Voice-Over – Before the Overture begins
In the year 2099, the future anthropologist Lima Energelly discovers in the Human Memory Archive an old myth titled Girl & Rat. All she knows is that the myth is rooted deep in the horrors of the Holocaust.
Stash, her colleague, refuses to shed light on her discovery and Lima breaks into his REMaker – an artificial dream machine – and forces him to join her in descending deep down into the memory pit.
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Overture
Scene 1
Human Memory Archive. 2099.
Lima.
A girl. Girl and Rat. Rat and Girl. Girl and Rat. Girl and Rat.
An ancient story that passes through the generations.
I Lima Energelly
I Lima Energelly
K-0005275-149
Lima. Lima. I break into your dream, Stash.
Tonight, the Night of December 31st 2099
And I’m infusing Girl and Rat into your implachip, your implachip. Girl and Rat, Girl and Rat, Girl and Rat.
Stash
Girl and Rat? No! No!
Lima
I have no choice but to invade your REMaker, before the ancient myth sinks into oblivion. I've discovered its roots.
And on the fifth day, The Lord created, He created…
Stash
This nightmarish memory of a human cub and a human rat has nothing to do with me. Get out of my dream, Lima! Get out, Lima!
Lima
I found the pit. I'm going down and you will join me. And there was evening and there was morning - the fifth day.
Stash
The following day He created man. And God saw that it was… bad. You won't force me. You won't impose an unwanted nightmare. This Nightmare is not mine.
Lima
The little-girl-who-once-was -existed.
The pit-that-once-was - existed.
The Rat-that-once- was - shall be.
This is the darkness. This is the darkness. There is no other.
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Scene 2
A House in Tel Aviv. 31st December 1999.
Grandmother and her granddaughter sit together. The granddaughter is ready to write a school paper in her notebook. On the cover of her notebook there's a picture of an angel by Raphael.
Grandmother
I was a little girl, their little girl. Father and Mother. Mother and Father.
I loved them.
Lima
(Intervenes. To grandmother)
No! No! The story cannot begin this way!
That would put an end to it even before it began
Stash (to Grandmother)
You are putting yourself at risk and your granddaughter too! Why, why remember?
Grandmother ignores the future beings. She's aware of them as her inner voices.
Grandmother (to granddaughter)
I was a little girl.
I did not choose to be born.
What would you like to know?
Why now?
Now?
Granddaughter
I’m a big girl, big girl. We’re a different generation. Nothing’s hidden any more. You can see the worst atrocities live on TV, even on entertainment shows. Planes crashing, entertainment shows. Buses exploding, entertainment shows. And people cutting each other's heads. What could you possibly tell me that I don’t already know?
I'm a big girl.
Lima
She's a big girl. She's a big girl.
Stash (to Grandmother)
Why not choose forgetfulness? Sweet sleep, cleansed of dreams or free of nightmares.
Grandmother (to granddaughter)
I had a mother.
I had a father.
Won’t you make do with that?
I loved and I lost.
I loved and I lost.
That’s the end. The beginning too.
Granddaughter
Grandma, tell me. Tell me, please. Whatever you remember.
Grandmother
I lost it.
I lost everything.
Granddaughter
Not everything.
Grandmother
Almost everything.
Granddaughter
I even brought a special notebook. Look. On the cover, what a sweet angel. Such colorful wings. And he raises his eyes up. Grandma, Grandma, do you believe in miracles?
Grandmother
No! I loved and I lost.
Granddaughter
But you were saved.
Grandmother
A little Holocaust. I loved and I lost. Lost and loved.
Granddaughter
I'm a big girl. A big girl.
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Scene 3
Stash
My REMaker, my REMaker has been invaded.
You've broken into my dream machine.
Lima
Stash, I must plant the week after the Creation in your implachip. The following Sunday, all beasts lined up, clamoring for the same traits that man had been given. The Creator gave into their pleas and granted them the gift of weeping too. To this day the female turtle cries when she lays eggs on a lonely beach on a summer night, and the cats and dogs cry after mating, except they do it without tears.
Stash
Weeping? What is weeping?
Lima
I'll teach you.
Stash
Weeping, what is that? Tears? What are they?
Lima
Go down with me to the pit, Stash.
