PLAY SUMMARIES
EYES OF MAGIC
By Mehmet Murat ildan
A Comedy Of Two Acts
Translated by Yurdanur Salman
Plot Summary
The Count, Signor Monteverdi, in danger of losing everything due to his large gambling debts seeks out the magician, Metastasio, for help. He asks Metastasio to cast a spell on the rich merchant Domenico so that the merchant will fall in love with Monteverdi's ugly daughter Vittoria.
The spell requires a tuft of Domenico's hair. Monteverdi charges his servant, Pellico, with the task of obtaining the hair from the local barber Tartini since the two are friends. Tartini is irreligious, unmarried, and poor. Unaware of Monteverdi's gambling debts and the fact that Vittoria is ugly, the barber cheats Pellico by giving him a tuft of his own hair instead of the merchant Domenico's hair.
At the end, Tartini learns the truth, but it is too late any more; nobody can recast the spell! Now, the ugly daughter, Signorina Vittoria falls in love with Tartini. To get rid of her and save himself from this strong spell, barber Tartini must run away from the town and take refuge in a monastery. He can protect himself from spell's influence only when he is inside the monastery.
Signor Monteverdi is not able to pay his gambling debts and he loses everything he has. Thus, Pellico is left without a job and in order to survive, he takes refuge to Tartini's monastery. Since he is an atheist, barber Tartini can not adapt himself to religious life in the monastery and he wants to suicide. But, Pellico gives a tempting idea to Tartini: Killing Signorina Vittoria!
According to the plan, Pellico leaves the monastery and hires a murderer to kill Count's daughter... However, the plan fails. Signorina Vittoria manages to persuade the murderer and so she saves her own life. Now, she knows that Tartini is the main responsible for all these problems and she decides to take a revenge on him....
EMMANUEL ARAGO’S DIARY
By Mehmet Murat ildan
A Play of Two Acts
Translated by Yurdanur Salman
Plot Summary
In Act I, Scene One, we see Gregory’s wife, Elizabeth, coming to see him in his study room at their manor house in 1865. Gregory, a novelist, has just started writing a mystery novel after a long interval so he is interested in death and murder. Elizabeth suggests that he should talk to a real murderer.
In Scene Two, Gregory, disguised as a priest, visits Milton, a tailor condemned to death because of murder in his cell in the prison. Milton gives Gregory Emmanuel Arago’s name as a master killer. Emmanuel Arago is a mysterious antique dealer who does not leave any traces behind him after the murders he commits.
In Scene Three, Gregory, under the guise of a sea captain, goes to Emmanuel Arago’s antique shop to sell a dagger and there he meets Malaparte, Arago’s dwarf apprentice, who pretends to be Arago. Then Arago arrives and has an interesting discussion with Gregory about daggers, the art of selling antiques and of killing with daggers. When Gregory leaves, Arago gets suspicious and asks his apprentice, Malaparte, to follow him.
In Scene Four, we see Gregory visiting his sister-in-law, Catherine, in the mental hospital she is kept in. Although Gregory always felt nice things for Catherine, a very beautiful, intelligent and strong woman, he married Elizabeth, Catherine’s sister. Catherine took refuge in this mental hospital, because she wanted to keep “sane” so as to be able to cope with her great disappointment in her love for Gregory. Gregory has actually come to take her out of the hospital. In the meantime, we see Alfred, an inmate, bringing Catherine a cut-off frog’s head.
In Scene Five, while the formalities for Catherine’s release are being completed, Gregory learns that Malaparte has also been hospitalised. He sees an “imitation” painting on the wall given to the hospital by Emmanuel Arago and so learns that the head doctor already knows Arago.
In Scene Six, Arago is having a hunting party, in which Gregory joined him, again as Captain Bruckner. Meanwhile, they have a discussion about the psychology of killing animals and people. Gregory learns that Arago thinks killers feel like God and also that he is planning to marry Catherine.
Scene Seven begins with Malaparte telling that he has been hit on the head while following Gregory, whom they suspected to be a detective. From their conversation we learn that Arago is training Malaparte as a master-killer and he had actually been put in hospital to kill a certain inmate John Gaskell. Instead, Malaparte killed an innocent woman, Margaret. Malaparte tries very hard to be raised to the status of a master-killer from being just an apprentice.
