The Marvelous Puppet Show

Season 4

Episode 5

transcript

Host Aaron Henne: Welcome to The Dybbukast. I'm Aaron Henne, artistic director of theatre dybbuk. This episode, presented in collaboration with Diversifying the Classics at UCLA, was recorded as a live presentation on April 20th, 2024 at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles. Titled "The Marvelous Puppet Show," this illuminated lecture brings together readings of excerpts from a short play of the same name by Miguel de Cervantes, published in 1615, with a talk from Dr. Barbara Fuchs, Distinguished Professor of Spanish and English at UCLA and director of Diversifying the Classics.

Dr. Fuchs reveals the ways in which Cervantes' uncannily prescient interlude dissects the foibles of belief and belonging, and poses uncomfortable questions for the present day.

And now, “The Marvelous Puppet Show.”

•••

We hear audience applause.

Actor 1 (Narrator): Enter Chirinos and her partner, Chanfalla.

Actor 2 (Chirinos): Chanfalla, you know I've got what it takes. I'm as clever as I am skint. But tell me: Why have we brought that with us? Can't you and I pull off this hoax alone?

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): We need him like we need our daily bread. He'll act as a distraction while they wait for the marvelous puppet show to appear.

Actor 2 (Chirinos): Drive them more to distraction. I've never seen a more miserable creature in my life.

Actor 1 (Narrator): Enter Rabelin, a small boy in large clothes

Actor 4 (Rabelin): Are we going to perform in this town, Mister Director? I can't wait to show you that you haven't made a mistake in taking me on.

Actor 2 (Chirinos): If your music isn't bigger than you are, we're done for.

Actor 4 (Rabelin): Oh, don’t cast me off without a chance. I've been asked to tour with a real acting company, and they don't care that I'm small.

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): If they gave you a part suited to your size, you'd be almost invisible. Chirinos, Chirinos, look, someone's coming. It must be the Governor and the Mayors. Sharpen your tongue on the whetstone of flattery, but don't overdo it.

Actor 1 (Narrator): Enter Benito, and Juan, who are greeted extravagantly by Chanfalla, who assumes that they are in charge.

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): I kiss your majesty's hands. Which one of your lordships is the Governor?

(We hear a fanfare, played on a kazoo)

Actor 5 (Governor): I am. What is it that you want, my good man?

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): If I had two ounces of sense, I could not have been so stupid as to not have realized that the perambulating and ample presence before me was none other than the illustrious overlord of this incomparable town. I am amazed that you are no less a man than I had imagined. Your subjects are lucky to have you in charge.

Actor 2 (Chirinos): And so is Mrs. Governor, and all the little Governors, if your mercy is blessed to have them.

Actor 5 (Governor): I am not married.

Actor 2 (Chirinos): Well, whenever you may have them; it is still not too late.

Actor 5 (Governor): I see. And what do you want here, honored men?

Actor 2 (Chirinos): May each of your days be —

All Actors: — honored —

Actor 2 (Chirinos): — and by your long life —

All Actors: — honor —

Actor 2 (Chirinos): — us; for, as the oak tree gives the gift of acorns, the pear tree gives pears, and the vine gives grapes, so does the honored man give —

All Actors: —honor —

Actor 2 (Chirinos): — to those all around him, as he is unable to do anything else.

Actor 1 (Benito): A Ciceroniancan statement if ever I heard one.

Actor 6 (Juan): Ciceronian, our good mayor Benito means to say.

Actor 1 (Benito): In matters of state, my statements are precise, but here on the street, my tongue comes undone. What is it that you want, my good man?

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): I, my lords, am Montiel of the river Jordan, who brings, The Marvelous Puppet Show.

Dr. Barbara Fuchs: The Marvelous Puppet Show — El retablo de las maravillas in Spanish — is a story of pícaros. Sometimes translated as —

Actor 5: — scoundrel, —

Actor 6: — scallywag, —

Actor 1: — rascal, —

Actor 2: — rogue, —

Barbara: — or —

Actor 4: — ragamuffin, —

Barbara: — the term, pícaro, as it is used in this case, is probably closest to —

Actor 3: — charlatan, —

Barbara: — a figure with a long and distinguished history in the US cultural imaginary. Think Duke and the King in Huckleberry Finn.

