ACT THREE
Scene 1
"The Fugitive King"
RINGMASTER
And high above,
Homing in the restless sky,
Rooks, melancholy, proclaim a schism between
God, sacred, and the Crown, profane
Between the heavens and the King
The dark horizon cracks a crooked grin,
Admitting one small grain of change
Then two, then four, then bit by bit,
Then tock by tick
All the old presumptions hove in rings
KING
The King is afraid that his kingdom is slipping away
QUEEN
The Queen pines for the good times at Versailles
KING
He works on his locks to the sound of the ticking of clocks
QUEEN
The children play in a garden that's ringed with steel
KING
They wanted to visit St. Cloud to be able to
KING & QUEEN
Breathe in the air
OFFICER
The National Guard forbad them to leave
KING & QUEEN
But the Marquis of Boulli had a trump card up his sleeve
RINGMASTER
The Marquis of Boulli a good General
And fiercely loyal to the crown
With his army in the East
Hatched a plan to see the King released
QUEEN
The Queen assuming the title Baroness Korrf
Her papers signed by the King of course
Set forth before the break of day
To join up with Boulli in Alsace Lorraine
OFFICER
From the shadows King Louis disguised as a humble valet
Sneaks out to make his getaway
With a small entourage of course
OFFICER & CHORUS
Just a few hundred light horse
TROUBLEMAKER
Well let him go, let him run, with his Austrian whore
TROUBLEMAKER & MALE CHORUS
Let him go to Prussia
OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
Let him go to Austria
Let him go and die there
TROUBLEMAKER & MALE CHORUS
Let him go
OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
Let him go
TROUBLEMAKER, OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
Let him rot wit his Austrian Queen
CHORUS
That the Republic at last can come into being
But wait, fate would intervene
OFFICER
A keen-eyed postmaster by chance
OFFICER & CHORUS
Recognized the King and Queen and
CHORUS
Rode ahead to raise the alarm
RINGMASTER
In Parliament the moderates have their say
CONDORCET
The King has not fled
He was kidnapped instead
And spirited away
OFFICER
To suggest that the King would run is a damnable lie
CONDORCET
It sticks in our throats and conflicts with our national pride
OFFICER
But the Austrian court
And Brunswick of course
Say they'll declare war
If the King's not restored
TROUBLEMAKER (mimicking Brunswick)
You must leave the King alone
Or all of Paris will be torn down
Down to the very last stone
TROUBLEMAKER & OFFICER
Paris will be pulverized
Down to the very last bone
QUEEN
When the carriage returned
The acrid smoke of bridges burned
Hung heavy like a stifled sigh
And they say the Queen had a tear in here eye
OFFICER
When through the carriage window
Louis turned to face his peers
A loyal friend, the Comte de Dampierre
Doffed his cap with elegance
In deference to the King
A brave and foolish thing to do
In light o f the prevailing mood
CHORUS
A few drops in her eye
A nice touch, a good try
Too little, too late
For a last roll of the die
RINGMASTER & CHORUS
The crowd in a gesture less than elegant
Brutally remove his head
RINGMASTER
Brutally remove his head
CHORUS
Brutally remove his head
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
To take your hat off
Is the gesture of a toff
But even his lordship needs a head
To take his hat off of
So Dampierre lost his life
By being somewhat too polite
In face of all the pain and fear that festered
For more than a thousand years
SERGEANT (off stage)
By the left, Quick March!
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Dampierre has lost his head
The King has lost his grown
The carriage rolls through the streets
The crowd jeers, the wheels squeak
Hey, hey, what goes around
Always comes around
MALE CHORUS
IN Germany and England
They celebrate our liberty
Over there by and by
They'll have their 14th of July
In Germany and England they fete our
MALE CHORUS & CHILDREN
Liberty
OFFICER
The National Assembly try to whitewash the King
MALE CHORUS
His brothers in law
Are camped on every border
They fear to depose him
Would men war
MARIE MARIANNE, RINGMASTER, OFFICER & CHORUS
But feelings run deep
And the man in the street
Hungry, weak but unbowed
Scents the taste so sweet of peacock meat
As it wafts over the crowd
So they march to the Camps du Mars
To demand Republic now
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Republic here, now, today
The National Assembly
Has got it wrong
SERGEANT
Present...