Stash
Nightmare! Nightmare! Nightmare!
Lima
Go down with me to the pit, Stash.
She recalls/summons the deepest layer of this memory from 1943.
Lima
A big city. Heavy snow in winter. The river is frozen over.
Grandmother (in 1999)
(Echoing) A big city. Heavy snow in winter. The river is frozen over.
For my birthday, I got a pair of skates.
Who was it that held my hand so I didn’t fall?
Father? Mother? Was it the servant?
Granddaughter (happily)
A servant. What a promising beginning.
Grandmother
I screamed. I kicked. I broke things.
Why are you giving me away to people I don’t even know?
I’m a good girl.
So why are you throwing me out of the house?
You’re a bad father and mother.
In the end I hit them.
Now I really am a bad girl.
Granddaughter
(Tries to console her grandma)
A horrible beginning doesn't necessarily mean a terrible end.
Grandmother
I did not give in. I refused to pack. Not even my doll with the braids.
Mother said: It’s for your own good
And Father told me: It’s just for a short time.
Lies! Grown-up lies.
Granddaughter
Grown-up lies?
Granddaughter & Granddaughter
Grown-up lies.
Grandmother
All night long I cried. My last tears.
Mother sat by my bed, trying to hold my hand
I pushed her away.
What is a Jew?
If it’s such a terrible thing to be a Jew, why did you make me one?
The servant rinsed my hair with peroxide.
It’s so you don’t look too Jewish, they said.
If there’s such a thing as too Jewish, there’s such a thing as not Jewish enough too.
Granddaughter
If there’s such a thing as too Jewish, there’s such a thing as not Jewish enough too?
Grandmother
If being Jewish is such a terrible thing, then being a Jewish little girl is the worst thing in the world.
Granddaughter
If being Jewish is such a terrible thing, then being a Jewish little girl is the worst thing in the world?
Grandmother
Mother turned her back.
Didn’t say a word
Didn’t touch either.
Mother did not turn around.
I didn't take the doll. Didn't take.
Black braids. Black braids.
Granddaughter
A Jewish doll.
Grandmother
Will you come to take me back? Will you come?
And they promised they would.
Lima
They, they promised.
Stash (sarcastically)
They always promise.
Lima
They did promise.
Stash
They always do.
Lima
All beasts were pleased, so pleased. Weeping agreed with them. Only the rat wasn’t satisfied with what God had given him and didn’t give any thought to what God had taken away. The rat didn’t want to cry. An insolent creature he confronted the Creator and demanded the gift of laughter.
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Scene 4
Poland. 1943-1945. A small, remote village.
The choir appears from the dark.
Choir
Mother, Father, Servant - three
A little girl - a family
Servant’s gone
Father and Mother
Gone one after another
Little girl, no one’s around
Lives alone beneath the ground.
The farmers push the girl into the pit under their house.
Farmer’s wife
Right into the pit! This is where you stay, little sinner.
Choir
End
I so much want to be dead
How can I get to be dead?
It isn’t enough to want to be dead…
Stash
Get this story of me! My REMaker is breaking down, breaking down. Everything, everything is fading… is fading… fading…
Lima
But the rat demanded laughter.
Grandmother
I was in the dark. A muddle of time. I don’t know when it began or when it was over. Darkness even has a taste and when the light goes out for good, I might teach you to feel.
Granddaughter
Perhaps... to feel darkness… I'm not sure I want to.
Choir
One two three
That’s that.
One girl
One rat.
Grandmother
He groped his way in my direction, first sniffing, then biting.
I didn’t scream, because I was the one who had disrupted his order. Later we grew used to each other. I petted him and he grew fat. The glimmer in his eyes was my only light.
I called him Stash.
Choir
Stash… Stash… Stash… Stash…
Granddaughter
A rat!
Grandmother
He was with me.
Granddaughter
A repulsive animal. The most disgusting there is. What a nightmare living with a rat! To spend days and nights with a rat! I wouldn't have survived.
Lima
The Creator told the rat: I’ve given you teeth to gnaw with, and claws to scratch, and a sense of hearing and a wonderful sense of smell.
And you ungracious creature keep demanding more and more and more.
