A scene from April’s most recent play, Good Bread Alley
Lights up on the dining room of Live & Let Live where Percival is being fitted for a dress. Beatriz sings as she works…a love song that teases the sun daring it to heed her call. El Coro echoes in English.
BEATRIZ
En la penumbra, de esta noche divina y prieta
sobre la tundra que puebla mi alma siempre despierta*
PERCIVAL
My mother would sing as she sewed. I remember her so vividly that it hurts to think that she gave me away.
BEATRIZ
Se oye un lamento como preludio de las horasmuertas
horas que pasan con la agonía de una muertelenta
BEATRIZ
She is here Percival. Listen forher on the wind.
PERCIVAL
I am not in the market for wind. I need reasons, answers. Why didshe return only to abandon me again?
BEATRIZ
When it is time for you to know, you will know. There is something you are supposed to learn,pero you continue to fight.
PERCIVAL
I suppose then, I am just like you. I keep banging on the doors of empty houses.
BEATRIZ
No, mi amor, I never go anywhere where there is no love.
BEATRIZ
hay
si tu volvieras…
si tu volvieras,
te vestiria de oro mi santo
callaria las cosas
para que pudieras oir mi canto, desesperado
PERCIVAL
The present is brutal. And thepast is chaos.
BEATRIZ
!Cuno carajo! Your obsession with your pain is exhausting. Your mother had a problem. She couldn’t raise her baby. So, she let a better woman do it--
PERCIVAL
Perhaps I was too broken for her to keep me–
BEATRIZ
Mira, Percival: Not all stories have the same ending and not all womenhave the same fears. Pero, if you expect less, how will you getmore?
PERCIVAL
You overwhelm me. (a beat) I like it.
BEATRIZ
What will your desire cost you, Percival?
PERCIVAL
I am the last of the unicorns. Ilike that singularity.
BEATRIZ
Tue eres demasiado …. esoterico! I know you like the men and thewomen. ¿Y que mas? Tu orisha, Ochosi’s journey was to seek outthe truth. Pero, you wear a dress todeceive yourself. You know what youwant. I see you watch me. I see you want me and Iwant that. I am not like otherwomen. If you tell me who you are, Ibelieve you absolutamente.
BEATRIZ
Vuelve el silencio a vestirme de oro mi santo
vuelve el recuerdo de mis abuelas a endulzarmi espera
vuelven los discos que me enseñaron a adorarla musica
volvio mi padre despues de 20 años,
She adds pins to thefabric draped
across Percival’s torso. As she wraps
and pins, we begin to see theshape of
a gorgeous dress.
PERCIVAL
My mother always told me—-
BEATRIZ
My father floated here on a broken boat and when it failed him, he swamto freedom. Que vas hacer, mi almarota?
She sensually moves the lines of pins
up the side of Percival’s body, gently
adding to his beauty. But every now
and then the potential that he could
get stuck with a pin rears its head.
PERCIVAL
I love the flesh and I love the power of being a man. When I touch a man, I am eating man-ness. With a woman, it is the chasing down andcatching something soft, yielding that gives under my weight. It feels good, but different and I need them both.
BEATRIZ
You are greedy.
PERCIVAL
What do you want?
BEATRIZ
Tu.
PERCIVAL
I am afraid of not being enough, not believing enough in the power of alove that makes you…. stay. Juststay. Even if you are disappointed orconfused…
BEATRIZ
Do you want me?
PERCIVAL
Yes.
BEATRIZ
Finalmente. Escuchame, if youmust have a man, all that I ask is that you share with me how it was: what youwanted, how it felt. And that will notcrack us apart because you come back to me when it is over.
Carefully.
PERCIVAL
You want me to tell you about tipping out with some MAN?
BEATRIZ
Si, Princesa Carlotta. Todo.
A moment.
PERCIVAL
My love will hurt.
BEATRIZ
Mira, it’s not like swimming from Cuba!
She smiles and walks towards the altar room
with a liquid grace that melts all obstacles in
its path. Percival watches lust turned into love
feeding each other equally. From the top of the
stairs, Cilo watches Percival watch Beatriz.
The bell rings as Daddy Buster creeps in.
*Concha Buika’s Oro Santo