The staging information is an excerpt taken from the opening of the play:
The house (to give it a name) where the last months of life (life here also being a manner of speaking) of the Quispe Cardozo sisters are played out, is situated in a place called ‘Laguna de Puquio’, a site on the edge of the Andes mountains, the only possible identifiable geographical point of reference being its relative proximity to Inca de Oro and Potrerillos (a few days on mule-back). It is an inhospitable place, cold and desolate.
October 1974.
A large room with adobe walls and a thatched roof that serves as dining room, bedroom and kitchen. A cot. Two straw mattresses; a bench, a table, floor. Piled up on the floor a load of old, rusted mining tools from which protrudes a heavy sledgehammer. An old wood stove. Dirt floor, hard, irregular. The only entrance is a door that has been repeatedly reinforced with planks and hardboard; a window in the same state, creaking, falling to pieces. Different utensils: a box of wool for combing, another three or four empty, one on top of the other; beside these a small badly- made table, which Luciana uses to make bread and cheeses. Despite the clutter of herbs, materials, wood and other such stuff, there is a certain cleanliness; the atmosphere is one of desolation, sadness; sordid.
Minimum | Maximum |
---|---|
1 male | 1 male |
3 females | 3 females |
4 (total) | 4 (total) |
JUSTA QUISPE CARDOZO, eldest sister (56)
LUCÍA QUISPE CARDOZO, middle sister, (48)
LUCIANA QUISPE CARDOZO, youngest sister (47)
DON JAVIER, travelling salesman (over-40-ish)
Entry written by Gwendolen Mackeith. Last updated on 5 October 2010.