Two in Eden
T w o I n E d e n , C r i t i c s’ E c h o e s . . .
Solitude, the cursed sign
The Skopje premiere of the play “Two in Eden”, written by Tomislav Osmanli and directed by Dimitrie Osmanli, had been set in Kumanovo, Macedonia, and Newport News and Richmond in Virginia, the United States. Although it has been set up in two different hemispheres, this play confirmed once again that all cultural frontiers can be crossed over through the emotional echoes of the universal human themes shown through the simplicity of the theater magic.
The city park, an urban metaphor symbolizing the garden of Eden, the biblical paradise lost because of Adam and Eve’s primal concept of sin, is the ambient of the dramatic tension through which Toto and Nela exchange the cursed morsel from the apple of Comprehension. The two characters enunciate Solitude, an epochal feeling, as the author Tomislav Osmanli asserts. The Dream, or the “second dimension” of their shallow existence is the reflection of the emotional values the two characters are incapable of sharing. The brutal awaking, the reality, is the only thing that separates them from Eden, their mutual Dream.
The solitude, or the unknown, has been very subtly and dramatically revealed to us through the subtle directing of Dimitrie Osmanli. The acting expands the horizons of the minimalist mis-en-scene projecting the emotional variations of the story on the audience…
Victor Shikov
(“Vecher”, May 29, 1998)
A Tale of Loneliness
Everything has an end…just like the fairy tales, but not the ones with a happy one. The theatrical fairy tale “Two in Eden” set on the scene of the Theater for Children and Youth has a bitter end. The play clasps us fiercely into the bitter feeling of loneliness and leaves everyone feeling alone – especially the puppeteer Nela and her friend Toto, in the text written by Tomislav Osmanli which is set through a precise theater metaphor, beautifully expressed in the text, and the excellent visualization done by director Dimitrie Osmanli.
The play functions on a level of completeness: the lyrical text about the human solitude brought to a tragi-comic absurd; the thoughtful directing which makes us turn towards ourselves with a hope for today (and maybe tomorrow), the magical scenery of Ljubomir Chadikovski which is intact with the directing and music, incorporating everything so perfectly together with the costumes designed by Alexander Noshpal and the choreography written by Krenare Nevzati-Keri.
In this extremely visual theatrical atmosphere – a tale of loneliness is narrated.
“Two in Eden” is a play which extorts your feelings (both joyful and sorrowful) that have to be lived up on the spot: at the Theater for Children and Youth stage.
Liljana Mazeva
(“Nova Makedonija”, June 7, 1998)
Eden (One) for Two
Tomislav Osmanli is granting us another bright, small piece: Two In Eden with it’s under-title A Piece For Two, a Moon and Puppets. It is not unintentionally that the idea of Brightness is here linked to the one of the Small. Up to now the dramatic and prose experiences of Tomislav Osmanli instructs us to search the bright things in the small ones. And again, it is not unintentionally that all the dramatic texts of Osmanli , no matter if they are TV, movie or theater scripts, or even short stories as the ones in his book “The Butterfly of Childhood”, have the little man as their main object.
Osmanli’s big little man is actually his fixed idea, something that occupies his discourse from the beginning till the end, and that conducts, moderates and structures it. It is again the same this time, on the example of this very play. In five acts, from which the four belong to his characters Nela and Toto, and the last to his (and the character’s) puppets, the Princess and the Jester – in a miniature and minimal text space, with minimum of existents of the story (characters and decoration), Osmanli gives a severe lesson to the humanity: he warns that we can not further on pretend that that we are happy, because we are lonely. The action takes place in a simple park, that is being transformed into a metaphor of the Garden of Eden, in which since the Genesis, the expulsion of Adam and Eve took place….
Venko Andonovski, Ph.D. ,
Literary theoretic, playwright
Inspiring play
…Two in Eden is an inspiring play, with a skillfully led dialogue, magnificent poetic excerpts full of deep thoughts. Tomislav Osmanli extremely rationalizes the expression, always having in mind it’s juices and the dramatic necessities. That is why this text gets high literary values.
Gligor Stoykovski, poet
Within Life’s Depths
“…Many details make the duo drama Two in Eden an interesting and entertaining experience to the viewer. First, this drama is written in a skillful manner and has an excellent word expression. Second, the characters of the drama are very well described and well presented. Third, the author suggests a colorful structure of dialogues. Fourth, Tomislav Osmanli manages to get rid of the typical scheme and the triviality of the ‘happy-ending story’ in the process of creation of his characters and the establishment of the relationship between them.
All of the above confirm his knowledge of the fine drama techniques. Of course, one of the best qualities of this text is the author’s capability of operating through discrete poetic metaphors, associations and lyrical confessions. This is the reason for the beautiful poetic atmosphere and background created in this text… Shortly, this is a well composed and well written text, created with an excellent touch for theatrical actions…”
Ivan Ivanovski, theater critic
A Universal Look
“…The real world and the world of the Puppets coexist together like two dimensions of the same life. Hence the metaphorical heading of the text is given – Two in Eden meaning also Two in One in Macedonian language, symbolizing two worlds in one. Everything is settled somewhere in between the heat of everyday life and unreality. Everything has its own rhythm, an internal dynamics which simply entertains the viewer and keeps him interested.
