Out of the Wings

De profesión maternal (1997), Griselda Gambaro

Mother by Trade : ACT ONE, Scene 1 , ACT ONE

Mother by Trade, translated by Gwendolen MacKeith

ACT ONE, Scene 1

Context:

This is Leticia's arrival where she meets her mother, Matilde, for the first time as an adult.

Sample text

LETICIA comes in. She’s carrying a purse and a small suitcase.

LETICIA:: Hi.
EUGENIA: (Effusive, goes to meet her.): Hi! Come in. We were waiting for you. We were getting worried.
LETICIA:: I was window shopping.
EUGENIA: (To MATILDE, triumphant.): What did I tell you? (To LETICIA.) I know, I can’t peel my eyes away from those windows. Did you have a good journey?
LETICIA:: Long. Tiring.
EUGENIA:: Sit down. I’ll make you a cup of tea. (To MATILDE.) So pretty!
LETICIA: (Looks at EUGENIA.): This is how I imagined you.
MATILDE:: I … I’m Matilde. I am! Not her. Me! I’m your … (The word doesn’t come out) In the flesh.
EUGENIA:: She is.
LETICIA:: Oh …
MATILDE:: It’s me. (She waits for a reaction. There isn’t one. She smiles, uncomfortable.) What a surprise, eh? (Nervous and garrulous.) I feel completely ridiculous. Knocked for six. There’s a certain … implausibility about this situation that gives me the giggles. Ha! Sends shivers down my spine.
EUGENIA: (Warning her.): Matilde.
MATILDE:: It’s true! How can I say: I am your mother! But I am. I’ll say it like this, without accentuating it, neutral. At the most a surprised tone. I am profoundly sorry for not having brought you up. Your father … your father … took you. One morning you were in your cradle and the next morning you weren’t. I lost my way. Days went by. I worked a lot. Day after day, one day after another. He moved house a lot.
LETICIA: (Ironic.): One day after another.
MATILDE:: Yes. I lost my way, didn’t I. This country is enormous.
EUGENIA:: It’s easy to get lost.
MATILDE:: Would you like tea?
LETICIA:: No.
MATILDE:: A coffee? You look worn out.
EUGENIA:: You have a room here. You can rest here. I put a magnolia flower on a little saucer on the bedside table. I stole it from the street.
LETICIA: (Looks at her.): I don’t know your name.
EUGENIA: (Smiles warmly.): Eugenia.
LETICIA:: Pleased to meet you, Eugenia. (She gives her her hand.)
EUGENIA:: A kiss. (She kisses her.)
MATILDE:: What an awkward situation, eh? It’s got me. What should one feel? It’s a mystery to me. Did you imagine me like this?
LETICIA:: No.
MATILDE:: How?
LETICIA:: Blonde.
MATILDE: (Crestfallen.): That’s good.
LETICIA:: Taller.
MATILDE:: Really?
LETICIA:: More round.
MATILDE:: Fat?
LETICIA: (Gently.): No, no.
MATILDE:: You mean healthier.
LETICIA: (Idem.): No. You look ok.
MATILDE: (Irritated.): What do you mean I look ok?! How can I compare to how you imagined me?
LETICIA:: Actually, (Pointing to EUGENIA.) she fits better.
EUGENIA: (Smiling from ear to ear.): Really? How lovely. You see, Matilde? Sometimes the voice of blood is silent. Or sings someone else’s song. (She laughs.)

Copyright

The above sample taken from the translation Mother by Trade by Gwendolen MacKeith is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

ACT ONE

Context:

This is the ending of the play.

Sample text

EUGENIA:

Better not to go into explanations. The truth is what you feel now.

MATILDE:

Which is what?

EUGENIA:

What moved you to look for her … Now.

LETICIA:

Because before she didn’t have time.

MATILDE:

You’re right! I didn’t look for you much. I felt cheated. And when he took you, I cried, but what a relief! I was young again, carefree again. Why is that I miss you now? I don’t know.

LETICIA: (Comes near. Hard.)

I do. You’re going to die and old people want their children to hold their hand.

EUGENIA: (Distressed.)

