Janus
Synopsis:
Ukranian girl Marita grows up under communism but is a teenager at the fall of Berlin Wall. She is statring to look towards the West and is dreaming of being an artist like Andy Warholl whos family roots are in Ukraine same way as hers. She saw as a child a photo of a teenage couple embracing taken at Rocky Mountains sunset and thinks the girl reminds of her and dremas to find that boy.
She signs up for International Pen Friends where people before wide spread dating internet sites could write letters by ordinary mail and makes friends with american teenager Anthony. Anthony mocks her for a dream to come Wto New York because it is difficul to get a college scholarship even for teenagers like him. He decides to be a soldier.
Maritas art college application gets lost in post and never arrives and she maries her next door neighbour Taras. Taras works at a nuclear power plant.
Some years later when war breaks out Taras recruits himself to Ukranian army and soon is killed at battle. Marita stays a widow.
At same time Anthony retires from army and is recapturing old hobby of writing lettters, with Marita first and foremost. They re-kindle communication and Marita tells she recruits herself to be a frontline nurse.
Marita is being taken to prison by russian mercenaries and is brought for interrogation to Janus who tells of tragic strory of his parents, Lentz cossacks who got betrayed by allies and executed by reds. But he tells his motifs are not revenge but lavage. He captured her to learn about condition of power plant Taras worked at and she told he would not succeed as the power plant is old and not active.
They threaten to execute Marita because she light reveal identity of Janus.
At same time Anthony who works as human rights lawyer receives her case. He does impossible to find her and they reunite in real life.
Roles:
Statue of Liberty
Marita (as child, teenager and two stages of grown up, same person)
Anthony
Taras
Choir
Taras’s fellow soldiers
Voice of President of USA
Mozart
Marie-Antoinette
Statue of Liberty:
As time goes by
The story is the same
The ways of love to find
Are utterly insane.
From moment we are born
The destiny is written
By family and teachers
By societys curriculum
But who are we on earth?
Are we to challenge fate?
Are we to step aside
The network of restraint?
And is it true that spirits longing
When unfullfilled
Brings sexual repression
Like dam the stream of water blocking
And giving floods of anguish?
And is it true that anguish,
Frustration, discontent,
When not addressing cause
Do only harm exploding
Into a conflicts rage?
And if a conflict being not resolved
On level of intime plane
Of family or smaller unit
Havent we called it nuclear family for reason
Evokes a nuclear reaction
Of social upheaval?
A revolution. How many victims
Did it take through ages?
Rage. Violence. Storms. Rape.
Shall we now conquer nature?
Marita as a child playing with dolls. Statue of Liberty watching
Marita:
Hush, hush my baby
You’ll soon go to school
The’ll teach You to march
To jolly strict tune.
They’ll teach You to count
All the things others have
And report to police
If extra dollar is hidden under someones bed.
Hush hush my baby
You’ll get a degree
In space exploration
Or dancing ballet
One or the other to please
The appeasers.
But I – I feel theres a destiny
Waiting for me out there.
I once saw a picture of beautiful sunset
Over a rocky mountain chain.
Two gentle teenagers
A boy and a girl, almost hugging
Watching the beauty of all unfold.
Hush hush little baby
You’ll never be free
Because you’re a doll
And my destiny is up to me.
I used to imagine
This teenager is me
And boy is someone out there
I am longing to see.
Statue of Libetry, watching Marita play:
Here is a moral I’ll whisper in Your ear.
Young Mozart, childhood prodigy,
Discovered by the Court in Vienne,
Was he to fill his hearts desire
By being with maid he met in dreams?
And she, who born to splender and
To family of Holy Rome
Was she to freely choose which man
To give her heart under a churches dome?
Am watching now this girl play with dolls
Will whisper to her their story.
Act 1.
The fall of Berlin Wall.
The sound of hammers
Choir:
The Wall. The Wall.
We hope it never will return.
We hope red dragon has loosened its claws.
Its been devouring people
Its been stangling prosperity
Its been ruining the crops.
When people were starving
Under the inflicted hunger
Called now Golodomor
Red leaders wanted more
And took wheat from those growing bread.
The families starved
The mills were waving empty in wind.
Some people were dying of starvation
While their farms produced enough
To feed the rest of land.
The feeders were unfed.
Cases of cannibalism reported.
People would do anything to live.
They had something to live for:
To break down the wall,
To survive the claws of red dragon.
