ACT ONE
Scene 1
"A Garden in Vienna, 1765"
RINGMASTER
Within our humble sawdust ring
The players are arraigned
The powerful and puny
The saintly and deranged
The Honest Bird, a future queen
All innocent and green
Sparring all the livelong day
Make ready for our play
So gentles all, who will hold sway
To a garden in Vienna, let us make our way...
MARIE THERESE
Madame Antoine, Madame Antoine
It's getting dark outside
It's time to come in
MADAME ANTOINE
Oh Mother!
MARIE THERESE
Madame Antoine, it's time to come in
MADAME ANTOINE
Yes, yes mother, I'm coming
One day...
One day I'll be Queen
Live on peaches and cream
Wear satin and lace
And laugh in the faces
Of the teachers and priests
And the boys will all fawn
Fawn before me like beasts
MARIE THERESE
Madame Antoine, it's time to come in
HONEST BIRD
Little princess, so sure you are right
But your endless day is their endless night
You can preen in the limelight
In your diamonds in pearls
But the children go hungry
In that other world
MARIE THERESE
Madame Antoine, it's time to come in
MADAME ANTOINE
Little sparrow fly back to wherever you're from
You could never imagine the plane I live on
The intricate steps of the tumblers and clowns
Are above and beyond you cock robin
So just you pipe down
Scene 2
"Kings, Sticks and Birds"
RINGMASTER
Ladies and Gentlemen
Imagine a bird on song in a tree
An ordinary bird like you or like me
Imagine some ruffian happening by
And beating him within an inch of his life
CHORUS
Ahh!
RINGMASTER
Then a priest from some denomination
Witnessing this abomination
Blesses not the bird but the beast
The Unknown Soldier appears on the field
And takes the bird's feathers to put on his shield
Then a powerful judge from the high court
Decrees that the birds really ought
Not be allowed to sing in the trees
But then one day
Some of the priests and soldiers and judges
Putting aside some old worn grudges
Changes their minds and the birds sang again
It was the Revolution
The Revolution is a story of birds
Of sticks and stones and bushes and bones
RINGMASTER & CHORUS
A story of now, a story of then
A story of woman, a story of men
RINGMASTER
A story of everything to come
Of everything under the sun
MARIE MARIANNE
Honest bird, simple bird
Just longing to be spreading the word
Feeling the rain, feeling the sun
But your time has not come
Your song is not heard
Honest bird
MALE CHORUS
Singing is forbidden in the fig tree
Singing is forbidden in the olive tree
Singing is forbidden in the pear tree
No singing in the olive or the fig or the pear tree
MALE CHORUS & CHILDREN
No more singing in the fig tree
No more singing in the pear tree
Someone’s hanging in the olive
There's someone hanging in the olive tree
Singing in the fig tree, that's forbidden
Singing in the pear tee, that’s forbidden
Singing in the olive, that's forbidden
Someone's hanging in the olive tree
Someone's hanging in the olive tree
MARIE MARIANNE
You come to earth, you have no choice
Could be a seamstress or serving girl
Or butcher's boy
Could be a dead beat
Or one of the elite
Maybe the bird ill find his voice
And make a choice
From all the wheat and all the chaff
It's the knowledge that you glean
Makes you what you'll be
And the knowledge that you lack
A rod for your own back
Leaves you in purgatory
Honest bird, simple bird
Make your choice, find your voice
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Make your choice, find your voice
CHORUS
I want to be King, Queen, Courtesan, Dauphin
I want to be Cardinal, Capitaine, King of Kings
I want to be God
SOLO BOY
I want to be the King
SOLO GIRL
I want to be the Queen
SOLO GIRL
I want to be the Courtesan
SOLO BOY
I want to be the Dauphin
SOLO BOY
I want to be the Cardinal
SOLO BOY
I want to be the Capitaine
CHORUS
I want to be the King of Kings
I want to be God
SOLO BOY
I am a great big pig
SOLO BOY
I am the King of France
SOLO BOY
His wife likes to dance
SOLO BOY
I am the Church of Rome
I stand behind the throne
SOLO BOY
I am the public purse; they think I'm bottomless
SOLO BOY
I am the public accounts; I admit I'm a bit of a mess
SOLO GIRL
I am the American war and they say I'm rather greedy
SOLO GIRL
I am the national debt; I’m big but needy
SOLO BOY
I am a noble
SOLO BOY
I am the clergy
SOLO BOY
I am the ordinary man
SOLO GIRL
I am hungry
SOLO GIRL
I am starving!
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
The cake needs re-carving!
