¡O Romeo!

[print edition page number: 403]

Portions of the text by William Shakespeare
Conceived and penned by Olga Sanchez Saltveit
Devised with the Milagro Theatre cast

SETTING: In Shakespeare’s bed chambers. 1616.

Characters

SHAKESPEARE — An English playwright, on his deathbed.
RIFKE — Shakespeare’s Spanish housekeeper.
HAMLET — Spirit of the Danish prince, title character of Hamlet.
OPHELIA — Spirit of Hamlet’s tragic love interest.
RICHARD III — Spirit of King of England, from Shakespeare’s Richard III.
LADY M — Spirit of Lady Macbeth, wife of the title character of Macbeth.
POLONIUS — Spirit of Ophelia’s father, courtier.
YORICK — Spirit of a court jester whose skull Hamlet uses to contemplate the meaning of life.
TITANIA — Spirit of the Queen of the faeries in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
HAMNET — Spirit of Shakespeare’s son. [404]

Prologue

ALL
El mundo es un gran teatro,
Y los hombres y mujeres son actores.
El mundo es un gran teatro,
Y los hombres y mujeres son actores.
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.^[1]

TITANIA
Amigos, bienvenidos a nuestro cuento,
A trifle of a work about reunion.
One household, ubicada en Inglaterra,
Set within this humble wooden M.^[2]
Un escritor famoso, William Shakespeare
Himself, lives here but near the gates of death.
He is not well, él tiene un catarro.
We’ll catch his spirit at his dying breath.
El mundo es un gran teatro …

ALL
Y los hombres y mujeres son actores.
El mundo es un gran teatro … [405]

ACT 1
Scene 1

SHAKESPEARE
The Tragical Story of Love and Demise of Xochiquetzal of Tenochtitlán and Don Armando, an Aztec Maiden and the Conquistador who Conquered her Heart … no. This is my most important work — the title must reflect its purpose. The Mystical Story of Love and Reunion of Xochiquetzal, the Aztec Maiden, and the Spanish Conquistador, Don Armando.

He coughs, then recovers.

Act Two, Scene One:

Xochiquetzal, Armando’s dearest love,
Conqueror of his heart yet faith pulls strong

Sounds like the rubbish of Cervantes! Rifke! Something warm to drink! Rifke!

RIFKE
Ah, I’m so glad to see you are out of the bed! I was just putting the final touches on your birthday pudding. I’m making it with three milks.

SHAKESPEARE
Three milks?

RIFKE
Tres leches, sí. We are celebrating your birthday today! ¿Qué está pasando?

SHAKESPEARE
He has professed his love to her. Listen:

First light of dawn that broke as my heart soared,
A morning bird that sips the flower’s dew

RIFKE
¡Qué lindo! But perhaps …

SHAKESPEARE
¿Qué? [406]

RIFKE
Bueno, si recuerdo bien, let me look, my brother wrote that the hummingbird is very important para los Aztecas …

She looks through her notebook.

SHAKESPEARE
Ah! So …

A hummingbird that sips the flower’s dew

RIFKE
Dónde está … la palabra para colibrí …

SHAKESPEARE
Colibrí?

RIFKE
Hummingbird, in Spanish. The word in Nahuatl …

SHAKESPEARE
Nahuatl … the language of the Aztecs

RIFKE
Sí … ¡aquí está! La palabra es … huitzilin!

SHAKESPEARE
A huitzilin that sips the flower’s dew

RIFKE
Yes! This shows that he is learning her language! ¡Eso es amor!

SHAKESPEARE
Ah, not everyone learns a language because they are in love, Rifke! A mi simplemente me encantan los … languages.

RIFKE
Idiomas, maestro. Sí, yo sé.

SHAKESPEARE
Los idiomas. Y Don Armando, le enseña el español a Xochiquetzal, as you have taught me, in his attempt to convert her. Integrating her life and her faith with his! [407]

RIFKE
Los conquistadores no integran, imponen. ¿No has oído lo que escribe mi hermano?

She goes about picking up the pages he has written on, to hang them to dry.

SHAKESPEARE
This is fiction, Rifke. This is love.

RIFKE
But you place the story in the New World! ¡Todo es diferente allá!

SHAKESPEARE
So true! The people! Adoran a los muertos, and they believe the spirits are close at hand, ready to mingle at any moment with the living. And no matter how Spain tries, nunca conquistará la fe de los indígenas.

RIFKE
De eso mismo escribió mi hermano, como los indígenas están cambiando las tradiciones religiosas de los conquistadores en este Nuevo Mundo.

SHAKESPEARE
The New World. It sounds promising, does it not? Rifke, I know I am dying, but I will finish this work!

RIFKE
Sí, maestro.

SHAKESPEARE
You must thank your brother for me. His letters are invaluable sources of information.

RIFKE
Ay, mi hermano, Tubal. I miss him terribly. I can’t believe it’s been twenty-two years since we left Spain.

SHAKESPEARE coughs.

Oh! My brother promised to send a gift of crushèd beans.

SHAKESPEARE
Crushed beans? [408]

RIFKE
Crushed beans, sí. Me escribió que son una maravilla, le da buena salud, energía, y más. With them a beverage is prepared that cures all ills!

SHAKESPEARE
¿Cómo se llama?

RIFKE
Se llama … xocolatl.

SHAKESPEARE
Xocolatl. Ah, an idea! Xochiquetzal brings a cup of this mystical potion to the Conquistador Don Armando while he is overseeing the construction of a magnificent cathedral, and its healing properties melt his heart.

RIFKE
¿No dijiste que Don Armando es un guerrero?

SHAKESPEARE
Sí. ¡Es un conquistador!

RIFKE
According to my brother, the ones who oversee the construction are Franciscan priests.

SHAKESPEARE
Fine. We change it. Dare I make him, instead of a soldier, a priest?

RIFKE & SHAKESPEARE
Forbidden love!

RIFKE
Those are your best stories!

SHAKESPEARE
What human heart has not felt the pangs of forbidden love?

RIFKE
¡Romeo y Julieta!

SHAKESPEARE
Altars! [409]

RIFKE
¿Maestro?

SHAKESPEARE
You mentioned Romeo and Juliet, I thought of weddings, then remembered altars …

RIFKE
¡Ay, qué mente!

SHAKESPEARE
Your brother wrote of altars for the dead?

RIFKE
Oh yes. Tienen un sistema en el cual ellos les dan regalos que llaman a los espíritus …

SHAKESPEARE
In English, please.

RIFKE
Sí maestro. They honor their dead with gifts that summon the spirits close. Es una ofrenda. Candles, comida, things they love … When you place them on the altar, the spirits return!

SHAKESPEARE
… llaman a los espíritus …

RIFKE
And they have a flower …

TITANIA and OPHELIA appear.

TITANIA
Cempasúchitl.

RIFKE & SHAKESPEARE
Cempasúchitl.

OPHELIA
For remembrance!

SHAKESPEARE
Rifke, is there a spirit you would remember? [410]

RIFKE
¿Un espíritu que desearía ver otra vez?

SHAKESPEARE
Sí.

RIFKE
Ay maestro, sería el niño.

SHAKESPEARE
The boy?

