| PLAYERS: | Trickster - a young waghalter with moustache and wearing peasant shirt |
| and trousers, black boots and a fur cap; | |
| An old man; | |
| Blue Emperor; | |
| Emperor's daughter; | |
| Bear: dark-brown, two or three times bigger than a man; | |
| SCENE I |
| A winter scene, a road under snow in a village. It is snowing. All along the | |
| performance of this scene and during scene III, white confetti (natural or artificial | |
| cotton) as snow flakes must be spread down from the ceiling of the stage - the children | |
| like it very much. |
| Trickster: | (Blithe, singing playfully and whistling) |
| I am Trickster the merry | |
| I am wandering alone | |
| I am Trickster the merry | |
| In the world my name's renown! |
| (The scenery is running backwards on a movie screen from the backstage | |
| wall while Trickster is walking and singing. At the end of his song the village | |
| will fade away in the distance and the Emperor's palace will come in sight on the | |
| screen. Now the rhythm of the song is changing.) |
| Lonely wandering | |||
| The entire world | First Stanza | ||
| With spurred boots | |||
| I don't feel cold | |||
| Refrain: | |||
| Lots of children sprite and gay | |||
| come to see him on the stages | Second Stanza | ||
| of the puppets theatre play | |||
| Trickster, a joy for little ones in ages. |
| Watchman | : (With a profound voice) |
| Who are you, there. At the palace gate? | |
| Trickster | : An honest man! I am coming from far away, from over the seas and lands. |
| Watchman | : And why did you come here? |
| Trickster | : I am strolling on the long roads of the world and now I am here in this vast and |
| lonely land in winter time!! | |
| Watchman | : And how? Are you coming with ill thought, are you coming with ill intentions? |
| Trickster | : How on Earth!! Watchman!! I am strolling through the world. Everybody knows me. |
| Watchman | : What's your name? |
| Trickster | : I am called Trickster - the Wag!!! I think you have heard of me. |
| Watchman | : Of course! Why didn't you say it from the very beginning? All the folks know you!! |
| : (To the audience) You children, do you know him? | |
| Audience | : Yes!! |
| : Or: No! | |
| : Or: Yes and No! | |
| Watchman | : If you know him, enjoy yourselves! He is again among us! |
| : Or: You don't know him? He is your friend, everybody's friend. | |
| : Or: for you, those who don't know him, I will tell you that Trickster is | |
| : the best merry friend of the children. | |
| : (To Trickster): I'll let you enter the palace Trickster,but a great danger is menacing | |
| : you up there. | |
| Trickster | : It doesn't matter to me at all! |
| Watchman | : the Blue Emperor is very sad because his daughter can never marry. |
| Trickster | : I'll marry her. |
| Watchman | : Finding a possible groom is not the problem. Plenty of brave, strong, young men like |
| : you have tried to marry her but all of them have failed. | |
| Trickster | : I shall try too. It is worth trying. The trial is not the death. |
| Watchman | : On the contrary. This trial means that you run the risk of dying. Many princes and |
| : knights who have tried have been smashed to smithereens. Their corpses are now in a | |
| : common grave. Ninety nine Prince Charmings have already died and if you enter, you | |
| : could be the hundreth. | |
| Trickster | : How do you imagine that I will perish so easily? Have you ever seen a dead devil? |
| Watchman | : Trickster!! Trickster!! God bless you!!! |
| Trickster | : Take it easy watchman!!! Mind your gate and do not bother about me!! |
| Watchman | : Trickster, my boy!! I am speaking to you as if you were my own child. I'd advise you |
| : to turn back on your way into the wide world though the Blue Emperor has ordered me | |
| : to hold any young man if he is of marrying age. I am not to let him leave our land until he | |
| : tries his powers at the palace to break the spell on the Blue Emperor's daughter. He is to | |
| : sleep one night in a room with the Bear and to awake unharmed the next morning. | |
| Trickster | : To turn back after such a long journey and go back to where I cam from? Not a chance!! |
| : Watchman!! Maybe destiny has directed me here, maybe arriving here is my own good | |
| : fortune! | |
| Watchman | : As you like, but my good nature induces me to warn you! |
| Trickster | : Thank you very much watchman. I'll be very careful. |
| Blue Emperor | : (His voice coming from backsage) Hey!! What's going on there at the gate of the |
| : palace? (Pause) Who is strolling on our lands? | |
| Watchman | : (Whispering to Trickster) the Blue Emperor is coming!! (Loudly to the Emperor) |
| : . . . a poor man . . . he is asking for lodging . . . | |
| Blue Emperor | : Is he young? |
| Watchman | : . . . yes . . . no . . . he is . . . |
| Trickster | : I am called Trickster, Your Highness! |
| Blue Emperor | : Ha!! Ha!! Ha!! You don't say!! I have not heard of you for such a long time until |
| : today!! I thought you were already dead for at least a century!! But it is not too late | |
| : to die tonight. | |
| : (To the Watchman) Open the gate! | |
| : (The watchman opens the gate, which makes a great deal of noise from the heavy | |
| : and rusted bolts. The gate suddenly slams shut behind Trickster and the bolts are | |
| : swiftly locked. Spear-carrying soldiers suddenly appear and grab him. The Blue | |
| : Emperor's Machiavellian laughter is heard and then the noise of swords being | |
| : drawn from their scabbards. The Blue Emperor and his daughter are coming onto | |
| : the stage.) | |
| Blue Emperor | : Ha! Ha! Ha! Your popularity will lower from now on. You will make a mockery |
| : of . . . yourself now! (He is pointing towards the audience.) | |
| Watchman | : Take pity on him, Your Highness! For pity's sake! We all love Trickster, we love |
| : him for his lovely jokes! Take pity on him!! | |
| Blue Emperor | : That's it! An Emperor is supposed to have no mercy for his underlings, otherwise they |
| : will not obey any more. But I will give you a chance, Trickster. If you take the risk and | |
| : remain alive after sleeping one night with the Bear from the palace, I'll give my daughter | |
| : to you as a wife as well as one quarter of the entire empire. (The watchman is crying.) | |
| : Tell me Trickster, do you dare to take the risk? | |
| Watchman | : Pay attention, Trickster! This Bear is not a usual one. It is as giant as a mountain. The |
| : Blue Emperor is keeping it in a cellar that is a cold and damp grotto. He is eating a | |
| : man every night. The Emperor's daughter is sighing.) | |
| Blue Emperor | : Hey! You, watchman, accompany this undaunted young man to the bear's grotto. And |
| : don't forget. Tomorrow, in the small hours of the morning do take and throw out his | |
| : bones so not to filth the air of the palace. | |
| Emperor's Daughter | : Father, have mercy on him! He is such a stout fellow with unrivaled features that |
| : I have never seen until now! | |
| Blue Emperor | : First of all, he must prove his bravery. I do not give my daughter to the first |
| : newcomer. | |
| Trickster | : Your Highness, I want to ask something of you! |
| Blue Emperor | : Let's hear it! Speak! |
| Trickster | : Do lend me until tomorrow morning a bag with hot pies and a bag with fir-wood splints. |
| : A bag with nuts, a bag with stones and place in a fifth bag a razor, mirror, soap a | |
| : shaving brush, a chopper and a number of deal boards and pins. I'll try to do in the | |
| : Bear. | |
| Blue Emperor | : Do give him what he wishes! Let's see! (The watchman gets out into the side-scene and he |
| : is coming back with five bags which he gives to Trickster. ) And now, do accompany him | |
| : to his fate! (Trickster is pushed from behind with spears off the stage to inside the grotto | |
| : where the Bear is kept.) |
| (The grotto of the Bear. The stage is in a shade of darkness. There are stalagmites and | |
| stalactites and a little water spring. A frightful, giant, mangy bear is sleeping on a very | |
| large bed.) | |
| Trickster | : (Singing) wake up, wake up you lazy bones!! |
| Bear | : (Sick and tired) I don't wake, I don't wake. I am dropping with sleep. |
| (Trickster noisily casts his bags to the ground. The Bear is starting as if from a deep dream | |
| and he is looking at Trickster with large red eyes. He is speaking to Trickster in an attempt | |
| to frighten him.) | |
| Grrrr! Grrrrr! Grrrrrr! (Threatening with his great paws) Grrrr! (Trickster remains | |
