1 1 1 QUIET OPERATIC MUSIC PLAYS CHORAL HYMN BEGINS MUSIC BUILDS MUSIC SLOWLY QUIETENS So you want me to tell you the story of my life? Yes, sir. That's what I do. I interview people. I'm a collector of lives. FM Radio KFRC. You'd need a lot of tape for my story. No problem. I got a bagful right here. You followed me here, didn't you? Yeah, I suppose I did. You seem very interesting. This is where you live? No. Just a room. What do you say we get started? So. What do you do? I'm a vampire. (Chuckles) That's something I haven't heard before. You, ah...you mean this literally, I take it? Absolutely. I was waiting for you in that alley. Watching you watching me. And then you began to speak. Somewhat lucky break for me. Perhaps lucky for both of us. You, er...said you were waiting for me. What were you gonna do? Kill me, drink my blood, all that stuff? Yes. But you needn't be concerned with that now. You really believe this, don't you? That you're a vampire. We can't begin this way. Let me turn on the light. I thought vampires didn't like light. We love it. I only wanted to prepare you. Christ! Don't be frightened. I want this opportunity. How the hell did you do that? Same as you do. A series of simple gestures. Only I move too fast for you to see. I'm flesh and blood... ..but not human. I haven't been human for 200 years. Please. How can I put you at ease? Shall we begin like 'David Copperfield'? I am born, I grew up...? Or shall we begin when I was born to darkness, as I call it? That's really where we should start, don't you think? You're not lying to me, are you? Why should I lie? 1791 was the year it happened. GRAND ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS I was 24. Younger than you are now. But times were different then. I was a man at that age. The master of a large plantation just south of New Orleans. I had lost my wife in childbirth. She and the infant had been buried less than half a year. I would have been happy to join them. I couldn't bear the pain of their loss. I longed to be released from it. I wanted to lose it all ` my wealth, my estate, my sanity. How many aces are in that deck? Are you calling me a cheat? I am calling you a piece of stinking offal! You lack the courage of your convictions, sir. Do it! But most of all I longed for death. I know that now. I invited it. A release from the pain of living. My invitation was open to anyone. To the whore at my side. To the pimp that followed. But it was a vampire that accepted. Give me your money or you die! (Screams) NECK CRACKS (Hisses) DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC Do you still want death? Or have you tasted it enough? Enough. He left me there on the banks of the Mississippi. Somewhere in between life and death. (Coughs) Who are you? What are you doing in my house? I've come to answer your prayers. Life has no meaning anymore, does it? The wine has no taste, the food sickens you, there seems... ..no reason for any of it, does there? What if I could give it back to you? Pluck out the pain. Give you another life. One you could never imagine. And it would be for all time. And sickness and death could never touch you again. Don't be afraid. I'm going to give you the choice I never had. That morning I was not yet a vampire, and I saw my last sunrise. I remember it completely and yet I can't recall any sunrise before it. I watched the whole magnificence of the dawn for the last time as if it were the first. And then I said farewell to sunlight and set out to become what I became. Have you said your goodbyes to the light? (Screams) DRAMATIC DISCORDANT MUSIC PLAYS (Choking) Argh. MUSIC STOPS (Whispers) I've drained you to the point of death. If I leave you here, you die. Or... ..you can be young always, my friend. As we are now. But you must tell me. Will you come or no? (Faintly) Yes... (More strongly) Yes. HEARTBEAT THROBS SLOWLY HEARTBEAT STRENGTHENS HEARTBEAT POUNDS QUICKLY AND URGENTLY Aargh! (Groans) (Gasps) (Shouts in agony) (Groans) Your body's dying. Pay no attention. Happens to us all. (Breathes raggedly) (Laughs softly) Now look...with your vampire eyes. What did you see? No words can describe it. Might as well ask heaven what it sees. No human can know. Statues seemed to move but didn't. The world had changed yet stayed the same. OWL HOOTS I was a newborn vampire, weeping at the beauty of the night. Perhaps you'd like another cigarette? Yeah, I would. Isn't bothering you, is it? No. I don't assume that it would. Not like you'll die from cancer. No. I don't think so. What about crucifixes? Crucifixes? Yeah. Can you look at them? Actually, I'm quite fond of looking at crucifixes. How about the old stake through the heart thing? Nonsense. Coffins. How about coffins? Coffins. Coffins, unfortunately, are a necessity. Don't worry. Soon you will be sleeping as soundly as you've ever slept. And when you wake... ..I'll be waiting for you. And so will all the world. Blood, I was to find, was a necessity as well. I woke the next evening with a hunger I had never felt. Once you taste this, you'll never go to another tavern again. You think so, cherie? But what if I'd rather taste your lips? My lips are even sweeter still. (Gasps) My friend... ..should taste those lips. Is his...kiss...as deep as yours? Deeper, ma