RIFKE
I have lived long, y he perdido muchos, but I would love to see your son, Hamnet. Ay, mi Neto! Qué sonrisa. His face, when I would sing to him, “A la nanita nana, nanita ella, nanita ella.” He died so young. Grief fills up the room of my absent child.^[3]

SHAKESPEARE
Please let us return to the letter from your brother that describes the altars.

RIFKE
Me gustaría verlo hecho todo un joven. He would be seventeen years of age now. A married man! Tan buen mozo.

SHAKESPEARE
What is mozo?

RIFKE
It means handsome young man. Oh, so handsome!

SHAKESPEARE
Enough! Tell me more of this ritual. Does it not include symbols of the four elements?

RIFKE
Fire, water … do you wish to build an altar?

SHAKESPEARE
I wish to write a play. [411]

RIFKE
I think it is very easy to honor his memory.

She pulls out the letter.

Necesitamos algo suyo, una vela, ah …

She pulls out a jacket.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this would bring him close to us? Maestro …

SHAKESPEARE
Where have you been hiding that?

RIFKE
No lo he escondido. I took it from him before he fell ill, to mend it. Oh, his poor little body.

SHAKESPEARE
Prithee, peace, speak no more of him.

RIFKE
Perdón.

She places the jacket on the chest.

Tell me more of the lovers in the New World.

SHAKESPEARE
In Act Five, there is a battle giving us the opportunity for swordplay with the Grand Inquisitor. Don Armando is killed and Xochiquetzal builds an altar hoping he will return!

RIFKE
Or, better, Xochiquetzal is killed and Don Armando builds an altar to her!

SHAKESPEARE
Denying his faith?

RIFKE
Expanding his faith! The ceremony grows to include both religions, Catholic and Aztec. He does it out of love!

SHAKESPEARE
Love transcends faith. [412]

RIFKE
Love conquers death.

SHAKESPEARE (writing)
… love conquers death …

He coughs.

RIFKE
I’ll bring you your drink.

She leaves. SHAKESPEARE brings the candle over to the jacket, singing a little bit …

SHAKESPEARE
Nana nanita nana …

He stops and then goes back to his writing table.

Scene 2

Sounds of a conch shell, rattles, and drums reflecting traditional Aztec music transform the room. HAMNET enters, visits the nascent altar, and examines the clothing placed there by RIFKE.

HAMNET
A gift from my father, mended by Rifke. They told me we would meet again.

SHAKESPEARE
… meet again …

HAMNET
My father …

SHAKESPEARE
La muerte no existe para mí …

HAMNET
Hello sir. Sir William Shakespeare. Dost thou not hear my voice? Dost thou not know thy son? [413]

SHAKESPEARE
Rifke, are there guests? Who is talking there?

HAMNET
The time is nigh, father. Dost thou hear music? It is the sounds of the world you have yet to know. The world I can finally share with you.

SHAKESPEARE
Rifke! ¿Quién está allí?

HAMNET
He does not believe.

The music stops.

Titania!

She appears.

He does not see me!

TITANIA
Oh, young lord, inténtelo otra vez.

HAMNET touches SHAKESPEARE’s shoulder. SHAKESPEARE recoils.

SHAKESPEARE
Halt!

HAMNET
I’ve waited so many years for him, Titania.

TITANIA
And he is very close. Shall I place a spell on him?

HAMNET
No. He rarely saw me in life … perhaps he will not see me in death.

TITANIA
Oh, young master Hamnet. [414]

HAMNET
Don’t call me that. He cared more for the revision, Ham-let, than he ever cared for me. Tantas horas que pasó con esa obra. I was a sickly child and then I died. Not an interesting story, I guess.

TITANIA
Hamnet.

HAMNET
My name is Neto.

TITANIA
Neto?

HAMNET
That was Rifke’s name for me.

SHAKESPEARE
Why is it so warm in this chamber?

RIFKE (returning with his tea)
It is the change of seasons, master. Perhaps I added too much wood to the fire.

HAMNET
Rifke.

RIFKE (not seeing HAMNET, to SHAKESPEARE)
Is it good?

SHAKESPEARE
Too warm.

TITANIA summons YORICK.

YORICK
What is wrong, young master? Need you some good cheer?

HAMNET
Yorick, fellow of infinite jest.^[4] Yes, laughter. [415]

YORICK
¡Bueno! You know me well. There once was a man from Gloucester, who visited food carts on Foster, he far —

TITANIA
Yorick!

YORICK
Strings! Oh, how long it has been! I have a reasonably good ear for music. I will play!

He plays and sings “Aires Vascos.”

Viva la gente del pueblo (¡Que viva!)
Viva la gente torera (¡Olé!)
Viva todo aquel que diga (¡La uva!)
Salga el sol por donde quiere …

OPHELIA
Hamlet? Is Hamlet there with you? He loves music!

TITANIA
Only master Hamnet is here.

HAMNET
My name is not Hamnet anymore, it’s Neto!

OPHELIA
My lord! My lord! I have been so affrighted!^[5]

YORICK
Ophelia’s madness doth indeed outdo my own.

SHAKESPEARE
Rifke! What is brewed in this drink?

RIFKE
Hibiscus. Jamaica del Nuevo Mundo.

YORICK tickles her. She exits. [416]

SHAKESPEARE
No me siento bien.

OPHELIA
What ails you, my lord?

TITANIA
He’s so close to death, and Neto …

OPHELIA
Neto?

TITANIA
Neto is here to welcome him. Pero el maestro no lo ve.

OPHELIA
There’s rosemary, que es bueno para la memoria. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, que son para los pensamientos. There’s fennel for you, and columbines. Esta es una margarita.^[6]

SHAKESPEARE
¿Dónde están mis anteojos? They were right here …

POLONIUS
Ophelia, you do not understand yourself so clearly
As it behooves my daughter and your honor.^[7]

TITANIA
Be kind and courteous to this gentleman! Brincad a su paso, ante él dad vueltas.^[8]

OPHELIA
I’m trying to be of service to young Hamnet!

HAMNET
Neto!

OPHELIA
Neto. [417]

SHAKESPEARE
I am dizzied.

POLONIUS
Ophelia, we are all here to help our dear young Hamnet, but you must return Master Shakespeare his due.

OPHELIA (handing SHAKESPEARE’s glasses to him)
Sus anteojos.

SHAKESPEARE
Angels and ministers of grace defend me!^[9] Ophelia?

OPHELIA
He sees me! ¡Me ve! That’s a start!

SHAKESPEARE
And … Polonius?

RIFKE returns.

RIFKE
¿Maestro?

POLONIUS
Ever at your service, my lord.

SHAKESPEARE
How are you here? You are dead!

RIFKE
¡Maestro! ¡Yo estoy viva! ¡Una mujer muy viva!

POLONIUS
I am dead, my lord, killed at the hand of Prince Hamlet.

SHAKESPEARE & OPHELIA
Hamlet?

POLONIUS
He hovers ever near my daughter, sir. [418]

TITANIA
But says not a word to her.

SHAKESPEARE
Titania?

HAMLET
What dost thou study, 아버지 (ah-pá-jee)?

SHAKESPEARE
Words, words, words.^[10] Texts of the New World.

YORICK
Seek you adventure? Travels abroad? To go we know not where?

POLONIUS
Alas, Yorick, not so sudden your boundless spirit! You will fright our master Shakespeare.

OPHELIA
Father, must you counsel everyone you meet?

SHAKESPEARE
Yorick!?