| undaunted.) So! You are not frightened. All others were fainting away in a swoon at the | |
| first sight of me. | |
| Trickster | : How on Earth! I have just forgotten to get frightened. |
| Bear | : I beg you, do get frightened, otherwise the Blue Emperor could get angry! |
| Trickster | : I have forgotten to get frightened, seeing you so big and bulky. |
| Bear | : Honest? |
| Trickster | : Do not wonder about nothing! Stand up on two legs when somebody enters your home! |
| Bear | : (Stretching himself lazily) Grrrr! Grrrr! Grrrr! Who is that one who dares to oblidge me? |
| Trickster | : The politeness is obliging you. Do you want to be considered an ill-bred from beneath the |
| Earth? Good manners teach you to be polite and respectful with unknown people. | |
| Bear | : (The same play with his paws) Grrrr! Grrrr! Grrrr! |
| Trickster | : Mind your place, mind your behavior! Behave yourself! Tell me you haven't been ashamed |
| to grow like that: pell-mell and uncontrolled? Whom else have you seen looking like that? | |
| Bear | : Shame? To me? What do you think? Let's make a contest to see who will be the winner. |
| Trickster | : A contest, surely! Of course, a good idea. Let us go into a contest to become friends |
| Bear | : How do you prefer: to fight with swords, with spears or to struggle in a wrestling match? |
| Trickster | : I don't like those kinds of fighting! I don't want any bloodshed even in a fight with a bear. |
| Any dolt may win in a fight with a sword. We shall fight with words. Let's see who is the | |
| cleverest!! (Pause) But wake up, you idler! What's that! You are going to sleep at the | |
| same time as the hens!! What are you: a bear or a masher? (The bear is looking in wonder | |
| at this little being who is speaking in an unstintingly towards him.) | |
| Bear | : (Ironically) Whom have I the honor of meeting? |
| Trickster | : Who am I? Only a stupid thing like you does not know who I am! |
| Let's see if you can guess! | |
| Bear | : Maybe you are a Prince who has come here to marry the Blue Emperor's daughter!!! |
| Trickster | : What kind of a Prince carries a bag? (He is laughing.) The Blue Emperor's daughter!!! |
| (The bear is standing up on two legs and he looks like a very large rock ready to collapse | |
| over Trickster.) | |
| Bear | : But I shall eat you just like that!! Grrrr! Grrrr! Grrrr! |
| Trickster | : (Frightened, looking upwards to the bear but speaking down to him) You, little bear! |
| Behave yourself! First of all, do sit down when you speak to me, you will get tired! | |
| (The bear sits down on the bed, no longer looking like a giant. Trickster is breathing | |
| very hard, it seems that he is no longer frightened.) | |
| Look here, I am caustic and I'll turn your stomach if you eat me. Do you see these - (he | |
| is pointing towards the bags). I suggest that you first of all taste a bit of pie with honey. | |
| I know that you are very fond of honey, abiding the stings of a swarm of bees when you | |
| are caught at their hive. | |
| Bear | : (Licking his lips) how I'd like that!!! |
| Trickster | : (Addressing the audience with an aside, so as not to be heard by the bear): I shall give him |
| a bag with splints. (Trickster throws a big, tough splint from the bag with the splints while | |
| he is eating a pie from the bag with pies. The bear is trying to eat the splint, trying very hard, | |
| forcing himself to gnaw at the splint but he cannot so he is crying.) | |
| Trickster | : You are not able to eat a pie!! And you dare to compete with me!! Don't you? |
| (The bear is discredited and goes to great lengths to eat all the splints. Afterwards he begins | |
| to complain, holding his belly with his paws.) | |
| Bear | : Alas!!! My belly is hurting me!! My belly is hurting me!! |
| Trickster | : What's the matter with you? What's hurting you? Your belly is hurting you just from eating |
| pies? | |
| Bear | : (Pretending he is not hurt.)No!! Nothing hurts me!! |
| Trickster | : This means that you cannot eat nuts, not a single nut! |
| Bear | : That bag with nuts is not enough for me, I'll crack them all with my large teeth. |
| Trickster | : You are only puffing yourself up. |
| (Addressing the audience so as not to be overheard by the bear) | |
| I'll give him the bag with the stones so that he will crack his own teeth on them. | |
| (Trickster gives him the bag with stones.) | |
| Bear | : I'll crack the nuts with my teeth and not with a hammer as you are doing. |
| Trickster | : O.K. !! If you think you are so stout!! |
| (The bear is striving with all his might to crack the "nuts", but he is cracking all his teeth | |
| instead and he is spitting them from his mouth like glass beads.) | |
| Bear | : Alas!!! I am now toothless, I have no teeth in my mouth anymore!! |
| Trickster | : A few minutes ago you were saying that all my nuts are not enough for your teeth but I |
| see now that it is quite otherwise: all your teeth were not enough for a single nut. You are | |
| not worth your salt. If you were living in a forest with all the other bears, you would not | |
| survive, you would die of starvation. The Blue Emperor is your luck, he is feeling pity for | |
| you and he is throwing you some leftovers from his dinner as if you were a dog | |
| Bear | : Are you insulting me? Do you dare to insult me? |
| Trickster | : What has induced you into such a rage? Now, toothless you cannot do anything to anyone |
| any more. | |
| (Trickster is producing from a bag a razor, mirror, soap and a shaving brush. He is fixing | |
| the mirror on a wall and he begins shaving his face calmly.) | |
| Bear | : What are you doing up there? |
| Trickster | : I am shaving myself to be smart and not covered with locks like you. The Emperor's |
| daughter will get frightened when she sees you so ugly as you look just now. | |
| Bear | : I love the Emperor's daughter very much. I have killed all her suitors and that's why I'll |
| kill you too. | |
| Trickster | : I don't like the Blue Emperor's daughter and I don't intend to marry her; she is too |
| haggard and spoiled. I have come here to teach you how to entrance her, how to behave | |
| yourself to give up your bad habits (meanwhile he is finished shaving and he is showing | |
| his face to the bear.) | |
| Look at my cheeks, how smart I am!! | |
| Bear | : (Admiringly) shave me, too!! |
| Trickster | : Do you think that you can support it? |
| Bear | : With great pleasure!! I want the Blue Emperor's daughter to fall in love with me. |
| Trickster | : O.K.!! But do not grow angry. You have three inches of long locks and it will be hard to |
| shave them. | |
| Bear | : Do, try!! |
| Trickster | : O.K.!! Be attentive now!! |
| (He arranges two boards on the floor) | |
| Lie there! | |
| (The bear is lying on the boards, Trickster is catching the bear's paws, two by two, with | |
| some other shorted boards.) | |
| Bear | : But what do you intend to do with me? |
| Trickster | : You must stay motionless, like this was a surgical operation. |
| Bear | : But the doctors use anesthetic, so that you do not feel the pain. |
| Trickster | : Do not worry. I have thought of everything. |
| (Trickster is pouring water on the bear and then he makes soap lather all over | |
| Trickster takes the stick so that the lather spreads all over the cave.) | |
| Bear | : Alas!! What's going on here? Alas!!! |
| Trickster | : You have to be patient, I have to tease your fur because it is too dirty and filthy. |
| Bear | : But I see that you are clubbing me!! |
| Trickster | : I do not club you, I am clubbing your fur to soften it so as to more easily cut those locks |
| of yours. Haven't you observed that men lather their cheeks very well before shaving. | |
| Bear | : (In a half voice) of course, I have seen them!! |
| (Trickster takes a great chopper out of a bag and begins cutting the bear's great locks.) | |
| Alas! Alas! Alas! Grrrr! Grrrr! | |
| Trickster | : Do not make such a hubbub, you could wake up our neighbors. The Blue Emperor could |
| hear it. | |
| (The bear is lamenting in a lower voice and he is tossing around on the boards. After a | |
| while Trickster : ) | |
| I have grown tired. I am sure that you have never shaved yourself in all your life and you let | |
| your beard grow since the day you were born. | |
| (Trickster moves the boards, setting the bear's paws free. The bear is hardly breathing.) | |
| Now, take this handkerchief (he gives him a handkerchief) and defend me against the | |