Stash
But the rat was extremely stubborn, exactly like the Creator, and he kept insisting “I want” and “I’ve got to have”. Don't you understand that the rat was given a surplus of human traits?
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Scene 5
Choir
The lice are free
To roam the place
From my hair
To my forehead
And all over my face
I lie there
And I feel them tug
On my face
On my body
For me
That’s a hug.
Grandmother
The sounds above ground I learned to recognize too. The lowing and the growling. The footsteps of cows. The croaking of frogs in a faraway lake.
The farmers working in the field.
Granddaughter
Did the farmers have sons?
You played with them, didn't you?
Choir
Up there
Farmers
Further up
Birds
Furthest up
Parents
Down here
Jews
Further down
Children
Furthest down
Children
Of Jews.
Farmer (to his wife)
What did we need this for, you fool! And for next to nothing too.
Jesus Maria, that little Jew is endangering us all.
Farmer's Wife (to the girl)
You’re not coming up until you know.
Farmer (to the girl)
We should have asked for more. What a price you cost us!
Grandmother (to her granddaughter)
What it was I was supposed to know, I didn't know.
Farmer's Wife (to the girl)
Pray hard that the money will come.
Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum
Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
Nunc, et in hora mortis, mortis nostrae.
Amen.
Choir and Grandmother joins
Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum
Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
nunc, et in hora mortis, mortis nostrae.
Amen.
Farmer
I’ve had it. I’m handing her in. Enough of this story.
Stash
Enough, enough. Enough of this story. I've had it.
Lima
The Creator had had it too. And because He wanted to get rid of that pesky rat, he promised him: “So long as you don’t hear some other creature laughing beside you underneath the ground, you will not laugh either.”
And then the Creator threw that subterranean animal out of Heaven, once and for all, thinking that the rat had a short memory.
But the rat remembered the promise, and he kept looking for laughter in the pit, but he saw only dead people and they weren’t laughing.
And the rat cursed the Creator who had cheated him.
Stash
And the next generations of rats were telling each other that God makes promises but never keeps them. They even started looking for a different God, but they didn’t find another one, another one.
Lima
Until the night the girl came down into the pit. And suddenly the rat was filled with hope. He was sure that the creature who followed the girl down would fulfill the Creator's old promise. But this was no beast, but another creature created in the divine image and he did not make her laugh.
Choir
Why potatoes?
Girl
Because.
Choir
Why lice?
Girl
Because.
Choir
Why darkness?
Girl
Because.
Choir
And why Stefan?
Lima
The footsteps of the farmer’s son. The Stefan is coming down, he's getting closer.
Grandmother
Ave Maria, Holy Mother, make him stumble and crash.
Choir (whispering)
Ave Maria, Holy Mother, make him stumble and crash.
Lima
And God saw that it was….
Choir
Good that you’re a he-rat
And not a she-rat
Lucky you’re a he-beast
And not a she-beast
Because only a he-rat
Can get out and move on
And every she-rat
Is prey for the Stefan.
Three girls from choir
I’ll never be cold
For my blanket is mud
I’ll always be warm
For I’m covered with blood
Three other girls from choir
I’ll never be cold
For my blanket is mud
I’ll always be warm
For I’m covered with blood
Lima
The little-girl-who-once-was existed.
The pit-that-once-was existed.
The Rat-that-once- was shall be.
This is the darkness. This is the darkness. There is no other.
Granddaughter (to Grandmother)
(horrified)
That’s not the story, that's not the story I wanted.
Stash
(triumphant)
No one wants this story.
Lima
(sadly)
No one wants this story.
Grandmother
It’s not up to us.
Granddaughter and Stash
But I don't want this story.
Grandmother and Lima
There is no other.
Choir
No other…. No other… No other…
Lima
The little-girl-who-once-was…
The pit-that-once-was...
The Rat-that-once-was...
The farmer and his wife
(peeping into the pit)
Stefan! Stefchu! Stefanel!
Farmer
Stefan, what are you doing down there?
The farmer and his wife
Stefan, where are you?
Choir
I have a big pit outside me
I have a little pit within
The big pit is mine
And the little pit is the Stefan’s.
Stefan's.
Stefan's.
Granddaughter
(horrified)
Stop it, Grandma!
Stash
Stop it, Lima!