RIFKE
Maestro, ¿a quién le hablas?

SHAKESPEARE
You don’t see them?

RIFKE
No señor.

SHAKESPEARE
Estoy loco.

RIFKE
Ya regreso.

She exits to fetch a cold washcloth for his forehead. [419]

LADY M
Mad? Yes, welcome madness, father.

SHAKESPEARE
What thing of darkness^[11] lurks behind me? A shadow speaks. A monster … ?

LADY M
¡Monstruo! I would be queen! Richard, Richard! He calls us monsters!

RICHARD III
Esto se puede hacer más fácil … Put out the light!^[12]

TITANIA
¡No!

LADY M
Oh you and your spells vex me so, Titania!

RICHARD III
He deserves no mercy, nunca me dio su misericordia.

LADY M
He despises us.

TITANIA
Somos sus hijos, born of his spirit, su imaginación nos creó.

HAMNET
I was born of his flesh.

SHAKESPEARE
I have only two children. Daughters.

HAMNET
Father.

SHAKESPEARE
O! Romeo!

SPIRITS
Romeo?! [420]

OPHELIA
He’s not Romeo, he’s …

HAMNET stops her.

HAMNET
You see me? I will be as you see me, father. For now.

SHAKESPEARE
Rifke! Rifke!

RIFKE (returning)
Master William!

SHAKESPEARE
I see spirits, figments … the characters of my plays: Romeo, Ophelia, Polonius, Hamlet, Titania, Yorick, Richard the Third, Lady Macbeth!

RIFKE
There are spiders about, master, muchas arañas!

LADY M
Spiders, figments, again!

POLONIUS
We’ve come on him too suddenly, too abruptly.

OPHELIA
I know what ’tis to bear a broken heart.

HAMLET
His heart’s not broken, but he is confused.

YORICK
Confusion is a threshold to the truth.

TITANIA
He needs a tea of hollyhocks and thyme.

LADY M
His madness is a product of his guilt.

RICHARD III
He knows he served us wrong, and he regrets. [421]

HAMNET
Father is a frail and dying man!

SHAKESPEARE
Estoy loco. ¡Ayúdame, Rifke! I see dead people.

RIFKE
No, no, no, Master William. Tal vez nos cayó un poco de peyote en este té. Deberías dormir, maestro.

SHAKESPEARE
Sleep? How can I sleep with these visions before me?

POLONIUS
Our mistress Rifke is wise. Sleep heals.

HAMLET
아마도금울구겠지 (ah mah doh geum ool goo geht ji), to sleep, perchance to dream, and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.^[13]

SHAKESPEARE
You wish to kill me, all of you! Be gone!

RIFKE
¡Maestro, no!

SHAKESPEARE
You are not real. You are inventions, notions, creations, ideas! ¡Dejádme en paz!

TITANIA
Quiere que nos vayamos. We must do as he says, young master.

All SPIRITS but HAMNET exit. [422]

Scene 3

RIFKE
Maestro, estás muy cansado y muy débil. ¿Por qué no duermes?

SHAKESPEARE
How can I sleep? My mind toys with me. Hell is empty and all the devils are here.^[14]

RIFKE
Descansa, señor, y pronto ¡celebraremos tu cumpleaños!

SHAKESPEARE
Why is it so cold in here?

RIFKE
Now it is cold?

SHAKESPEARE
Rifke, stoke the fire!

RIFKE
Sí, señor.

RIFKE tends to the fire and tries to make SHAKESPEARE comfortable.

SHAKESPEARE
Birthday, indeed.

RIFKE
Sleep master, let me sing you to sleep …

She begins “A la Nanita Nana,” and the SPIRITS join in. SHAKESPEARE falls asleep.

A la nanita nana, nanita ella, nanita ella
Mi niña tiene sueño, bendito sea, bendito sea
A la nanita nana, nanita ella, nanita ella
Mi niña tiene sueño, bendito sea, bendito sea [423]

Fuentecita que corre clara y sonora
Ruiseñor que en la selva, cantando y llora
Calla mientras la cuna se balancea

A la nanita nana, nanita ella, nanita ella
A la nanita nana, nanita ella, nanita ella
Mi niña tiene sueño, bendito sea, bendito sea

Scene 4

The villains, LADY M and RICHARD III, sneak in.

LADY M
Look at him sleep.

RICHARD III
So sickly.

He coughs.

Helpless, is he?

LADY M
Hamnet is convinced his time is near.

RICHARD III
¡Quiere que lo llamemos Neto!

LADY M
Neto. His obsession with his father. No lo entiendo.

RICHARD III
Oh?

LADY M
Shakespeare does not deserve such devotion.

RICHARD III
Neto es un inocente.

LADY M
So strange.

They laugh. [424]

RICHARD III
Ah well, we all have our parts to play.^[15] I am determined to prove a villain^[16] until my name is cleared. Descubrirán mis huesos y me verán como el héroe deforme que intentó salvar a Inglaterra.

LADY M
Someday I will be seen as nothing more or less than a loving, supportive wife.

RICHARD III
It will come. A time for us, at last, to shine.

LADY M
His versions of our stories are cruel.

RICHARD III
Nunca escribió como me gusta cantar.

LADY M
Nor mentioned my musical qualities either.

RICHARD III
O, to be released of his slanderous portrait.

LADY M
We are bound to those pages for eternity.

RICHARD III
Abandoned to the misinterpretation of the future. For as long as those texts exist.

LADY M
Neto is like us in this case — neglected, disregarded, abandoned.

RICHARD III
Neto sufre de todas las indignidades que nosotros hemos sufrido.

LADY M
And then he died. Poor baby, so young. [425]

RICHARD III
And what did the Bard do to commemorate him? Nothing! Not a piece of writing or a play. Pobre niño, lo enojado que debe estar.

LADY M
That’s the problem: Neto never gets mad! He waits for his father to arrive like a loyal pup! Tenemos que protegerlo — protect his heart from further disappointment!

RICHARD III
It’s the writing.

LADY M
The plays?

RICHARD III
The plays, the poems, the sonnets … Neto no para de leerlos.

LADY M
They fuel his obsession. Destroy them, and Shakespeare’s spell is broken!

RICHARD III
Destroy them, and our names are cleared as well!

They sing “The Villains’ Duet.”

(R) Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son^[17] of Will
(R) Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose^[18]

(M) To beguile the time, look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,

Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent underneath.^[19]
(M) Para engañar al mundo, (R) Parécete al mundo,

(M) lleva la bienvenida (R) en los ojos, (M) las manos, (R) la lengua.

(M) Parécete a la cándida flor,
Pero sé la serpiente que hay debajo (R) debajo (M) debajo. [426]
(R) And thus we clothe our villainy (M) villania
(R) with old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most we play the devil.^[20]

(M) Parecemos un par de santos cuando más hagamos el diablo.

SHAKESPEARE
What devilry? Who art thou?

LADY M
Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows,^[21] does it not?

RICHARD III
Master William, no venimos a espantarlo.

LADY M
We come in peace, to soothe your worries.

RICHARD III
We understand how shocking this recent visitation must be for you.

SHAKESPEARE
Shocking, to say the least. You are figments of my imagination.

LADY M
Not exactly. You wrote about us, but you did not invent us.

RICHARD III
I was the King of England.

SHAKESPEARE
That is true.