| flies because I have toiled so hard for you. I want to rest in your bed until tomorrow morning | |
| and you must see that no one disturbs me. | |
| (Trickster is lying on the bed and he falls asleep lightly snoring. The bear looks very stultified | |
| and deploring, barely standing on his feet. The light in the cave is growing slowly brighter. | |
| Dawn is coming. The bear is defending Trickster with the handkerchief. Outside, one can hear | |
| the voice of the Blue Emperor and his daughter lamenting.) | |
| Blue Emperor | : Watchman, take Trickster's bones out of here and throw them away, the air is filthy! |
| Watchman | : Immediately, Your Highness! |
| (The watchman is coming in the cave rubbing his eyes and creaking the door loudly.) | |
| Bear | : (With his finger at his muzzle) quiet! Silence! Mister Him is sleeping!! (He |
| is pointing towards Trickster; | |
| (The watchman stumbles over a stalagmite and falls down in surprise seeing the poor | |
| appearance of the bear.) | |
| Watchman | : (Aside) What an apparition of a bear!! How could Trickster make such a mockery of him? |
| Trickster | : Who is disturbing my rest? |
| Bear | : (To Trickster pointing towards the watchman.) Boss!! He has fainted away when seeing how |
| handsome I am!! | |
| (The bear is slapping the watchman's face with his paws.) | |
| Watchman | : Don't touch me with your paws, beast! |
| Bear | : (To Trickster.) He cannot believe his eyes how handsome I am. |
| Watchman | : (Running quickly out of the cave and shouting) |
| Your Highness!! Courtiers!! Do something quickly to see the miracle!!! | |
| (They are all coming into the cave and are astonished.) | |
| Bear | : (Very proud of himself, speaking to Trickster.) My beauty has taken their breath away. |
| Grrrr! Grrrr! I am the most handsome bear in the whole world!! | |
| Blue Emperor | : To the devil! You are the most ugly!! |
| Bear | : (Smiling towards Trickster), they are not yet accustomed to my new appearance. |
| Blue Emperor | : You! Get out of my palace! I need no more such frights. You are stultifying me!! |
| Emperor's Daughter | : But father, do respect your own pledge to Trickster. |
| Blue Emperor | : If I have taken this pledge that I would give him my daughter as wife and a quarter of the |
| whole empire, I must obey. | |
| All the courtiers | : Hurray!! Trickster will live with us from now on!!! |
| Trickster | : Your Highness!! I am very proud of the honor you are granting to me, but I am not worthy |
| of your daughter and your empire. My destiny is to stroll free along the entire world, to | |
| help other people to get rid of troubles and the evil which still exists. I cannot tarry in only | |
| one empire, the other will feel my absence. (The Emperor's daughter is crying.) I am sure | |
| you will find another worthy bridegroom. I am not looking for riches and power. I am | |
| content with my poverty and my freedom, I want to be free as the birds in the sky. | |
| Watchman | : Go away and be free and healthy, Trickster!! |
| Blue Emperor | : I am grateful to you, you broke the spell which held my unmarried daughter. What |
| will you do now? | |
| Trickster | : Your Highness! I want to ask you to give me this bear. I will teach him many things . |
| Bear | : (Starting eagerly), I am ready at any moment!! |
| Trickster | : To employ him in a circus so that he may greet with his paws at his temple the children |
| from all over the world, to do somersaults and to walk on string. An itinerant circus will | |
| take him from country to country and when he is an old bear, he will retire to a zoo with a | |
| well deserved pension. He is gifted and well trained. | |
| Blue Emperor | : I have the exact same thoughts as Trickster. |
| Emperor's Daughter | : Do come to us as well with your itinerant citcus! |
| Bear | : Grrrr!! Grrrr!! Of course, surely!! |
| Courtiers | : Goodbye Trickster! See you later !! |
| Trickster and the Bear | : (Going away), see you later!!! |
| ( The road is leading from the palace through a thick forest. The palace remains in | |
| the distance and then it disappears. Snow is coming down. Trickster and the bear are singing. | |
| Trickster is leading the bear with a chain tied onto the bear's collar. The bear makes | |
| somersaults and he is bowing, greeting the children in the audience.) | |
| Trickster | : I am Trickster - the famous |
| All the world I want to stroll | |
| I am Trickster - the famous | |
| and I want to help you all!! | |
| Bear | : And I am the bear jester |
| what could scare me? Nothing! | |
| Trickster is my only master | |
| and I am walking on strings!! | |
| Both | : The first stanza from scene I. |
| Trickster | : Refrain I |
| Bear | : Refrain II |
| (The curtain is falling down. Trickster is heard singing the first stanza.) | |
| Trickster | : The first refrain. |
| (June 1970 - 1986. Inspired from a fairy tale told to me by my Grandfather Smarandache | |
| N. Ion or Mandea as the call him - from Gorunesti-hamlet, Balcesti village - Valcea | |
| county.) |
| PLAYERS: | Trickster; |
| Bear; | |
| Dragon (seven headed). | |
| Trickster and the bear are walking through a forest. The forest is covered with snow. |
| It is a frosty night. Howls are heard somewhere in the distance. A light is sparkling. |
| Bear | : Master! Look there! There is a light up there!! Maybe it is a chalet for tourists or a cottage |
| for a forester. | |
| Trickster | : Take it easy! Don't rush like a stupid lamb into the mouth of a wolf!! |
| Bear | : But I am very cold because I have no more of my fur. You clubbed it and then cut it off. |
| (gestures as if clubbing somebody.) | |
| Trickster | : Never mind! Don't bother. You have to harden yourself to it. Your fellow bears are hibernating |
| now in this weather, in their dens sucking their own paws of famine while you have pies | |
| and nuts . . . so many victuals. | |
| Bear | : Don't speak any more of pies and nuts, I am sick of them, I'd rather not eat anything. |
| Trickster | : It's your own business!! But until we reach the other end of the forest, this forest is as |
| black and thick as a brush, your belly will be absolutely empty and its skin will be | |
| near your back. | |
| Bear | : Let it be the only trouble Trickster. But so that we don't get bored, let's tell a story! |
| A fairy tale! | |
| Trickster | : Let me think! Once upon a time there was a dragon, a very lovely and obedient dragon. |
| Bear | : I have never heard of a lovely dragon, nor of an obedient one! In all the fairy tales by my |
| grandfather, the Oldbear, the dragons were all wild, frightful beasts. | |
| Trickster | : This one was a nice and obedient one. He was a little cub just born to his mother. She was |
| nurturing him with milk from her bosom and she was swinging and caressing him. | |
| Bear | : (In disgust) poor him! She was caressing him!! |
| Trickster | : And our dragon was growing and he has now become a grown up dragon. And every night he |
| was eating a .(pause)..a bear. | |
| Bear | : Alas!! Trickster! Don't you know another fairy tale! I was so afraid my hair stood on end. |
| Trickster | : What hair? You have no more hair on you. |
| Bear | : Alas!! But, what do you think, are there really dragons? |
| Trickster | : Why are you asking me? You, as a bear, would know more about dragons since they are beasts |
| nearer to your kin. | |
| Bear | : Of my kin? What? Has he drunk water from the same jar as me? God bless my heart!! |
| Trickster | : Let's go on. so the dragon was eating a bear every night. |
| Bear | : Alas!! Hasn't he changed his menu? Always the same menu? Wasn't he tired of the same thing |
| every night? | |
| Trickster | : The bears were a sweet dessert for the dragon. Something he found very delicious. |
| Bear | : And what shall we do if we come face to face with such a wretched being? (Frightfully) What |
| do you say about that Trickster? | |
| Trickster | : If we stumble upon the tail of a dragon which is bathing in the sun on a stone, then we must |
| fight to the death to defeat him. | |
| Bear | : It would be wiser to take flight. |
| Trickster | : You cannot take flight as easily as you have incited him. |
| Bear | : And how do you think you can fight a seven headed beast where each head has its own mouth |
| where he can bite with them all? | |
| Trickster | : If you cannot defeat him in wrestling, you must defeat him with cleverness. You have to |
| deceive him my little bear. You have to take away his mind so you defeat him in a fight | |
| without fighting. You must make him defeat himself. | |
