The Eternal Feminine

Play: The Eternal Feminine
Playwright: Rosario Castellanos
Style: Modern, Comedic
Character: Mama (F)

Mama

A decent wife has no motive for being happy ... and if she has, she hides it. She has to keep in mind that her innocence has been blemished, her chastity violated. A lamb of sacrifice, she has just given herself up to satisfy the brutal appetites of the beast.
     What beast? Why, your husband, of course. And, no, you're not going to come out and say that you liked it, because, if so, I'm going to think all of my struggles to bring you up right were in vain. I'm the one who took in sewing in order to pay for the most expensive schools, the most exclusive boarding schools. (She lets herself fall into an armchair and pretends to dry a nonexistent tear) So that, now, this is my reward. I'm not crying because with all the sewing I did for others, my eyes have dried up. But if I could cry ...

Two Sisters and a Piano

Play: Two Sisters and a Piano
Playwright: Nilo Cruz
Style: Modern, Dramatic
Character: Sofia (F)

Sofia

I've lost a whole life of stitches in this house. A whole life. That's what gets to me. So many days gone ... I could knit a bedspread for this whole island with all the lost days. I can't even remember where I left off living my own life. My own place in this mess! I'll never forget that day when Papi left the country. When he kissed us on the forehead and told us not to fall in love, not to get married, because he was going to send for us ... as if love was a car one could stop with a touch of the breaks. For me time stopped. I felt my feet stop growing, my bones, my breasts, as if I had frozen in time, because I was saving myself for North America. It just feels like all my life I've been waiting and I haven't lived. You got to travel with your books. You got married, when you got tired of waiting. But me, stuck here. Stuck, piano lessons, a few students, taking care of Mama. Stuck ... stuck ... stuck ... and now stuck even more.

Maria Celia: Sofie, please ... 

No. Can't you see what you are doing?! Can't you see what you're getting yourself into with that man? He's not going to make it better for us. I've watched him ... He got rid of all the inspectors who used to come to this house. He's the only one who comes here. Can't you see it spelled out on his forehead. Ownership! Everything about him screams out zookeeper.

Maria Celia: That's enough, Sofia! That's enough!

Last night I heard a group of men talking about Russia. Something big has happened there, Maria Celia. They said the Soviet Union has broken apart, that it's over ... Can you believe it! Thousands of people in the squares ... That's what I heard ... all over Moscow celebrating ... statues tumbling down ... (Maria Celia walks away. She seems to be somewhere else, lost.) Maybe something will happen here too.

Maria Celia: Maybe.

One man was even talking about the new maps ... He was saying the world is going to seem bigger with all the changes. Can you imagine? Someone is out there sketching new maps of the world.