chere. I will not take her life. I've done it for you. She's dead... ..as a doornail, my friend. It's so easy you almost feel sorry for them. You'll get used to killing. Just forget about that mortal coil. You'll become accustomed to things all too quickly. Are you not hungry, sir? Au contraire, ma chere. He could eat the whole colony. (Laughs) (Gasps) I'll finish that, Yvette. Now leave us. Yet you pretend, you fool. Don't give the game away. We're lucky to have such a home. RAT SQUEAKS Pretend to drink, at least. Such fine crystal shouldn't go to waste. I know. Gets cold so quickly. You can live like this? Off the blood of animals? I wouldn't call it living. I'd call it surviving. Useful trick if you're caught for a month on a ship. There's nothing in this world now that doesn't hold some... Fascination. Yes. I'm bored of this prattle. But we can live without taking human life. It's possible. But we can live without taking human life. It's possible. Anything is possible. But we can live without taking human life. It's possible. But just try it for a week. Come into New Orleans. Let me show you some real sport. (Laughs) ELEGANT STRING MUSIC PLAYS Lestat killed two, sometimes three, a night. A fresh young girl. That was his favourite for the first of the evening. For seconds, he preferred a gelded beautiful youth. But the snob in him loved to hunt in society. And the blood of the aristocrat thrilled him best of all. The trick is not to think about it. You see that one? Widow St Clair. She had that gorgeous young fop murder her husband. How do you know? Read her thoughts. Read her thoughts. I can't. Ah. The Dark Gift is different for each of us. But one thing is true. Every one will grow stronger as we go along. Just take my word for it. She blamed a slave for his murder. Imagine what they did to him. Evildoers are easier. And they taste better. Enchante, monsieur. (Sultrily) Monsieur. Enchante. (Poodle yaps) Where are we going? (Poodle yaps in distance) Nowhere. Now, young man, you really amaze me. I'm old enough to be your grandmother. (Sighs) (Barks sharply) Oh... (Continues barking) Oh, yes. That's the melody. (Speaks French) (Barks angrily) (Snarls) (Cries) ST CLAIR: Vivienne! My little Vivienne! He killed them! Oh, NO! NO... NECK CRACKS Whining coward! A vampire who prowls the night killing rats and poodles! Could have finished us both! You condemned me to hell! I don't know any hell. (Roars) (Laughs) That's more like it! Anger. Fury. That's why I chose you! (Roars) (Laughs) But you can't...kill me, Louis. Feed... ..on what you will. Rats, chickens... ..poodles. I'll leave you to it and watch you come around. But just remember... ..life without me would be even more unbearable. (Laughs) CRICKETS BUZZ CHICKEN SQUAWKS WOMAN SCREAMS BABY WAILS DRUM BEATS DRUMS BEAT RAPIDLY PEOPLE WHOOP AND HOLLER DRUMBEAT CONTINUES IN DISTANCE (Sighs) Consider yourself lucky. In Paris, a vampire must be clever for many reasons. Paris? Here all one needs is a pair of fangs. You came from Paris? As did the one who made me. Tell me about him. You must have learned something from him. I learned absolutely nothing. I wasn't given a choice, remember? You must know something about the meaning of it all. You must know something about the meaning of it all. WHY? Why should I know these things?! Do you know them?! That noise - it's driving me mad. THAT NOISE! We've been here for weeks with nothing but that noise. Yes, they know about us. They watch us dine on empty plates and drink from empty glasses. Come...to New Orleans, then. The Paris Opera's in town. We can try some French cui... ..cuisine. Forgive me if I have a lingering respect for life. You'll soon run out of chickens, Louis. DRAMATIC, FOREBODING MUSIC DRUMS CONTINUE (Horse whinnies) (Horse neighs) QUIET, SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC Hey! (Horse whinnies) (Clears throat) Monsieur Louis? You don't want any supper, no? (Whispers) No, ma chere. We're worried about you, master. When is it that you go riding in the field? And how long since you've been to the slave quarter? Everywhere there is death. Are you still our master at all? That will be all, Yvette. I won't go until you listen to me. You must, you MUST send away this friend of yours. The slaves, they are all frightened of him. And they are frightened of you. (Whispers) I'm frightened of myself. FOREBODING MUSIC (She gasps) (Cries out) (Screams) (Screams wildly) Ah! Aaaaaaaaah! (Continues screaming) DRAMATIC MUSIC SLAVES CHANT AND SHOUT SOMBRE MUSIC Hear me now! This place is cursed. Damned. And yes, your master is the devil. Get out now. You are all free men. Do you hear me?! (Cries out) RUN! Be gone. Save yourselves! INTENSE DRAMATIC MUSIC Aaah! Argh! Yah, perfect! Perfect! Just...burn the place. Burn everything we own. Have us living in a field like cattle! You thought you could have it all. Shut up, Louis. Shut up. Come here! DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES 1 (Sighs) Where are we? Where do you think, my idiot friend? A nice filthy cemetery. Does this make you happy? Is this fitting, proper enough? We belong in hell. What if there is no hell? Or they don't want us? Ever think of that? LOUIS: But there was a hell and no matter where we went, I was in