(Theater dressinq room with red fabric on the walls. At the left rear is the door. At the riqht rear, a Spanish screen. In the center, with its narrow end toward the audience sits a lonq table with a few dance costumes lyinq upon it. Armchairs are placed to the left and riqht of the table. At the left front is a small table with armchair. At the riqht front is a tall mirror next to a tall, very wide, old-fashioned armchair. In front of the mirror are powder puffs, and a theatrical make-up box and appropriate accoutrements.)

ALWA (left front, fillinq two qlasses with champaqne and red wine) Since I've worked in the theatre, I have never seen an audience go so wild.

LULU (behind the screen out of view) Now don't give me too much wine--Will he see me today?

ALWA My father?

LULU Yes.

ALWA I don't know if he's even in the theatre.

LULU Doesn't he really want to see me?

ALWA His time is so limited.

LULU His fiancee is occupying his time .

ALWA Speculations. He allows himself no rest. enters.) You? We were just talking about you.

LULU Is he there?

SCHÖN You're changing. LULU (peekinq over the top of the screen, to SCHÖN) You wrote in all the papers that I was the most spirited dancer who ever set foot on the stage. I was the second Taglioni and so forth; and you don't find me talented enough for you to be convinced of this!

SCHÖN But I have so much to write. You see that I was correctt. There was barely another empty seat.--You must stand a little farther downstage.

LULU First I must be accustomed to the light.

ALWA She followed the script precisely.

SCHÖN (to ALWA) You must make better use of your actors. You still don't know enough about the technique. (to LULU) What are you dressed as?

LULU As a flower girl...

SCHÖN (to ALWA) In tights?

ALWA No. In an ankle-length skirt.

SCHÖN Better if you hadn't engaged in any symbolism.

ALWA I look at a dancer's feet.

SCHÖN What matters is how the audience looks at it! Thank God, a vision such as her has no need for your symbolic clowning around.

ALWA Afterward the audience doesn't seem bored with my work!

SCHÖN Of course! Because I built up her success in the press for the past six months.--Was the prince here?

ALWA No one's been back here.

SCHÖN Who will let a dancer perform in raincoats for two solid acts!

ALWA Who is this prince?

SCHÖN Are we still going to see each other later?

ALWA Are you alone?

SCHÖN With acquaintances.--At Peter's then?

ALWA At twelve?

SCHÖN At twelve. (exits)

LULU I had already given up hope that he would even come!

ALWA Don't be confused by his sullen grumblings. If you only concentrate, your energy won't be wasted by the last number.

(LULU appears from behind the screen, dressed in an antique, ankle-lenqth, sleeveless white dress with a red hem. There is a briqhtly-colored wreath in her hair, and she carries a basket of flowers.)

LULU He doesn't seem to have noticed at all how well you have used your actors!

ALWA I will not waste the sun, moon, and stars in the first act.

LULU (drinking from a qlass) You reveal me gradually.

ALWA Yet I knew you understood about changing costumes.

LULU Had I wanted to sell my flowers in front of the Alhambra Cafe dressed like this, I would have been locked up the very first night.

ALWA But why? You were a child!

LULU Do you still remember the first time I walked into your room?

ALWA (nodding) You wore a deep blue dress with black velvet trim.

LULU They had to hide me and didn't know where.

ALWA At that time my mother had lain in her sick bed for two years...

LULU You played theater, and asked me if I would do it with you.

ALWA Of course! We played theater!

LULU I can still see how you moved all the little figures around.

ALWA For a long time, it was the most horrible memory, how I first saw clearly through your relationship.

LULU Then you became icily distant from me.

ALWA 0 God--I saw something in you as being so far above me. I harbored perhaps a higher admiration for you than for my own mother. Just think, after my mother died--I was seventeen years old, and I went before my father and challenged him, that he had to marry you immediately otherwise we would have to fight a duel.

LULU He mentioned it to me at the time.

ALWA Since I'm older, all I can do is feel sorry for him. He will never understand me. He has put together this imaginary game that I'm supposed to be working against his marriage to the countess.

LULU Does she still look at the world so innocently?

ALWA She loves him; that's my conviction. Her family has done everything possible to get her to withdraw from the engagement. I don't think that there's a sacrifice in the world great enough that she wouldn't make for his sake.

LULU (holdinq out her qlass to him) A little more, please.

ALWA (pourinq aivay) You're drinking too much.

LULU He should learn to believe in my success! He believes in no art. All he believes in are newspapers.

ALWA He believes in nothing.

LULU He brought me into the theater so eventually he could find someone rich enough to marry me.

