Next in my Daily Book Excerpt:
Next play on the script shelf is The Blue Bird: a Fairy Play in Six Acts
Maeterlinck’s a fascinating guy – won the Nobel Prize in 1911. The Blue Bird is a fairy tale – and is obviously meant to be an enormous production (the descriptions of each setting in each scene sometimes go on for two pages alone) – it’s not realistic, or literal in any way. It’s a fable. The two children who are the stars are like Hansel and Gretle – (Maeterlinck even describes their costumes as such). The opening scene is the two of them lying in bed on Christmas Eve, hearing the party across the road at the rich people’s house, and talking about how sad they are that they won’t get prsents this year, because they are poor. Suddenly a Fairy enters … and after some back and forth … sends the two kids on a quest … to find “the blue bird”.
I read this play so much as a little kid – and read most of it out loud – playing different parts – pretending I was in some huge production of it – that I still remember some of the scenes word for word.
Here’s an excerpt from the first scene, when the Fairy arrives and sends them on their quest:
EXCERPT FROM The Blue Bird: a Fairy Play in Six Acts
(As they hesitate before opening the door, the big latch is seen to rise of itself, with a grating noise; the door half opens to admit a little old woman dressed in green with a red hood on her head. She is humpbacked and lame and near-sighted, her nose and chin meet; and she walks bent on a stick. She is obviously a fairy.)
THE FAIRY. Have you the grass here that sings or the bird that is blue? …
TYLTYL. We have some grass, but it can’t sing …
MYTYL. Tyltyl has a bird.
TYLTYL. But I can’t give it away …
FAIRY. Why not? …
TYLTYL. Because it’s mine.
FIARY. That’s a reason, no doubt. Where is the bird? …
TYLTYL. (pointing to the cage) In the cage …
FAIRY. (putting on her glasses to examine the bird) I don’t want it; it’s not blue enough. You will have to go and find me the one I want.
TYLTYL. But I don’t know where it is …
FAIRY. No more do I. That’s why you must look for it. I can do without the grass that sings, at a pinch; but I must absolutely have the blue bird. It’s for my little girl, who is very ill.
TYLTYL. What’s the matter with her? …
FAIRY. We don’t quite know; she wants to be happy …
TYLTYL. Really? …
FAIRY. Do you know who I am? …
TYLTYL. You’re rather like our neighbor, Madame Berlingot …
FAIRY. (suddenly angry) Not a bit! … There’s not the least likeness! … This is intolerable! … I am the Fairy Berylune …
TYLTYL. Oh! Very well …
FAIRY. You will have to start at once.
TYLTYL. Are you coming with us?
FAIRY. I can’t, because I put on the soup this morning and it always boils over if I leave it for more than hour … (Pointing successively to the ceiling, the chimney and the window) Will you go out this way, or that way, or that way? …
TYLTYL. (pointing timidly to the door) I would rather go out that way …
FAIRY. (growing suddenly angry again) That’s quite impossible; and it’s a shocking habit! (Pointing to the window) We’ll go out this way … Well? … What are you waiting for? … Get dressed at once … (The children do as they are told and dress quickly) I’ll help Mytyl …
TYLTYL. We have no shoes …
FAIRY. That doesn’t matter. I will give you a little magic hat. Where are your father and mother? …
TYLTYL. (Pointing to the door on the right) They’re asleep in there …
FAIRY. And your grandpapa and grandmamma? …
TYLTYL. They’re dead …
FAIRY. And your little brothers and sisters … Have you any?
TYLTYL. Oh yes; three little brothers …
MYTYL. And four little sisters …
FAIRY. Where are they? …
TYLTYL. They are dead, too …
FAIRY. Would you like to see them again? …
TYLTYL. Oh yes! … At once! … Show them to us! …
FAIRY. I haven’t got them in my pocket … But this is very lucky; you will see them when you go through the Land of Memory … It’s on the way to the Blue Bird, just on the left, past the third turning … What were you doing when I knocked? …
TYLTYL. We were playing at eating cakes? …
FAIRY. Have you any cakes? … Where are they?
TYLTYL. In the house of the rich children … Come and look, it’s so lovely. (He drags the Fairy to the window)
FAIRY. But it’s the others who are eating them! …
TYLTYL. Yes, but we can see them eat …
FAIRY. Aren’t you cross with them? …
TYLTYL. What for?
FAIRY. For eating all the cakes … I think it’s very wrong of them not to give you some …
TYLTYL. Not at all; they’re rich … I say, isn’t it beautiful over there? …
FAIRY. It’s no more beautiful there than here.