Actor 6: My great-grandfather, eldest son of the Duke of Bridgewater, fled to this country about the end of the last century, to breathe the pure air of freedom; married here, and died, leaving a son, his own father dying about the same time. The second son of the late duke seized the titles and estates — the infant real duke was ignored. I am the lineal descendant of that infant — I am the rightful Duke of Bridgewater; and here I am, forlorn, torn from my high estate, hunted of men, despised by the cold world, ragged, worn, broken hearted, and degraded to the companionship of felons on a raft!

Actor 1: Your eyes is lookin’ at this very moment on the pore disappeared Dauphin, Looy the Seventeen, son of Looy the Sixteen and Marry Antonette.

Barbara: Huckleberry Finn is itself a novel permeated by Cervantes but that’s another story. These pícaros sell an audience on a marvelous puppet show.

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): I represent a charity whose chief aim is the smooth running of the local hospitals, and whose main source of revenue is theatrical spectacle. As there was no theatre director of any talent in the business, up to now our art has been suffering, and, as a result, so are the poor orphans and our sick brothers in the hospital. With such wonders as I shall show you however, surely you will be moved to awe and generosity, and our poor infirm countrymen will suffer no more.

Actor 5 (Governor): So what do you mean, “The Marvelous Puppet Show?”

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): For the marvelous things that it shows, it has been called by its loyal fans, The Marvelous Puppet Show. The great puppeteer Tontonelo, with intricate calculations, observations, and machinations, has composed a spectacle of such marvelous sights and sounds, using his knowledge of astrology and geology, (and a whole lot of other 'ologies that are sure to even impress you).

Barbara: This show from Tontonelo — a name that translates as Foolishello, or Idiotello — you can only see if you pay, of course, but also only if you meet certain conditions as a person.

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): BUT! No one who has a drop of Jewish blood, or who has not been born of parents locked in legitimate matrimony — no one who suffers these all-too-common contagions shall be able to see, or hear, the wonders of my show.

Barbara: But more on that later. The Marvelous Puppet Show is arguably the heftiest and most significant of a minor Spanish genre, the entremés or interlude, which was presented between the acts of a full-length play. The usual version of this was a madcap, farcical conflict, often among servants or other groups marginalized by society, often culminating in a world-upside-down resolution and a song-and-dance. Take The Eggplants: The master of the house interrogates all the servants in turn, and beats them for supposedly eating the eggplants, which they deny in vain. Eventually he remembers that, oh, actually, he ate the eggplants, at which the indignant servants all turn on him!

Some playwrights, like Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in Mexico, wrote their own entremeses for their longer works. In other cases, producers would turn to playwrights who specialized in writing entremeses, like you might turn to your favorite SNL writer for a particular kind of humor or skit. But Cervantes was not your ordinary author, and this is not your ordinary entremés. This is the author of Don Quijote, arguably one of the most subversive as well as the most formally innovative books of all time, and one fundamentally interested in how we know what we think we know, as demonstrated clearly in this translation of its first lines, by Kimi Traube.

Actor 2: Somewhere in La Mancha, in a spot whose name I’d rather not recall, not long ago there lived a gentleman. Our gentleman’s face was gaunt and his frame wiry; he was pushing fifty, though still in vigorous good health. Although some claim his family name was “Quixada” or “Quesada”— the authors writing on him disagree somewhat — it was most likely “Quixana.” This, however, does not matter much to our tale, so long as the telling of it doesn’t stray one bit from the truth.

Barbara: Ah, the truth! In any case, though but a short play, — interlude, playlet, take your pick — The Marvelous Puppet Show is packed with scathing references to the theater and political culture of Cervantes’ time, as well as plenty that is relevant to our own. First, for example, we witness the negotiation between the charlatans and the village notables regarding the fee for their services. As part of this, the pícaros make a big deal of the performance raising money for charity. In fact, this was the way that public theater worked in Spain of the period. Some clever producer figured out that the way to make room for the highly dubious and morally questionable endeavor that was the theater was to dedicate part of its profits to aiding the poor. If the censors decided to close the theaters, they were depriving the poor. Brilliant, right? In this interlude, the charlatans pick up this language to make fun both of their immediate audience and that larger theatrical culture that I mentioned as well.

Actor 5 (Governor): Juan Castrado, good alderman, I have an idea. As today we have celebrated the marriage of the lovely Cristina, your daughter and my niece, to add to the festivities, I want this Mr. Montiel to perform in your house.

Actor 6 (Juan): If you think it's a good idea, it would be an honor, despite the consequences.

