And Now For Something New! Introducing a Short Play by Amy Gerstler With Artwork from Marc Chagall's "Circus" Paintings
When I asked Amy Gerstler if she would send me some poems for Calul, boy was I surprised when I received a short play instead. Surprised, delighted and challenged. Just as I am challenging you, our readers. I thought I would wait to share this bit of drama, a piece that carries funny/sad/funny emotions with the alacrity of a clown’s face, until Purim. But I just couldn’t wait. Only Gerstler can bring us this mix of emotions in these well drawn characters in this very small container. I hope you enjoy!
ONE NIGHT AT THE CIRCUS Characters: Balloon Girl Wanda, The Lady Wrestler A Male Clown (Harry) Scarlet, The Circus Pony (No Lines) SCENE ONE (A circus, the morning before an afternoon show. Sound effects of faint circus music, which stops and starts. Faint voices of various circus performers, vendors, and clowns. They are setting up, testing out their acts. Trapeze artists practice overhead. Tumblers do flips. Circus animals are being put through their paces by trainers. None of these things are seen by the audience. A LADY WRESTLER (Wanda) does warm up exercises. BALLOON GIRL is wandering around, clutching a large bouquet of storm cloud colored helium balloons. She wears a colorful child's backpack.) BALLOON GIRL Nice Cape. LADY WRESTLER Made it myself. Feel that. Real satin. BALLOON GIRL Forgive me not knowing, but... LADY WRESTLER New here? BALLOON GIRL It's all over me like a rash? LADY WRESTLER Don't be self-conscious, honey. BALLOON GIRL Are you supposed to be.....a superhero? (sounds of elephants trumpeting. An elephant handler and his elephant, neither of whom we see, enter.) LADY WRESTLER Watch out for that elephant!!!! BALLOON GIRL He snatched some of my balloons!!! (elephant trumpets again) LADY WRESTLER Bonita's a she. Loves to play with balls, balloons, watermelons.... (to the elephant handler, who we don't see) Don't let her eat those, Ramon!!!! I'm not giving her an enema again! (Ramon says something to LADY WRESTLER, and she responds, laughing:) Then I'll put you in a body lock! (He says something suggestive while exiting with elephant. She responds, laughing again, flirting with him) Just try that and see how far it gets you, Señor. BALLOON GIRL So. You're... LADY WRESTLER Wanda, the Satin Clad Wrestler. BALLOON GIRL Who do you wrestle...? LADY WRESTLER You bring it, I will put it in a chokehold. Alligator, python, macho members of the audience. Usually it's just Gilda, my partner. These skimpy costumes, glorified bathing suits, tend to leak at that time of month... so she's in the dressing room making adjustments. Careful!!!! (A monkey we do not see runs in, grabs a couple of balloons from BALLOON GIRL and runs off with them. Simian hooting sound effects.) BALLOON GIRL (starts to cry...)
SCENE TWO
(That night, after the circus show. LADY WRESTLER and BALLOON GIRL are having a drink on or near the fold-down steps of LADY WRESTLER’S small trailer or sitting in camp chairs. BALLOON GIRL has put her backpack down and tied the balloons to one of the straps.)
BALLOON GIRL
(swirling her drink) What is this?
LADY WRESTLER
Pineapple juice and Jim Beam. I
call it “Hawaiian King Kamahameha
Rises From the Grave.”
BALLOON GIRL
Makes me feel like a huge tree with
its branches lopped off. Or like a
crop of tiny new brains are
sprouting from the back of my neck.
LADY WRESTLER
(she pours BALLOON GIRL more) You
really 21?
BALLOON GIRL
Almost.
LADY WRESTLER
You're, like...
BALLOON GIRL
Uh, twenty?
LADY WRESTLER
Not buying it, darling.
BALLOON GIRL
I thought the makeup helped.
LADY WRESTLER
When we're both sober, I can show
you a better way to do eyeliner.
BALLOON GIRL
Ok. Eighteen.
LADY WRESTLER
Honesty is one of a woman's core
virtues. Otherwise, she doesn't
have a leg to stand on. Otherwise,
she's just ravishing trash.
