THE MASK OF THE RED DEATH
Script for School Theatre
Scene 1
Storyteller: Once upon a time there lived Prince Prospero. He was
a brave and wise prince. He lived happily with his people in his beautiful country
for many years. But then a terrible thing happened. For a long time the Red Death
was everywhere in his land. There had never been such a serious illness that went
from person to person very quickly, killing nearly everyone. There never was a
plague that killed so many, and there never was a death as terrible.
Red Death:
First, you feel burning pains in your stomach. Then everything begins to turn
round and round inside your head. Then blood begins to come out through your skin
– yes, you begin to bleed all over your body – but most of all through your face.
And of course when people see you they leave you immediately. Nobody wants to
help you. Your terrible face tells everyone that it is too late. ...Too late!
Scene
2
1st Lady: Oh, my Prince! What a terrible disaster! The Red Death came to
our country!
1st Man: Yes, my lord! It’s true! We saw so many people dead
in the streets of our town! They are all red with blood!
Prince: Isn’t it
possible to help them?
2nd Man: No, The Red Death is a very short illness
– only about half an hour, from its beginning to its end!
2nd Lady: My Prince!
What are we to do? Who can help us? Half of the people in our land are dead!
Prince: We must go away from this city! We are going to my castle, in the middle
of the forest! We’ll be safe there! And when the Red Death ends we’ll be able
to come back to my palace. Be ready to go in an hour!
Storyteller: And Prince
Prospero chose a thousand healthy and happy friends and took them away from the
city. Over the hills they went, far away to the Prince’s favourite house. It was
large and beautiful, with a high, strong wall all around the house. The wall had
only one door: a very strong metal one.
Prince: Here we are at last! Now,
my friends, let’s close the door. I’ll lock it and throw the key over the wall
into the lake outside.
1st Man: Right you are! Now nobody will be able to
come in or out of the house!
1st Lady: And we’ll be safe here inside!
Prince: There is plenty of food in the house, enough for more than a year. We
don’t have to worry about the Red Death outside any more.
2nd Man: Let the
outside world worry about itself!
2nd Lady: How happy we are to have such
a clever prince!
Scene 3
Storyteller: So everyone soon forgot the terrible
plague. They were safe inside the Prince’s beautiful house and they had everything
they needed to have a good time. There were dancers, there were musicians, and
there was beauty. All this was inside, The Red Death was outside.
3rd Lady:
Hello, my friend! Have you heard about the party?
4th Lady: The party? What
party do you mean?
3rd Lady: Prince Prospero is going to give a special party
for his friends.
4th Lady: Will it be a masked party?
3rd Lady: Yes, and
a most unusual one!
1st Man: This party will take place in the newest part
of this house, in the rooms which he almost never uses!
2nd Man: As far as
I know they are very unusual, those seven rooms, aren’t they?
1st Man: Of
course, that’s why the Prince has chosen them for the party. You know he is an
unusual and strange person and he often has very unusual ideas!
4th Lady:
Oh, I saw those beautiful rooms! The Prince decorated them himself in his own
unique way.
3rd Lady: I’m looking forward to that wonderful party!
Scene
4
Storyteller: The day of the party came. The rooms were really unusual. The
first room was blue, in the second room everything was purple, in the third everything
was green. So, every room had its special colour. In the seventh room everything
was black – everything but the windows. They were deep, rich, red colour, the
colour of blood. And the light filled the rooms with bright, rich and strangely
beautiful colour. That light was horrible. It gave a terrible, wild look to the
faces of people who entered.
1st Lady: Oh, what a wonderful party we are having
today!
2nd Lady: Yes, really! We can say that our Prince has a truly fine
eye for colour? I enjoy these strange decorations!
1st Lady: Some people think
our Prince is mad but he isn’t. Look! What excellent dresses he chose!
Storyteller:
Yes, many dresses looked more than just strange. There was a bit of everything
at the party: the beautiful, the ugly, and a lot of the horrible. They looked
like a madman’s dreams, those strange masked people, dancing to wild music.
People
are dancing to music
Storyteller: They went up and down, changing colour
as they danced from room to room until the minute hand on the clock that stood
against the far wall of the black room came up to the hour and then, when they
heard the first sound of the clock, everything stopped.
The sound of the
clock
Storyteller: The musicians stopped playing to listen to the clock.
The dancers stopped dancing. The whole party stopped. Everybody listened to the
sound.
1st Man: Some people’s faces became white...
2nd Man: Other people’s
heads began to go round and round...
1st Lady: Others put their hands to their
heads, surprised by sudden strange, dream-like thoughts...
2nd Lady: Why did
I stop dancing? I can’t understand!
1st Lady: Neither can I! I think next
time we hear the sound of that strange clock we shan’t stop dancing any more!
2nd Lady: Certainly! Next hour we shan’t be so stupid.
Scene 5
The dancing
goes on
Storyteller: It was midnight. Again the clock made the same strange,
deep and so sweetly musical sound! Midnight! It seemed like there was no end to
the sounds this time each sound seemed to go on forever. But now people became
paler and their thoughts were even stranger than before.
And some of them
saw a tall masked man walking slowly and silently among them. People looked at
him with anger and horror. Horror at choosing that mask! It was not funny! His
mask was the face of a dead man. He was wearing black clothes. And he had a death
mask, but it was the colour that made everyone shake with horror. The mask was
red. It was the mask of the Red Death!
Prince Prospero saw the stranger and
became mad with anger. He waved his hand and the music stopped immediately.
Prince: Who? Who has done this horrible thing? Catch that man! Take off his mask!
We will cut off his head in the morning!
1st Man: My lord! We can’t do that!
It’s the Red Death!
2nd Man: We are afraid of him! How did he get here?
3rd Lady: Oh, dear! Who can save us?
4th Lady: I’m afraid, something strange
is going to take place!
Everybody stepped back against the walls of the
room
Prince: Then I’ll stop him! I’m not afraid of anyone!
Prince,
pulling out his knife, ran after the man with the red mask on
Storyteller:
The masked man turned suddenly, and gave a terrible, cutting cry. The prince’s
knife fell without a sound on the black floor and Prince Prospero fell without
a sound next to it. Dead.
Red Death: Suddenly the dancers were no longer afraid.
A crowd of them ran up to me. But they couldn’t catch me! Because nobody can catch
the Red Death!
The light goes out. People see the black clothes and the
mask on the floor
Storyteller: Everyone cried out in horror! There was nobody
there. The man’s body was nothing but air! Now everybody understood that the Red
Death was now among them. He came like a thief in the night! And the people began
to die the terrible death. Soon the last person died. And the last lamp went out.
And even the clock stopped. Everything was silence and darkness.
Adapted
from Edgar Allan Poe,
by Irina Gutkina, School “Znanie”