RICHARD III
But you turned me into a loveless villain.

LADY M
And me into a childless villainess.

SHAKESPEARE
You are here to bring me to my early death! [427]

RICHARD III
¿Nosotros? Nous? ¿Cómo se puede imaginar que nosotros queremos hacerle daño?

LADY M
We would never harm you.

RICHARD III & LADY M
That’s not the real “us.”

They smile.

SHAKESPEARE
¿Qué quieren de mí?

LADY M
¿Qué quiere usted, maestro?

SHAKESPEARE
To receive no visitations from spirits.

RICHARD III
Hmmmmmmm.

SHAKESPEARE
¿Qué?

RICHARD III
Debe de haber algo que nos atrae a usted.

LADY M
Something that draws us to you, but what could it be?

SHAKESPEARE
Mis textos.

LADY M
Of course! Your scripts!

RICHARD III
¡Sus obras me enloquecen!

LADY M
They are irresistible. [428]

RICHARD III
But we’re always here.

LADY M
Why is it you’re seeing us only now?

RICHARD III
Because you’re dying!

LADY M
Of course, with all that work!

RICHARD III
Lo vemos sufrir tanto con ese trabajo de escribir y escribir día y noche.

LADY M
Would it not please to have such weight lifted from your shoulders?

RICHARD III
Sería muy saludable dejar todas estas preocupaciones dramáticas.

LADY M
Might even extend your life.

SHAKESPEARE
¿Mi vida?

RICHARD III
You’ve given so much of yourself.

LADY M
Your very essence.

RICHARD III
Su pura alma y corazón.

SHAKESPEARE
Each work I’ve written contains a piece of me. Es verdad.

LADY M
And as you near the end, you need your strength.

RICHARD III
Está claro. You must decide: your work or your life.

LADY M and RICHARD III exit. [429]

Scene 5

SHAKESPEARE
Rifke, Rifke!

RIFKE
¿Sí señor?

SHAKESPEARE
Gather my manuscripts …

RIFKE
Do you wish to work?

SHAKESPEARE
Work? No! ¡Este trabajo me ha enfermado! Bring me all of my manuscripts!

RIFKE
¿Todas las obras?

SHAKESPEARE
I am ill.

RIFKE
Yes, Master William.

She begins to remove the works from the wooden chest by the window.

¡Tanto papel!

SHAKESPEARE
My life’s work, rolls of ink-stained pages. The totality of my worth.

RIFKE
¡Poesía!

SHAKESPEARE
¡Sueños! And these dreams have cost me dearly!

RIFKE
Maestro, ¡te han hecho un hombre rico! [430]

SHAKESPEARE
And to whom shall I leave my fortune?

RIFKE
De seguro se me ocurre alguien …

SHAKESPEARE
I was in London, at the theatre, when my son died.

RIFKE
You sustained your family with your work! Your good work brought you fame! Your good name!

SHAKESPEARE
What’s in a name^[22] if never spoken to a son?

RIFKE
Neto loved your plays …

SHAKESPEARE
Rifke …

RIFKE
… se aprendía todas las palabras.

SHAKESPEARE
Rifke!

RIFKE
Neto! Neto! Neto! ’Tis but his name that is your enemy.^[23]

SHAKESPEARE
My work is my enemy.

RIFKE
No, maestro, has escrito por muchos años sin ningún problema. You have reached the sixth age, that is all. Enflaquecido en zapatillas, lentes en las napias y bolsa al costado.^[24] [431]

SHAKESPEARE (looking over the texts)
All this is meaningless. Meaningless!

The SPIRITS enter.

RIFKE (reading the titles)
¡Sueño de una noche de verano … qué obra más divina! Richard III, oh, such villainy, chilling. Macbeth, I appreciated the complexity of the female lead. Hamlet! True, it is very long, but it contains some of your finest words … ¡Oh! Si esta demasiada, demasiada sólida masa de carne pudiera ablandarse y liquidarse …^[25] ¡Y Romeo y Julieta!

HAMNET & RIFKE
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.^[26]

SHAKESPEARE
I must burn them.

RIFKE & SPIRITS
Burn them?!

SHAKESPEARE
This work is the cause of my frailty.

RIFKE
Maestro, you are fifty-two years of age. That is the cause of your frailty!

SHAKESPEARE
This work led me astray! Give me my texts!

RIFKE
¿Para quemarlos? ¡No!

She gathers up the scripts back into the wooden chest, closes the lid, and sits on it.

SHAKESPEARE
Thou canst not guard it in perpetuity. [432]

RIFKE
Try me, master. (pause) A new letter arrived from my brother.

SHAKESPEARE
I care not.

RIFKE
Me envió la letra de una canción.

SHAKESPEARE
A song?

RIFKE
De una mujer que llora.

SHAKESPEARE
Why does she weep?

RIFKE
She cries for her lost children.

SHAKESPEARE
¿Están muertos?

RIFKE
Sí. Jóvenes, como Neto.

SHAKESPEARE
No more. Let me sleep now since you are immovable.^[27]

RIFKE
You never wish to speak of your son.

SHAKESPEARE
Speaking of the dead will not bring them back to life!

He ducks under the covers.

RIFKE
If what my brother says is true, the spirits are with us always. Not frightening like your ghosts, but warm and loving. Qué lindo sueño.

She finds a blanket and lies down to sleep. [433]

Scene 6

The SPIRITS enter.

HAMLET
He wishes to destroy the texts?

OPHELIA
Our stories.

YORICK
If he burns the texts, do we die? Again?

RICHARD III
¡Claro que no!

LADY M
There’s nothing for us to fear.

HAMLET
I am not so sure of that.

OPHELIA
Every time an actor speaks my lines, I live again. I feel the heat of a flame.

LADY M
Out, out, brief candle!

RICHARD III
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more.

LADY M
It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.^[28]

POLONIUS
I dread for certain the loss of his writing. [434]

Pause.

HAMNET
He cannot. He must not.

TITANIA
Child?

HAMNET
I only know my father through his words. He’s spoken to me more through his plays than he ever did in life. I know the world through his words. I know all of you. I know life.

OPHELIA
We know what we are, but know not what we may be.^[29]

HAMLET (singing)

What a piece of work is a man!
How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty!
In form and moving, how express and admirable!
In action how like an angel,
In apprehension how like a god!
The beauty of the world.
The paragon of animals.^[30]

POLONIUS
Hamlet, Act Two, Scene Two. The boy is right. We must save the texts.

TITANIA
His writing will endure centuries.

YORICK
This is true. Alas, I was just a skull, but everyone claims to know me well!^[31]

POLONIUS
The wheel is come full circle!^[32] [435]

The word “circle” sparks an idea! Everyone grabs their instruments! The SPIRITS begin to sing “The Circle of Life.”^[33]

SPIRITS (singing)

It’s the circle of life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love …

SHAKESPEARE wakes up.

SHAKESPEARE
Peace, you ungracious clamours! Peace, rude sounds! Fools on both sides!^[34]

POLONIUS
Master, we are remarking on your legacy, which long outlives your life.

SHAKESPEARE
A thousand twangling instruments!^[35]

TITANIA
This song is from a movie that will be inspired by Hamlet’s story.

SHAKESPEARE
A movie? What’s a movie?