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
We sing in the Camps du Mars
SERGEANT
Take Aim...
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
We sing of what we want
SERGEANT
FIRE!
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Repub--
RINGMASTER
The echoes never fade from the fusillade
Lafayette fired upon
An unarmed crowd, six thousand strong
The fragile ship of State
Sinks beneath the waves
The crashing sea of blood
Drowns out the sound of the parade
The tidied up the Camps du Mars
They piled up the dead
The dead whose only crime had been
To dream of freedom
The dead who'd never get to see
The King would be restored instead
Scene 2
"The Commune De Paris"
RINGMASTER
The Monarchy restored
The crown sits tilted and uneasy now
The Girondins, one eye cocked nervous in the East,
Are loath to bring it down
TROUBLEMAKER
But at the gates
Beyond the palsied grip of limp and timid politics
The Marseillais are girded for the fray
With pike and pick and bloodied stick
They'll plant the laurel tree
And their song will be a fanfare for the Commune de Paris...
MALE CHORUS
Vive la Commune De Paris
For the love of God
IN the name of freedom
For the crippled and the poor
RINGMASTER
The bells ring out the tambourine beats
The rise and fall of voices
The sound of marching feet
Signals the demise of the Capet dynasty
TROUBLEMAKER
It's not whether now but when
The King and Queen have only men
From Switzerland to defend the Tuileries
Remorseless as a rising tide
The san culottes prepare to die
Vive la Commune de Paris
CHORUS
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Vive la Commune de Paris in God's name
CHORUS
In God's name
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Vive la Commune de Paris
For the
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
Halt and the maimed
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Who have no Pope and no hope of paradise
CHORUS
No hope of paradise
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
And nothing to lose but their miserable earthly lives...
CHORUS
Nothing to lose but their lives
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Everyone under the sun has the power
To change the way the world is arranged
MALE CHORUS
If you don't use it
The powers that be will abuse it
Give up but half of our power
And you'll get shafted
CHORUS
Vi......ve la Commune de Paris
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
Vive la, vive la, viva la Commune
Vive la, vive la, viva la Commune de Paris
RINGMASTER
The National Assembly is confused
The Girondins blow back and forth
Like flags and ashes scattered by the truth
BOY
Oi, Mister... What is a Girondid?
RINGMASTER
A Girondin is careful of the company he keeps
He looks to find a sign before he leaps
TROUBLEMAKER
Like ranks of Marseillaise, six hundred deep
Arraigned before the Tuileries
CHORUS
It's the end of monarchy
Vive la Commune de Paris!
RINGMASTER
The presence of the Prussians on the border
IS a worrisome thing
The Brunswick manifesto
Serves only to stiffen the sinews
And weaken the King
To depose him now
Fills the Girondid hearts with fear
But the Prussians cross the border
And the order of the day becomes clear
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
The monarchy is over
No more days in clover
CHORUS
The monarchy, c'est fini
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Brunswick is a liar; just listen to our cannon fire
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The National Assembly comes in line
With the half and the maimed
And the dead and the dying
The monarchy, c'est fini
Scene 3
"The Execution of Louis Capet"
RINGMASTER
In the spring of ninety-two
The Austrians and the Prussians too
Crossed the line
The war had come
The people went to see the King
Reluctantly he let them in
RINGMASTER & CHORUS
And over tea they said that
He must choose one hat
RINGMASTER
A crown in Koblenz with his friends
Or if he chose to make amends
He might adopt
CHORUS
He might adopt
RINGMASTER & CHORUS
Their scarlet bonnet
RINGMASTER
Surprise, surprise, when left to choose
Too late he chose "The Bonnet Rouge"
MARIE MARIANNE
Adieu Louis for you it's over
Too many carpenters and bookkeepers and gardeners
Gave their ordinary lives to be free
On the battlefields of the Tuileries
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
To be King is a sacred trust
But you betrayed us
Poor King Louis
We must take your life
Clean the slate, start anew
Poor Louis, it's over for you
TROUBLEMAKER
The time for grief is not yet here
It’s to build a world without tears
That we toll the funeral bell
And shed our precious blood
Poor Louis and your precious blood as well
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Poor King Louis, you'll soon be dead
Poor King Louis, far from your bed
TROUBLEMAKER
Far from your bed
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Life must always end to start anew
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Poor King Louis
It's over for you!