| Bear | : The dragons are now living in the woods and they are not to be met in the night are they? |
| Trickster | : If you say so! |
| Bear | : If that is so, where are they living? |
| Trickster | : Well! If they are not living in the woods that means that they are living in the towns, in |
| houses or in blocks of flats. | |
| Bear | : And so, they are not tramping in the night? |
| Trickster | : (Ironically) I think that they are not getting out of their dens because they are afraid of |
| beasts. | |
| Bear | : And in this case, what are they doing in their free time? |
| Trickster | : At night they are lying in their beds and with one head they watch television and with |
| the other heads they read fairy tales written by Ion Creanga, Andersen or the Grimm | |
| brothers. | |
| Bear | : As I reckon, they are multilateral persons. |
| Trickster | : A head is smiling, a head is sighing, a head is smoking and a head is drinking coffee |
| in the morning. | |
| Bear | : What a nice thing, they are behaving themselves. |
| Trickster | : One day he was coming back home from fishing. I forgot to tell you that he had become |
| a fisherman renowned throughout the land. He was hypnotizing the fish with the middle | |
| head and with the first head he was grasping and gobbling the fish because this head had | |
| a larger mouth. He was fishing only for carps that were as big as a knapsack and . . . | |
| Bear | : And? |
| Trickster | : and pikes and breams. |
| Bear | : And the other heads, what were they doing in the meantime? |
| Trickster | : The other heads were lurking by themselves little fishes and they were swooping upon |
| their prey. | |
| Bear | : This dragon was fishing with a rod with many hooks, but, go on. |
| Trickster | : And so, he was coming back home one day and he has found in the mail-box a |
| telegram brought there by an ostrich. The telegram was from his aunt who let him know | |
| that she was ill and she was taken to a hospital. The dragon has bought a ticket and he | |
| took the first plane..(pause). | |
| Bear | : And what?.Go on.. |
| Trickster | : The pilot, a kangaroo dressed in service unit, pulled a lever and the plane took off while the |
| Stewardess was speaking on a loudspeaker: "put on your belts". The warm womanly voice | |
| Has melted the dragon's heart. | |
| Bear | : But what? Had he only one heart? |
| Trickster | : It doesn't matter. Listen to me.the stewardess was as beautiful as a swan with a long neck |
| and a white gown and the dragon fell in love with her as soon as he saw her. | |
| Bear | : Were there any other travellers on the plane? |
| Trickster | : Of course. A wild boar was among them and he has fallen asleep and was snoring |
| So loudly that you might swear that he was walking through some creeping stalky pumpkins. | |
| He was in the plane with his swon and a herd of little pigs which were squeaking for | |
| sweets, chocolates, oranges juice. They could not stay still for a minute. The Wilde Boar | |
| family being the most numerous was also the noisiest. There it was a Pussy-cat also, she | |
| had brown fur and was wearing a little felt cap and a pinky bow and she was perfumed | |
| all over:from the top of her tail till her little ears. She was dozing away in the last row of | |
| chairs. | |
| Bear | : This is the question : how could the dragon love the swan with one head while he... |
| Trickster | : He was loving her with all his being. But the swan was fond only of the dragon's |
| second head who was the most good looking of them all. And thus, the other heads have | |
| become jealous of the second head. The dragon was cursing his fate thinking why hasn't | |
| he been born with only one head as all the people in the world. But their idyll has lasted | |
| till the first landing of the plane. The dragon has to get down at the first stop. The Wild | |
| Boar with his family and the Pussy-cat remaied in the plane to fly on. When they have | |
| parted,the swan was sighing and she starts crying and each tear dropped on earth became | |
| of a sudden a tree, an alder-tree and she has wept so much that all the airport became | |
| thick alderwood. | |
| Bear | : A wood like the one we are passing through? |
| Trickster | : That's it!!...and the dragon...I can't remember anymore. |
| Bear | : What has happened to the dragon? |
| Trickster | : Let him alone !! Let me tell you about the swan !! |
| Bear | : What about the swan? |
| Trickster | : The plane just took off, it didn't reach yet 100 meters and there was an explosion!! |
| Something out of order at the engines, they thought. The pilot has no time but to say: | |
| "we are falling down. .we are.:.But the local newspapers have written | |
| of wolfs-terrorists have had evil thought against the Wild Boar's family and they have | |
| hidden a time-bomb into the Pussy-cat's handbag. | |
| Bear | : Poor little cubs!! |
| Trickster | : They say one of them has escaped alive. A squad of police-dogs with baldrics and pistols |
| have run to the place of the accident and they have found the little pig and have rescued | |
| him. Do you know where the plane has fallen? | |
| Bear | : No. Where? |
| Trickster | : Just here, in the Alderwood, that is the name of this wood. |
| Bear | : What a coincidence!!! |
| Trickster | : Mister captain Bulldog, the chief of the squad, has found the little pig routing among |
| remnants of the plane saying that he was searching for his brothers. The swan has | |
| jumped but her parachute has not opened. | |
| Bear | : And the dragon? What about him? |
| Trickster | : The dragon hasn't gone to the hospital anymore. He has taken a taxi and he has ridden to |
| the wood in search for the stewardess and he has never come back home again. | |
| Bear | : Has he remained in the woods? |
| Trickster | : Yes! He has remained. The Alderwood saga is telling this. |
| Bear | : Alas! My Lord! But to say so, your whole story is only a fairy-tale! |
| Trickster | : But still they are true stories!! |
| Bear | : I know you are telling it only to frighten me, aren't you? And which is the end of this |
| story? | |
| Trickster | : The dragon has become a wild beast because he was no more living among civilized |
| people. A blue lake with white water lilies near its banks is now there where the swan | |
| has fallen and its deep waters it is the dragon's den. There, down on the bottom of the | |
| lake he has built a castle made of glass for himself and from it he is coming now out | |
| with a submarine and on the land he is going in the wood for his prey. He is lurking | |
| the prey with all his eyes.so he has lived and he is still living alone as a recluse in | |
| nowadays.. | |
| Bear | : No!! I hope he is not living anymore!! |
| Trickster | : And so I have mounted on a blue horse to tell you this story in force.. |
| Bear | : The other dragons are doing evil things, aren't they? |
| Trickster | : No! The people have tamed them. You may find a lot of dragons at the Zoo. |
| crocodiles, giant or poisonous snakes. or at the circus. All the children are coming | |
| to see them. | |
| Bear | : I'd like to see a dragon, a seven headed dragon as those from the fairy-tales told me |
| by my grandfather: Oldbear. | |
| Trickster | : If you have good luck, you may meet one. |
| Bear | : I would be very glad! |
| Trickster | : I doubt it, you are posturing, just now, in his absence.. |
| Bear | : (Straining his muscles) I am a stout bear. I was a weight-lifter champion and I am |
| Not scared by the first new comer!! Alas!! But what is it? (He is picking up from | |
| The ground a little cap for the ladies). | |
| Trickster | : It looks like Pussy-cat's little cap! |
| Bear | : So, the story was not at all a simple fairy-tale, was it? (The light grows brighter.) |
| Trickster | : Take care!! (The howls are louder now.) |
| Bear | : Master! I am afraid!! (He is hiding behind Trickster.) |
| Trickster | : It is my fault, I have started such a long way with such a coward! The children may |
| Believe that all the bears are weaklings and cowards. Do you want to stultify all | |
| Your kin? (The seven headed dragon is coming on the stage. He is yelling with a | |
| Harsh voice and he is spitting fire and smoke from all his seven mouths.) | |
| Dragon | : Well ! I've taken a good bath in the clear waters of this lake and now I am famished |
| like a ...dragon. (Speaking to the two) What do you want on this lonely land? | |
| Trickster | : (Addressing the bear) Look at him, a real dragon coming from the fairy-tales. |
