Free Man From the USSR & Other Plays by Vladimir Nabokov Page A

there is nothing incomprehensible about me.
    Â 
    TAUBENDORF
    I didn’t want to make you angry.
    Â 
    OLGA PAVLOVNA
    Well, some time I’ll get truly rebellious, then we’ll see....
(laughs).
Then the sparks will really fly!...
(She leaves. Taubendorf returns to the table and sits down. In the hall, on the other side of the wall, there is a thunder of applause.)
CURTAIN

ACT FOUR
    The lobby of a film studio. On the right, along the edge of the stage, the same gray wall as in the preceding act. To the left of it, a wide passageway crowded with movie props, creating an effect reminiscent simultaneously of a photographer’s waiting room, the jumble of an amusement-park booth, and the motley corner of a futurist’s canvas. (Among these angular shapes are conspicuous three cupolas—a large one and two smaller ones—the ochre, onion-shaped domes of some crudely reproduced Russian church. There is also a balalaika lying here haphazardly, and a half-unfurled map of Russia.) These props have uneven gaps and apertures (in the distance are visible the outlines of enormous klieg lights). All of it reminds the viewer of a many-colored jigsaw puzzle, carelessly and only partially assembled. As the curtain rises, the front of the stage is swarming with Russian émigrés who have just arrived for the shooting. Among them is Lyulya. The Assistant Director briskly and buoyantly squeezes onstage through the scenery blocking his way. He is redheaded, has a paunch, wears neither jacket nor waistcoat, and immediately begins to speak very loudly.
    Â 
    ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
    Get your makeup on, people, get your makeup on! Ladies to the left, men to the right. How come Marianna isn’t here yet? The call was for nine o’clock....
(The stage empties, Then two stagehands in blue carry a ladder across.)
    Â 
    ASSISTANT DIRECTOR’S VOICE
(already backstage)

Kurt, Kurt! Wo ist Kurt? Mann muss—

(The voice fades away. Then Marianna and Kuznetsoff enter from the right.)
    Â 
    MARIANNA
(pressing her hands to her temples as she walks)

It’s absolutely outrageous, absolutely outrageous of you....
    Â 
    KUZNETSOFF
    ...only one thing can be interesting in life—that which can be prevented. Why waste energy worrying about the inevitable?
(They both stop.)
    Â 
    MARIANNA
    So you haven’t changed your mind?
    Â 
    KUZNETSOFF
    (looking around)

Amusing place.... I’ve never been in a film studio before,
(peeking behind the props)
Look at those gigantic lamps!...
    Â 
    MARIANNA
    I probably won’t understand you until my dying day. So your decision is final?
    Â 
    ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
(running in from the right)

What’s going on here, Mariannochka? This simply won’t do....Shoo! Into your dressing room!
    Â 
    MARIANNA
    All right, all right, in a minute.
    Â 
    ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
    Not in a minute, but immediately. Kurt!
(runs off)
    Â 
    MARIANNA
    Think it over again.... Think it over while I’m changing. Understand?
    Â 
    KUZNETSOFF
    Ah, Marianna Sergeyevna, you’re really so...
    Â 
    MARIANNA
    No, no. Just wait for me here and think it over.
(Exits to the right. Assistant Director runs in from left.)
    Â 
    ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
    Please go get made up. Didn’t you hear me?
    Â 
    KUZNETSOFF
    Relax. I don’t work here.
    Â 
    ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
    Then you’re not supposed to be here. There are rules.
    Â 
    KUZNETSOFF
    Fiddlesticks.
    Â 
    ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
    If Herr Moser—
    Â 
    KUZNETSOFF
    Childhood friend of mine.
    Â 
    ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
    Oh, in that case it’s all right. Excuse me.
    Â 
    KUZNETSOFF
    You people pour on the folklore pretty thick. What are those, cupolas?
    Â 
    ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
    Yes. Today is the last day of shooting—the uprising scene. We’re in a terrible rush, since the film has to be all edited by Saturday.
Pardon,
I have to run.
(runs off)
    Â 
    KUZNETSOFF
    Go right ahead.
(Walks to and fro, picks up and unfurls the