OTMA Act II Flashcards
Tatiana: No one bothers Papa. Understand?
Olga: They’re almost done building the fence around the house. We won’t be able to see people walk by anymore
Marie: I’ll miss seeing the children wave and the old people cross themselves as they pass the house
Olga: It’s like they’re preparing the house for something. God, it’s been a week, and still no reply
Marie: Maybe they’re making plans
Olga: Or changed their mind
Tatiana: … Olga?
Olga: What’s she reading
Tatiana: The Book of the Prophet Hosea
Olga: I’ll pass
Tatiana: Papa said maybe. If not, play cards with Alexey
Olga: It’s rehearsal time I think we should work on Trofimov’s speech again.
Marie: How many times do I have to say that speech?
Olga: Until you get it right
Marie: I hate that speech can’t we just cut it?
Olga: Trofimov’s speech is the cornerstone of the play. And playing him like a coquette is not helping the matter
Anastasia: I could play him. I’m really good at playing boys
Olga: You’re in the scene with Trofimov. You could play him Tatiana
Anastasia: And if you have any scenes with him or you overlap I’ll fix it
Olga: We can’t just keep cutting things we don’t like
Anastasia: We all agreed that Gayeev serves no purpose
Olga: That’s not true
Anastasia: He just hangs about making speeches to bookcases
Olga: I still think we’re missing something larger about Gayeev
Marie: We voted him out of the play. how many want Trofimov expelled from the orchard?
Olga: You can’t just vote a character out of the play
Marie: If you don’t play Trofimov, then he’s out
Olga: Fine I will. Okay. Anastasia let’s pick up where we left off yesterday. I’ll start
Varya’s afraid we’ll fall in love. That’s why she’s omnipresent. She doesn’t get it: you and I are above love. We’re not yoked to the petty, the imaginary - we’re free - and that makes us happy! That’s the goal and meaning of life. To go forward! We’re moving toward a future that’s like an open sky, full of white light, Anya! And we won’t fall behind.
Tatiana: That’s because he’s brainwashed you
Olga: Russia is our orchard. And there are wonderful places everywhere.
It’s amazing to me Anya: your grandfather, great-grandfather-all of your ancestors - owned serfs. Their souls are looking at you from every tree in the orchard, every leaf, every trunk. How come you can’t hear them? they’re telling you that your family is living in debt, at the expense of others, at the expense of people they wouldn’t even deign to have at thier dinner table! Nothing’s changed in their heads, while everything’s changed in the world. We’re all, everyone, me too, I’ll say it, living about two hundred years in the past, but we don’t even understand the past yet! We talk, we bitch, we get drunk - but it’s so clear that if we are to truly live in the present - truly - we first have to make up for our past. For owning people! For living off others. And not just making up for it, but close the book on it. But, this will only happen through suffering - and work. Work Anya! Tell me this makes sense to you.
Tatiana: It makes complete sense
Olga: You see I knew if I just conveyed it simply
Tatiana: Trofimov is one of those unemployed students spouting treason
Olga: He’s telling the truth about Russia. About what happened to us. Tania, aren’t you even the slightest bit curious as to why we wound up here, in this room with the windows nailed shut.
Tatiana: Don’t Olga, don’t become one of them
Olga: I am just trying to make you see why we are here.
Tatiana: We are here because people weren’t loyal
Olga: It’s hard to be loyal when you’re starving to death. What do the peasants say? It’s a long way to God, but the Tsar is unreachable.
Tatiana: There isn’t a nicer, more moral man than our Papa
Olga: Then why did his people call him Nicholas the Bloody?
Tatiana: Or sitting with Alexey night after night trying to soothe him
Olga: Papa wasn’t only our Papa, he was also the Tsar
Tatiana: Papa loved his people
Olga: The Tsars have not always loved their people
Marie: But God gives the Tsar the power to rule. In turn the Tsar must love his people
Olga: There once was a Tsar who did not. But the peasants thought if they could only get the Tsar to listen, then perhaps he would love them. Thirty thousand peasants in their Sunday best led by a priest singing “God save the Tsar” marched into the square of the Winter Palace with a petition for their “little farther”.
Marie: Did the Tsar listen? Did he read their petition?
Olga: Once the crowd was inside the square, barricades were set up. They did not know they were trapped until the soldiers started to fire, confused, they began to run and in the course of 20 minutes, 200 people were slaughtered
