ACT FOUR

[B-IV-1]

[Deemer]

(Ilya, Irina and Trigorin pull up in a carriage near the boat house.)

TRIGORIN: See! The lake is much calmer than you said.

ILYA: For an ocean, it would be calm. For a lake, it's rough waters.

TRIGORIN: It doesn't look all that rough to me. Does it to you, Irina?

IRINA: Boris, you're determined to fish. Just get out and fish.

ILYA: You'll catch nothing in this weather.

IRINA: Don't discourage him.

TRIGORIN: Where do the seagulls go in bad weather?

ILYA: I can't tell you. Somewhere dry, I'm sure.

TRIGORIN: Where do they sleep at night?

IRINA: Are you writing a story set in a forest? Suddenly you're interested in the natural world.

TRIGORIN: What a place this is to write! Kostya is very lucky.

IRINA: It's nice to hear you say something nice about him.

TRIGORIN: I didn't say he actually could write. I said he was lucky to be here to try.

ILYA: He spends a lot of time down here, he does. The funny thing is, he almost never takes a boat out.

IRINA: I think he's a poor swimmer.

TRIGORIN: He spends his time shooting at seagulls. Does he still do that?

ILYA: That only happened the one time.

IRINA: And no one will ever forgive him for it.

TRIGORIN: Something like that digs its way into one's permanent memory.

ILYA: Are we ready to go to the house?

IRINA: Yes.

TRIGORIN: No! Not yet.

IRINA: Oh, Boris.

TRIGORIN: Look at this view! I think the lake is more beautiful in bad weather than in good. Look! I think I saw a fish jump!

ILYA: I think your eyes are playing a trick on you.

TRIGORIN: I've decided something. The point of fishing is not to catch fish. Did you know that?

IRINA: Of course it is.

TRIGORIN: No. Am I right, Ilya?

ILYA: When I fish, I expect to catch something. I'm disappointed if I don't.

IRINA: See there?

TRIGORIN: The point of fishing is to enter a state of communion with nature. To become one with the pole and the line and the water and the hook. And the fish, too, of course. Fishing is a kind of meditation.

IRINA: Which is getting very uncomfortable, if I may say so. I'm cold.

TRIGORIN: It makes your blood circulate.

IRINA: Ilya, to the house, please.

ILYA: Yes, ma'am.

IRINA: Are you coming, Boris, or getting off?

TRIGORIN: I'm coming.

[follow them]