The viewer’s attention is first captured through the comical dialogues of the Two and then trapped in the spider’s web through the tragic spiritual conditions of the characters. From a bench in a park the author paints the disturbing ambient of today’s age of conflicts and wars which frustrate mankind in a physical, spiritual and intellectual way…All this is shaped through an exceptional theatrical text and a directing free of political theatralizations…”
Mirche Tomovski, journalist and publicist
Indication for the End of the Century
…Same as Olbi in the Zoo Story, the master-piece of the Absurd theater, Two in Eden are located in the city park, a place that regarding the Garden of Eden seem so be “fallen” such as the contemporary man regarding Adam before his expulsion from paradise, or regarding the cheep woman in comparison with the wife/the fiancee. The city park is, certainly, a strange place – and tragicomic human try to simulate the divine act of creating and controlling the Nature, an ironical asylum for all that do not know weather to escape from loneliness, or toward it. It is a sarcastic, melodramatic answer to the Garden of Eden and the Noah’s Ark, and finally, of the graveyard itself where, according to the final words of the play “everything once ends”. (…)
The Biblical and astrologic, fatalistic connotations of the Two in Paradise make the book contemporary as well ultra(post)modern.
Vladimir V.Golubovich, media theoretic
Two in Eden: One Act of Love
Getting into the spheres from the other side of the simple everyday discussion of two unknown, the play tries to express the whole pathos and tragic of human loneliness and alienation. It is a performance done upon a text with a deep thinking power that is all and again pushing us to actively return to it…
As the title itself suggests , the play is focused on the destiny of two young people, unknown to each other and set up in a common area. They are characters with different philosophical beliefs and approaches to what we name happiness, and further more with different viewing of the way how to rich it. Nela and Toto deliberately resemble contemporary Eve and Adam, much more of those created in Milton’s Lost Paradise than of the ones we reveal in the original story from the Old Testament…
Judy Mercier, critic
The Unknown Archipelago
The text is universal in any concern and we can easily recognize it’s meaning in each milieu, especially in the American. It’s original title is a untranslatable play with words. It might designate “Two in Eden” and in the same time “Two in One”, which is a very amazing paraphrase of Adam and Eve myth. The second rare characteristic of the play is that it is written “for two actor and two dolls”. The puppets’ animation is related to the live actors’ play. In what way?…
Instead of the Apple-tree of comprehension, Nela as a puppeteer gives Toto in first place his, and later her own puppet. The two living puppets decide, by giving live to the un-living ones, to run away into that prehistoric image of life, from the terrible silence and solitude, into the reality of the story, into the tale very similar to Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale and the Rose… What the puppet-people are not in a position to carry through, the puppets themselves are able to achieve. They can release the tragic catharsis: only the love expressed by the ancient self-victimization, can return the life to this world in all it’s effloresce.
Dalibor Foretich, theatrologist
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Two in Eden is a chamber play and a bitter story devoted to the epochal sentiment of Loneliness. Toto, a funny vagrant, an astrologer and a fortune-teller, meets Nela the puppeteer, a sad and abandoned woman who comes to the park with a suicide intent. They begin their odd, but sincere night meetings under the old tree and the miraculous, constantly changing moon.
Settled in a devastated park, some kind of a distant, shabby semblance of the Garden of Eden, the contact of those two pitiful characters is full of solace. They tell each other compassionate lies creating a tragicomic reality of life. As the life itself is partly a tale and a dream of the lost and re-found Eden, and partly a deserted and unreliable reality…