Then came the trials:
Against judeo-masonic conspiracy
As they called it
Where most writers and composers were sent to labour camps
Against the scientists
Who came with non-conforming ideas
Inventor of first spaseship
Died in a camp of broken and untreated ribs
And inventor of nuclear fusion
Was starving in mental asylym,
The trials against the priests
Who stood for protecting churches.
The temples and cathedrals were being knocked down
Or made into storages for weapons
Atheism was made the only official religion.
A catholic piest in labour camp
As no food was supplied to prisoners
Was killed and boiled into a soup
And fellow prisoners who loved him were made to eat it.
The country was stripped of cultural elite.
Then came the war
And women were made to quit their jobs
To dig trenches, so did children instead of school,
All for victory.
And it was won,
With one third of population
Being sacrificed as eiter a bullet meat
Or in executions on treason charges.
After that Europe was divided
And the Wall of Berlin was put to its place.
Then came years of espionage,
Secrecy, mind controll and paranoia.
And of extreme materialism.
The motif to have a better car
Was enough to sell a friend.
People were made to insist
That they live in the happiest country
This was called stagnation
Until stagnation got intolerable.
Small glimpses of friendship gestures
Started to come from behind The Wall:
First they would make music records of Elvis
Of vinyls plates made of x-ray of someones ribs
Then they started to gather in secret places
To exchange fashion jeans
Handpicked and sneaked one by one from Germany.
Germany, oh Germany,
The big alleged enemy,
The First World War,
The Prussian Empire,
The splendour of Weimar Vienne,
The Second World War,
The Third Reich –
The grandeur in their blood.
The stories of Parcival and Neubelungs
Now tamed by horrors of Revolution
Which brought the East to its knees.
Marita:
I now graduated from school
Trying my best to apply
What I learned from my family
And elders to what I see around me.
I want to be a multidisciplinary artist.
I want to study abroad
In best case in New York.
I heard of Andy Warhol
His mother was a simple woman
From remote part of Ukraine
Just like mine.
I am reading this book
About Marie-Antoinette
The daughter of Holy Roman Emperor
Who maried a dauphin of France
And got executed by a revolution crowd.
Our tzar and his children
Got executed as well
After being kept in a basement in cold forest
They were shot with no witnesses in their heads.
Ho guilliotine, no supporters, alone.
I am sending my essay
About Marie-Antoinette and French Revolution
And my paintings of her
For my colledge entry application.
So did Andy Warholl
Make lots of coloured prints
Of famous people of history
And of his time
From Merilyn Monroe to Mao Tse Dong.
I am inspited by Andy Warholl
To make prints of Marie-Antoinette.
American young man Anthony:
Disillusionment is the key word
Of my generation.
I find strength and power
In staying away from transgression.
There is too much corruption, easy money, the pornography, the art of distress.
I have heard there’s a world out there
Behind The Wall
Where people are uncorrupt
And innocent and pure
They do not care what brand Your car is
Because there are just three brands all the same,
All good,
They do not care how big Your house is,
Because they do not own their homes,
The state owns it.
I’m not a communist, I just seek truth.
We heard undert Vietnam war
That communism was evil
Our parents generation
Gathered in squares in protests
Against the boys being sent there to fight.
I want to go to army.
It is a peaceful time,
We are the peacekeepers,
I’m just a seeker of truth.
Marita and Anthony
(Duett)
- Lets break boundaries
- Lets make friends
- Internatinal Pen Friends
- Recieve letters from allover the world
- Write to a foreign soldier being lonely
- Write to a country forbidden before, now opening te door
- Find a friend
- Visit each other
- Learn more about favourite food recipes
Your relatives, Your habits, Your pets
- What are Your sports of choice
- How was Your day like
- International Pen Friends.
Anthony:
I received a letter from Argentina, one from France, one from Philippines,
I received a letter and a photo from a girl called Marita,
And she is pretty!
Seems like she was haunting me in my dreams.
Marita:
I received a letter from Chile, one from England, one from Japan,
But most of all i liked one from the US-
The boy looks so so familiar,
He is the boy i saw on photo as a teen!
-Lets be friends!
-Lets be friends!
Mozart enters the stage:
And why am I here?
The ghost from the past
The guardian angel of souls kept apart.
There always is bitter confusion
In ways of the labyrinth of life
Its either an evil stepmother
Or bondage of marriage vows
Taken by others than lovers
On their own behalf.
And why am I here?
To tell You my story.
The story of revolution.