TYLTYL. Ugh! … It’s darker here and smaller and there are no cakes …
FAIRY. It’s exactly the same, only you can’t see …
TYLTYL. Yes, I can; and I have very good eyes. I can see the time on the church clock and daddy can’t …
FAIRY. (suddenly angry) I tell you that you can’t see! … How do you see me? … What do I look like? (An awkward silence from TYLTYL. ) Well, answer me, will you? I want to know if you can see! … Am I pretty or ugly? … (The silence grows more and more uncomfortable) Won’t you answer? … Am I young or old? … Are my cheeks pink or yellow? … Perhaps you’ll say I have a hump? …
TYLTYL. (in a conciliatory tone) No, no, it’s not a big one …
FAIRY. Oh yes, to look at you, any one would think it enormous. … Have I hook nose and have I lost one of my eyes? …
TYLTYL. Oh, no, I don’t say that … Who put it out?
FAIRY. (growing more and more irritated) But it’s not out! … You wretched, impudent boy! … It’s much finer than the other; it’s bigger and brighter and blue as the sky … And my hair, do you see that? … It’s fair as the corn in the fields, it’s like virgin gold! And I’ve such heaps and heaps of it that it weighs my head down … It escapes on every side … Do you see it on my hands? (She holds out two lean wisps of grey hair)
TYLTYL. Yes, I see a little …
FAIRY. (indignantly) A little! … Sheaves! Armfuls! Clusters! Waves of gold! … I know there are people who say that they don’t see any; but you’re not one of those wicked, blind people, I should hope?
TYLTYL. Oh no; I can see all that isn’t hidden …
FAIRY. But you ought to see the rest with as little doubt! … Human beings are very odd! … Since the death of the fairies, they see nothing at all and they never suspect it … Luckily, I always carry with me all that is wanted to give new light to dimmed eyes … What am I taking out of my bag? …
TYLTYL. Oh, what a dear little green hat! … What’s that shining in the cockade? …
FAIRY. That’s the big diamond that makes people see …
TYLTYL. Really? …
FAIRY. Yes; when you’ve got the hat on your head, you turn the diamond a little; from right to left for instance, like this; do you see? … Then it presses a bump which nobody knows of and which opens your eyes …
TYLTYL. Doesn’t it hurt? …
FAIRY. On the contrary, it’s enchanted … You at once see even the inside of things: the soul of bread, of wine, of pepper, for instance …
MYTYL. Can you see the soul of sugar, too? …
FAIRY. (suddenly cross) Of course you can! … I hate unnecessary questions … The soul of sugar is no more interesting than the soul of pepper … There, I give you all I have to help you in y our search for the Blue Bird. I know that the flying carpet or the ring which makes its wearer invisible would be more useful to you … But I have lost the key of the cupboard in which I locked them … Oh, I was almost forgetting … (Pointing to the diamond) When you hold it like this, do you see? … One little turn more and you behold the past … Another little turn and you behold the future … It’s curious and practical and it’s quite noiseless …
TYLTYL. Daddy will take it from me …
FAIRY. He won’t see it; no one can see it as long as it’s on your head … Will you try it? … (She puts the little green hat on TYLTYL’s head.) Now, turn the diamond … One turn and then …
(TYLTYL has no sooner turned the diamond than a sudden and wonderful change comes over everything. The old Fairy alters then and there into a princess of marvellous beauty; the flints of which the cottage walls are built light up, turn blue as sapphires, become transparent and gleam and sparkled like the most precious stones. The humble furniture takes life and becomes resplendent; the deal table assumes as grave and noble an air as a table made of marble; the face of the clock winks its eye and smiles genially, while the door that contains the pendulum opens and releases the Hours, which, holding one another by the hand and laughing merrily, begin to dance to the sound of delicious music)
TYLTYL. (displaying a legitimate bewilderment and pointing to the Hours) Who are all those pretty ladies? …
FAIRY. Don’t be afraid; they are the hours of your life and they are glad to be free and visible for a moment …
TYLTYL. And why are the walls so bright? … Are they made of sugar or of precious stones?
FAIRY. All stones are alike, all stones are precious; but man sees only a few of them …
(While they are speaking, the scene of enchantment continues and is completed. The souls of the Quarternloaves, in the form of little men in crust-colored tights, flurred and all powdered with flour, scramble out of the bread-pan and frisk around the table, where they are caught up by Fire, who, springing from the hearth in yellow and vermilion giths, writhes with laughter as he chases the loaves.)
TYLTYL. Who are those ugly little men?
FAIRY. Oh, they’re nothing; they are merely the souls of the Quartern-loaves, who are taking advantage of the reign of truth to leave the pan in which they were too tightly packed …
TYLTYL. And the big red fellow, with the nasty smell?
FAIRY. Hush! … Don’t speak too loud; that’s Fire … He’s dangerous.
