[Chekhov]
(Sorin enters on the arm of Nina, followed by Medvedenko pushing a
wheelchair.)
SORIN: (to Nina) So we're finally happy today, yes? Happy at last!
Your papa and stepmother are out of town, and you're free for three whole days!
NINA: (sitting down beside Irina) Yes, I am happy. Now I belong to you.
SORIN: (sitting in a wheelchair) She's looking so pretty today.
IRINA: Such a pretty dress. But we mustn't praise you too much, it's bad luck. Where's Trigorin?
NINA: Fishing at the lake.
IRINA: I don't see how he can fish all day.
NINA: What are you reading?
IRINA: Maupassant. But it's getting dull. And something's bothering me.
What's wrong with Kostya? Why's he so moody all the time? He spends the entire day on the lake and I never see him.
MASHA: He's very troubled. (To Nina, timidly) Would you recite something from his play?
NINA: Should I? It's so boring.
MASHA: When he reads aloud, his eyes glow and his face turns pale. He has such a sad voice. He looks like a poet.
(Sorin starts snoring.)
DORN: Sweet dreams.
IRINA: Petroosha!
SORIN: Hmm?
IRINA: You were snoring.
SORIN: I'm wide awake.
IRINA: It's so foolish, the way you never take your medicine.
SORIN: The doctors never give me any.
DORN: Taking medicine at sixty . . .
SORIN: Even at sixty, one wants to live.
DORN: Then take your medicine.
IRINA: I think he should go to a health spa.
DORN: Might do him good, might not.
IRINA: What's that supposed to mean?
DORN: Just what it says.
MED.: I think you should quit smoking.
SORIN: Rubbish.
DORN: It's not rubbish. Liquor and tobacco rob us of our true selves. When
you drink or smoke, you become someone else, some third person "him" instead
of "me."
SORIN: That's easy for you to say, with the life you've led. I spent twenty-eight years in court and only now am finally beginning to live a little. Now I can enjoy my sherry and my cigars and all the rest.
DORN: But when you depend on medicine at sixty and complain that you never
lived when you were young - it's just silly.
MASHA: (rising) It must be lunch time. (She walks toward the house, limping.) My foot's asleep.