GYPSY DAWN Act 2 Scene 1

ACT TWO

Scene 1

It is exactly the same gypsy camp that we saw at the beginning of the musical, and it is the same GROUP OF GYPSIES doing exactly the same dance with the same shouts of "Hey!" and "Ho!" And we have the same main characters that we saw at the outset who are all doing what they were doing before except for ANGELU, who sits quietly by the gypsy wagon. But whereas they all spoke in Act One with heavy middle-European accents, now they speak very clear and correct English.

NIKKO

We are going now into the village to read palms and steal books.

STEFANA

I am dying for a first edition of Kirkegaard's Philosophical Fragments.

JOAKU

We can't go yet. We are waiting for Vasily.

TAPIA

That's right. Today he is coming home from University.

JOAKU

Lena and Vladina have already gone over the hill to await his arrival.

TAPIA

It is so exciting.

STEFANA

To be able to go to University and have access to all those books instead of having to steal them.

JOAKU

But we return them when we're finished.

NIKKO

Some of them.

TAPIA

Most of them.

STEFANA

But these little villages, what kind of books do they have? Silly little romances. How to Sheer Sheep, Everything You Wanted to Know About Montavia, and Strudel Made Easy. Ah, but at University…

TAPIA

Wait! I hear singing. It is he, our Vasily!

(A long operatic note is heard, and behind it comes VASILY with LENA on one arm and VLADINA on the other. He is now dressed as a University student rather than as a gypsy. The OTHERS gather around him, the WOMEN hugging and kissing him and the MEN slapping him on the back and shaking his hand.)

JOAKU

Our favorite gypsy!

VASILY

Gypsy, Joaku? You mean Son of Freedom.

JOAKU

Of course, Vasily. I forgot. We are all Sons of Freedom.

STEFANA

We are not all Sons of Freedom. Some of us are Daughters of Freedom.

(ALL FEMALE GYPSIES applaud.)

VASILY

Forgive me, Stefana. Although a chauvinistic lapse like that is virtually unforgivable.

STEFANA

But you are forgiven. Now tell us all about University.

VASILY

There's nothing like a seat of learning
To interrogate your intuition.
Your senses reel, your brain is burning
For every ounce of erudition.
Friends and neighbors, gather round,
And let me tell you what I've found.

I studied pollens
And I studied spores,
And I learned the causes
Of the Punic wars---
But more important than the facts I filed,
I got in touch with my inner child.

GYPSIES

But more important than the facts he filed,
He got in touch with his inner child.

VASILY I learned to calculate,
I learned to draw,
I learned to fool around
With Mendel's law.
But even better than the tests I tried,
I got in touch with the child inside.

GYPSIES

But even better than the tests he tried,
He got in touch with the child inside.

VASILY

Don't you
Cover the real you!
You've got to feel you
Are an infant at heart.
You must induce in you
To release the papoose in you!

I learned the waterways
Through all of France,
I learned to classify
A thousand plants,
I took such pride in all that I'd compiled,
Till I got in touch with my inner child.

GYPSIES

He took such pride in all that he'd compiled
Till he got in touch with his inner child.

VASILY

Till I got in touch with my inner child!
(THEY do a similar dance as the one they did in the previous act, although now it is more contemporary and, as a result, farmore complex with VASILY joining in. Once again, the moon slowly fades on the backdrop and the stage is gradually lit by soft pink and amber lights. The number ends, and BETAMO dashes on.)

BETAMO Brothers! King Gustavo is leaving the castle at this very moment.

TAPIA

Gustavo, that fascist prick!

BETAMO

I overheard the guards. He is on his way to Paris to see his whore.

STEFANA

Which one?

JOAKU

If we hurry, we can spit at him.

TAPIA

And throw stones.

VLADINA

Come on, Vasily!

VASILY

You go ahead. I spit at enough royalty at University.

(GYPSIES rush offstage right leaving only VASILY, NIKKO and ANGELU.)

VASILY

You're not joining them, Nikko?

NIKKO

I'm having a bad hemorrhoid attack.

VASILY

Still taking it up the rear?

NIKKO

On occasion.

ANGELU

Obviously the wrong occasion.

VASILY

What about you, Angelu?

ANGELU

Not during Ramadan.

VASILY

I'm not talking about taking it up the rear. I'm talking about going to spit at King Gustavo.

ANGELU

I'm not up to it.

NIKKO

You might as well tell him, Angelu.

ANGELU

He just got home. Why upset him?

VASILY

Upset me?

NIKKO

Angelu has a terminal illness.

VASILY

My God! Angelu! My poor darling! Cancer? AIDS?

ANGELU

I don't know.

VASILY

You don't know what terminal illness you have yet you know you have a terminal illness?!

ANGELU

Yes.

VASILY

But what do the doctors say?

NIKKO

She hasn't been to a doctor.

VASILY

Then who…?

ANGELU

Joaku told me.

VASILY

Joaku is a palm reader!

ANGELU

Joaku isn't just a palm-reader. He is the best palm-reader.

VASILY

I don't care if he's Cassandra on top of the walls of Troy!

NIKKO

Please, Vasily. You're forgetting your inner child.

VASILY

Fuck my inner child!

NIKKO

Look, my brother. You can be as logical as you wish to be. Angelu is convinced she is dying of a terminal illness, and nothing you or anyone else can say will convince her otherwise.

ANGELU

Why me, God,
When I continue to pray?
Why me, God,
Why give me life
Then take it away?
I've always tried to do my best,
I've always worshipped at your shrine.
I wear a cross upon my chest,
I eat the wafers, drink the wine.
Why me, God?
Why should this be fated?
You put this head upon these shoulders,
Now you want to decapitate it.
Why me, God?
When never once did I doubt.
Why me, God?
Why give me life then snuff it out?
So don't you see, God,
I'm on my knee, God,
To ask: why me, God?
Why me?
Why me?
(Tears of self-pity are flowing from her eyes as VASILY and NIKKO observe her---NIKO with a shrug, and VASILY with disbelief.)

LIGHTS SLOWLY DIM