it. THUNDER RUMBLES We rented waterfront rooms at New Orleans. GIRLS LAUGH HARPSICHORD PLAYS (Giggles drunkenly) Hmmm. (Chuckles flirtatiously) (Continues laughing) Your friend has no head for wine. (Laughs) Don't worry. I can warm that cold skin of yours better than she can. Do you think so? (Gasps) Quiet! You're warm now. (Gasps) But the price is high. Your pretty friend, I exhausted her. (Both laugh) Soft. So soft. I can see you lying on a bed of satin. (Gasps) Such things you say. Do you know what manner of bed? HARPSICHORD GLISSANDO (Gasps) (Gasps deeply) Should we put out the light? Ah. (Gasps) And then put out the light. (Shrieks) (Pants) (Girl gulps) But once put out thy light... ..we cannot... ..give it vital breath again. It needs must wither. SOMBRE HARPSICHORD MUSIC For you, Lou. You can pretend it's wine. (Girl gasps and sobs) She's not dead. You love your mortal nature. You resist the one thing that can bring you peace. You call this peace?! We're predators. These all-seeing eyes should give detachment! The girl, Lestat! Take her. End that hunger! No! (Girl screams) Ah! (Quietly) Now, my child... ..you're tired. (Shouts) You want to sleep. OMINOUS MUSIC (Girl sobs) It's a coffin! It's a coffin! Let me out! HARPSICHORD MUSIC It's your coffin, my love! Enjoy it. Most of us never know what it feels like. Why do you do this? I like it. I enjoy it. (Girl shouts) Take your aesthete's taste to purer things. Kill them swiftly if you will. But do it, for do not doubt, you are a killer, Louis! MUSIC SWELLS (Girl shrieks) (Girl sobs) What's happened? (Sobs) It's a coffin! Well, so it is. You must be dead. I'm not dead, am I? No, you're not dead. Not yet. You finish this now! YOU finish it. Save me from him. SAVE ME! Ugh! You let me go. I can't die like this. I need a priest. My friend is a priest. He'll hear your sins. Unless we make her one of us. NO! Take her, Louis! End her suffering! And yours. No. (Girl shrieks) OMINOUS, RUMBLING MUSIC (Gasps) Now...are you happy...Louis? My God. To think you... are all I have to learn from. In the Old World, Louis, they called it the Dark Gift. And I gave it to you. RAIN POURS SOMBRE MUSIC (Rat squeaks) BELL RINGS Don't go that way, monsieur. It's the Plague. Go back the way you came. The way I came. DRAMATIC MUSIC QUIET MUSIC (Sobs) Please help us. Pa left us and didn't come back. SORROWFUL MUSIC Please wake Mama, monsieur. (Sighs) (Whimpers) MUSICAL CRESCENDO (Laughs) My philosopher, my martyr - never take dear life! Oh, yes! This calls for a celebration. (Sings a jaunty tune) There's life in the old lady yet! Louis! Come back! You are what you are! Merciful death, how you love your precious guilt. DRAMATIC CHASE MUSIC LOUIS: Her blood coursed through my veins sweeter than life itself and as it did, Lestat's words made sense to me. I knew peace only when I killed and when I heard her heart's terrible rhythm I knew what peace could be. STEADY, SOMBRE MUSIC (Gasps) RATS TWITTER (Groans and pants) All I need to find you, Louis, is to follow the corpses of rats. (Gasps) Pain is terrible for you. You feel it like no other creature because you are a vampire. You don't want it to go on. No. Then do what it is in your nature to do... ..and you will feel as you felt with that child in your arms. Evil is a point of view. God kills indiscriminately... ..and so shall we. For no creatures under God are as we are, none so like Him...as ourselves. I have a gift for you. Come. Please. 1 She's here. What are you saying? You need...company, Louis, more congenial than mine. GENTLE MUSIC You remember how you wanted her? The taste of her. I thought I'd killed her. Don't worry, Louis. Your conscience is clear. BEAUTIFUL, GENTLE MUSIC CONTINUES Claudia. Claudia. Yes. Listen to me. You're ill, my precious, and I'm going to give you what you need to get well. No! You want her to die then? SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC That's it. Yes. Yes. HEARTBEAT ECHOES (Gasps) (Quietly) Stop. STOP! Enough! Argh! DRAMATIC MUSICAL FLOURISH (Sobs) QUIET, CREEPY MUSIC (Whispers) I want some more. (Lestat whispers) Of course you want more. (Rings bell) DOOR OPENS M'avez appeller, monsieur? Ah, quelle belle enfant! THREATENING MUSICAL CRESCENDO Gently, cherie. You're so innocent. You must not be made to suffer. Good. Yes, alright now. Stop. Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah! That's enough, cherie. You must stop before the heart stops. I want some more. I know. But it's best in the beginning, lest the death takes you down with it. Hmm? And you've done very well. Look at you. Not a drop spilt. Very good. Where's Mama? Mama... Mama's...gone to heaven, cherie, like that sweet lady right there. They all go to heaven. All but us. Shhh. Do you want to frighten our little daughter? I'm not your daughter. Oh, yes you are. You're mine and Louis' daughter now. You see, Louis was going to leave us. He was going to go away. Now he's not. (Snorts) Now he's going to stay and make you happy. Louis. You fiend. One happy family. QUIETLY RHAPSODIC MUSIC (Sighs) He did it to make you stay? Perhaps he knew me. He knew I would love her more than the waking world. But there was more to it. For he lavished affection on her, no doubt about that. Perhaps, in the end, he did it because