QUEEN
It's always the terror you can rely on
To eat its way into your heart
Like rust and there to spy on
The blood, the blade, the speeches made
That mingle in your very entrails
Scene 4
"Marie Antoinette - The Last Night on Earth"
RINGMASTER
The widow now bereft, abhorred
Counts numbered fays the summer long
In Temple Prison with her spawn
On pretext of 'unnatural acts'
With jests and jibes and guile and facts
The 'sans culottes' prune the tree
Now a sister to the dispossessed
The halt, like maimed and all the rest
Like a leaf on a pitiless sea
Shorn of family and rank
Humbled in the dank air
She mingles with the dancers macabre
And the ghostly dancers twirl
In that dread minuet
And beggar the illusions of that little Austrian Girl
QUEEN
Adieu my good and tender sister
I am condemned to die
My only regret is to abandon my children
My children, my God, how it tears me to leave them
My love for them was always first and last
My God, I miss my children so
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Madame Antoine, if we could only turn back the clock
TO that garden in Vienna
MARIE THERESE & FEMALE CHORUS
Madame Antoine, Madame Antoine,
Mother is calling, darkness is falling
QUEEN
Monsieur, I know thee not
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The oak tree without and the peach tree within
Your mother was calling
The darkness was falling
QUEEN
MY little cock robin pray kneel here beside me
The dance is about to begin
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Courage Madame, in this great rebirth
Like wind-fallen fruit we return to the earth
QUEEN
I saw but a priest
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
I am but a man
Madame, please take my hand
QUEEN
Monsieur, please take my hand
Scene 5
"Liberty"
TROUBLEMAKER
We want to get rid of the Guillotine
And abolish pain somehow
But to make a world free of tears
We build these scaffolds now
OFFICER
Come dry your tears and pray explain
How can we abolish pain?
If we don't build these scaffolds now
These instruments of injustice
These tools of execution
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We've given to the Guillotine
More blood than you have ever seen
What end could justify these means?
OFFICER
We've given more of our blood
MALE CHORUS
We've given
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We've given more of our blood
MALE CHORUS
We've given
OFFICER
We've given more of our blood
MALE CHORUS
More of our blood
CHORUS
We've given, we've given
More blood than we could turn to love
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & OFFICER
Than we could ever hope to turn to
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Love
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & OFFICER
More blood, than we could
Ever hope could turn to love
CHORUS
We've given, we've given
More blood, than we could turn to love
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Come angles of mercy
Come doves of peace
Shine a light on all these warring clubs and cliques
OFFICER
The jackal and hyena who prowl these city streets
Would turn in their own mother for a little extra meat
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
From the piles of dead the Republic comes to life
Her mutilated body reeling like a drunken fishwife
Gives birth to the future
OFFICER
Gives birth on the street
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, OFFICER & CHORUS
Impure and exultant she gives birth to the dream
RINGMASTER & MARIE MARIANNE
When the dream
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
When the dream
RINGMASTER & MARIE MARIANNE
Is understood
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Is understood
RINGMASTER, REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & MARIE MARIANNE
That no man should live in chains
That the great and the small are equal after all
RINGMASTER
And in the bushes where they survive
The winder hail and the slaughter
The birds were attacked by the dogs and the rats
Hiding round every corner
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
When you're a rat caught in a trap with not even cheese you get mean
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
But we are not rats
OFFICER
When you're a rabid dog you need to spread your disease
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
But we are not dogs
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & OFFICER
When you're a man and they say you should be an angel
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
We're not even human
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
When you're less than nothing
OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
Less than nothing
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, OFFICER & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Less than nothing as sure as the sparrows sing
MARIE MARIANNE
If wishes give us power to make it all come right
If we could walk through mirrors
IF we could touch the light
We'd shrug off our illusions and what was left would be
Te strength and bravery
To feel what we feel
And be what we'd be...
