The Queen is dead. All who have witnessed her execution reflect on the contradictions and ambiguities inherent in the use of the guillotine. Can the use of violence and terror, even be justified to achieve liberty? A question that haunts us to this day. Marie Marianne, the Ringmaster and the Priest separately and finally together express the hope that lasting peace and a full realization of the dreams of improvement that animated the revolution will come. This hope, this dream, they say, needs to be fully understood and appreciated, as do the reasons that promote unhappiness and civil unrest. Relative security, sufficiency, and serenity are the right of all. No one should thrive at the expense of another. This Republic, this great possibility, is within us all. Ca Ira.
TROUBLEMAKER We want to get rid of the Guillotine And abolish pain somehow But to make a world free of tears We build these scaffolds now
OFFICER Come dry your tears and pray explain How can we abolish pain? If we don’t build these scaffolds now These instruments of injustice These tools of execution
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST We’ve given to the Guillotine More blood than you have ever seen What end could justify these means?
OFFICER We’ve given more of our blood
MALE CHORUS We’ve given
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST We’ve given more of our blood
MALE CHORUS We’ve given
OFFICER We’ve given more of our blood
MALE CHORUS More of our blood
CHORUS We’ve given, we’ve given More blood, than we could turn to love
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & OFFICER Than we could ever hope could turn to
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST Love
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & OFFICER More blood, than we could Ever hope could turn to love
CHORUS We’ve given, we’ve given More blood, than we could turn to love
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST Come angels of mercy Come doves of peace Shine a light on all these warring clubs and cliques
OFFICER The jackal and hyena who prowl these city streets Would turn in their own mother for a little extra meat
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST From the piles of dead the Republic comes to life Her mutilated body reeling like a drunken fishwife Gives birth to the future
OFFICER Gives birth on the street
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST, OFFICER & CHORUS Impure and exultant she gives birth to the dream
RINGMASTER & MARIE MARIANNE When the dream
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST When the dream
RINGMASTER & MARIE MARIANNE Is understood
REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST Is understood
RINGMASTER, REVOLUTIONARY PRIEST & MARIE MARIANNE That no man should live in chains That the great and the small are equal after all