| (A bench under a park lamp post. Night, illuminated by the silver glimmer of the crescent moon. The light of lamp post is off. Underneath is Nela, with her back turned to the audience. She is whimpering. Her crying is obvious.Toto, an unusual character who seems to be looking for something, passes in front of her. He steps and looks at her, then leaves the stage. He comes back, appearing from behind the bench, closer to the audience). TOTO: Julie! (Nela stops her wails. She turns her head discretely) TOTO: Julie, where are you? A..Answer me, Juliana! (Nela looks at him) TOTO: Ex..cuse me, have you s..seen a rather s..small, ch..charming th..thing pass by? (Nela turns forward and bursts into tears) TOTO: (Surprised) N..no, w..wait. I didn’t w..want to m..make you c….. I j..just wanted to a..ask if you h..have s..seen my Julie. I’ve b..been l..looking for h..her o..over an h..hour now. S..she does it s..sometimes….. r..runs away and h..hides from me. J..just now, an h..hour ago, I w…was s..sitting at home, watching b..basketb..ball on TV and d..drinking blueberry juice, and now…. You know, I h..have to d..drink blueberry juice, the doctor says I am very anemic. N..not to me, to m..mother. It’s not t..true, you know. I am n..not anemic at all. (Pause). A..anyway… Julie ran away, w..while I w..was drinking….j..juice. NELA: (Quietly wiping her eyes). I know her sort. Egotistical bastards. TOTO: No. p..please. Jule is not an egoist. S..she is j..just fond… of walking… She is f..fr… NELA: (Impassively). Free. TOTO: F..freedom-l..loving! NELA: And the rest suffer from such freedom lovers. TOTO: N..no, I don’t believe t..that. NELA: Sure. Aren’t you suffering now? TOTO: Who, m..me? God forbid. It’s q..quite pleasant, w..walking around like this in the park. J..just dandy… NELA: …and you look in each bush, you twitch at each noise, you turn at each shadow….. TOTO: (With interest). H..how did you know? NELA: (Begins to cry.) TOTO: D..don’t… please. I’m g..going … (Toto begins to move away) NELA: (Murmurs something through the tears). TOTO: (Moves back towards her). W..what did you say? NELA: (Still crying, more audible). Don’t go! TOTO: What do you mean. I am here, you are crying, Julie is gone. What will people say? NELA: (Through tears). There are no more people! TOTO: S..sure, there are. The park is full of couples. And those who come alone… they are v..voyeurs. NELA: (Looks at him indignantly). TOTO: (Startled) N..no .. I am not alone. I am l..looking for Julie. (Turns around, and calls out) J..Juulieee!!! Juliaana! Answer me, honey, p..please! (Everything remains the way it is. Nela stares at him, he stares at the void) TOTO: I’ll be going now. NELA: (She turns towards him on the bench, evidently trying to keep him there) Is she.. very young? TOTO: V..very. NELA: What does she look like? TOTO: She’s dark. NELA: I think I’m going to cry again. TOTO: I’m going. NELA: No, please don’t. It is very scary here. TOTO: W..well, why don’t you leave too? NELA: (Sniffling) I am also looking for someone. TOTO: Who? NELA: (In a new outburst of tears). Same as you! TOTO: Y..you are l..looking for Julie too? NELA: (Still crying, more audible). No. A dark person. Just like you. TOTO: P..person? I’m not l..looking for a person. NELA: What do you mean? What are you looking for then? TOTO: M..mother’s p..poodle. NELA: Mister, you are rude! TOTO: How’s that, missy? NELA: I’m no missy to you, understand!? You mislead me, make me take pity on you, I confess to you… all in a moment’s weakness. I don’t even know you! TOTO: (Extends his hand). Toto. I mean….Toto to friends. Otherwise, I am officially Theodore. Pleased to meet you. NELA: (After a lengthy interval in which she calms down, accepts his hand quietly). Antoanella, pleased to meet you too. TOTO: S..see. No more problems. NELA: I wouldn’t say… TOTO: I mean with the introduction. I don’t understand why people have to be introduced at all. I like sitting and talking to people I don’t know. What about you, Antoanella? (He seats on the bench. She gets up)  NELA: You can call me Nela, Theodore. TOTO: No Theodore. T..Toto is better. Toto is for people who are close. M..mama calls me T..toto. NELA: Me, close to you?! But, we’ve only just met. TOTO: W..what now…we have to go through the introductions again? NELA: (Smiles for the first time) No. That’s not what I meant. I meant that here you are, I’ve met you for the first time, and you are so free. I didn’t mean to insult you. TOTO: D..doesn’t matter. I am like that. M..mother says I make friends easily. I don’t know. NELA: Do you have many friends, Toto? TOTO: O-ho! S..sometimes I can’t get rid of them. NELA: Lucky you! TOTO: Y..you don’t? NELA: No.
