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"The Masque Of The Red Death"

by Edgar allen Poe

Adaptation for radio by D. Chapelle

An Excerpt:

GIOVANNA: Our Prince has provided all the appliances of pleasure for our enjoyment. There is wine and there is food from all corners of the earth. To entertain us there shall be buffoons, dancers, and music!
PROSPERO: The castle is sealed and we shall remain here until the Red Death finds us tedious and takes its leave of us. (More of a threat.) Now, rejoice and enjoy!
(Music up.)
JACK: And so it was. Within the walls all was gaiety, wine, and jubilation and without was the Red Death. It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of this seclusion that a concerned Princess approached her Prince. She discovered him on the ramparts of the castle overlooking several villages. He was occupying himself with a spy glass trained upon the villages.
(Music out. EFX of wind blowing.)
GIOVANNA: Prospero … Prospero?
PROSPERO: Not now.
GIOVANNA: There is a problem, Prospero.
PROSPERO: I said not now!
GIOVANNA: What is it, my husband? What do you see? Prospero …?
PROSPERO: I am sorry, Giovanna. You wish to speak with me, my darling.
GIOVANNA: I grow weary of our festival. What are you looking at? What is that smoke on the horizon?
PROSPERO: The smoke … it is the villages.
GIOVANNA: The villages? What concern are they to us, Prospero. Are they on fire? What is that black smoke I see?
PROSPERO: They are disposing of victims.
GIOVANNA: Victims. Prospero, what are you talking about?
PROSPERO: The villagers are burning the bodies. The bodies of the victims of the Red Death … they are piled like cord wood in the lanes and on the roads.
GIOVANNA: How … how could they do something like that Prospero?
PROSPERO: They can do little else. The Red Death kills faster than the villages can bury the victims. Giovanna, we shall not talk about this to the others. Nothing must interfere with our revels. Do you understand?