Out of the Wings

Las palabras en la arena (c.1949), Antonio Buero Vallejo

Words in the Sand : ONE-ACT PLAY, excerpt 1 , ONE-ACT PLAY, excerpt 2 , ONE-ACT PLAY, excerpt 3 , ONE-ACT PLAY, excerpt 4

Words in the Sand, translated by Gwynneth Dowling

ONE-ACT PLAY, excerpt 1

Context:

Noemí’s servant, La Fenicia, watches as an angry crowd tries to punish an adulterous woman. Noemí herself is planning to arrange a secret meeting with a man who is not her husband.

Sample text

LA FENICIA:: Now they’re talking to the Rabbi and showing him the woman … They’ve flung her at his feet! And they’re grabbing stones … They’re shouting. They’re all shouting and waving their arms about … (Listening.) Yes. I think I can hear … Adulteress! That’s what they’re shouting. Can’t you hear, ma’am?
NOEMÍ:: No. I can’t hear.
LA FENICIA:: Oh, you’re there? You’ve footsteps like a gazelle’s. I never hear you. Have you come to watch?
NOEMÍ:: What’s the Rabbi doing?
LA FENICIA: (Amused and excited.): Wait … yes. It as if he’s … drawing or writing on the ground. (Delighted.) The Rabbi’s like a little boy! He’s crouched down, writing in the sand … They’re all going mad asking him … The master’s not holding back, he’s hurrying forward … But the Rabbi’s not listening.; Pause.
NOEMÍ:: Listen to me.
LA FENICIA:: He’s not listening to them. He’s getting up now and saying something. The woman’s not moving. She looks like she’s dead!
NOEMÍ:: Listen to me! (The servant turns round suddenly and waits.) That’s enough snooping. Leave the Rabbi, the master, and the rest alone.
LA FENICIA:: I was snooping, ma’am, because you asked. I thought you’d like to know.
NOEMÍ:: I don’t care! (Brief pause.) Come here. (LA FENICIA approaches.) Now, you’ve got to do something very important for me. As you know … (Pause. She does not know how to go on.)
LA FENICIA: (Suggestively.): Would you, by any chance, be wanting me to say something to the Centurion Marcio? (Pause.) Ma’am, I’m with you. Talk freely to your servant. I’ll happily let him know: Marcio is kind and generous.
NOEMÍ:: Tell him that my husband leaves tonight for Bethsaida.
LA FENICIA:: I know.
NOEMÍ:: Shhh … He’s taking charge of a consignment from the Synagogue. It’ll be five days before he gets back.
LA FENICIA:: Five days of happiness for my lady. Five days of sweet love.
NOEMÍ: (Annoyed.): Let me finish.
LA FENICIA: (Faking affection.): Don’t get annoyed, ma’am. I’ve to tell him to come tonight, after Compline. He’s to come in through the way he already knows. You’ll be waiting for him, full of joy. Waiting to give him happiness untold. And I’ll tell him to come back, every night, and that you’ll be waiting. And also I’ll tell him to be very discreet, and that you adore him.
NOEMÍ: (Annoyed.): Know-all.
LA FENICÍA: (With a giggle.): Did I get any of it wrong?

Copyright

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

ONE-ACT PLAY, excerpt 2

Context:

Men who were ready to stone the adulterous woman react to what Jesus wrote on the sand for each of them. Asaf, Noemí’s husband and Captain of the Sanhedrin Guard, makes fun of the holy men and their discomfort at reading Jesus’ words.