TOTO: No one? NELA: No. TOTO: No what? Do you, or don’t you? NELA: (Burst into crying) I don’t knooow! TOTO: Don’t cry… please, Nela. I c..can’t stand such cries. I e..even chase away cats in F…February when they m..mate. (Looks at her). W..what do you mean, you don’t know? NELA: He was the only one I had…until yesterday. TOTO: The b…black p… NELA: (Nervously nods her head in confirmation) TOTO: He-poodle!? NELA: What he-poodle, damn it!! TOTO: I have Julia, a she-poodle, and you have Him, the he-poodle. NELA: (In a wave of tears). Fiancee, Toto!. I wasn’t abandoned by a dog. I was abandoned by my fiancee!! TOTO: (Coldly). Yup, the s..same thing. A dog! NELA: No, Toto, I swear. He was a good man. TOTO: Yeah, was. I was a m…manager of a company, but l..look at me now! It’s all the same! NELA: But he loved me. TOTO: H..he u…used you! NELA: No. TOTO: He used you and then he d…dumped you! NELA: No. TOTO: L..listen to me. W..where is your…… b..boyfriend now, huh? NELA: You are trash! TOTO: (Calmly, with certainty). Y..you are the ram! NELA: And you an elephant! TOTO: Excuse me, but that’s not a zodiac sign. NELA: Oh, that! No, I am a Pisces. TOTO: (With conviction) No way, honey. An Aries!! NELA: How do you know? TOTO: (With an air of flaunting) I am an a…astrologer and a p..palm reader. NELA: Truly, Toto? TOTO: No, I am kidding you! NELA: How did you guess then? TOTO: Oh, that. Easy, I saw your pendent (points to the chain on her neck). NELA: (Disappointed) So much you know! TOTO: (Emphatically) It’s all written in the s..stars! NELA: (Ironically) … and on pendants, right? (with a change in tone) He was a Pisces! On a silver chain. TOTO: He is a Taurus!… NELA: (Genuinely surprised and admitting) Yes, how did you know?! TOTO: (Fiery still) I mean a bull, a stack ….. a stud! NELA: Don’t say that, Toto. I love him. TOTO: Yeah, right. Only a s…stud could do such a thing to you… You are quite a girl, N…Nela. NELA: You think so? TOTO: You bet. NELA: He was very gentle with me, Toto. TOTO: I know. NELA: How do you know? TOTO: Well, a Taurus and an Aries. They complement each other. NELA: You mean, because they both have horns? TOTO: No, Nela. Because of the s..stars. NELA: Oh, that.. (silent and then in tears again) He sure did stick his horns. With my best friend. People told me, but I wouldn’t listen. Until I caught them in the act. Last night. On this very bench. I made a scandal. All the things I told her… TOTO: What about him? NELA: (With contempt) I didn’t even look at him! TOTO: S..so, he l..left j..just like that? NELA: No. He slapped me first. TOTO: Wow! NELA: (Tenderly) I can still feel his hand on my cheek. TOTO: He s…slapped you that hard? NELA: (Crying) No, fool! That’s how much I love him. TOTO: Oh, that! It’s no good Nela. He doesn’t deserve you! NELA: I know, but I can do without him. We worked together. He was my boss. TOTO: Hey, y..you are a secretary? NELA: A puppet maker! TOTO: W…what? NELA: I make puppets. For the theater. He is the director of a puppet theater. If you only knew how many puppets I’ve made! TOTO: (With admiration) You are a d..doll, Nela! NELA: (Enraged) Listen you, I don’t need your compliments and I don’t need you flirting with me, got that? TOTO: I m…meant, he was p..playing with you like an ordinary p..puppet, Nela. NELA: That… is true. Do you know how well we got on together? TOTO: Ah! NELA: … I was in seventh heaven! With him, I lived in a story. In all the fairly tales we played at the theater. Toto, I gave all I had to each puppet. I swear it! TOTO: I c…can see that! NELA: I was thinking, make it as pretty for him as you can. He deserves it. Put a part of you in the puppet. He will give it life. The puppet or me… it’s the same. He breathes life to us both. TOTO: Enough, Nela. I c…can’t listen to you anymore. He ruined you, and on top of it all, you still adore him him.. You are a true ox, Nela. NELA: And you are a real elephant, Toto. What do you want from me? (She looks at him suspiciously). Do you think I am one of those cheap broads that roam the park at night, chasing men with tear jerking stories? (She gets up to leave) TOTO: Y..you are a princess, N..Nela! (She stops in place and turns towards him. Both are silent). TOTO: (Confused) I am s…sorry. It s..slipped out. NELA: You are a good man, Toto. Forgive me. TOTO: (In a better mood) H..hey, t…there’s nothing to forgive. Nela, you need people. You mustn’t be alone n..now. You should talk, laugh, relax, Nela. NELA: (With an empty state) I have no one left, Toto. Do you want to know why I really came here? TOTO: T..to find h..him and to… NELA: (Cuts in coldly) I came to kill myself, Toto. I want to hang myself. Here, look! (She pulls a rope from her bag). I even picked the tree. It’s that one there, under the second lamp post. So they would find me sooner. I don’t want to hang there too long. (Pause, then…) I lied, Toto. He didn’t leave me the other day. He left half a year ago. He left me dumbfounded on this bench. There was no one else. I made everything up. (Crying) Because I was o-old! Because he wanted children, and I couldn’t have any. What does he know, the rotten bastard! How can he know! TOTO: N..Nela! What are you saying, Nela! NELA: Yes, I should have been hanging by now. You stopped me. An accidental and lost passerby. A boring chatterbox. TOTO: (Confused) I, I am s..sorry. I didn’t want… NELA: Come on, go. Go now. We had a chat, you passed the time, what