| Bear | : Maybe he is a fugitive from the Zoo !! |
| Trickster | : The Harridan of the Woods has overrun us mounted on a rocket and she has heard your |
| wish and now she has fulfilled it. | |
| Bear | : I thank her for hearing my wish, but she would rather not fulfill it. |
| Dragon | : I have asked you, what are you doing on this lonely land, what do you want? |
| Bear | : Alas !! Trickster. But this dragon is a wild one !! (To the dragon shivering with fright) |
| Me...I... I don't want anything !! | |
| Trickster | : (To the bear) Shut up, you, good for nothing !! (To the dragon) I am very glad to see |
| You, my friend ! | |
| Dragon | : Me !! Your friend !! |
| Trickster | : Poor bear !! He has become a crank !! He has killed so many dragons in the Alderwood |
| that he has forgotten their number. | |
| Dragon | : What? . . . Whom?... |
| Bear | : (After a pause) Me...I...I don't want anything !! |
| Trickster | : He has begged me on his knees of bear not to send him anymore to fight any living |
| Being because he feels pity for them. He has squeezed in his arms a she-dragon with | |
| short tails at each of her heads, a sister of yours, that she gave away her soul through all | |
| her seven mouths. | |
| Bear | : Me . . . I . . . I don't want anything !! |
| Trickster | : And then he has sworn to give up killing so you may be at ease, mister dragon, we will do |
| you no harm. You are safe with us ! | |
| Dragon | : You want to say that this good for nothing bear . . (laughing) |
| Bear | : Me . . . I . . . I don't want anything ! |
| Trickster | : Alas !! The bear is changing his hair but not his habits, as a wolf. |
| Dragon | : By no means ! I don't believe ! I'll swallow you alive !! (The bear is crying his eyes out.) |
| Trickster | : In any case, you can not swallow him (pointing towards the bear) he is too big, he is a |
| giant. (To the bear) take it easy! I'll not insult you obliging you to fight with such a | |
| small and insignificant dragon. | |
| Dragon | : I am the Lord of the Alderwood and of everything what it is in this forest. (He is spitting |
| out puffs of flames.) | |
| Trickster | : You are right, perhaps, because you are speaking so "ardently". |
| Dragon | : Don't you see how great I am? Do you? |
| Trickster | : You are not so great . . . rather like a skinny and frazzled hippopotamus. |
| Dragon | : Since the plane has crashed and my lovely swan has gone away beyond . . . I have changed |
| lodging, I have come to live down in the deep waters of the lake near her grave in a | |
| castle made of crystal and I am coming out for hunting only at night. I was in mourning | |
| six months for my little love. | |
| Bear | : Me . . . I . . . I don't want anything ! But, I feel like I am burning. Why am I burning? |
| (Enlarging his eyes) Trickster ! But he is just the dragon from the fairy-tale. You have | |
| brought him here on this stage. It is not possible! It is only an image. .(The dragon | |
| is spitting fire out of puffery, large and whirling, flames through all his seven mouths.)... | |
| No, it is not only a fancy image! He is really alive and his flames are burning me. | |
| Trickster | : My dear dragon! Be so kind and lower the power of the flames. Anyhow, we are |
| grateful to you, as we warmed ourselves by your flames during our debates. It is such | |
| frosty weather !.The icicles from our noses and ears have melted away. | |
| Dragon | : My flames!! You will see much of them !! |
| Trickster | : You are such an itinerant stove. And on such a weather . . . our legs were benumbed, |
| frozen over all. | |
| Bear | : It is too hot!! I am suffocating . . . open the window !! |
| Trickster | : (Speaking to the bear) You are now a little thawed. (To the dragon) do you want to |
| accompany us on our way till the end of the woods? To help us in avoiding all these | |
| pits in the road, do you want to light our way? | |
| Dragon | : Look at them!! They want to make an underling out of me ! |
| Trickster | : By no means! My friend dragon! We have great esteem for you, haven't we, bear?!! |
| Bear | : I . . . I don't want anything!! |
| Trickster | : What do you want.more than that? Here is our beloved dragon! |
| Dragon | : "Beloved" !! Ha! Ha! Ha! |
| Trickster | : We will prove it to you ! |
| Dragon | : "I shall play with you as a cat with a mouse". (He is making gestures towards them to |
| scare them and he is again spitting fire.) | |
| Trickster | : You gave us such a warm welcome.that means that you have wanted to express your |
| sympathy! | |
| Dragon | : To express my "sympathy" for you ?!?! |
| Trickster | : You are disappointing us very much. |
| Dragon | : Well! I shall spit no more flames upon you from now on!! You are profiteers, aren't |
| you? | |
| Trickster | : (Making hints to the bear) Alas !! What a great misfortune upon us!! |
| Bear | : We will die frozen. |
| Dragon | : That is my intention: so that I may devour you peacefully. |
| Bear | : Alas!! Alas!! |
| Dragon | : Each of my heads will have his share from your flesh. |
| Bear | : He has so many heads!! |
| Trickster | : I stand to bet that the middle one is the strongest! |
| Middle head | : You are perfectly right! |
| Head 1 | : (The head from the left side) That is only your fantasy, I am the strongest! |
| Middle head | : Even if you are the largest, I am the strongest! (He is spitting fire and he is stretching |
| his neck towards the Head 1.) | |
| Trickster | : I am making a bet on the middle head! |
| Bear | : I am taking sides with Head 1! |
| Head 1 | : I am the strongest!! |
| Middle head | : No, I am. |
| Heads 2 and 3 | : What are you doing brothers? You are hitting us too!! |
| Head 1 | : Haven't you heard his pretence? |
| Trickster | : (To the bear) I make the bet the middle head will be the winner! |
| Bear | : I bet five guineas that Head 1 will defeat the middle one! |
| Trickster and Bear | : (Shaking hands) Agreed! |
| Head 7 | : What are you doing there? You are instigating them, aren't you? |
| Bear | : Who? Us? |
| Trickster | : By no means!! But you, the little one, why do you meddle? |
| Mind your own business!! You are a pointed head!! | |
| Head 7 | : I am not! Head 5 was born much more pointed. |
| Head 6 | : Shut up, you urchin!!! |
| Head 7 | : Hear him!!! Hear!! Listen, I'll tell it to our father! |
| Head 6 | : Do try!! You know you are landing into trouble!! (He is spitting a whirl of |
| flame towards Head 7.) | |
| Trickster | : Head 7 is the weakest of them all! (Head 1 and the Middle Head are |
| hitting each other with great force and they are curling their necks.) | |
| Head 7 | : Not always! |
| Heads 2 and 3 | : Behave yourselves brothers! (They are spitting flames against the others.) |
| Head 1 and middle head | : What are you, referees?? |
| Trickster | : They are meddling as a fly into a pot with milk, and they do not mind only |
| their business. It is a matter of fact that a hierarchy of your heads must be | |
| established so everyone will know whom to speak to. | |
| Bear | : Boss!! You have a great idea!! |
| Trickster | : On the devil! You need some order here!! (Pause) So, who is the chief? |
| All the heads | : I am! |
| Head 1 | : I am the greatest! |
| Head 2 | : I am the most handsome! |
| Head 3 | : I am the cleverest! |
| Middle head | : You are making me laugh with my dressing on me.I am the strongest! |
| Head 5 | : Of course, a strong skull . . . may be . . . I am the leader! |
| Head 6 | : Ha! Ha! Ha! Look who is our leader, one who can not lead himself. I am the |
| bravest! | |
| Head 7 | : Look at him! Where was the bravest! I didn't know till now! |
| Trickster and Bear | : We didn't know too! |
| Head 7 | : I am the last born and I am the most beloved by our parents! |
| The rest of the heads | : You will be cold when our parents will kiss you! |
| Head 7 | : I shall speak to our father! |
| The others | : You squeak!!! (While they are presenting themselves a fierceful fight starts, |
| first between two then between groups and afterwards there is a general | |
| jumble fighting with fires and smoke and curled necks.) | |
| Trickster | : What a wonderful show! A dragon fighting against himself! It is like a |
| in a T.V. cartoon for children! | |
| Bear | : And I like this way too! To be a spectator and not a fighter. |
| Trickster | : Alas!! My dear Bear! (He is caressing the bear on his muzzle.) |
| Bear | : Have you noticed my bravery? The dragon was shivering in front of me!! |
| Trickster | : You are joking! |
| Bear | : He has even lost his voice! |
| Trickster | : There are many who are brave after the war!! Even cowards as you! And especially them!! |
| They are pretending to be brave afterwards because they are not brave during the fight! | |
| Head 1 | : Which head am I? |
| Bear | : Look at them, Trickster! You do not recognize them any more!! |
| Middle head | : You are the little one! |
| Head 1 | : If it is so, then you are the ugliest! |
| Middle head | : No! Head 5 is the ugliest! |
| Head 1 | : But who of us is that? |
| Head 6 | : Trickster!! |
| Head 5 | : Bear!! |
| All of them | : On the devil! Help us in our fight!! |
| Head 3 | : We don't know anymore whom to hit!! |
| Head 2 | : We have gotten entangled! |
| All of them | : Help us to fight!! Help! Help! |
| Trickster | : Hit each other, or better, each of you to beat himself. (The fight starts again.) |
| Trickster | : Go on! Go on! Hate each other as deeply as you can! (The heads are hitting each other.) |
| Let's encourage them! Go on! Middle Head, go on!! | |
| Bear | : Go on! Head 1! Go on!! Go on!! |
| Trickster | : Box! Box!!(The heads are hitting each other and then they start swallowing each other.) |
| Bear | : Hurray for Head 1 hip . . . hip . . . hoooraaay!! |
| Trickster | : Go on! Go on! Love each other like brothers! |
| Bear | : With entangled necks!! |
| Trickster | : It is like a dragon knitted by my grandmother!! Go on; you Middle Head!!! (The dragon |
| enters into a death rattle then he dies away.) | |
| Bear | : How easy it is to kill a dragon with no sword and no gun!! (Trickster and Bear are |
| walking on the lane until the lake comes in sight. All the way they are singing:) | |
| Trickster | : I am Trickster - the famous! |
| All the world I want to stroll! Refrain 1 | |
| I am Trickster - the famous! | |
| And I want to help you all!!! | |
| Bear | : And I am the bear Jester |
| What could scare me? Nothing! Refrain II | |
| Trickster is my only master | |
| And I am walking on string! | |
| Both | : Lonely wandering |
| The entire world | |
| With spurred boots | |
| I don't feel cold! | |
| Trickster | : (Refrain I) |
| Bear | : (Refrain II) |
| Both | : Lots of children, spright and gay |
| Come to see him on the stages | |
| Of the puppets theatre play; | |
| Trickster, a joy for the little ones in ages! | |
| (The curtain is falling down. Trickster is still | |
| heard singing Refrain I.) |
| PLAYERS: | Trickster; |
| Bear; | |
| Outer space being (Outerspacer); | |
| Ogre. | |
| (Trickster and the Bear are passing a very large plain. They reach the foot of a high hill. | |
| It is a frosty, winter night.) |
| Trickster | : Bear! Do you believe in ogres? |
| Bear | : I believe that there are only drawn ogres in the animated cartoons or ogres |
| drawn by my father on the kites he used to fly with a long string. We, all the | |
| bear cubs, were jumping up and down with joy and our necks were hurting us | |
| because we were looking upwards to the sky. | |
| Trickster | : Alas! When you will see one in flesh and bones in front of you, you will not look |
| at him admiringly at all!! | |
| Bear | : To meet a living ogre? |
| Trickster | : Just like that!!! |
| Bear | : The ogres were living once upon a time when it was a milder weather, in the old |
| fairy-tale stories and they died away at the same time as the dinosaurs. | |
| Trickster | : But, perhaps they have gone away to other planets. |
| Bear | : Do you think that in those old times they were able to build rockets and other |
| flying objects? | |
| Trickster | : Let's suppose that there was another civilization before ours and it has destroyed itself. |
| Bear | : And that there are still survivors from that civilization? |
| Trickster | : How could I know? I was not born in those times. |
| Bear | : The ogres have wings, don't they? |
| Trickster | : Those drawn on the kites or from the cartoons, have wings. |
| Bear | : But let us speak seriously and not about toys for children. (A noise of engines then a |
| bright light as in full daylight.) | |
| Trickster | : What time is it, Bear? |
| Bear | : (Producing a watch out of a pocket) It is midnight. It should be the middle of the night |
| but I see we are in the light of a summer day. How strange!! It seems that the Sun has | |
| come down on Earth. We have just come out from a dark wood and we are now on a | |
| brightly lit plain, it is like being under a spell. | |
| (Sounds like radio signals are heard.) | |
| Trickster | : It seems to me that there is a flying saucer. |
| Bear | : You are mocking me! I have never seen a saucer flying by itself. |
| Trickster | : They are high flying saucers because they resemble outer-space ships, or UFO's or whatever |
| they are calling them. (A metallic stair is lowered and a green living being with | |
| spectacles is coming down. The green outerspace being - the outerspacer - has a | |
| robot-like voice.) | |
| Bear | : Look at him, how green he is, as he is eating only spinach like Popeye the Sailor man. |
| An ogre with spectacles.what a puppet!!! | |
| Outerspacer | : Zgri . . . gri . . . re . . . stri . . . tri . . . ri.!! |
| Bear | : What language is the ogre speaking, Trickster? |
| Trickster | : I don't understand a word!!! Maybe they are speaking a Chinese or German language. |
| Bear | : This is a mute ogre!! He does not know at least one internationally spoken language, |
| does he? | |
| Outerspacer | : Cri po ri po ..... Cri po ri po . . . |
| Bear | : And besides all that he does not have the well known mace. |
| Trickster | : Maybe he has forgotten it in the space-ship. |
| Bear | : Look, Trickster, the snow is melting under our feet. And look how warm it is. I am |
| perspiring all over as in the middle of a summer day. | |
| Outerspacer | : Ra re ri ro ru....Ra re ri ro ru . . . |
| Bear | : He is not the typical ogre!! |
| Trickster | : He has just arrived from the prehistoric times!! |
| Bear | : (Protecting his eyes with his paw.) Look how many little ogres there are in the flying- |
| saucer. They are looking at us through the sidelights. A young couple of ogres are | |
| dancing. How unseemly!! | |
| Trickster | : I am sure they are considering it very pleasant. |
| Bear | : BUT THERE IS SUCH FAIRY MUSIC, like from the other planets. |
| (The Outerspacer is coming near them. He is of a smaller and thinner size than a man.) | |
| Bear | : I am not afraid of any ogre, or para-ogre! If I should hit him once with my paw he would |
| crash down to the ground. How stupid I was until now, my skin was shivering on me as | |
| soon as I was hearing their names. | |
| Trickster | : Perhaps he is a dwarf ogre or somebody of their kin. |
| Bear | : What a creature!! But he looks kind and decent. |
| Trickster | : I believe you, there are some kindhearted and well-bred ogres. |
| Outerspacer | : . . . kindhearted ogres . . . |
| Trickster | : What did you say, Trickster? |
| Trickster | : I didn't say anything! |
| Bear | : I thought that somebody was mimicing me. |
| Outerspacer | : Mi . . mi . . cing . . . |
| Bear | : Trickster, have you heard, just now? |
| Trickster | : I have heard nothing, Bear! |
| Outerspacer | : . . . bear . . . bear . . . |
| Bear | : Alas!!! He is calling me! No! He is not calling me! I am sick!!! I am hearing things! |
| Outerspacer | : . . . hearing things . . . I am hearing things . . . |
| Bear | : You are hearing things too, Trickster! |
| Trickster | : The pity is that I have said nothing! |
| Bear | : But who has spoken before? |
| Trickster | : I do not know!!! |
| Bear | : But who was it that said: "hearing things . . . I am hearing things "? |
| Trickster | : Me? You are out of your mind! I am not ill! |
| Outerspacer | : . . . ill . . . I am hearing things . . . |
| Trickster | : I am in good health, great guns!!! |
| Outerspacer | : . . . guns . . . guns . . . |
| Bear | : Trickster, I think that this green creature wants to pop a gun, he wants to shoot us. |
| (He is pointing towards the outerspacer.)..my legs are melting..he wants to shoot | |
| us with a gun. | |
| Trickster | : Remember well! You were boasting that if you could only touch him . . . |
| Outerspacer | : . . . guns . . . guns . . . |
| Trickster | : Please, don't, we don't have any gun!!!! We are pacificts! Do you understand? |
| Outerspacer | : . . . understand? . . . understand? . . . |
| Bear | : I don't want to have anything to do with such a monster! A green . . . |
| Trickster | : This "ogre" is not a monster but a clever being. He is even cleverer than you are. |
| Bear | : I don't believe it! |
| Outerspacer | : . . . believe . . . believe . . . believe . . . |
| Trickster | : Are you able to create such a flying space-ship to fly quicker that the wind through |
| stars and planets? | |
| Bear | : I don't like flying in outer space. I feel myself much better here where I am |
| accustomed, here on the Earth. | |
| Trickster | : How would you receive a visitor from Mars or from the Moon? |
| Bear | : I would urge the dogs on him. |
| Trickster | : (Laughingly) Ha, Ha, Ha, and so you think that would scare them? |
| Bear | : I would throw stones at him. I would threaten him with a club. |
| Trickster | : And so! You would urge the dogs on him and you would stand against the flying |
| saucer with a club!!! It is advisable to be hospitable with him and to make connection | |
| with these outer space beings. | |
| Bear | : Who may know what kind of powers this ogre has hidden in himself? |
| Outerspacer | : Who may know what kind of powers this ogre has hidden in himself? |
| Bear | : Did you hear him? He has said it himself, he betrayed himself. |
| Trickster | : Take it easy! Haven't you caught the idea? He is learning our language. |
| Bear | : Look at him . . . How many aerial antennaes!!! An ogre with aerial antennae!!! |
| Trickster | : This ogre is coming from beyond our world. Maybe he is a scientific researcher |
| or even a scientist on his planet. He wants to study the life on Earth. | |
| Outerspacer | : He wants to study the life on Earth. |
| Bear | : My Lord!! How quickly an ogre learns a foreign language. I have tried very hard to |
| catch the man's words and customs. And nobody can say that I am a narrow minded | |
| bear. Yesterday, I bought a dictionary and a handbook with the usual speech for | |
| conversations to get accustomed with the Shark's and Octopus's language to make a | |
| connection with them, to ask them what is happening in the seas and oceans of the | |
| Earth. I want to know if their emperor is still the brown whale and who is the new | |
| commander of the Shark's army. I would like to go to a party organized by the | |
| Jelly-fish ballarinas, by the Sea-Star fishes, by the Sea-Horse fishes in the honor | |
| of the Princess Siren . . . | |
| Trickster | : You are dreaming. Bear!! Remember, you do not know how to swim. |
| Outerspacer | : Dri . . . bri . . . bear, you just do not know how to swim! |
| Bear | : Word of honor!! (The Bear wants to clap the Outerspacer on the shoulder but he is |
| repelled with a jet of light.) Trickster, the monster is charged with electricity - it | |
| has the power of lightning! | |
| Trickster | : He is keeping you at a distance. Maybe he is an outer space living being and not an |
| Ogre as we are calling him. | |
| Bear | : Then why has he disguised himself as an ogre? |
| Outerspacer | : . . . I guess your intentions . . . you not can lie me . . . (He is using very poor human language.) |
| Bear | : Listen to him!!! He is just speaking now!! |
| Outerspacer | : (With a strange accent, distorting words.) Me . . . understand all languages.use |
| Telepathy . . . not listen with ears . . . the brain understands . . . receiving waves, rays . . . | |
| emanated by your brain.I am speaking to you not using mouth. | |
| Bear | : O.K.!! |
| Trickster | : He has no mouth!! |
| Outerspacer | : Me without mouth. Me eat not. |
| Bear | : And you are not starving, are you? |
| Outerspacer | : I charge myself . . . with . . . solar energy. |
| Trickster | : This outerspacer is an immortal being!! |
| Bear | : How do you speak out the words if you are mouthless? |
| Outerspacer | : The loudspeaker is pronouncing the words. The cerebral waves scanned by a |
| miniature radio fixed in my nape and changed into sounds perceptible to you . . . | |
| Bear | : To say so, he has no ears!! What a creature!! |
| Trickster | : He has no eyes, too!!! |
| Outerspacer | : I need not eyes. |
| Bear | : And how do you see us? |
| Outerspacer | : Me . . . emanate radio infared rays in all directions. They are hitting objects and come |
| back bringing information. As the bats at night maneuver their flying... | |
| Trickster | : And thus, you are seeing us without seeing us!!! |
| Outerspacer | : Exactly so!! |
| Bear | : You cannot smell a ripe strawberry, or taste it, can you? |
| Outerspacer | : I don't like strawberries or anything else. |
| Bear | : What a pity!!! It is no good to be an outerspacer!!! Do you want to become an |
| Earthling and to live with us? You are not eating . . . as for drinking.at all. Do you | |
| sleep? | |
| Outerspacer | : What is the meaning of "sleep"? |
| Bear | : To lie in bed and to shut your eyes . . . but, I have forgotten, you have no eyes. |
| Outerspacer | : What? |
| Trickster | : To be out of work, I mean to stay motionless |
| Outerspacer | : I am out of work when I am out of order, on the stocks and I am in major overhaul or in |
| complete overhaul. We have come on Terra to study the earthlings but I see the | |
| Earthlings are studying us. | |
| (Trickster and the Bear are laughing loudly.) | |
| Outerspacer | : I understand not what you are speaking!! |
| Trickster and Bear | : We are not speaking, we are just laughing! |
| Outerspacer | : What is that? I can not laughing. |
| Trickster | : We will teach you, don't worry!! Do you want to come with me and the Bear Jester |
| to the puppets theatre to tell the children customs from your planet, from your | |
| country? | |
| Outerspacer | : Go, go; go, but you cannot beat outerspacer. |
| Trickster | : Whom to beat!!! You are so feeble that one knows not what to beat!! Besides, you are |
| made of iron sheets so, no one would dare to hit you because he could hurt his hand or | |
| he could crash his bones. You have so many wheels, aerial antennas, wires and pins . . . | |
| One may prick his . . . his fingers if he would touch anywhere you. | |
| Bear | : Trickster is a trainer, he has tamed and trained many of my kin, he even tamed a dragon |
| some days ago and now he was planning to tame an ogre who is haunting somewhere | |
| over here. This ogre has his den in a cave digged up under a rock on the peak of this | |
| mountain. | |
| Trickster | : Much esteemed Outerspacer!! We are enlisting you in our troupe and we wish you to |
| become a cosmically renowned actor | |
| Outerspacer | : (Addressing towards his teammate from the outer spaceship.) Zbii, zbii, bri, pri, |
| cri, thrii, zgri . . . (The U.F.O. is answering with the same kind of sounds then it takes | |
| off. The bright light is lowering in intensity till the flying saucer looks like a star far | |
| away and disappears. The warm and the frost, the summer and the winter have changed | |
| places. The three are climbing up the mountain. The Outerspacer is moving with a | |
| robotlike rattle, and he is rotating the aerial antennas all the time.) | |
| Bear | : Alas!! Trickster!! It is a fearfull frost!! |
| Outerspacer | : The frost does not exist, it is felt. |
| Bear | : You, one made of iron! Thank you!! |
| Trickster | : We'll take shelter in the first cave we find. |
| Outerspacer | : I shall not take shelter . . . cave . . . there it is . . . humidity, all my devices get rusted and . . . |
| they get out of order . . . | |
| Bear | : Do you hear him? |
| Trickster | : Never mind!! You may stay outside and watch. (An ogre is coming down from the peak |
| of the mountain fluttering his wings.) | |
| Bear | : Look up! A new Outerspacer!! It seems that he has wings! . . . But where is his flying |
| saucer? | |
| Trickster | : (Ironically) Perhaps he wants to go on foot. Maybe he is taking a walk through the |
| galaxies. | |
| Bear | : Alone? |
| Trickster | : Do ask him yourself!! |
| Ogre | : (Terrible) Who dares trespass on my private estate? |
| Bear | : (Cowardly) It is he who is questioning me!! |
| Trickster | : He is a real living (stressingly) Ogre!! |
| Bear | : Which private estate? |
| Ogre | : My private estate, which I am inheriting according to my Uncle Horribleogre's |
| will recorded at the public notary. Haven't you seen the inscription: | |
| "NO TRESPASSING" (Silence) | |
| Trickster | : Bear! Don't you hear what Mister Ogre is asking you? |
| Bear | : I . . . I . . . I don't know how to read! |
| Ogre | : Do learn! (Nervously) go to school! You have grown so great and you do not know the |
| letters of the alphabet!!! | |
| Outerspacer | : Og . . . Ogri . . . gri . . . ri . . . |
| Ogre | : (Pointing towards the Outerspacer) And who is this dullard? Why is he dressed |
| like that? Is he going to a fancy-dressed ball? | |
| Trickster | : Do not grow angry Mister Ogre! I shall take care of both of them. I invited them to |
| accompany me in my travels. | |
| Ogre | : And you are travelling on my estate, aren't you? |
| Outerspacer | : Trickster, you have promised to protect Outerspacer from being beaten by Mister Ogre. |
| Ogre | : What are you mumbling about up there? You nincompoop!! |
| Trickster | : He is an outer-space being. He has descended from the sky with a flying saucer. (Then |
| speaking at the Ogre's ear.) He was programmed, I mean he was made as a robotlike | |
| toy, that kind of a toy with a key in its back and which is moving alone when the key | |
| winds the spring. It was programmed to destroy with his arms made of hard steel | |
| anything that he is meeting in his way!!! | |
| Ogre | : You make me laugh!! |
| Trickster | : Do try and come near him!! |
| (The Ogre tries but he is thrown back by a blue lightning.) | |
| Ogre | : Alas!! But it is not necessary to wrestle. I shall throw my mace from 20 km. Far from |
| here, and I shall crush his skull! | |
| Trickster | : Which skull? He has no skull!! (The Ogre is in wonder) and besides your mace is |
| a primitive weapon no more in use nowadays. They have invented bombs! (The | |
| Ogre is throwing his mace but the mace is repelled as a boomerang and lands squarely in the Ogre's | |
| chest, knocking the Ogre to the ground.) | |
| Ogre | : Alas!! What's going on here? I see coloured stars!! |
| Trickster | : Take it easy, nothing too serious. Our Outerspacer has returned the mace back to you. |
| Perhaps you need it to crack nuts. It is good for nothing else!! (The Bear is dancing.) | |
| (The bear is dancing.) | |
| Bear | : He has done you in, dear Ogre!! |
| Outerspacer | : Outerspacer thank you very much for giving me your mace, but I need it not. |
| Trickster | : (Ironically) Listen to him, Ogre! He is thanking you. |
| Outerspacer | : Outerspacer is giving an iron ball to Ogre. (He is producing from somewhere a large red |
| ball.) | |
| Trickster | : He is offering you a gift a . . . bomb. (Pointing towards the red ball.) . . . in your head! |
| Ogre | : Nobody has vanquished me up till now. Who dares to fight with me? (The Bear is just |
| scratching his nape with his paw.) Maybe Bear? | |
| Bear | : I . . . I do not fight anybody!!! It is not suitable with the good manners. My |
| schoolmistress will give me a bad mark for bad behavior. | |
| Trickster | : (Ironically) You are right! The Bear has the most distinguished manners. And he is not |
| degrading himself in such a plight to sully his little paws with your blood! | |
| Bear | : I am as clean as a pussy-cat. |
| Outerspacer | : And he is as brave as a pussy-cat, too! |
| Ogre | : But who is there to face me? Perhaps you, Trickster? |
| Trickster | : (In wonder) I have no desire to fight. You are a nice little Ogre. But you have hurt our |
| feelings, Mister Ogre. We thought of you as a decent Ogre | |
| Bear | : (To Trickster) Where have you ever seen a decent wild beast? |
| Ogre | : I am eager to crash someone to the ground. (He is stretching in a rage.) |
| Trickster | : Behave yourself! We have no time for jokes. Look here, if you are eager to fight, we |
| allow you to have a fight with our Outerspacer. We are in a hurry to climb you on the | |
| glass rock. | |
| Bear | : Uncle Outerspacer, do throw that ball at him once and for all! (The Outerspacer throws |
| the ball. The Ogre catches it but it lets it down immediately.) | |
| Ogre | : Alas! It has burned my fingers. It was burning like fire. |
| Bear | : run away, it might explode. It could make thousands of splints out of you. |
| Outerspacer | : The ball won't explode. It is a toy for children to play with in kindergarten. |
| Trickster | : I have taken away its detonator. It can no longer explode. |
| Ogre | : It was scorching, incandescent . . . you, man . . . or robot . . . or whatever you are!! |
| (The Ogre is swooping down on the outerspacer with his sword, but the sword | |
| bursts into pieces.) | |
| Outerspacer | : YOU CANNOT KILL ANYBODY'S THOUGHTS. |
| Ogre | : Let me take my hunting rifle. |
| (He is shooting but the outerspacer does not even stagger.) | |
| Bear | : Trickster, since when do the ogres have rifles? |
| Trickster | : They have evolved too. |
| Bear | : And who are those who are selling them weapons? Or do the ogres have a weapons |
| industry? | |
| Trickster | : During Peter Ispirescu's time with his wonderful fairy tales, neither |
| ogres or dragons knew anything about guns, bombs, planes or submarines | |
| remember? Prince Charming came from beyond our world on the wings of a giant bird | |
| which was ready to swallow him out of joy because he had rescued his chick from | |
| death. | |
| (The bear makes signs that he remembers.) | |
| If in those times there would have been planes or rockets Prince Charming would | |
| have been riding in a plane or a rocket. He would have sat comfortably on a chair with | |
| his head back and a glass of lemon juice in front of him . . . | |
| Outerspacer | : Mr. Ogre is vainly striving, the ideas do not die . |
| Ogre | : Perhaps I haven't taken the correct aim . . . I'll try once more . |
| (He takes aim and shoots but the cartridge explodes in the rifle | |
| Trickster | : Give it up, you little ogre! |
| Outerspacer | : Me . . . I am living in your imagination. NOBODY CAN DESTROY FANTASY. IT |
| IS IMPOSSIBLE. | |
| (The outerspacer disappears like a haze.) | |
| Bear | : How quickly he has disappeared, hasn't he? Like a ghost. |
| Outerspacer | : Alas!! You, ogre!! Do kill the people's fantasy if you can!!! |
| (The ogre is swooping towards the voice.) | |
| Trickster | : Do catch the outerspacer ogre!! Look out, he is over there!! |
| (He is pointing with one hand towards one side of the stage and with the other in | |
| the opposite direction. The Ogre is staggering.) | |
| Very well!! | |
| Outerspacer's | : I am waiting for you Ogre!! |
| voice | |
| Ogre | : (To Trickster) Where is it hiding? . . . come on, where are you, ghost!!! |
| Trickster | : How is it? You don't see him do you? Look over there! (The same play with his |
| hands.) Grasp him, Ogre!! | |
| (The Ogre is flummoxed. He is running from one side of the stage to the other.) | |
| If you had not run so quickly, maybe you would have caught him!! | |
| Bear | : What a flummoxed Ogre!! |
| Outerspacer's | : Destroy the ghost Ogre!! |
| voice | |
| Ogre | : Alas!! I shall kill him! (He got dizzy.) |
| Bear | : (To Trickster) What a plight he is in now!!! |
| Ogre | : Stop where you are ghost!! |
| (To Trickster) Where is he? | |
| Trickster | : There, in the same place!! (The same play with his hands.) Quicker |
| (The Ogre is falling down, finished.) | |
| Trickster | : Lock him in handcuffs Bear! |
| (The Ogre cannot stand anymore. The Bear is locking the Ogre's hands in cuffs.) | |
| Ogre | : What? What are you doing to me? |
| Bear | : What a farce!!! An Ogre put in jail!!! The Prince Charming would have simply |
| cut off his head. | |
| Trickster | : We have the duty to bring him to trial and only if the judge issues a death verdict |
| will a firing squad carry out the execution and the Ogre will be shot dead. | |
| Bear | : the world will be rid of Ogres!!! |
| Trickster | : We have to fasten him to a rock and then run into the Ogre's palace to phone the |
| Police to come and take him in for questioning, so that he will answer for his | |
| deeds. | |
| (The Bear is fastening the Ogre to a rock and then he and Trickster are moving off | |
| the stage. They come back after awhile. The siren of a police car is heard coming. | |
| Trickster and Bear are seen coming down from the peak of the mountain. They are | |
| singing.) | |
| Trickster | : I am Trickster - the famous! |
| All the world I want to stroll! Refrain 1 | |
| I am Trickster - the famous! | |
| And I want to help you all!!! | |
| Bear | : And I am the bear Jester |
| What could scare me? Nothing! Refrain II | |
| Trickster is my only master | |
| And I am walking on string! | |
| Both | : Lonely wandering |
| The entire world | |
| With spurred boots | |
| I don't feel cold! | |
| Trickster | : (Refrain I) |
| Bear | : (Refrain II) |
| Both | : Lots of children, spright and gay |
| Come to see him on the stages | |
| Of the puppets theatre play; | |
| Trickster, a joy for the little ones in ages! | |
| (The curtain is falling down. Trickster is still | |
| heard singing Refrain I |