Trying to Find Chinatown: The Selected Plays of David Henry Hwang (29 page)

Our horrible family outings

And, in the spring, oh, the children!

Daddy, are we there yet?

Were there children?

Are we there yet?

Were there children?

Are we there yet?

Commander, there is a planet

Where conditions are proper

For death?

For life.

For life?

Shall we go down?

(The spaceship crashes.)

It appears to be a planet
In the infant stages of our own

The days of wandering
Are gone
No more floating
On the event horizon
Casually observing the death of a star
Now, we must keep our feet
Fixed to the soil
Pilot, may we have one last glimpse
Of the planet we are doomed to forget?

As planets go, it was not so impressive

It had an irregular orbit

The inhabitants played cards day and night

(As the Commander distributes the directional crystals, we hear a pulsating chord.)

Now each of us take
One of the ship’s directional crystals
If a day arrives when we may return
Any two brought together
Will point the way home
Pilot, will you set this crew
Towards some less random destination?

Pilot yourselves
Picture the world you would live in
Then enter it
This is the adventure
Of life in the realm of gravity

 

 

(Musical interlude: The Commander distributes the glowing crystals among members of the crew. The Ship’s Doctor and Second Mate close their eyes and begin moving toward opposite sides of the stage. As they do, the pulsating chord begins to break up into its separate components, and the map of the galaxy fades away, replaced by images of the crew members’ visions.)

In my secret heart
All I ever wanted
Was to escape my home
With no hope of return
Now I see
A world ruled by machines
And my hand on the lever
As I look above
And I say, “There, the sky!
It is I who have turned it to black!”

(The Second Mate disappears into an image of Europe during the worst of the Industrial Revolution.)

In my secret heart
All I ever wanted
Was to tell my stories
To ears eager to hear
Now I see
A world gathered ’round
The tales from my mouth
Children and adults
Who listen for days and nights
As I begin: “Once upon a time”

(The Ship’s Doctor disappears into an image of India, masses of people gathered around her.)

In my secret heart
All I ever wanted
Was to continue the voyage
With vessel or without
Makes no difference to me

(The Scientist/First Mate is transported to a pavilion near the top of a Tibetan mountain .)

In my secret heart
I would have rather died
Than live tethered to
The change of seasons
A ringing telephone
The endlessly repeating summer holiday
All I ever wanted
Was to kick up my heels
Without touching the ground
So I will simply walk
Into the arms of whatever lies waiting

 

 

(The Commander prepares to exit.)

 

What will they want from me?
Potions and jewels and color TV?
Or perhaps their hopes lie in the spiritual realm
A book of the dead, a mantra, some relics
Perhaps I will be enslaved
Carried aloft in the most shameful fashion
And will I come someday to mate?
With wordless grunts in a dark cave of groping?
Will I know what to do, where to touch, how to kiss?
Will I one day find myself loving the stranger?
Yes, I suppose that love and that hate
Mingle like blood between the sheets
When two worlds meet

 

(The perspective changes. Suddenly, we are with a large group of natives outside the spaceship. The Commander seems to them a fantastic creature, barely humanoid, speaking gibberish.)

What will she want from us?
Potions and jewels and photos in color?
Or perhaps her hopes lie in the spiritual realm
A book of the dead, a mantra, some relics
Perhaps we will be enslaved
Carried aloft in the most shameful fashion
And will we come someday to mate?
With wordless grunts in a dark cave of groping?
Will we know what to do, where to touch, how to kiss?
Will we one day find ourselves loving the stranger?
Yes, I suppose that love and that hate
Mingle like blood between the sheets
When two worlds meet

 

 

(The commander is absorbed by the Natives, performing the Rites of Spring.)

Admiral of the Ocean Sea
Setting forth by our command
Don Cristóbal Colón
It is our will and pleasure
That you be Admiral
Viceroy
Perpetual Governor-General
Of all you shall win and discover
And shall be empowered henceforth
To call yourself
Don Cristóbal Colón
Your heirs and successors
So entitled
From rank to rank forever
Amen

Qui navigant mare ennarent pericula eius
Et audientes auribus nostris admirabimur
Beati oculi qui vident quae vos videtis
Et potestas a mari usque ad mare
Et a fluminibus usque ad fines terrae
Et erunt reges nutritii tui
Et reginae nutrices tuae
[They that sail on the sea tell of the danger thereof
And when we hear it with our ears, we marvel thereat
Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see
And his dominion shall be from sea to sea
And from the river even to the ends of the earth
And kings shall be thy nursing fathers,
And their queens your nursing mothers]

Amen

Amen, amen

 

 

(Columbus’s memories are violated by the Scientist/First Mate, calling out the dawn watch.)

 

Dawn of day thirty-two
And the memories of court
Their glorious voices
Have vanished beyond the horizon
Replaced
By infernal mumblings
Of men who pluck out
Their teeth with their fingers
And wipe their backsides
With the end of a rope

Bendita sea la luz
Y la Santa Veracruz
Y el Señor de la Verdad
Y la Santa Trinidad
Bendita sea el alma
Y el Señor que nos la manda
Bendito sea el día
Y el Señor que nos lo envía
[Blessed be the light of day
And the Holy Cross we say
And the Lord of Verity
And the Holy Trinity
Blessed be the immortal soul
And the Lord who keeps it whole
Blessed be the light of day
And He who keeps the night away]

Yes, there are times
When the faithful do waver
And solitude takes us
In its smothering arms
And crushes, and crushes
Our breath and our vision
Until we lie gasping
In madness and doubt

Oeste: nada del noroeste, Nada del sudoeste [West: nothing to the northward Nothing to the southward]

Leva el papahigo
[Hoist the main course]

Empowered by God
Your vision of such lucidity
As if, in your hands,
Lay already the kingdoms of Asia
Such certainty, it is clear
Can only have come from God
Whose Word you disparage
With all this weakness and weeping

Suban dos a los penoles
[Two of you up on the yardarm]

But my vision has grown hazy
As through the expanses of blue
I see my own face, and it is old
And it wonders

Tabla en buena hora, Quien no viniere que no coma [Table is set, Who don’t come won’t eat]

The old men who wonder
Are those who lacked faith while young
Remember instead, the example of Noah
Who faithfully awaited the coming birdsong

And in the hurlyburly of the waterworks
Of random spouts and tidepools
I seem to doubt even the order of God
And the Turks and Jews we kill in His name

Oeste: nada del noroeste,
Nada del sudoeste
[West: nothing to the northward
Nothing to the southward]

¡Juegue el guimbalete para que la bomba achique!
[Work that pump brake till she sucks!]

Still your doubts, Don Cristóbal
Let my song smooth your salted brow
For the ocean is kind
The tides they are ordered
Each pass of the waves
Brings near to your feet
The evidence you seek