Wedding Night, Act IV
ACT IV
Scene 1: Outside the Winter Palace. Enter Demidoff.
Demidoff
A fine day for a battle!
(Three members of the Red Guard spring out of hiding with guns, one of which is shoved in Demidoff’s face)
Bolshevik
Yes, comrade, a fine day for a fight!
And what position are you taking in it?
Are you going in there?
(Demidoff reaches under coat for a cigarette, casually lights it, sneers…)
Demidoff
Get out of here, you swine. (They hastily exit)
Demidoff
Ice floats on the river,
floes colliding like foes in a desperate fight!
Auburn corn stands gathered in endless rows
a few hundred miles upstream.
But here, along the river,
ah, grand October! are rows of red gun barrels
ready to harvest men!
(He exits. Enter Meyerkoff. Again the three Bolsheviks, confronting him)
Bolshevik
Comrade, where are you going?
Meyerkoff
I am a surgeon. They asked me to watch the wounded,
in case it comes to fighting.
Bolshevik
Let him go, comrades, he’s a physician.
Scene 2: Inside the Winter Palace, a large room with immense windows. At a long table, several men sit with papers. Two soldiers kneel at the windows.
Demidoff (offstage)
Two men at each end of the corridor, that’s all.
We can’t spare more. The rest of you in here.
(Demidoff enters with three soldiers)
Soldier (at the Window)
It’s started to snow. Shadows move on the lawn.
We must attack them!
Demidoff
We should have, long ago.
But our distinguished Congress has to discuss it.
Hold fire until fired upon.
(Enter Meyerkoff)
Demidoff
Welcome
to the death of the new republic! What brings you
to the barrel-end of a firing squad?
Meyerkoff
I have
a letter to deliver.
Demidoff
Ah! How tender.
Here is the Secretary of War himself.
Meyerkoff
I’d like to slap it in Kerensky’s hands.
1st Delegate
Kerensky fled to the country when he heard
the Reds took the battleships, and are sailing
upriver.
Demidoff
God! How did they take the Navy?
1st Delegate
Mutiny, what else?
Demidoff
Oh, dear hell,
even if we manage to guard these hundred
doors, how can we retaliate
battleship guns?
1st Delegate
So, as I was saying;
the crops along the Volga distributed
among the peasants – the export grain cut down—
2nd Delegate
That means less money coming into Russia.
1st Delegate
Into whose pocket? Profits from grain export
benefitted the Tsarist government
to what purpose? This grandiose chamber
was the Tsar’s private chamber, in just one palace!
No longer do we govern merely to mass wealth
at the expense of the poor. It’s grain that’s needed,
not money.
Demidoff
Oh, the Devil. (Demidoff exits)
2nd Delegate
But there’s still a war
with Germany, and that needs revenues.
3rd Delegate
And what about starvation here in the City?
4th Delegate
And these are the easier questions, having to do
simply with the redistribution of wealth.
More difficult is redistribution of power.
It’s not a matter of just securing votes.
We must become a voting people, workers
and peasants involved in listening and persuasion.
1st Delegate
That’s where the Bolsheviks would agree. If only
we could meet with them in open talks.
4th Delegate
But they are convinced they represent the masses,
though severely defeated in open polls.
So they claim that peasants don’t know how to vote,
and were swayed by the new middle class.
You have to admit, too: most of us
are of the educated professionals.
2nd Delegate
So are the Bolshevik leaders! And isn’t it easy,
having lost in the elections, to say,
“You don’t know what you’re doing, you should have
voted for yourselves,” meaning themselves,
the Reds, of course. And so they resort to force.
That is not how democracy develops!
4th Delegate
They show no desire to make themselves
representative. They want power
and only power. If they do seize control,
that will be the test. We’ll see their true motives.
1st Delegate
At least it seems clear now they’re criminals.
Meyerkoff
What’s the matter with you? Why do you keep talking
even now? Don’t you realize
this building is surrounded and under attack?
This is the result of your endless talking,
refusing to take action, even when
conspiracy was clear!
1st Delegate
But even then
we have to provide free forum of discussion,
even if they decline it.
Meyerkoff
What a disease
has fallen on Russia! Who would ever have thought
idealism would break out in such disease? (Re-enter Demidoff)
Demidoff
Here, help guard these windows.
2nd Soldier
What! What huge
windows to hold! It would be more strategic
to guard this door.
Demidoff
Wait. I’ve seen you before.
Outside, was it not? Take him prisoner.
How did these rats get in?
Meyerkoff
Gentlemen,
now that it’s clear to you they’re criminals,
shouldn’t you at least take up a few guns
and defend yourselves? Defend democracy,
if you’d rather say it that way.
Demidoff
You saw what almost
happened? You were all to be shot!
2nd Delegate
Aren’t we the people’s elected government?
Then it’s the people’s duty to defend us.
Demidoff (Amazed, staring)
Hey, you! (to soldier)
Come guard this door. No, not the window.
It would be more strategic to guard the door. (Angrily)
4th Delegate
Well, gentlemen, I believe I shall go. (stands, nervous)
There’s really nothing left for me to do here.
(delegates all hastily exit)
Demidoff
Okay, the window. The window, not the door!
2nd Soldier
Demidoff –
Demidoff
Yes? Help him guard these windows,
he can’t do it by himself!