TROUBLEMAKER
I'm a ravening wolf
MALE CHORUS
I'm a, I'm a, I'm a ravening wolf
FEMALE CHORUS
I'm a, I'm a, I'm a heart of thorns
MALE CHORUS
It's the end of the shield of divine law
TROUBLEMAKER
I'm the oak tree
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
I am the oak tree and I am the columbine
I am the pig searching for truffles
CHORUS
And I am the peacock whose feathers are ruffled
TROUBLEMAKER
Let us break all the shields
And soil the ermine
Take the oak and the olive tree
Make their philosophy our own
The pigs eat the acorns
The rich eat the pork
The poor eat the olives and spit out the stones
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We only ask a little tax from the nobility
The spat out stone will grow in time into an olive tree
We will smoke our pork over a fire of basilic
TROUBLEMAKER
And we will plant the laurel tree
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
To make
TROUBLEMAKER
To make
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
A wreath
TROUBLEMAKER
A wreath
A wreath to crown the République
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We will smoke our pork upon the pyre of privilege
The flames of castles burning will dance from ridge to ridge
We'll break all the shields
Spit out all the stones
Make the oak and the olive trees' philosophy our own
The pigs eat the acorns
The rich eat the pork
The poor eat the olives and spit out the stones
CHORUS
We will smoke the pork on a fire of basilic
We will plant the laurel tree to make our laurel wreaths
To crown, to crown, to crown the République!
Scene 3
"The Grievances of the People"
RINGMASTER
The sparrow, bedraggled, looks up through the rain
And dreams of a little more grain
The peacock, plump in his place in the sun
Ignores the sound of the distant guns
Their thunder falls upon deaf ears
The peacock never sniffs the air
He fails to see that a starvation diet brings
The scent of riot on the breeze
The King; The State; La France
Each of the above must with regret cut off all payment
The cupboard is bare
The State of France lies in disrepair
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The Bishops hide the grain; to the attics it's sent
If everyone is hungry, tell me, who can be content?
SOLO BOY
Altogether now!
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
We hand out pamphlets, we join a club
We shout out slogans that we make up
We thumb our noses, at those above
We hand out pamphlets, we join a club
TROUBLEMAKER
We join a club, a safety net
But it's more like a gin trap that's been carefully set
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We write what we can on the cow's flayed hide
Our grievances are noted and then brushed to one side
But the pain we feel keeps us alive
TROUBLEMAKER
Bushes and bones and sticks and stones
CHORUS
Now, then, women and men
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
In Manosque the bishops get what they deserve
Stoned to death and we retrieve the grain from their reserves
FEMALE CHORUS
We plunder all the bakeries
CHORUS
Searching for our courage in...
MALE CHORUS
Searching for our courage in...
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Searching for our courage in...
RINGMASTER & MARIE MARIANNE
...this folly
Scene 4
"France in Disarray"
RINGMASTER
The winger of eight-eight and nine
Was aching cold, it chilled the very soul
They came from the country in twos and threes
A trickle, a river, a torrent, a sea,
Driven by hunger, driven by pain
SERGEANT
Company...Halt!...
RINGMASTER
A hundred thousand reached the barricade
SERGEANT
Present... Fire!...
RINGMASTER
Three hundred dead, shot down like rats
Three hundred lives, snuffed out like that
Have a care if you treat your people like vermin
You could end up with bloodstained ermine
But soft
As ever in the ebb and flow
Sweet reason, deft and incorrupt
Adoring of the human kind illuminates man's plight
Should be embrace
The brute and base
Tilt blindly at the carousel
Or note, at least, the other voice
And entertain the choice
Between the darkness and the light?
