Supposed to Be
Chillingworth comforts Pearl and she begins to suspect that he might be her father. Pearl asks the witchglass to ask her mother who her father is, and Bellingham and Dimmesdale interrogate Hester. Dimmesdale exhorts her to free her fellow sinner by naming him. Pearl forgets that the ghosts of the past cannot see her and joins in the calls to name her father. Hester, despite Dimmesdale’s please, is unmoved. (Who Is The Father)
Disturbed by the sight of her mother being shamed, Pearl asks to see her mother and father together at a time when they were happy. Pearl and Chillingworth find themselves in the forest clearing where a younger Hester and a mysterious man enter for a romantic rendezvous. Pearl is thrilled by how happy her mother looks, while Chillingworth is unable to watch at all. Just before the cloaked man is revealed, Chillingworth drags Pearl back to the present. (You, Me, Love)
Chillingworth laments Hester’s treachery, and Pearl, who has completely misinterpreted the previous vision, explains to him that she has figured out that he, Chillingworth, is her father. He is unnerved by this and rushes off into the forest. Pearl takes the witchglass herself and demands that it show her father in the present, intending to see where Chillingworth has gone. (Aren’t You?)
To her surprise, the witchglass takes her to Dimmesdale. Pearl must come to herms with the fact that her father has been in plain sight her entire life, and that he is not her idealized father. (Supposed to Be)
Performed by Nili Bassman