2nd Soldier
How can we
defend this sprawling complex of cavernous windows?
Demidoff
With Spartan courage.
2nd Soldier
It’s not like guarding the narrow
mountain pass.
Demidoff
Maybe you’d rather us go
in the streets and make ourselves an easier target?
2nd Soldier
But why do we have to defend this Palace? It’s hopeless.
Who cares if they take the Palace?
Demidoff
Not a soul in hell. But where would you like to go?
Tiptoe downriver to a nicer place?
2nd Soldier
Better to give up in these circumstances,
and look for a way out later.
Demidoff
Fools! Don’t you know it’s time to fight
for freedom? Can’t you see, this is the last stand!
Die in a bloody window if you have to,
there’s no living anyway if we lose
the chance to say no with every vein we’ve got
to the guns that shove our scared minds along
the forced streets of the future!
(Shot – breaking glass – scream – gunfire begins)
Don’t give in
to mere bullets! make a barrier
of will and spirit! You, stay here; all you
with me, let’s go!
(Bullets shower from behind, glass flies across stage, young soldier falls. Meyerkoff runs to him, feels pulse, closes soldier’s eyes, ducking bullets)
Meyerkoff
Death begins. Those who
don’t fall in battle, will die another way.
Scene 3: A room in the winter palace. Demidoff, Meyerkcff, others.
Soldier
They’re pressing in at the main door.
Demidoff
Does that
surprise you? I’m amazed it’s taken so long.
Meyerkoff
They’re crawling over the bodies of their own dead –
oh, they’re rats!
Demidoff
Soon, it will be hand to hand.
that’s the moment I’ve been waiting for. (Enter Olga and women’s shock troops)
Olga; What the hell?
Olga
Ready, girls?
Girl soldier
For anything. (Olga kicks the door out and goes out and they follow)
Meyerkoff
The Reds are falling back,
I can’t believe –
Demidoff
Neither can they.
Meyerkoff
The girls
have fought their way down to the hedges… I can’t tell
if it’s a rout, or a momentary advantage.
Demidoff
What do they think they’re doing? They’re getting themselves
surrounded, damn it! They’re getting themselves killed!
Let’s go!
(All exit out front door)
Scene 4: Front lawn of the Winter Palace, dusk. Gunfire. Woman, groaning, leans on
a dead companion; both are in uniform. Bolshevik comes up and grabs her hair, yanks.
Bolshevik
Sister, let’s get you out of this uniform.
(Bolsheviks surround her, clothes fly up. First Bolshevik points gun down at her)
Bolshevik
You don’t want to refuse, do you?
(She cries out. Petr appears, looking down, shocked. Another scream – Olga falls across stage, Bolshevik following with butt of gun that slapped her out in front of him.)
2nd Bolshevik
I think you protest too much.
(Petr leaps across stage and hits him full in the face with the butt of his gun. Olga looks up at him, but he flies into the crowd trying to rape the wounded girl.)
Petr
You can’t do that!
(Some get up to fight him, but suddenly fall from gunshots. Crowd flees as Demidoff enters with rescuers.)
Demidoff
Now get these girls back inside quick, before the devils regroup again.
(Demidoff and Petr face off, stare at each other. Demidoff grips gun, lifting it slightly, scowling. Wounded Bolshevik stirs on ground, Demidoff spins to stand over him, lifts gun.)
3rd Bolshevik
Comrade… have mercy…
(Demidoff stabs him with bayonet)
3rd Bolshevik
God, God, have… mercy!
(Petr steps back and drops gun, amazed. Demidoff spins back to face him, bloody bayonet lifted. He stands a moment, shaking, while Petr stares. Demidoff turns away)
Demidoff
Over there, let’s rescue those, if we can. You girls, get back, while you can!
(All exit but, Petr, who kneels by slain woman, weeping)
Scene 5: A hall in the Winter Palace, Demidoff, Meyerkoff, Olga, others. A soldier comes screaming down the hall and falls at their feet, bleeding at the mouth)
Demidoff
Are they in your wing, too?
Soldier (incredulous)
Are they in?
(Four Bolsheviks run around the far corner from the same direction, stopping as soon as they see Demidoff and the others. Demidoff fires three shots with rapidity; two Bolsheviks fall, the others run back, colliding into a few others just arriving, all flee)
Soldier
This is the only wing they haven’t taken!
Demidoff
Then what are we doing here?
(He runs after escaped Bolsheviks)
Meyerkoff
Demidoff, it’s useless…
(Demidoff comes to corner, quickly leaps back and runs back to others)
Demidoff
By damn, you’re right!
Quick, this way. There’s an old corridor
nderground, to the Egyptian museum
across the lawn. They’ll never find us. We’ll wait
in darkness or candlelight a day or two,
tell old jokes or college stories, or read
hieroglyphs from the Book of the Dead for fun.
Olga
Then we’ll open the door and walk home. No one
will notice, as long as we act like the other people
who don’t know what happened.
Demidoff
Hurry up, let’s go!
Why did you not shoot Lenin? (Scowls at Meyerkoff,
kicks window out, then goes the other way; all exit. Bolsheviks run into empty hall, look around.)
Bolshevik
Search the lawn!
(All go out the window)
Orthodox Illumination 