he was lonely too. SEAMSTRESS: Monsieur, I need more light! I shall go blind without more light! Or let me fit this child during the day. (Snarls) I am afraid, madam, my days are sacrosanct. LOUIS: A little child she was, but also a fierce killer, now capable of the ruthless pursuit of blood with all a child's demanding. (Gasps) Let me kiss you better. HARPSICHORD PLAYS (Cries out) MOCK-SOMBRE MUSIC Claudia! CLAUDIA! Now... (Gasps in exasperation) Who will we get to finish your dress? Think of practicality, child. Remember, never in the home. LOUIS: She slept in my coffin at first, curling her little fingers around my hair, till the day came when she wanted one of her own. GENTLE BAROQUE MUSIC But still, whenever she awoke, she would crawl into mine. LID CREAKS They found death fast in those days, before she learnt to play with them, to delay the moment till she had taken what she wanted. MUSIC CONTINUES (Sobs) Ma chere petite fille. Why are you crying, child? Are you lost, my love? Mama. Oh, shh. Hush now, don't cry. We'll find her. Mama. Oh, ma chere. JOLLY PIANO MUSIC Mind the thumb, girl. That little digit. PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES They're expensive, my dear. Maybe too expensive for a young girl like you. (Plays baroque piano tune) DISCORDANT NOTES REVERBERATE Claudia, what have we told you? Never in the house. Please. THUMP LOUIS: To me she was a child, but to Lestat, a pupil - an infant prodigy with a lust for killing that matched his own. Together, they finished off whole families. (Plays baroque tune) Wonderful. Wonderful. Now, try something on a more sombre note. (Plays sombre tune on piano) LOUIS: Time can pass quickly for mortals when they're happy. With us it was the same. The years flew by like minutes, the city around us grew. The sailboats gave way to steamships, disgorging an endless menu of magnificent strangers. A new world had sprung up around us and we were all Americans now. BELL CLANGS REPETITIVELY STEAM WHISTLE HOOTS This filthy white tide. Lord, what I wouldn't give for a drop of good old-fashioned Creole blood. Yankees are not to your taste? (Scoffs) Their democratic flavour doesn't suit my palate, Louis. (Chuckles) WOMAN SINGS IN FRENCH Now, that is pure Creole. Trust Claudia to have found her. What? Don't you want her? I want to be her. Can I, Louis, be like her one day? (Scoffs) Mon Dieu! More melancholy nonsense! I swear, you grow more like Louis every day. Soon you'll be eating rats! Rats? When did you eat rats, Louis? It was a long, long time ago, before you were born. (Slurps) And I don't recommend them. LOUIS: 30 years had passed, yet her body remained that of an eternal child. (Hums softly) Her eyes alone showed her age, staring from under her doll-like curls with a questioning that would one day need an answer. Shoop! Another doll? I have dozens, you realise? I thought you could use one more. Why always on this night? What night? What do you mean? You always give me a doll on the same night of the year. Oh? I didn't realise. Because it's my birthday? You dress me like a doll. You make my hair like a doll. Why? Some of these, Claudia, are so old. Tattered. You should throw them away. I WILL then! STRIDENT, DISTRESSING MUSIC Claudia! Claudia. Claudia! What have you done? What you told me to do! You leave a rotting corpse here? I wanted her! I wanted to be her! She's mad! Claudia! In my house we never... Do you want me to be a doll forever?! Claudia, don't! Why not? Can't I change, like everybody else? DISTRESSING MUSIC CONTINUES SNIPPING (Screams) Which one of you did it?! Which one of you did it?! Who made me the way I am? What you are - a vampire going insane that pollutes its own bed? And if I cut my hair again? It will grow back again. It wasn't always so. I had a mother once, and Louis, he had a wife. He was mortal, the same as she, and so was I! You made us what we are, didn't you?! Stop her, Louis. Did you do it? How did you do it? Why should I tell you? It's in my power. Why yours alone? Tell me how it was done. Be glad I made you what you are. You'd be dead now if I hadn't, like that damned corpse. Now, get rid of it! You get rid of it. Louis, why? You've got to tell me. You see the old woman? That will never happen to you. You will never grow old and you will never die. And it means something else too, doesn't it? I shall never ever grow up. I hate him. Tell me how it came to be that I am this...thing. 1 LOUIS: For 30 years I had avoided that place, yet I found my way back there with hardly an upward glance. OMINOUS MUSIC You...fed on me. Yes. And he found me with you. And he cut his wrist and he fed you from him and you were a vampire then. And have been every night thereafter. You both did it. I took your life. He gave you another one. And here it is. And I hate you both. SOMBRE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC LOUIS: I walked all night. I walked as I walked years before, when my mind swam with guilt at the thought of killing. I thought of all the things I'd done and couldn't undo. And I longed for one second's peace. Locked together in hatred. But I can't hate you, Louis. Louis, my love... ..I was mortal till you gave me your immortal kiss. You became my mother and my father. And so I'm yours forever. But