When i was a child i met beautiful girl
Her name was Marie-Antoinette
I was brought to her court by my dad
To entertain her with pleasing tunes
I was about 4 or 5
We played with her under grand-piano in banquet hall.
What i did not know-
She was promised to someone else.
(He bows and leaves)
Marita:
The University for sure received my application
And i am waiting for the final answer
A lot needs to be sorted out
The scholarship, the housing, the visa.
The not-knowing is killing me
The answer is delayed.
Anthony addressing mother, father and friends:
I am going to army,
Army to fight for piece
Isnt that a juxtapposition
An oxymoron in itself
That one needs strength to protect piece
While peiece should have been itself protecting the people?
But then just think for a moment about the weak
Think about Your little sister
If she is being threatened
Would You not address her agressor with fists?
Would You stand out for her and not hide?
To friends
Hey, by the way, i had been writing letters with this lovely girl,
Marita, from Europe,
Eastern Europe somewhere.
She told me she wants to come to New York,
What a West Side Story!
She saw a picture of sunset over a mountain range
With two teenagers embracing each other,
And thinks that they look like the two of us!
I gave her that dream to keep
It only lacks a “Hollywood” sign over heads over it.
What a Sunset Boulevard
Poor thing doesnt know
How hard it is to get a sholarship
Even for us, american natives,
She still believes in mere luck.
Marie-Antoinette:
Poor thing, he still believes in mere luck.
This pretty composer, this child prodigy,
Has been dedicating in secret one after other
His fancy operas to me
As mere courtship.
While I have my obligations
To country, to my faithful people,
The people who love me
The people who chose me to be their queen-
I have to marry dauphin.
Marita:
I have been waiting for months invane
For art colege application response
I sent them my paintings of Marie-Antoinette
And my essay about Andy Warhol
But they never replied.
I now have to get a job.
I now have to marry Taras
A local boy who was flirting with me
I have to marry Taras.
Marie-Antoinette:
I have to marry dauphin
The prince is stupid and dresses in fancy clothes
I think he also fancies men
But i have to marry dauphin.
Marita:
I have to marry Taras
He has his ways with guns and drinks
He clearly never overthinks
Meaning his temper can sometime be harsh
But i have to marry Taras.
Act 2.
Marita and Taras watching Maidan events on TV.
We never wanted for this to happen
We thought that we had been free again
The land had ripped itself out of bonds of red delusion
But fell into its hands again.
The oligarchs are robbing own people
And they do not come from the West
The West is trying to buy the soil
To clear out the horrible mess.
But when the violence broke in Maidan
It wa scary and it was fair
But nobody wanted for it to be done
We decided to stand for Ukraine.
Taras, putting on soldiers camouflage:
I decided to be a soldier
Do what my dear country demands of my heart
If i die then burry me
In Ukraine dear
In the wet mother earth
Dig out a simple grave
We learned this poem as kids.
The war broke out without a warning
And yet ten years both sides were prepared
Russians were shouting that NATO bases
Were built only for them to attack
While neighbours Poland and Baltics plead for them to protect.
Russians say they found facilities
Where horrible sicknesses were being developed
Called biologic Laboratries
Which would wipe out all tthe slavs,
They say they are here to protect us
But capture the labs and are working there now themselves.
Protect us from who- from ourselves?
I made a tattoo the other day-
The Slavic Circle of Life- Kolovrat.
I am a slav, and I’m proud.
Marita: Please, dont leave
Taras: I will phone, send You messages all thetime.
Marita: The Lord is With You (and puts the sign of cross on Taras).
Taras with fellow soldiers showing photos of wifes to each other:
- My lovely Marita
- My dear Aksinja
There is to ukranian beauty no end
As storng as the goddess and guardian mother Bereginya
So is ukranian woman beacon of strength
She nourishes children
She serves endless feast
She cross-stiches the space in the colours of heavely peace
She puts the order in every disorder
With cross made of hay
She sanctifies the wild water
By bathing in river
For Ivan Kupala night
And puts respect to the church bell at day.
Bereginya, Bereginya, protect us fro evil and harm.
Ukranian goddess, christian with pagan charm.
Anthony, now officer:
I’ve travelled near and far
I’ve conquered every mountain
And still there’s discontent
Poisoning my blood
As if theres no relief
To worlds eternal suffering
No solution to achieve
Only strength in arms.
Ive seen so many sorrows
The hungry in Sudan
Running after a van
To get a tin of water,
The epidemics in the quarters
And queues for vaccines.
