PRINCESS: Oh! Where am I? 

JESTER: In your garden of Eden, Princess. 

PRINCESS: Are you sure I am not dreaming? 

JESTER: One can never be sure of such things. 

PRINCESS: If it is a dream, whose dream do you think it is? Yours or mine? 

JESTER: Yours Princess. I often wander through other people's dreams. 

PRINCESS: I never do. I always stay in this garden. 

JESTER: Even if it is a dream, it is a pleasant one. 

PRINCESS: Pardon me, but I seem to know you. 

JESTER: Maybe we have met in a place like this one. 

PRINCESS: Who are you? A subject? 

JESTER: I am the court jester. I was dismissed from the Court of a faraway kingdom. And you? 

PRINCESS: I am looking for a jester. I am a lonely princess. My only distraction is to strall endlessly though this boring garden and to pick flowers. 

JESTER: Oh, that's a pleasant distraction! 

PRINCESS: Yes, but there are no flowers left. They've all wilted from boredom. 

JESTER: Maybe there is another reason why they've wilted? 

PRINCESS: Boredom, my jester. In this gardens, everything feeds on joy. Once joy was lost, sadness and loneliness set in, and the flowers wilted. This is now a desolate park. 

JESTER: Oh, there may be work for me here. 

  

PRINCESS: There may, jester. I appoint you Gardener of Joy. 

JESTER: But I know nothing of plants. The only thing I know is to tell stories. 

PRINCESS: So tell! 

JESTER: But I only know sad stories. I am a thespian of ballads. 

PRINCESS: Can you sing? 

JESTER: Only sad songs. I am a singer of ballads. 

PRINCESS: And you have never learned a single happy song? 

JESTER: I used to know many. I've forgotten them all. 

PRINCESS: How is that jester? 

JESTER: I fell in love. I loved a sad and lonely princess. A jester and a princess, they don't go together. I was dismissed from the Court, and was infested by her illness. I didn't know that sadness and loneliness are like an illness. 

PRINCESS: That is terrible, jester. I've never been in love. 

JESTER: There is something even more terrible. She remained a lonely princess, while I stopped being a jester. 

PRINCESS: Then how do plan to revive the garden? 

JESTER: I don't know, Princess. Maybe it's better that I leave here too. 

PRINCESS: No, stay. I will tell you a secret, my jester. This garden is dead and lifeless. Before, when there were flowers here, I multiplied them - by picking. The more I picked, the more they blossomed. 

JESTER: What a miraculous garden. 

PRINCESS: This garden sprouts only if something extraordinary happens in it. Do you see that bush? It was laden with roses which I picked. It bloomed when our Commander killed the Court taker. And that tree? It used to have wonderful, large white blossoms. It bloomed when I ordered the Commander to kill himself. 

JESTER: That's very sad, Princess. 

PRINCESS: Everything is sad. There is no more excitement in this devastated park. Do something, jester. 

JESTER: What can an unhappy jester do? 

PRINCESS: Provide joy to a Princess. Please, restore the joy in this park. Make it a flower garden once again. Do something, I beg you. Look, my last flower is wilting. My last drop of happiness will wilt with it. 

JESTER: (Silent, then bows his head). Very well, Princess. I will do something, and your happiness will be saved! 

PRINCESS: Oh, jester, look! Something is happening. The moon is plunging. Maybe that will save my garden! 

(An eclipse of the moon is visible on the sky. Behind the eclipsed mood, there is a halo of radiant light. First, there are rays in all colors of the specter, then the full moon reappears. Suddenly, in the garden, a myriad of flowers start blossoming. A flower bush grows and entwines around the lamp post. The Princes begins to laugh). 

PRINCESS: Jester, my jester, where are you? Jester, my lost garden is back! How did you do it, jester? 

(In front of her, hanging on a branch, is the black silhouette of the Jester. The startled Princess utters a cry of surprise, then turns around and admires the blossoming garden. The dog puppet appears once again, and begins howling at the moon, whose rays illuminate the lifeless hanging puppet of the Jester. A ray falls on the his lute on the ground. Shrubs and flowers begin to sprout and entwine around it). 

PRINCESS: What a funny jester. I didn't ask him to do anything like that. Maybe, this is just a dream. If it is, then it must be his dream. And that is what he decided. That's the way it was written. There is no running away. Everything has already happened once. Everything began in one garden. Everything will end in the garden. Everything will happen in the garden. You were unhappy, you will be happy. You were alone. And alone you will be! 

(Light fades slowly. The Princess leaves. What remains is the huge round moon and the shadow of the hanging Jester enframed by an unearthly halo, and the forever lost dog howling underneath).