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How I Joined In Holy Matrimony
By A. P. Chekhov
The play was directed by Mikhail Saburov in April, 2011.
What are you doing here?
I'm helping.
I see. A fine way to help... over a bottle!
I'm helping!
I... help... That's my help!
Oh, already drunk! In no time!
I'm helping!
I see...
Now get out!
I said, get out!
Oh, Gosh!
What should I do about him?!
Get out of here!
Martha!
Martha!
Yes, ma'am.
Hurry up! The groom is on his way!
Frosya, dear!
Yes, mom!
Remind me, what have you been telling me all morning?
I've got a letter today.
A declaration of love! From Officer Chernov.
Eduard Petrovich by name.
He writes that he loves me and that he can't live without me.
He asks if I'll marry him!
Proposing, isn't he?
Oh, yes, he is.
Martha,
leave us alone for minute.
Proposing...
How exciting!
One daughter gets married today; another goes to the altar tomorrow!
Oh, Frosya, dear!
My darling! My sweet girl! ...
Hello, how are you?
How are you, Eduard Petrovich?
I... we could hardly expect such happiness...
I was completely, absolutely unaware.
Why didn't you say anything before?
Madam!
The groom has arrived.
He is here!
Get out!
The groom! The groom! He is here.
Papa...
I wonder if you could do it without me. I mean, arrange my marriage...
Hello. Hello.
Are you out of your mind?
Kick off!
But how could I say that I love her,
feeling nothing for her?
Got it!
You're...
a big fool!
You understand nothing!
Kick off, I said.
Well...
you can't escape your fate...
The circumstances favor me, Zoya Andreevna...
We are alone... at last...
Don't get married!
Here you are!?
At last we are alone
and... the darkness
itself is on my side,
for it conceals the shame on my face.
This shame has appeared
due to the feelings that burn
my heart from inside out.
The flowers!
Here... here you are.
But that was
where I stopped...
I could distinctly hear
Zoya Zhelvakova's heart frantically beating
and her small teeth...
clattering.
Her entire body was
trembling; it could be easily felt
the way the bench was rocking.
The poor girl
didn't love...
me.
She hated me the way a beaten dog hates the stick.
She scorned me, if only it can be assumed
that the simpletons are capable of scorn.
I... stopped
because I felt sorry for her.
Zoya Andreevna...
let's go out to the garden...
it's so stuffy here.
Can you hear the nightingale singing
for his darling's delight?
And me, a lonely soul,
who could I amuse?
Zoya blushed
and lowered her eyes.
She was commanded to play such a farce.
We sat down on a bench...
On the bench
facing the river.
A church gleamed white on the opposite riverside,
and right behind it
Earl Kuldarov's mansion was towering,
where clerk Bolnytzin lived,
Zoya's beloved one.
The moment Zoya slipped to the bench,
she glued her eyes to that house.
My heart shriveled and grimaced with pity.
Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord!
May our parents rest in peace
but if only the could've spend a week in Hell!
There is only one person
on whom all my happiness depends.
I...
have a special feeling for this person...
It's her smell... her spell, I mean, that my heart is filled with.
I love her, and
unless she loves me in return,
I'm lost... dead...
This person is you.
Can you love me? Do you love me? Do you?
... I do...
"I do", she said...
I have to admit,
these very words made my heart sink.
I did hope she would ditch me,
for she loves another person so much.
I did hope it would turn this way
but it was my hope that turned sour...
She hadn't have a nerve
to go against our parents' will.
... I love you...
Is it possible, Zoya Andreevna?
By God, by dear God,
don't believe it! No, no, no
it's nothing but nonsense!
I don't love you!
May I be cursed by bell, book, and candle if I love you!
And you... You don't love me either, Zoya Andreevna!
All this... all of this is just rubbish!
What a farce?!
We are married off, Zoya Andreevna,
for the sake of money, so what is there to love!?
I'd better go and get drowned
than marry you!
So what the hell?! Who gave them the rights to decide for us!
What do they think we are? Serfs? Dogs?
We won't get married.
For spite.
Scoundrels.
Enough, Zoya Andreevna.
We've done too many favors to them!
Right, right now I'll go
and tell them that I won't marry you.
Yes, that's it! And you...
and so will you. You'll tell them that it's not me that you love
but Bolnytzin, the clerk. And I'll
be the one holding his hand!
I know how passionately you love him, Zoya Andreevna!
And you, you are in love with someone else too!
You love mademoiselle Debet!
Indeed I am...
mademoiselle Debet...
You know,
even though she is neither Orthodox,
nor rich,
still, I love her...
I love her for
so rare combination of intellect
and excellence...
Let them...
let them damn me,
but I'll marry her.
I love her,
perhaps, more than life itself!
I simply can't live without her!
Unless I marry her right now,
let this breath be my last!
Zoya Andreevna, my dear, thank you, thank you!
Let's go! Let's go and tell
these jesters, Zoya Andreevna!
My sweet! ...
And I must tell you,
that this declaration of unloving
was brimming with more happiness
than any love declaration could be.
Let them, let them scold us,
beat us, let them even kick us out!
But we deserve to be happy! Let's go and tell them right now!
We are not getting married...
That's right!
They are getting married! Don't worry! Getting married!
They are getting married! Of course, they are! You should be so happy!
Get out! You, alcoholic scums!
But they did
marry us...
anyway...
Today
we celebrate our
silver wedding anniversary,
After all we've been living together
for a quarter of a century now.
It was terrible at first.
I scolded her,
thumped her,
started loving her...
in grief...
Our children were born...
out of grief...
Then...
then we settled down... got used to each other...
And this very minute
Zoya - my darling - is standing right behind my back,
holding my shoulders with her small hands,
and kissing me
at the bald spot on my head.