Roundtable with 3 Bathildes

Cast of characters:

Bathildes:

Luciana Paris

Kristi Boone

Maria Bystrova

Bathilde Bystrova: Why are we here? There is nothing to say about the situation. I am already bored.

Bathilde Paris: I have to talk about it. I want to know what that peasant girl has that I don’t. Am I not beautiful? Do I not receive admiring glances wherever I go?

Bathilde Boone: Isn’t it obvious? She’s fresh, untouched fodder. No experience in womanly ways. My Albrecht is a sucker for innocence.

Bathilde Bystrova: Let him have his little dalliance. I don’t care. It’s me he’ll come home to at night. As long as he remembers to wear his proper vestments when we are together, he can have his fun with the villagers. I want no part of that.

Bathilde Paris: Maybe I should go and find myself an attractive village boy. Then Albrecht will see how it feels. I’m twice as lovely as Giselle. I’m young and I’m wealthy. Who could resist me?

Bathilde Boone: I would never stoop so low. Don’t forget who you are. You have to show him the error of his ways.

Bathilde Bystrova: I do not have to show him anything. He must learn it himself. I live within my class. He will grow up and see that it is what he must do, too. I will not help him. If it takes a few years, it takes a few years. I am finished here. None of this talk is interesting. I will take my leave of you.

Bathilde Boone: Please stay a little longer. I must ask you something. Are you truly content? Did the tragedy of Giselle not trouble you at all? You seem so aloof and detached.

Bathilde Bystrova: What good does it do to get involved emotionally? It will change nothing. So, you think I should be angry with Albrecht? I am not. That I should feel sorry for Giselle? I do not. Their little fling only annoyed me in that it disturbed the sequence of events planned for our noble union, but other than that….meh! That the girl died, well (waving her hand with dismissal)…..that’s too bad. She was not destined to have a long life anyway. If her heart didn’t do her in, her nerves would have.

Bathilde Paris: She was a pretty young thing. But she had no experience with men like Albrecht. When she discovered there was no Loys, it was as if she had lost someone who never even existed. She began to come apart immediately. Very weak constitution.

Bathilde Boone: That is one reason why my Albrecht loved her, I think. He is tenderhearted. He’d jump into the lake to save a drowning dog.