Actor 2 (Chirinos): Of little consequence will be our fee; but if you don't pay us before we perform, you won't see even our smallest puppet. And sirs, and good aldermen, are you men of conscience and souls in your breasts? What would we say to the poor orphans if the whole town burst in tonight at Juan Castrado's, (if that's your name) and saw the whole show, so that tomorrow when we want to perform in the town square, not a soul would attend? No, sirs, no, sirs: you must pay us ante omnia.

Actor 1 (Benito): Who’s Antonia? No Antonia or Antonio is going to pay our share; Mr. Juan Castrado will pay you more than honorably, and if not, the Council will.

Actor 5 (Governor): Damn me, Benito, I'm afraid you're mistaken. The lady director did not say that any Antonia would pay for us, but that she wants to be paid first and foremost. That’s what “ante omnia” means.

Actor 1 (Benito): Look, Mr. Governor, I can only understand plain talk, and you, who are both well-read and written, can understand these ostensible words, but I can't.

Actor 6 (Juan): Now then, will our good director be contented with these six ducats as downpayment? You needn't worry about people from off the street coming in to see the show. I can assure you that I am always careful not to allow any such rabble into my house, and tonight shall be no exception.

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): I am content. I have faith in the diligence of your worship and your noble family.

Actor 6 (Juan): Then come with me to my house, where you will receive the rest of the money, and there, you and your puppets can perform in comfort.

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): Let's go, but make sure that all of you who dare to see the marvelous show remember the conditions that must be met.

Barbara: We then see the hapless authorities of the village trying to proclaim their positions, noting their lineage and birthrights, of which they feel very proud.

Actor 1 (Benito): I'll take care of that side. For my part I feel quite safe in submitting to the test. I haven't got a drop of Jewish blood. My father was the mayor of this town before me; four generations of our Christian family have lived in the same house in this town for as long as I can remember. I won't have any problems seeing the show.

Actor 6 (Juan): Well, none of us will, Benito; none of us was born in a barn either.

Actor 5 (Governor): I'm assured it will be very entertaining, my good mayors.

Actor 6 (Juan): Let's go, director! For Juan Castrado they call me, son of Anton Castrado and Juana Macha, and I am confident that I will be able to stand face to face with these puppets.

Actor 2 (Chirinos): I wouldn't doubt it for a moment.

Barbara: Part of what is so uncomfortable or uncanny about this entremés is that it enlists the actual audience — that would be all of you — into playing the audience in the text. Oh sorry, maybe you didn’t realize you were signing up for that, and now we’ll have to return everyone’s money, and Aaron is going to kill me.

Aaron (from the audience): It’s fine.

Barbara: But seriously, while it’s technically possible to sit this one out, as we’ll attempt to demonstrate, it is much more interesting in the version where we all can’t just blithely pass judgment on those poor fools there, watching the puppet show in the play, but instead become part of that same audience. Cervantes — always ahead of his time, really — goes all meta on us, much as he does in the Quijote, with multiple levels of narration, competing authors, characters who realize they are in a novel, etc.. So, in this case, so much is riding on whether we stage it proscenium style or breaking the fourth wall. Let’s begin with the most obvious choice.

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): Your attention please, ladies and gentlemen, for the show is about to begin! O you, whoever you were, who fabricated this stage with such marvelous artifice, that raised the fame of these puppets by the virtue that is locked within them, I conjure you, I praise you and I demand that you immediately appear before these distinguished guests. Reveal your marvelous marvels, so that we may rejoice and take pleasure without harm or disgrace.

Barbara: The Marvelous Puppet Show is a refinement of the “Emperor’s New Clothes” fable, with the emphasis not so much on that famously naked leader as on those who produce the scam.

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): Ah, it is granted, for here in front of my eyes appears the figure of the valiant Samson, embracing the columns of the Temple, preparing to throw them to the ground in violent revenge against his enemies. Wait, wait fierce gentleman, wait, for the grace of God our Father! Don't commit such an outrage by flattening into tortillas our noble guests gathered here tonight.

Barbara: And, perhaps even more crucially, the emphasis is on those who consume the scam.

Actor 1 (Benito): Cease and desist, enemy! That's just great, instead of showing us a wonderful show, you squashed us into a paste! Wait, Mr. Samson, for in spite of my sins, I pray like a good man!

Actor 5 (Governor): Do you see him, Castrado?

Actor 6 (Juan): How could I miss him? I have eyes, don't I?

Actor 5 (Governor): (aside) This is a miraculous case indeed; I no more see Samson here than I do the Sultan in Constantinople; but in truth I was certainly born legitimate and a true Christian.

Barbara: That audience within the play, nervously looking left and right to decide what they should be seeing, is Cervantes’ focus. He is ultimately less interested in the fabricators of deceptions, who are somewhat banal — think the brilliant, recent Russian Troll Farm — than in those who are taken in, and what it is about their individual and group psychology that leads them down that path. Just to rub it in, the charlatans produce one scene after another that either recall the shared nature of the Old Testament as a Jewish and Christian text — as with that first reference to Samson — or introduce all kinds of sexual innuendo into this audience of supposedly chaste folk. By the time we get to the climax of the scene, they give us Jews and sex all together, in the amazing figure of the dancing Salome. But I’m getting ahead of myself. One thing at a time. This is our pattern. The charlatans quickly introduce a puppet scene.

Actor 2 (Chirinos): Watch yourself, man, for here comes the same bull that killed the great bullfighter in Salamanca! Make way! Make wayl God save you, God save you!

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): All of you, watch out! Get out of the way! Hucho ho! Hucho ho! Hucho ho!

Barbara: And then we get a response from the audience.

Actor 1 (Benito): The devil has brought this bull here; he has a fierce and horny look. If I don't watch out, he'll toss me down to the ground.

Actor 6 (Juan): Mr. Director, can't you make it so that the figures that appear are a bit milder? I don't speak for myself, but for the young ladies here, for I would hate them to be stained with the blood of a wayward bullfighter, or gored by the horn of a ferocious bull.

Barbara: At this, Juan Castrado’s daughter chimes in, with a strikingly Freudian frisson.

Actor 4 (Cristina): Oh, yes, father! I don't think I shall return to my right mind for three whole days; for I can just see myself on his horns, and oh, they're so big!

Actor 6 (Juan): You wouldn't be my daughter if you couldn't see them.

Actor 5 (Governor): (aside) That's the last straw! I'm the only one who can't see it! But I'll have to say that I'll see it, or they'll blacken my good name.

Barbara: With all due respect to the translators, what he actually says

there is —

Actor 4: — “por la negra honrilla,” —

Barbara: — which means something like —

Actor 5 (Governor): — “on account of this bloody honor nonsense!” —

Barbara: — and is actually a proverbial expression in Spanish for what we do for appearances’ sake, like por el qué dirán. The pattern of performance then continues with the introduction of more puppet scenes, followed by ever more excited responses from the audience.

Actor 2 (Chirinos): That pack of rats you see running around over there are the direct descendants of the mice who sailed aboard Noah's Ark. Some are white, some calico, some pink and some blue, and well, they're all rats.

Actor 4 (Cristina): Jesus! Oh my goodness! Hold on to me, or I shall throw myself out the window! Rats? How unlucky! Oh, my friend, hold on tight to our skirts, and watch out they don't bite your ankles, and god they are everywhere! I swear by my Grandmother there must be thousands of them!

Barbara: And another young lady speaks up then as well.

Actor 2 (Teresa): (shrieking) I'm the unlucky one, because they're climbing into my skirts and there's nothing I can do about it! A little brown mouse has me fast by my knee! Heaven have mercy, for there is none on earth!

Actor 1 (Benito): It's good I've got my thick wool socks on, for there is no rat that can get into my pants, no matter how small he might be.

Barbara: Still a little Freudian, wouldn't you say? All those little mice, running up into skirts and pants.

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): And now, this water that so elegantly falls from the clouds above is from the fountain that gives origin and beginning to the river Jordan. Every woman's face it touches will begin to shine like burnished silver. Every man’s beard it touches will turn to pure gold.

Actor 4 (Cristina): Do you hear that, my friend? Uncover your face a little, a little of that would be good for you. Cover up your head, Father, so that you don't get wet.

Actor 6 (Juan): We're all covering ourselves, daughter.

Actor 1 (Benito): The water is running right down my back and out of my drainpipe.

Actor 6 (Juan): Ask me if l have ever been drier!

Actor 5 (Governor): (aside) What devilishness can this be, for I still haven't been touched by a single drop, and everyone else is soaked! Could it be that I'm really a bastard?

Barbara: And still it goes on, growing ever more chaotic and sexualized, as Chirinos continues the show.

Actor 2 (Chirinos): There go up to two dozen rampant lions and honey-crazed bears! Every living thing is in danger! Their fangs are like Hercules' unsheathed swords. The fantasy has become a nightmare!