A famished womb with no integrity.
I'd say....you're fifteen at most.
BALLOON GIRL
Close.
LADY WRESTLER
FOURTEEN? oh, baby...
BALLOON GIRL
I’ll be fifteen next month. Don’t
take my King Kamahameha away. I am
soooo deeply enjoying it.
LADY WRESTLER
I don’t wanna corrupt you. Is this
the first booze you've ever had,
except a sip of your dad's beer
at a football game?
BALLOON GIRL
Not sure who my dad is. Mom said it
could be one of three guys. We
never got a test. Neither of the
two most likely dad candidates look
like me at all. One's a priest. My
mom still goes to his church. Every
Sunday. With my current stepdad.
Who is a recent acquisition. I've
never been to a football game. I
like that the players wear tights,
that seems gender bendy, but
otherwise football on TV seems so
violent. And the ball is a strange
shape, like a dinosaur's bladder.
Aren’t balls are supposed to be
round? No one has kept much of an
eye on me during my short life. In
school I always had older, more
advanced friends. So, I’ve actually
been drunk a lot. Maybe twenty,
thirty--
LADY WRESTLER
All right already. I won’t
confiscate your drink. Did you sell
any of those balloons?
BALLOON GIRL
No, and I don't understand it. I
drew ancient symbols on them with a
sharpie. Don't they look cool?
LADY WRESTLER
Those symbols look menacing....like
some kind of black magic dealie.
Why are all the balloons dark
purple or grey?
BALLOON GIRL
Dark colors are cheaper. I get them
on credit...from this lady who runs
a joke shop and occult supply store
in town. I try to resell them in
places like here or the park or the
zoo.
LADY WRESTLER
I know that joke shop babe. Wears
blouses and no bra so you can dimly
glimpse her boobs through the
fabric like the faces of the
drowned at the bottom of a river.
BALLOON GIRL
She gives me Gatorade and half a
sandwich sometimes.
LADY WRESTLER
Yeah, she's charitable, if she
thinks there’s something in it for
her. Balloon wise, I'd spring for
some pinks, some nice light greens,
a cheery cherry red. Little kids--
BALLOON GIRL
Why can't I do anything right?
(starts to cry again)
LADY WRESTLER
Oh don't. Repeat after me:
"I am just a blameless geminating seed."
BALLOON GIRL
(blubbering) But I'm not blameless!
LADY WRESTLER
(folding her into her cape) Oh but
you are, baby, you are.
(Short blackout)
SCENE THREE
(Much later that same night, in approximately the same spot, LADY WRESTLER and BALLOON GIRL are still drinking)
BALLOON GIRL
--also, my perma-drunk stepfather
kept wanting me to sit on his lap
and "play tickle" every time my mom
went out.
LADY WRESTLER
Gross. You were right to leave. But
I'm not sure this balloon thing is
your best next step.
(A clown in a sleeveless undershirt, clown pants, maybe suspenders, and clown shoes walks across the stage, leading SCARLET, a circus pony. He might be smoking. He could have a funny hat on. Maybe a ladies' hat. The pony wears a fancy feathered head-dress, a spangled bridle and saddle. She is making horse sounds.)
BALLOON GIRL
What a beautiful pony! (She gets up
and pats the pony.)
SCARLET THE CIRCUS PONY
(SCARLET instantly loves BALLOON GIRL, rubs her head against BALLOON GIRL and nickers)
HARRY
(patting SCARLET too)
Scarlet has taken a fancy
to you. You like horses?
BALLOON GIRL
Love love love 'em. One of my
alleged dads has a ranch. He taught
me to ride.
LADY WRESTLER
Great show tonight, Harry. Loved
the snakes erupting from your
pants!
HARRY
Glad that worked. You were great
this evening, as always, but what
was up with Gilda? She seemed kinda
out of it. (Scarlet whinnies
impatiently. To Scarlet:) Ok, ok! I
know you’re hungry.
I gotta stable this babe. Later,
Wanda.
(He blows a kiss at LADY WRESTLER as he and SCARLET exit)
BALLOON GIRL
Can I put my head in your lap? (she
does, and falls asleep.)