Sample text

MATATÍAS:: Don’t call him Rabbi!
JOAZAR: (Judgmental.): He isn’t one.
ASAF: (Laughing.): I’ll call him Messiah, then. Like his followers do.
MATATÍAS:: May you be damned!
JOAZAR: (Serious.): Compose yourself, Asaf.
ASAF:: All I know is that this Messiah, or Son of David, or whatever you want to call him …
MATATÍAS:: Galilean!
ASAF:: This Galilean made you all run away. Leaving that whore there even though she deserved to die. (To JOAZAR.) You should have insisted as High Priest of the Temple. But you ran away from the Galilean too.
JOAZAR:: You’re wrong.
ASAF:: I’m right! And in the end, why? Because of some paltry words in the sand. Because of some words that’ll be blown away in the wind. (He starts to laugh, ending up guffawing.) That Rabbi’s got plenty of mischief in him! (To ELIÚ.) What did he write for you? (Pause.) Corrupt?
ELIÚ: (Evasively.): I don’t remember.
GADI: (Laughing, caught up in the joke.): I saw it. I was beside him. He wrote …
ELIÚ:: Be quiet you! Liar!
GADI: (All the others laugh, except MATATÍAS, who never laughs.): He wrote: ‘Thief of the purses of the poor’.
ELIÚ: (Beside himself.): Laugh! Laugh! I’m telling you, that Galilean is a sorcerer and he has powers of divination! He was wrong about me, but …
ASAF: (Highly amused.): He was wrong about you?
ELIÚ:: But I saw what he wrote for Gadi. He sussed you out well!
GADI: (Suddenly serious.): Stupidities.
ELIÚ: (Pronouncing his words with hate.): ‘Corruptor of girls’. That’s what the Galilean wrote for you.

Copyright

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

ONE-ACT PLAY, excerpt 3

Context:

The men want to know what Jesus wrote for Asaf. He is reluctant to tell them. At the end of the play we find out that Jesus wrote the word ‘Murderer’ for Asaf, thus predicting that the soldier would murder Noemí.

Sample text

JOAZAR:: Bah! He wrote ‘Atheist’ for me. (A marked silence.) Me! A High Priest of the Temple of Jerusalem! (He laughs, but no one laughs with him. Pause.) He’s a false prophet and he must be killed.
ELIÚ, GADI AND MATATÍAS:: He must be killed!
ASAF:: We must ensure that Rome lets us kill him, or lets the people stone him to death. Like what would have happened today to that woman if it hadn’t been for him.
JOAZAR:: We’ll give him a sudden and efficient stoning.
GADI:: As sudden as the one today, although more efficient …
ASAF:: Without anyone asking whoever is without sin to cast the first stone…
ELIÚ:: And Rome won’t be able to say anything.
MATATÍAS:: And the Law of Moses will be fulfilled!
ELIÚ: (Sweetly.): And you, lovely Captain, what did he write for you?
JOAZAR:: Indeed, what did he write for you?; They all surround ASAF, who laughs openly.
ASAF:: You all say he got it wrong about you. He certainly got it wrong about me! And there’s no doubt that what he wrote was for me, because he looked at me before he did it.
MATATÍAS:: What was it?
ASAF:: The stupidest thing imaginable. Something I’ve never done.
ELIÚ:: Tell us what it was.; Pause.
ASAF: (Laughing.): I’ve forgotten it, that’s how childish it was. Bah! Words in the sand.

Copyright

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

ONE-ACT PLAY, excerpt 4

Context:

Asaf returns home annoyed that the adulterous woman has not been stoned. Noemí feels sorry for the woman.

Sample text

NOEMÍ:: Asaf …
ASAF:: What?
NOEMÍ: (Hesitant.): It pains me to see you like this. So harsh. Forget about that poor woman and concentrate on us. I always want to see you happy, kind, joyful … Like you are. (She looks at him anxiously.)
ASAF: (Violently.): Poor woman? Is that what you call her? She sinned. She cavorted with some other man. And you feel sorry for her? She destroyed her home, sneakily betrayed her husband. And you call her ‘poor’?
NOEMÍ:: But to stone a human being to death …
ASAF: (Almost shouting.): The Law of Moses is final!
NOEMí: (Annoyed.): You talk just like a Pharisee.
ASAF:: And you’re talking just like that Galilean. Just like that dangerous agitator who wants to wreck homes and forgive. Always forgiving! But forgiveness will be the end of our homes, honest women, obedient children, the State. Everything!

Copyright