<P> Grusha catches scarlet fever and lives there for quite some time . Rumours spread in the village, and Lavrenti convinces Grusha to marry a dying peasant, Jussup, in order to quell them . She reluctantly agrees . Guests arrive at the wedding--funeral, including the Singer and musicians, which act as the hired musicians for the event, and gossip endlessly . It is revealed that the Grand Duke is overthrowing the princes and the civil war has finally ended, and no one can be drafted anymore . At this, the supposedly dead villager Jussup returns to "life", and it becomes clear he was only "ill" when the possibility of being drafted was present . Grusha finds herself married . For months, Grusha's new husband tries to make her a' real wife' by consummating the marriage, but she refuses . </P> <P> Years pass, and Simon finds Grusha while washing clothes in the river . They have a sweet exchange before Simon jokingly asks if she has found another man . Grusha struggles to tell him she has unwillingly married, then Simon spots Michael . The following scene between the two is told predominantly by the Singer, who speaks for each of the two characters' thoughts, and is easily the most heartbreaking part of the play . However, Ironshirts arrive carrying Michael in, and ask Grusha if she is his mother, she says that she is, and Simon leaves distraught . The Governor's Wife wants the child back and Grusha must go to court back in Nukha . The Singer ends the act with questions about Grusha's future, and reveals that there is another story we must learn: the story of Azdak . If an intermission is used, this is generally where it is placed . </P> <P> The scene opens as if a different play entirely, yet set within the same war setting, is beginning . The Singer introduces another hero named Azdak . Azdak shelters a "peasant" and protects him from authorities by a demonstration of convoluted logic . He later realises that he sheltered the Grand Duke himself; since he thinks the rebellion is an uprising against the government itself, he turns himself in for his "class treason". But the rebellion isn't a populist one--in fact, the princes are trying to suppress a populist rebellion occurring as a result of their own--and Azdak renounces his revolutionary ideas to keep the Ironshirts from killing him as a radical . </P> <P> The Fat Prince enters, looking to secure the Ironshirts' support in making his nephew a new judge . Azdak suggests they hold a mock trial to test him; the Fat Prince agrees . Azdak plays the accused in the trial--the Grand Duke . He makes several very successful jabs against the Princes' corruption, and amuses the Ironshirts enough that they appoint him instead of the Fat Prince's nephew: "The judge was always a chancer; now let a chancer be the judge!" </P>

The player who waits outside of the dugout and warms up within the chalk circle is called