Act 2 Summary

Act II opens in the same room. Satine, the Baron, porters Krivoy Zob and the Tartar are playing cards while Kleshtch and the Actor look on. Bubnoff and Miedviedieff play checkers, and Luka sits talking quietly with Anna. Zob is singing a song about prison life, and longing to be free, while Luka is telling Anna that after she dies she will suffer no more. The Tartar catches the Baron cheating, and demands that the two play honestly; Satine asks, What for?

The Actor tells Luka how he has ruined his life by "poisoning his organism with alcohol" such that he can no longer recall any of the fine verses that used to earn him such thunderous applause on the stage. Luka tells him that a man's very soul is the thing he loves, and that there is a hospital for drunkards where...