ALWA Really now! Why do we need to worry about that!

LULU I'm supposed to be glad if I can dance my way into the heart of a millionaire.

ALWA God forbid that someone steals you away from us!

LULU But you composed the music for this.

ALWA You know that it has always been my desire to write a work just for you.

LULU But I'm not at all destined for the stage.

ALWA You were born a dancer.

LULU Then why don't you write pieces that are at least as interesting as real life?

ALWA Because no one would believe me.

LULU If I knew nothing more about acting than those who play on the stage, what would have become of me?

ALWA But I have provided your character with every imaginable im ALWA It's enough for me that the audience watches in a state of frenzied excitement.

LULU I would like to watch myself in a state of frenzied excitement! (drinks)

ALWA It seems you're not lacking much more to do that.

LULU How can you be surprised about it since my performances have a higher purpose! Already some of them down there are talking about it quite seriously. I can feel this without seeing it.

ALWA So how do you feel this?

LULU None can distinguish what the others feel like. Each one thinks that he alone is the unfortunate victim.

ALWA Then how are you able to feel this?

LULU It races like an icy shudder upward through my whole body.

ALWA You're unbelievable ... (An electric bell rinqs over the door. )

LULU My shawl ... It's time for my entrance!

ALWA (places a wide shawl around her shoulders) Here it is.

LULU He should have nothing more to fear from his shameless publicity.

ALWA Get a hold of yourself!

LULU God grant that I can dance out the last spark of reason in my head. (exits)

ALWA (sittinq at left, without payinq attention to ESCERNY) It cannot continue like this in the third act!

ESCERNY Up to the middle of the third act, it didn't seem to go as well as it has.

ALWA I wasn't on stage.

ESCERNY She's at full speed once again.

ALWA She's drawing out this number.

ESCERNY Once I had the pleasure of being introduced to the artlst by Doctor SCHÖN.

ALWA My father introduced her to the public through an interview in his paper.

ESCERNY (bowinq sliqhtly) I conferred with Doctor SCHÖN about the publication of my research about Lake Tanganyika.

ALWA His remarks leave no doubt that he takes a lively interest in your work.

ESCERNY It speaks quite well for the artist that for her, the audience doesn't exist at all.

ALWA She already learned about costume changing as a child.

But I was startled to discover that she was such a significant dancer. ESCERNY When she dances her solo, she is intoxicated with her own beauty--shs herself appears to be madly in love with it.

ALWA Here she comes.

ESCERNY Not in mine.

ALWA (to LULU) Didn't you see him?

LULU I assumed he had left. (exits)

ESCERNY He has the last parquet loge at the left.

LULU He seems to be ashamed of me!

ALWA He could get no better seats.

LULU (to ALWA) Nevertheless, ask him if I have pleased him more now.

ALWA 1'11 send him up.

ESCERNY He applauded.

LULU Did he really do that?

ALWA Allow yourself a little rest.

SCENE FIVE

LULU I really must change again.

ESCERNY But isn't your dresser here?

LULU I can do it faster alone. Where did you say Dr. SchÖn was seated? ESCERNY I saw him in the parquet loge on the left at the very back.

LULU Now I still have five costumes in front of me: Dancing Girl, Ballerina, Queen of the Night, Ariel, and Lascaris-(disappears behind the screen)

ESCERNY Would you think it possible that at our first encounter I expected to get acquainted with no more than a young woman of the literary milieu?-- -- --(sits down to the riqht of the center table, where he remains until the end of the scene) Was I mistaken in my evaluation of your nature, or have I correctly interpreted the smile that the resounding applause calls forth upon your lips?-- --:that you suffer inwardly by having to degrade your art, out of necessity, before people of doubtful interests?-- -- --(LULU doesn't respond) That you would exchange every moment in the glimmer of publicity for a restful radiant happiness in fashionable seclusion?--(LULU still does not respond) That you feel enough nobility and power within yourself to shackle a man to your feet--in order to delight in his absolute helplessness?-- -- --(LULU still does not respond) That you feel yourself in a worthier place than here, in the opulent comfort of a magnificent villa-with limitless wealth--to live as your own mistress?

LULU (appears from behind the Spanish screen wearing a short, brightly colored, pleated petticoat and white satin corset, black shoes and stockings, bell-like spurs attached to the heels. She is busily tying the draw-strings of the corset) If I don't dance for just one night, then I dream the whole night through that I'm dancing, and the following day I feel completely exhausted ...

ESCERNY But what a difference it could make to you, if instead of these mobs, there was only one spectator, one chosen person to see before you.

LULU It's all the same to me since I never see anyone.

ESCERNY A sunlit summer house--the waves on the lake beyond it. On my journeys of exploration, I am driven to the practices of a completely barbaric despot...

LULU (in front of the mirror, donning a pearl necklace) A good method!

ESCERNY If I now long for something, it is to surrender myself, without any sort of reservation, to the power of a woman--it is only a natural need to relax ... Can you think of a greater enjoyment in life for a woman than for her to have a man fully under her control?

LULU (playing with her spurs) 0 yes!

ESCERNY (puzzled) Among educated men you won't find one who would not be averse to losing his head over you.

LULU No one is going to fulfill your dreams without doing something devious behind your back.

ESCERNY To be deceived by a girl like you must still be ten times better than to be honestly loved by someone else.

LULU You've never really been loved by any girl in your life! (turns her back to him and points to her corset) Would you loosen these knots; they're too tight. I'm always so excited when I'm dressing.

ESCERNY (after repeated attempts) I regret; I can't do it.

LULU Then I'll try. Maybe I can. (moves to the right)

ESCERNY I admit that it is beyond my skills. Perhaps I was not quick enough to learn through my contact with women.

LULU You really don't have much opportunity to do that in Africa.

ESCERNY (seriously) Let me state frankly that my many hours in isolation have made me quite bitter.

LULU Now the knots are almost...

ESCERNY What attracted me to you was not your dance. It is your physical and spiritual refinement that is manifest in all your movements. Anyone as interested as I am in true art can not be mistaken about this. For ten evenings I have studied your soul's existence through your dancing, until tonight, when you appeared as the flower girl, everything became completely clear to me. You have one most splendid attribute--unselfishness. You could never stand to see anyone suffer. You are life's joy incarnate. As a wife, you will make a man totally happy... Your entire being is based upon sincerity.--You would be a terrible actress...

(The bell over the door rings.)

LULU (has loosened the strings of her corset. She takes a deep breath and plays with the spurs on her heels again.) Thank God, I can breathe again. The curtain is going up. (From the center table, she picks up a skirt-dance costume: pleated, bright yellow silk, no bodice, high neck, ankle length, white sleeves. She looks back at him) Time to dance.

ESCERNY (rising and kissing her hand) Allow me to stay here a bit longer.

LULU Of course, if you like.

ESCERNY I need a little solitude. (LULU exits)

ESCERNY (alone) What is nobility?--Is it eccentricity, as it seems to me?--Or is it physical and spiritual perfection, as it is for this girl? (Applause and calls of “Bravo" are heard off staqe.) Whoever restores my beliefs in mankind restores my life.--Shouldn't children of this woman be more magnificent in mind and body than children whose mother possesses no more vitality in herself than I had felt within me until today? (He sits down at the left front--adorinqly) Dancing has ennobled her body...

ALWA One isn't secure for a moment that a miserable accident won't turn a performance into utter ruin! (He flings himself down into the armchair next to the mirror, so that both men are sitting directly opposite from the positions they held before. Both are sustaininq the conversation in a slightly blase and apathetic fashion.) ESCERNY The audience has never shown itself to be so appreciative.

ALWA She just finished the skirt dance.

ESCERNY I hear her coming...

ALWA She's not coming--She hasn't the time.--She's changing costumes behind the scenery.

ESCERNY She had two ballerina costumes if I'm not mistaken.

ALWA I think she looks better in the white one than in the pink.

ESCERNY You do?

ALWA You don't?

ESCERNY I think she looks shapeless in the white tulle.

ALWA Well, I think she looks too brazen in the pink tulle.

ESCERNY I don't think so.

ALWA The white tulle reveals more of the childlike part of her being.

ESCERNY And I think that the pink tulle reveals more of the womanly side!

(The electronic bell rinas over the door.)

ALWA (springinq up) For God's sake, what's going on!

ESCERNY (also rising) What's with you?

(The bell keeps ringing until the end of the scene.)

ALWA Something happened ...

ESCERNY How can you be startled so quickly?

ALWA There must be some hellish confusion. (exits)

ESCERNY (follows him.)

(The door stays open.)

(One can hear a muffled waltz.) (Pause)

SCENE EIGHT

(LULU, in a lonq theater dressinq qown, enters and shuts the door. She puts on the pink ballet costume with flower qarlands, crosses the staqe and sits in the armchair next to the mirror.)

(Pause) SCENE NINE

ALWA Did you faint?

LULU Please, I beg you. Lock the door.

ALWA At least come back to the stage.

LULU Have you seen him?

ALWA Seen whom?

LULU With his fiancee??

ALWA With his ... (to SCHÖN, who has just entered) Couldn't you have spared yourself this joke?

SCHÖN What's wrong with her? (to LULU) How can you play out this scene against me?

LULU I feel as though I've been beaten.

SCHÖN (after boltinq the door) You're going to dance--as long as I'm laden with the responsibility for you!

LULU In front of your fiancee?

SCHÖN Do you have the right to trouble yourself about in front of whom?--You are engaged here. You're paid a fee...

LULU Is this any of your business?

SCHÖN You dance in front of everyone who hands over a ticket. Whoever sits in my box is none of your business!

ALWA If only you had stayed in your box! (to LULU) Tell me, please, what am I supposed to do? (poundinq on the door from the outside) That's the director. (callinq) Wait just a moment! (to LULU) You won't want to force us to cancel the performance!

SCHÖN (to LULU) Get back on stage!

LULU Leave me alone for a minute. I can't right now. I feel deathly ill.

ALWA To hell with this backstage crap!

LULU Start the next number now. No one will notice if I dance now or five minutes from now. I have no strength in my feet.

ALWA But then you will dance?

LULU As best I can...

ALWA Or as badly as you want. (more poundinq on the door) I'm coming! (exits)

LULU You're right to put me in my place. There could be no better way for you to do this than to let me dance the skirt dance in front of your future bride... You're doing me the greatest favor when you show me where my place is.

SCHÖN (insultinq) Considering your background, it's a stroke of luck that you have the opportunity to perform before respectable people!

LULU Even if they don't know where to look because of my indecency.

SCHÖN Nonsensical babbling!--Indecency?--Don't make a necessity out of virtue! Every step of your indecency is just what one pays for with gold. One cries "Bravo", the other cries "Pfui "--It all means the same to you! --Can you wish for a more glittering triumph than if a reputable girl in a box seat can barely restrain herself?!! Does your life have another goal?!--As long as you still have one spark of respect for yourself, you're not a perfect dancer! If the people in the audience are even more horrified of you, your status in your profession will be all the greater for it!!

LULU I really have no concern about what others think of me.

I would like to be no better than I am. I'm sure of that.

SCHÖN (with moral indiqnation) That's your true essence! I call that honest.--What a corruption!!

LULU I wouldn't know if I had ever had a spark of respect for myself.

SCHÖN (becominq suddenly suspicious) No clowning...

LULU 0 God--I know very well what would have become of me if you hadn't protected me.

SCHÖN Maybe you think you're a little different today?

LULU Thank God, no!

SCHÖN That's the truth!

LULU (lauqhinq) And how overjoyed I am of that!

SCHÖN (tersely) You're going to dance now?

LULU However and in front of whomever!

SCHÖN Then get out on stage!

LULU (beaqinq like a child) Just another minute more. Please. I still can't stand up yet.--Someone will ring.

SCHÖN You became corrupted in spite of everything I did for your education and well-being.

LULU (ironically) Had you overestimated your dignifying influence? SCHÖN Spare me your jokes.

LULU The Prince was here.

SCHÖN So?

LULU He's taking me with him to Africa.

SCHÖN To Africa?

LULU Why not? Really, you made me into a dancer so someone would comne along and take me away.

SCHÖN But not really to Africa!

LULU Why didn't you let me rest when I fainted and silently thanked heaven for it?

SCHÖN Because I had no reason to believe your fainting fit!

LULU (mockinq) You couldn't stand it, could you...?

SCHÖN Because I had to bring you to an awareness of what you are and whom you shouldn't look up to!

LULU Did you fear that my limbs could have been injured seriously?

SCHÖN I know too well that you're indestructible.

LULU You do know that!

SCHÖN (raqing) Don't look at me with such impudence!!

LULU No one is keeping you here.

SCHÖN I'm leaving as soon as they ring.

LULU As soon as you have the energy to do it!--Where is your energy?--You've been engaged for the past three years?--Why don't you marry?--There are no obstacles. Why do you want to blame me?--You had already ordered me to marry Doctor Goll. I compelled Doctor Goll to marry me. You ordered me to marry the painter. I had to grin and bear it.--You create artists, you patronize princes. Why don't you marry?

SCHÖN (furious) Perhaps you believe it is you \vho stands in my way??