YORICK
It’s like a talking fairy tale, and this one is a musical, where people break into song and dance for no apparent reason but the swelling of their hearts!

SPIRITS (singing)

When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way
From your first cigarette till your last dyin’ day
When you’re a Jet, if the spit hits the fan
You got brothers around, you’re a family man
You’re never alone
You’re never disconnected
You’re home with your own
When company’s expected [436]
You’re well protected
Then you are set with a capital J
Which you’ll never forget till they cart you away
When you’re a Jet
You stay a Jet!^[36]

SHAKESPEARE
They burn.

SPIRITS
No puede.

SHAKESPEARE
If this is what becomes of my writing, it is far better to spare mankind. I shudder to think what else might come.

HAMLET
Your work will be studied at university.

SHAKESPEARE
Studied? This is theatre, not literature! What next, will they add punctuation?

A collective gasp of horror from the SPIRITS.

POLONIUS
Your works will be translated into the dominant Western cultures’ languages.

RIFKE (in her sleep)
¡Ser, o no ser, esa es la cuestión!^[37]

SHAKESPEARE
¿Para que lo presenten en cualquier lugar? In a park for hounds? By a milepost far from town? In a space no bigger than a shoebox?^[38] Anon it moves^[39] me to tears to think on’t!

YORICK
Master William, there is no limit to the inspiration your writing engenders! [437]

OPHELIA
Julius Caesar, con solo mujeres actuando …

RIFKE (in her sleep)
быть или не быть вот в чем вопрос … ^[40]

POLONIUS
With scrolls in hand, unrehearsed!

TITANIA
Or, a multilingual story ¡en celebración del Día de los Muertos!

SHAKESPEARE
¡Qué milagro! Would that be based on The Mystical Story of Love and Reunion of Xochiquetzal, the Aztec Maiden, and the Spanish Conquistador, Don Armando?

RIFKE (in her sleep, recalling lines from Shakespeare’s play)
Xochiquetzal, el amor de Don Armando. Conquistadora de mi corazón, pero la fe domina mi vida.

HAMNET
Father, you must finish this play on the New World.

SHAKESPEARE
Must? Must? Who are you to urge “must”?

HAMNET
Yo soy … muy importante.

SHAKESPEARE
You are a dream, que no significa nada!^[41]

LADY M
How he discredits you!

RICHARD III
Es un insulto, joven, que no debes aguantar.

LADY M
Después de todo su descuido. [438]

RICHARD III
No es justo.

HAMNET
You are right. Finish, don’t finish, burn them, don’t burn them. I will care no longer what you do, Father.

Pause.

SHAKESPEARE
And why shouldst thou care?

HAMNET
I know what it cost you, what sacrifices were made for your art. Destroy them all and be left with naught if you so wish.

SHAKESPEARE
I do wish.

HAMNET
Fine.

SHAKESPEARE
Fine.

HAMNET
Fine.

SHAKESPEARE
Fine.

OPHELIA
It ends like this?

YORICK
Aye, without much ado at all.^[42]

LADY M
Ha pausado. Father, may we be of service?

RICHARD III
Surely there’s a tinderbox at hand. [439]

POLONIUS
The pause is wise. They stumble that run fast.^[43]

HAMLET
Yes, perhaps you should wait before you decide to burn … or not to burn.

SHAKESPEARE
He decidido. Los quemo.

RICHARD III
“Romeo” doesn’t care, so why should we?

TITANIA
He cares. We know he cares.

YORICK
He reads those texts as if they were love letters.

OPHELIA
To him they are.

LADY M
He’s not a child anymore … He’ll get over this easily.

OPHELIA
I know what ’tis to have a broken heart.

HAMLET
Ophelia’s right.

POLONIUS
We must save the texts for Master “Romeo’s” sake.

TITANIA
We need time. Father, if your mind is fixed, then it must be done with ceremony, for in your pause I sense the gravity of this act.

YORICK
We shall prepare a rightly occasion, appropriate and true.

OPHELIA
One that will honor the burning of your scrolls. [440]

HAMLET
Before you actually burn them.

TITANIA
Will you give us three days to prepare?

SHAKESPEARE
You have three hours. Go!

The SPIRITS exit, and SHAKESPEARE goes back to his bed.

They burn with the chimes at midnight!^[44]

Scene 7

RIFKE wakes up as SHAKESPEARE turns away.

RIFKE
Está determinado a quemar sus obras. Qué triste. He will burn our tale of Xochiquetzal and Don Armando, to be sure. It’s not even finished! Oh, and my brother’s song would have been perfect!

She finds her brother’s letter with the song and begins to read “La Llorona.”

(reading out of rhythm)

Todos me dicen el negro, Llorona
Negro pero cariñoso

(reading in rhythm)

Todos me dicen el negro, Llorona
Negro pero cariñoso

(reading with guitar)

Yo soy como el chile verde, Llorona
Picante pero sabroso [441]

(singing)

Yo soy como el chile verde, Llorona
Picante pero sabroso
Ay de mí, Llorona, Llorona
Llorona llévame al río
Ay de mí, Llorona, Llorona
Llorona llévame al río
Tápame con tu rebozo, Llorona
Porque me muero de frío
Tápame con tu rebozo, Llorona
Porque me muero de frío

OPHELIA, LADY M, and TITANIA re-enter and harmonize with RIFKE.

Ay de mí, Llorona, Llorona de ayer y hoy
No creas que porque canto, ay Llorona
Tengo el corazón alegre,
No creas que porque canto, ay Llorona
Tengo el corazón alegre,
También de dolor se canta, ay Llorona
Cuando llorar no se puede.
También de dolor se canta, ay Llorona
Cuando llorar no se puede

Ay de mí, Llorona, Llorona de ayer y hoy
Ayer maravilla fui, Llorona
Y ahora ni sombra soy
Ayer maravilla fui, Llorona
Y ahora ni sombra soy.
Ayer maravilla fui, Llorona
Y ahora ni sombra soy

Ay. Such a good song. [442]

ACT 2
Scene 1

RICHARD III and LADY M enter stealthily while SHAKESPEARE and RIFKE sleep.

LADY M
Estuvimos tan cerca.

RICHARD III
We’re not that far off yet, madam.

LADY M
He stood by the fire … we could have easily handed him a sheet to burn.

RICHARD III
¿Por qué pausó?

LADY M
I think he was tempted by the idea of eternal legacy. That movie that Titania spoke of.

RICHARD III
Julius Caesar performed with all women. ¡Absurdo!

LADY M
Or unrehearsèd, with scroll in hand! He will roll in his grave.

RICHARD III
Roll in his grave! (pause) Think ye what I am thinking?

LADY M
If we can show him the fiascos of his so-called legacy …

RICHARD III
Una horrible versión de su trabajo. Él va a destruir sus obras …

LADY M
… so that no one ever touches them. He’ll destroy the works … [443]

LADY M & RICHARD III
… swifter than arrow from the Tartar’s bow!^[45]

LADY M
¡Y seremos libres! You, me, and Neto, free … which of his plays should we mangle first?

RICHARD III
This new, unfinished play of his …

LADY M
His “most important” work. Ha! We all know which play that is …

RICHARD III
Yes we do.

TITANIA enters.

TITANIA
There you are! We’ve been looking for you everywhere! Tenemos unas ideas para convencer a Shakespeare a no quemar sus obras. But you two always have such effective ideas …

RICHARD III
Nosotros también hemos pensado en esto. ¡Qué horrible que quiera quemar sus obras!

LADY M
¡Es una tragedia!

RICHARD III
We’ve come up with an idea.

TITANIA
I knew that you two were team players! I’ll summon the rest!

She shakes a rattle. The other SPIRITS enter.

TITANIA
Well met, fellows! Lady Macbeth and Richard III have an idea to share with us. Lady Macbeth? [444]

LADY M
Richard and I think we should perform the Bard’s newest play.

RICHARD III
His most mature piece of work … so modern …

LADY M
Ethnic and relevant …

RICHARD III
Romantically tragic …

POLONIUS
Why don’t we perform The Comedy of Errors?

ALL
Eh … no.

OPHELIA
The Mystical Story of Love and Reunion …

HAMLET
I don’t know … are we sure it’s good?

RICHARD III
Of course it’s good …

RICHARD III & LADY M
It’s Shakespeare!

YORICK
Let’s do the play!

TITANIA
That’s the spirit! Yorick — here, you can play the role of Manuel!

YORICK
If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes. I will move storms. I will condole in some measure. Yet my chief humour is for a tyrant: I could play Don Armando rarely.

The raging rocks
And shivering shocks [445]
Shall break the locks
Of prison gates!^[46]

I also like the part of the goddess …

TITANIA
I will be the goddess. Hamlet! You shall play Don Armando.

HAMLET
Me? A romantic lead? Why not Romeo?

TITANIA
No, you’re the perfect choice!

(to LADY M) And you, you can play the Grand Inquisitor! This role is devious. The Grand Inquisitor is in reality a woman pretending to be a man!

LADY M
Unsex me^[47] now.

TITANIA
Richard, you are best suited for the role of Don Xavier, the father of Don Armando. Polonius, you shall assume the role of Don Apolonio, Don Armando’s trusted confidante.

POLONIUS
I shall endeavor to tender sage advice.

TITANIA
Ophelia, the role of Citlali, the Aztec high priestess …

OPHELIA bursts into tears and wanders away sobbing over not getting the part she wanted.

TITANIA
Ophelia! Child, you’ll drown yourself in a river of tears.

OPHELIA mumbles incoherently.

TITANIA
You may play … Xochiquetzal … [446]

OPHELIA
I shall!

TITANIA
… and Citlali, the Aztec high priestess.

OPHELIA
That sounds complicated.

TITANIA
Young lord Hamnet, you can play Esquincle, the younger brother of Xochiquetzal.

ALL
Esquincle!

HAMNET
I don’t know …

TITANIA
Haven’t you always wanted to be a part of one of your father’s plays?

HAMNET
What does Esquincle do?

TITANIA
Why he is the hero who saves the day at the end of the play.

POLONIUS
You’re a natural.

YORICK
If the young lord wish not, why, I could take on that role. I could play every single one of these characters! With grandiosity! With fervor! Allow me …

TITANIA
Yorick, I think you should play the most important role of all! The narrator, Manuel, El Borracho!

YORICK
Ich mag es!

TITANIA
¡A mí me gusta también! [447]

Scene 2

The SPIRITS go to wake up SHAKESPEARE.

OPHELIA
Father, it’s time for your ceremony!

YORICK
Wake up!!

They make a clamor.

SHAKESPEARE
Neighbors, you are tedious!^[48]

TITANIA
We have prepared a wondrous surprise for you!

YORICK
But we need you to remove yourself from your bedding.

They lead him to a seat.

LADY M
This is going to be my worst performance ever.

RICHARD III
You think your play was cursed … wait ’til he sees what we do with this one!

OPHELIA
… and please don’t block the front row.

The actors arrange the furniture. LADY M and RICHARD III step to one side.

TITANIA
Alright, everyone! Let’s take two minutes to look over your scripts and prepare.

EVERYONE
Thank you, two!

The actors stretch and practice tongue twisters. [448]

TITANIA
Places!

ALL
Gracias. Places.

POLONIUS
Master William, in honor of your decision to burn all of your works, we have decided to present your latest play.

SHAKESPEARE
But it is unfinished! It is but a skeleton of a play!

POLONIUS
It will be wonderful.

OPHELIA
The Mystical Story of Love and Reunion, of Xochiquetzal, the Aztec Maiden, and the Spanish Conquistador, Don Armando …

YORICK (as Manuel, playing the guitar)
¡Saludos! Yo soy Manuel, El Borracho, para servirles. Hoy les contaré un cuento del Nuevo Mundo. A tale that will rivet you, move you, ascend you to the apex of the Aztec pyramids! Lend me your ears^[49] as we venture to Tenochtitlán …

Act One, Scene One, in which Don Xavier introduces his son, Don Armando, to the Grand Inquisitor.

RICHARD III, playing Don Xavier, shoves HAMLET, playing Don Armando, toward LADY M, playing Gertrudis, the Grand Inquisitor. LADY M will recite all her lines in the most stilted iambic pentameter.

RICHARD III (as Don Xavier)
Excelencia, mi hijo adorado, a su servicio.

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
Don Armando!
He is the very reason I fled Spain! [449]

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
Grand Inquisitor, I am your slave.
Tenochtitlán is new and strange to me.

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
A priest, I see by your holy vestments.

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
Sí, soy sacerdote, noble señor.
I humbly ask permission from your grace
En nombre del divino rey Carlos
That I might build a glorious cathedral
To awe and move the hearts of pagan souls.

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
He crush’d my heart, but I cannot resist,
Adoring his commitment to the faith!
Tienes permiso joven buen mozo.

SHAKESPEARE (correcting her mispronunciation)
MO-zo, buen MO-zo!

While exiting, RICHARD III stops by SHAKESPEARE.

RICHARD III
I notice Don Xavier has very few lines, rather mostly exits and entrances. I think that’s a flaw in the script.

SHAKESPEARE
We all have our entrances and exits … ^[50]

YORICK (as Manuel)
Act One, Scene Two. Don Armando viaja al sitio de la nueva catedral, but is met with the challenging Citlali, the Aztec high priestess.

OPHELIA (looking over the script)
I don’t think I can pronounce this!

SHAKESPEARE
It is Nahuatl, the language of the people. Rifke taught me the words sent by her brother. [450]

RICHARD III
¡Entonces Rifke es la única que los puede pronunciar! Then only she can play the role. Oh! Such a shame she sleeps so soundly. Ah well, cancel the show and on to the bonfire!

TITANIA
I can cast a spell to wake her without waking.

LADY M
¡Eso es imposible!

TITANIA
I am a spirit of no common rate.^[51] She will play her part to perfection …

TITANIA casts a spell on RIFKE.

RIFKE (as Citlali)
Huitzilopochtli, papalotl, elote, tecolote …

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
Excellency, on this site must I build
A grand cathedral honoring our king,
Though on the grounds of your sacred retreat
And temple to the goddess Coatlicue.

RIFKE (as Citlali)
Coyote, ocelote, aguacate, tácate, nopal …

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
I will simply have to take that chance.

RIFKE (as Citlali)
Guatemala, Yucatán, Jalisco, Mazatlán …

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
One more sacrifice, that cannot be!