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Of all the woman none can hold a light to liberty
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
With wings to fly and eyes to see
TROUBLEMAKER & CHORUS
She's the one who loves us
The one that we adore
When you're laughing with the sun out
Or lying wounded in a dug out
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
With wings to fly and eyes to see
Freedom is her name
OFFICER
She makes a fearsome ally
If you stand up with no shame
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
But liberty is nothing if you love her on your knees
OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
And liberty can't hear you when you're hanging from an olive tree!
RINGMASTER
If we don't founder in pursuit luxury
In forgetfulness of others needs
And in the depths of our own believes
MARIE MARIANNE
If we don't hide in that solitary dream
Safe in our shells
In respect for the powers that be
And in fear of our selves
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
If wishes could come true
If mirrors could be seen through
No more mystery
Only the strength and bravery
To help one another
To see what its like to be...
Happy!
No bird needs to be afraid
To leave his nest and to parade
Up and down the boulevard all day,
All day, all day!
No bird must be greedy
And eat up all the seed
'Til every bird has had enough,
Every bird
Be he rich or be he poor
Be he great or be he small
Every bird, every bird, every bird, every bird
Will go to the ball
RINGMASTER
If this life's a journey we take
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
If the secret the sharing cake
MARIE MARIANNE
Holds the key, holds the key to joy
RINGMASTER
And unlocks these doors inside
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Where Republic must surely hide
MARIE MARIANNE
If wishes really could come true
RINGMASTER
If we see through the illusions
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
And abide by the constitution
MARIE MARIANNE
There'll be human rights for everyone
CHORUS
Unique and universal
COMPANY
For everyone
Under the sun!
RINGMASTER, REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, MARIE MARIANNE, TROUBLEMAKER & OFFICER
If we are not lost in these towers of ivory
In respect for the strong
And in fear of our need to belong
The promise of Republic lies within
Ça Ira
COMPANY
Ça Ira!
(Curtain)
Scene 1
"The Fugitive King"
RINGMASTER
And high above,
Homing in the restless sky,
Rooks, melancholy, proclaim a schism between
God, sacred, and the Crown, profane
Between the heavens and the King
The dark horizon cracks a crooked grin,
Admitting one small grain of change
Then two, then four, then bit by bit,
Then tock by tick
All the old presumptions hove in rings
KING
The King is afraid that his kingdom is slipping away
QUEEN
The Queen pines for the good times at Versailles
KING
He works on his locks to the sound of the ticking of clocks
QUEEN
The children play in a garden that's ringed with steel
KING
They wanted to visit St. Cloud to be able to
KING & QUEEN
Breathe in the air
OFFICER
The National Guard forbad them to leave
KING & QUEEN
But the Marquis of Boulli had a trump card up his sleeve
RINGMASTER
The Marquis of Boulli a good General
And fiercely loyal to the crown
With his army in the East
Hatched a plan to see the King released
QUEEN
The Queen assuming the title Baroness Korrf
Her papers signed by the King of course
Set forth before the break of day
To join up with Boulli in Alsace Lorraine
OFFICER
From the shadows King Louis disguised as a humble valet
Sneaks out to make his getaway
With a small entourage of course
OFFICER & CHORUS
Just a few hundred light horse
TROUBLEMAKER
Well let him go, let him run, with his Austrian whore
TROUBLEMAKER & MALE CHORUS
Let him go to Prussia
OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
Let him go to Austria
Let him go and die there
TROUBLEMAKER & MALE CHORUS
Let him go
OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
Let him go
TROUBLEMAKER, OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
Let him rot wit his Austrian Queen
CHORUS
That the Republic at last can come into being
But wait, fate would intervene
OFFICER
A keen-eyed postmaster by chance
OFFICER & CHORUS
Recognized the King and Queen and
CHORUS
Rode ahead to raise the alarm
RINGMASTER
In Parliament the moderates have their say
CONDORCET
The King has not fled
He was kidnapped instead
And spirited away
OFFICER
To suggest that the King would run is a damnable lie
CONDORCET
It sticks in our throats and conflicts with our national pride
OFFICER
But the Austrian court
And Brunswick of course
Say they'll declare war
If the King's not restored
TROUBLEMAKER (mimicking Brunswick)
You must leave the King alone
Or all of Paris will be torn down
Down to the very last stone
TROUBLEMAKER & OFFICER
Paris will be pulverized
Down to the very last bone
QUEEN
When the carriage returned
The acrid smoke of bridges burned
Hung heavy like a stifled sigh
And they say the Queen had a tear in here eye
OFFICER
When through the carriage window
Louis turned to face his peers
A loyal friend, the Comte de Dampierre
Doffed his cap with elegance
In deference to the King
A brave and foolish thing to do
In light o f the prevailing mood
CHORUS
A few drops in her eye
A nice touch, a good try
Too little, too late
For a last roll of the die
RINGMASTER & CHORUS
The crowd in a gesture less than elegant
Brutally remove his head
RINGMASTER
Brutally remove his head
CHORUS
Brutally remove his head
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
To take your hat off
Is the gesture of a toff
But even his lordship needs a head
To take his hat off of
So Dampierre lost his life
By being somewhat too polite
In face of all the pain and fear that festered
For more than a thousand years
SERGEANT (off stage)
By the left, Quick March!