MARIE MARIANNE
To laugh is to know how to live
To see is to know everything
To read is to hold the key that you need
The key you need to set you free
RINGMASTER
All the world can see that in this great library
There's a good medicine against tyranny
And the movement of the heavens
Though it may last forever
sees no right, no wrong, no weak, no strong
And the star you see in the sky and the moon and the sun
Shine on prince and pauper alike and favour no one
SOLO GIRL & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
The politics of the Rights of Man
Is the sharing of apples with an even hand
TO plant a tree were birds my sit
But who in France will nurture it
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Slaves, landlords, bigots at your door
Aristocrats, Democrats, survivors of the North American war
Some with heart, some without hate
Some with faith in the human race
And so the loan sharks
Selling dreams in honeyed tones like skylarks
And rats who speak like cats of sacred rights
The sacred rights of the family
MARIE MARIANNE
And all those brave souls both brave enough and crazy enough
To spill their blood for truth alone
That one or two ideas survive, always survive
Writ in blood on paving stones
RINGMASTER
Writ in blood
MARIE MARIANNE
On paving stones
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
And the noble class who rule
Having been to all the best schools
Have thought it through and are good enough
To explain what is best for us
It came to them in a dream
In a blinding flash of light
Equality, fraternity and not just in the afterlife
And they promise us reading
And they promise us reading
CHILDREN'S CHORUS & FEMALE CHORUS
If we kneel before the King
If we kneel before the King
SOLO CHILD
So this is the State of France
RINGMASTER, REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & MARIE MARIANNE
And on the street corners
The broadsheets all carry the usual story
A people dying to believe in some benign authority
To lead them down a road that’s paved with glory
To lead them down a road that’s paved with glory
Scene 5
"The Fall of the Bastille"
RINGMASTER
Birds flock, when winter settles in
The Harlequin with dunce's cap and silver horn
All mournful, mocking eye and painted tear,
Has seen it all before
The sparrows hurl in the face of glazed imperium,
Then stunned, affronted, fall
Then, picking up perch braggart on the wire and
Launch towards the south, towards the land of fire
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
To freeze in the dead of night
To burn in divine law
Deep in the crucible brine
The sorrow and the rage entwine
And coil and climb towards the light
The quill is poised above the page
Words like falling rain slake the thirst and dowse the flames
Cooling in the crucible and idea forms
A nugget of belief in the hearts of the poor
That maybe in the dawn's new light
They have a right to the law
RINGMASTER
So to the streets in the pouring rain
The dispossessed and the drunk and the lame
Gathered in bands and took the law into their own hands
Like the daring young man on the flying trapeze
Like birds flying into a storm
They took the great leap
And launched themselves into the void
CHORUS
We broke into the arsenal, Les Invalides
Found cannonball and powder, everything we need
We marched on the Bastille
The home of tyranny
Killed the jailer
And set two madmen free
RINGMASTER
When you have an army of your own
You get to choose
Who will live
Who will die
Who will win
Who will lose
TROUBLEMAKER
A piece of prison stone
Is all I have to call my own
Insight to see the other side
Strength and weakness, love and pride
Is all I have to leave my child
If my child survives
He'll judge men by their deeds and not their smiles
He'll keep his taste of good red wine
His pride, his friends, his lust for life
These are the things that will avail him
If my child survives...
(Curtain)
Scene 1
"A Garden in Vienna, 1765"
RINGMASTER
Within our humble sawdust ring
The players are arraigned
The powerful and puny
The saintly and deranged
The Honest Bird, a future queen
All innocent and green
Sparring all the livelong day
Make ready for our play
So gentles all, who will hold sway
To a garden in Vienna, let us make our way...
MARIE THERESE
Madame Antoine, Madame Antoine
It's getting dark outside
It's time to come in
MADAME ANTOINE
Oh Mother!
MARIE THERESE
Madame Antoine, it's time to come in
MADAME ANTOINE
Yes, yes mother, I'm coming
One day...
One day I'll be Queen
Live on peaches and cream
Wear satin and lace
And laugh in the faces
Of the teachers and priests
And the boys will all fawn
Fawn before me like beasts
MARIE THERESE
Madame Antoine, it's time to come in
HONEST BIRD
Little princess, so sure you are right
But your endless day is their endless night
You can preen in the limelight
In your diamonds in pearls
But the children go hungry
In that other world
MARIE THERESE
Madame Antoine, it's time to come in
MADAME ANTOINE
Little sparrow fly back to wherever you're from
You could never imagine the plane I live on
The intricate steps of the tumblers and clowns
Are above and beyond you cock robin
So just you pipe down
Scene 2
"Kings, Sticks and Birds"
RINGMASTER
Ladies and Gentlemen
Imagine a bird on song in a tree
An ordinary bird like you or like me
Imagine some ruffian happening by
And beating him within an inch of his life
CHORUS
Ahh!
