FANTASY

To commemorate the 250th anniversary of Public Theater in Poland the Dziubele Town Theater presents:
Fantasy: a comedy
based on the play by Juliusz Słowacki
Set in Florida, in Polish aristocratic residencies in Palm Beach
[…]

Dramatis personae

1. COUNT RESPEKT, former Chairman of the Polish Community in Florida
2. COUNTESS RESPEKTOWA, his wife
3. DIANNA
4. STELLA   } their daughters
5. COUNT FANTAZY DAFNICKI
6. RZEŹNICKI, Chairman of the Polish Community, his friend
7. COUNTESS IDALIA
8. FATHER LOGA
9. WOŁDEMAR HAWRYŁOWICZ, a retired Russian General
10. JAN, his son
11. HELENKA, Idalia’s maid

[…]

[Act One]
[Scene One]
In the residence of the Count Respekts

Fantazy: Did you see how many Italian marble statues they have in the foyer?
In the holiest garb of Adam’s father
They commune with the hired help… And for every
butler… a statue… and every one of the
figures is larger than nature would command.
for those butlers, their heads
graze the ceilings, and their giant Herculean
builds resemble limbs.

Rzeźnicki: And there’s two Lincolns in the driveway.

Fantazy: And so I believe we shall also find maidens
Like inhuman Amazons
I shall be blind, or mute,
and you be reasonable… Look at me, and say:
What of the human do you find under the divinity of the
shape… Cull it out… Confess to your father
of your political conscience, enter
the closest of relations with his wife, until she confesses
what yoke her stepson oppresses.
In a word – it’s as if you were off to a commission,
Look – act – and watch… and I shall play
the naif, and let everyone play me for a fool.

Rzeźnicki: But they know you…

[…]

Stella: You tremble all over.

Idalia: It is nothing… my heart beats… I am ill
I have journeyed… through terrible heat…
I drove swiftly – despite the doctor’s
council… despite my own hundred admonitions.

Aside

Oh! Wretched am I! … and so terribly mad!

Out loud

Have the guests arrived?

Stella: Count Fantazy is here with Mr. Rzeźnicki… and that uninvited General.

Idalia: Tell me… could I sneak, unnoticed… into where they are gathered?

Stella: They are all by the water.

Stella: You are surprised at the lady’s unexpected visit – there are so many travellers today.

They exit. All are in the garden.

Fantazy: I don’t suppose we’ll be drinking to Russia, my countess? Unless we say – bottom’s up…

Countess: Let us drink to a friend of the Poles.

Fantazy: Let us speak of Russia, my dear Retired General.

General: Yes, I’ve come for a rest, to see some friends. 

Fantazy: But what of the Crimea? What of Donbas? People there are dying!

General: You see, my good sir, ever since I have been retired I have practised yoga, I pray and I meditate. And the Crimea has always been Russian. That is no annexation, it is a unification.

Count Respekt: But the four siblings that perished under Stalin, don’t you recall? Your Polish mother and wife, don’t you remember them? Aren’t you even a Russian? You were a liberal.

General: I have a fine memory. But my head hurts from this conversation, my boy. I grew up in Donbas. My sister lives there. She lives in a cellar, eating crackers, because the Ukrainian government keeps crashing down missiles. I keep my distance from politics, and that’s why they invite me to the Polish ball.