[Darkness. In THE AUTHOR's brain echoes a conversation with Harvard Professor Stephen GREENBLATT, coordinator of The Cardenio Project. The words of one and the other are to be heard simultaneously and become mixed.]
|
|
THE AUTHOR |
What is real? I don't know what is real. I don't want
to deceive myself. I want to be happy. I don't want to
suffer. I want a life worth living, that's it. To be
naive, a hypocrite, a lunatic? I don't care about the
others any more. I can't live with her any longer and I
have been just asked to write a love story. I don't
like her smell. Is that clear? It should be,
because mustn't step back. I'm a coward. I don't want
to hurt her. |
| GREENBLATT |
I think it could help you to understand the Cardenio
Project. Shakespeare and Fletcher's plots were obviously inspired by Cardenio's story, as told in Cervantes's Don Quixote. |
| THE AUTHOR
|
I've just been asked to write a story about Cardenio,
because Shakespeare read Cervantes and wrote Cardenio
about one part of the Quixote, however, it was lost or
it was burned - I didn't understand very well - and now
someone claims to have found it. The Royal Shakespeare
Company? I don't know. I didn't really understand what
they want me to write. Harvard University. Whatever I
want? That's what he said. I didn't understand very
well. My English isn't very good. Ten years ago I could
speak the language a lot better. (in English): But I don't know what
I must do: maybe I would write a piece, inspirited in it, an adaptation of Shakespeare, of Cervantes, of the both at the same
time? |
|
GREENBLATT |
I'm especially interested in an idea I call "cultural
mobility". |
| THE AUTHOR |
Is it going to be published in Spanish? I don't know. I
didn't understand very well. It's good money. I
shouldn't say no. It's Harvard. |
| GREENBLATT |
... That is, the transmission and transformation of
cultural material through time and space. The text
should derive its material from the basic source,
Cervantes' story, and from our version of Cardenio, to
then adapt it to the concerns and theatrical
conventions of Spanish culture and society. |
| THE AUTHOR |
Cardenio is a character who fights for love. I don't
know how to leave her. I don't want to hurt her. I'm
such an asshole. What do they actually want me to do? I
didn't understand very well. I don´t know what the
"theatrical conventions of Spanish culture and society"
are. I don't want to feel myself guilty. |
| GREENBLATT |
Your play will be the answer. I don't know what you
have in mind. You're free to do with it as your
imagination tells you. |
|
THE AUTHOR |
Your play will be the answer. I don't know what you
have in mind. You're free to do with it as your
imagination sees fit. |