else do you want? There, now you know it all. Instead of basketball on TV, you saw a crazy woman in the park. Go, go to Mama, go to bed. Maybe your bitch is back too. Go on, get on home, have some blueberry juice and live happily ever after, just like in the fairly tales! TOTO: Why are you sneering at me Nela? Did I insult y…you in any way? We were talking so nicely. (Nela, confused and beside herself, is staring at him). TOTO: Give me your hand, Nela! (Nela mechanically hands out her hand. Toto takes the rope and puts it in his pocket). TOTO: (Opens her palm and looks into it; with a change in tone) No, you won’t hang yourself. Not tonight, nor any other night. You have a long life line. You will live to an old age and have a fulfilling life. NELA: Tonight, I will kill myself. TOTO: That’s not the way it’s written. I see your whole life. Clearly. More clearly than you can imagine. You grew up with you mother. Your mother was a puppet maker. Your father was an actor in the puppet theater. You don’t remember your father. He left you soon after you were born. She died early. You grew up alone. Their lines join. You will be both. A puppet maker and an actress. You will create beautiful spectacles They will free you from your fatal ties. You will break your mother’s dark circle and you will open your own, new and beautiful one. NELA: You’ve stopped stuttering. TOTO: (In the old tone of voice) Y…yeah right. NELA: You didn’t stutter once. TOTO: It h..happens sometimes. When I get c…carried away. NELA: And all that is written here? TOTO: O-ho, and much more. NELA: Why are you lying to me Toto? TOTO: Why don’t you get back at him, Nela! NELA: Me, at him! He drove me crazy Toto. Look at me. He’s ruined me! How can I get back at him! TOTO: Have a child, Nela. Not one, many children. He left you because he was afraid you couldn’t have children, right? Show him, Nela. Teach him a lesson. Show him what you can do. Make the best puppet show. Better than any he ever made. Alone. All alone. Let the bastard see what he lost. NELA: I can’t have children Toto. Because of him. He made me have abortion. “Why do we need children”, he said “look how many of them we have in the theater”. I can’t produce children now. TOTO: Produce puppets, Nela. Give them l..life! (Nela is staring at him. Then, engrossed in thought, leaves. She turns back) NELA: Toto, are we going to see each other again? TOTO: A..any t..time you like, Nela. I am always h..here. (She is still overcome by what Toto has told her. She leaves. Toto sits on the bench, with his back to the audience and looks at the crescent moon. The silver half of the moon moves and fades away. Stars twinkle on the sky). TOTO: The Morning Star is in the Little Dipper and Julia is still missing. |
| (Dusk sets on the glowing horizon. Nela approaches the bench. She sees that there is no one around and turns around, searching for him. Toto, runs in excitedly from the other side). TOTO: Nela, Julia is not back yet! NELA: (Clearly relieved) Toto, I was afraid I wouldn’t find you. TOTO: (Still excited, stares in all directions). I had to come. This little misfortune will drive us all mad at home. (To Nela) Mama is taking tranquilizes. Her pressure is up, she screams all day, my friends try to calm her down, and we are all looking for Julia. NELA: How can I help you Toto? Come, let’s look together. We can start here… TOTO: (Turns his head nervously) I c…can’t anymore. I am worn out from looking. (He collapses on the bench). NELA: You are drenched in sweat. (She takes a handkerchief from her pocket and wipes him). TOTO: (Looks at her, and is enjoying it). I am dead. H..here, a little on the n..neck. NELA: (Vigorously wiping his neck) Toto, are you sure that the bi.. the poodle is here? TOTO: P..Positive. NELA: How do you know? TOTO: F..first of all, she always runs here. P..plus, I know why she ran away. NELA: Why?(Points discretely with his head. She looks at him. She doesn’t understand) TOTO: For s..sex! NELA: Are you sure? TOTO: I’ve c..caught her in the act! (He bites his lips in embarrassment and shame). Mama doesn’t know anything.(She looks at him in disbelief) TOTO: I.. I’ll tell you something, Nela. J..just promise me you won’t tell anyone. NELA: I promise, Toto. TOTO: (With pain visible on his face). J..Julie is a whore! A poodle prostitute. I have no peace at home because of the dogs. All mongrels come and look for her. NELA: C’mon Toto, how is that possible? TOTO: It’s p..possible. From d…disappointment. She used to have a steady one. Even though he was a mutt … a half setter. But, he left her! She used to wail all day long. Then one d..day, at the height of her d…despair… NELA: (Looks at him without blinking an eye) TOTO: …a Scottish shepherd from the neighborhood mounted her. She’s been bawding ever since. (Nela doesn’t say a word, just sits on the bench). NELA: She’ll never come back. TOTO: She always comes back… I m..mean….before running away again…the little w..whore. NELA: Don’t say that Toto. I don’t like those ugly words. TOTO: I d..don’t either, Nela. NELA: You live alone, Toto? TOTO: A..alone, but with a lot of p..people. NELA: What do you mean? TOTO: My m..mother gives p..piano lessons. She is blind and she is at home all day. S..she used to be a piano t..teacher. She’s r..retired now. NELA: Do you play the piano, Toto? TOTO: The l..lute. NELA: The lute. That’s a very old instrument. TOTO: A r..remnant from a