In Act Two, Scene One, we see Elizabeth talking to Allan, their housekeeper, whom she sent out to spy on her husband. Allan tells her about Gregory’s visit to the mental hospital to see Catherine and how they left the hospital together. Elizabeth is jealous of her husband and fears that he will divorce her. Allan suggests that she should fight for her love and that she should try to keep her husband. He also wants to stay on the farm and decides to fight on Elizabeth’s side.
In Scene Two, we see Arago, dressed up, waiting for Catherine to visit him. Catherine enters wearing a red wig on her shaved head. Arago proposes to her and Catherine accepts it on the one condition that he will kill her sister. They drink to their future happiness together. Catherine wants to take her revenge from her sister for taking away the man she loved from her. She asks Arago to do away with Elizabeth. Arago sees himself as a “knight”, whose mission is to save the world from “evil” persons. As Elizabeth is not an “evil” person in his definition, he refuses to kill her.
In Scene Three, Catherine and Gregory are visiting the cemetery, where Gregory shows her the grave of a man who had been murdered. He tells her that the murderer who sent to kill that man was Arago, Catherine’s future husband. However, as Catherine learns from Alfred, the frog-man, the person who had killed Margaret was not Graham but Malaparte, Arago’s apprentice, trained in the art of killing. Catherine tells Gregory that she asked Arago to kill his sister to be able to catch him red-handed but that Arago refused to do so. Gregory, not believing in Arago’s honesty, rushes away to find Elizabeth immediately.
In Scene Four, Elizabeth is sitting in the manor house, having a long “internal monologue” in which she goes over the things that have happened in her life. Believing that Gregory will divorce her in order to marry her sister, she decides to take her life with the sharp dagger hanging on the wall.
In Scene Five, Gregory enters the manor house and finds Elizabeth dead. He thinks that Arago killed her and decides to go after him.
In Scene Six, at Elizabeth’s funeral in the cemetery, Gregory blames Catherine for getting Arago to kill his wife. Catherine tells him to continue writing to be able to go on living in spite of his great pain.
In Scene Seven, Gregory goes to the antique shop to see Arago and tells him about his real identity, that he is not Captain Bruckner, or a detective, but Elizabeth’s husband. Arago tells him that it was not him who killed Elizabeth and also that his apprentice, Malaparte, has poisoned him by pouring poison into the wine. Gregory accuses Arago of being a liar as well as a murderer, and stabs him with the dagger; then he also drinks from the poisonous wine.
In Scene Eight, Catherine comes into the antique shop, and seeing Arago lying on the floor, accuses Gregory of killing him and Arago of killing Elizabeth. Before dying, Arago tells her that he recorded all his murders in a notebook, but he did not kill Elizabeth. After he dies, Catherine learns by reading Arago’s diary that he did not kill her sister. She decides that Elizabeth must have committed suicide.
In Scene Nine, Housekeeper Allan meets Malaparte in the street, whom he takes to be a thief. Allan tells Malaparte that it was himself who hit him on the head, seeing him following Gregory, that is Captain Bruckner. He tells Malaparte that he left the manor house after his lady died. He also confesses that he used to love her and intended to kill her sister. Malaparte offers Allan, who has lost his job, a job. He wants to train him as a killer that murders “good people”.
In Scene Ten, Catherine is sitting at Gregory’s writing table in the manor house, feeling lonely and seeing her life as empty and meaningless. While she is reading Arago’s diary, the frog-man Alfred comes in with a present in his hand, a bunch of flowers. He takes the diary and recognizes Malaparte, the dwarf, and his master Arago as the killers of Margaret. He throws the diary into the fire. Catherine cries, saying that now Arago will be forgotten forever.
In Scene Eleven, it is sixty-five years later, in 1930. At an antique market in the street, we see a seller offering his customer, a printer, a copy of Arago’s diary, in which all the murders he committed in Colchester were recorded. When the customer decides to buy the diary, the seller says that Emmanuel Arago’s soul must be grateful to them, for his noble name will go on living forever.
