Widows (play)

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Widows ( English widow , widow ' ) is one of Ariel Dorfman and Tony Kushner written, English-language play , which in 1987 in the Hip Pocket Theater had its world premiere and has since been performed throughout the world several times. In addition to performances at the Hip Pocket Theater, there have been performances in Japan, Edinburgh , New York and Los Angeles (1991).

The play is based on the 1983 novel and poems of the same name . It consists of 31 scenes and is divided into three acts.

The novel of the same name was published in 1993 together with Death and the Maiden and Reader under the title The Resistance Trilogy . This trilogy includes works that deal with the life situation of oppressed people.

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place and time

According to Ariel Dorfman's homepage, the play from 1942 tells of residents of a Greek village who suffered and are still suffering from the Nazi occupation. The names of the characters, on the other hand, sound Spanish, which speaks for a Spanish or Latin American setting. However, the narrator, who appears repeatedly in a subplot in some scenes, is clearly against fixing the story at a specific place and time. Thus, the choice of the location is left to the viewer.

action

The female residents of a small village, oppressed by the military, are plagued by uncertainty about the fate of almost all of their male relatives. On the nearby river bank, where the women meet to wash clothes, male corpses, disfigured beyond recognition, are washed up one by one. The newly assigned captain, who has already left the war behind him and wants to modernize the country, stands between two fronts: The angry women of the village finally see the dead bodies as the chance to gain certainty about the fate of their men, and claim it for themselves. The young lieutenant under the captain, on the other hand, wants to keep the corpses from the women in order to prevent further questions about the fate of the men and to cover up possible inconsistencies about their death.

Characters

  • The Narrator (narrator)

The Fuentes family

  • Sofia Fuentes (grandmother, "village elder")
  • Alexandra Fuentes (daughter-in-law of Sofia, married to her son Emiliano)
  • Yanina Fuentes (Sofia's daughter-in-law, married to her son Alonso)
  • Alonso Fuentes (Sofia's son, Yanina's husband)
  • Fidelia Fuentes (Alexandra's teenage daughter)
  • Alexis Fuentes (Alexandra's son)

More people living in the valley

  • Teresa Salas
  • Katherina
  • pink
  • Mariluz
  • Amanda
  • Lucia
  • Ramona
  • Cecilia Sanjines (Emmanuel's lover)
  • Father Gabriel (parish priest)

The Kastoria family is an influential family that has a say in or decides on military moves.

  • Philip Kastoria
  • Philip's brother
  • Beatrice Kastoria (wife of Philip Kastoria)

The military

  • The captain
  • The Lieutenant
  • Emmanuel ( orderly )
  • The Doctor
  • Soldiers (indefinite number, but at least two)

literature

  • Ariel Dorfman, Tony Kushner: Widows . Nick Hern Books, 1997, ISBN 978-1854593764
  • Ariel Dorfman: The Resistance Trilogy: Death and the Maiden. Reader. Widows . Nick Hern Books, 1998, ISBN 978-1854593696

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Homepage of Ariel Dorfman. Information on various works by Dorfman (English).
  2. ^ Widows at the Hip Pocket Theater. Pictures from a performance at the Hip Pocket Theater and excerpts from scene 1 (English).
  3. ↑ Widows in Japan , pictures from a Japanese performance and excerpts from scene 10 (English).
  4. ↑ Widow's performance by the West Glamorgan Youth Theater Company ( Memento of the original from November 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , UK performance information with pictures. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wgytc.co.uk
  5. ↑ Widows in Los Angeles , pictures from a performance in Los Angeles and text excerpts from scene 29 (English).
  6. ^ KA Berney: Contemporary Dramatists . 5th edition. St. James Press, London et al. 1993, ISBN 1-55862-185-7 , p. 367 ff.
  7. ^ A b Ariel Dorfman, Tony Kushner: Widows . Nick Hern Books, 1997, ISBN 978-1854593764
  8. ^ Foreword to The Resistance Trilogy . Foreword by Ariel Dorfman to the Resistance Trilogy from 1998 (English).