I can …

LETICIA:

You might die first. Having children is safer. And they think that something of themselves will live on in the world. A son, a daughter. Dreams.

MATILDE:

That’s not the reason.

EUGENIA: (Helpless.)

And so what if it was? It’s a natural feeling. If I had a daughter I too would like …

MATILDE: (Looks at LETICIA for a long time. Then.)

We don’t have anything to say to each other.

LETICIA:

No.

EUGENIA:

Quite the contrary. I think you have a lot to chat about. Without having a go at each other! To get to know each other, to … My darling baby girl.

MATILDE:

Give me time. Give me time for the words I never said. They’re new, but sticky. Give me time.

LETICIA:

It’s getting late.

EUGENIA:

But if we try hard … if we sit around the table … and have a cup of tea.

MATILDE:

Would you like a cup of tea?

LETICIA: (After a pause.)

It’s cold. Why not?

MATILDE:

And … and you tell me how I can get fat … What diet is the best to get fat with. There must be thousands. I don’t use creams, but … there are good anti-wrinkle creams …

EUGENIA:

They can work miracles.

MATILDE: (To EUGENIA.)

Young people know a lot about diets and … and beauty. (To LETICIA.) How would blonde hair suit me? I was blonde when I was young. Dyed, of course. With good creams, hair dye, maybe all of a sudden I can … ask for your forgiveness.

LETICIA:

I’ll never forgive you.

MATILDE: (Puffs, irritated.)

Casting pearls before swine! Pearls before swine!

EUGENIA:

No! Do you think it’s so easy? She hates you. You hate her, don’t you?

LETICIA:

Yes.

MATILDE:

You see? Didn’t I tell you? She wants me to get down on my knees!

LETICIA:

Yes. (MATILDE, enraged, goes down on her knees. LETICIA picks her up brutally by her arm.) Not like this! That you get down on your knees at every corner, that you earn the past and build it up again. I’m a little girl in my cot, and I’m two years old, and then I’m six and you pick me up from school. I’m ill and you don’t leave my side even to drink a glass of water. Every day you’re with me, every morning I wake up and see you, I go to sleep and I see you … Create that past! No, what am I saying? No one can change it and I’m full of rage for you. But rage is tiring.

(MATILDE falls silent. Slowly she goes towards her chair and sits down. With her head hung, she looks at her hands.)

LETICIA: (Hurting.)

You’ve got so many age spots on your hands! They show your age. A lot.

MATILDE: (Hides them.)

They’re sun spots.

LETICIA: (Contemplates her. A silence.)

I know quite a bit about creams. I sold them at one time, from door to door.

MATILDE: (With a thin thread of a voice.)

Hard work.

EUGENIA:

Do you think she needs them? She’s not that wrinkly.

MATILDE:

Yes, I’m full of wrinkles. And bags under my eyes. I have a pain in my leg … Maybe you can recommend something to me … I’m healthy! Apart from that pain …

LETICIA: (Laughs.)

A young mother is a delight. But to meet her as an old woman, full of aches and pains … You’ve grown some long fur, here. Curly. (She points to the little beard.) Old women never realise when they start growing these little hairs. They don’t see well, they don’t pull them out. Pathetic.

MATILDE:

Only that pain …

LETICIA:

I’ll never forgive you. The little girl that I was will never forgive you. Don’t expect that. I won’t hold your hand when you die. I’ll live far away and I won’t know about it. Intuition only exists if we love each other. And sometimes not even then. Perhaps you’ll be dying one day and that same day I’ll be happy, laughing at my kids making a joke. Who knows?

EUGENIA:

You don’t have the right …

LETICIA:

I have every right! (To MATILDE.) I’ll never forgive you. But, please … (Quietly and intensely.) do what you can so that I can love you, so that I can love you …

MATILDE: (Looks at her. Then, at EUGENIA.)

How? (EUGENIA doesn’t know. She shrugs her shoulders. MATILDE draws near to LETICIA, reaches out her hand, hesitantly, towards her face. To EUGENIA, defeated.) Will you bring us some tea?

EUGENIA: