>>
Agnessa [moving to Dariya and Georgy’s door]: I’m going through to see Nikolai.
Sergei: <<if $c1 is "Marriage">>[Cheekily] Been spending a lot of time with Nikolai Borisovich, haven’t we?<<else>>[Purses lips] Are we not worried that Nikolai Borisovich is becoming something of a distraction?<</if>>
[Agnessa shakes her head, annoyed, knocks, opens the door, goes through Dariya and Georgy’s room, knocks on Nikolai’s door, and enters.]
Agnessa [on seeing the desk][subdued]: Oh!
Nikolai: Agnessa Petrovna. I hope you haven’t eaten?
Agnessa: I … I don’t know what to say. I never don’t know what to say!
Nikolai: Well, I’m glad I could give you a new experience. You’ve given me so many, so it’s only fair. Isn’t it?
Agnessa: I’m not sure I like it.
Nikolai: Oh. Well, do you like caviar?
Agnessa: Of course.
[She sits at the chair at his desk, he sits on the bed. Both begin to eat.]
Agnessa: Have you read Trotsky’s letter on-
[She stops when she sees Nikolai smiling and shaking his head.]
Nikolai: I have. But I don’t want to talk about it tonight.
Agnessa [crestfallen]: Oh.
Nikolai: Oh, I don’t mean it like that. I do … I do want to talk about it. But I thought tonight, tonight we could do something else. Just be us.
Agnessa: But I’m always just me. Are you not always just you?
Nikolai: I … I don’t know. I mean … I think I’m not explaining myself well. [Stands up] What do you do for fun, Agnessa?
Agnessa: I study, I improve myself, I prepare-
Nikolai: Don’t you do anything just for yourself?
Agnessa: No, no I don’t think I do. A good revolutionary-
Nikolai [desperate]: Nothing? You don’t do anything just for the joy of it?
Agnessa: Liberating the proletariat brings me joy. //And// it’s the right thing to do.
Nikolai [sitting back down]: Yes, yes I suppose you’re right.
[Pause. Angessa notices Nikolai’s dejection.]
Agnessa: I used to enjoy dancing.
Nikolai: Really?
Agnessa: When I was a child. Seryozha used to dance with me. There used to be peasant dances in the village, but my favourite was dancing to an American record that one of our friends had. I don’t know how she got it. But it was all very bourgeois. Not that that’s stopped my brother still doing it. He brought me along to a party and they were all playing and dancing to that American music.
Nikolai: My boss listens to it. I sometimes hear it playing from his office. [Pause] I … [Pause] Shall we dance?
Agnessa: What to?
[Nikolai reaches over and turns on his radio. An opera (a section of Verdi’s //Aida//?) comes on. Agnessa smiles and shakes her head, but Nikolai holds out his hand.]
Nikolai [cheeky]: Come on, we can at least try?
[Agnessa hesitates, then, smiling, shrugs and takes his hand. He takes her in a closed hold. They move stiffly, attempting to step on a beat neither of them can quite find. Both laugh at the absurdity of the situation and Nikolai resorts to simply wiggling his body back and forth in time with the singers vibrato. The dance breaks down in laughter and Agnessa turns the radio off, sitting down. Nikolai remains standing. The laughter slowly subsides.]
Nikolai: I like that American music.
Agnessa [pause]: So do I.
Nikolai: What do you remember of it?
Agnessa: What do you mean?
Nikolai: I know some of the pieces my boss plays. Do you know Summertime? It’s by someone called-
Agnessa: Gershwin, I know. My brother likes him. Proud that even the American bourgeois composers are Russian.
Nikolai: Ukrainian. He’s a Ukrainian Jew.
Agnessa: Oh. I didn’t know.
Nikolai: Do you know his music? Do you know Summertime?
Agnessa: I do, yes. One of his latest.
Nikolai: Do you want to dance to it?
Agnessa: Do you have it?
Nikolai: In a way. [He taps his head. Agnessa laughs.]
Agnessa: We can’t dance to a song that’s just in your head.
Nikolai: It’s in yours as well, isn’t it?
[Agnessa smiles, blushes, shakes her head, and stands up.]
Agnessa: Okay.
[They take up their closed hold positions again. Nikolai begins to softly hum Summertime by George Gershwin. They dance, both clumsily. Both start awkward and embarrassed, standing stiff and giggling, Agnessa more so than Nikolai, but first he and then she relax into the moment. Slowly they move from a closed hold to a close embrace. When the song finishes, both just stand still, embracing, for at least ten seconds. Then, slowly, awkwardly but without embarrassment, they kiss. The lights dim and come back on both lying in bed.]
Nikolai [pause]: Are you happy?
Agnessa: Yes. [Agnessa smiles, but slowly her expression falls and she begins to cry softly.] Yes. Yes I’m happy. But how can I be? Our leaders have abandoned their mission, they’ve abandoned their people. We-
Nikolai: Hey, hey, just be with me. Just-
Agnessa: How? How can I? This is what //they// do, isn’t it? They let themselves relax, they let themselves fall. I can’t, I can’t stop fighting.
Nikolai: Everyone needs to rest, we-
Agnessa [heavy crying]: I can’t! I can’t! The world is ending, Nikolai! If we do nothing, they win: the capitalists, the imperialists, the Stalin-
Nikolai: Please. Agnessa, please.
Agnessa: It’s been beautiful, Nikolai. It has. But it’s a lie, isn’t it Nikolai? The idea that we can be happy, when what’s happening is happening. I have to go. I-
Nikolai: I read the letter, Agnessa. Trotsky’s letter. Stay. Please. We can talk.
Agnessa [pause]: We can work?
Nikolai: Yes. Yes, we can work. Please. And when we’ve worked, we can sleep.
Agnessa: Okay. Okay. [She nestles against his body.] What did you think? Of the letter.
Nikolai: I … I don’t know. What should I think?
[Agnessa’s voice slowly fades over the following. Nikolai just looks tired.]
Agnessa: You should think it’s brilliant. His treatment of the Kronstadt question, it cuts straight to the heart of it. Don’t you see? It shows the importance of digging under the skin of a question, as well as the importance of doing what needs to be done. Which isn’t even to mention that it exonerates him of-
[Lights fade.]<</if>>
[[Act 2, Scene 1|Scene 7]]Nikolai: The proletarian is the only true economic force. That is you: the worker, the builder, the creator of new things. All that is achieved in this world is achieved by you. You know this. You also know that, under communism, all that is produced will go, and only go, to those who produce it. This is justice, this is what all of us fight for, it is what we build for. But while we work for this beautiful future, outside our borders the old capitalist slave drivers still have the rest of the world proletariat under their thumb! We build for freedom and justice, but out there, in Germany, in England, in America, your brothers still suffer under the yoke of capitalist-imperialism!
Agnessa [imitating a gruff voiced worker (badly)]: And why should we care?
Nikolai: Why should you care? Not just because you are men of virtue, although I know that for pure, good-hearted proletarians like you that will be enough. But there is more. I have said that the proletarian is the only true economic force, but there is only one country in the world where that force is allowed to work in its own interests: The USSR. The capitalist-bourgeoisie of Europe and America control that force in their own countries and they will, they //do// use it against us! They have harnessed the greatest force in the world and they will do everything they can to prevent that power breaking loose. Just as the black man gained his freedom in all America, our freedom will lead to the freedom of the world proletariat. Unless we are stopped.
Agnessa [imitating]: Who could stop us?
Nikolai: The world proletariat, those still living under the capitalist yoke! They will fight against us, they will march before their masters’ whips and tear down their own freedom. And why? Because they are stupid? No. Because they have love for their masters? Again, no. It will be for one reason and one reason alone: //we// have given them no reason to rise with us. "Socialism in one country" is a cry, a simple message to the world: "We will not help you!" Our leaders sit in their castles – the Kremlin, the House of Government – and they make you dig their moats, their trenches – they tell you that //Russia// is the land of communism, not the world – and they show your brothers, your international brothers, that there is no reason why they should not allow themselves to be driven against us, to use the might of the proletariat against itself. We will not have peace "until the proletariat has conquered state power and until the association of the proletarians has progressed sufficiently far—not only in one country but in all the leading countries of the world—that competition between the proletarians of these countries ceases". Those are the words of Marx himself!
Agnessa [imitating]: And how do we achieve this‽
Nikolai: We must rise! Demand justice! Demand eternal peace! Demand perpetual revolution!
[Agnessa quietly claps]
Agnessa: Oh, wonderful! Wonderful! [pause] What do you think, if you were to sing //the international// afterwards? But in German? Or English, or French?
<<return>><div style="text-align: center;">__Act 2__</div>
__Scene 1__
[Georgy is out. Sergei comes home, looking tired. He opens the door to his room and looks in. He comes back through and opens the cupboard containing his vodka, which he takes out. He pours himself a shot glass and sits down. Depending on time constraints on production: over the course of at least a minute, we see him take several shots; or the lights dim, the vodka bottle is replaced with an emptier one, and the lights rise again, Sergei slumped in his chair. Agnessa walks in, stops dead when she sees her brother. Sergei turns quickly and guiltily. Both hold for a moment, before, clearly drunk, Sergei shrugs and sits back in his chair.]
Sergei: So you’ve caught me, Agnya.
Agnessa: Sergei! I-
Sergei: Ooh, Sergei! When did you become mother?
Agnessa: Sergei, you promised. You promised me. When we got to Moscow, you’d stop. You said you wouldn’t need to any more, you said-
[Sergei’s laughter cuts her off.]
Sergei: Sit down, Agnya, sit down! [Agnessa sits] Now tell me sister, where have you been all day? Actually no, no, dear sister, where were you all last night? Or the night before that? Or almost every night for the last … what day is it today?
Agnessa: You’re vile.
Sergei: You understand me. You haven’t been a pretty little saint, so don’t judge me. I drink, you fuck. The real difference is that I work, and you just … fuck.
Agnessa [standing and moving towards Nikolai’s room]: I don’t have to hear this!
Sergei: Agnya! Agnya! [She turns back and the gaze is held a moment] Agnya, remember Seryozha?
Agnessa: You’re Seryozha, of course I remember-
Sergei: I remember Agnya. I remember her smiles. I remember tying her shoelaces behind the shed at school so none of her friends would know she hadn’t worked out how to do it on her own yet. I remember how she wrote speeches for her brother to make at Komsomol meetings and how much she’d blush when he’d even just suggest publicly crediting her with them.
[Slowly, Agnessa comes back to her seat.]
Agnessa: What’s all this about?
Sergei: I’m behind.
Agnessa: I’m … I’m not following.
Sergei: I don’t need your help.
[Pause]
Agnessa: I’ll go then, I-
Sergei: I’m behind on Category Ones.
Agnessa: Excuse me?
Sergei: Quotas, Agnya. I’m behind on Category Ones. They don’t tell us how many we’re meant to get, not exactly, and not how much we’re behind, I mean, that follows, but you know when you know. Redens spoke to us today and said that many of us were doing excellently, but that too many of us were bringing in too many Category Twos and not enough Category Ones and Agnya, Agnya I swear that he was looking straight at me when he said it. He-
Agnessa: Seryozha. What is Category One?
Sergei [pause] [almost soberly]: They’re charges. When we arrest someone, we recommend them as either Category One or Category Two to our superiors, who then recommend them as such to the sentencing troika. It can be changed by anyone, but it reflects badly on an officer … if …
Agnessa [leaning forward]: Sergei. Tell me, what’s the difference?
Sergei: It’s meant to be one to six, those are the quotas we were told our office had. That’s what I thought we were supposed to do. But they’re trying to get ahead of the Category Ones. They’re supposed to do better than the quotas say. I didn’t know, I didn’t know!
Agnessa: Seryozha. Category One means execution, doesn’t it?
[There is a long pause. Sergei reaches for the bottle and pours himself another shot.]
Agnessa: Sergei, I said that-
Sergei [full]: You think I didn’t hear! You think I-
[Sergei stands up, slams the shot glass back onto the table and faces away from Agnessa, his hand over his mouth, his body shaking. He has barely calmed down by the time he talks again]
Sergei: Are you pregnant yet?
Agnessa: What?
Sergei: Are you pregnant yet? Has he not asked you that? He’s been screwing you for months now and he’s never stopped to ask you that?
Agnessa: How are you making this about him?
Sergei: Fine, it’s not about him. But you haven’t said no. So you are, aren’t you?
Agnessa: I don’t-
Sergei: Agnessa, are you?
Agnessa: Yes.
Sergei: There! You haven’t told him, have you? But little Seryozha noticed. Because I’m family. Because I care.
Angessa: What do you care?
Sergei: What do I care? Who’s spent your entire life looking out for you? Who lifted you from that shithole of a village orphanage and brought you here? Who took time out of doing the most important job in the whole Union to devote his time to helping you find a <<if $c1 is "Marriage">>good husband<<else>>suitable job<</if>>?
Agnessa: I didn’t ask you for any of that! If it wasn’t for Nikolai, I’d be happy back in that village.
Sergei: You could have made something of yourself!
Agnessa [subdued]: I am making something of myself!
Sergei [laughing]: Oh yes, that’s true, that’s certainly true!
Agnessa [subdued, rising]: What is it you’re trying to say‽
Sergei: You know exactly what I’m trying to say.
Agnessa [full]: Then say it!
[Nikolai stands up from his desk]
Sergei: I couldn’t hurt little Agnya like that.
Agnessa [shouting]: Say it you coward! Say I’m a whore!
[Nikolai runs through the apartment and throws open the door to the kitchen]
Nikolai [subdued]: What are you saying to her‽
Sergei [pause] [laughing]: Oh, just take her. Blind, ignorant, unseeing Nikolai Borisovich, just take her.
Nikolai: Agnya,-
Sergei [simultaneously]: Oh, oh of course.
Nikolai: are you alright?
Agnessa: Yes. Yes, let’s go.
[Agnessa and Nikolai move through to his room. Sergei takes the bottle of vodka and goes to his room. After it is clear all are gone, Dariya hurriedly gets her icons out and begins to pray.]
Nikolai: What was that about? Did he find out?
Agnessa: No, no he doesn’t know anything.
Nikolai [very relieved]: Good. Oh good. I was terrified.
[Nikolai moves to his desk, unlocks a drawer, and pulls out architectural plans.]
Nikolai: I mean … yes, yes I was terrified. I keep telling myself that I’m calm, that I’m okay with what we’re doing. But … but … [pause. Nikolai lets out a big sigh and smiles with relief] I thought for sure he’d found out about my conversation with Sokolov. [Nikolai, clearly excited, lets the words hang for a moment, but Agnessa doesn’t pick up on them.] Did you hear, Agnya? I talked to Sokolov. The explosives expert that you told me to speak to?
Agnessa: Oh. Yes, wonderful.
Nikolai: Is everything okay?
Agnessa: I … I …
[Lights dim over apartment. Guide enters, walks downstage.]
Guide [full]: And now it is time for the young woman to choose. I must make it clear, at this point, that a special exemption has been made for tonight’s performance: not only will my office //not// record the decisions made here today, either by individuals or by the audience as a collective, even if we did, it would not then be recorded on any individual’s records. This piece of propaganda [gestures towards the front of the audience], or agitation, [gestures towards the back] is designed to showcase the results of a variety of actions. If you wish to see what befalls those who take the //wrong// actions, tonight is your opportunity. So, with that in mind: the question before you is whether Angessa Petrovna should tell her lover, Nikolai Borisovich, that she is pregnant with his child. What is the will of the people? On the motion of Tell or Don’t Tell, I will first hear those in favour of Tell. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Don’t Tell [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].
[[Tell him about the pregnancy|Scene 8][$c3 = "Tell"]]
[[Don’t tell him about the pregnancy|Scene 8][$c3 = "Don’t Tell"]]<<nobr>><<if $Simulate is "True">>
<<if $c3 is "Tell">><<set $n to $Weight>><<else>><<set $n to -$Weight>><</if>>
<<set $result to $r3 + $n>>
<<if $result gte 68>> <<set $c3 to "Tell">> <<else>> <<set $c3 to "Don't Tell">> <</if>>
<</if>><<endnobr>>__Scene 2__
Guide [full]: Very well. <<if $c3 is "Tell">>Agnessa Petrovna will inform Nikolai Borisovich of her pregnancy.<<else>>Agnessa Petrovna will continue to conceal her pregnancy from Nikolai Borisovich.<</if>>
[Guide exits]
[Scene 2 continues on directly from scene 1, with Agnessa and Nikolai miming out a continuation of their conversation. Lights up on Dariya as she silent prays. Georgy comes in quietly, first into the kitchen, then into his room. Dariya hears the door of her room open, clumsily attempting to hide her icons and resume her seat as her husband comes in. He sees.]
Georgy: Oh, Daryna. Oh no Daryna.
[He walks over to where she hid the icons and reveals them. The following conversation has the tone of one they have had, at least in spirit, many times before.]
Georgy: Again, my dear? You know how dangerous this is. Especially with an NKVD man next door.
Dariya: I know. That is why I bought them.
Georgy: You bought them //because// it’s dangerous?
Dariya: I bought them because of the NKVD man. We have to keep our souls safe from evil.
[Georgy sits down heavily in his chair.]
Georgy: Why do you have to do this to us, Daryna?
Dariya: Oh Goga, you know. You know why I have to.
Georgy: We’re here now, Daryna. Can you not just be here, now, with me?
Dariya [taking her husband’s hand]: We’ve talked about this, time and time again, my husband. I am here with you. But this is just a moment and I must prepare for what comes after.
Georgy: Will God not understand? Will he not understand the impossibility of your position? I thought he was a forgiving God? If times were better, I would understand, but now, surely he would understand if you had to forgo some prayers, some kissing of his image?
Dariya: Goga. Goga, you know. You know that he has already been kind to me. Kinder to me than I had any right to expect. He tests us all and I am incredibly grateful he has decided to give me such an easy test.
Georgy: But what if it’s not true?
Dariya: You know it must be. If it were not true, then what point would there be in living?
Georgy: Wanting something to be true does not make it true.
Dariya: You know you are right. But if I do not have faith, I have nothing. They might as well come and shoot me.
Georgy: What about me?
Dariya: You are part of my faith, my love. I believe in you as I believe in the Lord.
Georgy [pause]: You used to love me. You used to love me, without needing God.
Dariya: Yes, yes I did. My handsome young officer. Come to free us after a thousand years of slavery.
Georgy: I’m still here, Daryna. I’m still here, I still love you.
Dariya: I know. I know you are still here. You still love. I hate you, just a little bit, for that.
Georgy: That I can love?
Dariya: Yes. I envy you, even as I think you a callous fool. But either way, I forgive. The fires did not scour you as they did me.
Georgy: I have lost people.
Dariya: Goga. My mother. My father. My sisters. Two brothers. Letters from them all. My father wrote little, just that he loved me and he was happy I had escaped. My mother did not hide. She told me of the pain, the weakness, the confusion. Some of my sisters begged, some for food, some just for prayer. Ivan told me to keep away, to stay safe. It was Danylo who told me about what was happening to the people. He started with the village. House by house, as the neighbours died. When they left, they all left together. I still see my home when I dream. The roofs fallen in now, the roads mud, grass growing through the bones of the ones no-one had the strength to bury.
Georgy: Daryna, I know-
Dariya: Most died in the capital. They dictated their last letters to me to each other, until all were too weak to write. Danylo told me of three of the deaths; there was no-one left to tell me of his own. But he told me about the children. A million children, he said. The future of my nation, gone, starved, murdered by yours.
Georgy: Ours, ours, it’s all //ours//, it’s all one-
Dariya: We are not your "Little Russia". We are Ukraine, and you killed us by the millions.
Georgy: We’re one Soviet Union, Daryna. And we’re all brothers and sisters, all Kievan Rus. But it’s not about any of that, it’s about the future, about communism.
Dariya: If it is not about nations, then why did //we// die? Why were the Russians eating while the Ukrainians starved? If we are all one, then why did my family die in the streets of Kharkiv, while yours merely went hungry in Petersburg?
Georgy [pause]: I’m sorry, Dariya. I’m sorry. I don’t’ know. I don’t know. You know I don’t know. I just… [Long pause] I just want it to all mean something.
Dariya: It does. In God. And I will join them in heaven.
Georgy: Amen.
[Both sit in silence a long time.]
Dariya: I have to go and wash. [She stands, moves to the door] You know that I am happy with you? That if my love had not been burnt out of me with the pain, I would love you? More than anyone in the world.
Georgy: I know. And I love you.
Dariya: I know. And I am glad.
[She exits the apartment. Georgy turns towards the icons.]
[Georgy sits, considering the icons and the Guide enters and comes downstage.]
Guide [full]: Georgy Antinovich has burnt his wife’s icons before. Other than that, I do not feel the need to editorialise further, save to remind you that our office is not taking any records of the decisions made this evening. It is all educational. Now: on the motion of Burn or Don’t Burn, I will first hear those in favour of Burn. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Don’t Burn [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].
[[Burn|Scene 9][$c4 = "Burn"]]
[[Don’t Burn|Scene 9][$c4 = "Don’t Burn"]]<<nobr>><<if $Simulate is "True">>
<<if $c4 is "Burn">><<set $n to $Weight>><<else>><<set $n to -$Weight>><</if>>
<<set $result to $r4 + $n>>
<<if $result gte 50>> <<set $c4 to "Burn">> <<else>> <<set $c4 to "Don't Burn">> <</if>>
<</if>><<endnobr>>__Scene 3__
Guide [full]: Very well. <<if $c4 is "Burn">>Georgy Antonivich will once again destroy his wife’s holy icons.<<else>>Georgy Antonivich will allow his wife to keep her contraband.<</if>>
[Scene 3 continues on directly from scene 2. <<if $c4 is "Burn">>Georgy picks up the icons and leaves the apartment with them.<<else>>Georgy hides the icons again and leaves.<</if>> Nikolai and Agnessa are sitting on his bed.]
<<if $c3 is "Tell">>Nikolai: This changes everything. You see that, don’t you?
Agnessa: No, no I don’t.
<<if $c2 is "Impress">>Nikolai: If you’re pregnant, then … then you have a new priority. The next generation will be the one to inherit communism, you-
Agnessa: Only if we can set communism back on the right path. If we do nothing, then our child will never see it, regardless of how I raise him.
Nikolai: True, true. But it is not so simple. Because what we’re planning is a risk. A physical risk. If it’s just us taking that risk … that’s one thing. But we’d be risking three, not just two, potential members of the revolution.
Agnessa: I don’t see how it’s any different. I’ve always had a womb, I’ve always had the ability to put something in it. Just because I have manifested that possibility, it does not mean that the possibility was not always there. If you’d wanted me to be breeding stock for the next generation of communist youth, I don’t see why my having begun the process now rather than later has changed your calculations.
Nikolai: I … It’s different. It’s … Agnessa, it’s a matter of principle. It’s undemocratic, to make that decision for your child.
Agnessa [laughing]: ‘Undemocratic’? It’s my body Nikolai. Are you telling me I can’t do with my own body what I need to do? Are //you// going to back out of our action now that you know you could become a parent?
[Nikolai opens his mouth, but says nothing.]
Agnessa: It’s my body, Nikolai. While I am not considering an abortion, although that is another thing which we fight for, the principle is the same. None of us can be free until all of us are free. Lenin led the charge and legalised abortion before any of the ‘liberal’ countries dared. My actions are ideologically pure.
Nikolai [pause]: Yes. Of course. But this isn’t the same, is it? Your … your argument is very clever, but we’re not talking about an abortion.
