MEG
There are two distinct career tracks: dancers and singers. There is a hierarchy in place! You can't just jump from the bottom of one to the top other on a whim, it's just unheard of!
(suspiciously)
Are you shagging a composer?
CHRISTINE
Not at all! My newfound success is the result of my tutor's lessons.
MEG
Oh? So who is this new tutor, eh?
CHRISTINE
The Angel of Music,
[angels sing]
sent down from Heaven to me by my father; his voice calling to me in my dressing room and signifying by Divine Providence that I, Christine, was to be the next star of the Paris Opera.
[singing stops]
He is my new tutor!
MEG
Listen -- strange men talking through mirrors offering singing lessons is no basis for a successful career in opera. Prima Donna status derives from years of hard work and rigorous training, not from some farcical religious experience.
CHRISTINE
Be quiet!
MEG
You can't expect to be the next Jenny Lind just 'cause some pervy ventriloquist taught you some scales!
CHRISTINE
Shut up!
MEG
I mean, if I went around sayin' I was gonna be an Empress just because the Opera Ghost told my mum so, they'd put me away!
CHRISTINE
Shut up! Will you shut up!
[grabs Meg forcefully by the shoulders]
MEG
Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system.
CHRISTINE
Shut up!
[starts strangling Meg]
MEG
Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! HELP! HELP! This ditzy bitch it trying to kill me!
CHRISTINE
Bloody ballet rat!
The door springs open to reveal MADAME GIRY. If she is alarmed to find Christine throttling her daughter, she does not express it.
MEG
Oh, what a give away. Did you here that, Mama? Did you here that, eh? That's what I'm on about -- did you see her repressing me, you saw it didn't you?
MADAME GIRY
Meg Giry. Are you a dancer? Then come and practice.
MEG
(pouts and stomps out door)
FML
R.
www.phantoonsoftheopera.com