TITANIA (as Coatlicue)
Yo soy Coatlicue, creation’s fire,
La madre of all gods and stars and moon!
How dare they put an end to sacrifice? [451]
¿No saben la importancia del ritual?
The corn they eat grows from a nourished soil
For which with grateful hearts they should give their lives!
These Spanish warlords come to kill Aztecas
Y a enterrar a mis pirámides
Beneath a Catholic temple for their King.
If these oppressors, or conquistadores,
Put not an end to dominance and strife,
I will send them to death and to Mictlán
With great volcanoes spewing fire and ash!

RIFKE (as Citlali)
Peyote, xocolatl …

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
I sense impending doom. I know not how
You have convinced me, Priestess. We will wait
For the completion of your final rite.

YORICK (as Manuel)
Act One, Scene Three. The maiden Xochiquetzal wins Don Armando’s heart through her xocolatl and piety.

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal)
Le traigo xocolatl, mi señor,
A healing bev’rage warmed to thank your heart.
Your willingness to grant us due respect
Means I will serve Coatlicue in this rite,
Sacrificing my life for my people.
Es gran honor servir al pueblo hoy.

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
I do not understand your ways, maiden.

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal)
Me llamo, mi señor, Xochiquetzal.

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
Xochiquetzal.

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal)
Xochiquetzal. [452]
Our ways are holy. My death is a gift
To please our jealous goddess Coatlicue.
La muerte no existe para mí.
My sacrifice will bring me to the land
Of Ichantona-tiu-hilhuicatl.
Año tras año, yo visitaré
A mi ofrenda, decorada con
Flores de cempasúchitl.

Love strikes.

YORICK
I don’t know about you, but I really like that scene … makes me hungry. Act One, Scene Four. Don Armando confides in Don Apolonio.

SHAKESPEARE
That scene has but one line!

YORICK
Not to worry, Nuncle!

Dumb show: HAMLET, as Don Armando, confides in POLONIUS, as Apolonio.

POLONIUS (as Apolonio)
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

YORICK (as Manuel)
End of Act One.

Applause.

Act Two, Scene One: The Pyramid Scheme.

SHAKESPEARE
Pyramid SCENE!

YORICK
Apologies, nuncle.

(as Manuel) Don Armando visits Xochiquetzal at the base of the Temple of the Moon. El templo de la luna …

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
First light of dawn that broke as my heart soared, [453]
A huitzilin that sips the flower’s dew,
Xochiquetzal, Armando’s dearest love,
Conqueror of my heart, yet faith pulls strong.

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal)
¿Don Armando?

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
Xochiquetzal.

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal)
Don Armando.

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
Xochiquetzal.

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal)
Don Armando.

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
Xochiquetzal.

All look at SHAKESPEARE.

SHAKESPEARE
It’s a first draft!

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal)
This morning is the last I’ll ever know,
The last I shall behold my one true love.

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
¡Ojos, dadle la última mirada!
Arms, take your last embrace!^[52]

They kiss.

YORICK (as Manuel)
Act Two, Scene Two. Don Apolonio le cuenta al Gran Inquisidor del amor prohibido entre Don Armando y Xochiquetzal. [454]

POLONIUS (as Apolonio)
Grand Inquisitor, what I must reveal
Is overwhelming. I can hardly breathe.

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
Speak, my child.

POLONIUS (as Apolonio)
It is a shameful, forbidden love!

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
¿Y los nombres?

RICHARD III (coaching POLONIUS)
Zonkey pretzel.

POLONIUS (as Apolonio)
Zonkey pretzel and … Don Armando!

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
No-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo!

SHAKESPEARE
Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay!

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
Against his faith he loves an infidel?
Armando said I lacked true piety;
I gave up womanhood to prove him wrong.
What I could never have, she will not get.

YORICK (as Manuel)
Act Three, Scene One! The Grand Inquisitor visits Xochiquetzal!

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal)
¿Quién eres tú?

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
You dare speak rudely, you who have brought sin
To Spain’s most noble son, Don Armando.
You face, heathen, the Grand Inquisitor. [455]

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal)
¿Qué es eso?

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
No questions more! You must cease this affair!

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal)
¡Pero, mi señora … !

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
I am not a woman. ¡Yo soy hombre!

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal)
¡No con esas chichis! ¡No hay forma!

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
If you tell anyone what thou think’st thou know’st …

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal)
What do you think’st I think’st I know’st?

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
Thou know’st what I think’st thou think’st thou know’st.

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal)
I don’t know’st, but I think’st thou know’st what I think’st I know’st.

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
If thou reveal’st my secret, thou art deadest!

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal)
I shall die’st but not by your hand.

YORICK (as Manuel)
Well, that was pretty titillating! Act Four, Scene One. Xochiquetzal is sacrificed by Citlali to the goddess Coatlicue.

HAMLET, as Don Armando, watches from a distance.

RIFKE (as Citlali)
Ándale, niña …

OPHELIA, as Xochiquetzal, lies down on the bench. RIFKE, as Citlali, performs a cleansing ritual, then begins the sacrifice. [456]

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal)
¡Espera!

RIFKE stops the ritual. She then resumes.

¡Espera, espera!

She sneezes.

RIFKE (as Citlali, with speed)
¡Nili, wili, vanili!

RIFKE, as Citlali, extracts Xochiquetzal’s heart and presents it to TITANIA, as Coatlicue, who takes a bite. OPHELIA, as Xochiquetzal, rises and is walked off.

YORICK (as Manuel)
Act Five, Scene One. Don Armando builds an altar to Xochiquetzal.

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
Oh! ¡Mi corazón!

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal, sings “La Llorona”)

Dicen que no tengo duelo, Llorona
Porque no me ven llorar
Dicen que no tengo duelo, Llorona
Porque no me ven llorar

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
Xochiquetzal …

OPHELIA (as Xochiquetzal, singing)

Hay muertos que no hacen ruido, Llorona
Y es más grande su pena.
Hay muertos que …

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor, interrupting)
¡Don Armando! ¿Qué haces?

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
Honoring the woman I love.

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
¡Que blasfemia! [457]

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
Love transcends doctrine.

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
You’ve crossed the line, Armando, with this fling.
Although she’s dead, your transgression lives on,
And by my sword, empowered by our King,
Your body must release your sinful soul!

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
Sir, no sin exists. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixèd mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken!^[53]
Your challenge I accept, for love is pure.
The goddess take my heart, that it may serve.

Sword fight!

HAMLET (as Don Armando, recognizing Sor Gertrudis)
Sor Gertrudis!

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
Now you see me as I truly am.

HAMLET (as Don Armando)
I see your vengeful heart beneath your cloak.

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
I wanted this to be a time for us.
But you have forced my hand. Now you must die.

HAMLET, as Don Armando, is pinned, and HAMNET, as Esquincle, stops the fight just before his death …

HAMNET (as Esquincle)
Halt!

Pause. [458]

TITANIA
Continue, young lord!

HAMNET
There’s nothing more written here. Look: the rest is blank.

All look at SHAKESPEARE.

SHAKESPEARE
It’s unfinished!

RICHARD III
Well, time to burn the scripts!

TITANIA
Young lord, finish it yourself …

OPHELIA
Say more!

POLONIUS
Indeed!

YORICK
Say anything!

HAMNET (as Esquincle)
Honoring Xochiquetzal, my sister,
By building an ofrenda in her name,
Don Armando blended our two worlds.
The Old and New will never be the same.
No border lies between your faith and mine;
We all await reunion with our dead.
You must spare his life!

