The Last Express

[first lines]

Conductor #2:
Ladies and Gentlemen, your attention please. The Orient Express is now departing for Strassburg, Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Sofia, and Constantinople. All passengers should be on board.

[Cath walks up to Alexei's table]

Robert Cath:
Mind if I join you?

Alexei Dolnikov:
[reluctantly] Why not?

[Cath sits down. Alexei silently sips his soup]

Robert Cath:
I didn't mean to scare you off.

Alexei Dolnikov:
For me, a bowl of soup is enough. I can take no pleasure in food, while millions of my countrymen go without bread. Good day.

[Alexei gets up and stalks off, leaving a confused Cath]

Anna Wolff:
Don't you like Rasputin?

Robert Cath:
[playfully] Oh, sure I do. Just when you think he's dead, he pops back up again...

George Abbot:
The world is changing and one does need to choose sides, and sometimes things change so fast that its hard to tell one side from the other.