Agnessa: You’re right, it’s not abortion. Because I’m going to keep it. If I live. Because if I live, then I will have helped create a world in which my baby could grow up to be a man. And if I die, then I will have denied the Stalinist-Bonapartists another slave.
Nikolai: I’m … I’m not [long pause] … I understand.
Agnessa: Good. Now let’s go over the plan again.<<else>>Nikolai: We’ve got a baby. I’m going to be a father. [He spontaneously places his hand on her stomach. She stiffens and Nikolai removes his hand.] Agnya. Agnya, it’s our child.
Agnessa: So?
Nikolai: So? What do you mean?
Agnessa: How does that fact change anything?
Nikolai: Agnya, I’m going to be a father. You’re going to be a mother. How can that //not// change things?
Agnessa: How does it? I’ve always had the capacity to have a child and this is nothing but an early manifestation of that capacity.
Nikolai: Angya. Please. Please, I know that-
Agnessa [standing up] [very upset]: Nikolai, please! What I feel, what you feel, it doesn’t matter! Not to the revolution, not to history. If, in a hundred years time, some proletariat historian looks back with some future device and sees that we could have emancipated the world, we could have brought down Stalin, but that we didn’t because we were too scared of what might happen to our … our fetus, what are they going to think of us?
Nikolai: Agnya, you’re obsessed! Please, Agnya, you’re just one person, you-
Agnessa: Marx was just one person, Lenin was just one person, Trotsky is just one person. You think any of them would even have hesitated?
Nikolai: You’re not Marx or Lenin or Trotsky, Agnya.
Agnessa: No, //you’re// not.
Nikolai [pause]: It’s my baby too.
Agnessa: Then fine, reach into my womb and take it! You carry it for the next seven months! You sit back as injustice sits gorging itself in the Kremlin. But I’m carrying on.
Nikolai: Agnya, I love you, I-
Agnessa: Do you? Do you really? Or do you love what you want me to be?
Nikolai [pause]: I think you are what I want you to be. You just won’t let yourself be.
Agnessa [pause]: Just get the plans out Nikolai.<</if>>
[Nikolai hesitates, but moves to his desk, unlocks a drawer and pulls out some architectural plans.]
Nikolai: Now that I’ve identified the point to plant them, the plan really is very simple. I am going to see Sokolov tonight to pick up the explosives. Then one of us keeps watch while the other one enters the Palace of the Soviets construction site and plants the explosives. We’ll be halfway home again before they even go off. The whole foundations will be destroyed.
Agnessa: And have you established where I should stand? To lookout?
Nikolai: I have. But I could do it by myself.
Agnessa: Don’t be ridiculous. That would be much riskier.
Nikolai: But it would only be risking one of us. Not … two.
Agnessa: It’s not about us. It’s about the mission. We both do it, Nikolai. Please. Please just agree. I’m so tired.
Nikolai: Yes. Yes, Agnya. You should stand here [he indicates a point on the sketch.]
Agnessa: Good. Good. Are you ready for your meeting with Sokolov?
Nikolai: Yes, I believe so.
Agnessa: Then you should go. Best to be early, to make sure the meeting point is secure. I will go too, to scout from a different side.
Nikolai [pause]: Okay. Good. Now?
Agnessa: We will arouse less suspicion if we go at different times. I’ll go first. You wait a minute before you leave.
Nikolai: Oh.
[Agnessa stands up and, without looking back, leaves. Nikolai puts his head in his hands and breathes shakily for some time. <<if $c2 is "Impress">>Then he stands and slaps himself across the face.]
Nikolai: You can do this Nikolai Borisovich. For her and for the future.
[He paces back and forth a couple of times, pumping himself up and then leaves.]<<else>>He stands, but only stumbles over to his desk, which he leans on, his head bowed.]
Nikolai: For her. For love.
[He lets out a quiet wail, then hurriedly leaves.]<</if>><<else>>Nikolai: So you are sure you are okay?
Agnessa: Yes. Yes, we’ve always fought. Let’s move on.
<<if $c2 is "Impress">>[Nikolai hesitates, then sits up straighter.]
Nikolai: Of course. You said that you wanted to reconsider our plan?
Agnessa: Yes, yes I did. I was wondering whether we should aim to sabotage something related to the military industrial complex. But I’ve decided against it.
Nikolai: The military industrial complex? Wouldn’t … wouldn’t that be incredibly risky? Given the situation in Germany?
Agnessa: It was the last war which brought about the rise of socialism in one of the former imperialist bastions. A long, difficult war was what finally opened the eyes of the Soviet people to the injustices of their situation. Another war could do the same, spread the desire for freedom. Both here and abroad. War Communism was Trotsky’s ideal, after all. It was peace that brought the NEP and Stalin.
Nikolai: What if we lose?
Agnessa: We won’t lose. Stalin might lose, but the spirit of the Soviet people will not die so easily. But the point is moot. I think a symbolic strike is what is needed. And the Palace of the Soviets is the ultimate symbol.
Nikolai: I don’t … Yes, yes. It is a much wiser proposition than a military target. It is working much more within our means.
Agnessa: It isn’t about that Nikolai. Do you think Lenin would have changed the world if he had decided to ‘work just within his means’?
Nikolai [cheeky]: Maybe you’re just underestimating Lenin’s means.
Agnessa: Nikolai. I’m tired. Can we please just focus on the plan.
[Nikolai moves to his desk, unlocks a drawer and pulls out some architectural plans.]<<else>>Nikolai: I don’t like it.
Agnessa: What?
Nikolai: That he treats you like that. That he’s always treated you like that.
Agnessa: He hasn’t always treated me like that. We’ve always fought, but it hasn’t always been like that. It’s just that he cares about me. That’s how he shows it. Now.
Nikolai: That’s how he shows love? It’s brutish! That’s not love!
Agnessa: He’s damaged. He’s a victim. He’s always been a fighter. You would have liked him when he was a boy. Little Seryozha. So full of fire. It was the NKVD that broke him. He’s just another one of their victims.
Nikolai: Agnya, he’s a part of the NKVD. If he were anyone else…
Agnessa: He’s not anyone else. He didn’t have a choice. He needed that job.
Nikolai: I thought we all had a choice, Agnya?
Agnessa: Just drop it Nikolai.
Nikolai: He’s not good for you, Agnya. You have enough to deal with in your own life without defending his.
Agnessa: I can cope perfectly fine, thank you!
Nikolai: Please, Agnya, I’m just trying to look out for you. He’s clearly not doing it, you-
Agnessa: Did I ask you to?
Nikolai: No, but everyone-
Agnessa: Then stop. Please. [Pause] Can we just look at the plan?
Nikolai: Okay. If that’s what you want.
Agnessa [Quickly]: It is.
[Nikolai hesitates, swallows, then moves to his desk, unlocks a drawer and pulls out some architectural plans.]<</if>>
Nikolai: Now that I’ve identified the point to plant them, the plan really is very simple. I am going to see Sokolov tonight to pick up the explosives. Then one of us keeps watch while the other one enters the Palace of the Soviets construction site and plants the explosives. We’ll be halfway home again before they even go off. The whole foundations will be destroyed.
Agnessa: And have you established where I should stand? To lookout?
Nikolai: I have. But surveying the site again today, I am relatively confident that a lookout isn’t essential. Especially given that the only points where a lookout would have full visibility would also be points where she was easily seen herself.
Agnessa: I’m doing it, Nikolai. If it improves the odds of the mission’s success, then I’m doing it.
Nikolai: Of course.
Agnessa: Good. Good. Are you ready for your meeting with Sokolov?
Nikolai: Yes, I believe so.
Agnessa: Then you should go. Best to be early, to make sure the meeting point is secure. I will go too, to scout from a different side.
Nikolai [pause]: Okay. Good. Now?
Agnessa: We will arouse less suspicion if we go at different times. I’ll go first, wait a minute before you leave.
Nikolai: Oh.
<<if $c2 is "Impress">>[Agnessa stands and walks towards the door, but stops and turns when she reaches it.]
Agnessa: I love you, Nikolai Borisovich.
Nikolai: I love you too, Agnya.
[Agnessa exits.<<else>>[Agnessa stands up and, without looking back, leaves.<</if>> Nikolai sits on the bed for a minute, staring into space. Then he too stands and leaves, looking distracted.]<</if>>
[As soon as the door closes behind Nikolai (as if he had been listening and waiting), Sergei comes out of his room, holding his bottle of vodka. He moves to Dariya and Georgy’s door, listens, then opens it. Seeing no-one there, he strides with confidence across and enters Nikolai’s room. He looks around slowly, sneering and muttering incoherently to himself. He briefly looks over the things on the desk, then moves to the plans that a distracted Nikolai left on the bed. He picks them up and examines them, his eyes going wide.]
Sergei: Agnya. Agnya, what the fuck have you done.
[The lights dim. The Guide enters, comes downstage.]
Guide [full]: I am sure I do not have to tell you the dilemma facing my colleague, Sergei Petrovich. Even if he were not a member of the NKVD, it would be an absolute imperative for him to report his sister and her lover. That she would be removed from his life and that he would become a relative of an enemy of the people //should// be irrelevant in his decision making. But, comrades, will he? What is the will of the people? On the motion of Report or Don’t report, I will first hear those in favour of Report. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Don’t Report [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].
[[Report|Scene 10][$c5 = "Report"]]
[[Don’t Report|Scene 10][$c5 = "Don’t Report"]]<<nobr>><<if $Simulate is "True">>
<<if $c5 is "Report">><<set $n to $Weight>><<else>><<set $n to -$Weight>><</if>>
<<set $result to $r5 + $n>>
<<if $result gte 50>> <<set $c5 to "Report">> <<else>> <<set $c5 to "Don't Report">> <</if>>
<</if>><<endnobr>>__Scene 4__
Guide [full]: Very well. <<if $c5 is "Don’t Report">>Sergei Petrovich will break with the NKVD, the USSR, and all sense of morality and refuse to report the crimes of his sister. And her lover.<<else>>Sergei Petrovich will surrender his sister and her lover to the will of the state, as is his duty.<</if>>
[Guide exits.]
<<if $c5 is "Don’t Report">>[Sergei throws the papers back on the bed, takes a few drunken steps back and looks down at the floor. He shakes his head, takes a long swig from the bottle, and runs back to his own room.]<<else>>[Sergei stands shaking for a moment, before letting out a low moan.]
Sergei: Fuck.
[Sergei hits himself on the head with his bottle, shakes himself out, and looks back at the plans. His lips move as he talks to himself, memorising every detail. Then he places the plans back on the bed, straightens himself and his uniform, and marches out of the apartment.]<</if>>
[The lights dim, holding on nothing for at least ten seconds. They rise again across the apartment as Dariya comes home. She goes straight through the kitchen and to her icons. <<if $c4 is "Burn">>When she sees that they are not there, she simply sits in her chair and stares into the distance.<<else>>Seeing that they are still there, she says a small prayer, kisses each quickly, hides them and sits smiling on her chair.<</if>> Agnessa enters next. She collapses into a chair at the table and rests her head on her arms, but only for a moment before she forces herself back up and walks, exhausted, through to Nikolai’s room, where she gets into his bed, fully clothed. Nikolai himself arrives next, knocking on Dariya’s door and then going through to his own room. He is carrying a large sack.]
Nikolai [entering his room and placing the sack down]: It went well. [He looks at Agnessa] Are you okay?
Agnessa: I’m just very tired. It’s been a long day.
Nikolai: What happened?
Agnessa: <<if $c2 is "Impress" and $c3 is "Don’t Tell">>The argument with Sergei, and all the planning. And the excitement. It’s just a lot.<<else>>[laughs] You. The argument, and the argument with Sergei, and all the planning and excitement. It’s just a lot.<</if>> Can we do it tomorrow night? I know it’s safer to do it as soon as possible, but I … can we please do it tomorrow instead?
Nikolai: Of course. Of course. You rest now. I’ll do a little bit more planning. I’m too … excited to sleep just yet anyway.
Agnessa: Thank you.
[She reaches out to him, pulling him closer. He kisses her on the cheek and, smiling, she turns away to fall asleep facing the wall. Nikolai collapses back on his chair and lets out a silent sigh. Then he reaches down and begins rummaging around in his sack. Georgy comes home. <<if $c4 is "Burn">>He does not look at Dariya and she does not look at him as he enters their room and sits down.<<else>>Dariya smiles at him as he comes in, but he just shrugs back. <</if>>Nikolai is clearly anxious. He keeps switching between checking in the sack, examining the plan documents (making little marks on it with a pencil) and guiltily looking at Agnessa. Eventually he stands up, walks towards her, and leans close to listen to her breathing. She is asleep. He begins to quietly pace. The Guide enters, comes downstage.]
Guide [full]: Another dilemma. The two lovers plan to plant explosives amongst the foundations of the glorious Palace of the Soviets. If found trespassing with explosives, they could be shot on sight. Or simply arrested. It is as dangerous as it is malicious and foolish. Which is why our Nikolai Borisovich is thinking of going by himself. It will be more risky, but it will only be risky for him. They, or he, will go forward with the sabotage either way. //That// is not under debate. What is under debate is whether he goes now, alone, or if he waits for tomorrow to go with his lover. What is the will of the people? On the motion of Go Alone or Wait, I will first hear those in favour of Go Alone. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Wait [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].
[[Go Alone|Scene 11][$c6 = "Go Alone"]]
[[Wait|Scene 11][$c6 = "Wait"]]<<nobr>><<if $Simulate is "True">>
<<if $c6 is "Wait">><<set $n to $Weight>><<else>><<set $n to -$Weight>><</if>>
<<set $result to $r6 + $n>>
<<if $result gte 60>> <<set $c6 to "Wait">> <<else>> <<set $c6 to "Go Alone">> <</if>>
<</if>><<endnobr>>__Scene 5__
Guide [full]: Very well. <<if $c6 is "Go Alone">>Nikolai Borisovich will commit an act of sabotage tonight and he will do it alone.<<else>>Nikolai Borisovich will wait, so he may commit an act of sabotage tomorrow night with his lover.<</if>>
[The Guide exits.]
<<if $c6 is "Go Alone" and $c5 is "Don’t Report">>[Nikolai picks up the sack and the plans and, with a guilty look over his shoulder, leaves the apartment. Lights dim for at least 5 seconds, then come back suddenly as Nikolai bursts through the front door, without the sack or plans. He’s exhilarated. He bursts straight through Georgy and Dariya’s room, waking them up, and goes through to his own room, waking Agnessa up.]
Nikolai: It’s done! Agnya, we did it!
Agnessa [disorientated]: What?
Nikolai: I did it. I did it myself. I couldn’t risk you<<if $c3 is "Tell">> or the baby<</if>>. I know you’ll be angry, but think about it, it doesn’t matter, because it worked.
Agnessa [disorientated]: But … but…
Nikolai: I did it! Four years of work, they’ll have to restart all of it! They’ll have to do the surveys again, they’ll have to do the waterproofing again, they’ll have to do it //all// again! I saw it blow, I couldn’t resist, I hid and I watched it. Agnessa, it was fantastic. I know that thing like the back of my hand, hell, I designed half of it, and I watched it all collapse.
Agnessa: You, you did it? It’s done?
Nikolai: My dear, it’s done!
Agnessa: It’s done!
[She lunges forward and the two embrace and kiss.]
Agnessa: You did it! We did it! It’s done! The revolution has begun!
[She climbs out of bed and begins dancing around the room. Smiling and laughing, Nikolai joins her.]
Nikolai: Agnessa, I love you!
Agnessa: I love you too Nikolai!
Nikolai: I want to marry you!
Agnessa: Of course you do! [She stops dancing and takes his hands, her face coming very close to his.] We’ve started a new revolution tonight Nikolai. We’re Lenin [unconsciously gestures towards herself] and Krupskaya [unconsciously gestures towards Nikolai], a Trotskyist Krupskaya, we’re the future of the-
[Her speech is interrupted by a knock on the front door – the loudest sound in the play. Everyone freezes.]
Agnessa: No. [She slumps, falling to the ground, Nikolai failing to catch her.]
Nikolai: It’s nothing. Surely. It’s nothing.
Agnessa: Do you have a gun? Do you?
Nikolai: No. No, we said no guns.
Agnessa: I need a gun. I need to die in this moment. Before it all comes falling down. I need to die happy.
Nikolai: How can you say that! Agnya, look at me. Agnya, please, look at me!
[While this is going on, Georgy, wearing pyjamas, goes to the front door and opens it. The Guide enters the kitchen.]
Guide [subdued]: This is the residence of Nikolai Borisovich Morozov. You are not he.
[As he talks, the Guide pushes his way into the apartment and begins opening cupboards, more or less randomly. He does not stay in the kitchen long before moving on to Dariya and Georgy’s room. He and Georgy makes his introductions silently while Nikolai and Agnessa talk.]
Agnessa: I can hear him moving about. I can hear him searching. They’re here for us, Nikolai. They’re going to arrest us. It’s over Nikolai, our lives are over, the revolution is over.
Nikolai: No. No. Just for me. It’s only over for me. I was the only one there. They can’t arrest you, you had nothing to do with it. All the notes were mine, all of the material, all of the contact, the actual action. It’s all me. You’re safe Agnya, you’re safe.
Agnessa: They’ll torture you! They’ll make you denounce me!
[Sergei has appeared from his room, still wearing his uniform. He and the Guide shake hands, talk in mime.]
Nikolai: I’d never denounce you. I love you. No matter what they do to me, no matter what they threaten me with, I’ll-
[Agnessa picks up a heavy ornament form Nikolai’s desk and swings it hard into his crotch. He screams and falls to the floor. The others in the apartment all turn towards the sound.]
Guide [full]: Is there a window in that room a person could exit through?
Sergei: No.
[The Guide shrugs and resumes searching Georgy and Dariya’s room. Nikolai is writhing on the floor, trying, and failing, to catch his breath.]
Agnessa: Could you take that? Could you take that, again and again and again and again, in a dark room, with no sun, no sleep, no hope, every night? Could you Nikolai? [Genuinely] Could you?
[Nikolai has curled into a ball.<<if $c4 is "Don’t Burn">> Meanwhile, the Guide has found Dariya’s icons. He turns to the couple.]
Guide [full]: I have colleagues waiting downstairs. If you try to leave, they will pick you up. So just wait here.
Georgy: Are we…?
Guide [full]: Yes. For conducting communal religious rites outside of state sanctified premises.
[Dariya stays standing while Georgy lowers himself into a chair. They go back to miming.]<<else>>]<</if>>
Nikolai [croaking, shakily, barely audible]: I love you, Agnya.
[Agnessa shakes her head, lets the ornament fall to the floor and sinks to her knees. A moment later, the Guide pushes into the room. He takes a moment to survey the space, then points at Nikolai.]
Guide [full]: Nikolai Borisovich Morozov. You are under arrest for state sabotage. [Nikolai raises a hand, and begins the process of getting to his feet. The Guide turns to Agnessa.] And you are Agnessa Petrovna, my colleague’s sister?
Agnessa: Yes.
Guide [full]: Good. My arrest warrant today is just for Nikolai Borisovich. But Agnessa Petrovna: don’t leave Moscow. [Nikolai is standing now. He opens his mouth, looks at Agnessa, then quickly away.]
Nikolai: What are the charges?
Guide [full]: State sabotage. Specifically: wrecking, at the Palace of the Soviets construction site. [Nikolai opens his mouth, but the Guide holds up a hand to silence him.] A comrade living near the site saw you enter and reported it. We sent an agent down but you were in and out too quickly. But contacting informants along your possible routes out wasn’t difficult. I already have a signed statement from one of your neighbours attesting to the fact that you left here carrying a suspicious package, heading towards Red Square, and that you returned without it.
Nikolai: I … I…
Guide [full]: Do you have a bag packed, Nikolai Borisovich?
Nikolai: No.
Guide [full]: Then you will come as you are. My colleagues will conduct the search once you are in custody. [He gestures for Nikolai to walk past him, towards the front door, which Nikolai does. No-one says anything. Agnessa stares at the floor, her knuckles white. As Nikolai approaches the door, the Guide turns to the audience.] Comrades, you see justice done. True, Agnessa Petrovna remains free, but I do not doubt for a moment that Nikolai’s testimony will give us ample reason for arrest soon. And she may give us the brother, but that is a different matter. But now what? Do you remember Sergei Petrovich talking about the distinction between Category One and Category Two? Category Two is imprisonment, in this case likely twenty five years in a labour camp. Category One is liquidation. I must make my recommendation, which will be heard by the sentencing troika. Redens, my superior, has set us personal quotas for Category One recommendations. I will fill mine, but I am yet to do so. But I //will// fill it, be it tonight or later in the month. Still, I have been instructed that even this question must be put to you. So. What is the will of the people? On the motion of Category One or Category Two sentencing for Nikolai Borisovich, I will first hear those in favour of Category One. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Category Two [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].<<elseif $c6 is "Wait" and $c5 is "Don’t Report">>[Nikolai shrugs and gets into bed with Agnessa. The lights fade slowly, come back slowly. When they come back, Dariya and Georgy are asleep and Agnessa and Nikolai are standing in the centre of his room.]
Nikolai: We have everything?
Agnessa: Yes. Yes, we’re ready.
Nikolai: <<if $c2 is "Impress">>You are sure this is the best plan?<<else>>Are you sure? This is our last chance if-<</if>>
Agnessa: I am sure.
Nikolai: Okay. Okay then. Let’s go.
[They exit. Lights dim for at least 5 seconds, then come back suddenly as both burst back through the front door. They move quickly towards Georgy and Dariya’s door, but Agnessa holds her hand out to stop Nikolai. They both straighten, breathe deeply, then open the door and creep through to Nikolai’s room as quietly as they can. It is only after they have closed the door to Nikolai’s room that Georgy sits up in bed. Upon reaching Nikolai’s room, both hold, looking at each other.]
Nikolai [breathless]: We did it.
Agnessa [in awe]: We did it. Did you see? Did you see the smoke?
Nikolai: We did it. Four years of work, they’ll have to restart all of it. They’ll have to do the surveys again, they’ll have to the waterproofing again, they’ll have to do it all again. We saw it blow. Agnessa, it was fantastic. I know that thing like the back of my hand, hell, I designed half of it, and I watched it all collapse.
Agnessa: It’s done.
Nikolai: My dear, it’s done!
Agnessa: It’s done!
[She lunges forward and the two embrace and kiss.]
Agnessa: I did it! We did it! It’s done! The revolution has begun!
[She begins dancing around the room. Smiling and laughing, Nikolai joins her.]
Nikolai: Agnessa, I love you!
Agnessa: I love you too Nikolai!
Nikolai: I want to marry you!
Agnessa: Of course you do! [She stops dancing and takes his hands, her face coming very close to his.] We’ve started a new revolution tonight Nikolai. We’re Lenin [unconsciously gestures towards herself] and Krupskaya [unconsciously gestures towards Nikolai], a Trotskyist Krupskaya, we’re the future of the-
[Her speech is interrupted by a knock on the front door – the loudest sound in the play. Everyone freezes.]
Agnessa: No. [She slumps, falling to the ground, Nikolai failing to catch her.]
Nikolai: It’s nothing. Surely. It’s nothing.
Agnessa: Do you have a gun? Do you?
Nikolai: No. No, we said no guns.
Agnessa: I need a gun. I need to die in this moment. Before it all comes falling down. I need to die happy.
Nikolai: How can you say that! Agnya, look at me. Agnya, please, look at me!
[While this is going on, Georgy, wearing pyjamas, goes to the front door and opens it. The Guide enters the kitchen.]
Guide [subdued]: This is the residence of Nikolai Borisovich Morozov and Agnessa Petrovna Miagkova. You are not Nikolai Borisovich.
[As he talks, the Guide pushes his way into the apartment and begins opening cupboards, more or less randomly. He does not stay in the kitchen long before moving on to Dariya and Georgy’s room. He and Georgy continue their conversation silently while Nikolai and Agnessa talk.]
Agnessa: I can hear him moving about. I can hear him searching. They’re here for us, Nikolai. They’re going to arrest us. It’s over Nikolai, our lives are over, the revolution is over.
[Nikolai stands, his jaw working open and closed, but no words come out. Agnessa does not seem to notice. She has pulled her copy of //Das Kapital// out from under the bed and is furiously flicking through it. Sergei has appeared from his room, still wearing his uniform. He and the Guide shake hands, talk in mime.]
Agnessa: I must remember all that I can. My notes, I have to remember everything I’ve thought, everything I’ve said. If I go to a camp and if I survive the camp, I can come back, I can resume, but only if I remember everything, only if I embody it … Oh God how I wish I could die! … It cannot all be over, it cannot!
<<if $c4 is "Not Burn">>[Meanwhile, the Guide has found Dariya’s icons. He turns to the couple.]
Guide [full]: I have colleagues waiting downstairs. If you try to leave, they will pick you up. So just wait here.
Georgy: Are we…?
Guide [full]: Yes. For conducting communal religious rites outside of state sanctified premises.
[Dariya stays standing while Georgy lowers himself into a chair. The Guide pushes into Nikolai’s room.]<<else>>[The Guide finishes searching Georgy and Dariya’s room and pushes himself into Nikolai’s.]<</if>>
Guide [full]: Nikolai Borisovich Morozov. Agnessa Petrovna Miagkova. You are both under arrest for state sabotage. S-
Agnessa [interrupting]: What proof do you have? What sabotage?
Guide [full]: Agnessa Petrovna, this will all be much easier for you if you cooperate. A comrade living near the Palace of the Soviets construction site saw you enter and reported it. We sent an agent down but you were in and out too quickly. But contacting informants along your possible routes out wasn’t difficult. I already have a signed statement from one of your neighbours attesting to the fact that you left here carrying a suspicious package, heading towards Red Square, and that you returned without it. Now, [turning around to face Sergei] Sergei Petrovich Miagkov, you are under arrest for lack of vigilance and conspiring with an enemy of the people.
Agnessa: No!-
Nikolai: My dear-
Agnessa: He didn’t know! I promise you he didn’t know!
[Nikolai takes a step forward to embrace Agnessa, but in her rage and despair she breaks away from him and collapses to the floor.]
Sergei: I’m under arrest?
Guide [full]: Yes.
Sergei: Oh.
Agnessa [shouting]: You can’t do this! We’re doing this //for// you! We’re doing this //for// the people! [She stands up and charges the Guide. He easily pushes her away, sending her tumbling back to the floor. While this is happening Sergei slips away, going to, and then through, his own bedroom door] Please, you have to-
Nikolai [bending down, again attempting to embrace her]: Please, Agnya, my love. It’s too late, all we can hope for now is-
Agnessa [shouting]: No! No! I won’t go easily! They all go easily! I refuse! I refuse! I am a Soviet citizen, I will have the freedom we were promised, I will-
Nikolai: Agnya! Please! Please, I don’t want the last time I see you to be-
Agnessa: You don’t want to see me fighting? You just want to-
[There is a gunshot. The Guide is the first one to move. He walks quickly back through the apartment, pulls open Sergei’s door, looks inside, and then comes back out again.]
Guide [full]: Nikolai Borisovich, Agnessa Petrovna. You are under arrest. Come now.
[Agnessa, quiet now, stands up from the floor, leans up, kisses Nikolai, and then walks towards the door. Nikolai hesitates, and then follows.]
Nikolai: Agnya, Agnessa, I love you.
[Agnessa exits. Nikolai follows. The Guide turns to the audience.]
Guide [full]: Comrades, you see justice done. Messy justice, but justice. But now what? Do you remember the late Sergei Petrovich talking about the distinction between Category One and Category Two? Category Two is imprisonment, in this case likely twenty five years in a labour camp. Category One is liquidation. I must make my recommendation, which will be heard by the sentencing troika. Redens, my superior, has set us personal quotas for Category One recommendations. I will fill mine, but I am yet to do so. But I //will// fill it, be it tonight or later in the month. Still, I have been instructed that even this question must be put to you. So. What is the will of the people? On the motion of Category One or Category Two sentencing for Nikolai Borisovich and Agnessa Petrovna, I will first hear those in favour of Category One. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Category Two [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].<<elseif $c6 is "Go Alone" and $c5 is "Report">>[Nikolai picks up the sack and the plans and, with a guilty look over his shoulder, makes to leave the apartment, but is stopped when he reaches the kitchen at the same time as Sergei is coming through the front door.]
Nikolai: Oh, Sergei Petrovich. I was just g-going for a walk.
Sergei: What’s in the sack, Nikolai?
Nikolai: I – Some sketching supplies, Sergei //Petrovich//. I draw.
Sergei: Funny. My sister never mentioned that you did. Or is it for work?
Nikolai: No, no. I just … well, it is buildings. I just … it’s more artistic. Sometimes I like drawing at night.
Sergei: I suppose that makes sense. Funny, that you’d decide to carry your supplies in a sack. Do you not own a bag, Nikolai?
Nikolai: Sorry, Sergei Petrovich. What’s this all-
[The sound of a door closing somewhere else in the apartment building can be heard. Nikolai stops talking and as he does Sergei lets go of his own front door and, his face twisted with rage and despair, punches Nikolai in the stomach.]
Sergei: You’ve killed her. You fucking prick. You saboteur, you murderer. All you had to do was say no. She’s sick, she’s clearly sick, but you just couldn’t help yourself and now you’ve got her killed you fucking-[incoherent with rage]
[Nikolai straightens, shakily, but the moment that he does Sergei swings at his head, laying Nikolai out on the floor. Sergei pulls his leg back to kick, but a voice from just off stage stops him.]
Guide [full]: Sergei Petrovich?
[Sergei turns as the Guide enters the apartment. Sergei straightens his uniform and points down to where Nikolai is struggling onto all fours, not (and never) making eye contact with the Guide.]
Sergei: That’s him. That’s Nikolai Morozov.
Guide [full]: And Agnessa Petrovna?
Sergei: I’ll get her.
[He moves to the entrance to his bedroom, looks in, then slams the door closed. He then moves through Georgy and Dariya’s room to Nikolai’s, where he finds Agnessa still asleep. While the Guide starts to search the apartment (opening kitchen cupboards and drawers and then, leaving Nikolai lying on his back on the floor, he begins to search Georgy and Dariya’s room, they are up and mime introducing themselves), Sergei slowly climbs onto the bed, silently embracing Agnessa. He tenses as she mumbles something, but when she speaks he relaxes again.]
Agnessa: Seryozha.
Sergei: Agnya.
Georgy: What’s all this about?
Guide [full]: Nikolai Borisovich Morozov and Agnessa Petrovna Miagkova are under arrest for conspiracy to commit state sabotage. I am just conducting a preliminary search.
[<<if $c4 is "Not Burn">>He searches for a few more seconds, before finding the icons. He turns to the couple.]
Guide [full]: I have colleagues waiting downstairs. If you try to leave, they will pick you up. So just wait here.
Georgy: Are we…?
Guide [full]: Yes. For conducting communal religious rites outside of state sanctified premises.
[Dariya stays standing while Georgy lowers himself into a chair. The Guide pushes his way into Nikolai’s room.<<else>>The Guide continues to search for several more seconds, while Sergei continues to lie and Nikolai slowly pulls himself onto a kitchen chair, then he pushes his way into Nikolai’s room.<</if>> The moment the door opens Sergei shoots off the bed, dragging his sister with him.]
Sergei [avoiding looking at either of them]: This is Agnessa Petrovna.
Guide [full]: Good. Agnessa Petrovna, come with me.
Agnessa [disorientated]: Who are you? What’s going on. Seryozha, what’s going on? Why are you-
Guide [full]: Agnessa Petrovna Miagkova, you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit state sabotage.
Agnessa: What? Sorry, what’s happening?
[The Guide takes a couple of steps forward and grabs Agnessa by the arm, pulling her back through Dariya and Georgy’s room and into the kitchen, where he lets her go. Nikolai stands up shakily and embraces her the moment she appears.]
Agnessa: Nikolai? Nikolai, what’s happening?
Nikolai: We’re under arrest. I think your brother-
Agnessa: Sergei-?
Nikolai: Yes.
[There is a pause and the Guide steps forward.]
Guide [full]: You are both under arrest for conspiring to sabotage the construction of the Palace of the Soviets. If you would both move downstairs, my colleagues will process you.
Agnessa: You’re arresting us?
Guide [full]: Yes.
Agnessa: You don’t understand. We’re doing this //for// you. We’re doing this //for// the people. Please, you have to-
Nikolai [holding her back]: Please, Agnya, my love. It’s too late, all we can hope for now is-
Agnessa [shouting]: No! No! I won’t go easily! They all go easily! I refuse! I refuse! I am a Soviet citizen, I will have the freedom we were promised, I will-
[Sergei starts moving through to the kitchen.]
Nikolai: Agnya! Please! Please, I don’t want the last time I see you to be-
Agnessa: You don’t want to see me fighting? You just want to-
Sergei: Agnya. Please.
[Agnessa stares at Sergei. He does not look back. They hold for a moment, then Agnessa relaxes, which prompts Nikolai to relax his own grip. She turns, leans up, kisses Nikolai, and then walks towards the door. Nikolai hesitates, and then follows.]
Guide [to Sergei]: It is best you do not follow.
Sergei: Yes. Yes it is. [He goes to his own room]
Nikolai: Agnya, Agnessa, I love you.
[Agnessa exits. Nikolai follows. The Guide turns to the audience.]
Guide [full]: Comrades, you see justice done. Clean justice. But now what? Do you remember my colleague Sergei Petrovich talking about the distinction between Category One and Category Two? Category Two is imprisonment, in this case likely twenty five years in a labour camp. Category One is liquidation. I must make my recommendation, which will be heard by the sentencing troika. Redens, my superior, has set us personal quotas for Category One recommendations. I will fill mine, but I am yet to do so. But I //will// fill it, be it tonight or later in the month. Still, I have been instructed that even this question must be put to you. So. What is the will of the people? On the motion of Category One or Category Two sentencing for Nikolai Borisovich and Agnessa Petrovna, I will first hear those in favour of Category One. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Category Two [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].<<else>>[Nikolai shrugs and gets into bed with Agnessa. The lights fade slowly and come back abruptly as Sergei comes through the front door. He moves quickly to the door of his room, looks in, then slams the door closed. He charges through Georgy and Dariya’s room and into Nikolai’s, where he drags Nikolai out of bed, so they are standing face to face.]
Nikolai [disorientated]: Sergei? What-
[Sergei punches Nikolai hard in the stomach; he doubles over in pain.]
Agnessa [rising out of bed] [full]: Sergei! What are you doing!
Sergei [to Nikolai]: Stand up! Stand up and look me in the eye!
Agnessa [sudued]: Sergei, stop!
[Sergei pulls Nikolai up straight, holding him by the shoulders.]
Sergei: You’ve killed her. You fucking prick. You saboteur, you murderer. All you had to do was say no. She’s sick, she’s clearly sick, but you just couldn’t help yourself and now you’ve got her killed you fucking-
Agnessa: Sergei! Sergei, look at me!
[Sergei punches Nikolai, who falls to the floor.]
Sergei: There Agnya, I’m looking!
Agnessa: What did you do!
Sergei: What I should have done a long time ago. He-
Agnessa: Sergei! Sergei, stop! Why do you hate him?
Sergei: Why do I hate him? Why do I hate him‽ Do you know what he’s done? What he’s let you do?
Agnessa: What do you mean, ‘let me do’?
Sergei: Agnya. Agnya, please. I tried. I’ve failed y- [he stops himself].
Agnessa: You failed me? You’ve never failed me. You’re everything I hate, but you’ve never failed me.
Sergei [shaking his head]: I stopped watching. I thought it would be better here. I thought … I thought you’d grow up here, I thought-
Agnessa: Grow up? I’m not a child Sergei.
Sergei: Yes, yes you are. If you weren’t a stupid, naive, headstrong, idiot little child, none of this would have happened-
Agnessa: Oh Sergei, //you// grow up! What, just because I’m not married to him? What the hell does-
Sergei: That? You think //that’s// what this is about?
Agnessa [pause]: Isn’t it?
[The two stare at each other for a long time. Eventually, Agnessa starts to shake her head.]
Nikolai: What’s going on.
[Sergei kicks Nikolai in the stomach.]
Sergei: You’ve done enough.
Agnessa: Sergei. [His eyes shoot back up to hers] Have you-?
[He does not answer. Eventually there is a knock on the door. He turns and goes through to answer it.]
Nikolai [wheezing, on the ground]: Agnya. What-
Agnessa: The NKVD is here.
[Sergei opens the front door.]
Guide [from offstage]: Sergei Petrovich? [Sergei nods. The Guide enters.] Where are Nikolai Borisovich Morozov and Agnessa Petrovna Miagkova?
Sergei: The room at the far end.
[The Guide nods, then begins opening cupboards, more or less randomly. He does not stay in the kitchen long before moving on to Dariya and Gerogy’s room, where they all mime introductions. Sergei just stands by the door.]
Nikolai [winded]: What … what are we going to do?
Agnessa: I don’t know … Do you have a gun?
Nikolai: No. No, we said no guns.
Agnessa: I need a gun. I need to die in this moment. Before it all comes falling down. I need to die. That’s how this moment is supposed to end.
Nikolai: How can you say that! Agnya, look at me. Agnya, please, look at me! [She does] This isn’t a novel. This is real life.
Agnessa: I don’t understand why that matters.
[They stare at each other in silence, as if only seeing each other for the first time now.]
Georgy: What’s all this about?
Guide [full]: Nikolai Borisovich Morozov and Agnessa Petrovna Miagkova are under arrest for conspiracy to commit state sabotage. I am just conducting a preliminary search.
[<<if $c4 is "Not Burn">>He searches for a few more seconds, before finding the icons. He turns to the couple.]
Guide [full]: I have colleagues waiting downstairs. If you try to leave, they will pick you up. So just wait here.
Georgy: Are we…?
Guide [full]: Yes. For conducting communal religious rites outside of state sanctified premises.
[Dariya stays standing while Georgy lowers himself into a chair. The Guide pushes his way into Nikolai’s room.<<else>>He continues to search for several more seconds, then he pushes his way into Nikolai’s room.<</if>>]
Guide [full]: Nikolai Borisovich Morozov. Agnessa Petrovna Miagkova. You are both under arrest for conspiracy to commit state sabotage. You will leave the apartment and report to my colleagues downstairs for processing.
[Agnessa stands, hesitating. Nikolai has climbed up to kneeling on one knee, waiting for Agnessa. Eventually she shrugs and moves towards the door. Nikolai makes to follow her, then shakes his head.]
Nikolai [full]: Agnya. Agnya, it can’t end like this. It can’t just //end//!
[Agnessa turns to him.]
Agnessa: But it has.
Nikolai: Agnya! How-
Agnessa: I’m tired, Nikolai. It’s too much. It’s all been too much.
Nikolai [subdued]: But Agnya! The fight, the revolution! The future!
Agnessa [pause] [calling]: Seryozha! Seryozha!
[Sergei runs to her.]
Agnessa [to Sergei]: It’s all over, isn’t it?
Sergei: Yes.
[Agnessa turns, runs to Nikolai, kisses him, and then turns and leaves the apartment. Nikolai follows a moment later. Sergei looks at the Guide, and then retreats to his own room. The Guide turns towards the audience.]
Guide [full]: Comrades, you see justice done. Honest justice. But now what? Do you remember my colleague Sergei Petrovich talking about the distinction between Category One and Category Two? Category Two is imprisonment, in this case likely twenty five years in a labour camp. Category One is liquidation. I must make my recommendation, which will be heard by the sentencing troika. Redens, my superior, has set us personal quotas for Category One recommendations. I will fill mine, but I am yet to do so. But I //will// fill it, be it tonight or later in the month. Still, I have been instructed that even this question must be put to you. So. What is the will of the people? On the motion of Category One or Category Two sentencing for Nikolai Borisovich and Agnessa Petrovna, I will first hear those in favour of Category One. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Category Two [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].<</if>>
<<if $Accessible is "White-on-black">>@@.hidden_black;[[Let them go!|Scene 12.5]]@@<<elseif $Accessible is "Black-on-white">>@@.hidden_white;[[Let them go!|Scene 12.5]]@@<<else>>@@.hidden_standard;[[Let them go!|Scene 12.5]]@@<</if>>
[[Category One|Scene 12][$c7 = "Category One"]]
[[Category Two|Scene 12][$c7 = "Category Two"]]{Other members of the audience hush you, while the actors on stage ignore your heckling, just trying to get on with the show, with the exception of the Guide who gives you a dark look.}
<<if $Simulate is "True">><<if $r8 gte 75>><<set $c7 to "Category One">><<else>><<set $c7 to "Category Two">><</if>>[[Sit quietly and just let the rest of the audience decide.|Scene 12]]
<<if $r8 gte 75>>[[Keep shouting.|Scene 12][$Tried = "True"]]<<else>>[[Keep shouting.]]<</if>><<else>>[[Sit quietly and just let the rest of the audience decide.|Scene 12][$c7 = "Category Two"]]
[[Keep shouting.]]<</if>><<nobr>><<if $Simulate is "True">>
<<if $c7 is "Category Two">><<set $n to $Weight>><<else>><<set $n to -$Weight>><</if>>
<<set $result to $r7 + $n>>
<<if $result gte 70>> <<set $c7 to "Category Two">> <<else>> <<set $c7 to "Category One">> <</if>>
<</if>><<endnobr>>__Epilogue__
<<if $Tried is "True">>{You keep shouting, but the audience is not on your side. Some people turn towards you, staring daggers, some shush, one even boos before he himself succumbs to the pressure to be silent. You yourself are not far behind and the Guide continues as your cries are still petering out.}
<</if>>Guide [full]: Very well. <<if $c7 is "Category One" and $c6 is "Go Alone" and $c5 is "Don’t Report">>Nikolia Borisovich will be interrogated, then sentenced and then shot. When he testifies that he was working in concert with Agnessa Petrovna, as he will, she will be taken through the same process.<<elseif $c7 is "Category Two" and $c6 is "Go Alone" and $c5 is "Don’t Report">>Nikolai Borisovich will be interrogated and then sentenced and then sent to labour camp. When he testifies that he was working in concert with Agnessa Petrovna, as he will, she will be taken through the same process. Despite the lack of legal ties between them, rest assured that we will follow state policy and separate them as if they were a married couple. The child, if it survives the process, will be taken to a state orphanage when it is born, where it will receive a good communist education.<<elseif $c7 is "Category One">>Nikolai Borisovich and Agnessa Petrovna will be interrogated, then sentenced and then shot.<<else>>Nikolai Borisovich and Agnessa Petrovna will be interrogated and then sentenced and then sent to a labour camp. Despite the lack of legal ties between them, rest assured that we will follow state policy and separate them as if they were a married couple. The child, if it survives the process, will be taken to a state orphanage when it is born, where it will receive a good communist education.<</if>> And that is it. There is simply nothing more to say other than to thank you for your presence this evening. I hope it has been equal parts enjoyable and informative. Long live Comrade Stalin! [If the audience repeats it, the Guide nods, satisfied. If they do not, he narrows his eyes and shakes his head.]<<if $c4 is "Don’t Burn">> Georgy Antonivich, Dariya Yuriivna, you will come with me. [To audience] Category Two. Although at their age, Category One may have been better, both for them and the state.<</if>>
[The Guide salutes the audience and exits, followed by Dariya and Georgy<<if$c6 is "Go Alone" and $c5 is "Don’t Report">> and Agnessa<</if>>.]
[Curtain.]
[[The end]][Note: this scene should be played by all the actors as if they are improvising, often breaking character (while still maintaining the character of Soviet actors (or an NKVD agent in the case of the Guide))]
{You continue to shout and eventually the rest of the audience starts to pick it up, the majority of people shouting that Nikolai and Agnessa should be let go.}
[The Guide starts to panic, losing control of both the crowd and himself. Dariya and Georgy both look uncomfortable, exchanging looks with each other. Sergei pops his head around the door frame of his room.]
Guide [full]: Quiet! Quiet! Justice will be done! In the name of the NKVD, I order you to restrain yourselves!
{The crowd keeps shouting.}
[The Guide reaches for his gun, then shakes his head.]
Guide [full]: Please! Please!
{The crowd keep shouting.}
[The Guide makes as if to run, but Nikolai has appeared at the door.]
Nikolai: Help. You have to do something. Protect us.
Guide [full]: Fine. Fine! Very well! The people have spoken. And who am I to deny the will of the people. Erm, ahem, Nikolai Borisovich<<if $c7 is "Category One" and not ($c6 is "Go Alone" and $c5 is "Don’t Report")>>, Agnessa Petrovna<</if>>. Come back.
[Looking confused, Nikolai<<if $c7 is "Category One" and not ($c6 is "Go Alone" and $c5 is "Don’t Report")>> and Agnessa<</if>> enter.]
Guide [full]: The people … the commissariat … I, the NKVD, the NKVD has decided in the, erm, in the interest of state morale, that you will remain free.
Agnessa: Oh. Erm, wonderful.
Guide [full]: Yes. But if you do anything else illegal …
Nikolai: Oh, no, we would never.
Agnessa: Yes. Yes, I’m sure we’ll live happily forever, peacefully with our child.
<<if $c3 is "Don’t Tell">>Nikolai: Oh, I’m going to be a father?
Agnessa: Yes, isn’t it joyous?
<</if>>Guide [full]: Well, there we go. The will of the people fulfilled. Are you satisfied? [Without giving time for the audience to respond] Good. Curtain!
[Curtain]
[[The end]]<div style="text-align: center;">@@.large;The Whisperers.@@
A play by Milo van Mesdag</div>
Editing by Ro van Mesdag
Playtesting by:
Ro van Mesdag
Guy Bullivant
Savanna van Mesdag
Spencer Hedges
Gwyn Hart
If you have any interest in performing //The Whisperers//, please do contact me by email: m.mesdagwriter@gmail.com
For my other interactive fiction, see my [[itch|https://milomesdag.itch.io/]].[Agnessa and Sergei are not in the appartment. The Guide enters, comes upstage centre, and addresses the crowd.]
Guide [full]: Ladies and gentlemen. Members of the party [gesturing to the front row seats], the workers [gesturing to the middle rows], and … those deemed in need of re-education [gesturing to the back rows]. The Department of Agitation and Propaganda [gesturing back towards the apartment rooms] and the NKVD [gesturing to himself] would like to welcome you to this evening of moral education. This is a truly socialist play. For in this play, it is you, the people, who will decide what happens. It is you, the people, who will step forward and make the key decisions which should be yours to make. It is a very simple system. At certain points during tonight’s performance, I will come forward and ask you, the people, for your decision on what will happen next. I will present you with the obvious options one by one. You will clap, or cheer - if you so wish - for the option which you want to see acted out. I will judge which option received the most recognition from you and the actors will then perform it. Simple? Let us start with an example. Let us say that a character is considering faking an illness in order to take a day off work. Should his neighbour report him? What is the will of the people? On the motion of Report or Don’t Report, I will first hear those in favour of Report. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Don’t Report [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].
{If the audience chose to report the neighbour:}
{{Guide: Very good. If this scene were in our play, the neighbour would now report the work-shy bedbug to the authorities, as he should.}}
{If the audiecne chose to not report the neighbour:}
{{Guide: An … interesting decision. But tonight is a night for experimentation. If this scene were in our play, the neighbour would allow the work-shy bedbug to let all of his colleagues down by staying at home.}}
Guide: And that is the process. Simple. So, comrades, without further ado: the year is this very year, nineteen-thirty-eight, and we enter on the very familiar scene of a communal apartment, Moscow, as two new tenants arrive to begin their new lives in our glorious capital of Socialism.
[[Act 1, Scene 1|Scene 1Script]]The set:
The stage is designed to look like the inside of a nineteen-thirties Moscow apartment. There are three rooms visible. The one on stage right is a small kitchen with a simple wooden table taking up most of the space. This is the largest of the three rooms; with the table five people could just about stand in there. The next is a small bedroom, containing a double bed, two simple chairs and not much else. The third room is a bedroom of about the same size, containing a smaller bed, a desk covered in a mess of papers and architectural drawing equipment, and a stool for the desk. Doors connect the rooms sequentially, with two additional doors leading off the kitchen, one stage right and one at the back of the room leading backstage.
Further, the audience seating is arranged so that the seats in the first few rows are cushioned, comfortable single seats. Those behind, taking up the central third of seats, are standard theatre seats, comfortable enough but by no means luxurious. And behind those are simple benches, uncomfortable and backless.
The characters:
Nikolai Borisovich lives in the furthest room from the kitchen. He is a man in his mid to late twenties, dressed like an urban professional. He takes his place now.
Dariya Yuriivna lives with her husband, Georgy Antonivich in the middle room. They both appear to be in their late forties, although she looks the older of the two. He dresses neatly, while her clothes are slightly (for the period) eccentric in a way that adds to the perception that she is older. They both take their places now.
Agnessa Petrovna and her brother, Sergei Petrovich, live in the room upstage of the kitchen, not visible to the audience. She is in her early twenties, he a couple of years older. She wears a simple dress, while he wears the uniform of the NKVD, which is most notable for its blue cap and holstered pistol.
Finally, the Guide, who does not live in the apartment and who wears an NKVD uniform identical to Sergei’s.
Stage directions:
Unless stated otherwise, //__every line is delivered in a whisper__//. In order to be heard, therefore, each actor wears a microphone, which is mostly hidden by the costumes. If a line is delivered in something other than a whisper, it will either be marked as [subdued] for voiced but quiet speech, [full] for normal speaking volume, or [shouting] for shouted dialogue.
If the stage directions don't specify where a character is in a scene, they are in their room.
Choice layout:
Changes within the script based on audience choice are bracketted using curly brackets - {{}}. Text within single curly brackets are simply laying out the conditions under which the following part of the script occurs.
[[Prelude|IntroducitonScript]]<div style="text-align: center;">__Act 1__</div>
__Scene 1__
Sergei [full]: Moscow!
Agnessa [subdued]: Moscow.
[Both stand and look around the kitchen, Sergei smiling, Agnessa frowning.]
Sergei [full]: Are you happy, Agnya?
Agnessa [subdued]: Yes, Sergei.
Sergei [full]: There it is again: ‘Sergei’. Sister, what happened to ‘my little Seryozha?’
[Agnessa does not answer, but gestures towards Sergei’s blue cap. Sergei reaches up to touch it.]
Sergei [laughing] [full]: Yes, yes I suppose you are right! No more ‘Seryozha’, I am a grown man, a Moscow man, Sergei Petrovich of the NKVD!
[As he says this, the door, left, opens and Georgy enters, smiling, but stops when he, too, sees Sergei’s cap.]
Sergei [full]: Ah, hello! You must be our neighbour, it is a pleasure to meet you! Did you already hear my introduction?
[Georgy moves to salute as Sergei offers him his hand. There is a moment of confusion, but then they shake and Georgy exchanges shallow bows with Agnessa.]
Georgy: Georgy Antonivich. Squadron Sergeant, comrade.
Sergei [full]: What, still?
Georgy: Oh, no, sorry comrade. Retired. [Points down at his leg.] Nineteen-twenty-one.
Sergei [full]: Oh, bad luck. [Pause] So … have you been in Moscow ever since?
Georgy: Yes comrade. We’ve been here since before Lenin passed.
Sergei [full]: A glorious man, a glorious time. You were lucky to have served then. Do you miss it?
Georgy: Serving? Or the time?
Sergei [full]: Why not both?
Georgy: I miss serving my country. That is the greatest loss of my life. As for the times, well, they were glorious, but they are better today. They are better and better every day.
Sergei [full]: Well said! We live in the greatest time in the greatest country on earth! A five year plan in four, we’re so great even mathematics bow to our superiority! Still, you can never be too careful. With success comes jealousy, now that we’ve proved it can be done, the old world order is throwing everything it has at us. But we will survive, just watch them try to stop us!
[At this, Georgy hesitates, then spits on the floor. All turn to stare at him, Agnessa amused, Sergei affronted.]
Georgy: No, no, not you comrade. Wreckers, you were talking of wreckers and spies. It was for them. Please, comrade, I-
Sergei [laughing] [full]: Ah, I understand. Yes, yes, too right, too right! [Sergei spits] But be careful, Georgy Antonivich. Be careful, not-
[Dariya enters during this speech, interrupts]
Dariya: What is going on? What has my husband done, I promise you he-
[Georgy steadies his wife.]
Georgy: Comrade Sergei Petrovich, Agnessa Petrovna, this is my wife, Dariya Yuriivna.
Sergei [full]: Ah, well met Dariya Yuriivna. I am Sergei Petrovich and this is my sister, Agnessa Petrovna.
Dariya: I heard. You are with the police?
Sergei [full]: With the NKVD. [At this word, we see Nikolai, who had been trying to work in his apartment, suddenly jump up and check to see if he is presentable enough to race through to greet the new arrivals.] A new recruit, straight from the Komsomol to the training academy to here. It is odd, to have the greatest honour of your life bestowed upon you so young. All I hope is that-
[His speech is cut short by Nikolai bursting into the room.]
Sergei [full]: Ah. Hello.
Nikolai: Yes, sorry, hello. It is an honour to meet you Sergei Petrovich.
Sergei [full]: Oh. Well, it appears my reputation precedes me. But I thought-
Nikolai: Oh, no, sorry, erm, comrade. Sorry. I heard you. [At Sergei’s confused expression:] Through the walls.
Sergei: Oh. Oh, well.
[An awkward pause. Agnessa takes a couple of steps forward.]
Agnessa [subdued]: I suppose you heard my name too?
Nikolai: Yes, Agnessa Petrovna, it is an honour to meet you too.
Agnessa [subdued]: I’m sure it’s mutual, whoever you are.
Nikolai: Oh. Oh! Yes, oh, I hope you will forgive me, Agnessa Petrovna, Sergei Petrovich. I am Nikolai Borisovich. I’m an architect. I’m working on the Palace of the Soviets.
Sergei [full]: Oh, the Palace? Wonderful! I have read about it, I’ve seen so many pictures of the design, truly it should put the other seven wonders of the world to shame.
Nikolai: That is indeed the hope, comrade. I’m in the team working on the foundations. It’s a … unique challenge.
Sergei [full]: But one we’re more than prepared to meet, no?
Nikolai: Oh, of course. The soviet man is capable of all. But with a one-hundred metre statue just the adornment on the roof of the structure, the whole building is set to weigh one and half million tons. We will get it right, but it is a great deal to get right.
Sergei [full]: Well excellent, excellent. You will have to show me the worksite some time.
Nikolai: Of course, comrade.
Agnessa [subdued]: It used to be the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, didn’t it?
Nikolai: Yes. Yes it did.
Agnessa [subdued]: It was demolished, wasn’t it?
Nikolai: Yes, yes it was.
Dariya: Nikolai was the one who did it.
Nikolai: I … I was a student. I helped with the placement of some of the dynamite. I wouldn’t, I would not say I was the one who demolished it. It was a long time ago.
Sergei [full]: Don’t sell yourself short, comrade! Taking credit where it is due is hardly being ‘dizzy with success’.
Nikolai: Yes comrade. Of course.
Agnessa [subdued]: You are our neighbour then, Nikolai?
Nikolai: Oh, yes. I live here. The third room.
Agnessa [subdued]: By yourself?
Nikolai: Yes.
Georgy: This is all of us.
Dariya: Now that you are here, and the Golovins are gone.
Sergei [full]: Were they nice?
[Georgy and Nikolai freeze.]
Dariya: The youngest just turned twelve. Just in time.
Georgy: They’re gone now and a good thing too. Messy, the mother was a drinker, very anti-soviet. It will be much better with you. Won’t it my love?
Dariya: Yes. Much better.
Georgy: Yes, yes, we fully believe that. Much better, we’re so pleased to have you, aren’t we Dariya.
Dariya: Yes. Much better.
[A pause.]
Sergei [subdued]: I see. Much better. Well, I’m glad to hear it.
Nikolai: I agree.
Sergei [subdued]: Good. Well, that’s probably enough for now. It’s very good to meet you. Georgy Antonivich. Nikolai Borisovich. Dariya Yuriivna. [He nods to each of them in turn]. My sister and I should probably unpack.
Georgy: Yes, yes, of course. A pleasure, comrade.
Dariya: An honour.
[Georgy and Dariya retreat to their room.]
Agnessa [subdued]: Something keeping you, Nikolai?
Nikolai: No! I mean … no. It was … yes, an honour to meet you. Both.
Agnessa [subdued]: A pleasure.
Nikolai: Yes. Yes, that also.
Sergei [full]: Anything else?
Nikolai: No, sorry. Welcome.
[Nikolai retreats to his room.]
Sergei [subdued]: They seem like good people. Nice to have an old Bolshevik for a neighbour.
Agnessa [subdued]: I like his wife.
Sergei [subdued]: Perhaps. But that is for another time. Unpack now, shall we?
Agnessa [subdued]: Certainly, Seryozha.
[[Scene 2|Scene 2Script]]__Scene 2__
[Agnessa sitting at the kitchen table. She stands up and walks to the internal door, hesitates. Georgy and Dariya both hear her movement, but only Dariya looks up. Agnessa stands with hand raised ready to knock, but doesn’t. After a few seconds, Dariya, smiling, stands up and opens the door.]
Agnessa [subdued]: Oh.
Dariya: It is Nikolai Borisovich you wish to see?
Agnessa [subdued]: Oh, yes. But-
Dariya: I heard that you like me.
Agnessa [subdued]: Um … what?
Dariya: We hear you. When you talk.
Agnessa [subdued]: Oh. [Whispered] Oh, okay.
Dariya: We heard you walk to the door. We knew you were waiting to knock.
Agnessa: Oh.
Dariya: Do you know other words?
Agnessa: Hey!
Dariya: There’s one!
Agnessa: Fine, yes. [Pause] How long did it take you to get used to this life?
Dariya: You think I am used to it?
Georgy: Let the girl go, my dear. However much she likes you, she didn’t come to see you.
Agnessa: No, no it’s nice to see you. I do like you Dariya Yuriivna. I’m not embarrassed that you know it.
Dariya: Good. I’m not sure whether I like you yet, Agnessa Petrovna. But early signs are good.
Agnessa [laughing]: You’re not the kind of person I expected to meet in the city.
Georgy [with a look of genuine sadness and a touch of fear]: Don’t expect to meet many more.
[A moment of silence. Both women look down at the floor, while Georgy looks sadly at his wife.]
Georgy: Go on, Agnessa Petrovna.
Agnessa: Okay. [She moves into their apartment, trying not to look around too conspicuously, but she stops half way across.] Thank you.
Dariya: I speak when I can.
[Georgy looks up sharply. Agnessa nods and knocks on Nikolai’s door. For most of the following, Georgy and Dariya can be seen having a conversation: Georgy in turns angry, disappointed, fearful, and sad; Dariya moving between dismissive and resigned.]
[Nikolai opens the door, flustered but not able to withhold a smile. He gestures Agnessa in. Both stand in his room for a moment: Nikolai awkward; Agnessa comfortably examining the space.]
Nikolai: So…
Agnessa: Am I allowed to see this? [She moves over to his desk, leafs through some papers.]
Nikolai: Probably not.
[He moves over to put them away, but she laughs and pushes him gently away.]
Agnessa: Are you really scared of what I’ll see? Do you think I am a wrecker, Nikolai Borisovich?
Nikolai: Anyone could be. If even Zinoviev, Kamenev, Radek, all those others, if even //they// were traitors, who knows?
[A long pause while both stare at each other.]
Agnessa: My brother’s an NKVD man.
Nikolai: They arrested Yagoda a few months ago.
Agnessa: Yes, my brother told me. Yagoda was head of the NKVD when Sergei started at the academy and he had been arrested by them by the time he graduated. [Pause.] He was scared by that.
[Another long pause. Agnessa waits expectantly, Nikolai knows he is being tested but is unsure how.]
Nikolai: Scared because the enemy has managed to infiltrate even the vanguard of the fight to protect world communism?
Agnessa: It’s socialism in one country now.
Nikolai: Of course! I’m not a Trotskyite.
Agnessa: Why?
Nikolai: Because obviously I’m not! Why would I be a Trotskyite?
Agnessa [teasing]: ‘Anyone could be a Trotskyist. If even Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Yagoda were, who knows?’
Nikolai [pause]: Who are you?
Agnessa: Agnessa Petrovna.
Nikolai: No, who are you, to say those kind of things?
Agnessa [pause]: Why //are// you not a Trotskyist?
Nikolai: I said don’t joke!
Agnessa: No you didn’t!
Nikolai: I … I implied it. Don’t joke like that. It’s-
[Agnessa moves over to his desk and picks up a pamphlet that was revealed when Nikolai attempted to hide his papers.]
Agnessa: What’s this?
Nikolai: No. No, please.
[She opens it. Nikolai is actively shaking with fear. He continues to shake his head and silently plead as she reads. By the end, he is on his knees.]
Agnessa: Stalin was out swimming one day, but he began to drown. A farmer who was passing by jumped in and saved him. Stalin started to ask the farmer what he would like as a reward when the latter realised whom he had saved. ‘Nothing!’ he said, ‘Just please don’t tell anyone I saved you’. [She laughs, looks down at Nikolai and stops.] It’s funny!
Nikolai: Please.
[Agnessa smiles kindly, places the pamphlet back on the desk and covers it with a loose piece of paper.]
Nikolai: What, what do you want?
Agnessa: What do you mean?
Nikolai: What do you want? In return for not telling your brother? What do you-
Agnessa: No, no. I will not tell my brother.
Nikolai [pause, breathing heavily]: Why?
Agnessa: Why aren’t you a Trotskyist?
Nikolai: Please. Agnessa Petrovna. Please.
Agnessa [sitting down to join him on the floor]: I’m a Trotskyist.
[Nikolai stares, overwhelmed.]
Agnessa [mocking]: Don’t tell my brother. Please, please!
Nikolai: You’re mad.
Agnessa: Yes. We all are in the USSR.
Nikolai: Wha-what?
Agnessa: This has been a lot, hasn’t it?
Nikolai: Yes. Yes, it has.
[Both sit in silence. Then, slowly, Agnessa takes Nikolai’s hand.]
Agnessa [gently]: I’m scared.
Nikolai: Of what?
[Agnessa laughs and shakes her head.]
Agnessa: What do you live for, Nikolai Borisovich?
Nikolai: The joy of the coming day and the glory of the soviet… [he trails off]
Agnessa: I don’t like liars, Nikolai. Don’t be a liar.
Nikolai: Then I won’t lie to you.
Agnessa: What do you live for, Nikolai?
Nikolai: A lie.
Agnessa [smiling]: At least you have something.
[Nikolai smiles and lets out a long, shaking breath.]
Nikolai: I feel as if I just jumped from the top of a skyscraper.
Agnessa: Have you hit the bottom yet?
Nikolai: I don’t know, have I?
Agnessa: Yes, yes, today you have. Flat on a nice, soft feather bed. Duvets stacked twenty-five high!
Nikolai: I’m too winded for that. Make it fifteen.
Agnessa: Done! Now tell me, Nikolai Borisovich, what is your favourite flower?
Nikolai: Orchids. White orchids. Why?
Agnessa [standing up]: Because, Nikolai Borisovich, I am going to buy you white orchids. I shall attach a beautifully written little apology note to them to say sorry for everything I’ve put you through.
Nikolai: Oh, oh, you don’t have to.
Agnessa: Yes, yes I do. Because of this: it’s all true. Everything I’ve said. See you later, Nikolai Borisovich. [Exits, ignoring Dariya and Georgy, and going through the kitchen and though her bedroom door. Nikolai remains on the floor, holding his chest and looking up at the ceiling. A slight smile starts to creep across his face as the light fades and the Guide enters, coming downstage.
Guide [full]: Comrades, I know, I know that you are eager to put this situation right. But just as the foundations of our great Palace must be laid perfectly first, I insist that you wait. All will come in time and your first time will come soon. [Exits]
[[Scene 3|Scene 3Script]]__Scene 3__
[Georgy is cooking something in the kitchen when Sergei walks in, looking tired. Nikolai is out, but we can see a bottle acting as a makeshift vase for a number of white orchids on his desk.]
Sergei [subdued]: Ah, Georgy Antonivich. How … how are you?
Georgy [standing up straight and turning away from his work]: I am well, thank you comrade. And you?
Sergei [subdued]: Good, yes good. [pause, then whispered] Is my sister at home?
Georgy: No, I believe she went out.
Sergei: Oh, good. Good.
[Sergei walks to one of the cupboards, rummages around inside. There is the sound of a catch (or something else to indicate the presence of a secret compartment) and he takes out a bottle of vodka.]
Sergei: Can I interest you in a glass, comrade?
Georgy: Of course, thank you.
[Sergei takes out two shot glasses, sits down at the table and fills both glasses to the brim. Georgy hesitates for a moment, then joins him.]
Sergei: To the party?
Georgy: Yes, to the party.
[Both men drink. Sergei fills both glasses again.]
Sergei: Did my sister say where she was going?
Georgy: For a walk, I believe.
Sergei: Ah, shame. Shame. I’m fully in support of her going out, but I wish she would go out with some purpose. [Sergei drains his glass, refills it and leans forward to refill Georgy’s, but finds it untouched.] Ah. To Comrade Stalin?
Georgy: To Comrade Stalin.
[Both men drink and Sergei refills both glasses.]
Sergei: Do you have any sisters, Georgy?
Georgy: Three. I was the only son.
Sergei: Oh, how did you manage it?
[There is a pause, until Georgy realises the question was not rhetorical.]
Georgy: Well, I was second youngest. There wasn’t much to manage.
Sergei: Still, you were the man of the house. [pause] What are they doing?
Georgy: My sisters?
Sergei: Yes.
Georgy: Mariya died and Anna became an economic planner for the People’s Commissariat for Agriculture.
Sergei: Huh, impressive. And the third one.
Georgy: Anna was the youngest.
Sergei: No, I mean, what did your other sister do? The one you haven’t mentioned.
Georgy: She left. Emigrated, in nineteen-nineteen.
[Sergei sits back in his chair and stares across at Georgy. Finally, he reaches down and picks up his glass.]
Sergei: To loyalty, Georgy Antonivich.
Georgy: To loyalty.
[Both down their drinks, Sergei pours out another.]
Sergei: Your sister, the economic planner, how is she doing?
Georgy: She’s no longer working. She’s married, she lives with her husband in Stalingrad.
Sergei [chuckling] [subdued]: Of course. You see that’s the problem. Agnessa should do something, something for the good of the USSR. She spends so much of her time reading and improving herself; she was a good student at school and she hasn’t stopped studying since. It would be such a waste if she never //did// anything with that. It’d be an act of sabotage! When we were younger, I kept telling her "you have to get party membership, you have to get a job with the party!" But she didn’t apply herself where it mattered; she was good Pioneer, but she didn’t make it into the Komsomol. And if you don’t make it into the youth wing of the party, how do you expect to make it into the party! It’s not that she doesn’t work hard, she’s one of the most improved young women I know - although maybe standards are higher here in Moscow - but she just doesn’t apply it. I worry that it’s a question of will. A … [Sergei slurs a word here, a mixture of drunkenness and an inability to vocalise his fears. Perhaps it is ‘hatred’, or simply ‘dislike’?] for the party, or the proletariat. [A long pause. Sergei takes a shot, pours himself another. He sees that Georgy has yet to drink his, but does nothing.] But then there’s the problem. She’s twenty-one! If she gets a job now, then she’ll just be out of it in a couple of years when she’s pregnant. Or not! She’s … wilful, is Agnya. Maybe I should count my blessings. You hear of those women, who get so lost in their work that they never marry at all. Maybe that’s fine for those old Bolshevik women, but we’re in a new age now. Out with abortions and no-grounds divorce and all that anti-soviet Trotskyite nonsense. "The family is the primary cell of our society". It would be a waste. If she didn’t pass on all that improvement. To her children. But she’s twenty-one already. [He takes the next shot, refills, does not even look at Georgy’s glass] What does she do all day? Sit on the bed reading when I’m out and going out for her walks so she doesn’t have to be here when I get back. Is that it, is that all she does? [Georgy hesitates, clearly reluctant to answer, but Sergei does not seem to notice] She’s wasting away. And we. Can’t. Have. Waste. [He reaches for his glass, but stops himself] She needs a push. She needs to be told where to go. Georgy. If you had your sister back, the one who went. How would you have saved her? Work or marriage?
[The lights dim over Sergei and Georgy. As the following takes place they (in mime) finish talking, each take their last drink, and then go their separate ways: Sergei into his room at the back and Georgy back first to his now ruined meal, and then through to Dariya.]
[Guide enters, coming downstage.]
Guide [full]: Comrades, I said your time would come and here it is. You have seen our wayward soul: Agnessa Petrovna. You have heard her brother’s worries for her, although you and I both know more than poor Sergei Petrovich. Still, his suggestions are fitting for a woman of Agnessa Petrovna’s position. The dictatorship of the proletariat demands that those who benefit from its glories show their gratitude for its generosity by providing their labour for the building of communism and the good of the USSR. But in this enlightened age, we recognise the vital work that women do, not just on the economic, but also on the family front. But which, dear comrades, do you recommend? What is the will of the people? On the motion of Work or Family, I will first hear those in favour of Marriage. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Work [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].
[[Scene 4|Scene 4Script]]__Scene 4__
@@.redy;{@@If the audience recommended finding a husband:@@.redy;}@@
@@.redy;{{@@Guide [full]: Very well. Georgy Antonivich recommends finding Angessa Petrovna a husband, and Sergei Petrovich agrees.@@.redy;}}@@
@@.bluey;{@@If the audience recommended finding a job:@@.bluey;}@@
@@.bluey;{{@@Guide [full]: Very well. Georgy Antonivich recommends finding Angessa Petrovna work, and Sergei Petrovich agrees.@@.bluey;}}@@
[Guide exits. Lights come back on as Agnessa walks in. She makes to slam the front door, but thinks better of it, instead pacing quickly back and forth for a moment, looking cramped, before knocking on and then opening Dariya and Georgy’s door. Dariya hurriedly throws a blanket over the icons she was praying in front of. Georgy is out.]
Agnessa: Dariya Yuriivna. Is Nikolai Borisovich home?
Dariya [badly covering her shock]: Yes.
Agnessa [too caught up in her own world to notice.]: Thank you.
[Agnessa steps over to Nikolai’s door, knocks. Nikolai stands, looks nervously at his desk, smiles and makes a dismissive gesture, then checks himself in his hand mirror, brushes something off his trouser leg, and answers.]
Nikolai: Agnessa Petrovna.
[He hesitates, clearly looking for something to say, but she brushes past him into his room.]
@@.redy;{@@If the audience recommended finding a husband:@@.redy;}@@
@@.redy;{{@@Agnessa: My brother has decided I need to find myself a husband.
[Nikolai very slowly finishes the act of closing the door, his back to Agnessa.]
Nikolai: Is that so?
Agnessa: It’s terrible. He’s taking me everywhere to meet men. The parties are the worst. They’re not called that, but that’s what they are. I just came from one. It was a birthday: one of Sergei’s friends. All NKVD men and a few wives. They’re all either lard or gristle, dumb bulls or weasels. The only one who took off his cap was the commander; everyone already knows him by sight I gather. They were the only people drinking in the restaurant, the only ones laughing, the only ones shouting. And do you know what they talked about?
Nikolai [finally composed enough to turn around]: No, I don’t.
Agnessa: The German Operation. They were saying they’ve caught almost forty-thousand spies.
Nikolai: Isn’t Germany the greatest of our enemies?
Agnessa: Is it? That’s what we’re told. But Marx was German. Engels was German. And they are socialists there now.
Nikolai: National Socialists. They’re anti-communist socialists, pro-national socialists.
Agnessa: How is that different from us?
Nikolai: "Socialism in one country".
Agnessa [nodding]: And what do we really know about National Socialism? How do we really know it’s as evil as we’re told it is?
Nikolai: How do we know it’s not?
Agnessa: They say Trotkyism is evil, but it’s not. They say that the-
Nikolai: Just because they lied about Trotsky doesn’t mean they’re lying about Hitler.
Agnessa [after a pause]: They lied about Trotsky?
Nikolai: I … I read the book you gave me.
Agnessa: Then you see? You see the problem? We shouldn’t be pushing all these other nations away. They say "We’re building communism over one-sixth of the earth", but I say "What about the other five sixths?" We have a responsibility. Permanent, world revolution. It is our duty to bring the freedoms we have to the proletariats of the world.
Nikolai: You really think so?@@.redy;}}@@
@@.bluey;{@@If the audience recommended finding a job:@@.bluey;}@@
@@.bluey;{{@@Agnessa: My brother has decided I need to find myself a job.
Nikolai: Oh? What are you wanting to do?
Agnessa: No, you don’t understand. What matters is what //he// wants me to do. Which is something, anything that can get me a party card.
Nikolai: Maybe he just wants what’s best for you? All the best jobs go to party members.
Agnessa: Or maybe he just wants what’s best for the party.
Nikolai: That’s a compliment, isn’t it? If he thinks you’d be an asset to the party?
Agnessa: Oh, Nikolai Borisovich, you think you are clever, don’t you?
Nikolai: Not usually. But I’ll accept the compliment if it comes from you. Anyway, what about your search for work?
Agnessa: Oh, yes. Today it was teaching. I don’t actually dislike children-
Nikolai: That surprises me.
Agnessa: You’re full of it today, aren’t you?
Nikolai: Sorry. I just-
Agnessa: As I was saying: I didn’t think it would be a terrible idea. But what they asked during interviewing: it wasn’t anything to do with children, or even learning. It was all about Stalin. It wasn’t about communism, it wasn’t even about socialism. It wasn’t about Marx, it wasn’t about the future. It was all about Stalin.
Nikolai: Really, every word?
Agnessa: Well they didn’t call it ‘Stalin’, not all the time. Sometimes it was the party, sometimes they even had the gall to call it ‘Leninism’, when Lenin would be spinning in his grave. Lenin wanted Trotsky. Did you know that? That’s why Trotsky became the enemy: because he was the real person who Lenin wanted in charge. Because Trotsky actually wanted to free people, to work for the good of the world proletariat, rather than just wallow like //Comrade// Stalin. Rather than just-
Nikolai: I know. I read the book you gave me.
Agnessa: Then you know! You know that we have a responsibility to actually build communism. Not to back-pedal on women’s freedom, not to suppress all attempts at democratization, not to have people executed because ten years ago they said something that Stalin did not like. It is our responsibility, as enlightened young communists, to create the true communism.
Nikolai: You really think so?@@.bluey;}}@@
Agnessa: Have you read Marx?
Nikolai: Yes, although maybe not as closely as I should.
[Agnessa holds up one finger, indicating that Nikolai should wait, while she runs back through Dariya’s room, through the kitchen and into her own room. She reappears a moment later, a large book (Marx’s //Das Kapital//) clutched in her hands. Nikolai spends the whole time standing in the centre of his room, breathing heavily.]
Agnessa [coming back into the room]: This is my copy. Let’s compare notes. Where’s yours?
[Nikolai crawls under his desk, appearing a moment later with his own copy of the same book: significantly less worn.]
@@.redy;{@@If the audience recommended finding a husband:@@.redy;}@@
@@.redy;{{@@Agnessa: Oh Nikolai Borisovich, you had me worried. I didn’t tell you, but Sergei sent me to a ‘study group’. I think he thought I’d find people more like myself there. I have to say, I was almost hopefully myself.
Nikolai: Did you find anyone?
Agnessa: Of course not. They were reading //Don Quixote//. Which is fine, we’ve all read it, it’s good, but when I mentioned Marx this one man proudly told me that they’d already done //The ABC of Communism.// He got out his copy, they all did. I looked through the notes. Nikolai, they all had the exact same notes. They were told what to write. They didn’t have to think about it at all, they just wrote what they were told. And none of them had read Marx at all!
Nikolai: //The ABC// is good. It’s how most of us were introduced to communism. I have my own copy, I’d show it to you but I fear that my school-boy notes will be too basic for you. Although they are //my// notes.
Agnessa: But not to have read Marx? This man wasn’t young. And he wasn’t a true proletarian. None of them were. They’re all snobs, with their army jobs and ministry careers. I think I was the only one there without a party card.
Nikolai: I have a party card.
Agnessa: Yes, but you’re handsome. And a revolutionary.@@.redy;}}@@
@@.bluey;{@@If the audience recommended finding a job:@@.bluey;}@@
@@.bluey;{{@@Agnessa: I didn’t really doubt that you had a copy. But I’m always a little bit worried. There were so many people in my home village who didn’t. And it was just as likely to be members of the Komsomol or the party. I used to want to work for Agitprop when I was younger. I used to think ignorance was the problem. The older generation of party members were the ones who destroyed the old order, they were soldiers. The next generation were builders, physical builders, the ones actually putting up the walls that one day would contain the house of communism. And then my generation-
Nikolai: Not my generation?
Agnessa: Why not?
Nikolai: Well I’d like to think I would be of the generation of builders. Maybe not building the walls, but certainly laying the foundations of the house of communism.
Agnessa: Oh yes, I suppose! But it was all a metaphor anyway. You can be of my generation, just with the wrong job for it. You can be one of us, the people who will actually live in the house. But that won’t be easy, it’s just as much of a job as soldier or builder. Because we’ll be the ones to actually practice what has been preached. We are the ones who will have to know every word of Marx, cover to cover, word for word. And not just know, //understand//. We will not be fighters for communism, or builders of communism, we will //be// communism. Or, at least, that’s what I thought.
Nikolai: What changed?
Agnessa: I realised I was the one who was ignorant. I realised that the revolution is not finished. Not the real one. We don’t need agitprop workers, or school teachers. We need revolutionaries.@@.bluey;}}@@
Nikolai: Aren’t we //supposed// to be revolutionaries?
Agnessa [coming very close to him]: Real revolutionaries. Like you. You want to see Stalin dead.
Nikolai [hesitating, moving as if to step back, but nonetheless held in place]: No, no I don’t want that.
Agnessa: I saw your joke book.
Nikolai: //Jokes//, Agnessa Petrovna. Just jokes.
Agnessa: You’ve read Trotsky. In nineteen-thirty-eight, you’ve read Trotsky. You know what that makes you.
Nikolai: I … I…
[Agnessa reaches out and takes his arm with her left hand, holding up her copy of //Das Kapital// with her right.]
Agnessa: Shall we compare notes?
[She pulls him to the bed, where they both sit. She takes his copy and gives him hers.]
Nikolai: You make me dizzy, Agnessa Petrovna.
Agnessa: No, I make you feel alive.
[She smiles, then looks down at his book. He stares for a moment longer, then, not knowing what else to do, he opens her copy, flicking slowly through.]
Nikolai: Agnessa Petrovna, there are more margin notes here than words in the text!
Agnessa: And there are fewer in yours! But there’s time, you’ll learn. Get a pencil. We’ve got serious work to do here.
[Lights fade as the two of them mime talking and pointing to sections in their books.]
[[Scene 5|Scene 5Script]]__Scene 5__
[Only Dariya is home as the lights come up. Nikolai comes in through the front door, moves efficiently to Dariya and Georgy’s door, knocks, waits a moment, then pushes through. He nods and smiles to Dariya as he moves to his own door, but her words stop him as he places his hand on the doorknob.]
Dariya: You have feelings for Agnessa Petrovna.
Nikolai [blushing]: She has-
Dariya [laughing]: Do you not?
Nikolai [pause]: How do you know?
Dariya [pause]: I am not sure I should tell you.
Nikolai: Tell me.
Dariya [shaking her head]: I have lived beside you for seven years. I know.
Nikolai: Have you heard us? Tal-[‘Talking about’ cut off]
Dariya: I have heard nothing. But I have seen what I need to see.
Nikolai: How can you see it? Is it in my face? [Dariya smiles, but does not answer. Nikolai shakes his head, turns away, then turns back.] I like her.
Dariya: I believe you believe you love her.
Nikolai: You’re right. I do love her. [subdued] I love her! [whispering] She’s clever, she’s … funny, she’s beautiful. She’s exciting. [Nikolai looks at Dariya, who smiles. Pause] I’ve never met anyone like her. [Dariya nods, does a ‘there it is’ gesture, but Nikolai is not looking] She … she makes me feel awful. When I’m not with her, I just want to be with her. I feel like … it’s not that I’m incomplete. It’s not that meeting her was like suddenly seeing colour for the first time, it’s not like being with her is like having, I don’t know, having electricity running through me. It’s like, like I’m just //bad// when I’m not with her. Not morally, or … I think, but just bad at being a person, a man. Like I remember, when I was a young child, so young that I barely do remember, there were things to wake up for. Even if before whatever it was - reading or playing or spending time with mother – even if before it I had something else, like school or chores or something, there was still //something// to wake up for. No, no, that’s not right either. I have things. Now. I have things now, I love my work, I love my books, I love … things, life! But sometimes, no, all the time; sometime, sometime, a long time ago, when I was a child, something changed. Dreams became safer than life. Yes, there were reasons to wake up. But there were reasons to stay asleep too. As well. I was scared, I guess. And I became bad. But now I wake up, straight up, childishly up, because I know that I might get to be with her. And then when I’m dressed, I feel awful, because I’m not with her, and I’m ‘bad’ again, I’m weak and worried again and just bad. But I know I could be good. I know that that ‘something’ hasn’t changed back, that something that changed sometime, but I know I could get it back.
Dariya: But not when you are with her?
Nikolai: No. No, not when I am with her. When I am with her, I feel bad in a different way. In a much more ordinary way, I suppose. Or maybe, maybe it just seems more normal. I don’t know. Does it matter? When I’m with her, I feel slow, stupid, blunt. Like a rock next to a knife, or, or, excuse me, a fart next to a flower. She makes me feel awful. [Pause, while smiling] It’s amazing. It’s so exciting. And I get to be there. I… [pause]
Dariya: She wants you there.
Nikolai: Yes. Yes. Yes she does. [Pause] Isn’t it amazing?
Dariya: Why wouldn’t it be?
@@.redy;{@@If the audience recommended finding a husband:@@.redy;}@@
@@.redy;{{@@Nikolai: Exactly. She told me recently that her brother wanted her to marry, that he’s been trying to find her a husband. She told me that she – that she didn’t like any of them. But oh god, it hurt. Thinking that she might. Thinking that other men were looking at her that way. I hated it. I felt sick, I really did feel like I might throw up, like my body might just push me out of it.@@.redy;}}@@
@@.bluey;{@@If the audience recommended finding a job:@@.bluey;}@@
@@.bluey;{{@@Nikolai: Exactly. She told me recently about her philosophy and how it’s changed. She told me about her childhood. Not much, but a bit. And I realised I wasn’t listening. I was thinking about how much I wish I knew her then. I was thinking about how amazing it is, that this woman, this being, with so many great plans, so much greatness, was here, in my little room, talking to me.@@.bluey;}}@@
Nikolai: That has to be love, doesn’t it?
Dariya [laughing]: It certainly might be!
[Nikolai laughs, then shrugs.]
Nikolai: What should I do?
Dariya: What do you mean, Nikolai Borisovich?
Nikolai: I mean … what do I do now?
Dariya: What do you want to do?
Nikolai [laughing]: Be with her of course!
Dariya: But how?
Nikolai: What-what do you mean?
Dariya: I mean, how do you want to be with her? What is it you want to do with her? No, no, I do not mean what you are thinking. And do not give me that look, Nikolai Borisovich! I am old, I am married, do not looked shocked, I know more of those things than you do. Nikolai Borisovich, pick your jaw up off the floor! Now, think, what is it that she likes? And what is it that you want?
Nikolai: I … well she likes talking. And work. Self-improvement, political work. She likes people who act and people who study. That is what I should do. I should read and study, then we could discuss. And I should work harder, if I were higher in the party, if I had a more prestigious position, then maybe… I mean, yes, I should work, I should study, I should self improve. That’s what she’ll want.
Dariya: That is one part of it, what you //think// she would like. But what is it that you want?
Nikolai: I said, to-
Dariya: Yes, to be with her, but how?
Nikolai: I could study…
Dariya: Are you listening, Nikolai Borisovich? Will you not listen to a wise old woman?
Nikolai: Oh, I am sorry, Dariya Yuriivna.
Dariya: What is it that you //want//? Not about her, but in life, that is what I am asking now. What is it that you want?
Nikolai [pause]: Is it okay if I say ‘to be happy?’
[There is a pause, then Dariya stands up, walks over to Nikolai, and embraces him. She takes a step back and takes his hands in hers.]
Dariya: Of course. Of course it is okay to say that. Isn’t it what we all really think?
Nikolai: Is it?
Dariya: I think that it is. And if it is…
Nikolai: Then it is what Agnessa wants?
Dariya: The girl needs some joy in her life. Just as you do.
Nikolai: I do not know.
[A sudden clap from offstage. Guide enters and comes downstage.]
Guide [full]: The young man does not know. Does he believe he is pondering a question of the heart? Whether to impress the woman, or charm the girl. Do you believe that is the question? Or is the real choice between work, Trotskyite work, or bourgeois-liberal play? [Pause] Did I just put that into your minds, comrades? [A sharp look towards the back rows.] Did I? [Look down, to smile at the front rows.] Of course not, comrades. You are the people and you think for the people. So do. Nikolai Borisovich must make a decision, one he believes is personal, but which we know is not. He would make the decision for you, but instead, you will make the decision for yourselves. So. What is the will of the people? On the motion of ‘work to impress’ or ‘show her happiness’, I will first hear those in favour of ‘work to impress’. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of ‘show her happiness.’ [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].
[[Scene 6|Scene 6Script]]__Scene 6__
@@.purpley;{@@If the audience recommend that Nikolai tries to impress Agnessa:@@.purpley;}@@
@@.purpley;{{@@Guide [full]: Very well. Nikolai Borisovich will attempt to impress Agnessa Petrovna.@@.purpley;}}@@
@@.greeny;{@@If the audience recommend that Nikolai embraces joy:@@.greeny;}@@
@@.greeny;{{@@Guide [full]: Very well. Nikolai Borisovich will try to show Agnessa Petrovna a more joyous side of life.@@.greeny;}}@@
[Guide exists, lights fall, scene begins.]
@@.purpley;{@@If the audience recommend that Nikolai tries to impress Agnessa:@@.purpley;}@@
@@.purpley;{{@@[All at home: Sergei shifting through papers in the kitchen, Dariya and Georgy sitting talking in their room, and Agnessa and Nikolai reading books in his, sitting on his bed.]
Nikolai [nervous]: I didn’t tell you yet, did I? I applied for a promotion at work. Well, it’s a slight step up, it’s mostly a lateral move. It’s to junior works overseer.
[Agnessa slowly places her book down on the bed beside her. Nikolai mimics the movement a moment later.]
Agnessa: Why?
Nikolai: At the moment my job is mostly just working with other architects, or just by myself, so-
Agnessa: I thought you liked that?
Nikolai: Yes, I //like// it, but the new job is one that will put me in direct contact with the workers. I know so few true proletarians, it will be the perfect opportunity to learn. And, of course, carry out agitation. True agitation…
Agnessa: Yes … yes! Yes, it’s perfect. [pause] It’s good. The workers need to be truly shown what is going on. They need to be taught the importance of proletarian internationalism. Can you teach them that? That the reason they are not free is because they are being kept from their brothers?
Nikolai: I … I believe that I could.
Agnessa: Hmm. And why is it that permanent revolution is so essential?
Nikolai: We will never be truly free until all are free?
Agnessa: Uh-huh.
[Lights go down. Pause. Lights come back on, the rest of the cast having shifted positions/activities but still in their rooms. Nikolai and Agnessa sit slightly closer together. Nikolai looks //slightly// more worn out (loosened tie/ruffled hair/top button undone/etc). Time has passed. Start mid-conversation.]
[//Author’s note: A longer, more detailed version of this speech is provided [[here]], which can be used if desired. I (the author) prefer it, but acknowledge that not all have the same appetite for detailed philosophical rants that I do (and also because its full inclusion creates a lack of balance between narrative paths)//]
Nikolai: The proletarian is the only true economic force. That is you: the worker, the builder, the creator of new things. All that is achieved in this world is achieved by you. But while you are free, here, you are alone. In Germany, in England, in America, your brothers still suffer under the yoke of capitalist-imperialism!
Agnessa [imitating a gruff-voiced worker (badly)]: And why should we care?
Nikolai: Because your freedom, and the world of justice we are building here, is under threat. The proletariat is the only true economic force, but the capitalist-bourgeoisie of Europe and America control that force in their own countries and they will, they //do// use it against us! They have harnessed the greatest force in the world and they will do everything they can to prevent that power breaking loose. And we will break it loose, unless we are stopped.
Agnessa [imitating]: Who could stop us?
Nikolai: The world proletariat, those still living under the capitalist yoke! They will fight against us, they will march before their masters’ whips and tear down their own freedom. And why? Because //we// have given them no reason to rise with us. "Socialism in one country" is a cry, a simple message to the world: "We will not help you!" Our leaders have given them no reason why they should not allow themselves to be driven against us, to use the might of the proletariat against itself. Marx himself said we will have no peace until the "competition between the proletarians of these countries ceases".
Agnessa [imitating]: And how do we achieve this‽
Nikolai: We must rise! Demand justice! Demand eternal peace! Demand perpetual revolution!
[Agnessa quietly claps]
Agnessa: Oh, wonderful! Wonderful! [pause] What do you think, if you were to sing //the international// afterwards? But in German? Or English, or French?
[The lights fade. Again the rest of the cast shift. Again Nikolai and Agnessa sit closer together. Again Nikolai looks more worn out.]
Nikolai [singing, to the tune of L'Internationale, his French awkward]: C’est la lune
finale. Groupons-…
Agnessa [laughing]: ‘This is the final moon’? I suppose it is, we do only have one after all!
Nikolai: Oh, yes, I’m sorry.
Agnessa [singing, much better]: C’est la lutte finale.
Nikolai: Ah, yes. [singing, still awkward] C’est la lutte finale. Groupons-nous, à demain-
Agnessa: Yes, I hope so.
Nikolai: Excuse me?
Agnessa: //À// demain: see you tomorrow. Which I hope I will. But for now, I believe you’re looking for //et// demain.
Nikolai: Oh, yes, of course. Right. [singing, still awkward] C’est la lutte finale. Groupons nous, et demain, l’internationale, c’est la comedie humaine!
Agnessa: Balzac Nikolai, Balzac!
Nikolai: Oh God! I’m so bad at this.
Agnessa: You aren’t the most gifted student. But you’re passionate! And funny. Try again.
Nikolai [singing, still awkward]: C’est la lutte finale. Groupons nous, et demain, l’internationale sera le genre humain!
Agnessa: Perfect! That’s one whole line!
[Ibid. The two are sitting very close together now. Again mid conversation.]
Nikolai: I am … relieved. I knew little of the nineteen-twenty-one Kronstadt rebellion. Makar really was almost convincing: he really made it sound like a movement for democracy, for the freedom of the people, for the power of the proletariat against the party bureaucracy.
Agnessa: Of course. It’s very important to listen to the workers, //your// workers, Works Supervisor Nikolai Borisovich, but you must remember that while they hold the future in their hands, they must be guided. You know now that those Kronstadt rebels who were not imperialist agents were anarchists, [proudly quoting] "a fully anti-revolutionary doctrine", in Trotsky’s own words, and that said bureaucracy was Lenin’s bureaucracy. We are not against bureaucracy, we are against its misuse.
Nikolai: Of course. Thank you.
[ibid. Sitting very, very close now.]
Nikolai: Ich habe angefangen, Deutsch zu lernen.
Agnessa: Oh, ausgezeichnet! Was kannst du sagen?
Nikolai: Ich liebe dich.
Agnessa [pause]: Really?
Nikolai: Yes.
Agnessa [Throwing her hands in the air]: Bellissimo!
[They kiss and the lights fade.]@@.purpley;}}@@
@@.greeny;{@@If the audience recommend that Nikolai embraces joy:@@.greeny;}@@
@@.greeny;{{@@[Sergei is shifting through papers in the kitchen and Dariya and Georgy are sitting talking in their room. Nikolai is putting the finishing touches on the spread he’s arranged over his desk: blinis, caviar, a candles, a vase of flowers. He himself is dressed up (perhaps just wearing a jacket). Agnessa enters.]
@@.redy;{@@If the audience recommended finding a husband:@@.redy;}@@
@@.redy;{{@@Sergei: Agnya! You were at the young academics conference today? Did anyone catch your eye?@@.redy;}}@@
@@.bluey;{@@If the audience recommended finding a job:@@.bluey;}@@
@@.bluey;{{@@Sergei: Agnya! You were at the young academics conference today? Did you find a chance to talk to any of the employers?@@.bluey;}}@@
Agnessa [moving to Dariya and Georgy’s door]: I’m going through to see Nikolai.
@@.redy;{@@If the audience recommended finding a husband:@@.redy;}@@
@@.redy;{{@@Sergei: [Cheekily] Been spending a lot of time with Nikolai Borisovich, haven’t we?@@.redy;}}@@
@@.bluey;{@@If the audience recommended finding a job:@@.bluey;}@@
@@.bluey;{{@@Sergei: [Purses lips] Are we not worried that Nikolai Borisovich is becoming something of a distraction?@@.bluey;}}@@
[Agnessa shakes her head, annoyed, knocks, opens the door, goes through Dariya and Georgy’s room, knocks on Nikolai’s door, and enters.]
Agnessa [on seeing the desk][subdued]: Oh!
Nikolai: Agnessa Petrovna. I hope you haven’t eaten?
Agnessa: I … I don’t know what to say. I never don’t know what to say!
Nikolai: Well, I’m glad I could give you a new experience. You’ve given me so many, so it’s only fair. Isn’t it?
Agnessa: I’m not sure I like it.
Nikolai: Oh. Well, do you like caviar?
Agnessa: Of course.
