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Why So Silent
|
(At the height of the activity a grotesque figure suddenly
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appears at the lop of the staircase. Dressed all in
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crimson, with a death's head visible inside the hood of
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his robe, the PHANTOM has come to the party. With
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dreadful wooden steps he descends the stairs and takes the
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centre of the stage)
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PHANTOM
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Why so silent, good messieurs?
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Did you think that I had left you for good?
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Have you missed me, good messieurs?
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I have written you an opera!
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(He takes from under his robe an enormous bound
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manuscript)
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Here I bring the finished score -
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"Don Juan Triumphant" !
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(He throws it to ANDRE)
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I advise you
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to comply -
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my instructions
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should be clear -
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Remember
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there are worse things
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than a shattered chandelier . . .
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(CHRISTlNE, mesmerized, approaches as the
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PHANTOM beckons her. He reaches out, grasps the
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chain that holds the secret engagement ring, and rips it
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from her throat)
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Your chains are still mine -
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you will sing for me!
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(ALL cower in suspense as the music crescendos, until
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suddenly, his figure evaporates)
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BACKSTAGE
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(GIRY is hurrying across. RAOUL appears and calls
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after her)
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RAOUL
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Madame Giry. Madame Giry . . .
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GIRY
|
Monsieur, don't ask me - I know no more than
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anyone else.
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(She moves off again. He stops her)
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RAOUL
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That's not true. You've seen something, haven't
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you ?
|
GIRY (uneasily)
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I don't know what I've seen . . . Please don't ask me,
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monsieur . . .
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RAOUL (desperately)
|
Madame, for all our sakes . . .
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GIRY (She has glanced nervously about her and
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suddenly deciding to trust him, cuts in):
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Very well. It was years ago. There was a travelling
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fair in the city. Tumblers, conjurors, human
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oddities . . .
|
RAOUL
|
Go on . . .
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GIRY (trance-like, as she retraces the past)
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And there was . . . I shall never forget him: a man . .
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Iocked in a cage . . .
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RAOUL
|
In a cage . . ?
|
GIRY
|
A prodigy, monsieur! Scholar, architect, musician .
|
RAOUL (piecing together the jigsaw)
|
A composer . . .
|
GIRY
|
And an inventor too, monsieur. They boasted he
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had once built for the Shah of Persia, a maze of
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mirrors . . .
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RAOUL (mystified and impatient, cuts in)
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Who was this man . . .?
|
GIRY (with a shudder)
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A freak of nature . . .
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more monster
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than man . . .
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RAOUL (a murmur)
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Deformed . . .?
|
GIRY
|
From birth, it seemed . . .
|
RAOUL
|
My God . . .
|
GIRY
|
And then . . . he went missing. He escaped.
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RAOUL
|
Go on.
|
GIRY
|
They never found him
|
it was said he
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had died . . .
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RAOUL (darkly)
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But he didn't die, did he?
|
GIRY
|
The world forgot him,
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but I never can . . .
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For in this darkness
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I have seen him again . . .
|
RAOUL
|
And so our
|
Phantom's this man . . .
|
GIRY (starts from her daze and turns to go)
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I have said too much, monsieur.
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(She moves off into the surrounding blackness)
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And there have been too many accidents . . .
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RAOUL (ironical)
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Accidents?!
|
GIRY
|
Too many . . .
|
(And, before he can question her further, she has
|
disappeared)
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RAOUL (running after her)
|
Madame Giry . . .!
|
|
|
|
-----------------
|
Why So Silent
|
| Phantom Of The Opera |
