5

ACT I, Scene i.

There is no overture.

The curtain opens another closed curtain. The stage is dark. After a few moments of expectancy, the second curtain opens just enough to reveal the center section of the Green Box: a combination wagon, mobile home, and portable theatre.

It is still dark. But in the murkiness, we can observe the transformation of the Green Box from a wagon to a stage. Pulleys, gears, and squeaking sounds are heard. The panel framed by the curtain turns on hinges and lowers toward the audience like a drawbridge. Three hinged supports are released which, like the legs of a small table, hold the panel suspended. And a barely readable marquee banner pops from the roof.

The final step of the transformation is the pulling back of the multicolored patchwork silk curtain exposing the inner central compartment now enlarged by the platform, forming a stage arena and proscenium arch.

If it were possible to see the backdrop, it would resemble something midway between a murky landscape and a subterranean cave. It doesn’t matter because it’s too dimly lit to tell.

The lights on the Green Box’s stage rise until action can be seen but not faces. And URSUS enters. He is an agile old man dressed in a bear suit with the bear’s head under his arm.

URSUS (Sings):

What chance does a man have

When he’s in the dark alone?

What chance does a plan have?

Can a man make one happen on his own?

Most of the people you talk to

Will agree that there’s no chance at all.

Most of the people you talk to

Tell you men are predestined to fall:

(As URSUS sings, GWYNPLAINE drags himself across the stage, crawls partially across, and bumps into Humanity, a ferocious-looking wolf. the two engage in a silent awesome struggle: The wolf representing the fierce forces of nature, fear and chaos; The man battling valiantly, his body wrapped in a winding sheet, his face shrouded by his thick falling hair.)

And as you listen, groveling down in the dirt

Like an animal filled with despair and with hurt…

Like a human who’s dropped from the race.

What becomes twice as ugly

As the ugliness you’re facing

Is the ugliness that’s written on your face.

And what becomes twice as dismal

As the darkness that you dread

Is the dark in the depths of your head:

The dark deep in the depths of your head.

(GWYNPLAINE has begun to overcome Humanity at this point, so URSUS puts on his bear head and joins the savage combat. Both animals begin to overpower GWYNPLAINE. In one second more, the beasts will triumph and chaos will reabsorb the man. Then, out of the howls, cries, and heavy breathing, suddenly, except for a low rumbling music, there is silence. In the gloom a whiteness appears. The whiteness is a light which is a woman which is a spirit of exultation and liberty and dawn. The spirit is DEA. Calm, pure, beautiful, angelic. As she starts her song, the man arises with a dazzled look, strikes out at the two beastly forms, and throws them to the ground.)

DEA (Sings):

Arise and sing.

Turn back the night.

With words comes reason and the dawn.

With your song comes morning light.

Bask in the wealth

Of the warm golden sun above.

When you can find yourself

You’ll find your love.

(GWYNPLAINE has been raising himself higher and higher as DEA sings. From his flat out prostrate position, he now kneels with his hands stretched toward the vision, his knees resting on the two motionless animal forms. DEA places her hand on his brow, as he sings.)

GWYNPLAINE (Sings):

I groped along through darkness, scared and lonely,

I hoped to find some light so I could see.

Then I discovered the source of light I looked for

Deep inside of me.

Open your eyes and you’ll arise from the darkness.

See for yourself, your spirit can be free.

The more you look, the more you’ll find what you’re looking for,

I found you standing next to me.

(The man continues to rise, until he is standing. Joining hands with the woman, they sing together; he in semidarkness, she bathed in light.)

DEA (Sings):

Arise and sing.

Turn back the night.

With words comes reason and the dawn.

With your song comes morning light.

Bask in the wealth

Of the warm golden sun above.

When you can find yourself

You’ll find your love.

GWYNPLAINE (Sings simultaneously):

I groped along through darkness, scared and lonely,

I hoped to find some light so I could see.