Do i have guilt upon my shoulder
Are we the ones imposing murder
Upon the innocent nations in eternal greed
First gold and diamonds
Then slaves
Now lithium for electric machines.
No, i dont.
I am an optiist and a believer
In balance of the Universe
I believe I’ll find the way.
Marita, receiving a letter that Taras was killed in battle:
I got a letter in post today
A solemn white envelope
It had misery stamp upon itself
It said that my husband is gone.
It said that he died as a hero
On battlefield defending the people
From occupants, invaders severe
Whos only goal is to spread fear.
I am feeling so lonely and sad
That i dont know what to do with myself
I’m breaking my arms in desperate fists
Of anger, frustration, self-pity
And what am i now to do?
There are no jobs in our town
Now that everything is taken by war
I’m joining the army as well.
Anthony and Marita dialogue in thoughts
Anthony:
I’ve quit the army to become a lawyer
I’ve seen death and I’ve seen despair
I’ve seen the wounded and I’ve seen the wounds of souls
The inflictors are never there
Marita:
I’m joining the army to become a nurse
I’ve seen death and I’ve seen despairs
I need to avenge it
I need to put an end to this horrible war.
Anthony:
And now i remember this pretty girl
From Eastern Europe, was it Ukraine?
She wanted to study art in New York
I wonder if she achieved what she wanted?
I’m going to write to her.
Here is her old address,
She has a family, they’ll pass it to her.
Marita, receiving the letter:
Anthony:
-Dear Marita, i just remembered You
After those years,
Marita:
-And i do remember You
-Did You become and artist like Andy Warholl?
-No, im still here all alone
-Did You find the boy You saw on the photo?
-No, i married my pal next door.
– Do You have any children, if so how many?
-No, i never got time. The war broke out and it was never right time.
-Do You think about me?
– Sometimes i do think about You,
And what would have happened if my letter came through
If i got accepted to art school
And if i found You.
But now I’ve joined the army as nurse.
But now i do not have time to make art.
I saw a striking mural in a town
Mary with gun to protect her child
Now even a Virgin wears a gun.
Marie-Antoinette:
The riots. The riots. How far will they go.
They’ve reached the Versaille, they are here for more.
They are after our heads.
The violent crowds. The ravaging plebs.
The sound of guilliotine.
Choir:
We dont want You to call us plebs,
We dont want You to treat us like that.
Mozart:
The pople who she thought were hers
The pople who she thought love her
They were expecting a male heir
And executed her for being too frail.
Marie-Antoinette:
I suddenly remembered that boy
That childhood prodigy
Who came to court to entertain
And was composing ever since
The dedications secret in my name
And who proposed as a joke
Maybe it would have saved my life if i would marry him.
Mozart: Maybe it would have saved her life
If i would be with her
She was so talented with arts
As Gluck her supervisor told
But could she, would she, choose arts as home
Instead of cakes of Versaille the living bread alone?
But she did not
And i feel death hunting me as well
And now unknown illness is eating up my bones,
I’m dying to be united
With my secret muse.
We two will mend our mistakes
In afterlife
And be guardian angels
Uniting the souls of loves apart.
Anthony and Marita (Duett)
I lived so long, seems like a thousand years
A generation has grown, the politics changed
But still i feel longings and glimpse
Of that childhood dream which like a birds wing
Does not let me sleep, it sends my tired heart
A secret message that there’s life above
Which rules through our heart our souls and our eyes
The bodies which give to emotions rise
There is life above
There is more to life
Break
Act 3
Marita, now a nurse
Blood, blood so much blood
It runs through our veins
It brings joyful start
To life when united two persons conceive
A human being ready to leave
The womb and join the rites of spring.
But when there’s a cut
But when the wound is deep
Or a bullet has gone through flesh
The blood’s hard to stop
It runs like a stream
The color so dark
The smell haunting sleep.
Marita surrounded by Russians.
Russians:
We are paid to do a job
Drink, drink Na Pasashok
Drink nurse Your last adieu
To the prince You never knew.
(They capture, bind arms and take her to prisoner).
You are now prisoner of war
You will drink to enemys health
You will dance to our flute
We are taking You to our leader
His name is Janus after the Roman Pagan God
He sees the past, the future and the present
And knows the truth when people tell for sure.
He’s now resided in three places:
The West, the Mother Russia and Ukraine.
(The soldiers blindfold and put a sack on Maritas head)
(She is interrogated blindfolded after the sack is taken off)
Marita:
-Who are You? Why have You blindfolded me?
-I am a famous person and You cannot see my face.
