Petrouсhka

Scene One: Butter Week (Shrovetide) Carnival
Scene Two: Petrouchka’s Cell
Scene Three: The Moor’s Room
Scene Four: Butter Week Carnival (towards evening)

Original authorial version

During the Butter Week (Shrovetide) revelry an old Charlatan, of Eastern mien, displays his puppets who have come to life: Petrouchka, the Ballerina and the Moor, who are performing a furious dance amidst an astonished crowd. Via his magic gift, the Charlatan has invested his puppets with the feelings and passions of real people. Petrouchka has been given more feelings than the others, and he suffers more than the Ballerina and the Moor.

He is bitterly aware of the Charlatan’s cruelty, his own lack of freedom, his isolation from the rest of the world, his ugly, comical appearance. He seeks consolation in the love of the Ballerina and it seems to him that she reciprocates his feelings when, in fact, she is only frightened of his eccentricities and she tries to avoid him.

The life of the stupid, bad-tempered, but well-turned out Moor is the total opposite of that of Petrouchka. The Ballerina finds him attractive and goes out of her way to charm him. Eventually, of course, she succeeds but Petrouchka, mad with jealousy, bursts into the room and puts an end to the love-making. The Moor loses his temper and turns Petrouchka out.

The Butter Week revelry reaches an all-time high. A merchant’s son, making merry with some gypsy girls, throws stacks of notes to the crowd, court coachmen dance with nurses in holiday attire; a group of mummers involves everyone in a wild knees-up. When the carousing is at its height, sobs from the Charlatan’s theatre are heard. The misunderstanding between the Moor and Petrouchka has taken a turn for the worse. The live dolls run out into the street. With a blow of his sabre, the Moor fells Petrouchka to the ground, and poor Petrouchka lies dying in the snow, surrounded by a crowd of drunken idlers. The Charlatan, escorted to the scene by the Policeman on duty, hastens to calm everyone down. In his hands, Petrouchka regains his original doll-like appearance and the crowd, having seen that his shattered head is made of wood, and his body filled with sawdust, disperse. But there is a nasty surprise in store for the cunning Charlatan, who remains alone, with his puppet; to his horror Petrouchka’s ghost appears above the theatre: he threatens his tormentor and mocks all those who had believed in his death.