Scene 5
In one, from stage
left, a very exhausted VASILY enters, carrying MARIANNE and staggering
across stage.
MARIANNE
Can't you go faster?
VASILY
I am going as fast as I can.
MARIANNE
You call this fast?
VASILY
I did not realize a Princess
weighs so much.
MARIANNE
You address a Princess in
such a manner?
VASILY
It is the size of her head
that does it.
MARIANNE
And you could lose
your
head for a statement like that!
VASILY
What difference does my head make? I have already lost the use of my left
shoulder.
(As THEY exit, curtain
rises and we are back in the gypsy camp. A pause. NIKKO appears stealthily
from the right. HE motions to MARITZA who now enters dressed in boy's clothes.
Her hair is pulled up under a gypsy cap.)
MARITZA
Couldn't you find something
a little more feminine?
NIKKO
Isn't that funny, your grace.
I was all out of women's clothes in my wardrobe.
MARITZA
That's nice to know…I think.
And stop calling me your highness and your grace. My name is Marianne.
NIKKO
All right, Marianne. That's
why we're here, Marianne. I'm going to try to steal some clothes for you,
Marianne.
MARITZA
You're a gypsy. That should
come easily to you.
(HE regards her with
disdain. Voices from offstage. NIKKO motions to her to hide downstage right
behind the wagon, but MARITZA is defiant. HE grabs her around the waist
and pulls her to the hiding place. ANGELU and STEFANA enter from upstage.
STEFANA is wearing Maritza's dress. ANGELU is pursuing her.)
ANGELU
I tell you, I saw it first!
MARITZA
That's my dress! Those beasts
stole my clothes!
(NIKKO places his
hand over her mouth to silence her, as ANGELU starts to rip the dress off
Stefana's back. THEY fight, and the dress winds up in tatters.)
NIKKO
That was your dress.
(HE now appears from
behind the wagon, separating the two roughly. MARITZA moves from the hiding
place. ANGELU sees her, regards her with sensual interest.)
ANGELU
Eh! Who do we have here?
A new boy in camp?
NIKKO
(whispering)
I told you to stay hidden.
ANGELU
He no gypsy, although he's
dressed like one. From whence does this new boy come?
NIKKO
Oh…over that way.
STEFANA
Over which way?
NIKKO
Near Bratwurst.
ANGELU
Bratwurst, eh?
NIKKO
Between Bratwurst and Knackwurst.
(ANGELU regards Maritza
seductively. SHE pulls out a tambourine and slowly begins a dance of allurement.
As it becomes more passionate, STEFANA, not to be outdone, picks up her
tambourine and executes her own dance of seduction. Now it becomes a competition
between the two, in which the dance grows wilder and more frenzied. It
builds to a mad crescendo with the TWO WOMEN falling to the ground.)
ANGELU
I saw him first!
(STEFANA slaps her.
ANGELU slaps her back. STEFANA punches her then runs off stage right with
ANGELU in pursuit. MARITZA watches all this in shock. Suddenly, ALL THE
OTHER GYPSIES rush on stage singing and dancing as we saw them at the beginning
of the act.)
NIKKO
Too late.
MARITZA
What's too late?
NIKKO
They've already seen you.
We can't get the clothes now.
MARITZA
And this was a gypsy dawn?
Wait till I get my hands on Marianne.
(TWO of the GYPSIES
grab MARITZA and force her into the dance.)
BLACKOUT