RINGMASTER
Then a priest from some denomination
Witnessing this abomination
Blesses not the bird but the beast
The Unknown Soldier appears on the field
And takes the bird's feathers to put on his shield
Then a powerful judge from the high court
Decrees that the birds really ought
Not be allowed to sing in the trees
But then one day
Some of the priests and soldiers and judges
Putting aside some old worn grudges
Changes their minds and the birds sang again
It was the Revolution
The Revolution is a story of birds
Of sticks and stones and bushes and bones
RINGMASTER & CHORUS
A story of now, a story of then
A story of woman, a story of men
RINGMASTER
A story of everything to come
Of everything under the sun
MARIE MARIANNE
Honest bird, simple bird
Just longing to be spreading the word
Feeling the rain, feeling the sun
But your time has not come
Your song is not heard
Honest bird
MALE CHORUS
Singing is forbidden in the fig tree
Singing is forbidden in the olive tree
Singing is forbidden in the pear tree
No singing in the olive or the fig or the pear tree
MALE CHORUS & CHILDREN
No more singing in the fig tree
No more singing in the pear tree
Someone’s hanging in the olive
There's someone hanging in the olive tree
Singing in the fig tree, that's forbidden
Singing in the pear tee, that’s forbidden
Singing in the olive, that's forbidden
Someone's hanging in the olive tree
Someone's hanging in the olive tree
MARIE MARIANNE
You come to earth, you have no choice
Could be a seamstress or serving girl
Or butcher's boy
Could be a dead beat
Or one of the elite
Maybe the bird ill find his voice
And make a choice
From all the wheat and all the chaff
It's the knowledge that you glean
Makes you what you'll be
And the knowledge that you lack
A rod for your own back
Leaves you in purgatory
Honest bird, simple bird
Make your choice, find your voice
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Make your choice, find your voice
CHORUS
I want to be King, Queen, Courtesan, Dauphin
I want to be Cardinal, Capitaine, King of Kings
I want to be God
SOLO BOY
I want to be the King
SOLO GIRL
I want to be the Queen
SOLO GIRL
I want to be the Courtesan
SOLO BOY
I want to be the Dauphin
SOLO BOY
I want to be the Cardinal
SOLO BOY
I want to be the Capitaine
CHORUS
I want to be the King of Kings
I want to be God
SOLO BOY
I am a great big pig
SOLO BOY
I am the King of France
SOLO BOY
His wife likes to dance
SOLO BOY
I am the Church of Rome
I stand behind the throne
SOLO BOY
I am the public purse; they think I'm bottomless
SOLO BOY
I am the public accounts; I admit I'm a bit of a mess
SOLO GIRL
I am the American war and they say I'm rather greedy
SOLO GIRL
I am the national debt; I’m big but needy
SOLO BOY
I am a noble
SOLO BOY
I am the clergy
SOLO BOY
I am the ordinary man
SOLO GIRL
I am hungry
SOLO GIRL
I am starving!
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
The cake needs re-carving!
TROUBLEMAKER
I'm a ravening wolf
MALE CHORUS
I'm a, I'm a, I'm a ravening wolf
FEMALE CHORUS
I'm a, I'm a, I'm a heart of thorns
MALE CHORUS
It's the end of the shield of divine law
TROUBLEMAKER
I'm the oak tree
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
I am the oak tree and I am the columbine
I am the pig searching for truffles
CHORUS
And I am the peacock whose feathers are ruffled
TROUBLEMAKER
Let us break all the shields
And soil the ermine
Take the oak and the olive tree
Make their philosophy our own
The pigs eat the acorns
The rich eat the pork
The poor eat the olives and spit out the stones
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We only ask a little tax from the nobility
The spat out stone will grow in time into an olive tree
We will smoke our pork over a fire of basilic
TROUBLEMAKER
And we will plant the laurel tree
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
To make
TROUBLEMAKER
To make
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
A wreath
TROUBLEMAKER
A wreath
A wreath to crown the République
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We will smoke our pork upon the pyre of privilege
The flames of castles burning will dance from ridge to ridge
We'll break all the shields
Spit out all the stones
Make the oak and the olive trees' philosophy our own
The pigs eat the acorns
The rich eat the pork
The poor eat the olives and spit out the stones
CHORUS
We will smoke the pork on a fire of basilic
We will plant the laurel tree to make our laurel wreaths
To crown, to crown, to crown the République!
Scene 3
"The Grievances of the People"
RINGMASTER
The sparrow, bedraggled, looks up through the rain
And dreams of a little more grain
The peacock, plump in his place in the sun
Ignores the sound of the distant guns
Their thunder falls upon deaf ears
The peacock never sniffs the air
He fails to see that a starvation diet brings
The scent of riot on the breeze
The King; The State; La France
Each of the above must with regret cut off all payment
The cupboard is bare
The State of France lies in disrepair
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The Bishops hide the grain; to the attics it's sent
If everyone is hungry, tell me, who can be content?
SOLO BOY
Altogether now!
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
We hand out pamphlets, we join a club
We shout out slogans that we make up
We thumb our noses, at those above
We hand out pamphlets, we join a club
TROUBLEMAKER
We join a club, a safety net
But it's more like a gin trap that's been carefully set
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We write what we can on the cow's flayed hide
Our grievances are noted and then brushed to one side
But the pain we feel keeps us alive
TROUBLEMAKER
Bushes and bones and sticks and stones
CHORUS
Now, then, women and men
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
In Manosque the bishops get what they deserve
Stoned to death and we retrieve the grain from their reserves
FEMALE CHORUS
We plunder all the bakeries
CHORUS
Searching for our courage in...