BEGGAR’S PROPHECY
By Mehmet Murat ildan
A Play of Two Acts
Translated by Yurdanur Salman
Plot Summary
In Act I, Scene I of this play Madame Louise, whose zoologist husband, Monsieur Lamartine is studying chimpanzees in Africa, meets a beggar after leaving her “Don Juan” lover’s apartment in Liberation Street in Paris. Beggar asks her for a few francs to lighten her sins. After a witty conversation between them, they arrange to go to the theatre together the following evening.
In Scene II, they are watching the play, “Clever Knight”. Knight, learns from his Stableman that his wife has been betraying him with several of his servants, including Stableman. Knight suggests that Stableman should kill his wife, but Stableman suggests that Knight should take his revenge from his wife by betraying her with his sister-in-law.
In Scene III, Madame Louise and Beggar are back in her apartment, discussing why they left the theatre before the end of the performance. They discuss matters of fidelity and adultery in marriage. Madame Louise decides to go to Africa to make up the relationship with her husband and to be faithful to him. Beggar makes the comment that even the most innocent person can turn into a murderer under certain circumstances.
In Act II, Scene I, Monsieur Lamartine is talking to Detective Oliver in a hotel in Paris. Because of the “cold” letters his wife has been sending him, Monsieur Lamartine has employed Detective to watch his wife. Upon learning that his wife has been to the theatre with Beggar, Monsieur Lamartine writes a handsome check for Detective, asking him to put Beggar in a coffin with some hungry rats, nail the coffin and dump it into the River Seine. He also decides to divorce his wife because of her adultery.
In Scene II, in a dim cellar Detective explains to Beggar what he will do to him and why. The scene ends with Beggar almost convincing Detective not to do such a horrible thing for money.
Scene III takes us to Africa, to a village in the French Guinea. Madame Louise and Monsieur Lamartine have renewed their happy marriage relationship. A newspaper sent from Paris brings the news that a coffin was found in the river with a dead body and rats in it. Then a letter arrives from Detective for Monsieur Lamartine, which Madame Louise opens and reads in her husband’s absence. She realizes what has happened and leaves for Paris immediately on the excuse of her mother’s illness.
In Scene IV, back in Paris, Madame Louise and Detective are sitting and thinking things over. Madame Louise blames her husband for giving the orders to kill Beggar. She offers more money to Detective, asking him to kill her husband instead.
In Scene V, we are taken back to Africa, where Monsieur Lamartine is waiting for his wife to return. Instead, Detective appears and explains everything to him: he did not kill Beggar because he was not his wife’s lover, but a famous playwright. Beggar also arrives there, and later Madame Louise. Everything is sorted out and they all drink to “life” together.
GALILEO GALILEI
By Mehmet Murat ildan
A Play of Two Acts
Translated by Yurdanur Salman
Plot Summary
In Act I, Scene I of this two-act play, we see two men watching children playing near the house where young Galilei lives, observing the inventiveness of the children and the attitude of the Inquisition towards new ideas.
In Scene II, Galilei’s parents express their disappointment in their son’s choice of mathemathics and physics instead of medicine and in his “dangerous” interest in strange experiments.
Scene III shows two scholars having a discussion with Galile, the scholars defending the church and dogmatic ideas, Galile being on the side of the new science and experiments.
In Scene IV, we see students of different beliefs, like the Ptolemian, Aristotelian and Aristarchean, discussing the old and the new theories about the universe. Then an astrologer joins them. After hearing his dogmatic ideas about the universe, the students decide to visit Galile.
In Act II, Scene I, Galile defends his new invention, the sky telescope, against a Mocking Nobleman. The Priest condemns the new device but the Sailor appreciates it, saying that it will be very useful in navigation.
In Scene II, we see two Jesuits in a graveyard, waiting for the dead body to be buried and in the meantime discussing Galile’s new invention.
Scene III opens with a dialogue between Galile and the Clown of the Duke, to whom Galile came to present his new “magnifier”. In this “amusing” dialogue we become aware of the different functions of this new device.
In Scene IV of Act II, a Monk has come to see Galile in his house in Florence. From their conversation we learn that the Inquisition has taken a decision to collect Galile’s book. Although his book has been banned, it has already become popular, being read by large masses of people, and even the Monk has now turned against the church and the Pope.
Scene V takes place in a street in Rome. People from different walks of life, like a Tailor, a Farrier, a Merchant, a Poet, and a Painter are talking about Galile’s invention, voicing their opinions for and against it. Galile has denied his new “finding” to save his life, but we know that truth will triumph and the portrait the Painter wants to make of him will make him immortal.
ALL BEGAN WITH MARIANNE
By Mehmet Murat ildan
A Play of Two Acts
Translated by Yurdanur Salman
Plot Summary
Act I, Scene One opens with Marianne, a playwright, sitting on a bench in a park near the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Antoine comes and wants to sit next to her. He has come to meet a sexy woman he made contact with through an ad in the newspaper. Silvia appears but she does not fit the description given in the ad and she is married to the owner of the Duparc Hotel chain. Disappointed, Antoine leaves and so does Silvia after him. Marianne is waiting for Charlotte, her best friend; when she comes, Marianne asks her to put a marriage advertisement in the newspaper, not in her own name, but in Charlotte’s name. Marianne is interested in Antoine and she wants Charlotte to help her meet him through this ad.
In Scene Two, a week later, we see Victor in the same park. Victor is married. His friend Antoine, has sent him to meet Charlotte, who thinks he is Antoine. When they are sitting and talking, Charlotte saying that she wants to find a husband, a fat man, Flaubert appears who happens to be Charlotte’s husband. Charlotte hides behind a newspaper. Victor and Flaubert get talking and Flaubert says that he has come to “catch” a young “bird”. When Victor asks him about his marriage ring, Flaubert takes it out, throws it down and goes to the toilet. Charlotte is angry to hear her husband’s comments about herself and about their marriage. Saying that she wants to see Victor again, she leaves. Then Silvia enters and wants to sit next to Victor. She has come to meet Flaubert and she takes Victor to be him. She wants to take him to the Painters’ Bar. They leave but Victor comes back on the excuse of picking up his newspaper and asks Nun to help him by telling Flaubert that it was herself who has given the ad. Flaubert comes back and tells Nun that he is looking for salvation in women. Nun tells him that she has given that ad with the aim of meeting and “correcting” sinners. Flaubert gets angry and leaves.
In Scene Three, Victor and Silvia are at the Painters’ Bar, where artists make pictures of lovers, sweethearts, and married couples. Silvia wishes to attain immortality by getting her picture made. When she goes to speak to Painter, Victor’s wife, Jacqueline, accompanied by a young man comes to speak to him. Victor leaves a note for Silvia and exits. While Jacqueline is talking with Painter, we learn that the young man with her is a homosexual but she says she feels “safe” with him. Painter refuses to paint their picture because they are neither lovers nor a married couple. Jacqueline decides to bring her husband to the bar to get the picture completed.
In Scene Four, Charlotte is alone, wondering why she has been betrayed by her husband. When Flaubert comes home, she presses him for an explanation, who explains the smell of incense on his clothes by telling her that he met a nun in the park. Charlotte does not believe him and decides to give her heart to Victor.
Scene Five takes place in a theatre. Victor and Charlotte are watching Marianne’s play, “The Time Machine”. We see Quasimodo and Esmeralda from the XVth Century and Liebermann from the 1930s. Liebermann, an anthropologist from Hitler’s time, has travelled back in time to the XVth Century to write a book on vergers. He asks Quasimodo some questions about why and how he chose to be a verger. Esmeralda wants Quasimodo to give her permission to enter the church to pray to God to give her a husband. Then Krüger, a Gestapo agent, enters and wants to arrest Liebermann, saying that he is at the wrong place at the wrong time. There follows a heated argument about Jews, Communists, Bolsheviks, and gypsies. Krüger and Liebermann have a fight and Krüger shoots himself with his own gun. Esmeralda kisses Quasimodo to get her permission to enter the church. Act One of the play, “The Time Machine” ends here. Victor and Charlotte like the play, discovering in the meantime that they are in love with each other. Deciding to be honest towards each other both confess that they are married and promise to get divorced from their spouses. Jacqueline, who has been watching them from the back row, decides that her marriage has come to an end and that she will find another man to take to the Painters’ Bar to get her picture completed.
