Out of the Wings

Himmelweg (Camino del cielo) (2002-2003), Juan Mayorga Ruano

Way to Heaven : ACT ONE , ACT TWO , ACT FOUR Scene One , ACT FOUR Scene Eleven

Way to Heaven (2005), translated by David Johnston

ACT ONE

Edition

Mayorga, Juan. 2005. Way to Heaven, trans. David Johnston. London, Oberon

p. 23

Context:

This excerpt comes from the Red Cross Representative's monologue. He is recalling his experience of visiting the concentration camp.

Sample text

RED CROSS REPRESENTATIVE:

When I got back to Berlin, I wrote my report. I write it over and over again every night in my memory. People ask me: ‘Did you not see the ovens?’ ‘Did you not see the trains?’ No, I saw none of that. ‘The smoke?’ ‘The ash?’ No. Everything that people say was there, I saw none of it.

Sometimes I think I could have asked Gottfried directly, looked him in the eye. Or I could have asked the little girl who was playing with her doll in the stream. She must have known. That stream was where they threw the ashes. They didn’t bury any of them.

But who knew any of that then? Now, it’s easy to see me as a fool, but I’m no different from anyone else. Except that I was here, on the ‘way to heaven’.

[...]

I walk up it every night. Every night I dream that I’m walking up the ramp to the hangar door. I open it and there they are, smiling, waiting for me. Gottfried … and the others.

Copyright

The above sample taken from the translation Way to Heaven (2005) by David Johnston is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

ACT TWO

Edition

Mayorga, Juan. 2005. Way to Heaven, trans. David Johnston. London, Oberon

pp. 36-7

Context:

A young couple sit on a bench and rehearse their lines for the charade intended to fool visitors to the camp. Suddenly, the woman from the couple stops following her lines and asks her companion unsettling questions.

Sample text

The YOUNG COUPLE on the bench. We see them from a different angle.

They speak their dialogue much quicker than before. So much that their speeches run together. He gives her a parcel, smaller this time, in wrapping-paper.

[…]

HE:: I’m working for us. For you, for me, for everything we’ve dreamed about. For our future.
SHE:: The future. I’m sick of the future.
HE:: Open it. Please.
SHE:: Talk to me about now. Here and now.
HE:: I’ve had to work hard to get that job in the warehouse. Do you want me to have to go on breaking my back shifting heavy bags all day? There’s a lot of people waiting for me to slip up so that –
SHE:: Do you not hear them? The trains.
HE:: There’s a lot of people waiting for me to slip up so that they can take my place. The boss has put me in charge of the weighing-machine –
SHE:: What do you do not to hear them?
HE:: The boss has put me in charge of the weighing-machine because he trusts me. Everything that comes into and goes out of the warehouse –
SHE:: Look over there. The smoke. Do you not see it? What do you do not to see it?
HE:: There’s a lot of people waiting for me to slip up so that they can take my place. The boss has put me in charge of the weighing-machine because he trusts me. Everything that comes into and goes out of the warehouse, I have to make sure it’s weighed.
SHE:: How long are we going to be here?
HE:: I have to make sure it’s weighed. The boss trusts me. He told me that he started at the bottom too, and look how far he’s come.
SHE:: What if we were to run for it? Once we got into the woods –
HE:: Look how far he’s come. If I work hard –
SHE:: I’m going to run for it. Come with me.
HE:: If I work hard, I’ll be somebody one day.; She goes, leaving him alone.
HE:: Open it. It’s a surprise.; Silence.
HE:: Our future. That’s what’s in it. Our future.

Copyright

The above sample taken from the translation Way to Heaven (2005) by David Johnston is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

ACT FOUR Scene One

Edition

Mayorga, Juan. 2005. Way to Heaven, trans. David Johnston. London, Oberon

pp. 48-9

Context:

The Commandant of the concentration camp receives the Jewish inmate Gottfried in his office and proposes to him the plan to construct a model town in order to deceive Red Cross Representatives.

Sample text

COMMANDANT:: There is much about your people we don’t know. You are an enigma to us. Not just to Germany, but all of Europe. But my people, the German people, we are no less of an enigma. There are many strange stories about us, circulating. The world hears those stories and wonders: is this possible? Is this possible in a people of poets and thinkers, in the heart of Europe? That’s why we’re here: to get our project underway.; He spreads out a map in front of GOTTFRIED, and points to various locations on it.; Do you see where you are? This is the station, and here’s the stream. We’re just here. This is where we’re building the school. There’ll be a football pitch here. And look what it says here, Gottfried: the synagogue.; Silence.; As you can see, we are going to transform the whole area. But much more important, and more difficult, is the way in which we transform ourselves. All of us, you and us. We must learn to deal with each other in a new way.

Copyright

The above sample taken from the translation Way to Heaven (2005) by David Johnston is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

ACT FOUR Scene Eleven

Edition

Mayorga, Juan. 2005. Way to Heaven, trans. David Johnston. London, Oberon

p. 65

Context:

In the final scene of act 4, the Commandant deconstructs theatre as a meaningless act.

Sample text

COMMANDANT:: You’ve heard of the melancholy of the actor? Now you know. The curtain falls and, suddenly, that world of words and gestures, that whole world disappears. The curtain falls and the actor’s left with nothing.; Silence.; An actor is hammering in a nail. The curtain falls. And he realises. At that instant he understands the most terrible thing. He understands that when an actor is hammering in a nail, he’s hammering in a nail and, at the same time, he isn’t doing anything.

Copyright