previous life! NELA: (Smiles and looks at him affectionately). There is no previous life, Toto. Nor a next one. Just the one we have. Last night, you saved my life. TOTO: (Shakes his head decisively). N..not me, Nela. That’s the way it was w..written. NELA: I don’t believe in things like that, Toto. We all write our own lives. Just like screenwriters write their dramas. (Suddenly remembers). Look what I made for you. (Pulls out a doll from her bag, Toto’s double). TOTO: (Delightedly) H..hey, this is m..me! NELA: It’s for luck, Toto. (Stands up). I didn’t know how else to thank you. Remember me sometimes. Good-bye, Toto. TOTO: (Jumps up in great excitement) W..wait… w..where are you going Nela! NELA: Home. To try to make something out of myself. I don’t want to end the nights on this bench either. You know, Toto, maybe I’ll start working. I want to do a show. Maybe things are as you said. Maybe everything is written for us before hand. TOTO: E…excellent, Nela, that’s the way to go! (She covers her face with her hand and start to weep. Toto leaves his double on the bench and runs to her). TOTO: W..what is it now! NELA: (Through the tears). I am so unhappy, Toto! TOTO: (Slowly and gently hugs her; she surrenders to the hug, remaining the way she is). It’s only natural Nela. You are fighting to break the circle, and that gives you courage. You have to break the cocoon. Even the caterpillar suffers pain to become a butterfly. You have to hatch your own fortune, Nela. NELA: You talk funny, Toto. TOTO: We all talk funny, Nela. That’s why most people don’t understand each other. (Darkness sets, as if their embrace lasts a long time. A silver moon appears on the sky above the bench. Their silhouettes are in the semi oval light of the moon). NELA: Toto, I understand you. TOTO: I understand you too, Nela. NELA: To reach happiness, you must suffer… TOTO: Naturally. It’s all a circle. Chakra. In your previous life you were happy. Have you heard of methaphsihosis, reincarnation and palingenesis? NELA: What does that mean, Toto? TOTO: Immortality, Nela. We have all been born, and we will all be born again. We all have previous lives. You used to be happy and you will be happy again. NELA: In my next life? TOTO: Maybe in this one too, no one knows. It is all one circle. You are up, then you’re down… Except that no one knows what up or what down is. NELA: I am down now. I am certainly not up. TOTO: It’s a circle. Everything is the same. Everything looses meaning in the turning of the wheel. The greatest of happiness might spring up from misfortune. The Chakra moves ceaselessly. NELA: (Smiles) Can you tell me what I was in that life? TOTO: (Remarkably convincing). A princess, a beauty, then a queen. NELA: And you? TOTO: Me? A clown or a fool, I still can not judge for certain. Maybe both, I have to see. In any case, I was a loner. That’s why I have so many friends now. NELA: Another night in the park. I am tired, Toto. TOTO: It’s the moon. Tomorrow is a full moon. That’s very fatiguing.. Go now, Nela, go and rest. (Nela leaves. Toto looks at her as she leaves) TOTO: What were you in your previous life? A puppet, my little one. You too, have always been a mere puppet on a string. (Takes the rope from his pocket and flings it over the lamp post. Takes the loop in his hand and looks at it. He puts it around his neck, and ties the other end of the rope around his hand. Then he starts pulling the end of the rope with his other hand — in rhythm, moving the head and the hand with the rope. Like a puppet on a string. One-twothree, one-two-three… A ray of light falls on his double, reveiling a shreiking expression.) (Lights fade) |
| (Nela is seating on the bench, starring far away, as if she were looking in a second, invisible moon. Meanwhile, on the sky, behind her, the real moon rises: round, mysterious, and – full moon. Different shapes are appearing on it’s pale surface. They get sharpened and one can tell there are different people’s faces of the moon, looking towards us…) (Nela gets nervous. She stands up, upset) NELA: Are there so many of us? And I thought, that I am the only one in this world. (From behind the twin-puppet Toto appears. He approaches Nela. Looks at her. Nela, too, looks at the puppet. Nela seats on the bench. Toto stands at her knee and gives her a hug. ) (On the moon’s surface, Nela’s absent face appears. Her face gets a sad, comforting smile. As if it were her reflection on the big round Moon’s mirror) |
| (Toto is sitting on the bench. The sky is illuminated by a somewhat dimmed, yet still full moon. Nela enters furiously). NELA: Where have you been? I waited for you yesterday. TOTO: (Absent mindedly) I..I had some things to take care of. Plus, it was a full moon yesterday. Always avoid a f…full moon. NELA: Why? TOTO: B..because I … NELA: You what, Toto? TOTO: I w…walk in my d…dreams. I am kind of a s…sleepwalker, Nela. NELA: (Looks at him in wonder and then…) You don’t have to look for Julka anymore, Toto. (She digs in her bag and pull out a puppet of a black poodle). I made it just for you. TOTO: R..really, Nela? NELA: Take it to your mother, she is bound to believe it. TOTO: (Beside himself from joy) I…I’ll tell her: “I f…found Julia, m..mother. H..here, you can p..pet her”. I’ll wiggle it. And, I’ll bark. I k..know how to imitate Julie. See… (very unskillfully, he recites a bark). “Bow, vow”. NELA: (Moves her head in disparagement) Can’t you do better, Toto? TOTO: S..sure! (Tries again, with the same result) Bow, vow! H..how is it now, Nela? NELA: You have to do better, Toto. TOTO: W..why? NELA: She’ll recognize you. Dogs don’t bark like that. TOTO: J..Julka does. When she comes back from sex… that’s just how she barks. Bow, vooow! Like she is s..satisfied or something. NELA: No Toto. Here, this is how you should bark. (She gives a convincing bark). Now, you try it. (Toto tries, with somewhat better results. Nela calls him to bark after her. And they do. They bark together in the night. Then, they look each other in the eyes, becoming aware of the situation. They are silent.) NELA: What if your mother finds out that you are lying to her? Won’t she be angry? TOTO: N..no c..chance. If you only knew the t..tricks I’ve p..pulled. NELA: That’s not nice, Toto. I don’t like lies. TOTO: Well, g…go then, and find Julka for her. Look for the bitch in these bushes. NELA: I started writing a play, Toto. TOTO: Hey, r…really? NELA: The plot is set in a garden. In a royal garden. It’s about a good and lonely princess that strolls all they long though the garden. TOTO: Is s..she pretty? NELA: N..no, not so pretty. But she is good, and even more sad and lonely. Her father, the old king, sees his daughter dying of sadness and loneliness. One day, on his way back to the castle, he meets a traveling artist and invites him to amuse his sad and lonely daughter. Only, he doesn’t know that he too, is a very lonely and very sad artist… TOTO: It’s the same. NELA: What? TOTO: Same like us. It’s a transcript! NELA: (Looks at him sharply). This has nothing to do with us! TOTO: (Pulls back in fright). I..I l like it very much! NELA: (Explodes). What is with you! Transcript?! Do I look like a princess to you? TOTO: A..alas! I t..told you, in y..your previous life. NELA: And you an artist, huh? You assign yourself some nice roles! TOTO: A j..jester! A court jester. Previously! NELA: I’ve never been anything else but a simple puppet maker! TOTO: Yes. Y..you have always been a simple puppet … NELA: What are you babbling about, Toto! TOTO: .. just like me, Nela! You have always been led. And others will always lead you. We are tied, Nela. You and I are tied on other people’s stings. We are puppets, Nela. NELA: There is no one to tie me. I am alone. You are tied to your mother. You run all day through the park after her dog. You are tied, Toto. You are a puppet! TOTO: I.. I h..have n..no one, Nela! NELA: What? TOTO: I d..don’t have anyone. NELA: What about your mother? TOTO: I don’t have a mother. They found me in this park. I grew up in an orphanage. I live alone. NELA: You have the bitch, Julia. TOTO: I m..made her up. NELA: What about a home? TOTO: Nope. NELA: And you don’t drink blueberry juice? TOTO: I’ve never tasted blueberry juice in my life. NELA: (Suspecting) And you have no friends… TOTO: T..two. NELA: Who? TOTO: Y..your puppets, Nela. NELA: (Astounded) So, you lied to me, Toto. TOTO: And what about you, Nela?! NELA: I never lied to you about anything. Everything was the truth. TOTO: You made HIM up! He never did exist, did he Nela? NELA: (In tears) You are spoiling everything. So what if he didn’t exist? He could have. You have to have someone. You are ungrateful, Toto. You are terribly ungrateful. I made you a doll and I gave it to you as a gift. I even made a doll for the mother you don’t have, and this is how you repay me. TOTO: T..that’s your doing. NELA: (In shatters) So, everything is a lie. There is nothing… TOTO: Nothing, Nela. NELA: … just this stupid, boring, god forsaken park! (Flares up suddenly) I am sick of it all. Of sitting, of waiting, of the uncertainty, of this stupid empty park… TOTO: It’s not s..stupid, Nela. And, it’s not e..empty. We are in it. Like in a garden of garden. Our garden of Eden. Everything begins here. Just like in the p..play you want to write. It’s already been written! NELA: I hate this park. I hate all gardens. If this is what heaven is like, then I hate heaven too. I want to go to hell. TOTO: (Looks sideways…) It’s a little h..hot! (…then at her) In h..hell, I m..mean. NELA: At least there are people there! Now I know why heaven is one and only. Because there is no one else there. There too, you are eternally alone. TOTO: I t..told you. There is no r..running away, Nela. All stories begin here. Yours and mine. Each and every one. Once expelled from heaven, we never stop dreaming of going back. And all the time, we are there! We are born and we live in one place only. We all live in one garden. We have nothing else. It’s futile to want something else. Everything we have is here. Here is heaven, and here is hell. There’s n..no running away, dear. NELA: (Keeps silent for a long time, and then, with a shattered voice) You know …. I made a doll for myself as well, Toto. TOTO: R..really? W..what does it l..look like? NELA: Just like you told me. No running away, Toto, that’s what you said. TOTO: M..may I keep the d..dog, Nela? NELA: I am sleepy. TOTO: It’s the m..moon. NELA: I thought the moon wasn’t full tonight? TOTO: T..tonight, there is going to be an eclipse. The moon will hide behind our shadows. It will be here, yet it won’t. This is a wondrous and elusive evening. NELA: (Tired) I am going now. TOTO: It’s time, Nela. (Nela walks away. She pauses. She turns towards him for the last time. He is looking at the moon with the puppet in his hand. The old light bulb begins to flicker and finally lights up. She leaves. The stage fades away in darkness). |
(The scene is played by puppets that have replaced the actors.A full moon timidly peaking behind a branch. Julia’s artificial double passes through the stage, and then leaves. The Princess – Nela’s puppet double – appears from the other side. She walks with her arms stretched out in front of her, with an unperturbed, ghostly stride of a sleepwalker. The jester , Toto’s double, comes our from the depth of the stage, with a lute in his hand. He sees the sleeping Princess and is startled by her. Gently, he starts playing a sad melody on his lute. The Princess awakens).  PRINCESS: Oh! Where am I? JESTER: In your garden of Eden, Princess. PRINCESS: Are you sure I am not dreaming? JESTER: One can never be sure of such things. PRINCESS: If it is a dream, whose dream do you think it is? Yours or mine? JESTER: Yours Princess. I often wander through other people’s dreams. PRINCESS: I never do. I always stay in this garden. JESTER: Even if it is a dream, it is a pleasant one. PRINCESS: Pardon me, but I seem to know you. JESTER: Maybe we have met in a place like this one. PRINCESS: Who are you? A subject? JESTER: I am the court jester. I was dismissed from the Court of a faraway kingdom. And you? PRINCESS: I am looking for a jester. I am a lonely princess. My only distraction is to strall endlessly though this boring garden and to pick flowers. JESTER: Oh, that’s a pleasant distraction! PRINCESS: Yes, but there are no flowers left. They’ve all wilted from boredom. JESTER: Maybe there is another reason why they’ve wilted?  PRINCESS: Boredom, my jester. In this gardens, everything feeds on joy. Once joy was lost, sadness and loneliness set in, and the flowers wilted. This is now a desolate park. JESTER: Oh, there may be work for me here. PRINCESS: There may, jester. I appoint you Gardener of Joy. JESTER: But I know nothing of plants. The only thing I know is to tell stories. PRINCESS: So tell! JESTER: But I only know sad stories. I am a thespian of ballads.  PRINCESS: Can you sing? JESTER: Only sad songs. I am a singer of ballads. PRINCESS: And you have never learned a single happy song? JESTER: I used to know many. I’ve forgotten them all. PRINCESS: How is that jester? JESTER: I fell in love. I loved a sad and lonely princess. A jester and a princess, they don’t go together. I was dismissed from the Court, and was infested by her illness. I didn’t know that sadness and loneliness are like an illness. PRINCESS: That is terrible, jester. I’ve never been in love. JESTER: There is something even more terrible. She remained a lonely princess, while I stopped being a jester. PRINCESS: Then how do plan to revive the garden? JESTER: I don’t know, Princess. Maybe it’s better that I leave here too. PRINCESS: No, stay. I will tell you a secret, my jester. This garden is dead and lifeless. Before, when there were flowers here, I multiplied them – by picking. The more I picked, the more they blossomed. JESTER: What a miraculous garden. PRINCESS: This garden sprouts only if something extraordinary happens in it. Do you see that bush? It was laden with roses which I picked. It bloomed when our Commander killed the Court taker. And that tree? It used to have wonderful, large white blossoms. It bloomed when I ordered the Commander to kill himself. JESTER: That’s very sad, Princess. PRINCESS: Everything is sad. There is no more excitement in this devastated park. Do something, jester. JESTER: What can an unhappy jester do? PRINCESS: Provide joy to a Princess. Please, restore the joy in this park. Make it a flower garden once again. Do something, I beg you. Look, my last flower is wilting. My last drop of happiness will wilt with it. JESTER: (Silent, then bows his head). Very well, Princess. I will do something, and your happiness will be saved! PRINCESS: Oh, jester, look! Something is happening. The moon is plunging. Maybe that will save my garden! (An eclipse of the moon is visible on the sky. Behind the eclipsed mood, there is a halo of radiant light. First, there are rays in all colors of the specter, then the full moon reappears. Suddenly, in the garden, a myriad of flowers start blossoming. A flower bush grows and entwines around the lamp post. The Princes begins to laugh). PRINCESS: Jester, my jester, where are you? Jester, my lost garden is back! How did you do it, jester? (In front of her, hanging on a branch, is the black silhouette of the Jester. The startled Princess utters a cry of surprise, then turns around and admires the blossoming garden. The dog puppet appears once again, and begins howling at the moon, whose rays illuminate the lifeless hanging puppet of the Jester. A ray falls on the his lute on the ground. Shrubs and flowers begin to sprout and entwine around it). PRINCESS: What a funny jester. I didn’t ask him to do anything like that. Maybe, this is just a dream. If it is, then it must be his dream. And that is what he decided. That’s the way it was written. There is no running away. Everything has already happened once. Everything began in one garden. Everything will end in the garden. Everything will happen in the garden. You were unhappy, you will be happy. You were alone. And alone you will be! (Light fades slowly. The Princess leaves. What remains is the huge round moon and the shadow of the hanging Jester enframed by an unearthly halo, and the forever lost dog howling underneath). |