[She sits at the chair at his desk, he sits on the bed. Both begin to eat.]
Agnessa: Have you read Trotsky’s letter on-
[She stops when she sees Nikolai smiling and shaking his head.]
Nikolai: I have. But I don’t want to talk about it tonight.
Agnessa [crestfallen]: Oh.
Nikolai: Oh, I don’t mean it like that. I do … I do want to talk about it. But I thought tonight, tonight we could do something else. Just be us.
Agnessa: But I’m always just me. Are you not always just you?
Nikolai: I … I don’t know. I mean … I think I’m not explaining myself well. [Stands up] What do you do for fun, Agnessa?
Agnessa: I study, I improve myself, I prepare-
Nikolai: Don’t you do anything just for yourself?
Agnessa: No, no I don’t think I do. A good revolutionary-
Nikolai [desperate]: Nothing? You don’t do anything just for the joy of it?
Agnessa: Liberating the proletariat brings me joy. //And// it’s the right thing to do.
Nikolai [sitting back down]: Yes, yes I suppose you’re right.
[Pause. Angessa notices Nikolai’s dejection.]
Agnessa: I used to enjoy dancing.
Nikolai: Really?
Agnessa: When I was a child. Seryozha used to dance with me. There used to be peasant dances in the village, but my favourite was dancing to an American record that one of our friends had. I don’t know how she got it. But it was all very bourgeois. Not that that’s stopped my brother still doing it. He brought me along to a party and they were all playing and dancing to that American music.
Nikolai: My boss listens to it. I sometimes hear it playing from his office. [Pause] I … [Pause] Shall we dance?
Agnessa: What to?
[Nikolai reaches over and turns on his radio. An opera (a section of Verdi’s //Aida//?) comes on. Agnessa smiles and shakes her head, but Nikolai holds out his hand.]
Nikolai [cheeky]: Come on, we can at least try?
[Agnessa hesitates, then, smiling, shrugs and takes his hand. He takes her in a closed hold. They move stiffly, attempting to step on a beat neither of them can quite find. Both laugh at the absurdity of the situation and Nikolai resorts to simply wiggling his body back and forth in time with the singers vibrato. The dance breaks down in laughter and Agnessa turns the radio off, sitting down. Nikolai remains standing. The laughter slowly subsides.]
Nikolai: I like that American music.
Agnessa [pause]: So do I.
Nikolai: What do you remember of it?
Agnessa: What do you mean?
Nikolai: I know some of the pieces my boss plays. Do you know Summertime? It’s by someone called-
Agnessa: Gershwin, I know. My brother likes him. Proud that even the American bourgeois composers are Russian.
Nikolai: Ukrainian. He’s a Ukrainian Jew.
Agnessa: Oh. I didn’t know.
Nikolai: Do you know his music? Do you know Summertime?
Agnessa: I do, yes. One of his latest.
Nikolai: Do you want to dance to it?
Agnessa: Do you have it?
Nikolai: In a way. [He taps his head. Agnessa laughs.]
Agnessa: We can’t dance to a song that’s just in your head.
Nikolai: It’s in yours as well, isn’t it?
[Agnessa smiles, blushes, shakes her head, and stands up.]
Agnessa: Okay.
[They take up their closed hold positions again. Nikolai begins to softly hum Summertime by George Gershwin. They dance, both clumsily. Both start awkward and embarrassed, standing stiff and giggling, Agnessa more so than Nikolai, but first he and then she relax into the moment. Slowly they move from a closed hold to a close embrace. When the song finishes, both just stand still, embracing, for at least ten seconds. Then, slowly, awkwardly but without embarrassment, they kiss. The lights dim and come back on both lying in bed.]
Nikolai [pause]: Are you happy?
Agnessa: Yes. [Agnessa smiles, but slowly her expression falls and she begins to cry softly.] Yes. Yes I’m happy. But how can I be? Our leaders have abandoned their mission, they’ve abandoned their people. We-
Nikolai: Hey, hey, just be with me. Just-
Agnessa: How? How can I? This is what //they// do, isn’t it? They let themselves relax, they let themselves fall. I can’t, I can’t stop fighting.
Nikolai: Everyone needs to rest, we-
Agnessa [heavy crying]: I can’t! I can’t! The world is ending, Nikolai! If we do nothing, they win: the capitalists, the imperialists, the Stalin-
Nikolai: Please. Agnessa, please.
Agnessa: It’s been beautiful, Nikolai. It has. But it’s a lie, isn’t it Nikolai? The idea that we can be happy, when what’s happening is happening. I have to go. I-
Nikolai: I read the letter, Agnessa. Trotsky’s letter. Stay. Please. We can talk.
Agnessa [pause]: We can work?
Nikolai: Yes. Yes, we can work. Please. And when we’ve worked, we can sleep.
Agnessa: Okay. Okay. [She nestles against his body.] What did you think? Of the letter.
Nikolai: I … I don’t know. What should I think?
[Agnessa’s voice slowly fades over the following. Nikolai just looks tired.]
Agnessa: You should think it’s brilliant. His treatment of the Kronstadt question, it cuts straight to the heart of it. Don’t you see? It shows the importance of digging under the skin of a question, as well as the importance of doing what needs to be done. Which isn’t even to mention that it exonerates him of-
[Lights fade.]@@.greeny;}}@@
[[Act 2, Scene 1|Scene 7Script]]<div style="text-align: center;">__Act 2__</div>
__Scene 1__
[Georgy is out. Sergei comes home, looking tired. He opens the door to his room and looks in. He comes back through and opens the cupboard containing his vodka, which he takes out. He pours himself a shot glass and sits down. Depending on time constraints on production: over the course of at least a minute, we see him take several shots; or the lights dim, the vodka bottle is replaced with an emptier one, and the lights rise again, Sergei slumped in his chair. Agnessa walks in, stops dead when she sees her brother. Sergei turns quickly and guiltily. Both hold for a moment, before, clearly drunk, Sergei shrugs and sits back in his chair.]
Sergei: So you’ve caught me, Agnya.
Agnessa: Sergei! I-
Sergei: Ooh, Sergei! When did you become mother?
Agnessa: Sergei, you promised. You promised me. When we got to Moscow, you’d stop. You said you wouldn’t need to any more, you said-
[Sergei’s laughter cuts her off.]
Sergei: Sit down, Agnya, sit down! [Agnessa sits] Now tell me sister, where have you been all day? Actually no, no, dear sister, where were you all last night? Or the night before that? Or almost every night for the last … what day is it today?
Agnessa: You’re vile.
Sergei: You understand me. You haven’t been a pretty little saint, so don’t judge me. I drink, you fuck. The real difference is that I work, and you just … fuck.
Agnessa [standing and moving towards Nikolai’s room]: I don’t have to hear this!
Sergei: Agnya! Agnya! [She turns back and the gaze is held a moment] Agnya, remember Seryozha?
Agnessa: You’re Seryozha, of course I remember-
Sergei: I remember Agnya. I remember her smiles. I remember tying her shoelaces behind the shed at school so none of her friends would know she hadn’t worked out how to do it on her own yet. I remember how she wrote speeches for her brother to make at Komsomol meetings and how much she’d blush when he’d even just suggest publicly crediting her with them.
[Slowly, Agnessa comes back to her seat.]
Agnessa: What’s all this about?
Sergei: I’m behind.
Agnessa: I’m … I’m not following.
Sergei: I don’t need your help.
[Pause]
Agnessa: I’ll go then, I-
Sergei: I’m behind on Category Ones.
Agnessa: Excuse me?
Sergei: Quotas, Agnya. I’m behind on Category Ones. They don’t tell us how many we’re meant to get, not exactly, and not how much we’re behind, I mean, that follows, but you know when you know. Redens spoke to us today and said that many of us were doing excellently, but that too many of us were bringing in too many Category Twos and not enough Category Ones and Agnya, Agnya I swear that he was looking straight at me when he said it. He-
Agnessa: Seryozha. What is Category One?
Sergei [pause] [almost soberly]: They’re charges. When we arrest someone, we recommend them as either Category One or Category Two to our superiors, who then recommend them as such to the sentencing troika. It can be changed by anyone, but it reflects badly on an officer … if …
Agnessa [leaning forward]: Sergei. Tell me, what’s the difference?
Sergei: It’s meant to be one to six, those are the quotas we were told our office had. That’s what I thought we were supposed to do. But they’re trying to get ahead of the Category Ones. They’re supposed to do better than the quotas say. I didn’t know, I didn’t know!
Agnessa: Seryozha. Category One means execution, doesn’t it?
[There is a long pause. Sergei reaches for the bottle and pours himself another shot.]
Agnessa: Sergei, I said that-
Sergei [full]: You think I didn’t hear! You think I-
[Sergei stands up, slams the shot glass back onto the table and faces away from Agnessa, his hand over his mouth, his body shaking. He has barely calmed down by the time he talks again]
Sergei: Are you pregnant yet?
Agnessa: What?
Sergei: Are you pregnant yet? Has he not asked you that? He’s been screwing you for months now and he’s never stopped to ask you that?
Agnessa: How are you making this about him?
Sergei: Fine, it’s not about him. But you haven’t said no. So you are, aren’t you?
Agnessa: I don’t-
Sergei: Agnessa, are you?
Agnessa: Yes.
Sergei: There! You haven’t told him, have you? But little Seryozha noticed. Because I’m family. Because I care.
Angessa: What do you care?
@@.redy;{@@If the audience recommended finding a husband:@@.redy;}@@
@@.redy;{{@@Sergei: What do I care? Who’s spent your entire life looking out for you? Who lifted you from that shithole of a village orphanage and brought you here? Who took time out of doing the most important job in the whole Union to devote his time to helping you find a good husband?@@.redy;}}@@
@@.bluey;{@@If the audience recommended finding a job:@@.bluey;}@@
@@.bluey;{{@@Sergei: What do I care? Who’s spent your entire life looking out for you? Who lifted you from that shithole of a village orphanage and brought you here? Who took time out of doing the most important job in the whole Union to devote his time to helping you find a suitable job?@@.bluey;}}@@
Agnessa: I didn’t ask you for any of that! If it wasn’t for Nikolai, I’d be happy back in that village.
Sergei: You could have made something of yourself!
Agnessa [subdued]: I am making something of myself!
Sergei [laughing]: Oh yes, that’s true, that’s certainly true!
Agnessa [subdued, rising]: What is it you’re trying to say‽
Sergei: You know exactly what I’m trying to say.
Agnessa [full]: Then say it!
[Nikolai stands up from his desk]
Sergei: I couldn’t hurt little Agnya like that.
Agnessa [shouting]: Say it you coward! Say I’m a whore!
[Nikolai runs through the apartment and throws open the door to the kitchen]
Nikolai [subdued]: What are you saying to her‽
Sergei [pause] [laughing]: Oh, just take her. Blind, ignorant, unseeing Nikolai Borisovich, just take her.
Nikolai: Agnya,-
Sergei [simultaneously]: Oh, oh of course.
Nikolai: are you alright?
Agnessa: Yes. Yes, let’s go.
[Agnessa and Nikolai move through to his room. Sergei takes the bottle of vodka and goes to his room. After it is clear all are gone, Dariya hurriedly gets her icons out and begins to pray.]
Nikolai: What was that about? Did he find out?
Agnessa: No, no he doesn’t know anything.
Nikolai [very relieved]: Good. Oh good. I was terrified.
[Nikolai moves to his desk, unlocks a drawer, and pulls out architectural plans.]
Nikolai: I mean … yes, yes I was terrified. I keep telling myself that I’m calm, that I’m okay with what we’re doing. But … but … [pause. Nikolai lets out a big sigh and smiles with relief] I thought for sure he’d found out about my conversation with Sokolov. [Nikolai, clearly excited, lets the words hang for a moment, but Agnessa doesn’t pick up on them.] Did you hear, Agnya? I talked to Sokolov. The explosives expert that you told me to speak to?
Agnessa: Oh. Yes, wonderful.
Nikolai: Is everything okay?
Agnessa: I … I …
[Lights dim over apartment. Guide enters, walks downstage.]
Guide [full]: And now it is time for the young woman to choose. I must make it clear, at this point, that a special exemption has been made for tonight’s performance: not only will my office //not// record the decisions made here today, either by individuals or by the audience as a collective, even if we did, it would not then be recorded on any individual’s records. This piece of propaganda [gestures towards the front of the audience], or agitation, [gestures towards the back] is designed to showcase the results of a variety of actions. If you wish to see what befalls those who take the //wrong// actions, tonight is your opportunity. So, with that in mind: the question before you is whether Angessa Petrovna should tell her lover, Nikolai Borisovich, that she is pregnant with his child. What is the will of the people? On the motion of Tell or Don’t Tell, I will first hear those in favour of Tell. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Don’t Tell [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].
[[Scene 2|Scene 8Script]]__Scene 2__
@@.maroony;{@@If the audience recommend that Agnessa does tell Nikolai about her pregnancy:@@.maroony;}@@
@@.maroony;{{@@Guide [full]: Very well. Agnessa Petrovna will inform Nikolai Borisovich of her pregnancy.@@.maroony;}}@@
@@.aquay;{@@If the audience recommend that Agnessa not tell Nikolai about her pregnancy:@@.aquay;}@@
@@.aquay;{{@@Guide [full]: Very well. Agnessa Petrovna will continue to conceal her pregnancy from Nikolai Borisovich.@@.aquay;}}@@
[Guide exits]
[Scene 2 continues on directly from scene 1, with Agnessa and Nikolai miming out a continuation of their conversation. Lights up on Dariya as she silent prays. Georgy comes in quietly, first into the kitchen, then into his room. Dariya hears the door of her room open, clumsily attempting to hide her icons and resume her seat as her husband comes in. He sees.]
Georgy: Oh, Daryna. Oh no Daryna.
[He walks over to where she hid the icons and reveals them. The following conversation has the tone of one they have had, at least in spirit, many times before.]
Georgy: Again, my dear? You know how dangerous this is. Especially with an NKVD man next door.
Dariya: I know. That is why I bought them.
Georgy: You bought them //because// it’s dangerous?
Dariya: I bought them because of the NKVD man. We have to keep our souls safe from evil.
[Georgy sits down heavily in his chair.]
Georgy: Why do you have to do this to us, Daryna?
Dariya: Oh Goga, you know. You know why I have to.
Georgy: We’re here now, Daryna. Can you not just be here, now, with me?
Dariya [taking her husband’s hand]: We’ve talked about this, time and time again, my husband. I am here with you. But this is just a moment and I must prepare for what comes after.
Georgy: Will God not understand? Will he not understand the impossibility of your position? I thought he was a forgiving God? If times were better, I would understand, but now, surely he would understand if you had to forgo some prayers, some kissing of his image?
Dariya: Goga. Goga, you know. You know that he has already been kind to me. Kinder to me than I had any right to expect. He tests us all and I am incredibly grateful he has decided to give me such an easy test.
Georgy: But what if it’s not true?
Dariya: You know it must be. If it were not true, then what point would there be in living?
Georgy: Wanting something to be true does not make it true.
Dariya: You know you are right. But if I do not have faith, I have nothing. They might as well come and shoot me.
Georgy: What about me?
Dariya: You are part of my faith, my love. I believe in you as I believe in the Lord.
Georgy [pause]: You used to love me. You used to love me, without needing God.
Dariya: Yes, yes I did. My handsome young officer. Come to free us after a thousand years of slavery.
Georgy: I’m still here, Daryna. I’m still here, I still love you.
Dariya: I know. I know you are still here. You still love. I hate you, just a little bit, for that.
Georgy: That I can love?
Dariya: Yes. I envy you, even as I think you a callous fool. But either way, I forgive. The fires did not scour you as they did me.
Georgy: I have lost people.
Dariya: Goga. My mother. My father. My sisters. Two brothers. Letters from them all. My father wrote little, just that he loved me and he was happy I had escaped. My mother did not hide. She told me of the pain, the weakness, the confusion. Some of my sisters begged, some for food, some just for prayer. Ivan told me to keep away, to stay safe. It was Danylo who told me about what was happening to the people. He started with the village. House by house, as the neighbours died. When they left, they all left together. I still see my home when I dream. The roofs fallen in now, the roads mud, grass growing through the bones of the ones no-one had the strength to bury.
Georgy: Daryna, I know-
Dariya: Most died in the capital. They dictated their last letters to me to each other, until all were too weak to write. Danylo told me of three of the deaths; there was no-one left to tell me of his own. But he told me about the children. A million children, he said. The future of my nation, gone, starved, murdered by yours.
Georgy: Ours, ours, it’s all //ours//, it’s all one-
Dariya: We are not your "Little Russia". We are Ukraine, and you killed us by the millions.
Georgy: We’re one Soviet Union, Daryna. And we’re all brothers and sisters, all Kievan Rus. But it’s not about any of that, it’s about the future, about communism.
Dariya: If it is not about nations, then why did //we// die? Why were the Russians eating while the Ukrainians starved? If we are all one, then why did my family die in the streets of Kharkiv, while yours merely went hungry in Petersburg?
Georgy [pause]: I’m sorry, Dariya. I’m sorry. I don’t’ know. I don’t know. You know I don’t know. I just… [Long pause] I just want it to all mean something.
Dariya: It does. In God. And I will join them in heaven.
Georgy: Amen.
[Both sit in silence a long time.]
Dariya: I have to go and wash. [She stands, moves to the door] You know that I am happy with you? That if my love had not been burnt out of me with the pain, I would love you? More than anyone in the world.
Georgy: I know. And I love you.
Dariya: I know. And I am glad.
[She exits the apartment. Georgy turns towards the icons.]
[Georgy sits, considering the icons and the Guide enters and comes downstage.]
Guide [full]: Georgy Antinovich has burnt his wife’s icons before. Other than that, I do not feel the need to editorialise further, save to remind you that our office is not taking any records of the decisions made this evening. It is all educational. Now: on the motion of Burn or Don’t Burn, I will first hear those in favour of Burn. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Don’t Burn [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].
[[Scene 3|Scene 9Script]]__Scene 3__
@@.orangey;{@@If the audience recommend that Georgy burns the icons:@@.orangey;}@@
@@.orangey;{{@@Guide [full]: Very well. Georgy Antonivich will once again destroy his wife’s holy icons.
[Scene 9 continues on directly from scene 8. Georgy picks up the icons and leaves the apartment with them. Nikolai and Agnessa are sitting on his bed.]@@.orangey;}}@@
@@.darkcyany;{@@If the audience recommend that Georgy does not burn the icons:@@.darkcyany;}@@
@@.darkcyany;{{@@Guide [full]: Very well. Georgy Antonivich will allow his wife to keep her contraband.
[Scene 3 continues on directly from scene 2. Georgy hides the icons again and leaves. Nikolai and Agnessa are sitting on his bed.]@@.darkcyany;}}@@
@@.maroony;{@@If the audience recommend that Agnessa does tell Nikolai about her pregnancy:@@.maroony;}@@
@@.maroony;{{@@Nikolai: This changes everything. You see that, don’t you?
Agnessa: No, no I don’t.
@@.purpley;{@@If the audience recommend that Nikolai tries to impress Agnessa:@@.purpley;}@@
@@.purpley;{{@@Nikolai: If you’re pregnant, then … then you have a new priority. The next generation will be the one to inherit communism, you-
Agnessa: Only if we can set communism back on the right path. If we do nothing, then our child will never see it, regardless of how I raise him.
Nikolai: True, true. But it is not so simple. Because what we’re planning is a risk. A physical risk. If it’s just us taking that risk … that’s one thing. But we’d be risking three, not just two, potential members of the revolution.
Agnessa: I don’t see how it’s any different. I’ve always had a womb, I’ve always had the ability to put something in it. Just because I have manifested that possibility, it does not mean that the possibility was not always there. If you’d wanted me to be breeding stock for the next generation of communist youth, I don’t see why my having begun the process now rather than later has changed your calculations.
Nikolai: I … It’s different. It’s … Agnessa, it’s a matter of principle. It’s undemocratic, to make that decision for your child.
Agnessa [laughing]: ‘Undemocratic’? It’s my body Nikolai. Are you telling me I can’t do with my own body what I need to do? Are //you// going to back out of our action now that you know you could become a parent?
[Nikolai opens his mouth, but says nothing.]
Agnessa: It’s my body, Nikolai. While I am not considering an abortion, although that is another thing which we fight for, the principle is the same. None of us can be free until all of us are free. Lenin led the charge and legalised abortion before any of the ‘liberal’ countries dared. My actions are ideologically pure.
Nikolai [pause]: Yes. Of course. But this isn’t the same, is it? Your … your argument is very clever, but we’re not talking about an abortion.
Agnessa: You’re right, it’s not abortion. Because I’m going to keep it. If I live. Because if I live, then I will have helped create a world in which my baby could grow up to be a man. And if I die, then I will have denied the Stalinist-Bonapartists another slave.
Nikolai: I’m … I’m not [long pause] … I understand.
Agnessa: Good. Now let’s go over the plan again.@@.purpley;}}@@
@@.greeny;{@@If the audience recommend that Nikolai embraces joy:@@.greeny;}@@
@@.greeny;{{@@Nikolai: We’ve got a baby. I’m going to be a father. [He spontaneously places his hand on her stomach. She stiffens and Nikolai removes his hand.] Agnya. Agnya, it’s our child.
Agnessa: So?
Nikolai: So? What do you mean?
Agnessa: How does that fact change anything?
Nikolai: Agnya, I’m going to be a father. You’re going to be a mother. How can that //not// change things?
Agnessa: How does it? I’ve always had the capacity to have a child and this is nothing but an early manifestation of that capacity.
Nikolai: Angya. Please. Please, I know that-
Agnessa [standing up] [very upset]: Nikolai, please! What I feel, what you feel, it doesn’t matter! Not to the revolution, not to history. If, in a hundred years time, some proletariat historian looks back with some future device and sees that we could have emancipated the world, we could have brought down Stalin, but that we didn’t because we were too scared of what might happen to our … our fetus, what are they going to think of us?
Nikolai: Agnya, you’re obsessed! Please, Agnya, you’re just one person, you-
Agnessa: Marx was just one person, Lenin was just one person, Trotsky is just one person. You think any of them would even have hesitated?
Nikolai: You’re not Marx or Lenin or Trotsky, Agnya.
Agnessa: No, //you’re// not.
Nikolai [pause]: It’s my baby too.
Agnessa: Then fine, reach into my womb and take it! You carry it for the next seven months! You sit back as injustice sits gorging itself in the Kremlin. But I’m carrying on.
Nikolai: Agnya, I love you, I-
Agnessa: Do you? Do you really? Or do you love what you want me to be?
Nikolai [pause]: I think you are what I want you to be. You just won’t let yourself be.
Agnessa [pause]: Just get the plans out Nikolai.@@.greeny;}}@@
[Nikolai hesitates, but moves to his desk, unlocks a drawer and pulls out some architectural plans.]
Nikolai: Now that I’ve identified the point to plant them, the plan really is very simple. I am going to see Sokolov tonight to pick up the explosives. Then one of us keeps watch while the other one enters the Palace of the Soviets construction site and plants the explosives. We’ll be halfway home again before they even go off. The whole foundations will be destroyed.
Agnessa: And have you established where I should stand? To lookout?
Nikolai: I have. But I could do it by myself.
Agnessa: Don’t be ridiculous. That would be much riskier.
Nikolai: But it would only be risking one of us. Not … two.
Agnessa: It’s not about us. It’s about the mission. We both do it, Nikolai. Please. Please just agree. I’m so tired.
Nikolai: Yes. Yes, Agnya. You should stand here [he indicates a point on the sketch.]
