Alexandre and Camille by Paul Kuritz
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This Play is the copyright of the Author and may not be performed, copied or sold without the Author's prior consent
ACT I
SETTING: The entry way of a grand Parisian home on the Rue d'Antin. Balconies overlook a grand foyer. Furniture stacked. Crates, boxes, trunks. A piano. Mannequins in costumes. Mannequins in wigs. Clothing on racks. Objects on tables. The property will be arranged to facilitate the action of the play.
ALEXANDRE (entering) Bonsoir Mesdames, Messieurs. My name is Alexandre Dumas. All of the characters you are about to meet are still alive, with the exception of the heroine. The story is true - I have assembled eye-witnesses, whom I may call upon to confirm certain details. On the 12th of this month, I saw an announcement of a sale of furniture and curiosities, taking place on account of the death of the owner. I attended the sale and eventually purchased the lot you see before you. The property is from the house of a “kept woman.” Now dead. There was plenty worth buying. The furniture is superb. There are rosewood and buhl cabinets and tables, Sevres and Chinese vases, Saxe statuettes, satin, velvet, lace. There is nothing lacking. These magnificently chiseled objects bear different initials and different coronets. You probably remember the woman. Mademoiselle Marguerite Gautier, a pretty woman. She died three weeks ago. I regret her death as one might regret the destruction of a beautiful objet d'art.
MARGUERITE enters into an empty picture frame
Marguerite had a marvelous portrait of herself, by Vidal.
The frame disappears and Marguerite is found in a theater box with opera-glass, a bag of sweets, and a bouquet of camellias.
Marguerite was always present at every first night, and she invariably had three things with her on the ledge of her ground-floor box: her opera-glass, a bag of sweets, and a bouquet of camellias.
MARGUERITE For twenty-five days a month the camellias are white, and for five, they are red.
ALEXANDRE No one ever knew the reason for this change of color. She was never seen with any flowers but camellias. The florist called her “the Lady of the Camellias".
MANNEQUIN dressed as the DUKE enters her theater box She was living with an old duke, a foreigner, enormously rich.
DUKE (To audience) In the spring of 1847 Marguerite was so ill that the doctors ordered her to Bagneres. Among the invalids there was my daughter. She was suffering from the same illness, and she was so like Marguerite that they might have been sisters. Marguerite (to audience) A few days after my arrival his daughter died. Since I seemed to be the image of his child, he embraced and wept over me, and begged me to let him love me as the living memory of his dead child. I agreed.
DUKE People who knew her, explained to me Mademoiselle Gautier's true position.
MARGUERITE It was a blow to the old man.
ALEXANDRE But it was too late. She had become a necessity to his heart, his only excuse for living. He proposed that if she changed her way of living, he would provide every compensation that she could desire.
MARGUERITE I consented.
ALEXANDRE By the end of the summer, the waters, sleep, and the long walks, had more or less restored her health.
MANNEQUIN as the DUKE and Marguerite exit, and pass PARISIANS entering
The duke accompanied her to Paris, where he continued to see her. This liaison caused a great sensation.
MANNEQUIN as a PARISIAN The debauchery of a rich old man.
MANNEQUIN as a ANOTHER PARISIAN I believe everything I hear!
ALEXANDRE Except the truth.
Marguerite enters as the stage is cleared, sits on a single chair, listening to the sounds of Paris nightlife.
But, once back in Paris, the solitude seemed to kill her with boredom.
MANNEQUIN as the DUKE enters.
DUKE (grieving) I am told you receive other visits, and that these visits are often prolonged till the following day.
MARGUERITE (interrupting) It is true. And more. I find I am incapable of carrying out what I had promised. I do not wish to go on deceiving you. The MANNEQUIN as the DUKE starts to leave, but stops
DUKE Let me still visit you. Marguerite begins to speak I swear I will never reproach you.
MARGUERITE I consented.
Sounds of an auction offstage. The MANNEQUIN AS THE DUKE leaves.
ALEXANDRE The voice of the auctioneer. A crowd of celebrities. Laughter is heard from offstage. Everyone is in the highest spirits.
MARGUERITE Many of those present had known me.
[The auctioneers shout at the top of their voices]
ALEXANDRE Honest creatures speculating on this woman's prostitution.
MARGUERITE Profiting again from me.
ALEXANDRE The same who had plagued the last moments of her life.
MARGUERITE And who come now after my death to gather the fruits of their dishonorable calculations and the interest on their shameful credit
ALEXANDRE Dresses, cashmeres, jewels, were sold with incredible rapidity. AUCTIONEER A volume, beautifully bound, gilt-edged, entitled Manon Lescaut. There is something written on the first page. Ten francs.
MANNEQUIN AS A PARISIAN (after a longish silence) Twelve.
ALEXANDRE Fifteen.
MARGUERITE Why? AUCTIONEER Fifteen.
MANNEQUIN AS A PARISIAN Thirty.
ALEXANDRE Thirty-five.
MANNEQUIN AS A PARISIAN Forty.
