The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

ACT I

Scene 1. At the Marine Hospital of Berck-sur-Mer, Bauby is in coma; his two kids Theo and Celest, and Sylvie, his wife, are visiting. They are trying to communicate with him with no response from him. Faria sings from the other side of the wall.

Scene 2. At the Marine Hospital of Berck-sur-Mer. Bauby is waking up. A doctor and a nurse come in to check him. The only response they can get from him is the fact that he can follow the light that is pointed at his eye. Bauby is asking questions but he’s not heard. The doctor explains to him that he had a stroke, that he has lost speech and movement ability. Faria appears as soon as the medical staff leaves. Faria and Bauby talk about who they are. Bauby says that he is a father and a writer. Faria asks him to write his story, the story of a treasure in Monte Cristo before he exits.

Scene 3. Bauby’s Father Apartment. Sylvie is visiting the apartment of the 93 year old father of Bauby, Papinou. Sylvie gives him an update on Bauby’s condiction. Papinou tries to apologize for past behaviors of his son saying he should never had left Sylvie. Sylvie confesses that Bauby did not left her. She caught him in an affair and she decided to end the marriage. While the conversation is developing, Bauby is shown being carried to a wheelchair back in Berck-sur-Mer.

Scene 4. At the Marine Hospital of Berck-sur-Mer. Bauby is introduced by the Doctor to Sandrine, his assigned speech therapist. He tries to communicate with her but all his lines are really only happening in Bauby’s head. They exchange pleasantries. Sandrine, reaches out with kindness, patience, and empathy. Using an intuitive alphabet, through blinking, he learns to communicate.
Scene 5. Chateu d’if. Marine Hospital of Berck-sur-Mer. Bauby tells Faria that he can’t understand why he can move and talk when he talks to him but he’s limited to blinking. Faria tells him that his mind can wander and that he could go wherever he needed to go. Faria disappears and Bauby goes back to the wheelchair. Sylvie and the kids try to have a conversation with Bauby. Bauby gets really emotional. The kids leave the phone call. Sylvie tells Bauby she will come to visit on Tuesday and informs him that his girlfriend will be there Thursday. They have an emotional conversation with Bauby’s words only in his head. Bauby starts imagining his past life cooking with Sylvie and his family. All of them start talking of the hardships of his condition, the hurt created by his actions before the stroke and the absence in the life of his circle. The scene ends with Sandrine and Bauby working on the alphabet. His first word is MERCI.

ACT II

Scene 1. Father’s Day at the beach at Berck-sur-Mer. Bauby is surveying the ocean. Celeste is pushing the wheelchair in the sand. Celeste has a tender moment with Bauby. Sylvie and Bauby talk about the book that he is writing using the alphabet-blinking system. Theo proposes to Babuby to play “hangman”. Celeste dances and sings a song that makes Bauby cry. Claude appears in the scene. She is blonde and attractive and matches Sylvie’s imagined notion of what his mistress looks alike. Sylvie confronts Claude thinking she’s Bauby’s mistress. Sandrine arrives and clarifies that Claude was sent by Bauby’s publisher to help writing his memoir and take dictation. Sylvie and the kids leave. Claude and Bauby agree to start working together.

Scene 2. Hospital room at Berck-sur-Mer. Claude, Sandrine and Sylvie sing excerpts his memoirs. We can see that Bauby is having surgery to sew the other eye. Half the stage progressively gets darker to correlate the closing of one eye.

Scene 3. Hospital/Elle Magazine offices. Bauby is in his wheelchair with a sewn eye but he transport himself to his time at Elle. He interacts with his assistant Lea. He’s back in business. While at it, he receives a phone call from his father. Slowly we see Bauby seated in his wheelchair alone in the hospital. Papinou talks to him. He tells him he is proud of him. He is thankful. He tells Bauby he loves him

Scene 4. Hospital room at Berck-sur-Mer. Claude and Bauby are working on the book. They take a pause in their work and Claude pushes Bauby and his wheelchair to the terrace. He sings a big song in his head about hoping to talk about something with else, to experience his freedom again. When they reach the balcony, Claude starts reading chapters of his book. She starts reading chapter 90, about the encounter between the protagonist and Mercedes from the Monte Cristo novel. Here Mercedes is Sandrine in reality. Bauby sings about wanting to be loved, heard and kissed one more time. Mercedes kisses him. Faria appears and starts saying that there is little time left but there’s so much to say. Faria and Mercedes disappear and Bauby is back working with Claude. Dissapointed, he spells the word goodbye.
Scene 5. Hospital at Berck-Sur- Mer. Bauby and Sylvie are catching up. He is one chapter close to the end of his book. Sylvie informs him that she is going away to New York for a week to clear her head. She reads to him a letter from her own mother to him. Bauby catches up that she is actually reciting by memory some parts of the letter, implying that she wrote the letter himself. The letter is nostalgic and full of love for Bauby. Sylvie confesses she knew they were going to break up and that Bauby should not feel that it was his entire fault. She kisses him. Claude reads the last chapter to him. All the characters of the opera reappear and talk about all his plans and different memoirs of his life while he see Bauby stepping in to the memories they sing. Faria appears finally and he says to Bauby is time to leave.

Epilogue. Chateu d’if. Faria and Bauby switched places just like Faira and Edmondo did in the original plot by Dumas. The body of Bauby crawls in to a body bag. Two guards have reached the top of the cliff and they throw the bag in to the sea. The bag breaks apart. A kite flies out of the bag and soars in to the sky. Theo and Celeste grab the kite. Eventually after the last word is sung, they let go of the kite while it flies to the heaves.

THE END

Likening this suspended animation to “a giant invisible diving-bell holding my whole body prisoner” he describes the unforgiving reality of disability and the banality of complete dependence for communication, ablutions, or even changing the television channel—something many doctors, patients, and carers can identify with.
To escape, his “mind takes flight like a butterfly” and he finds solace in fantasies of wine, women, and song. He also takes us on a vivid voyage through his memories of his work, holidays, and family.
Sharing his decline is his 93 year old, decrepit father who, unable to visit, telephones the son “who can never reply.” Both are trapped in failing bodies, unable to care for their children; only his father’s fate is timely and just.
Mourning for what was and what will never be, Bauby poetically describes his life as a string of missed opportunities: “the women we were unable to love, the chances we failed to seize, and the moments of happiness we allowed to drift away.”