ACT I
Time: 1884. A white stage. George, an artist, is sketching.

NO LIFE
Jules end Yvonne stand looking at a tableau vivant of Seurat's "Bathing at Asni?res."

JULES
Ahh...

YVONNE
Ooh...

JULES
Mmm...

YVONNE
Oh, deer.

JULES
Oh, my.

YVONNE
Oh, my dear.

JULES
It has no presence.

YVONNE
No passion.

JULES
No life.
It's neither pastoral
Nor lyrical.

YVONNE
You don't suppose that it's satirical?

JULES
Just density
Without intensity-

YVONNE
No life.
Boys with their clothes off-

JULES
(mocking)
I must paint a factory next!

YVONNE
It's so mechanical.

JULES
Methodical.

YVONNE
It might be in some dreary
Socialistic periodical.

JULES
Good.

YVONNE
So drab, so cold.

JULES
And so controlled.

BOTH
No life.

JULES
His touch is too deliberate, somehow.

YVONNE
The dog.

JULES
These things get hung-

YVONNE
Mmm.

JULES
And then they're gone.

YVONNE
Ahhh...
Of course his young-

JULES
Hmm?

YVONNE
But getting on.

JULES
Oh...
All mind, no heart.
No life in his art.

YVONNE
No life in his life-

BOTH
No-
Life.

COLOR AND LIGHT:

George's studio. He is painting.

GEORGE
(dabbing the canvas)
Order.
Design.
composition.
Tone.
Form.
Symmetry.
Balance.

More red...
And a little more red...
(switches brushes)
Blue blue blue blue
Blue blue blue blue
Even even...
Good...
Bumbum bum bumbumbum
Bumbum bum...
More red...
More blue...
More beer...
(takes e swig from e nearby bottle, always eyeing the canvas)
More light!
(dabs assiduously, delicately attacking the area he is painting)
Color and light.
There's only color and light.
Yellow and white.
Just blue and yellow and white.
(addressing the woman he is painting)
Look at the air, miss-
(dabs at the space in front of her)
See whet I mean?
No, look over there, miss-
(dabs at her eye, checks it)
That's done with green...
(swirling a brush in the orange cup)
Conjoined with orange...

DOT
(seated at her dressing table, powdering)
Nothing seems to fit me right. The less I wear, the more comfortable I feel.
(checking herself in the mirror)
More rouge...
(puts puff down, starts applying rouge)
George is very special. Maybe I'm just not special enough for him.
(puts rouge down, starts plucking her eyebrows)
If my legs were longer.
It my bust was smaller.
It my hands were graceful.
If my waist was thinner.
If my hips were flatter.
If my voice was warm.
If I could concentrate-

I'd be in the Follies.
I'd be in a cabaret.
Gentlemen in tall silk hats
And linen spats
Would wait with flowers.
I could make them wait for hours.
Giddy young aristocrats
With fancy flats
Would drink my health,
And I would be as
Hard as nails...
(looks at her nails, reaches for the buffer)
And they'd only want me more...
(starts buffing nails)

If I was a folly girl.
Nah, I wouldn't like it much.
Married men and stupid boys
And too much smoke end all that noise
And all that color and light...

GEORGE
(talking to the women in the painting)
Aren't you proper today, miss? Your parasol so properly cocked, your bustle so perfectly upright.
(addressing the figure of the man next to her)
And you sir. Your hat so black. So black to you, perhaps.
So red to me.

DOT
(spraying herself with perfume)
None of the others worked at night...

GEORGE
So composed for a Sunday.

DOT
How do you work without the right
(sprays)
White
(sprays)
Light?
(sprays)
How do you fathom George?

GEORGE
(trance like, as he paints)
Red red red red
Red red orange
Red red orange
Orange pick up blue
Pick up red
Pick up orange
From the blue-green blue-green
Blue-green circle
On the violet diagonal
Di-ag-ag-ag-ag-ag-o-nal-nal
Yellow comma yellow comma
(massaging his numb wrist)
Numnum num numnumnum
Numnum num...
(sniff, smelling Dot's perfume)
Blue blue blue blue
Blue still sitting

Red that perfume
Blue all night
Blue-green the window shut
Dut dut dut
Dot Dot sitting
Dot Dot waiting
Dot Dot getting fat fat fat
More yellow
Dot Dot waiting to go
Out out out
No no no George
Finish the hat finish the hat
Have to finish the hat first
Hat hat hat hat
Hot hot hot it's hot in here...
Sunday!

Color and light!

DOT
(pinning up her hair)
But how George looks. He could look forever.

GEORGE
There's only color and light.

DOT
As if he sees you and he doesn't all at once.

GEORGE
Purple and white...

DOT
What is he thinking when he looks like that?

GEORGE
And red and purple and white.

DOT
What does he see? Sometimes, not even blinking.

GEORGE
(to the young girls in the painting)
Look at this glade, girls,
Your cool blue spot.

DOT
His eyes. So dark and shiny.

GEORGE
No, stay in the shade, girls.
It's getting hot...

DOT
Some think cold and black.

GEORGE
It's getting orange...

DOT
But it's warm inside his eyes...

GEORGE
(dabbing more intensely)
Hotter..

DOT
And it's soft inside his eyes...
(George steps around the canvas to get paint. He glances at Dot. The eyes meet for a second, then Dot turns back to her mirror.)
And he burns you with his eyes...

GEORGE
Look at her looking.

DOT
And you're studied like the light.

GEORGE
Forever with that mirror. What does she see?

DOT
And you look inside the eyes.

GEORGE
The pink lips, the red cheeks...

DOT
And you catch him here and there.

GEORGE
The wide eyes. Studying the round face, the tiny pout...

DOT
But he's never really there.

GEORGE
Seeing all the parts and none of the whole.

DOT
You want him even more.

GEORGE
But the way she catches light...

DOT
And you drown inside his eyes...

GEORGE
And the color of her hair... DOT
I could look at her I could look at him
Forever... Forever...

It's going well...

DOT
Should I wear my red dress or blue?

GEORGE
Red.

DOT
Aren't you going to clean up?

GEORGE
Why?

DOT
The Follies, George!

GEORGE
I have to finish the hat.
(He returns to his work. Dot slams down her brush and leaves.)
Damn. The Follies. Will she yell or stay silent? Go without me or sulk in the corner? Will she be in the bed when the hat and the grass and the parasol have finally found their way?...
Too green...
Do I care?...
Too blue...
Yes...
Too soft.
What should I do?

Well...
Red.
(As he continues painting, he and his canvas are consumed by light.)