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Dampierre has lost his head
The King has lost his grown
The carriage rolls through the streets
The crowd jeers, the wheels squeak
Hey, hey, what goes around
Always comes around
MALE CHORUS
IN Germany and England
They celebrate our liberty
Over there by and by
They'll have their 14th of July
In Germany and England they fete our
MALE CHORUS & CHILDREN
Liberty
OFFICER
The National Assembly try to whitewash the King
MALE CHORUS
His brothers in law
Are camped on every border
They fear to depose him
Would men war
MARIE MARIANNE, RINGMASTER, OFFICER & CHORUS
But feelings run deep
And the man in the street
Hungry, weak but unbowed
Scents the taste so sweet of peacock meat
As it wafts over the crowd
So they march to the Camps du Mars
To demand Republic now
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Republic here, now, today
The National Assembly
Has got it wrong
SERGEANT
Present...
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
We sing in the Camps du Mars
SERGEANT
Take Aim...
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
We sing of what we want
SERGEANT
FIRE!
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Repub--
RINGMASTER
The echoes never fade from the fusillade
Lafayette fired upon
An unarmed crowd, six thousand strong
The fragile ship of State
Sinks beneath the waves
The crashing sea of blood
Drowns out the sound of the parade
The tidied up the Camps du Mars
They piled up the dead
The dead whose only crime had been
To dream of freedom
The dead who'd never get to see
The King would be restored instead
Scene 2
"The Commune De Paris"
RINGMASTER
The Monarchy restored
The crown sits tilted and uneasy now
The Girondins, one eye cocked nervous in the East,
Are loath to bring it down
TROUBLEMAKER
But at the gates
Beyond the palsied grip of limp and timid politics
The Marseillais are girded for the fray
With pike and pick and bloodied stick
They'll plant the laurel tree
And their song will be a fanfare for the Commune de Paris...
MALE CHORUS
Vive la Commune De Paris
For the love of God
IN the name of freedom
For the crippled and the poor
RINGMASTER
The bells ring out the tambourine beats
The rise and fall of voices
The sound of marching feet
Signals the demise of the Capet dynasty
TROUBLEMAKER
It's not whether now but when
The King and Queen have only men
From Switzerland to defend the Tuileries
Remorseless as a rising tide
The san culottes prepare to die
Vive la Commune de Paris
CHORUS
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
Vive la Commune de Paris
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Vive la Commune de Paris in God's name
CHORUS
In God's name
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Vive la Commune de Paris
For the
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
Halt and the maimed
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Who have no Pope and no hope of paradise
CHORUS
No hope of paradise
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
And nothing to lose but their miserable earthly lives...
CHORUS
Nothing to lose but their lives
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Everyone under the sun has the power
To change the way the world is arranged
MALE CHORUS
If you don't use it
The powers that be will abuse it
Give up but half of our power
And you'll get shafted
CHORUS
Vi......ve la Commune de Paris
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
Vive la, vive la, viva la Commune
Vive la, vive la, viva la Commune de Paris
RINGMASTER
The National Assembly is confused
The Girondins blow back and forth
Like flags and ashes scattered by the truth
BOY
Oi, Mister... What is a Girondid?