Then I discovered the source of light I looked for

Deep inside of me.

(Pause)

Open your eyes and you’ll arise from the darkness.

See for yourself, your spirit can be free.

The more you look, the more you’ll find what you’re looking for,

I found you standing next to me.

(And suddenly, amidst the gloom, a ray of light strikes GWYNPLAINE full in the face revealing for the first time his hideous laugh and mutilated features. There is a frozen tableau for a shocked, horrifying second. Then, simultaneously, the Green Box curtain snaps shut. The stage curtain snaps open, and bright lights fully illuminate the entire set.)

ACT I, scene ii

(The effect is that of a fast zoomback: revealing the Green Box in the courtyard of Tadcaster Inn on the Carnival Grounds of Southwark, just the other side of London Bridge. It is early spring. The year is 1708.

Over the Green Box, the banner can now be read: “The Man Who Laughs. Here is to be seen GWYNPLAINE, abandoned at the age of 8 years on the night of January 29, 1693 on the seacoast of Portland.” Access to the courtyard is through the Inn’s taproom, above which a balcony is roped off to provide house seats for visiting royalty.

We see the crowd: A dazed, astonished bunch of scraggly South-London commonfolk, sailors, mountebanks, and carnival people reacting to the performance with raucous shouts, whoops, laugher, applause, and a shower of coins. In the house seats, a beautiful young noblewoman, the Duchess JOSIANA, sits with her page behind her. Throughout the scene she reacts as an intent observer.)

FIRST WOMAN:

Ohmigod, I’ve never seen such an ‘idious sight.

FIRST MAN:

‘Ow can a face like that be real?

SECOND WOMAN:

Now I’ve seen everything! I can’t believe…

SECOND MAN:

‘Ow can ‘e laugh, an ‘orrible thing like that. And ‘ow com I’m ‘ere laughing at ‘im.

(GWYNPLAINE, URSUS, and DEA emerge in regular clothes from behind the curtain. GWYNPLAINE sits DEA on the edge of the stage next to Humanity, the now drained and docile old wolf. Then he joins URSUS who is picking up the coins.)

INNKEEPER (Joining them):

Another night, another crowd. I’ve never seen such business. Since you’ve been here, no one goes anywhere else in the city anymore.

URSUS:

Just as I always said. It takes a sophisticated city person to appreciate good theater.

INNKEEPER:

Look at all those coins. ‘Is face is your fortune.

URSUS:

But the play, or course, is the thing. Without my plays, what would you have? Just another singularly ugly young man…another beautiful helpless young girl…and another grizzled old wolf. Outcasts the three of them. Nothing the slightest bit unusual about that.

INNKEEPER:

You’re a lucky man to have found them.

URSUS:

Found them? Man, they found me. The blizzard of ’93 it was. Famine in the forest for the wolf. And the two of them…he, a wondering half-naked little boy knocks on my wagon door and says he found her buried in the snow alongside a dead woman. He carried her tucked in his shirt. A good six miles away it was. I checked the next morning after the snow finally stopped. Victims all of them. The wolf and the boy, half dead from cold and starvation. The baby girl, even more helpless then than she is now. And me, I took them in. For fifteen years, I’ve been taking care of them…and he’s been taking care of her.

INNKEEPER:

Well, now they’re all taking care of you. And me, too. My inn’s never done so well before.

GWYNPLAINE:

Look what I found tonight, Ursus. In amongst the usual pennies and farthings…a gold doubloon.

URSUS:

It must have come from someone special.

INNKEEPER:
’Ere, ‘ere. Let’s have a look. (He bites on it.) It’s real, all right. But who….

GWYNPLAINE:

It came from up there. (He gestures toward the house seats where JOSIANA is observing them with intense but detached interest.)

URSUS:

From heaven.

(They all stare at JOSIANA, who is indeed something to stare at.)

GWYNPLAINE:

From her. I’ve never seen anyone like her before.