LADY WRESTLER
Why do I feel this sappy joy when I
look at you? Will your need for
protection lead me to peace, little
seed? What can I bestow on you, who
have never been rightly prized?
Superhero indeed. That's right! I'm
Atlas! I'm Hercules!!
(She picks up BALLOON GIRL. BALLOON GIRL does not wake)
You're light as a leaf. I'll
make you even lighter.
(she puts BALLOON GIRL down and starts to go through BALLOON GIRL’S backpack)
I'll make you weightless. That's my
gift to you, little pearl.
(she finds BALLOON GIRL’S wallet and takes all her cash)
I'll make you so light you won't recognize yourself...then you can start over from scratch.
(She unties BALLOON GIRL'S balloons from the strap of the backpack and they float away. HARRY re-enters from the direction he exited, holding the horse's head-dress and bridle.)
Harry. Be a pal.
(Indicating BALLOON GIRL)
Take her off my hands?
HARRY
What the hell, Wanda??
(He puts the pony's head-dress and bridle down, examines the girl)
What am I supposed to do with her?
LADY WRESTLER
You have bunk beds.
HARRY
You know I do.
LADY WRESTLER
So let her sleep it off on the
bottom bunk. And leave her alone.
She's probably a virgin, and
they're zero fun this drunk. You
owe me.
HARRY
Yeah, I owe you. But not forever.
You posted bail, when nobody else
would. You put your trailer up as
collateral. That meant a lot. Am I
grateful? Absolutely. But this is
it. Ok? No more strange late-night
favors.
LADY WRESTLER
Agreed. Even-Steven after this.
Clean slate.
HARRY
That her backpack?
LADY WRESTLER
Yeah. (she slips BALLOON GIRL'S
backpack over one of Harry's shoulders)
HARRY
Any money in there?
LADY WRESTLER
Not anymore.
HARRY
You're hilarious.
(handing her the horse's head dress and bridle)
Keep Scarlet's stuff for me?
LADY WRESTLER
(she puts on the head dress)
I'll give it back at breakfast.
HARRY
(indicating the pony’s head dress)
Suits you. A kiss for old time's sake?
LADY WRESTLER
Feel like you need it?
HARRY
I do or I wouldn’t ask.
LADY WRESTLER
(kisses him) You haven't lost your
dark powers. I can feel them
leak into me.
HARRY
That’ll happen if you French kiss a
clown.
LADY WRESTLER
Some clowns. Maybe only you.
HARRY
(kisses her again) I remember that
flickering little tongue, sharp as
an arrowhead. (he kisses her again,
then licks his lips, tasting the kiss)
You weren't feeding this little
chickadee your vile pineapple
concoction?
LADY WRESTLER
Don't badmouth my royal cocktail!
It goes down like gossamer and
tastes like an opium dream.
HARRY
You are truly crazy. (he wipes a
bit of white clown makeup off her
face that transferred to her via
them kissing) Greasepaint on your
cheek. Don't want any evidence,
right?
LADY WRESTLER
You know me too well.
HARRY
One of my many regrets.
LADY WRESTLER
Seriously, Harry. Don't fuck her.
HARRY
I told you, one last favor. Not
two. Unless you want to come back
to my trailer now and let me leak
more stuff into you. (they look at
each other for a beat)
LADY WRESTLER
We weren’t going to do that
anymore.
HARRY
You made that declaration. I never
signed off on it.
LADY WRESTLER
You should go before I change my
mind.
HARRY
Perhaps I’ll get lucky another
starry night. I take my leave, Your
Majesty. (Bows. He picks up BALLOON
GIRL) This one weighs nothing. Ok,
Wanda. Sweet dreams.
(exits, carrying sleeping BALLOON GIRL)
LADY WRESTLER
(An elephant is heard trumpeting. LADY WRESTLER continues drinking.)
I never surrender to anyone. Don't
wanna get pinned. That'd be the
end. A certain coldness is required
to survive in this world. Little
Miss Primrose will figure that out.
She'll toughen up. Or not. It did
seem like she kind of recognized
me, though. Recognized me as what?