Grandmother and Lima
It is too late to stop now.
Lima
And the rat in the pit did not lose its hope that one day the human-cub would laugh. And he desperately tried to make the girl laugh…
Grandmother
Maybe the sun doesn’t go up
And the night doesn’t go down
Maybe beyond the pit
The world doesn’t go round
Darkness isn’t black
The sun doesn’t set
And I’m the only one left
But I don’t know it yet
Granddaughter
Grandma, grandma, where is Stash?
Choir, Grandmother and Lima
Stash… Stash… Stash… Stash…
Granddaughter
How long did it last?
Lima
How long did it last?
Grandmother and Choir, the girl in the pit joins
Maybe the sun doesn’t go up
The night doesn’t go down
Maybe beyond the pit
The world doesn’t go round
Darkness isn’t black
The sun doesn’t set
And I’m the only one left
But I don’t know it yet
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Scene 6
Farmer
She's putting us all at risk. We'll hand her over to his reverence, the priest, and he will know what to do with her.
Farmer's wife (to the girl in the pit)
You Jews, you take up all the places in Heaven, in Heaven. Because of you, we’ll all have to go to Hell.
Farmer
Ave Maria tells Jesus: Move aside, Son. Too many Jewish children are coming out. Coming out, coming out of their holes, and we have to make room for them. Ha, ha, ha. Amen.
The farmer's wife starts lifting the girl.
Farmer
What a horrible stench! Wash her first.
Farmer's wife
(To the girl)
Cross yourself! You stink to high heaven. Even Jesus would hold his nose. Ask for forgiveness. You stink, you stink so badly.
The farmers drag the girl up.
Granddaughter
How did she come up all of a sudden?
Grandmother
A black angel… emerged.
Granddaughter
An angel? Like the one on my notebook? Grandma, grandma, but you don’t believe in miracles.
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Scene 7
Catholic Church in Poland. 1944. Solemn Mass.
The farmers are standing in front of the priest, pulling the girl along.
Choir
Vidi aquam egredientem de templo
A latere dextro
Alleluia
Alleluia
Et omnes ad quos penevit aqua ista salvi factci sunt,
Et dicent:
Alleluia, Alleluia.
Priest
In nominee Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti
Choir, farmer and wife
Amen.
Priest
Confiteor Deo omnipotenti
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
He notices the abused girl in his church.
Choir and farmers
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Choir
Misereatur tui omnipotens Deus
Et dismissis peccatis tuis
Perducat ad vitam aeternam
Amen.
Priest
Kyrie eleison.
Farmers and Choir
Kyrie eleison.
Priest
Christe eleison.
Farmers and Choir
Christe eleison.
Choir
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi.
Farmer's wife pushes the girl towards the priest.
Farmer's Wife
This is his reverence, the priest. Kiss his hand. Confess, you little sinner.
Choir
When Stefan the Saint
Was as small as an elf
He was snatched from his bed
By Master Satan himself
A horrible monster
Was what his parents found
Their sweet and cuddly baby
Disappeared in the ground
I want the first Stefan
To come and hunt down
Master Satan who owns
The bed-pit in the ground
Cause if rats were creatures
That Saint Stefan adored
He’d have Heaven summon
A hundred saints or more.
Priest
Give me the child, woman. I will know what to do with her.
Farmer's Wife
Beware your reverence. She will defile the House of the Lord, the little sinner.
Priest
I’ll pay the price.
Farmer’s wife
If it weren’t for Stefan, we would have turned her in long ago. A good lad, Stefan. Knows how to appreciate a good thing. But now the Germans are offering ten thousand for every Jew. We could mend the roof of the church, so it doesn’t leak in winter.
Priest
(Bribes her with a golden chalice)
Woman! Hand over the girl!
Farmer’s wife
Slaughter the little Jew with your own hands, and avenge the blood of our Savior. But be careful, Father Stanislaw, make sure she doesn’t infect you, the little sinner, when you use the knife.
Soon we will be celebrating a solemn mass for a world cleansed of Jews.
Farmer's Wife and choir
Ave Maria
Gratia plena
Dominus tecum Benedicta tu in mulieribus
Et benedictus Fructus ventris tui Jesus.
