The Circus’ Last Act(Read aloud):
And the murderer is . . . Helga the Bearded Lady! “Love, loyalty, and betrayal. It’s all part of the greatest show on earth.” The circus lights flicker out. The smell of sawdust and smoke lingers in the air. Ivan the Ringmaster’s reign of terror has ended, not by lion or accident, but by the hand of someone he thought he owned. Helga the Bearded Lady couldn’t stand by any longer. Ivan promised her partnership, her dignity, and then betrayed her, planning to sell the circus and vanish with the money. |
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Helga’s Statement:
(Helga to read aloud)
“I suppose you all deserve the truth.
Yes . . . I killed him.
Ivan the Great. The Ringmaster. The man who promised us a family, and turned it into a cage.
He once told me the circus would belong to us, that I was more than a sideshow, more than just a hairy woman. For a while, I believed him. I believed he saw me, Helga, a full-bodied woman with an unquenchable passion for life! Not just the Bearded Lady.
But it was all lies. Every promise, every kind word, was just another trick beneath the tent. When I found the papers in his tent and his notes in his notebook! Proof he was selling the circus leaving us behind . . . something inside me snapped.
I went to him after the final act. The crowd was still cheering, the smell of sawdust and sweat heavy in the air. He laughed when he saw me crying. Said I should be grateful for the life he’d given to us. What else should freaks like us expect?
So I gave him the ending he deserved!
We fought, he hit me with his cane and it snapped. I had one of Francis’ throwing knives. He had such a bad habit of leaving them everywhere. Yes, I stabbed Ivan! Seventeen times. I intended to drag him into the lion cage to let them clean up my mess, but I couldn’t crack the cage lock! So I screamed and fled the scene and waited for someone else to discover the body.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I only wanted to stop him from destroying what little we had left: this twisted, beautiful family of ours.
You can call it murder if you like. Maybe it was.
But after everything Ivan took from us . . . maybe it was justice too. <SOBS UNCONTROLLABLY>”
“I suppose you all deserve the truth.
Yes . . . I killed him.
Ivan the Great. The Ringmaster. The man who promised us a family, and turned it into a cage.
He once told me the circus would belong to us, that I was more than a sideshow, more than just a hairy woman. For a while, I believed him. I believed he saw me, Helga, a full-bodied woman with an unquenchable passion for life! Not just the Bearded Lady.
But it was all lies. Every promise, every kind word, was just another trick beneath the tent. When I found the papers in his tent and his notes in his notebook! Proof he was selling the circus leaving us behind . . . something inside me snapped.
I went to him after the final act. The crowd was still cheering, the smell of sawdust and sweat heavy in the air. He laughed when he saw me crying. Said I should be grateful for the life he’d given to us. What else should freaks like us expect?
So I gave him the ending he deserved!
We fought, he hit me with his cane and it snapped. I had one of Francis’ throwing knives. He had such a bad habit of leaving them everywhere. Yes, I stabbed Ivan! Seventeen times. I intended to drag him into the lion cage to let them clean up my mess, but I couldn’t crack the cage lock! So I screamed and fled the scene and waited for someone else to discover the body.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I only wanted to stop him from destroying what little we had left: this twisted, beautiful family of ours.
You can call it murder if you like. Maybe it was.
But after everything Ivan took from us . . . maybe it was justice too. <SOBS UNCONTROLLABLY>”
