Les Miserables-A Modern Adaptation for the Stage

For my final English 30-1 project this year, I had to write a scene from a play. I decided to take a scene from Les Miserables the musical and fast-forward it to the future!

The characters in these scenes:

Enjolras: The leader of a group of politically minded activist students.

Combeferre: The brains of the operation. Quiet and soft-spoken.

Marius: A dork and a dreamer. Needs a reality check.

Grantaire: A bit of a party animal. Only joined the group because of his admiration of Enjolras. Consistently hung over and enjoys spiking his own coffee.

Courfeyrac: The popular kid. Stylish, flirtatious, and occasionally a bit of a jerk.

Feuilly: Just as passionate as Enjolras, and Enjolras’ best friend. Balances his part-time job with his political agenda. Hails from Poland.

Joly: Slightly paranoid and OCD. Works part-time in an emergency room while studying to become a doctor. Hypochondriac.

Jean Prouvaire: A sweet young poet, creative, and a little bit obsessed with romance. Lovingly referred to as JP.

Lesgles: The eldest of the group, a fifth year university student going into economics. Very unlucky, with thick glasses and thinning hair, but an optimist nonetheless.

Gavroche: Grantaire’s little brother and tag-along of the group. Smart, brave, annoying, homeschooled. Lovingly referred to as ‘Roach’

Cosette: Marius’ lady love. A nice girl, aside from the attitude issues.

Valjean: Cosette’s father, and an escaped prisoner trying to start a new life. He adopted Cosette after her mother, one of his destitute employees, died.

Eponine: Marius’ best friend. The un-coolest girl at the university, and mildly obsessed with Marius.

 

SCENE 22

Curtain up. Enjolras, Marius, and the Students sit inside of a Second Cup. Tables and chairs are scattered around the store, with other people reading newspapers, doing work on their laptops, or talking. The Students sit around a large table in the center, some on their iPads, some texting, and others drinking coffee and chatting. The current topic of conversation is the frustration over Starbucks refusing to use fair-trade beans. 

Courfeyrac: Just got a text back from Rich over at the Suresnes West Starbucks, he and the boys are ready if you need them.

Combeferre: Yeah, and the kids from Avenue Reille have got a stash of gas masks ready. Just in case this one goes down like last time.

Grantaire: Let’s not talk about ‘last time’. That was bad.

Feuilly: R, you were totally and completely hung over. Of course it was bad, you could barely walk! Grantaire pulls a vial out of his laptop case, and pours a substance into the coffee in front of him.  Oh, for goodness sake!

Joly: All that alcohol is terrible for your liver. If you end up in my emergency room one of these days, don’t say I didn’t warn you! Grantaire grins and takes a large gulp of coffee.

Grantaire: Whatever you say, Doc.

Enjolras: Okay, guys, let’s settle down. Pulls out his iPad, presses a couple of buttons, and then places the iPad in the center. So, I’ve talked to some people and taken a few surveys, and stats are showing that most people are upset enough about the whole Starbucks fair-trade thing to actually make a move. Feuilly and I have been thinking of some ways that we could bring the desires of the people to…Marius suddenly runs in from stage Right. Marius, we were supposed to start at 4:00 exactly.

Joly: What’s up? You look pretty upset about something. Missed the bus again?

Grantaire: Here, have some coffee. Grantaire passes Marius his cup of coffee while Marius dumps his bag and sits down. Marius lifts it up, sniffs it, and gives it back with a look of disgust.

Marius: Well, yeah, I missed the bus, but that’s okay. I saw the cutest girl on campus today.

Grantaire: Wait a minute. Marius Pontmercy, the thick-skulled twit who still believes in cooties, thinks that a girl is cute? Forget about fair-trade beans, guys, we’ve got some real news over here! As Grantaire speaks, he gets more and more excited and dramatic, standing up and making grand gestures.