now it's time to end it, Louis. Now it's time to leave him. He will never let us go. Oh... ..really? (Lestat plays sombre tune on piano) What is it now? You irritate me. Your very presence irritates me. Does it? I'll tell you something else. I found someone who'd make a better vampire than you both. Is that supposed to frighten me? You're spoilt because you're an only child. You need a brother... ..for I do weary of you both. I suppose we could people the world with vampires, the three of us? Oh, not you...my LITTLE Claudia. You're a liar... ..but you upset my plans. What plans? I came to make peace with you, even though you're the father of lies. I want things to be as they were. Stop pestering me, then. Oh, Lestat. I must do more than that. I've brought a present for you. Oh? And I hope it's a beautiful woman with endowments you'll never possess. Why do you say such things? (Gasps) You haven't fed enough. I can tell by your colour. Come and see. Don't be angry with me. When I saw them, I knew they were for you. Drunk...on brandy wine. A thimble full. (Sighs) Claudia, Claudia, Claudia. Well, you certainly have outdone yourself. (Sniffs) I promise I'll get rid of the bodies. We forgive each other, then? Yes. BONES CRUNCH SINISTER MUSIC (Gasps) Absinth. (Laughs) You've given them absinth? No...laudanum. Laudanum? Yes. It killed them, unfortunately, but it keeps the blood warm. You... ..you let me drink dead blood? You let me drink... One lesson you taught me - never drink from the dead. Louis! Put me in my coffin. Put me in my...my coffin. I'll put you in your COFFIN! (Grunts) TENSE, HORRIFYING MUSIC (Chokes) Oh, my God! (Splutters) (Chokes) SOFT, CREEPY MUSIC Louis, lift me up. (Gasps) Goodnight, sweet prince. May flights of devils bring you to your rest. Should we burn him, bury him? What would he have liked, Louis? The swamp. EXCITING ORCHESTRAL MUSIC SOMBRE MUSIC He belongs with those reptiles, Louis. He deserved to die. Then, perhaps, so do we, every night of our lives. He was my maker. He gave me this life, whatever it is. It shouldn't have been this way. I did it for us, Louis, so we could be free. You missed him? He was all I knew. It's as simple as that. We were like two orphans learning to live again. We booked passage to Europe. Over the weeks, while we waited for the boat to arrive, she studied the myths and legends of the Old World, obsessed with the search for what she called 'our kind'. (Man yells) SOFT, REFLECTIVE PIANO PLAYS CHIRPING Look who we forgot. Let's set them free. Yes. Yes. DOORBELL TINKLES It's the carriage. DOORBELL TINKLES (Bird chirps) TENSE MUSIC No, Louis! TENSE, TERRIFYING MUSIC PIANO DIRGE PLAYS Listen, Louis. There's life in these old hands still. Not quite furioso... ..moderato... ..cantabile, perhaps? How could it be? First the alligator. His blood helped. Then on a diet of the blood of snakes... ..toads... ..and all the putrid life of the Mississippi. Slowly... ..Lestat became something like himself again. Claudia... ..you've been a very, VERY naughty little girl. (Whimpers) WHOOSHING (Grunts) (Squeals) (Screams) TERRIFYING MUSIC (Continues screaming) (Lestat screams and hollers) TENSE MUSIC YELLING (Howls) The ship is sailing without us! (Men yell) ALARMING MUSIC LOUIS: Though the fire seemed to spread through the Quarter, I stood on that deck fearful he would come out again from the very river, like some monster, to destroy us both. And all the while, I thought, "Lestat, we deserve your vengeance. "You gave me the Dark Gift "and I delivered you into the hands of death for the second time." TRAGIC MUSIC CALM MUSIC Though the ship was blessedly free of rats, a strange plague nonetheless struck its passengers. (Man recites prayer) Claudia and I alone seemed immune. We kept to ourselves, pondering the mystery of each other. We reached the Mediterranean. I wanted those waters to be blue, but they were black - night-time waters. And how I suffered then, straining to recall the colour that in my youth I had taken for granted. We searched village after village, ruin after ruin, country after country, and always we found nothing. I began to believe we were the only ones. There was a strange comfort in that thought, for what could the damned really have to say to the damned? You, er...you said you found nothing? Peasant rumours, superstitions about garlic, crosses, the old stake in the heart... But one of our kind - not a whisper. So there are no vampires in Transylvania - no Count Dracula? Fictions, my friend - the vulgar fictions of a demented Irishman. Paris, September, 1870 - the city I'd always dreamed of. I was Creole, after all, and Paris was the mother of New Orleans - a universe whole and entire unto herself. (Rings bell) WALTZ PLAYS We were alive again, just the two of us. And so euphoric was I, that I yielded to her every desire. So it was, when I had given up the search for vampires, that a vampire found me. FOOTSTEPS ECHO OUT OF SYNC WITH FEET WALTZ MUSIC WHOOSH Buffoon! MAN: Santiago! I've searched the world for an immortal and this is what I find? Bring the petite beauty with you. No-one will harm you. I won't allow it. And, er...remember my name. Armand. Now, remember what I told you. They'll have different powers. They'll read your thoughts if you let them. PIPE ORGAN PLAYS OMINOUS MUSIC He's the one. That's the vampire. Two lovers, wandering down the violet way, whose passionate embraces, each to each, permit no meditations on decay... EXPLOSION (Audience gasps) ..until they find themselves within my reach. ALARMED CRIES (Laughs evilly) APPLAUSE Vampires who pretend to be humans pretending to be vampires. How avant-garde. The monk, whose soul with Heaven doth commune and spends his days in pious contemplation... (Screams) ..finds he will meet his maker all too soon. LAUGHTER For all his prayers gets no remuneration. LAUGHTER The lesson endeth here and it is this... ..each one of you my clammy hands must touch. Each one must bend his forehead to my kiss. But ah, methinks a mortal doth approach! (Shrieks) What have we here?! What beauty by my side? A rose in bloom, a shrinking violet! (Screams) Perhaps she has a mind to be my bride! Perhaps my lesson has not ended yet! (Shrieks) I don't want to die! But death we are and death we've always been! Someone help me! Please! (Shrieks) What have I done? We all die. But I am young! Death is no respecter of age. It can come any time, any place. (Gasps) Just as this flesh is pink now, so it will turn grey and wrinkle with age. Let me live! I don't care! Then why should you care if you die now? And suppose Death had a heart to love and to release you. To whom would he turn his passion? Would you choose a person from the crowd there? A person to suffer as you suffer? Oh, yes! Monsieur Vampire, take me! I ADORE you! You wait your turn! LAUGHTER Where?! You know what it means to be loved by Death? To become our bride? BOOMING EXPLOSION SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC BUILDS AND FADES (Gasps and sobs) OMINOUS MUSIC (Softly) No pain. No pain. Monstrous! SOMBRE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC We live beneath. Let me show you. Monsters! Yes. And very beautiful. Welcome to my home. Try him. (Gasps) QUIET LAUGHTER Two vampires from the New World come to guide us into the new era... ..as all we love slowly rots and fades away. Are you the leader of this group? If there were a leader, I would be the one. So, you have the answers? So, you have questions? What are we? Nothing...if not vampires. Who made us what we are? Surely you know the one who made you. Yes, but the one who made HIM. The source of all this...evil. I understand. I saw you in the theatre. Your suffering... your sympathy for that girl. You die when you kill. You feel you deserve to die and you stint on nothing. But does that make you evil? Or since you comprehend what you call 'goodness', doesn't that make you good? Then there is nothing? Perhaps. Or perhaps...this... is the only real evil left. God does not exist? I know NOTHING of God... or the Devil. I have never seen a vision, nor learned a secret that would damn or save my soul. And as far as I know, after 400 years, I am the oldest living vampire in the world. Then it's as I've always feared. You fear too much. So much you make me fear. The one who made you... should have told you this. The one who left the Old World for the new... The one who made us knew nothing. Nor did he care. Knew? Come beloved, it's time we were on our way. I'm hungry and the city awaits. The place was empty as we left, silent as the grave. And as we blundered through it, again came the thought - "I have wronged Lestat. "I have hated him for the wrong reasons." How did you wrong him? You said a name. Yes. A name I don't care to say again. There is but one crime among us vampires here. It's the crime that means death to any vampire. Kill your own kind. You think I'd let them harm you? No, you would not, Louis. Danger holds you to me. Love holds you to me. Love? Love. You would leave me for Armand if he beckoned you. Never. He wants you as you want him. He's been waiting for you. He wants you as a companion. He bides his time in that place. He finds it as dull and lifeless as we do. Perhaps, yes. Do you know what his soul said to me, without saying a word? "Let him go," he said. "Let him go." Is that what I should do, Louis? Let you go? My father? My Louis? Who made me. It'll be alright. You really believe that? A soldier returning from the war... EXPLOSION ..thinks victory has inured him against sorrow. Till Death comes by and chops him from his horse. EXPLOSION I was waiting for you. Listen to me, Claudia is very dear to me. She is my daughter. Your lover. My beloved. My child. You say it as though you're innocent. She's in danger, isn't she? She is. Why? GENTLE PIANO MUSIC I could give you reasons. Her silence. Her youth. It's forbidden to make one so young, so helpless, that it cannot survive on its own. Then blame the one who made her. Did you kill this vampire who made you both? Is that why you won't say his name? We want no quarrel with you. No! No, it's already begun! If you want to save her, send her away. Then I leave too. So soon? Without any of those answers you so longed for? You said there were none. But you asked the wrong questions. Do you know how few vampires have the stamina for immortality? How quickly they perish of their own will? The world...changes. We do not. Therein lies the irony... that finally kills us. I need you to make contact with this age. Me? Don't you see? I'm not the spirit of any age. I'm at odds with everything. I always have been. But Louis, that is the very spirit of your age. The heart of it. Your fall from grace has been the fall of the century. The vampires in the theatre? Decadent. Useless. They can't reflect anything. But...you do. You reflect its broken heart. Vampire...with a human soul. Immortal, with a mortal's passion. You...are...beautiful, my friend. Lestat must have wept when he made you. Lestat? You knew Lestat? Yes. Knew him. Knew him well enough not to mourn his passing. I felt a kind of peace at last. I had found the teacher which I knew Lestat could never, I knew now, have been. I knew knowledge would never be withheld by Armand. It would pass through him as through a pane of glass. Madeleine, Louis is shy. Drink. (Sighs) Do it, Louis! I cannot do it. I haven't the strength. You saw to that when you made me. You haven't the vaguest conception under God what you ask. Au contraire, monsieur. I have. You have FOUND your new companion, Louis! You will make me mine! How do we seem to you? Do you find us beautiful? Magical? Our white skin? Our fierce eyes? "Drink," you ask me. Do you know what you will become? Your evil is that you cannot be evil! And I shall suffer for it no longer! Don't make me do this! I CANNOT! Yet you could do it to me. Snatch me from my mother's hands, like two monsters in a fairy tale. And NOW you weep! I haven't tears enough for what you've done to me. You give her to me, Louis! Do this before you leave me! (Sobs) Oh, Father! I love you still. That is the torment of it. Who will care for me, my love, my dark angel, when you are gone? What do you think she is, Madeleine? A doll? A child who cannot die. A child who DID die. My daughter. SOMBRE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC HAUNTING ORCHESTRAL MUSIC (Gasps) (Screams) Louis, what's happening to her? She's dying. It happened to you too. Only you were too young to remember. But if she dies? It's only mortal death. Bear me no ill will, my love. We are now even. What do you mean? What died in that room was not that woman. What has died was the last breath in me that was human. Yes, Father. At last we are even. FRANTIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC It's time of justice, little one! (Screams hysterically) (Laughs) Get me Armand! He wouldn't stand for this. Death for the others. For you, eternity in a box. (Attackers laugh) Walled in a dungeon. Your only comfort will be your screams. Perhaps it will take centuries. (All chuckle) Take him! DRAMATIC MUSIC Claudia! Armand! Armand! Armand! Claudia! Armand! Armand! (Attackers snarl like beasts) (Louis screams) (Claudia screams) Aaarrhhh! (Screams frantically) (Laughs demonically) MANIACAL LAUGHTER Arhhhh! Arrrhhh! (All laugh) (Louis screams repeatedly) Pleasant dreams! (All laugh) No! No! DRAMATIC MUSIC OMINOUS RUMBLING SOUND OMINOUS SOUND BUILDS (Whimpers) Madeleine. Wake up. (Whimpers frantically) (Gasps) (Wails in anguish) OMINOUS MUSIC BUILDS CHILLING MUSIC (Both scream) CLAUDIA! (Both scream) FRANTIC STRING MUSIC (Splutters) Where's Claudia? Claudia? I cannot help her. Where's Claudia?! I CAN'T SAVE HER! Louis! I could only risk losing YOU! Louis! Don't! MUSIC SUBSIDES MUSIC BUILDS DRAMATIC MUSIC (Sobs) HAUNTING, SUBDUED CHORAL SINGING DRAMATIC MUSIC Come, Louis. Not here. 1 So a vampire can cry? Once, maybe twice in a long eternity. Maybe it was to quench those tears forever that I took such revenge on them. DRAMATIC MUSIC (Screams) (Screams) (Screams) (Screams) Aaaagh! Aaaagh! (Laughs malevolently) Aaagh! Aaah! Aaaah! Aaah! (Laughs) Aaah! DRAMATIC MUSIC Aaaah! Aaagh! Louis! You didn't even warn them, did you? No. And you knew what I would do? I knew. I rescued you, didn't I? Mmm? From the terrible dawn. You were their leader. They trusted you. You made me see their failings, Louis. They were doomed - stuck in their decadent time. And they had forgotten the first lesson - that we must be powerful, beautiful and without regret. And you can teach me this? Yes. To be without regret? Yes. Then what a pair we could make. (Laughs malevolently) But what if it's a lesson I don't care to learn? What do you mean? What if all I have is my suffering, my regret? Don't you want to lose it? So you can have that too? The heart that mourns her - her that you burnt to a cinder. Louis, I swear I didn't. Ah, but I know you did. I know. You who regrets nothing. You who feels nothing. If that's all I have left to learn... ..I can do that on my own. Louis. Yes. I will die. No, you are dead and you want me to quicken you once more. And as much as your invitation might appeal to me... ..I must regretfully decline. SWEEPING STRINGS For years I wandered - Italy, Greece, all the ancient lands - but the world was a tomb to me - a graveyard full of broken statues. And each of those statues resembled her face. Then out of curiosity, boredom - who knows what - I left the Old World and came back to my America. And there, a mechanical wonder allowed me to see the sun rise for the first time in 200 years. And what sunrises! Seen as the human eye could never see them. Silver at first, then as the years progressed, in tones of purple, red and my long-lost blue. In the spring of 1988, I returned to