"Til" by Grigory Gorin, summary Automatic translate

This play, written in 1970, is a bold and witty reimagining of Charles de Coster’s celebrated novel. The text was created specifically for the Lenkom Theatre and its principal director, Mark Zakharov, and became the basis for the legendary production. The playwright combined historical material with sharp satire, transforming the Flemish hero into a daring, lone rebel who challenges tyranny and bigotry.

Prologue and the hero’s youth

The action begins in Flanders, in the home of the coal miner Claes. His wife, Soetkin, is expecting a child. The fishmonger, Joost, comes to visit. The executioner drinks beer and reads the decree of the Spanish king: reading forbidden books and harboring heretics will be punished by the stake, and informers will receive a third of the executed person’s property. Joost immediately becomes interested in the financial gain from denunciations. His neighbor, Catalina, foresees the birth of two babies — the Spanish prince Philip and Claes’s son, who will become the spirit and great mocker of Flanders. Soetkin gives birth to a boy, and the happy father names him Til.

Years pass. Katalina loses her mind after being subjected to horrific torture by the Inquisition. Fat Lamme Gudzak complains about his wife Kalliken, who refuses him marital intimacy due to the strict instructions of the monk Cornelius. In the town square, Damme Til mocks an indulgence seller and sells a portrait likeness to onlookers, showing them an empty frame. He sings mocking couplets about those present into this frame. Profos is offended by the cruel joke about the king and sentences the insolent man to exile: he must travel on foot to Rome to seek the pope’s forgiveness. Til bids farewell to his fiancée, Nele. Lamme sets out on a long journey with his friend.

Meeting with the king and the death of the father

The Spanish monarch, Philip II, is frankly bored in the palace. Neither Queen Mary’s passion nor the Inquisitor’s reports of the growing rebellion of the forest Geuzen bring him joy. The king, fanatically desiring order, decides to hand over half of the heretics’ property to informers. Meanwhile, in Damme, an executioner with a bundle of ropes arrests Claes. Jost hypocritically admits to Soetkin that he wrote the denunciation. The traitor hopes to discover the whereabouts of Claes’s deceased Protestant brother. The enraged woman curses the fishmonger.

On the way back from Rome, Spanish patrolmen seize Thiel and Lamme for vagrancy. The impudent youth is brought to the chambers of Philip II. The king offers the prisoner the honorable task of court painter and a group portrait. In response, the Fleming openly mocks the inquisitors, the queen, and the Duke of Alba. The enraged ruler orders the insolent man’s throat slit, demanding that he loudly beg for mercy. As his last wish, the condemned man asks the monarch to kiss him on the lips, which he cannot speak Flemish with. Philip appreciates the jester’s mockery and sets him free.

In Damme, the brutal trial of Claes concludes. The tortured charcoal burner refuses to recant his beliefs. At the demand of the excited crowd, the inquisitor replaces the slow fire with a rapid one. The condemned man addresses his fellow villagers, urging them to shake off their slavish fear. Til arrives at the execution site and embraces his father for the last time. The executioner gives Soetkin a handful of Claes’s ashes, and the grief-stricken mother hangs the pouch on her son’s chest. Jost begs the avenger to kill him to relieve his pangs of conscience, but he refuses to soil his hands. That night, a distraught Katalina gives the young lovers a forest potion. Disembodied spirits appear to Til and Nele, calling for bloody slaughter and death, but the girl saves her fiancé with her sincere love.

Betrayal and War

Forty days after the bonfire, the family holds a wake. Jost, disguised as the Black Knight Hans, tricks and conjures Katalina into handing over Klaas’s hidden money. Returning home, Til discovers the loss. Realizing that peaceful resignation is no protection from predators, he quarrels bitterly with Nele and leaves with his faithful Lamme to join the rebels. His father’s ashes burn his chest.

At the Geuzen military camp, the German mercenary Riesenkraft is drilling new recruits. He insults the Flemings, and Eulenspiegel cold-bloodedly beats the officer with a broom. The Prince of Orange orders the rebel executed immediately, but the soldiers have long since run out of ammunition. The arrested youth shares with the prince precise intelligence on the size and financial plans of the Spanish troops, calculated from the number of army prostitutes. The Prince of Orange appoints the resourceful tactician as commandant of the city of Brielle, which is currently occupied by the regular enemy.

The Fall of Brill

The king inspects the coastguard at Brielle Harbor. The commander of the local garrison, General de Lumes, boasts of cleverly camouflaged batteries. Philippe openly flirts with the general’s wife, Anna, touching her combat cross on her chest. A fishmonger arrives and reports to the monarch the advance of the Geuse ships and the appearance of Eulenspiegel in the rear. Late in the evening, Thiel enters Anna’s bedroom through a window, skillfully charms her with romantic speeches, and easily takes a map of the secret fortifications.

In the morning, the saboteur changes into a Spanish soldier’s uniform and confidently takes up sentry duty at the fort. He forces the defector Riesenkraft to lead the patrol further along the shore. General de Lumes mistakes the lone sentry for his bored compatriot from Barcelona and nostalgically shares with him the details of the artillery’s disposition. Having handed over the captured map to the Prince of Orange, who has arrived just in time, Thiel returns to the dangerous city to rescue the missing Lamme.

Ambush in a brothel and the denouement

In old Stephen’s shady establishment, prostitutes lazily await customers. The greedy monk Cornelius sells the deceived Kalliken to the owner for 200 florins. Streetwalkers also drag the reluctant Lamme inside. The couple joyfully recognize each other behind a screen. Til appears and realizes he’s been ambushed by the vengeful Jost. He quickly persuades the women to work for the rebels and seduce Spanish officers en masse on the eve of the night assault. Armed soldiers burst in. The fishmonger holds a cold knife to Kalliken’s throat, threatening to kill her immediately. Til voluntarily surrenders his weapon to the guards to save the lives of his loved ones.

At night in his prison cell, the condemned man mentally argues with the spirit of his father, rejects Philip II’s justifications for his tyranny, and honestly confesses his love to an imaginary Nele. An executioner, a former executioner from Damme, enters the cell. Out of dire need, his fellow countryman has taken up his bloody trade again. A drunken guard suggests swapping clothes to deceive the guards. Suddenly, Jost appears and shoots the executioner in the back, thinking he has killed Thiel. The traitor then fires point-blank at the prisoner, but he mysteriously remains unharmed. Believing the bullets to be blanks, the fishmonger shoots himself and is killed by a real bullet.

In the morning, the victorious Gueuze take the city. Lamme and Til sit wearily on the empty stage. The fat man reproaches his friend for lying motionless during the ceremonial meeting and allowing Oransky to arrange a lavish funeral at state expense. Til explains: "You know, Lamme, when there’s peace and quiet, when everything is fine, I may not be of much use. But if trouble happens at home — that’s when I’ll show up!" The friends erect a heavy wooden cross and drape a jester’s cap with bells over it. Relatives and surviving comrades mournfully gather around the mock grave, and the immortal hero loudly begins to sing his spirited song.