Enjolras: Sit down, Grantaire, people are staring. And could you at least try to be a little serious? This is really important! Starbucks is a multi-million corporation, a service people make use of almost every single day, and they are supporting the oppression of workers in the coffee bean industry!

Throughout the entire speech, Marius is staring into space, his head in his hands.

Marius: No, but seriously, she was so pretty. 

Jean: Long, silky soft hair…

Marius: The colour of the summer sun on a bright day!

Jean: Big, beautiful eyes!

Marius: A soft blue that stares straight into your soul.

Jean: The softest smile…

Marius: She smiled right at me!

Lesgles: Whoa, JP, have you met this girl before?

Jean: Nope.

Combeferre: What’s her name?

Marius looks sheepish.

Marius: Well, I never actually spoke to her…

Courfeyrac: Marius, you are a hopeless cause. The girl was pretty, right?

Marius: Right.

Courfeyrac: And you made eye contact, yes?

Marius: Yes…

Courfeyrac: Then why didn’t you talk to her?

Marius: One minute there, and she was gone!

Courfeyrac: Mournfully. You didn’t even get her Facebook…

Lesgles: Guys, Enj is about to lose it…All eyes turn to Enjolras, who appears calm and composed, aside from his left hand twitching.

Jean: “Come not between the dragon and his wrath.” King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1, Line 123. Beat. Sorry.

Enjolras: Grow up, Marius. You’ll have time to hit on this girl later. Right now, there are coffee bean workers calling for aid! Who cares about your lonely soul? We’ve got more important things to do. Various shouts and muttering of agreement from the other students. Let’s get down to business! The students all start talking all at once. Various ad libs are heard: “This will never work!” “Why don’t we hit Rue ___ first?” “That’s enough vodka in your coffee for one day, R,”

Gavroche runs in from stage R, excited about something.

Gavroche: Guys! The students continue talking, not hearing Gavroche. Guys! Listen! Gavroche grabs an empty coffee cup and throws it at Enjolras, causing all the students to turn to him. Listen to me! Erik de Fabuis is resigning from office! The table goes silent, and Enjolras slowly stands up.

Enjolras: He’s…resigning? Grantaire rolls his eyes.

Grantaire: Oh boy, here we go again.

Enjolras: But if he’s resigning…who will stand up for the rights of the coffee beans? Confused silence.

Combeferre: Um…what?

Grantaire jumps up.

Grantaire: Fight for the rights of the coffee beans! Stop being mean to the beans! Enjolras glares at Grantaire, who slowly sits down.

Enjolras: Roach-did you figure out who will be succeeding Fabuis?

Gavroche: Henri Papont. Sighs of disappointment, groaning, and the occasional dramatic sob.

Feuilly: But Papont refuses to get involved in foreign affairs!

Lesgles: whose idea was it to make him the Minister of Foreign Affairs?

Courfeyrac: Suspiciously. Yzma…! No one responds. Wrong lever, Kronk! No one responds. Seriously, none of you guys watched The Emperor’s New Groove? I need to find myself a new squad.

Enjolras: No, no, this is good!

Courfeyrac: I know! It’s my favourite movie, hands-down.

Enjolras: Not that, you nincompoop!

Jean: To himself. I would’ve used something like ‘Thou mad mustachio purple-hued malt worm!’, but nincompoop works too.

Courfeyrac: Touché.

Enjolras: What I mean is with Papont taking over as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the people are going to be frustrated and angry, right?

All: Right.

Enjolras: Which means that they will want to try and do something about it, right?

All: Right.

Enjolras: So what I’m trying to get at is…? Awkward silence. Some of the students shuffle in their seats, look around, whistle, etc. Enjolras sighs. I’m trying to say that this is the perfect opportunity for us lead the people in something dramatic! A few well-placed whispers, a couple of obscure tweets, maybe a hash tag or two, and…

Grantaire: Shouting Get the gas masks ready! Collapses on the table.

Blackout-End Scene

Author's Note

I know it's not very good, but it's definitely one of my better works!