RINGMASTER
A Girondin is careful of the company he keeps
He looks to find a sign before he leaps
TROUBLEMAKER
Like ranks of Marseillaise, six hundred deep
Arraigned before the Tuileries
CHORUS
It's the end of monarchy
Vive la Commune de Paris!
RINGMASTER
The presence of the Prussians on the border
IS a worrisome thing
The Brunswick manifesto
Serves only to stiffen the sinews
And weaken the King
To depose him now
Fills the Girondid hearts with fear
But the Prussians cross the border
And the order of the day becomes clear
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
The monarchy is over
No more days in clover
CHORUS
The monarchy, c'est fini
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Brunswick is a liar; just listen to our cannon fire
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The National Assembly comes in line
With the half and the maimed
And the dead and the dying
The monarchy, c'est fini
Scene 3
"The Execution of Louis Capet"
RINGMASTER
In the spring of ninety-two
The Austrians and the Prussians too
Crossed the line
The war had come
The people went to see the King
Reluctantly he let them in
RINGMASTER & CHORUS
And over tea they said that
He must choose one hat
RINGMASTER
A crown in Koblenz with his friends
Or if he chose to make amends
He might adopt
CHORUS
He might adopt
RINGMASTER & CHORUS
Their scarlet bonnet
RINGMASTER
Surprise, surprise, when left to choose
Too late he chose "The Bonnet Rouge"
MARIE MARIANNE
Adieu Louis for you it's over
Too many carpenters and bookkeepers and gardeners
Gave their ordinary lives to be free
On the battlefields of the Tuileries
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
To be King is a sacred trust
But you betrayed us
Poor King Louis
We must take your life
Clean the slate, start anew
Poor Louis, it's over for you
TROUBLEMAKER
The time for grief is not yet here
It’s to build a world without tears
That we toll the funeral bell
And shed our precious blood
Poor Louis and your precious blood as well
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Poor King Louis, you'll soon be dead
Poor King Louis, far from your bed
TROUBLEMAKER
Far from your bed
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Life must always end to start anew
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Poor King Louis
It's over for you!
QUEEN
It's always the terror you can rely on
To eat its way into your heart
Like rust and there to spy on
The blood, the blade, the speeches made
That mingle in your very entrails
Scene 4
"Marie Antoinette - The Last Night on Earth"
RINGMASTER
The widow now bereft, abhorred
Counts numbered fays the summer long
In Temple Prison with her spawn
On pretext of 'unnatural acts'
With jests and jibes and guile and facts
The 'sans culottes' prune the tree
Now a sister to the dispossessed
The halt, like maimed and all the rest
Like a leaf on a pitiless sea
Shorn of family and rank
Humbled in the dank air
She mingles with the dancers macabre
And the ghostly dancers twirl
In that dread minuet
And beggar the illusions of that little Austrian Girl
QUEEN
Adieu my good and tender sister
I am condemned to die
My only regret is to abandon my children
My children, my God, how it tears me to leave them
My love for them was always first and last
My God, I miss my children so
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Madame Antoine, if we could only turn back the clock
TO that garden in Vienna
MARIE THERESE & FEMALE CHORUS
Madame Antoine, Madame Antoine,
Mother is calling, darkness is falling
QUEEN
Monsieur, I know thee not
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
The oak tree without and the peach tree within
Your mother was calling
The darkness was falling
QUEEN
MY little cock robin pray kneel here beside me
The dance is about to begin
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Courage Madame, in this great rebirth
Like wind-fallen fruit we return to the earth
QUEEN
I saw but a priest
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
I am but a man
Madame, please take my hand
QUEEN
Monsieur, please take my hand
Scene 5
"Liberty"
TROUBLEMAKER
We want to get rid of the Guillotine
And abolish pain somehow
But to make a world free of tears
We build these scaffolds now
OFFICER
Come dry your tears and pray explain
How can we abolish pain?
If we don't build these scaffolds now
These instruments of injustice
These tools of execution
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We've given to the Guillotine
More blood than you have ever seen
What end could justify these means?