Actor 6 (Juan): Eh, Mr. Director, is it your intention to fill my house with bears and lions?

Actor 1 (Benito): Look what dragons and lions this Tontonelo has sent us, instead of some nice puppy dogs or duckies! Mr. Director, can't you send us some more agreeable animals, or we will be content with the puppets you've already presented, and let God guide you straight out of town!

Actor 4 (Cristina): Mayor Benito, please let him bring out some more, as a treat for us girls, because we like them so well! Especially those lions and tigers and bears!

Actor 6 (Juan): Oh my! But, Daughter, before you were so afraid of the mice, and now you want bears and lions?

Actor 4 (Cristina): Anything new gives pleasure, Father.

Actor 2 (Chirinos): This young lady, who now reveals herself to be so charming and so poised, is called Salome, the daughter of Herod, whose sensational dancing cost John the Baptist his head. If there is anyone who dares dance with her, you'll really see it.

Actor 1 (Benito): That's more like it! Oh, yeah, baby, strut your stuff! Son of a bitch, how that wench wriggles! Rabelin, drop that ridiculous instrument and help her out — that’s just what this party needs.

Barbara: And then Rabelin, the small boy we met at the top, plays his part.

Actor 4 (Rabelin): I'd love to, Mr Benito!

Actor 6 (Juan): By my grandfather, if it isn't the old dance of the Zarabanda!

(We hear Actor 7 singing)

Actor 1 (Benito): Hey, Rabelin, don't let that Jewish hussy throw you around! But, if she's a Jew, how can she see these marvelous puppets?

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): All rules have their exception, Mr. Mayor.

Barbara: And while the exception to those rules does somehow allow for a desirable Jewish protagonist in a scene supposedly only available to those “untainted” by Jewishness, we still watch the audience contort themselves, not to say squirm, to make sure that they meet the criteria, and if, God forbid, they should not, that they can flawlessly pretend to meet the criteria so that no one else notices.

Actor 1 (Benito): That's more like it. Oh, yeah, baby, strut your stuff!

(We hear Actors 1, 5 and 6 cat-calling)

Barbara: As promised, we’ll get into the reasons for all of this in detail shortly. But first, I want to acknowledge that Cervantes also has got a few other aces up his picaresque sleeve, such as settling scores with his literary foes. For Cervantes was not primarily known as a playwright, and was not super successful in his own time. Instead, the Oscar for Spanish Golden Age Playwriting goes to Lope de Vega, monster of nature —

Actor 3: — most happy wit of these kingdoms —

Barbara: —as Cervantes himself called him. Lope was a frankly commercial playwright. We’re still debating how many plays he left us, but we’re talking hundreds, — 400? 800? 1200?—many of which are extraordinary works still being staged today. One of my graduate students, when she was trying to finish her dissertation, put her coffee in a mug that said —

Actor 1: —“You have as many hours in your day as Lope de Vega”

Barbara: It’s safe to say Lope figured out the formula that worked in his time and for his audience, and was happy to milk it. In his time, to say of something —

Actor 2: Es de Lope!

Actors 1, 5 and 6: It’s a Lope!

Barbara: — was code for saying it was fabulous. Like —

Actors 1, 5 and 6: It’s a Cadillac!

Barbara: Or —

Actors 1, 5 and 6: It’s a Picasso!

Barbara: And this was the case even if you were referring to that night’s paella or someone’s guitar jam. Lope even wrote a tongue-in-cheek manifesto, —

Actor 4: — “The New Art of Writing Plays in Our Time”

Barbara: Kind of like if Shakespeare had left us a little poem on —

Actor 2:“How to be the Bard”

Barbara: In Lope’s manual, he was very clear about his commitment to his audience, however uncultured. When it came to including fancy classical references in his plays, Lope was adamantly against, or at least pretended to be.

Actor 4: Como las paga el vulgo, es justo,

hablarle en necio para darle gusto.

Barbara: Marvin Carlson’s translation of this softens it quite a bit, for a marvelous rhyme scheme.

Actor 3: Since after all it is the crowd who pays,

Why not consider them when writing plays?

Barbara: But what Lope actually says is —

Actor 4: Since it is the common people who pay for plays,

It’s only fair to speak stupidly and please them that way.

Barbara: I am not going to make any comparisons to contemporary entertainment here. Suffice it to say that Lope was happy to give audiences what he thought they wanted. One of those things was the Spanish, early 17th century equivalent of a racist Christian nationalism — the idea that the real, honorable Spaniards were not just Catholics, but Catholics of good Catholic descent; since time immemorial, “untainted” by Jewish or Muslim blood. No johnny-come-lately converts need apply.

As some of you may know, after a long period during which Jews were tolerated in Spain — much longer than in any other Western European country — a series of pogroms and forced conversions finally gave way in 1492 to the wholesale expulsion of the Jews from Sefarad, as they had been expelled from most other Western European nations. Because the expulsion could be avoided if Jews converted, many of them did, more or less sincerely. The Inquisition, though established previously, grew tremendously as it attempted to ferret out what we call Crypto-Jews — those who secretly held on to their Jewish faith while nominally Christianized. At the same time, there was tremendous concern about the fact that Jews who did convert could access privilege and power like never before. They could become archbishops, like the eminent Pablo de Santa María of Burgos, born Solomon Ha-Levi. This anxiety led to a number of regulations, sometimes referred to as the “purity of blood” statutes, that determined who could and could not access positions and privileges; a set of rules to keep Jews and their descendants — anyone with “a drop of Jewish blood” — out. In Lope’s dramatic universe, peasants or villagers, whose lives were less likely to have brought them into contact with the diversity and richness of urban spaces, or, frankly, with Jews, Muslims, or the Christianized descendants thereof, were therefore more pure, more noble, more admirable in their small rural worlds. They might not have much, but they had —

Actor 2: — honra —

Actors 3 and 4: — honor —

Barbara: — for whatever that was worth. In one of Lope’s most famous and appealing plays, Fuente Ovejuna, villagers much put upon by a predatory lord decide they’ve finally had enough, and come together in solidarity to kill him. The Comendador, who thinks that all the women in the village are his for the taking, asks incredulously —

Actor 1: Vosotros honor tenéis?

Actor 6: You have honor?

Barbara: To which one of the villagers responds —

Actor 4: Alguno acaso se alaba

de la cruz que le ponéis,

que no es de sangre tan limpia

Actor 2: There are some among you,

so proud of their military order, the Cross of Santiago,

whose blood is not as pure.

Barbara: So when Cervantes, who had his own beef with Lope, sets out to craft his satire about inclusion and exclusion, identity and access, belief and delusion, Lope’s idealized peasants give him a lot to work with. Think about it: the conditions that the pícaros invent, the ones I assured you we’d return to, the rules that determine who gets to see the puppet show, and who is left out, map perfectly onto the period’s obsession with honor.

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): No one who has a drop of Jewish blood, or who has not been born of parents locked in legitimate matrimony — no one who suffers these all-too-common contagions — shall be able to see, or hear, the wonders of my show.

Barbara: Cervantes is mocking the racialization of religion in his society; the idea that, beyond conversion or what you believe, your very genealogy as a descendant of Jews might make you unacceptable, endlessly suspicious, marked as different. After all, no one watching The Marvelous Puppet Show then is actually Jewish, Jews having been expelled from Spain or forced to convert. The rule says no one may see it —

Actor 4: — “que tenga alguna raza de confeso” —

Actor 3: — no one who has a drop of Jewish blood, or who has not been born of parents locked in legitimate matrimony —

Barbara: — which makes clear that you can only see the puppet show if you are born of a legitimate marriage and of “clean blood,” whatever that means. But the line could also be translated as:

Actor 3: No one who has a trace, or is of the race of those who confess to Judaism.

Barbara: This phrasing names the racialization and recalls the persecution of the faith. Yet even as he sets out these conditions, Cervantes is brutal in poking fun at them. First, take the town’s sexual mores. There’s something a little off about these people and their sex lives. The Governor is not married, which makes him and everyone else very uncomfortable.

Actor 2 (Chirinos): And so is Mrs. Governor, and all the little Governors, if your mercy is blessed to have them.

Actor 5 (Governor): I am not married.

Actor 2 (Chirinos): Well, whenever you may have them; it is still not so late.

Barbara: Then we have Juan Castrado — which just means “castrated” — son of Anton Castrado and Juana Macha — a castrated father and a manly mother—who just happens to be celebrating his daughter’s wedding on the night the charlatans come to town.

Actor 6 (Juan): If you think it's a good idea, it would be an honor, despite the consequences.

Barbara: And then there’s that blushing bride’s excitement at imagining herself impaled on the horns of the bull that she fantasizes — sorry, imagines — as part of the puppet show.