Agnessa: Good. Good. Are you ready for your meeting with Sokolov?
Nikolai: Yes, I believe so.
Agnessa: Then you should go. Best to be early, to make sure the meeting point is secure. I will go too, to scout from a different side.
Nikolai [pause]: Okay. Good. Now?
Agnessa: We will arouse less suspicion if we go at different times. I’ll go first. You wait a minute before you leave.
Nikolai: Oh.
@@.purpley;{@@If the audience recommend that Nikolai tries to impress Agnessa:@@.purpley;}@@
@@.purpley;{{@@[Agnessa stands up and, without looking back, leaves. Nikolai puts his head in his hands and breathes shakily for some time. Then he stands and slaps himself across the face.]
Nikolai: You can do this Nikolai Borisovich. For her and for the future.
[He paces back and forth a couple of times, pumping himself up and then leaves.]@@.purpley;}}@@
@@.greeny;{@@If the audience recommend that Nikolai embraces joy:@@.greeny;}@@
@@.greeny;{{@@[Agnessa stands up and, without looking back, leaves. Nikolai puts his head in his hands and breathes shakily for some time. He stands, but only stumbles over to his desk, which he leans on, his head bowed.]
Nikolai: For her. For love.
[He lets out a quiet wail, then hurriedly leaves.]@@.greeny;}}@@@@.maroony;}}@@
@@.aquay;{@@If the audience recommend that Agnessa not tell Nikolai about her pregnancy:@@.aquay;}@@
@@.aquay;{{@@Nikolai: So you are sure you are okay?
Agnessa: Yes. Yes, we’ve always fought. Let’s move on.
@@.purpley;{@@If the audience recommend that Nikolai tries to impress Agnessa:@@.purpley;}@@
@@.purpley;{{@@[Nikolai hesitates, then sits up straighter.]
Nikolai: Of course. You said that you wanted to reconsider our plan?
Agnessa: Yes, yes I did. I was wondering whether we should aim to sabotage something related to the military industrial complex. But I’ve decided against it.
Nikolai: The military industrial complex? Wouldn’t … wouldn’t that be incredibly risky? Given the situation in Germany?
Agnessa: It was the last war which brought about the rise of socialism in one of the former imperialist bastions. A long, difficult war was what finally opened the eyes of the Soviet people to the injustices of their situation. Another war could do the same, spread the desire for freedom. Both here and abroad. War Communism was Trotsky’s ideal, after all. It was peace that brought the NEP and Stalin.
Nikolai: What if we lose?
Agnessa: We won’t lose. Stalin might lose, but the spirit of the Soviet people will not die so easily. But the point is moot. I think a symbolic strike is what is needed. And the Palace of the Soviets is the ultimate symbol.
Nikolai: I don’t … Yes, yes. It is a much wiser proposition than a military target. It is working much more within our means.
Agnessa: It isn’t about that Nikolai. Do you think Lenin would have changed the world if he had decided to ‘work just within his means’?
Nikolai [cheeky]: Maybe you’re just underestimating Lenin’s means.
Agnessa: Nikolai. I’m tired. Can we please just focus on the plan.
[Nikolai moves to his desk, unlocks a drawer and pulls out some architectural plans.]@@.purpley;}}@@
@@.greeny;{@@If the audience recommend that Nikolai embraces joy:@@.greeny;}@@
@@.greeny;{{@@Nikolai: I don’t like it.
Agnessa: What?
Nikolai: That he treats you like that. That he’s always treated you like that.
Agnessa: He hasn’t always treated me like that. We’ve always fought, but it hasn’t always been like that. It’s just that he cares about me. That’s how he shows it. Now.
Nikolai: That’s how he shows love? It’s brutish! That’s not love!
Agnessa: He’s damaged. He’s a victim. He’s always been a fighter. You would have liked him when he was a boy. Little Seryozha. So full of fire. It was the NKVD that broke him. He’s just another one of their victims.
Nikolai: Agnya, he’s a part of the NKVD. If he were anyone else…
Agnessa: He’s not anyone else. He didn’t have a choice. He needed that job.
Nikolai: I thought we all had a choice, Agnya?
Agnessa: Just drop it Nikolai.
Nikolai: He’s not good for you, Agnya. You have enough to deal with in your own life without defending his.
Agnessa: I can cope perfectly fine, thank you!
Nikolai: Please, Agnya, I’m just trying to look out for you. He’s clearly not doing it, you-
Agnessa: Did I ask you to?
Nikolai: No, but everyone-
Agnessa: Then stop. Please. [Pause] Can we just look at the plan?
Nikolai: Okay. If that’s what you want.
Agnessa [Quickly]: It is.
[Nikolai hesitates, swallows, then moves to his desk, unlocks a drawer and pulls out some architectural plans.]@@.greeny;}}@@
Nikolai: Now that I’ve identified the point to plant them, the plan really is very simple. I am going to see Sokolov tonight to pick up the explosives. Then one of us keeps watch while the other one enters the Palace of the Soviets construction site and plants the explosives. We’ll be halfway home again before they even go off. The whole foundations will be destroyed.
Agnessa: And have you established where I should stand? To lookout?
Nikolai: I have. But surveying the site again today, I am relatively confident that a lookout isn’t essential. Especially given that the only points where a lookout would have full visibility would also be points where she was easily seen herself.
Agnessa: I’m doing it, Nikolai. If it improves the odds of the mission’s success, then I’m doing it.
Nikolai: Of course.
Agnessa: Good. Good. Are you ready for your meeting with Sokolov?
Nikolai: Yes, I believe so.
Agnessa: Then you should go. Best to be early, to make sure the meeting point is secure. I will go too, to scout from a different side.
Nikolai [pause]: Okay. Good. Now?
Agnessa: We will arouse less suspicion if we go at different times. I’ll go first, wait a minute before you leave.
Nikolai: Oh.
@@.purpley;{@@If the audience recommend that Nikolai tries to impress Agnessa:@@.purpley;}@@
@@.purpley;{{@@[Agnessa stands and walks towards the door, but stops and turns when she reaches it.]
Agnessa: I love you, Nikolai Borisovich.
Nikolai: I love you too, Agnya.
[Agnessa exits.]@@.purpley;}}@@
@@.greeny;{@@If the audience recommend that Nikolai embraces joy:@@.greeny;}@@
@@.greeny;{{@@[Agnessa stands up and, without looking back, leaves.@@.greeny;}}@@
[Nikolai sits on the bed for a minute, staring into space. Then he too stands and leaves, looking distracted.]@@.aquay;}}@@
[As soon as the door closes behind Nikolai (as if he had been listening and waiting), Sergei comes out of his room, holding his bottle of vodka. He moves to Dariya and Georgy’s door, listens, then opens it. Seeing no-one there, he strides with confidence across and enters Nikolai’s room. He looks around slowly, sneering and muttering incoherently to himself. He briefly looks over the things on the desk, then moves to the plans that a distracted Nikolai left on the bed. He picks them up and examines them, his eyes going wide.]
Sergei: Agnya. Agnya, what the fuck have you done.
[The lights dim. The Guide enters, comes downstage.]
Guide [full]: I am sure I do not have to tell you the dilemma facing my colleague, Sergei Petrovich. Even if he were not a member of the NKVD, it would be an absolute imperative for him to report his sister and her lover. That she would be removed from his life and that he would become a relative of an enemy of the people //should// be irrelevant in his decision making. But, comrades, will he? What is the will of the people? On the motion of Report or Don’t report, I will first hear those in favour of Report. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Don’t Report [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].
[[Scene 4|Scene 10Script]]__Scene 4__
@@.redy;{@@If the audience recommended reporting Nikolai and Agnessa:@@.redy;}@@
@@.redy;{{@@Guide [full]: Very well. Sergei Petrovich will surrender his sister and her lover to the will of the state, as is his duty.@@.redy;}}@@
@@.bluey;{@@If the audience recommended against reporting Nikolai and Agnessa:@@.bluey;}@@
@@.bluey;{{@@Guide [full]: Very well. Sergei Petrovich will break with the NKVD, the USSR, and all sense of morality and refuse to report the crimes of his sister. And her lover.@@.bluey;}}@@
[Guide exits.]
@@.bluey;{@@If the audience recommended against reporting Nikolai and Agnessa:@@.bluey;}@@
@@.bluey;{{@@Sergei throws the papers back on the bed, takes a few drunken steps back and looks down at the floor. He shakes his head, takes a long swig from the bottle, and runs back to his own room.]@@.bluey;}}@@
@@.redy;{@@If the audience recommended reporting Nikolai and Agnessa:@@.redy;}@@
@@.redy;{{@@[Sergei stands shaking for a moment, before letting out a low moan.]
Sergei: Fuck.
[Sergei hits himself on the head with his bottle, shakes himself out, and looks back at the plans. His lips move as he talks to himself, memorising every detail. Then he places the plans back on the bed, straightens himself and his uniform, and marches out of the apartment.]@@.redy;}}@@
@@.orangey;{@@If the audience recommend that Georgy burns the icons:@@.orangey;}@@
@@.orangey;{{@@Guide[The lights dim, holding on nothing for at least ten seconds. They rise again across the apartment as Dariya comes home. She goes straight through the kitchen and to her icons. When she sees that they are not there, she simply sits in her chair and stares into the distance.]@@.orangey;}}@@
@@.darkcyany;{@@If the audience recommend that Georgy does not burn the icons:@@.darkcyany;}@@
@@.darkcyany;{{@@[The lights dim, holding on nothing for at least ten seconds. They rise again across the apartment as Dariya comes home. She goes straight through the kitchen and to her icons. Seeing that they are still there, she says a small prayer, kisses each quickly, hides them and sits smiling on her chair.]@@.darkcyany;}}@@
[Agnessa enters next. She collapses into a chair at the table and rests her head on her arms, but only for a moment before she forces herself back up and walks, exhausted, through to Nikolai’s room, where she gets into his bed, fully clothed. Nikolai himself arrives next, knocking on Dariya’s door and then going through to his own room. He is carrying a large sack.]
Nikolai [entering his room and placing the sack down]: It went well. [He looks at Agnessa] Are you okay?
Agnessa: I’m just very tired. It’s been a long day.
Nikolai: What happened?
{If the audience recommended that Nikolai attempt to impress Angessa, and the audience recommended that Agnessa not tell Nikolai that she is pregnant:}
{{Agnessa: The argument with Sergei, and all the planning. And the excitement. It’s just a lot. Can we do it tomorrow night? I know it’s safer to do it as soon as possible, but I … can we please do it tomorrow instead?}}
{Otherwise:}
{{Agnessa: [laughs] You. The argument, and the argument with Sergei, and all the planning and excitement. It’s just a lot. Can we do it tomorrow night? I know it’s safer to do it as soon as possible, but I … can we please do it tomorrow instead?}}
Nikolai: Of course. Of course. You rest now. I’ll do a little bit more planning. I’m too … excited to sleep just yet anyway.
Agnessa: Thank you.
[She reaches out to him, pulling him closer. He kisses her on the cheek and, smiling, she turns away to fall asleep facing the wall. Nikolai collapses back on his chair and lets out a silent sigh. Then he reaches down and begins rummaging around in his sack.]
@@.orangey;{@@If the audience recommend that Georgy burns the icons:@@.orangey;}@@
@@.orangey;{{@@[Georgy comes home. He does not look at Dariya and she does not look at him as he enters their room and sits down.]@@.orangey;}}@@
@@.darkcyany;{@@If the audience recommend that Georgy does not burn the icons:@@.darkcyany;}@@
@@.darkcyany;{{@@[Georgy comes home. Dariya smiles at him as he comes in, but he just shrugs back.]@@.darkcyany;}}@@
[Nikolai is clearly anxious. He keeps switching between checking in the sack, examining the plan documents (making little marks on it with a pencil) and guiltily looking at Agnessa. Eventually he stands up, walks towards her, and leans close to listen to her breathing. She is asleep. He begins to quietly pace. The Guide enters, comes downstage.]
Guide [full]: Another dilemma. The two lovers plan to plant explosives amongst the foundations of the glorious Palace of the Soviets. If found trespassing with explosives, they could be shot on sight. Or simply arrested. It is as dangerous as it is malicious and foolish. Which is why our Nikolai Borisovich is thinking of going by himself. It will be more risky, but it will only be risky for him. They, or he, will go forward with the sabotage either way. //That// is not under debate. What is under debate is whether he goes now, alone, or if he waits for tomorrow to go with his lover. What is the will of the people? On the motion of Go Alone or Wait, I will first hear those in favour of Go Alone. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Wait [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].
[[Scene 5|Scene 11Script]]__Scene 5__
{If the audience recommends that Nikolai goes alone:}
{{Guide [full]: Very well. Nikolai Borisovich will commit an act of sabotage tonight and he will do it alone.}}
{If the audience recommends that Nikolai waits for the next day before going together:}
{{Guide [full]: Very well. Nikolai Borisovich will wait, so he may commit an act of sabotage tomorrow night with his lover.}}
[The Guide exits.]
@@.bluey;{@@If the audience recommended against reporting Nikolai and Agnessa and the audience recommends that Nikolai go alone:@@.bluey;}@@
@@.bluey;{{@@Nikolai picks up the sack and the plans and, with a guilty look over his shoulder, leaves the apartment. Lights dim for at least 5 seconds, then come back suddenly as Nikolai bursts through the front door, without the sack or plans. He’s exhilarated. He bursts straight through Georgy and Dariya’s room, waking them up, and goes through to his own room, waking Agnessa up.]
Nikolai: It’s done! Agnya, we did it!
Agnessa [disorientated]: What?
@@.maroony;{@@If the audience recommend that Agnessa does tell Nikolai about her pregnancy:@@.maroony;}@@
@@.maroony;{{@@Nikolai: I did it. I did it myself. I couldn’t risk you or the baby. I know you’ll be angry, but think about it, it doesn’t matter, because it worked.@@.maroony;}}@@
@@.aquay;{@@If the audience recommend that Agnessa not tell Nikolai about her pregnancy:@@.aquay;}@@
@@.aquay;{{@@Nikolai: I did it. I did it myself. I couldn’t risk you. I know you’ll be angry, but think about it, it doesn’t matter, because it worked.@@.aquay;}}@@
Agnessa [disorientated]: But … but…
Nikolai: I did it! Four years of work, they’ll have to restart all of it! They’ll have to do the surveys again, they’ll have to do the waterproofing again, they’ll have to do it //all// again! I saw it blow, I couldn’t resist, I hid and I watched it. Agnessa, it was fantastic. I know that thing like the back of my hand, hell, I designed half of it, and I watched it all collapse.
Agnessa: You, you did it? It’s done?
Nikolai: My dear, it’s done!
Agnessa: It’s done!
[She lunges forward and the two embrace and kiss.]
Agnessa: You did it! We did it! It’s done! The revolution has begun!
[She climbs out of bed and begins dancing around the room. Smiling and laughing, Nikolai joins her.]
Nikolai: Agnessa, I love you!
Agnessa: I love you too Nikolai!
Nikolai: I want to marry you!
Agnessa: Of course you do! [She stops dancing and takes his hands, her face coming very close to his.] We’ve started a new revolution tonight Nikolai. We’re Lenin [unconsciously gestures towards herself] and Krupskaya [unconsciously gestures towards Nikolai], a Trotskyist Krupskaya, we’re the future of the-
[Her speech is interrupted by a knock on the front door – the loudest sound in the play. Everyone freezes.]
Agnessa: No. [She slumps, falling to the ground, Nikolai failing to catch her.]
Nikolai: It’s nothing. Surely. It’s nothing.
Agnessa: Do you have a gun? Do you?
Nikolai: No. No, we said no guns.
Agnessa: I need a gun. I need to die in this moment. Before it all comes falling down. I need to die happy.
Nikolai: How can you say that! Agnya, look at me. Agnya, please, look at me!
[While this is going on, Georgy, wearing pyjamas, goes to the front door and opens it. The Guide enters the kitchen.]
Guide [subdued]: This is the residence of Nikolai Borisovich Morozov. You are not he.
[As he talks, the Guide pushes his way into the apartment and begins opening cupboards, more or less randomly. He does not stay in the kitchen long before moving on to Dariya and Georgy’s room. He and Georgy makes his introductions silently while Nikolai and Agnessa talk.]
Agnessa: I can hear him moving about. I can hear him searching. They’re here for us, Nikolai. They’re going to arrest us. It’s over Nikolai, our lives are over, the revolution is over.
Nikolai: No. No. Just for me. It’s only over for me. I was the only one there. They can’t arrest you, you had nothing to do with it. All the notes were mine, all of the material, all of the contact, the actual action. It’s all me. You’re safe Agnya, you’re safe.
Agnessa: They’ll torture you! They’ll make you denounce me!
[Sergei has appeared from his room, still wearing his uniform. He and the Guide shake hands, talk in mime.]
Nikolai: I’d never denounce you. I love you. No matter what they do to me, no matter what they threaten me with, I’ll-
[Agnessa picks up a heavy ornament form Nikolai’s desk and swings it hard into his crotch. He screams and falls to the floor. The others in the apartment all turn towards the sound.]
Guide [full]: Is there a window in that room a person could exit through?
Sergei: No.
[The Guide shrugs and resumes searching Georgy and Dariya’s room. Nikolai is writhing on the floor, trying, and failing, to catch his breath.]
Agnessa: Could you take that? Could you take that, again and again and again and again, in a dark room, with no sun, no sleep, no hope, every night? Could you Nikolai? [Genuinely] Could you?
[Nikolai has curled into a ball.]
@@.darkcyany;{@@If the audience recommend that Georgy does not burn the icons:@@.darkcyany;}@@
@@.darkcyany;{{@@[Meanwhile, the Guide has found Dariya’s icons. He turns to the couple.]
Guide [full]: I have colleagues waiting downstairs. If you try to leave, they will pick you up. So just wait here.
Georgy: Are we…?
Guide [full]: Yes. For conducting communal religious rites outside of state sanctified premises.
[Dariya stays standing while Georgy lowers himself into a chair. They go back to miming.]@@.darkcyany;}}@@
Nikolai [croaking, shakily, barely audible]: I love you, Agnya.
[Agnessa shakes her head, lets the ornament fall to the floor and sinks to her knees. A moment later, the Guide pushes into the room. He takes a moment to survey the space, then points at Nikolai.]
Guide [full]: Nikolai Borisovich Morozov. You are under arrest for state sabotage. [Nikolai raises a hand, and begins the process of getting to his feet. The Guide turns to Agnessa.] And you are Agnessa Petrovna, my colleague’s sister?
Agnessa: Yes.
Guide [full]: Good. My arrest warrant today is just for Nikolai Borisovich. But Agnessa Petrovna: don’t leave Moscow. [Nikolai is standing now. He opens his mouth, looks at Agnessa, then quickly away.]
Nikolai: What are the charges?
Guide [full]: State sabotage. Specifically: wrecking, at the Palace of the Soviets construction site. [Nikolai opens his mouth, but the Guide holds up a hand to silence him.] A comrade living near the site saw you enter and reported it. We sent an agent down but you were in and out too quickly. But contacting informants along your possible routes out wasn’t difficult. I already have a signed statement from one of your neighbours attesting to the fact that you left here carrying a suspicious package, heading towards Red Square, and that you returned without it.
Nikolai: I … I…
Guide [full]: Do you have a bag packed, Nikolai Borisovich?
Nikolai: No.
Guide [full]: Then you will come as you are. My colleagues will conduct the search once you are in custody. [He gestures for Nikolai to walk past him, towards the front door, which Nikolai does. No-one says anything. Agnessa stares at the floor, her knuckles white. As Nikolai approaches the door, the Guide turns to the audience.] Comrades, you see justice done. True, Agnessa Petrovna remains free, but I do not doubt for a moment that Nikolai’s testimony will give us ample reason for arrest soon. And she may give us the brother, but that is a different matter. But now what? Do you remember Sergei Petrovich talking about the distinction between Category One and Category Two? Category Two is imprisonment, in this case likely twenty five years in a labour camp. Category One is liquidation. I must make my recommendation, which will be heard by the sentencing troika. Redens, my superior, has set us personal quotas for Category One recommendations. I will fill mine, but I am yet to do so. But I //will// fill it, be it tonight or later in the month. Still, I have been instructed that even this question must be put to you. So. What is the will of the people? On the motion of Category One or Category Two sentencing for Nikolai Borisovich, I will first hear those in favour of Category One. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Category Two [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].@@.bluey;}}@@
@@.goldy;{@@If the audience recommended against reporting Nikolai and Agnessa and the audience recommends that Nikolai waits for Agnessa to go tomorrow:@@.goldy;}@@
@@.goldy;{{@@[Nikolai shrugs and gets into bed with Agnessa. The lights fade slowly, come back slowly. When they come back, Dariya and Georgy are asleep and Agnessa and Nikolai are standing in the centre of his room.]
Nikolai: We have everything?
Agnessa: Yes. Yes, we’re ready.
@@.purpley;{@@If the audience recommend that Nikolai tries to impress Agnessa:@@.purpley;}@@
@@.purpley;{{@@Nikolai: You are sure this is the best plan?@@.purpley;}}@@
@@.greeny;{@@If the audience recommend that Nikolai tries to impress Agnessa:@@.greeny;}@@
@@.greeny;{{@@Nikolai: Are you sure? This is our last chance if-@@.greeny;}}@@
Agnessa: I am sure.
Nikolai: Okay. Okay then. Let’s go.
[They exit. Lights dim for at least 5 seconds, then come back suddenly as both burst back through the front door. They move quickly towards Georgy and Dariya’s door, but Agnessa holds her hand out to stop Nikolai. They both straighten, breathe deeply, then open the door and creep through to Nikolai’s room as quietly as they can. It is only after they have closed the door to Nikolai’s room that Georgy sits up in bed. Upon reaching Nikolai’s room, both hold, looking at each other.]
Nikolai [breathless]: We did it.
Agnessa [in awe]: We did it. Did you see? Did you see the smoke?
Nikolai: We did it. Four years of work, they’ll have to restart all of it. They’ll have to do the surveys again, they’ll have to the waterproofing again, they’ll have to do it all again. We saw it blow. Agnessa, it was fantastic. I know that thing like the back of my hand, hell, I designed half of it, and I watched it all collapse.
Agnessa: It’s done.
Nikolai: My dear, it’s done!
Agnessa: It’s done!
[She lunges forward and the two embrace and kiss.]
Agnessa: I did it! We did it! It’s done! The revolution has begun!
[She begins dancing around the room. Smiling and laughing, Nikolai joins her.]
Nikolai: Agnessa, I love you!
Agnessa: I love you too Nikolai!
Nikolai: I want to marry you!
Agnessa: Of course you do! [She stops dancing and takes his hands, her face coming very close to his.] We’ve started a new revolution tonight Nikolai. We’re Lenin [unconsciously gestures towards herself] and Krupskaya [unconsciously gestures towards Nikolai], a Trotskyist Krupskaya, we’re the future of the-
[Her speech is interrupted by a knock on the front door – the loudest sound in the play. Everyone freezes.]
Agnessa: No. [She slumps, falling to the ground, Nikolai failing to catch her.]
Nikolai: It’s nothing. Surely. It’s nothing.
Agnessa: Do you have a gun? Do you?
Nikolai: No. No, we said no guns.
Agnessa: I need a gun. I need to die in this moment. Before it all comes falling down. I need to die happy.
Nikolai: How can you say that! Agnya, look at me. Agnya, please, look at me!
[While this is going on, Georgy, wearing pyjamas, goes to the front door and opens it. The Guide enters the kitchen.]
