Madame Giry's Tale / The Fairground

[Everything is spoken]



RAOUL

Madame Giry, wait. . .



GIRY

Please, Monsieur - I know no more than

anyone else.



RAOUL

That's not true.



GIRY (uneasily)

Please, Monsieur, don't ask, there have been too many accidents . . .



RAOUL (ironical)

Accidents?!

Please, Madame Giry, for all our sakes . . .



GIRY

Very well. It was years ago. There was a traveling

fair in the city. The gypsies.

I was very young, studying to be a ballerina.

One of many living in the dormitories of the opera house.



Scary woman: See the wonder from the East!



Cruel man. Come. Come. Come inside. Come and see The Devil's Child.



Cruel man.

You damn demon!(Beats)

Villain! (beats)

Ne'er do-well! (Beats)

Libertine! (Beats)

Dangerous! (Beats)

Hideous! (Beats)

Monstrous! (Beats)

BEAST! (Beats very hard)



Cruel Man. Behold, Mesdames and messieurs, the Devil's Child!



Man: Murder!



Policeman: Which way?!

Man: That way! That way!

Policeman: He's getting away!



GIRY: (Narrating the story)

I hid him from the world, and its cruelties.



Young Giry. If you stay in here, you are safe.



Young Erik. Thank you so much, young lady.



GIRY:

He has known nothing else of life since then except this opera house.

I called him Erik.

It was his playground and now his artistic domain, he's a genius.

He's an architect and designer,

he's,composer and a,magician. A genius, Monsieur!



ROUL: But clearly, Madame Giry, genius has turned to madness.