Libretto
Lucia Joyce | Libretto
Libretto Sample: Act II, Scene ii
Night. LUCIA, JAMES, BECKETT, GIORGIO and NORA cross the street to the bar of the Closerie des Lilas, in high spirits after the Bal Bullier.
JAMES
A toast!
To my daughter
Deep sea dancer.
Giorgio
It was pretty good sis.
Nora
You really looked like a fish
With that tail and those beautiful scales.
Lucia and Beckett
We’re going to go
Check the bistro
See if anyone who’s someone is here.
Nora and Giorgio
Last time we saw Picasso
We’ll check the terrasse.
JAMES
Oh,
You go have a leer
I’ll stay here.
NORA and GIORGIO exit. BECKETT leads LUCIA to the back corner of the bar, opposite JAMES, who orders himself a double whisky and downs it.
BECKETT takes LUCIA in his arms. She pulls away.
Lucia
He’ll see us.
Beckett
He can’t see his own hands!
I had to describe you to him.
Lucia
Don’t be fooled
He perfectly sees
All possibilities.
He wanted to see
How you see me
He sees all
With his fishy eyes
It’s why he’s going blind.
Beckett Aside
I hope he didn’t see
All of my mind.
BECKETT takes LUCIA in his arms again. LUCIA pulls back, though less forcefully than before.
He agreed you know
To let you go
To let me play your part
Now you can practice your art.
Lucia
I could feel your eyes on my body
Their touch gave me the savagery—
But to another true faith have I sworn
Once it happened
So it may again
Those fathomglasses, that pen
He can’t get what happened out of his mind
It’s why he’s going blind.
I too see possibilities
That you could be for me
Could be someone
People will want to see.
I see fire and silence
See I could be broken
Somewhere north and green
A mysterious dance
Its meaning open.
Don’t be frightened
He’d always say
Don’t be frightened
And I dreamed that one day—
LUCIA kisses BECKETT.
Beckett
You are like a fish
Impossible to grasp.
Lucia
I float away
From myself sometimes
I guess you could say
I’m a work in progress.
Beckett (quoting Coleridge)
What is there in thee,
Man, that can be known?
Dark fluxion, all unfixable by thought,
A phantom dim of past and future wrought,
Vain sister of the worm——
A WAITER accidentally knocks down a table, creating a crashing noise.
JAMES
Lucia! Lucia!
Where are you?
What have you done?
I’m all alone!
What is that clap?
Lucia! Come back!
LUCIA rushes back to JAMES’ side, closely followed by NORA and GIORGIO..
LUCIA, NORA and GIORGIO
What’s the matter?
JAMES
I heard thunder.
Lucia, Nora and Giorgio
It was a waiter,
A table knocked over.
JAMES
There was thunder.
Lucia, Nora and Giorgio (To Beckett)
He’s terrified of thunder.
Nora
Like a naughty boy
Who imagines the good Lord’s
come down from on high
To punish him for his sins
And He would if He were fair
He would if He were fair
Now now Jim, now now, there there.
NORA takes JAMES in her arms.
Beckett Embarrassed
I propose a toast.
To Lucia.
Runner-up Bal Bullier ‘29
Winner next time.
Nora
You could have won
If only the judges loved you
As much as the crowd.
JAMES Still in NORA’s arms, glowering at BECKETT.
How fine—to be loved.
Nora
Just because you had to wait Jim
To work and wait
Not everyone needs it as desperately
as you mon cher
Now now Jim, now now, there there.
JAMES
Mon cher ma chère ma chair.
Monchermachèremachair.
Lucia To BECKETT
Let’s forget, escape into the light
The silver, careless, Paris night.
AUDIENCE MEMBERS:
Bravo Mademoiselle.
C’était merveilleux!
Quand pouvons-nous vous revoir sur scène?
GIORGIO pushes them away
Lucia
The thunder of applause
was just what I needed
And never got
From you lot.
GIORGIO
There is only enough applause
For one genius in the family.
You— an artist. Ha!
You’re illiterate in four languages!
Lucia
Four languages,
dozens of rooms
My childhood a tablecloth
pulled out from under me
What is there in me then, that can be known?
JAMES
Coleridge? Since when do you quote Coleridge? (eyeing BECKETT)
NORA casts a loving glance at GIORGIO. JAMES pulls her back into his arms, GIORGIO shrugs and goes to get another drink. As JAMES nuzzles NORA, BECKETT is more and more embarrassed.
Eventually, NORA wrestles herself away and goes to join GIORGIO, leaving JAMES alone to watch LUCIA and BECKETT leave together.
QUARTET and FINALE
Lucia
Let’s escape into the night
The careless, Paris night
The silver Paris light
Let’s forget.
This Family!
Veins like vines
Holding me fast
I must purge myself
Be blissfully blank
Leave nothing for him to take
Let him imagine for God’s sake.
Beckett
You are impossible to grasp.
Lucia
I’ll dance him out
Leave nothing for him to take
Let him imagine for God’s sake.
But my body means something I feel
As you felt it leap and quiver
As it filled with your breath
BECKETT (responses shadowing LUCIA’s lines)
…You must dance him out
…leave him nothing
… I can feel your body
… leaping and quivering
… as it filled with my breath
CHORUS of PATRONS at the Bar
Buvons!
Ce n’est que le début
La nuit n’est pas fini!
NORA
Art is fine
But what a girl really needs
Is a stable dependable man.
GIORGIO
There is only enough applause
For one genius in the family.
JAMES
She has inherited
The spark of my genius.
LUCIA
To be blissfully blank
Behind thick stone walls
Wide green lawns
Empty, free
Full of the sea.
CHORUS
Buvons!
Ce n’est que le début
La nuit n’est pas fini!
LUCIA AND BECKETT
Let’s forget, escape into the light
The silver, careless, Paris night.
BECKETT and LUCIA exit