Sancta Maria Mater Dei
Ora pro nobis Peccatoribus
Nunc et in Hora mortis, mortis nostrae
Amen.
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Scene 8
Stash
What will she remember beyond the pit?
How did she survive?
Death seems preferable to a life with such a memory.
That rat…
That little girl…
The Stefan…
My REMaker is good for nothing. It's lost. I will never be able to dream again. Lima, Lima, What have you done to me?
Lima
Stash, Stash.
I’m your Remembearer.
With my very own hands, I pull out my implachip.
K-0005275…
Stash, Stash
Inside the pit…
I will carry the memory and now you too will never forget.
There, in the darkness, you'll forever recall…
The priest kneels down before the girl.
Priest
Do not bless me, Father, for I have sinned. Do not absolve me.
I have been your faithful servant all my life, but now I am forsaking you and succumbing to the sin of despair. Do not forgive me, Father. I cannot fulfill my duty, and I have no faith. But pardon this little girl, who has no name. Embrace her, and grant her salvation.
What new day awaits a girl who is nothing but night?
I am Your chosen one. A man is born into Your world as a creature of light, but other humans pour darkness into him.
Confiteor Deo omnipotenti
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
If You do not love Your creatures, how dare You demand from us to love one another?
A world where children need to be placed in hiding ought to be destroyed completely and started from scratch.
The priest pretends to be a rat. He gets down on all four, imitating the movements of a rat, and waves his tail. Now the girl trusts him and she finally responds.
Girl
I give you a name
First just Rat
Then My Pet
Then I give you one with panache
Like Stanislaw or Stash.
Or Stash.
Priest
(holds the girl in his arms)
Do not bless me, Father, for I have sinned.
Do not absolve me.
A girl-child…
I had never held one in my arms.
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Scene 9
Girl
Don’t want to be Jewish any more.
Priest
Jesus was Jewish too.
Girl
Is that why they killed him?
Priest
In the beginning, our Father created… Our Father…
Girl
Stash, promise me He isn’t a Jew.
The priest is silent.
Girl
Promise me, promise that He can laugh.
Priest
My child, it does not say anywhere that God created laughter.
Girl
So who created it?
Priest
Laughter is a miracle, wrought without the Creator having any part of it.
Girl
What is a miracle?
Priest
Something unusual, that never happened before.
Girl
Who causes miracles?
Priest
God. God.
Girl
And who is God? Who is God?
Priest
Our Father. Our Father.
Girl
And where is He?
Priest
In Heaven.
Girl
Heaven – is that above us or below us?
Priest
I don’t know.
Girl
When does He make the miracle?
Priest
My child, God saw that it was good, and left the flawed world as it was, because whenever we laugh we remind Him up there of our presence down here and repair the damage that He Himself wrought.
Girl
Teach me how to laugh, Stash. Please teach me how to laugh.
Priest
Without our laughter, God Himself would be no more.
The girl opens her mouth, she tries to laugh, but her laughter refuses to come out.
Priest
(Embraces her)
Do not bless me, Father, for I have sinned. Do not absolve me.
But now I am forsaking you and devoting myself to this girl.
Her agonized cries cut through me. All night long she pleaded with me not return her to her people.
I will know no peace, day or night.
Mother, Mother, Mother, why have you forsaken me!
Thus cry all of the nameless children.
Girl
Mama, Mama, why have you forsaken me?
Priest (raises his gaze up)
Forgive this girl who has no name. Embrace her and she will teach You how to laugh.
And there was evening, and there was morning…
The priest retreats. The girl tries to follow him, but he forbids her. He keeps moving away.
Priest
Perhaps some day a miracle will happen, and you will find the strength to remember me. I will rise out of the darkness within you, I will stretch out my tail, and I will laugh to you.
Forgive me, my daughter. Bless me, for I have sinned.
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Scene 10
Granddaughter
Grandma, Should I turn on the light?
Grandmother
Not yet.
Granddaughter
But it’s almost dark.
Grandmother
Almost.
Grandmother rises suddenly.
Granddaughter
Where are you? I can’t see you. Give me your hand.
Grandma, hug me. Grandma, you are laughing!
Grandma hugs her granddaughter. They watch the girl. The three unite and leave the stage together.
Lima and Stash watch them from a distance.
The End
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