Actor 4 (Cristina): Oh, yes, father! I don't think I shall return to my right mind for three whole days; for I can just see myself on his horns, and oh, they're so big!

Barbara: If anything, the names and the obsession with sexuality run amok call out the fundamental uncertainty for everyone, at least in the early 17th century, about who their daddy was. No “23 and Me” genetic testing for them. And if you don't know who your father was, you also really don't know what kind of blood is mixed up in yours, do you? There is really no way that everyone is on the up and up, although there is certainly the incentive to publicly be seen to pass the test of legitimacy. And this is key. What you see or don’t see — not so important, really. To be seen to see — now that is important, because your standing in the community depends on your being on the inside. That is what the charlatans perceive, and why their con is so brilliant. There is a mutually reinforcing concern for social standing that encourages everyone to go along with the ruse, however skeptical they might be on the inside.

Actor 5 (Governor): Do you see him, Castrado?

Actor 6 (Juan): How could I miss him? I have eyes, don't I?

Barbara: Curiously, the scenes that the charlatans announce, as I alluded to earlier, are overwhelmingly from the Old Testament, which, when you think about it, is an odd way to test the difference between, say, Jews and Christians. If anything, one might argue that these moments actually remind the audience — both us and the internal audience — of the intimate connection between Judaism and Christianity. In doing so, the charlatans’ almost obsessive return to Jewish material ironizes the demonization of Jews.

Actor 2 (Chirinos): That pack of rats you see running around over there are the direct descendants of the mice who sailed aboard Noah's Ark.

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): And now, this water that so elegantly falls from the clouds above is from the fountain that gives origin and beginning to the river Jordan.

Barbara: And this, as we’ve seen, results in so much chaos and so much confusion.

(We hear Actors 1, 5 and 6 cat-calling)

Actor 1 (Benito): Hey, Rabelin, don't let that Jewish hussy throw you around! But, if she's a Jew, how can she see these marvelous puppets?

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): All rules have their exception, Mr. Mayor.

Barbara: Amid all the humor, Cervantes is pointing out that the categories of exclusion basically don’t work; in terms of sexual morality, because humans are basically human, and will stray, and, in terms of the racialization of religion, because the intimate, indeed genealogical connection between Judaism and Christianity, makes a mockery of any idea of blood purity. After all, as the puppeteer Chirinos notes about those descendants of the mice on Noah’s Ark:

Actor 2 (Chirinos): Some are white, some calico, some pink and some blue, and well, they're all rats.

Barbara: All of this can, and often is, hilarious, but it gets a little trickier if the audience in question is us. Where do we stand on belonging versus pointing out that the emperor has no clothes, or that there are no puppets there, or that the ideas to which our group, whatever it is, has been clinging so tightly, have no basis in reality? And, to cap things off, Cervantes concludes his interlude with an outsider, in the person of the Quartermaster.

Actor 7 (Quartermaster): Who here is the Governor?

Actor 5 (Governor): I am. Can I help you sir?

Actor 7 (Quartermaster): I require the immediate accommodation of thirty soldiers who are on their way right now.

Barbara: This representative of the state, who comes to demand that the village host the king’s soldiers, functions as the rude irruption of reality, which makes clear the mutually reinforcing fiction of the villagers. No matter how much honor they claim for themselves, or how they contort themselves to be seen to see, they are actually small potatoes, and have no real power in relation to the king and his representative here.

Actor 7 (Quartermaster): Hey, are the billets ready? My men are outside.

Actor 1 (Benito): So your Tontonelo is up to more of his tricks, is he? I swear to God, you fraud with your smoke and mirrors, you'll pay for the trouble you've caused me!

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): Hey, be my witnesses that the Mayor is threatening me.

Actor 2 (Chirinos): And be my witnesses that the Mayor has said that the wizard Tontonelo has taken over command of His Majesty's army.

Actor 1 (Benito): I'll tontonelo you, God almighty!

Actor 5 (Governor): For my part I actually think these soldiers are probably not puppets.

Actor 7 (Quartermaster): You wonder if His Majesty's infantrymen are puppets, Mr. Governor? Are you in your right mind?

Actor 6 (Juan): They very well could be Tontonelo's doing; just like all of the things we have seen here. By your life, Mr. Director, make the lovely lady Salome come out again, because this gentleman has certainly never seen the likes of her before. (aside) Maybe we can use her as a bribe to get him out of here quickly!