-You mean You have accounts overseas?
-You are not here to talk about me.
I’m Janus and i name myself after the Roman God of triple face,
One facing East, one West, one Front.
He looks with front right in Your eyes.
-And do You see what i see, Janus?
– What do You see, little nurse?
– Your end is near, Slava Ukraine!
-Alex, You might call me simply Alex.
Before and after the Gulf War we started a design for future.
I am of Lentz cossacks, who my parents were.
They fought with West against the Reds but when the West lost
They all were given back as bait
Betrayed by people they trusted most
Exchange happened in Lentz
Some hang themselves, rest sentensed
As traitors, but traitors were they not.
Most truthful people, to honor and to land,
Those who escaped all live abroad.
-So You are taking a revenge, on who, on ones or the others?
-On both, I have some interests of my own.
Now tell me, that nuclear factory Your husband worked at,
Will it give us what we need?
-What do You need?
-A bait, a blackmail. We capture it to claim to blow it up to require ransom.
It is what folks are scared most: the radiation, the toxic rain.
-Hahahaha, no it is an older power plant and out of use.
-You are dismissed. Forget You ever talked to me.
(Marita back to soldiers, made drink vodka, resisting in disgust)
-You will drink to Your enemys health
You will dance to our flute
You will be executed as we dont need You no more.
(One takes a selfie with her an posts online).
Mozart:
Flute, I’ve heard the mention of magic flute!
It always comes up when a tender love is in turmoil.
I need to come to help.
(Watching from behinnd the curtain Anthony by working table)
Anthony:
My job is now a lawyer for human rights of prisoners of war
I’m looking through the countless files
The phots, the stories, the witness reports
They are real people, praying and waiting to be saved.
Mozart delivers a photo and some pages to Anthonys table while he is looking away
Anthony:
Wait a second, i know her, i know that Ukranian woman
Picture taken of her on her knees with a bruise
But i still recognise her
This is Marita my former Pen-Friend!
She is always so sweet and smart and kind
Wanted like Andy Warholl to be in arts
I need to immediately act on her behalf.
(Leaves then enters with colleagues).
Me and colleagues are writing petition
On behalf of human right baristers
To the Congress of US.
This should not be happening after the Second World War
After Geneva convention.
There are countless cases of strvation
Of broken bones and of rape.
Some of the prisoners will never be found
Because they were murdered and bodies were thrown away.
I would not want it to hapen to Marita
I would not want it happen to anyone else.
News voice: The President of US pleaded for The Ukranian Prisoners of War
- Exchange! Exchange! Prisoners exchange!
This is never fair as power has whole stake at hand!
And for who is a prisoner in a foreign land?
And how does one get a lawyer?
For one of ours ten of theirs or even more
Thats the demand
But every single one counts
Each life spared is worth.
Maybe it is a young father
Whos children are waiting for him at home
Maybe it is a young mother
Who has a career infront of her
She would become a doctor
And develop a cure for MS
Or advanced dynamic prothesis
For those witout limbs.
Exchange. Exchange. Its not a slave market, lives dont count worth.
Anthony, after release of prisoners:
I would like to meet with Marita
I worked as her lawyer, i took her case
Without her knowing that matter
I went the rounds of hell
Through United Nations connections
To trace her whereabouts
She was kept hostage in remote location
For women all made insane by having to listen to speeches of dictator on repeat.
Marita, Marita, how are You my dear?
-Anthony, i finally see You…
All this time as no letters were allowed
I would compose letters in my head
And send them to You with withe doves in my thoughts.
Anthony and Marita duett:
The doves, the doves
The million peaceful doves
Let one by one they fly
Over the tired Earth and sky
Over the trenches and flooded flields
Over the trees, the landmarks and hills
And over the graveyards.
The doves, the doves
Let then land on the graves
And make their nest in the brances above the war graves.
Mozart, Marie-Antonette, Anthony, Marita
(singing together)
The zen coan saying goes that sometimes
It takes a swing of buttefly wing
To cause a storm in some form in a different place
If Mozart won Marie-Antoinette
Would it be her escape
From ravaging crowd with a guilliotine
And his from sadness causing a mystic disease?
If letter to art colledge was not lost in post
And no other letter was ever lost at all
Would it be enough for wars not to start?
Keep writing those letter,
Keep folding the latters
Keep taking the photos
And using the paper.
Now it is Easter tide in Ukraine
The air is filled with beautiful rain
And trees are adorned with beautiful paper doves
Of all the bright colours of clean new universe.