Invisible pictures of non-existent things
Dramatis personae:
Grishka
Grishka's spokesman
Ivan Painov (immortal character, 1st version)
Serp Ivanovits Molotin,(immortal character, 2nd version, Soviet era)
J.E.E. Suuripää (immortal character, 3rd version)
mox the Recorder (mox)
Guide
Kartoska
Witness
Guard
Fairy
Part I
Kartoshka: (walks in, paces back and forth)
Well, there isn't anything here (leaves, humming quietly) nothing, nothing, nothing,
totally nothing at all.
Guide: (arrives)
Yes, when there isn't anyone, then there isn't anyone... but can we be sure that our eyes
are showing us the truth? Sometimes, you see, one develops a blind spot where
there may in fact be some little thing, or even two.
(leaves; a short pause, flavored with noise, as if a prelude)
mox the Recorder: Yes, yes. Did you hear Grishka? Grishka, Grigory
Alexandrovich! Wake up. People are coming; it's time to start getting to the
bottom of things.
G: Iiin in, indeed? Really?...don't. You will awaken me from a
pleasant dream. I'm still almost somewhere else, in a sparkling landscape lit
by the moon.
mox the Recorder: Of course, where else, but now you have fallen
down here!
G: Indeed, I realize that now myself. Is there some specific
circumstance which has brought me here?
mox the Recorder: Circumstance indeed, and circumstances. First of
all, I ended up in your home town in spring of 1993. My occupation considers it
its right to take me here and there as it pleases. I was working on a Russian
motif; I built a unity, presented it and thought that was that, but what, just
a small introduction, that two years, for when I came back to, I was not alone. You followed me.
G: Yes, I must have been clinging to something. I had been alone for so long.
Kartoshka: (arrives)
Was there something here? What's seems to be the matter here?
mox the Recorder: That's just what I'm clearing up...But you were
already here a moment ago, it woke me up, and there was someone else in
addition to you... but I want to tell you both right at the beginning that this
Grishka here has a tale that is...how should I say?. In the last few years I've
tried...
Kartoshka: Tales and tales! Is there some of that here too?
There seems to be an overabundance of everything now. But it isn't my business;
I came to perform my duty. I take care of upkeep and such; otherwise it's all
the same to me what goes on.
mox the Recorder: Dear Grishka! Tell us about yourself now so we
can get started, explain your background!
G: However you like... I can easily tell of myself, if there is someone
here who wants to listen. There was a certain... individual. I am... was a patron,
a count... well, I had different titles, but my first name is Grigory, which is
where my nicknames come from, like Grisha... and Grishka. Grigory Alexandrovich
is my name with my father's name. In Russia we have a tradition of adopting our
fathers' first name after our own first name. I was born in St. Petersburg in 1832 into a grave and distinguished family...
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