INNKEEPER:

Not around ‘ere you haven’t, lad. That’s for sure.

(DEA comes over waving her arms wildly in front of her. There is a buoyant tragicomic, bittersweetness to her blindness, like Edna Purvience in the Chaplin film about the blind girl.)

DEA:

What is it, Gwynplaine? All of a sudden I began to feel a chill. Is something wrong?

GWYNPLAINE: (Leads her back and reseats her):

Oh no. Not at all. Feel this…a gold coin, Dea. Can you imagine? Now you stay here while I help Ursus. Try to keep out of the crowd.

URSUS:

Remember, man. I told you to keep that balcony reserved for royalty, and the regular folk down below. Class attracts class. I knew it was only a matter of time.

INNKEEPER (Walks off muttering):

Royalty! ‘Ere, of all places. I see it but I don’t believe it.

URSUS (To no one in particular. GWYNPLAINE is on his way over but hasn’t gotten there yet. Music begins to rise under him):

And now it’s all beginning. They’re coming from London…with gold doubloons instead of pennies. And one of these days, maybe soon, we’ll cross over London Bridge ourselves…pack up the Green Box forever and open in a real theater. And royal folk, lords and ladies like her will come. Until one very special day: the trumpets will blow and a messenger will arrive…from the Queen.

GWYNPLAINE: (Joining in, dreamily):

From the Queen….

URSUS:

Saying “Command Performance! Gwynplaine, the man who laughs…Beautiful Dea…Humanity the wolf, more human than most men…and the ever popular Ursus, poet-doctor-philosopher…are commanded to perform at the palace in the presence of Queen Anne.

GWYNPLAINE:

The palace…we’ll play the palace.

URSUS:

And I know just how it will be. (Sings):

Someday, we’re going to play the palace

Just you wait and see.

Someday, we’ll matinee the palace,

What a hit we’ll be.

Someday, we’re going to slay the palace

With our repartee,

Yes, we’ll play the palace,

You and me.

Consumed with elation

We’ll polish our act,

We’ll be a sensation.

It’s a fact. It’s a fact.

At first, we’ll be fearful,

But we’ll fight ‘til it’s gone,

Then we’ll give them an earful.

When we’re on. When we’re on.

URSUS AND GWYNPLAINE (In music hall style):

Someday, we’ll open at the palace.

And it won’t be long.

Someday, no mopin’ at the palace

With our dance and song.

Someday, we’re hopin’ that the palace

And our act agree…

When we play the palace,

You and me.

What anticipation

Our royal debut brings!

What determination

As we wait in the wings!

Then when no one’s dozing

And the jugglers are gone,

Right there next to closing

We go on…We go on.

(Fanfare buildup…pause…then very very softly)

Someday, the day we play the palace

Time, for us, will stop.

Someday, the way we play the palace

Could take us to the top.

(Buildup from here on)

Someday, when they survey the palace,

We will have come through…

When we play the palace,

Me and you.

How well it’s all going!

How super we’ve been!

Look…someone’s bravo-ing…

It’s the Queen…it’s the Queen.

The crowd is applauding,

The critics agree;

Their columns are lauding

You and me, you and me.

Someday we’re going to play the palace

Just you wait and see.

Drink champagne from a silver chalice,

What a hit we’ll be!

Just like Aurora Borealis,

Shining brilliantly.

Yes, we’ll play the palace

You and me.

(DAVID emerges from the crowd that has reformed around them disguised as Tom-Jim-Jack, a sailor; applauding enthusiastically)

DAVID:

Well done. Well done! You’re palace material if I’ve ever seen it.

URSUS:

You’ve certainly seen it. But are you certain you know it?

DAVID:

I know it all right or my name isn’t Tom-Jim-Jack of Her Majesty’s Navy. (To GWYNPLAINE) Say, there’s something familiar about you. Have we met before?

(This scene continues…)

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The Man Who Laughs: