Prologue

[BUD as NARRATOR, spoken]
Prologue: lights rise on the squalid, stinky bedroom of a friend of Gutenberg's
[DOUG as NARRATOR, spoken]
The roof is made of dirty thatch. In the corner, there are rats gnawing on stinky cheese; and, lying absolutely still, in the middle of the room, without moving, is a dead baby

[BUD as NARRATOR, spoken]
Gutenberg's friend and a doctor examine the dead baby
[DOUG as DOCTOR, spoken]
We did all we could
I’m afraid your baby is dead
[BUD as FRIEND OF GUTENBERG, spoken]
Dead?! But I gave him this medicine!
[DOUG as DOCTOR, spoken]
Them ain't medicine, thems jelly beans!
[BUD as FRIEND OF GUTENBERG, spoken]
Jelly beans? But I...
[DOUG as DOCTOR, spoken]
If only you could read... see ya

[BUD as FRIEND OF GUTENBERG]
Jelly beans... not medicine?
If only I could read
My son he wouldn't need...
An elegy...
Stupid beans! Not medicine!
Oh god, here in this jar
I can't read what these are...
Damn jelly beans....

[DOUG as GUTENBERG, spoken]
Hello, friend! Is there anything Johann Gutenberg can do?
[BUD as FRIEND OF GUTENBERG, spoken]
Can you bring a dead baby back to life?
[DOUG as GUTENBERG, spoken]
I don't think so
[BUD as FRIEND OF GUTENBERG sobs]

[DOUG as NARRATOR, spoken]
Friend of Gutenberg sobs like a woman. He cradles his dead baby in his illiterate arms
Blackout