Nelson Rodrigues: Selected Plays

Wedding Dress; Waltz No. 6; All Nudity Will Punished; Forgive Me for Your Betrayal; Family Portraits; Black Angel; Seven Little Kitties

Nelson Rodrigues, Daniel Hahn, Susannah Finzi, Almiro Andrade, Daniel Hahn, Susannah Finzi, Almiro Andrade

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781786827159
• eBook ISBN: 9781786827142
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Nelson Falcão Rodrigues (August 23, 1912 – December 21, 1980) was a Brazilian playwright, journalist and novelist. In 1943, he helped usher in a new era in Brazilian theater with his play Vestido de Noiva (Wedding Dress), considered revolutionary for the complex exploration of its characters' psychology and its use of colloquial dialogue. He went on to write many other seminal plays and today is widely regarded as Brazil's greatest playwright.

This volume contains brand-new translations of the plays Wedding Dress; Waltz No. 6; All Nudity Will Punished; Forgive Me for Your Betrayal; Family Portraits; Black Angel and Seven Little Kitties.

ALL NUDITY WILL BE PUNISHED

An obsession in three acts (1965)

By Nelson Rodrigues

Translated by Susannah Finzi

Characters

HERCULANO

NAZARÉ

PATRÍCIO

AUNT NO. 1

AUNT NO. 2

AUNT NO. 3

GENI

ODÉSIO

SERGINHO

DOCTOR

PRIEST

POLICE CAPTAIN

Act 1

HERCULANO arrives home. He is pleasantly tired.

HERCULANO: (Shouting.) Geni! Geni!

The black maid enters.

NAZARÉ: You’re early, Doctor Herculano?

HERCULANO: Nazaré, where’s Madame Geni?

NAZARÉ: She went out.

HERCULANO: But I told her! I phoned from the airport and told her she could start dinner.

NAZARÉ: I know.

HERCULANO: Where did she go?

NAZARÉ: She didn’t say.

HERCULANO: (Half surprised, half amused.) You’re joking!

NAZARÉ: She told me to give you this.

At the same time, NAZARÉ takes a packet from the table.

HERCULANO: (To NAZARÉ.) I’m devilish hungry! Are you serious! What’s that?

NAZARÉ: Here.

HERCULANO: (Takes the packet.) Did she leave any kind of message?

NAZARÉ: Not with me.

HERCULANO, intrigued, opens the packet.

HERCULANO: A tape! (Not understanding.) That’s great!

NAZARÉ: Madam Geni said you should be sure to listen to the recording.

HERCULANO: What recording? Ah, the tape! (Change of tone.) Nazaré, you can stop kidding now. She’s here isn’t she?

NAZARÉ: I’m not kidding.

HERCULANO: (An outburst.) Geni! Geni!

NAZARÉ: (Laughing.) I swear it!

HERCULANO: Go and get the cassette player. Go on. It’s some kind of clue. Go and get it.

NAZARÉ obeys.

HERCULANO: Now I remember. Give me that. Geni told me on the phone she had a surprise for me. I don’t know what it could be. A surprise.

While he speaks, HERCULANO, amused and unhurried, sets up the cassette player.

HERCULANO: (Examining the machine.) She’s here, of course. I’ll bet my shirt on it. She’s making a monkey of me. What are you laughing at?

NAZARÉ: I’m laughing because you don’t believe me, Doctor Herculano. She went out!

The tape is ready. HERCULANO presses the button for the first time. Sounds of the tape rewinding. He stops it and turns to NAZARÉ.

HERCULANO: Go and make me a quick coffee.

NAZARÉ: A black coffee?

HERCULANO: Really black.

NAZARÉ: What about your stomach?

HERCULANO: (Pausing the machine.) Yes, yes, I know. Those doctors are idiots! (Change of tone.) It’s better. A little. It’s the same. Go on, get me the coffee.

NAZARÉ exits. Alone, HERCULANO whistles to himself and gets ready to hear the recording. The stage is dark. In the darkness the voice of GENI can be heard.

GENI: Herculano, the person talking to you is dead. I’m dead. I killed myself.

At the same time as GENI speaks, part of the stage is lit. PATRÍCIO and the AUNTS appear. While GENI is speaking, they are immobile and mute.

GENI: Herculano, listen to this right to the end. You think you know everything. But you know so little! (With triumphant cruelty.) (Violent.) There is something you don’t know, something you don’t even suspect, but something you’re going to know now, you’re going to hear it from me and it will be all of it. I’m telling you this for you and for myself. (Distressed.) (Resentful and in earnest.) Listen. One night in your house …

PATRÍCIO reads the newspaper. The AUNTS start to speak.

AUNT NO 1: Quick, call Padre Nicolau!

PATRÍCIO: It’s a bit late for that!

AUNT NO 2: Priests don’t keep a diary!

AUNT NO 1: Go!

PATRÍCIO: A man can’t even read the paper around here.

AUNT NO. 3: Would you rather your brother died?

PATRÍCIO: A priest isn’t a doctor!

AUNT NO. 1: What Herculano has isn’t an illness, it’s grief.

AUNT NO. 3: We’ve had enough death in this family!

PATRÍCIO: But Auntie! Don’t you find it rather beautiful that a widower kills himself? A widower who misses his dead wife so much that he puts a bullet through his own head?

AUNT NO. 3: Don’t you start with your mockery!

AUNT NO. 2: Herculano is the head of the family. He can’t die.

PATRÍCIO: I’ll go and get Padre Nicolau!

AUNT NO. 1: You say you’re going but you just sit there!

AUNT NO. 2: You don’t love Herculano!

AUNT NO. 3: You hate your brother!

PATRÍCIO puts down the newspaper and turns.

PATRÍCIO: (Clearly ironic.) Do you think there’s no reason I hate him? What did he ever do for me! When I was going bankrupt he was the only person who could have stopped it, with one gesture, one word. (Assertive.) But he didn’t do a thing. He didn’t say a word. And I was ruined! (Breathless.) But that’s water under the bridge!

AUNT NO. 1: Are you going or not?

PATRÍCIO: I’m going. (Brusquely.) Money for the taxi.

AUNT NO. 1: (Takes a note from her inside her blouse.) Take it, but hurry!

PATRÍCIO: Bye, Bye!

AUNT NO. 3: Hurry!

PATRÍCIO exits, and a moment later, retur...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• A Note from the Cesgranrio Foundation
• Exporting Nelson Rodrigues
• Introduction by Luís Artur Nunes
• Wedding Dress (Vestido de Noiva, 1942)
• Family Portraits (album de familia, 1945)
• Black Angel (Anjo Negro, 1946)
• Waltz No.6 (Valsa no.6, 1951)
• Forgive Me for Your Betrayal (Perdoa-me por me Traires, 1957)
• Seven Little Kitties (Os Sete Gatinhos, 1958)
• All Nudity Will Be Punished (Toda Nudez Sera Castigada, 1965)