Shipwreck ( Coast of Utopia-2)

HERZEN   Bien. C’est entendu. [Of course. I quite understand.]

SERVANT   Merci, Monsieur le Baron. [Thank you, Baron.]

The Servant leaves.

NATALIE   (talking over the above) And Heine!

EMMA   Und Herwegh!

NATALIE   Yes! Yes!

EMMA   Du bist so bescheiden und grosszuegig. Schreibst du bald ein neues Gedicht? [You’re so modest and generous. Are you going to write a new poem soon?]

GEORGE   Ich hasse solche Fragen! [I hate you asking me that!]

EMMA   Verzeihg mir—sonst weine ich. [Forgive me—don’t make me cry!]

Kolya enters in search of his top. All the conversations cut off into silence simultaneously, but ‘continue.’

Turgenev and Belinsky are finally interrupted by Herzen (see reprise at end of Act One), signalling a general break-up and exodus, still ‘silent.’

Turgenev and Sazonov help Belinsky with his valise and parcels.

Kolya is left alone.

There is distant thunder, which Kolya doesn’t hear. Then there is a roll of thunder nearer. Kolya looks around, aware of something.

There is the growing sound of a roaring multitude, of rifle fire, shouting, singing, drumming … and a female voice, representing the famous actress Rachel, singing ‘The Marseillaise.’

Red banners and the Tricolour.

Natalie enters, picks up Kolya and takes him out.

[The monarchy of Louis Philippe fell on 24 February 1848.]

MARCH 1848

Exterior (Place de la Concorde).

[Herzen’s memoirs: These were the happiest days of Bakunin’s life.]

Bakunin flourishes a huge red banner on a pole. He has just encountered KARL MARX, aged thirty. Marx is carrying a yellow-wrapped book, The Communist Manifesto. Turgenev is gazing around in astonishment. A pigeon evidently excretes onto his head. He reacts.

BAKUNIN   Marx! Who’d have thought it?!

MARX   It was bound to happen. I was expecting it.

BAKUNIN   Why didn’t you tell me? All our lives we’ll remember where we were when France became a republic again!

MARX   I was in Brussels, waiting for the first copy of The Communist Manifesto to come from the printer …

BAKUNIN   I was in Brussels, too, waiting for La Réforme to arrive with my open letter to the French government …

TURGENEV   No! I was in Brussels! … The Barber of Seville … Can I have a look?

Marx gives him the book.

BAKUNIN   I’ve been on my feet twenty hours a day—

MARX   Minister Flocon said that with three hundred more like you …

BAKUNIN   … preaching rebellion, destruction …

MARX   … France would be ungovernable.

BAKUNIN   I’ve been living in barracks with the Republican Guard. You won’t believe this, but it’s the first time I’ve actually met anyone from the working class.

MARX   Really? What are they like?

BAKUNIN   I’ve never come across such nobility.

TURGENEV   (reading) ‘A ghost is going round Europe—the ghost of Communism!’

BAKUNIN   A Polish National Committee has already been set up in Prussian Poland to plan the invasion of Russia. I’ve got to get there. Turgenev, this is the last thing I’ll ever ask of you—

TURGENEV   Ask Flocon.

BAKUNIN   You think the Provisional Government will give me the money to go to Poland?

TURGENEV   I’m certain of it.

MARX   (to Turgenev) You’re a writer. Do you think there’s something funny about ‘the ghost of Communism’? I don’t want it to sound as if Communism is dead.

Herwegh enters in red, black and gold military uniform.

BAKUNIN   Herwegh!

MARX   (to Turgenev) Do you know English?

TURGENEV   Fairly well. Let me see … (in ‘English’) ‘A ghost … a phantom is walking around Europe …’