OFFICER
We've given more of our blood
MALE CHORUS
We've given
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
We've given more of our blood
MALE CHORUS
We've given
OFFICER
We've given more of our blood
MALE CHORUS
More of our blood
CHORUS
We've given, we've given
More blood than we could turn to love
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & OFFICER
Than we could ever hope to turn to
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Love
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & OFFICER
More blood, than we could
Ever hope could turn to love
CHORUS
We've given, we've given
More blood, than we could turn to love
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Come angles of mercy
Come doves of peace
Shine a light on all these warring clubs and cliques
OFFICER
The jackal and hyena who prowl these city streets
Would turn in their own mother for a little extra meat
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
From the piles of dead the Republic comes to life
Her mutilated body reeling like a drunken fishwife
Gives birth to the future
OFFICER
Gives birth on the street
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, OFFICER & CHORUS
Impure and exultant she gives birth to the dream
RINGMASTER & MARIE MARIANNE
When the dream
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
When the dream
RINGMASTER & MARIE MARIANNE
Is understood
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Is understood
RINGMASTER, REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & MARIE MARIANNE
That no man should live in chains
That the great and the small are equal after all
RINGMASTER
And in the bushes where they survive
The winder hail and the slaughter
The birds were attacked by the dogs and the rats
Hiding round every corner
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
When you're a rat caught in a trap with not even cheese you get mean
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
But we are not rats
OFFICER
When you're a rabid dog you need to spread your disease
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
But we are not dogs
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & OFFICER
When you're a man and they say you should be an angel
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
We're not even human
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
When you're less than nothing
OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
Less than nothing
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, OFFICER & CHILDREN'S CHORUS
Less than nothing as sure as the sparrows sing
MARIE MARIANNE
If wishes give us power to make it all come right
If we could walk through mirrors
IF we could touch the light
We'd shrug off our illusions and what was left would be
Te strength and bravery
To feel what we feel
And be what we'd be...
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Of all the woman none can hold a light to liberty
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
With wings to fly and eyes to see
TROUBLEMAKER & CHORUS
She's the one who loves us
The one that we adore
When you're laughing with the sun out
Or lying wounded in a dug out
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
With wings to fly and eyes to see
Freedom is her name
OFFICER
She makes a fearsome ally
If you stand up with no shame
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
But liberty is nothing if you love her on your knees
OFFICER & MALE CHORUS
And liberty can't hear you when you're hanging from an olive tree!
RINGMASTER
If we don't founder in pursuit luxury
In forgetfulness of others needs
And in the depths of our own believes
MARIE MARIANNE
If we don't hide in that solitary dream
Safe in our shells
In respect for the powers that be
And in fear of our selves
CHILDREN'S CHORUS
If wishes could come true
If mirrors could be seen through
No more mystery
Only the strength and bravery
To help one another
To see what its like to be...
Happy!
No bird needs to be afraid
To leave his nest and to parade
Up and down the boulevard all day,
All day, all day!
No bird must be greedy
And eat up all the seed
'Til every bird has had enough,
Every bird
Be he rich or be he poor
Be he great or be he small
Every bird, every bird, every bird, every bird
Will go to the ball
RINGMASTER
If this life's a journey we take
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
If the secret the sharing cake
MARIE MARIANNE
Holds the key, holds the key to joy
RINGMASTER
And unlocks these doors inside
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST
Where Republic must surely hide
MARIE MARIANNE
If wishes really could come true
RINGMASTER
If we see through the illusions
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & CHORUS
And abide by the constitution
MARIE MARIANNE
There'll be human rights for everyone
CHORUS
Unique and universal
COMPANY
For everyone
Under the sun!
RINGMASTER, REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, MARIE MARIANNE, TROUBLEMAKER & OFFICER
If we are not lost in these towers of ivory
In respect for the strong
And in fear of our need to belong
The promise of Republic lies within
Ça Ira
COMPANY
Ça Ira!
(Curtain)
Roger Waters - Ca Ira
Roger Waters - Ca Ira 26th September 2005
“Act Three Scenes 1 - 5” (Waters)
“Act Three Scenes 1 - 5” (Waters)
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