New Orleans and as soon as I smelled the air I knew I was home. It was rich, almost sweet like the fragrance of jasmine and roses around our old courtyard. I walked the streets savouring that long-lost perfume. And then on Britannia Street, only blocks from the Lafayette Cemetery, I caught the scent of death and it wasn't coming from the graves. The scent grew stronger as I walked - old death. A scent too faint for mortals to detect. DRAMATIC MUSIC GATE CREAKS BATS SCREECH CARS ROAR PAST OUTSIDE LESTAT: Louis? I'm so glad you're here. I've dreamed of this moment. You never should've been one of... ..one of us. It's all past, Lestat. Yes. The past. CHAIR CREAKS Still beautiful, Louis. You always were the strong one. Don't be frightened. I mean you no harm. You've come home to me, then? You remember how I was? The vampire that I was? Yes, I remember. (Sighs) No-one could refuse me... ..not even you, Louis. I tried. Yes, you tried. And the more you tried...(Laughs) ..the more I wanted you. (Laughs) ENGINE ROARS Aaaagh! I can't stand it! The search lights! And that noise! They make the night brighter than the day! Lestat... ..it's false light. It can't harm you. If you stayed with me... ..I could venture out again. Become the old Lestat. I must leave now. MELANCHOLY MUSIC Whatever happened to Lestat I do not know. I go on night after night. I feed on those who cross my path. But all my passion went with her golden hair. And the spirit of preternatural flesh... ..detached... ..unchangeable... ..empty. Empty? That's it? No, it can't end like that. But it has. There's no more to tell. There HAS to be more to tell. You don't understand yourself - you're not empty. What people... what I wouldn't give to be like you - to have your power, see what you've seen in your life. You haven't been listening. YES! Your story is incredible! It's amazing! Do what you want with it. Give it to others. Learn what you can. There's only one way I'll ever truly learn and you know it. You brought me here for a reason, didn't you? Didn't you? What reason would that be? You want a companion - a link to the outside world. That's me! Take me. I want what you have. I refuse to let it end like this. God, I've failed again, haven't I? You haven't failed. God has nothing to do with it. Oh! Do you like this? No. Do you like being food for the immortals? DRAMATIC MUSIC Do you like DYING? Stop! MUSIC CLIMAXES OMINOUS MUSIC Shit. MUSIC BUILDS HORNS BLARE TYRES SCREECH (Pants) LAVISH STRINGS LOUIS: 1791 was the year it happened. I was 24 - younger than you are now. But times were different then. I was a man at that age - the master of a large plantation just south of New Orleans. I had lost my wife and child... Ha! Somebody change my shorts! They had been buried less than six months... This is good stuff. I would've been happy to join them... Good stuff. DRAMATIC MUSIC I assume I need no introduction. WHEELS SQUEAL Aaaagh! I feel better already. Most of all I longed for death. I invited it. A release from the pain of living. Oh, Louis, Louis. Still whining, Louis! Have you heard enough? I've had to listen to that for centuries. UPBEAT SONG ON RADIO Don't be afraid. I'm going to give you the choice I never had. (Man on radio laughs) (Laughs) SONG: # Please allow me to introduce myself # I'm a man of wealth and taste # I've been around for a long, long year # Stole many a man's soul and faith # I was around when Jesus Christ # Had his moment of doubt and pain # I made damn sure Pilate washed his hands and sealed his fate # (Laughs) # Ow! # Pleased to meet you # Hope you guess my name # Ow, yeah! # But what's puzzling you is the nature of my game # I stuck around St Petersburg # When I saw it was the time for a change # I killed the tsar and his ministers # Anastasia screamed in vain # I rode a tank # Held a general's rank # When the blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank # Ow! # Pleased to meet you Hope you guess my name # Oh, yeah! # Oh, what's puzzling you is the nature of my game # Ah-ha! # I watched with glee # As your kings and queens fought for 10 decades # For the gods they made # I shouted out, "Who killed the Kennedys?" # When after all, it was you and me # So let me please introduce myself # I'm a man of wealth and taste # I laid traps for troubadours # Who get killed before they reach Bombay # Pleased to meet you Hope you guess my name # Oh, yeah # But what's puzzling you # Is the nature of my game # Yeah! SLASHING GUITAR RIFF # Oh! # Pleased to meet you # Hope you guess my name # Oh, yeah! # But what's puzzling you is the nature of my game # Oh, yeah! # Just as every cop is a criminal # And all the sinners saints # As heads is tails Just call me Lucifer # 'Cause I'm in need of some restraint # So if you meet me # Have some courtesy # Have some sympathy and some taste # Use all your well-learned politics # Or I'll lay your soul to waste, ah # Oh! # Pleased to meet you # Hope you guessed my name # Oh, yeah # But what's puzzling you is the nature of my game # Oh, yeah # Oh! # Oh, yeah! # Tell me, baby # What's my name? # Tell me, honey # Can you guess my name? # Oh-oh-oh # Oh-oh-oh # Oh-oh-oh # Oh! # Tell me, honey # What's my name? # Oh! # Supertext Subtitles Copyright 1997 Australian Caption Centre www.auscap.com.au