Out of the Wings

El baile (1952), Edgar Neville Romrée

The Dance : ACT ONE excerpt 1 , ACT ONE excerpt 2 , ACT TWO

The Dance, translated by Gwynneth Dowling

ACT ONE excerpt 1

Context:

Adela has entered dressed in a chlamys, or Greek tunic. Julian is scandalised by how revealing it is.

Sample text

ADELA:: Do you think they’ll like it?
JULIAN:: Who?
ADELA:: Everyone! You don’t dress up like this just to look good around the house.
PEDRO:: You look beautiful.
JULIAN:: Come and sit with us, Cleopatra.
PEDRO:: As stupid as you ever were in college ...
JULIAN:: Can’t she be Cleopatra?
PEDRO:: You’re still mixing up Egypt and Greece.
JULIAN:: I’m just talking about a Greek girl who just happened to be called Cleopatra.
ADELA:: Alright, go and get ready the both of you. I don’t want to be late.
JULIAN:: To where?
ADELA:: To the dance. You don’t think I dressed up like this to walk up and down Puerta del Sol, do you?
PEDRO:: But let’s not go so early. The dance won’t get going until one.
ADELA:: It’s just that we’re to go to the Piedracerradas’ house first so we can all go as a crowd.
JULIAN:: I really hope you’re both joking.
ADELA:: Why would we be joking?
JULIAN:: You can’t be thinking of going out in public in a nightdress.
ADELA:: Silly! It’s a chlamys.
PEDRA:: It’s a chlamys. You heard her.
JULIAN:: It’s a nightdress, and an indecent one at that. I won’t have you flaunting yourself in public in it.
PEDRO:: Julian, you keep saying things that are actually my place to say, not yours.
JULIAN:: Well then, tell her yourself. Why don’t you tell her?
PEDRO:: Because I don’t think it looks too bad. You’ve got to do something a little different for a fancy dress ball.
ADELA:: Exactly!
JULIAN:: So you’re not going as a diver?
ADELA:: Of course not! You can go as a diver if you want, you’ve nothing to lose. But it’s different for me. I’m a young woman and people still turn their heads when I walk down the street. I’m not busty enough to get whistles from the builders, but I’m pretty sure I’m to a number of people’s tastes. That’s why I want to look my best.

Copyright

The above sample taken from the translation The Dance by Gwynneth Dowling is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

ACT ONE excerpt 2

Context:

The characters have not gone to the dance. Instead, Adela and the men role-play, pretending they are strangers dancing together at the dance. Julian’s words, however, are clearly meant genuinely.

Sample text

ADELA:: You’re a little forward, aren’t you? Asking a married woman to dance with you, knowing full well that her husband is with her!
JULIAN:: Oh yes, I know. But I have to be the one who dances with you all night, just so no other man gets a chance.
ADELA:: Not even my husband!
JULIAN:: Your husband doesn’t bother me so much. Of all the little details about your married life, I’m least worried about the dancing. It’s the other things that bother me.
ADELA:: And why would you think that I would want to dance with you?
JULIAN:: Because you know I adore you. And because there’s no higher praise a woman can receive than to know that a man would die for her. Especially if he dies with no hope.
ADELA:: With no hope of what?
JULIAN:: With no hope of being the only man in her life. The man she dreams about day and night, the man who sees her in all her intimacy, the man who pays her shop accounts.
ADELA:: Not everyone likes that bit.
JULIAN:: But we all say that it’s the thing we look forward to most, before we have to actually do it.
ADELA:: So, you’re in love then?
JULIAN:: Head over heels.
ADELA:: How would I tell?
JULIAN:: Because I’d love to slice my arm into ribbons just to give them to you. Because I’d love to rescue you from a fire, or a shipwreck. Or live with you on a deserted island.
ADELA:: It all sounds very catastrophic.

Copyright

The above sample taken from the translation The Dance by Gwynneth Dowling is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

ACT TWO

Context:

Adela is much older. She fears the time will come when she will no longer be admired by men. She wants to take a trip alone to prove to herself that she can still attract admiring glances from men who are not her husband.

Sample text

ADELA:: Neither my husband nor my daughter needs me anymore, Julian. I’m over 45 years old. Soon I’ll be 50, then 50-something.
JULIAN:: You’ve kept yourself wonderfully. I wouldn’t say you looked a day over 30.
ADELA:: Thank you. But the fact is there aren’t many years left when people can pay me compliments like that without them sounding cruel. Soon I won’t be able to disguise my wrinkles with just make-up and a veil. Before I know it I’ll be at that age when I’ll have to resign myself to quietly getting old … even if I do retain some of my flirtatious ways. Some women wait it out playing cards; others by doing good works; others still, by baking their little hearts out. All the passive tasks women busy themselves with when they’ve left active service.
JULIAN:: By ‘active service’, you mean making men fall in love with them.
ADELA:: Not exactly love, perhaps, but at least unsettling them. These women … making sure men spot them, follow them with their eyes, get up to get them things. What you’d call gallantry.
JULIAN:: And now you’re the one saying you want to go off alone?
ADELA:: Well yes. Because there are other things out there. Like going out into the world and living alone, still knowing I’ve got the power to stop living alone whenever I choose.
JULIAN:: But what do you not have here? Why do you want to leave us?
ADELA:: I don’t have the ability to live here and still be in active service. I need to live out the last years I’m still ‘young’ meeting new people and having experiences that, soon, I’ll not be able to have. I feel compelled to go.

Copyright