LULU (from here to the end of the act, speakinq triumphantly and with qreat assurance) Would you know how happy your rage makes me! How I am so proud because you humiliate me with every means! You degrade me so deeply--as deeply as one can degrade a woman because then you hope you can get over me quickly. But through it all you've caused yourself the same unspeakable pain even by what you've just said to me. I see it in you. You're nearly at your wit's end. Get out! For the sake of your blameless fiancee, leave me alone! In one more minute your mood will completely change and you will create another scene that you can't be responsible for now!

SCHÖN I'm no longer afraid of you.

LULU Me?--Be afraid of yourself!--I don't need you.--I beg you, get out! Don't blame me. You know that I didn't need to faint in order to destroy your future. You have this infinite trust in my integrity. Not only do you think I'm a captivating human being, you even think I'm a kindhearted creature. I am neither one nor the other. The unfortunate part for you is only that you believe these things.

SCHÖN (desperately) Leave my thoughts out of this! You've already put two husbands six feet under. Take the prince; dance him into the grave! I'm finished with you. I know where the angel in you ends and the devil begins. If I accept the world as it was .created, it is the Creator who bears the responsibility for it, not I! To me, life is not an amusement.

LULU For that you place demands on life higher than anyone can ... Tell me, which of the two of us is more demanding, you or I?!

SCHÖN Silence! I don't know how or what I think. If I listen to you, I can't think. In a week I'll be married. I implore you--to the angelic side of you--stay out of my sight forever!

LULU I'll lock my door.

SCHÖN Still flattering yourself!--As long as I have struggled with life and the world, I have, as God is my witness, never cursed anyone so!

LULU This comes from my vulgar origins.

SCHÖN From your depravity!!

LULU I take the blame upon myself with a thousand joys! You must feel quite cleansed now. You must think you're a typical puritanical man--one of the elect with unshakable principles-or else you couldn't marry this incredibly inexperienced child ...

~ SCHÖN Do you want me to be violent?

LULU (quickly) Yes! Yes! What do I have to say to make you do it? Not for a king's riches would I want to trade places with that unsullied young lady! as no woman has ever loved you!!

SCHÖN Quiet, bitch! Quiet!

LULU Marry her! Then she'll dance in all of her immature wretchedness before me instead of me before her!

SCHÖN (raisinq his fist) God forgive me...

LULU Beat me! Where did you put your riding whip! Whip me on the thighs...

SCHÖN (pressinq on his temples) Go away, begone ... ! (rushinq to the door, thinkinq to himself, then turninq around) Can I show myself in front of the child like this?--I want to go home!--If I could exit this world!

LULU Do be a man.--For once look yourself in the face.--You have no trace of a conscience.--You shrink away from no disgraceful deed.--You want to make the girl who loves you unhappy with your cold-bloodedness.--You do what you want-and you know as well as I--that ... SCHÖN (collapses fully exhausted on the armchair on the left side of the center table) Silence!

LULU That you are much too spineless to tear yourself away from me.

SCHÖN (moaninq) Oh! Oh! You cause me such pain!

LULU I relish this moment--I can't tell you how much!

SCHÖN MyoId age! My world!

LULU He's crying like a child--the formidable man of authority! --Now go to your fiancee and explain to her what a good person I am--not a trace of jealousy!

SCHÖN (sobbinq) The child! The innocent dear!

LULU How can the devil incarnate suddenly become so tender?-Please go now. You mean nothing more to me.

SCHÖN I can't ... go to her.

LULU Out with you! Come back again when you've regained your strength.

SCHÖN Tell me, for God's sake, what I'm supposed to do.

LULU (rises, leavinq her qown on the chair. She pushes aside the costumes lyinq on the center table.) Here is some paper...

SCHÖN I can't write ...

LULU (stands behind him and to the right, leaning against the arm of his Chair) Write!--Most honored Fr~ulein ...

SCHÖN (hesitating) I call her Adelheid ...

LULU (with emphasis) Most honored Fraulein ...

SCHÖN (writing)--My death sentence!

LULU Take back your pledge of devotion. I cannot reconcile with my conscience--(SCHÖN puts down the quill and casts an imploring look at her) Write "conscience"!--to bind you to my accursed lot.

SCHÖN (writing) You're right. You're right.

LULU I give you my word, that of your love--(SCHÖN begins to gaze about again)--Write "love"!--I am unworthy. These lines are the proof. For the past three years I tried to tear myself away; I had no strength. I am writing to you at the side of the woman who commands my life.--Forgive me.--Doctor Ludwig Schön.

SCHÖN (groaning) 0 God!

LULU (half-frightened) Not "0 God"!--(with emphasis) Doctor Ludwig Schön.--P.S. Don't make any attempt to rescue me.

SCHÖN (to himself, after he finished writing) Now--comes the-execution ...