Guide [subdued]: This is the residence of Nikolai Borisovich Morozov and Agnessa Petrovna Miagkova. You are not Nikolai Borisovich.
[As he talks, the Guide pushes his way into the apartment and begins opening cupboards, more or less randomly. He does not stay in the kitchen long before moving on to Dariya and Georgy’s room. He and Georgy continue their conversation silently while Nikolai and Agnessa talk.]
Agnessa: I can hear him moving about. I can hear him searching. They’re here for us, Nikolai. They’re going to arrest us. It’s over Nikolai, our lives are over, the revolution is over.
[Nikolai stands, his jaw working open and closed, but no words come out. Agnessa does not seem to notice. She has pulled her copy of //Das Kapital// out from under the bed and is furiously flicking through it. Sergei has appeared from his room, still wearing his uniform. He and the Guide shake hands, talk in mime.]
Agnessa: I must remember all that I can. My notes, I have to remember everything I’ve thought, everything I’ve said. If I go to a camp and if I survive the camp, I can come back, I can resume, but only if I remember everything, only if I embody it … Oh God how I wish I could die! … It cannot all be over, it cannot!
@@.darkcyany;{@@If the audience recommend that Georgy does not burn the icons:@@.darkcyany;}@@
@@.darkcyany;{{@@[Meanwhile, the Guide has found Dariya’s icons. He turns to the couple.]
Guide [full]: I have colleagues waiting downstairs. If you try to leave, they will pick you up. So just wait here.
Georgy: Are we…?
Guide [full]: Yes. For conducting communal religious rites outside of state sanctified premises.
[Dariya stays standing while Georgy lowers himself into a chair. The Guide pushes into Nikolai’s room.]@@.darkcyany;}}@@
@@.orangey;{@@If the audience recommend that Georgy does not burn the icons:@@.orangey;}@@
@@.orangey;{{@@[The Guide finishes searching Georgy and Dariya’s room and pushes himself into Nikolai’s.]@@.orangey;}}@@
Guide [full]: Nikolai Borisovich Morozov. Agnessa Petrovna Miagkova. You are both under arrest for state sabotage. S-
Agnessa [interrupting]: What proof do you have? What sabotage?
Guide [full]: Agnessa Petrovna, this will all be much easier for you if you cooperate. A comrade living near the Palace of the Soviets construction site saw you enter and reported it. We sent an agent down but you were in and out too quickly. But contacting informants along your possible routes out wasn’t difficult. I already have a signed statement from one of your neighbours attesting to the fact that you left here carrying a suspicious package, heading towards Red Square, and that you returned without it. Now, [turning around to face Sergei] Sergei Petrovich Miagkov, you are under arrest for lack of vigilance and conspiring with an enemy of the people.
Agnessa: No!-
Nikolai: My dear-
Agnessa: He didn’t know! I promise you he didn’t know!
[Nikolai takes a step forward to embrace Agnessa, but in her rage and despair she breaks away from him and collapses to the floor.]
Sergei: I’m under arrest?
Guide [full]: Yes.
Sergei: Oh.
Agnessa [shouting]: You can’t do this! We’re doing this //for// you! We’re doing this //for// the people! [She stands up and charges the Guide. He easily pushes her away, sending her tumbling back to the floor. While this is happening Sergei slips away, going to, and then through, his own bedroom door] Please, you have to-
Nikolai [bending down, again attempting to embrace her]: Please, Agnya, my love. It’s too late, all we can hope for now is-
Agnessa [shouting]: No! No! I won’t go easily! They all go easily! I refuse! I refuse! I am a Soviet citizen, I will have the freedom we were promised, I will-
Nikolai: Agnya! Please! Please, I don’t want the last time I see you to be-
Agnessa: You don’t want to see me fighting? You just want to-
[There is a gunshot. The Guide is the first one to move. He walks quickly back through the apartment, pulls open Sergei’s door, looks inside, and then comes back out again.]
Guide [full]: Nikolai Borisovich, Agnessa Petrovna. You are under arrest. Come now.
[Agnessa, quiet now, stands up from the floor, leans up, kisses Nikolai, and then walks towards the door. Nikolai hesitates, and then follows.]
Nikolai: Agnya, Agnessa, I love you.
[Agnessa exits. Nikolai follows. The Guide turns to the audience.]
Guide [full]: Comrades, you see justice done. Messy justice, but justice. But now what? Do you remember the late Sergei Petrovich talking about the distinction between Category One and Category Two? Category Two is imprisonment, in this case likely twenty five years in a labour camp. Category One is liquidation. I must make my recommendation, which will be heard by the sentencing troika. Redens, my superior, has set us personal quotas for Category One recommendations. I will fill mine, but I am yet to do so. But I //will// fill it, be it tonight or later in the month. Still, I have been instructed that even this question must be put to you. So. What is the will of the people? On the motion of Category One or Category Two sentencing for Nikolai Borisovich and Agnessa Petrovna, I will first hear those in favour of Category One. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Category Two [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].@@.goldy;}}@@
@@.redy;{@@If the audience recommended reporting Nikolai and Agnessa and recommended that Nikolai go alone:@@.redy;}@@
@@.redy;{{@@[Nikolai picks up the sack and the plans and, with a guilty look over his shoulder, makes to leave the apartment, but is stopped when he reaches the kitchen at the same time as Sergei is coming through the front door.]
Nikolai: Oh, Sergei Petrovich. I was just g-going for a walk.
Sergei: What’s in the sack, Nikolai?
Nikolai: I – Some sketching supplies, Sergei //Petrovich//. I draw.
Sergei: Funny. My sister never mentioned that you did. Or is it for work?
Nikolai: No, no. I just … well, it is buildings. I just … it’s more artistic. Sometimes I like drawing at night.
Sergei: I suppose that makes sense. Funny, that you’d decide to carry your supplies in a sack. Do you not own a bag, Nikolai?
Nikolai: Sorry, Sergei Petrovich. What’s this all-
[The sound of a door closing somewhere else in the apartment building can be heard. Nikolai stops talking and as he does Sergei lets go of his own front door and, his face twisted with rage and despair, punches Nikolai in the stomach.]
Sergei: You’ve killed her. You fucking prick. You saboteur, you murderer. All you had to do was say no. She’s sick, she’s clearly sick, but you just couldn’t help yourself and now you’ve got her killed you fucking-[incoherent with rage]
[Nikolai straightens, shakily, but the moment that he does Sergei swings at his head, laying Nikolai out on the floor. Sergei pulls his leg back to kick, but a voice from just off stage stops him.]
Guide [full]: Sergei Petrovich?
[Sergei turns as the Guide enters the apartment. Sergei straightens his uniform and points down to where Nikolai is struggling onto all fours, not (and never) making eye contact with the Guide.]
Sergei: That’s him. That’s Nikolai Morozov.
Guide [full]: And Agnessa Petrovna?
Sergei: I’ll get her.
[He moves to the entrance to his bedroom, looks in, then slams the door closed. He then moves through Georgy and Dariya’s room to Nikolai’s, where he finds Agnessa still asleep. While the Guide starts to search the apartment (opening kitchen cupboards and drawers and then, leaving Nikolai lying on his back on the floor, he begins to search Georgy and Dariya’s room, they are up and mime introducing themselves), Sergei slowly climbs onto the bed, silently embracing Agnessa. He tenses as she mumbles something, but when she speaks he relaxes again.]
Agnessa: Seryozha.
Sergei: Agnya.
Georgy: What’s all this about?
Guide [full]: Nikolai Borisovich Morozov and Agnessa Petrovna Miagkova are under arrest for conspiracy to commit state sabotage. I am just conducting a preliminary search.
@@.darkcyany;{@@If the audience recommend that Georgy does not burn the icons:@@.darkcyany;}@@
@@.darkcyany;{{@@[He searches for a few more seconds, before finding the icons. He turns to the couple.]
Guide [full]: I have colleagues waiting downstairs. If you try to leave, they will pick you up. So just wait here.
Georgy: Are we…?
Guide [full]: Yes. For conducting communal religious rites outside of state sanctified premises.
[Dariya stays standing while Georgy lowers himself into a chair. The Guide pushes his way into Nikolai’s room. The moment the door opens Sergei shoots off the bed, dragging his sister with him.]@@.darkcyany;}}@@
@@.orangey;{@@If the audience recommend that Georgy does not burn the icons:@@.orangey;}@@
@@.orangey;{{@@[The Guide continues to search for several more seconds, while Sergei continues to lie and Nikolai slowly pulls himself onto a kitchen chair, then he pushes his way into Nikolai’s room. The moment the door opens Sergei shoots off the bed, dragging his sister with him.]@@.orangey;}}@@
Sergei [avoiding looking at either of them]: This is Agnessa Petrovna.
Guide [full]: Good. Agnessa Petrovna, come with me.
Agnessa [disorientated]: Who are you? What’s going on. Seryozha, what’s going on? Why are you-
Guide [full]: Agnessa Petrovna Miagkova, you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit state sabotage.
Agnessa: What? Sorry, what’s happening?
[The Guide takes a couple of steps forward and grabs Agnessa by the arm, pulling her back through Dariya and Georgy’s room and into the kitchen, where he lets her go. Nikolai stands up shakily and embraces her the moment she appears.]
Agnessa: Nikolai? Nikolai, what’s happening?
Nikolai: We’re under arrest. I think your brother-
Agnessa: Sergei-?
Nikolai: Yes.
[There is a pause and the Guide steps forward.]
Guide [full]: You are both under arrest for conspiring to sabotage the construction of the Palace of the Soviets. If you would both move downstairs, my colleagues will process you.
Agnessa: You’re arresting us?
Guide [full]: Yes.
Agnessa: You don’t understand. We’re doing this //for// you. We’re doing this //for// the people. Please, you have to-
Nikolai [holding her back]: Please, Agnya, my love. It’s too late, all we can hope for now is-
Agnessa [shouting]: No! No! I won’t go easily! They all go easily! I refuse! I refuse! I am a Soviet citizen, I will have the freedom we were promised, I will-
[Sergei starts moving through to the kitchen.]
Nikolai: Agnya! Please! Please, I don’t want the last time I see you to be-
Agnessa: You don’t want to see me fighting? You just want to-
Sergei: Agnya. Please.
[Agnessa stares at Sergei. He does not look back. They hold for a moment, then Agnessa relaxes, which prompts Nikolai to relax his own grip. She turns, leans up, kisses Nikolai, and then walks towards the door. Nikolai hesitates, and then follows.]
Guide [to Sergei]: It is best you do not follow.
Sergei: Yes. Yes it is. [He goes to his own room]
Nikolai: Agnya, Agnessa, I love you.
[Agnessa exits. Nikolai follows. The Guide turns to the audience.]
Guide [full]: Comrades, you see justice done. Clean justice. But now what? Do you remember my colleague Sergei Petrovich talking about the distinction between Category One and Category Two? Category Two is imprisonment, in this case likely twenty five years in a labour camp. Category One is liquidation. I must make my recommendation, which will be heard by the sentencing troika. Redens, my superior, has set us personal quotas for Category One recommendations. I will fill mine, but I am yet to do so. But I //will// fill it, be it tonight or later in the month. Still, I have been instructed that even this question must be put to you. So. What is the will of the people? On the motion of Category One or Category Two sentencing for Nikolai Borisovich and Agnessa Petrovna, I will first hear those in favour of Category One. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Category Two [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].@@.redy;}}@@
@@.pinky;{@@If the audience recommended reporting Nikolai and Agnessa and recommended that Nikolai go alone:@@.pinky;}@@
@@.pinky;{{@@[Nikolai shrugs and gets into bed with Agnessa. The lights fade slowly and come back abruptly as Sergei comes through the front door. He moves quickly to the door of his room, looks in, then slams the door closed. He charges through Georgy and Dariya’s room and into Nikolai’s, where he drags Nikolai out of bed, so they are standing face to face.]
Nikolai [disorientated]: Sergei? What-
[Sergei punches Nikolai hard in the stomach; he doubles over in pain.]
Agnessa [rising out of bed] [full]: Sergei! What are you doing!
Sergei [to Nikolai]: Stand up! Stand up and look me in the eye!
Agnessa [sudued]: Sergei, stop!
[Sergei pulls Nikolai up straight, holding him by the shoulders.]
Sergei: You’ve killed her. You fucking prick. You saboteur, you murderer. All you had to do was say no. She’s sick, she’s clearly sick, but you just couldn’t help yourself and now you’ve got her killed you fucking-
Agnessa: Sergei! Sergei, look at me!
[Sergei punches Nikolai, who falls to the floor.]
Sergei: There Agnya, I’m looking!
Agnessa: What did you do!
Sergei: What I should have done a long time ago. He-
Agnessa: Sergei! Sergei, stop! Why do you hate him?
Sergei: Why do I hate him? Why do I hate him‽ Do you know what he’s done? What he’s let you do?
Agnessa: What do you mean, ‘let me do’?
Sergei: Agnya. Agnya, please. I tried. I’ve failed y- [he stops himself].
Agnessa: You failed me? You’ve never failed me. You’re everything I hate, but you’ve never failed me.
Sergei [shaking his head]: I stopped watching. I thought it would be better here. I thought … I thought you’d grow up here, I thought-
Agnessa: Grow up? I’m not a child Sergei.
Sergei: Yes, yes you are. If you weren’t a stupid, naive, headstrong, idiot little child, none of this would have happened-
Agnessa: Oh Sergei, //you// grow up! What, just because I’m not married to him? What the hell does-
Sergei: That? You think //that’s// what this is about?
Agnessa [pause]: Isn’t it?
[The two stare at each other for a long time. Eventually, Agnessa starts to shake her head.]
Nikolai: What’s going on.
[Sergei kicks Nikolai in the stomach.]
Sergei: You’ve done enough.
Agnessa: Sergei. [His eyes shoot back up to hers] Have you-?
[He does not answer. Eventually there is a knock on the door. He turns and goes through to answer it.]
Nikolai [wheezing, on the ground]: Agnya. What-
Agnessa: The NKVD is here.
[Sergei opens the front door.]
Guide [from offstage]: Sergei Petrovich? [Sergei nods. The Guide enters.] Where are Nikolai Borisovich Morozov and Agnessa Petrovna Miagkova?
Sergei: The room at the far end.
[The Guide nods, then begins opening cupboards, more or less randomly. He does not stay in the kitchen long before moving on to Dariya and Gerogy’s room, where they all mime introductions. Sergei just stands by the door.]
Nikolai [winded]: What … what are we going to do?
Agnessa: I don’t know … Do you have a gun?
Nikolai: No. No, we said no guns.
Agnessa: I need a gun. I need to die in this moment. Before it all comes falling down. I need to die. That’s how this moment is supposed to end.
Nikolai: How can you say that! Agnya, look at me. Agnya, please, look at me! [She does] This isn’t a novel. This is real life.
Agnessa: I don’t understand why that matters.
[They stare at each other in silence, as if only seeing each other for the first time now.]
Georgy: What’s all this about?
Guide [full]: Nikolai Borisovich Morozov and Agnessa Petrovna Miagkova are under arrest for conspiracy to commit state sabotage. I am just conducting a preliminary search.
@@.darkcyany;{@@If the audience recommend that Georgy does not burn the icons:@@.darkcyany;}@@
@@.darkcyany;{{@@[He searches for a few more seconds, before finding the icons. He turns to the couple.]
Guide [full]: I have colleagues waiting downstairs. If you try to leave, they will pick you up. So just wait here.
Georgy: Are we…?
Guide [full]: Yes. For conducting communal religious rites outside of state sanctified premises.
[Dariya stays standing while Georgy lowers himself into a chair. The Guide pushes his way into Nikolai’s room.]]@@.darkcyany;}}@@
@@.orangey;{@@If the audience recommend that Georgy does not burn the icons:@@.orangey;}@@
@@.orangey;{{@@[The Guide finishes searching Georgy and Dariya’s room and pushes himself into Nikolai’s.]@@.orangey;}}@@
Guide [full]: Nikolai Borisovich Morozov. Agnessa Petrovna Miagkova. You are both under arrest for conspiracy to commit state sabotage. You will leave the apartment and report to my colleagues downstairs for processing.
[Agnessa stands, hesitating. Nikolai has climbed up to kneeling on one knee, waiting for Agnessa. Eventually she shrugs and moves towards the door. Nikolai makes to follow her, then shakes his head.]
Nikolai [full]: Agnya. Agnya, it can’t end like this. It can’t just //end//!
[Agnessa turns to him.]
Agnessa: But it has.
Nikolai: Agnya! How-
Agnessa: I’m tired, Nikolai. It’s too much. It’s all been too much.
Nikolai [subdued]: But Agnya! The fight, the revolution! The future!
Agnessa [pause] [calling]: Seryozha! Seryozha!
[Sergei runs to her.]
Agnessa [to Sergei]: It’s all over, isn’t it?
Sergei: Yes.
[Agnessa turns, runs to Nikolai, kisses him, and then turns and leaves the apartment. Nikolai follows a moment later. Sergei looks at the Guide, and then retreats to his own room. The Guide turns towards the audience.]
Guide [full]: Comrades, you see justice done. Honest justice. But now what? Do you remember my colleague Sergei Petrovich talking about the distinction between Category One and Category Two? Category Two is imprisonment, in this case likely twenty five years in a labour camp. Category One is liquidation. I must make my recommendation, which will be heard by the sentencing troika. Redens, my superior, has set us personal quotas for Category One recommendations. I will fill mine, but I am yet to do so. But I //will// fill it, be it tonight or later in the month. Still, I have been instructed that even this question must be put to you. So. What is the will of the people? On the motion of Category One or Category Two sentencing for Nikolai Borisovich and Agnessa Petrovna, I will first hear those in favour of Category One. [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer] Secondly, I will hear from those in favour of Category Two [The Guide gestures for those in favour to cheer].@@.pinky;}}@@
[[Epilogue|EpilogueScript]]
[[Audience interruption]]Guide [full]: Very well.
{If the audience recommended a Category One sentence, and recommended that Nikolai go alone, and recommended against reporting Nikolai and Agnessa}
{{Guide: Very well. Nikolia Borisovich will be interrogated, then sentenced and then shot. When he testifies that he was working in concert with Agnessa Petrovna, as he will, she will be taken through the same process.}}
{If the audience recommended a Category Two sentence, and recommended that Nikolai go alone, and recommended against reporting Nikolai and Agnessa}
{{Guide: Very well. Nikolai Borisovich will be interrogated and then sentenced and then sent to labour camp. When he testifies that he was working in concert with Agnessa Petrovna, as he will, she will be taken through the same process. Despite the lack of legal ties between them, rest assured that we will follow state policy and separate them as if they were a married couple. The child, if it survives the process, will be taken to a state orphanage when it is born, where it will receive a good communist education.
{Otherwise, if the audience recommended a Category One sentence}
{{Guide: Very well. Nikolai Borisovich and Agnessa Petrovna will be interrogated, then sentenced and then shot.}}
{Otherwise, if the audience recommended a Category Two sentence}
{{Guide: Very well. Nikolai Borisovich and Agnessa Petrovna will be interrogated and then sentenced and then sent to a labour camp. Despite the lack of legal ties between them, rest assured that we will follow state policy and separate them as if they were a married couple. The child, if it survives the process, will be taken to a state orphanage when it is born, where it will receive a good communist education.}}
Guide: And that is it. There is simply nothing more to say other than to thank you for your presence this evening. I hope it has been equal parts enjoyable and informative. Long live Comrade Stalin! [If the audience repeats it, the Guide nods, satisfied. If they do not, he narrows his eyes and shakes his head.]
@@.darkcyany;{@@If the audience recommend that Georgy does not burn the icons:@@.darkcyany;}@@
@@.darkcyany;{{@@Guide: Georgy Antonivich, Dariya Yuriivna, you will come with me. [To audience] Category Two. Although at their age, Category One may have been better, both for them and the state.@@.darkcyany;}}@@
[The Guide salutes the audience and all exit.]
[Curtain.]
[[The end]][This scene is to be played only if audience heckling reaches the point where continuing to the epilogue as normal would not be possible. To encourage this, it is advised that an audience plant yells “let them go!” or something equivalent as the Guide is attempting to take the poll on Category One or Category Two.]
[Note: this scene should be played by all the actors as if they are improvising, often breaking character (while still maintaining the character of Soviet actors (or an NKVD agent in the case of the Guide))]
[The Guide starts to panic, losing control of both the crowd and himself. Dariya and Georgy both look uncomfortable, exchanging looks with each other. Sergei pops his head around the door frame of his room.]
Guide [full]: Quiet! Quiet! Justice will be done! In the name of the NKVD, I order you to restrain yourselves!
[The Guide reaches for his gun, then shakes his head.]
Guide [full]: Please! Please!
[The Guide makes as if to run, but Nikolai has appeared at the door.]
Nikolai: Help. You have to do something. Protect us.
{If Agnessa is off stage:}
{{Guide [full]: Fine. Fine! Very well! The people have spoken. And who am I to deny the will of the people. Erm, ahem, Nikolai Borisovich, Agnessa Petrovna. Come back.
[Looking confused, Nikolai and Agnessa enter.]}}
{If Agnessa is on stage:}
{{Guide [full]: Fine. Fine! Very well! The people have spoken. And who am I to deny the will of the people. Erm, ahem, Nikolai Borisovich. Come back.
[Looking confused, Nikolai enters.]}}
Guide [full]: The people … the commissariat … I, the NKVD, the NKVD has decided in the, erm, in the interest of state morale, that you will remain free.
Agnessa: Oh. Erm, wonderful.
Guide [full]: Yes. But if you do anything else illegal …
Nikolai: Oh, no, we would never.
Agnessa: Yes. Yes, I’m sure we’ll live happily forever, peacefully with our child.
@@.aquay;{@@If the audience recommend that Agnessa not tell Nikolai about her pregnancy:@@.aquay;}@@
@@.aquay;{{@@Nikolai: Oh, I’m going to be a father?
Agnessa: Yes, isn’t it joyous?@@.aquay;}}@@
Guide [full]: Well, there we go. The will of the people fulfilled. Are you satisfied? [Without giving time for the audience to respond] Good. Curtain!
[Curtain]
[[The end]]Glossary:
• NKVD: Secret police. The department responsible for the great purge and the Gulags.
• Komsomol: An ‘unofficial’ youth branch of the party.
• Trotskyist: A follower of the philosophy of the exiled Leon Trotsky, most notably his theory of permanent (global) revolution. During the purges, being found guilty of being a Trotskyist was one of the worst crimes an individual could commit.
• The Palace of the Soviets: An enormous palace designed to replace the Kremlin as the seat of Soviet power in Moscow.
• Agitprop: The government department in charge of agitation (political education of the masses) and propaganda (political education of party members).
• Sentencing Troika: Special courts of three judges (usually including at least one NKVD agent) set up to speedily process large numbers of purge victims.
• The NEP: The New Economic Policy. A controversial Lenin era decision to reintegrate aspects of capitalism back into Soviet society, opposed by Trotsky.
• Kievan Rus: The precursor to the Russian Empire. Much of Russian national identity is derived from the Kievan Rus, notably the Russian Orthodox Church. Notably also the precursor of the Ukrainian state and originating from Kyiv, Ukraine.
Characters:
• Agnessa Petrovna: 21, a recent arrival in the city, Sergei’s sister.
• Nikolai Borisovich: 27, an architect.
• Sergei Petrovich: 24, a newly promoted officer of the NKVD, a new arrival in the city and Agnessa’s brother.
• Dariya Yuriivna: 49, the wife of Georgy.
• Georgy Antonivich: 47, a retired Red Army officer. Husband of Dariya.
• Guide [full]: An NKVD officer.
<<return>>