ALEXANDRE Fifty.
MANNEQUIN AS A PARISIAN Sixty.
ALEXANDRE A hundred.
A profound silence had ensued
MANNEQUIN AS A PARISIAN I give way, sir. AUCTIONEER brings the book to ALEXANDRE and exits. ALEXANDRE opens the book.
ALEXANDRE On the first page, written in ink, in an elegant hand, an inscription from the giver. It consisted of these words- Marguerite “Manon to Marguerite.” “Humility.”
ALEXANDRE It was signed
ARMAND (entering) Armand Duval.
ALEXANDRE (asking Armand) What is the meaning of the word Humility? Manon Lescaut is a touching story. I know every detail of it.
As ALEXANDRE tells the plot, Marguerite as Manon, ARMAND as Des Grieux, one MANNEQUIN as Geront, and two actors with two other Mannequins, mime the action
A poor student,
Enter ARMAND
Des Grieux, tells another,
Enter Actor with MANNEQUIN
Edmondo, that he is impervious to the temptation of love. Soon after, a beautiful young girl,
Enter MARGUERITE
Manon, arrives with her brother
Enter Another Actor with MANNEQUIN - Lescaut and an older tax collector,
Enter MANNEQUIN as the DUKE
MARGUERITE At her father's insistence, Manon is sent to a convent.
DUKE Geronte, however, plans to steal her away and force her to be his mistress.
ALEXANDRE Des Grieux and Manon meet and fall in love. Learning of Geronte's plans, Des Grieux convinces Manon to elope with him. Geronte and Lescaut plot to steal Manon away from Des Grieux. They succeed. After some time, however, Manon grows discontented with being Geronte's mistress. Des Grieux makes a surprise visit and wins Manon back. Manon attempts to leave with some of the old man's jewels.
Enter the ACTOR with Policeman
MANNEQUIN Geronte has the police jail her. She awaits deportation to Louisiana. Des Grieux begs to join her on board the ship bound for America. In New Orleans, the poor lovers cannot support themselves. They wander aimlessly, until Manon, exhausted and broken, dies in Des Grieux's embrace.
The actors and Mannequins exit, except for ARMAND
ARMAND (deeply agitated, with tears in his eyes and a trembling voice) Sir, I beg you to excuse me.
ALEXANDRE (getting ARMAND and himself chairs) Please sit down.
ARMAND sits and, taking his handkerchief from his pocket, hides his face in it for a moment.
ARMAND I must ask you a favor.
ALEXANDRE Speak, sir. ARMAND The book.
ALEXANDRE gets the book and hands it to ARMAND Please give it up to me.
ALEXANDRE The book is yours, sir. ARMAND I am eternally grateful to you. What did you think of the lines that I wrote ?
ALEXANDRE I realized at once that the woman to whom you had given the volume must have been quite extraordinary. A
RMAND You're right. She was an angel. Read this letter.
He hands a paper which seems to have been many times reread. ALEXANDRE opens it
MARGUERITE “MY DEAR ARMAND: I am ill, with one of those diseases that never relent. I shall not live long enough, I expect, to see you again, for I am quite near death, and you are hundreds of leagues away. My poor friend! Your Marguerite of old times is sadly changed. It is better perhaps for you not to see her again than to see me now. From my bed I can hear creditors in the drawing room. I hope they will wait until I‟m gone before they begin to sell. God is just and inflexible. And now, dear love, please come to the auction, and you buy something. It is a sad life that I am leaving. It would be good if God let me see you again before I die. Au revoir, mon cher ami. Pardon me this brief letter, but my hand refuses to write any more.
ALEXANDRE returns the letter to ARMAND
ARMAND Who would think that a kept woman could write like that? She died before I could see her. She did for me what no sister would ever have done. I cannot forgive myself for leaving her to die like that. Dead! Dead, yet thinking of me, writing and repeating my name, poor dear Marguerite! No one will ever know how I made that woman suffer. (rising and walking to and fro in the room) I am wearying you.
ALEXANDRE A votre service, monsieur.
ARMAND Let me stay here for just a few minutes longer. You have made me very happy by giving me this book. I don‟t know how I can ever thank you.
ALEXANDRE By telling me your story. ARMAND All right. It was about this time of the year, on a day like this, that I first met Marguerite. I must tell you the whole story. You can make a play out of it. For two years the sight of Marguerite had made a strange impression on me whenever I came across her. Without knowing why, I believed I was fated to fall in love with her.
MARGUERITE is in her theater box again. ALEXANDRE gives ARMAND candy to give her when they meet. ARMAND starts to approach the box, but turns away.
ARMAND I had scarcely left her box when I heard - Laughter from Marguerite
ALEXANDRE Are you going?
ARMAND Yes.
ALEXANDRE Why?
ARMAND leaves.
Every day Armand went to visit Marguerite, but never left a name or a card.
ARMAND I was in love with her.
PRUDENCE enters, looking at Marguerite
ARMAND What are you looking at?
[end of extract]
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