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21 Crime of Passion |
From Mary Celeste |
[Bell strikes and lights come up on Mary Celeste. Members of the Crew (without mystic regalia) sing to an accordion (played, if possible, by the Cabin-boy, colla voce)]
Deck-hand
Well a sailor's life is s'posed to be romantic
A life of Riley on the ocean wave
but back and forward crossing the Atlantic
I guess it's more exciting in the grave.
[Lights up on Sarah playing the harmonium; Briggs at prayer, his hand resting on her head; Cook and Sophia also praying; Sarah's music adds to the Cabin-boy's]
Helmsman
But it's oh so very different for the Master
In his cabin there's a very pretty wife
but they say that she's the daughter of a pastor
So I would guess they lead a godly kind of life
[Add Band: music swells: First Mate sings in a bravura style like Pavarotti or other celebrated portly tenor]
2nd Mate
These moral preachers
they're cold as leeches
not fellow creatures
with human hearts
But able seamen
are always dreaming
of foreign weemen
and of foreign parts
Look-out
I read a tale of boating in the Bible
The animals all went in two by two
But if that story's any way reliable
there ought to be a mate for me and you?
[Prayers continue. Second Mate draws the clean cutlass which the Herald showed, bloodstained, at the start of One Man's Mate ... and brandishes it menacingly]
2nd Mate
Well the Captain's got his lovely Mrs Sarah
But a Mate has only got his fellow hands
Do we ask politely if he'd like to share her
or find some stronger language that he understands?
[The Second Mate sings in operatic style as before; other Crew sing backing; Sarah attends to her harmonium; Briggs, Sophia and Cook look up in alarm, but do not grasp what is happening until it is too late]
Crew
Sublime and snooty,
New England beauty
to hell with duty,
let's mutinee!
Which is absurder:
let her live in Purdah,
or turn to murder
and set the lady free?
[Key-change and loud music while Crew murders Briggs, Cook and Sophia with the cutlass, dumping the corpses overboard. Sarah is apparently still frozen at her instrument, and Crew look on apprehensively. She suddenly stands up and bursts into unexpectedly vulgar song, a big voice singing the melody over coarser, bluesy harmonies]
Sarah
Boys, I know you heard me prayin' and a-hymnin'
and it's true I had a vicar for my dad
But my husband had a lousy way with women
and it's driven me completely bloody mad
[She laughs rapaciously and seizes the dripping cutlass]
Ah but now you hear a merry widow's laughter
Come and play my very favourite sport
I will first mate with the Second Mate, and after
Any seamen will be welcome in my port.
[During final, operatic refrain Crew kneel in submission before the domineering allure of Sarah with her sword]
Crew [rubato]
Ship-shape and Bristol fashion
we gave our ration;
for our crime of passion
we made amends;
so she enjoyed us
many times employed us
'til love destroyed us,
and so our story ends:
her love destroyed us,
and so our story ends.
[Brief tableau; cut deck lights, bring up quay lights]