A moth-eaten cheetah chasing its
tail in a cage at the zoo, whirling
so fast it's almost a blur? A
pocket watch that belonged to
somebody on the Titanic? A deity
with a bloody umbilical cord looped
around her waist for a belt? A
satin-caped crusader hiding out,
trembling in the woodshed, planning
her ultimate revenge? (She gets up,
takes a few steps in the direction
the clown has exited. Calling
offstage:) Harry! Harry? I changed my
mind! (a beat) Lost girls are
common as grass. Of course some get
trampled. She better figure out
quick how to stay warm and get fed.
All on her vulnerable own. I dealt
with that and came out the other
side a shining titan. A bone
crusher. Never be led by sentiment.
Feelings just confuse you. They
blind you. Bind you fast. You can’t
tell what to do, what not to do.
Stay? Flee?
So, tell me God, how to proceed in
mercy and righteousness? (small pause
in which she prays silently)
As usual, all I get is God's
outgoing voicemail message. Then a
dial tone. (Calling offstage,
looking like she’s going to go
after the clown:) Harry! Harry?
(sound effects of a tiger’s roar, an
elephant trumpeting.)
Parents, keep your children at
home. Well, that didn't work with
me. What kind of God puts a well-
intentioned woman like myself in
these twisted positions? Some day
I'm gonna get God in a headlock.
Then we'll see what happens. ...
(She sits down, pours herself another drink. More circus animal sound effects are heard. BALLOON GIRL’S laughter mixes with the animals sounds now. Lights begin to slowly fade)
Poor girl. Poor beautiful, stupid
little girl...
(she drinks as lights fade to black.)
Amy Gerstler's most recent book of poems is IS THIS MY FINAL FORM (Penguin Random House, April, 2025). Her work has appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies, including the New Yorker, The Atlantic Magazine and Paris Review. In 2019, she received a Foundation for Contemporary Arts CD Wright Grant. In 2018, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her book Dearest Creature (Penguin, 2009) was named a New York Times Notable Book, and was short listed for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry. In addition to poetry she writes plays, journalism and art criticism.
Marc Chagall— (born Moishe Shagal in 1887, died in 1985) was a Russian and French artist of Jewish origin. An early modernist, he was associated with the École de Paris, as well as several major artistic styles and created works in a wide range of artistic formats, including painting, drawings, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramics, tapestries and fine art prints.
Chagall was born into a Jewish family near Vitebsk, today in Belarus, but at that time in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire. Before World War I, he travelled between Saint Petersburg, Paris, and Berlin. During that period, he created his own mixture and style of modern art, based on his ideas of Eastern European and Jewish folklore. He spent the wartime years in Vitebsk and Petrograd, becoming one of the Russia’s most distinguished artists and a member of the modernist avant-garde, founding the Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art and People’s Art School. He later worked in and near Moscow in difficult conditions during hard times in Russia following the Bolshevik Revolution, before leaving again for Paris in 1923. During World War II, he escaped occupied France to the United States, where he lived in New York City for seven years before returning to France in 1948.
Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as “the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century”. According to art historian Michael J. Lewis, Chagall was considered to be “the last survivor of the first generation of European modernists”. For decades, he “had also been respected as the world’s pre-eminent Jewish artist”. Using the medium of stained glass, he produced windows for the cathedrals of Reims and Metz as well as the Fraumünster in Zürich, windows for the UN and the Art Institute of Chicago and the Jerusalem Windows in Israel. He also did large-scale paintings, including part of the ceiling of the Paris Opéra. He experienced modernism’s “golden age” in Paris, where “he synthesized the art forms of Cubism, Symbolism, and Fauvism, and the influence of Fauvism gave rise to Surrealism”. Yet throughout these phases of his style he remained “most emphatically a Jewish artist, whose work was one long dreamy reverie of life in his native Vitebsk.”
“When Matisse dies”, Pablo Picasso remarked in the 1950s, “Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color really is”.
To be fair, the monologue at the end reads like a poem. I enjoyed this. Thank you.
Delighted in this, and the Chagall prints and paintings illustrating the play are perfect.