MALE CHORUS
Searching for our courage in...
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Searching for our courage in...
RINGMASTER & MARIE MARIANNE
...this folly
Scene 4
"France in Disarray"
RINGMASTER
The winger of eight-eight and nine
Was aching cold, it chilled the very soul
They came from the country in twos and threes
A trickle, a river, a torrent, a sea,
Driven by hunger, driven by pain
SERGEANT
Company...Halt!...
RINGMASTER
A hundred thousand reached the barricade
SERGEANT
Present... Fire!...
RINGMASTER
Three hundred dead, shot down like rats
Three hundred lives, snuffed out like that
Have a care if you treat your people like vermin
You could end up with bloodstained ermine
But soft
As ever in the ebb and flow
Sweet reason, deft and incorrupt
Adoring of the human kind illuminates man's plight
Should be embrace
The brute and base
Tilt blindly at the carousel
Or note, at least, the other voice
And entertain the choice
Between the darkness and the light?
MARIE MARIANNE
To laugh is to know how to live
To see is to know everything
To read is to hold the key that you need
The key you need to set you free
RINGMASTER
All the world can see that in this great library
There's a good medicine against tyranny
And the movement of the heavens
Though it may last forever
sees no right, no wrong, no weak, no strong
And the star you see in the sky and the moon and the sun
Shine on prince and pauper alike and favour no one
SOLO GIRL & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
The politics of the Rights of Man
Is the sharing of apples with an even hand
TO plant a tree were birds my sit
But who in France will nurture it
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Slaves, landlords, bigots at your door
Aristocrats, Democrats, survivors of the North American war
Some with heart, some without hate
Some with faith in the human race
And so the loan sharks
Selling dreams in honeyed tones like skylarks
And rats who speak like cats of sacred rights
The sacred rights of the family
MARIE MARIANNE
And all those brave souls both brave enough and crazy enough
To spill their blood for truth alone
That one or two ideas survive, always survive
Writ in blood on paving stones
RINGMASTER
Writ in blood
MARIE MARIANNE
On paving stones
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
And the noble class who rule
Having been to all the best schools
Have thought it through and are good enough
To explain what is best for us
It came to them in a dream
In a blinding flash of light
Equality, fraternity and not just in the afterlife
And they promise us reading
And they promise us reading
CHILDREN'S CHORUS & FEMALE CHORUS
If we kneel before the King
If we kneel before the King
SOLO CHILD
So this is the State of France
RINGMASTER, REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & MARIE MARIANNE
And on the street corners
The broadsheets all carry the usual story
A people dying to believe in some benign authority
To lead them down a road that’s paved with glory
To lead them down a road that’s paved with glory
Scene 5
"The Fall of the Bastille"
RINGMASTER
Birds flock, when winter settles in
The Harlequin with dunce's cap and silver horn
All mournful, mocking eye and painted tear,
Has seen it all before
The sparrows hurl in the face of glazed imperium,
Then stunned, affronted, fall
Then, picking up perch braggart on the wire and
Launch towards the south, towards the land of fire
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
To freeze in the dead of night
To burn in divine law
Deep in the crucible brine
The sorrow and the rage entwine
And coil and climb towards the light
The quill is poised above the page
Words like falling rain slake the thirst and dowse the flames
Cooling in the crucible and idea forms
A nugget of belief in the hearts of the poor
That maybe in the dawn's new light
They have a right to the law
RINGMASTER
So to the streets in the pouring rain
The dispossessed and the drunk and the lame
Gathered in bands and took the law into their own hands
Like the daring young man on the flying trapeze
Like birds flying into a storm
They took the great leap
And launched themselves into the void
CHORUS
We broke into the arsenal, Les Invalides
Found cannonball and powder, everything we need
We marched on the Bastille
The home of tyranny
Killed the jailer
And set two madmen free
RINGMASTER
When you have an army of your own
You get to choose
Who will live
Who will die
Who will win
Who will lose
TROUBLEMAKER
A piece of prison stone
Is all I have to call my own
Insight to see the other side
Strength and weakness, love and pride
Is all I have to leave my child
If my child survives
He'll judge men by their deeds and not their smiles
He'll keep his taste of good red wine
His pride, his friends, his lust for life
These are the things that will avail him
If my child survives...
(Curtain)
Roger Waters - Ca Ira
Roger Waters - Ca Ira 26th September 2005
“Act One Scenes 1 - 5” (Waters)
“Act One Scenes 1 - 5” (Waters)
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