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): All in good time and look, here she comes! She's waving to her dancing partner to help her perform once again.

(We hear Actors 1, 5 and 6 cat-calling)

Actor 1 (Benito): Finally, you're good for something. Go on and tire her out, swing her around! Oh no, let her lead, she's strong as an ox! Go, go, again, again!

(The cat-calling continues)

Actor 7 (Quartermaster): Are you people mad? What devil's mistress is this here, and what hoochy-coochy dance is she doing? Who's this lawless Tontonelo?

Barbara: They then try to apply the test to the Quartermaster. If he doesn’t see Salome, he must be a Jew.

Actor 5 (Governor): So, you don't see Herod's damsel who is dancing over there, Officer?

Actor 7 (Quartermaster): What devilish woman am I supposed to be seeing?

Actor 1 (Benito): Then that’s it! He’s a Jew!

Actor 5 (Governor): He's a bastard for sure! He's one of them!

Actor 6 (Juan): He's one of them! The Quartermaster is one of them! He's one of them!

Actor 7 (Quartermaster): I'm born of the same Christian whore as the rest of you lot, and, by Christ, if l have to get out my sword, you'll all be leaving by the window, and not by the door!

Actor 6 (Juan): That proves it; He's Jewish!

Actor 1 (Benito): It's proven! He must be a bastard if he can't see anything.

Actor 7 (Quartermaster): You're the damn Jews! If you say 'he's one of them' one more time, you'll be carrying your ears home in your hat.

Actor 1 (Benito): I can always tell Jews and bastards; they are always so rough and threatening! And this is why we won't stop saying, “He's one of them!”

Actors 1, 5 and 6: He’s one of them! He’s one of them! He's one of them!

Actor 7 (Quartermaster): To hell with these peasants! Just you wait!

Barbara: The interlude ends in utter disorder as the Quartermaster draws his sword and sets upon them.

(We hear sounds of discomfort and pain from Actors 1, 5 and 6)

Barbara: Meanwhile, the pícaros just plan for the next performance.

Actor 3 (Chanfalla): Well, I suppose that's the end of The Marvelous Puppet Show. Well improvised, my friend, we saved our skins and lined our pockets once again! Long Live Chirinos and Chanfalla!

Barbara: The implication is clear: there will always be another town, another set of dupes, ready to participate in mass delusion if it affords them inclusion. In the end, what is actually marvelous about the puppet show is how readily it moves beyond 17th century Spain to skewer other, more modern foibles.

Actors 1-7: Us? Really?

Barbara: To put it in contemporary terms, beyond the fact that truth might be presented to us in a highly segmented and polarized fashion, what occurs at the moment of reception? What is going on when a scroller or reader of x content on x site, looks left, looks right, and considers what is at stake in believing or pretending to believe? Or, conversely, what it would mean to be dissed or outed or canceled, or whatever the term of art is for the ostracism that follows from skepticism. So one of the key dimensions of this piece is that it reminds us that, however much we prize our independence, we believe as a community. We might think that our judgment, our suspicion, are our very own, but they are crafted in a particular social setting. Whether in real life or virtually, we are very aware of how others whose opinion of us we value will weigh our own belief or disbelief. This kind of social dimension to credulity is what Cervantes is so good at skewering.

We hear audience applause.

•••

Aaron: Thank you for listening to this episode of The Dybbukast, “The Marvelous Puppet Show." Actors featured in this episode were Joe Jordan, Adam Lebowitz-Lockard, Julie Lockhart, Molly Pease, David Saldana, Diana Tanaka, and Jonathan CK Williams. Music was by Molly Pease. Thank you to Dr. Barbara Fuchs for authoring the lecture and for collaborating on the event's creation. The English translation of The Marvelous Puppet Show was by Kathleen Jeffs and the Oxford University Playwriting and Dramaturgy Society. This episode was edited by Mark McClain Wilson, with story editing for the podcast presentation by Julie Lockhart. Thank you to Cameron Johnston for making recording of the event possible.

Please visit us at theatredybbuk.org, where you will find links to a wide variety of materials which expand upon the episode’s explorations. And if you want to know more about theatre dybbuk’s work in general, please sign up for our mailing list on that same website. This episode was presented in collaboration with Diversifying the Classics at UCLA and First Congregational Church of Los Angeles. This season of The Dybbukast is generously supported by a grant from Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah. This episode is supported in part by a grant from The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. The Dybbukast is produced by theatre dybbuk.