Gertrudis, played by LADY M, kills Don Armando, played by HAMLET.

LADY M (as Gertrudis, the Inquisitor)
Goodnight, sweet prince.^[54]

She congratulates HAMNET. [459]

RICHARD II
Well done indeed, Romeo!

RIFKE
That’s not Romeo, that’s …

TITANIA returns RIFKE to her sleep.

SHAKESPEARE
I never intended Don Armando’s death!

LADY M
I am a villain. What else would I have done?

RICHARD III
Sí, la villanía es consistente. Así nos creaste, así somos.

SHAKESPEARE
But this is the New World, a place of better human nature, of infinite potential. A place where we might have learned from our mistakes before it’s too late …

RICHARD III
That is a lofty dream.

SHAKESPEARE
It is not a dream, it is a vision. But now he lies dead.

LADY M
You love him.

SHAKESPEARE
I love all of you.

HAMNET
Father …
You think that death has won but are mistaken.
Death will not kill their love. Although they met
But briefly while on earth, they now possess
Eternity’s embrace. They laugh at death. [460]

SHAKESPEARE
Yes! Eternity’s embrace! Well done! Romeo, I am amazed. You are so young — where did you find such poetry to finish?

HAMNET
I learned from the best. I read every story you wrote, every sonnet, every poem, every word.

SHAKESPEARE
¿Por qué?

HAMNET
I wanted to know you. They told me we would meet again. I wanted to be ready.

SHAKESPEARE
They?

HAMNET
Your creations. They are my friends.

SHAKESPEARE
En la muerte.

HAMNET
Sí.

SHAKESPEARE
You are not Romeo.

HAMNET
No.

SHAKESPEARE
Methinks I should know you. Yet I am doubtful.^[55]

HAMNET
Do not doubt.

SHAKESPEARE
Hamnet? [461]

HAMNET
Yes.

SHAKESPEARE
My son! I know not by what magic you appear nor will I question it. A thousand thoughts, a thousand words would I speak. But what first springs is what has weighed on my heart since the instant I lost you.

HAMNET
Father …

SHAKESPEARE
I beg your forgiveness. For the years I was distant, for my absence at your bedside when you were sick. Had I been there, a father’s rightful place, perhaps I might have saved your life!

HAMNET
No, father, my time had come. It could not be rewritten.

SHAKESPEARE
Is this my time? Is this why you are here?

HAMNET
Yes. This is finally the time for us.

SHAKESPEARE
I’m not ready. Today is my birthday!

SPIRITS
¡Su cumpleaños!

They begin to sing “Las Mañanitas.”

Estas son las mañanitas,
Que cantaba el rey David,
Hoy por ser día de tu santo,
Te las cantamos a ti.

Despierta, William, despierta,
Mira que ya amaneció,
Ya los pajarillos cantan
La luna ya se metió. [462]

SHAKESPEARE
But what a wonderful present!

SHAKESPEARE dies.

HAMNET
Father!

Music for the song “Full Fathom Five” begins. HAMNET places SHAKESPEARE’s glasses on the altar. SHAKESPEARE stands in death, then returns to his bed. The SPIRITS exit, singing:

Put out the light, then put out the light.^[56]

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Hourly ring his knell. Ding dong.
Hark, now I hear them. Ding dong, bell.^[57]
Escucha ahora la campana,
Escucha ahora la campana,
Put out the light, then put out the light.^[58]

El mundo es un gran teatro, teatro,
Y los hombres y mujeres son actores.

Scene 3

RIFKE wakes up alone, recalling her dream.

RIFKE
When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer. My next is “Coyote, ocelote, aguacate, nopal … ” He tenido una vision tan rara. Tuve un sueño — past the wit of man to say what dream it was.^[59]

… Maestro?

She discovers his death. [463]

When thou reviewest this, thou dost review
The very part was consecrate to thee:
La tierra sólo tierra posee, pues esto merece,
Mas mi espíritu es tuyo, lo mejor de mí.
So then thou hast but lost the dregs of life,
The prey of worms, my body being dead;
El valor es, por tanto, lo que contiene,
And that is this, and this with thee remains.^[60]

At a loss, she begins to clean up the room. She moves the bed, the window seat, and the bench and inadvertently creates an altar with the items left behind by the SPIRITS during the play. The SPIRITS return to her and sing “A Time for Us”^[61] as she builds the altar.

TITANIA

Nuestra hora si llegará cadenas rotas por valor d’un libre amor.

HAMLET

A time when dreams

OPHELIA

Negados sueños brillarán

HAMLET

so long denied can flourish

OPHELIA

Mostrando

HAMLET & OPHELIA

amor del interior con su fervor.

GROUP A and GROUP B begin singing in a round.

GROUP A

Al fin / la’hora / cuando / vemos / la libertad para todos

GROUP B

A time / for us / at last / to see / a life / worthwhile / for you / and me. [464]

RICHARD III

Y el amor

LADY M

And with our love / through tears and thorns

RICHARD III

que sanará

LADY M

we will endure

TITANIA

con fuerza’y paz

OPHELIA

la heridas

RICHARD III

toutes les tempêtes

HAMLET

ӌерез каҗдьӀҋ шторм

Pause.

As Group A and B sing in a round, RIFKE sees the spirit of SHAKESPEARE and then the spirit of HAMNET approaching her. It is the first time she has seen HAMNET since his death.

GROUP A

A time for us

GROUP B

Nuestra hora si llegará

GROUP A

someday there’ll be a new world, a

GROUP B

nuevo mundo

GROUP A

world of shining hope for you and me. [465]

GROUP B

uno de promesa y amor.

A Día de los Muertos reunion, when the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnest, when love conquers death. SHAKESPEARE gives RIFKE the pen and ink to finish the play. TITANIA delivers an epilogue.

TITANIA
Si esta ilusión ha ofendido,
Pensad, para corregirlo,
Que dormíais mientras salían
Todas estas fantasías.
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream.^[62]

SHAKESPEARE
El mundo es un gran teatro,
Y los hombres y mujeres son actores.

SHAKESPEARE blows out the candle.

END OF PLAY [466]

Curtain Call

All sing and dance to “Aires Vascos.”

Viva la gente del pueblo (¡Que viva!)
Viva la gente torera (¡Olé!)
Viva todo aquel que diga (¡La uva!)
Sal el sol por donde puede

Beber, beber
Beber es un gran placer
El agua es para lavarse
Y para las ranas que nadan bien

Cada vez que te emborrachas, Manuel
Tu vienes en busca mía, Manuel
Ojalá te emborracharas, Manuel
Todas las horas del día, Manuel
Ay Manuelito, Manuel, Manuelito, Manuel

Y a mi me gusta el pimpiririm pim pim
De la botella el pan pararan pan pan
Con el pimpiririm pim pim
Con el pan pararan pan pan
El que no beba vina
Sera un animal, sera un animal

Cuando yo me muera
Tengo ya dispuesto
En mi testamento
Que me han de enterrar
Que me han de enterrar
Con una botella bien llena de vino
Y un racimo de uvas en el paladar
En el paladar

Beber, beber
Beber es un gran placer
El agua es para lavarse
Y para las ranas que nadan bien
¡Salud!

END OF PLAY