Scene 2:
Kings, Sticks and Birds
Honest Bird, who has been knocked about, then restored, by clowns in a precise mimed slapstick during the progress of the parable, is now taken in hand by Marie Marianne. Her voice is the authentic voice of liberty, reason, and the Republic. To sing freely, and without fear, Honest Bird, and all like him, need her good offices. As another mime indicates, without it he is doomed: the clowns re-enter the ring pushing a scaffold and giblet before them. Whilst Marie Marianne is restrained, the clowns goad Honest Bird up the scaffold steps to the hangman who places a noose around his head. At exactly the moment the hangman releases the trap, and Honest Bird drops into a curtained-off space below the scaffold, Marie Marianne is able to break free. Rushing to aid Honest Bird, she rips aside the curtains and reveals Honest Bird grown to maturity. He has traveled forward in time to fulfill his destiny as a Revolutionary Priest. Tearing the noose from his neck, he steps free. Together he and Marie MArianne now urge every citizen to find his or her true voice, and to express their deepest aspirations. Initially, these are ill-formed. Some citizens, for example, apparently wish to become the very people they are seeking to replace. But they grow more and more articulate, and include a succinct list of those failings that have brought France to such a pass. With added encouragement and guidance from the Troublemaker, who naturally fires them up, the people solemnly vow to create a Republic.
RINGMASTER
Ladies and Gentlemen
Imagine a bird on song in a tree
An ordinary bird like you or like me
Imagine some ruffian happening by
And beating him within an inch of his life
CHORUS
Ahh!
RINGMASTER
Then a priest from some denomination
Witnessing this abomination
Blesses not the bird but the beast
The Unknown Soldier appears on the field
And takes the bird’s feathers to put on his shield
Then a powerful judge from the high court
Decreed that the birds really ought
Not to be allowed to sing in the trees
But then one day
Some of the priests and soldiers and judges
Putting aside some old worn grudges
Changed their minds and the birds sang again
It was the Revolution
The Revolution is a story of birds
Of sticks and stones and bushes and bones
RINGMASTER & CHORUS
A story of now, a story of then
A story of women, a story of men
RINGMASTER
A story of everything to come
Of everything under the sun