In Act II, Scene One, Marianne is sitting in the same park, expecting the news to be brought by Charlotte. Instead of her, there appears Flaubert, Charlotte’s husband, and tells her about his encounter with Nun, and how jealous and angry Charlotte was to learn this. Flaubert is sure that his wife is betraying him with a lawyer called Antoine. Marianne realizes what she has done and gets a shock because she herself is interested in Antoine. Flaubert leaves and Nun comes. Complaining that times have got bad, she tells Marianne that nuns put ads into the newspapers to catch sinners red-handed. Nun, pretending to be Vivette , has come here to meet a businessman who is looking for a mistress. Priest also comes for an appointment and sits on the next bench. Nun calls the businessman she is going to meet on her cell-phone and Priest answers her call turning out to be him. Priest declares his love to Nun and they leave holding hands. Marianne, sitting alone, feels sorry for having caused to bring Charlotte and Antoine together.
In Scene Two we see Jacqueline telling Painter that she will leave her husband and quit her gay friend. Painter proposes to her and she accepts his proposal. She tears up Victor’s photograph. Silvia, who is sitting at the next table, brings the torn pieces together and recognizes Flaubert, that is Victor. Jacqueline explains the situation to Silvia, saying that her husband, Victor, has been betraying her and that she has decided to leave him. Silvia, terribly disappointed in men, decides to become a nun. Painter and Jacqueline are in love and happy to find each other.
In Scene Three, players are rehearsing the play “The Time Machine”. Quasimodo (François) kisses Esmeralda (Caroline) passionately and Krüger (Paul), Caroline’s husband in real life, gets very angry. Liebermann (Claude) tries to prevent Paul from shooting François. However, Paul is dead and Caroline is very sorry that he died because he could not accept the fact that she loved François. Marianne enters and gets a shock to discover that the comedy she wrote has turned into a tragedy!
Scene Four takes place a week later at the same park, next to the Descartes bust. Marianne meets Charlotte, who explains that she got divorced from her husband, Flaubert. Marianne, thinking that Charlotte stole Antoine’s heart, is offended. Charlotte tells Marianne that she is going to marry Victor at the church the following week and wants Marianne to be her bridesmaid. Charlotte leaves and Antoine enters, who is full of admiration for the bright playwright, Marianne. He also invites Marianne to the same wedding ceremony, where actually his friend Victor will be marrying Charlotte. Marianne is fond of Antoine, but she can’t do anything because she has promised her friend, Charlotte.
In Scene Five, nine days later, in the courtyard of the Saint-Jacques church, Father is talking to Silvia who is listening to him unhappily, dressed as a nun. Priest and Nun enter the courtyard, and Father learns that they have both decided to leave the church and marry each other. Victor and Charlotte enter, and Nun recognizes Victor as the man she met in the park. Victor tells her that he is marrying the woman whose marriage he asked her to help him save. Then Jacqueline and Painter enter and Jacqueline recognizes Victor, her ex-husband. Victor recognizes Silvia, who is now dressed as a nun, as the girl he met in the park. Then Antoine enters and recognizes Silvia, who answered his ad, but he is surprised that she now looks like a nun. When Flaubert enters, Silvia tells him that she divorced her rich, old husband. Charlotte warns Victor that Flaubert is there and she is afraid of a probable scandal. Father is very much surprised to learn about so many ex-husbands. Quasimodo and Esmeralda enter in their costumes in the play, also wanting to get married in the same church. Flaubert is angry with his ex-wife, Charlotte, for quitting him. Flaubert, thinking that Silvia was the nun he met in the park, also accuses Silvia for having played a dirty trick on him. Silvia explains that it has only been a week since she decided to become a nun, upon which Flaubert proposes to her and Silvia accepts to marry him. Then Krüger and Liebermann enter. Quasimodo and Esmeralda are quite surprised to see the dead man appear before them in flesh and blood. It turns out that Paul and Claude played a trick on the other players. All the relationships being sorted out and re-arranged, Father enters to marry Caroline to François, Silvia to Flaubert, Marianne to Antoine, Nun to Priest, Painter to Jacqueline and Charlotte to Victor.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
By Mehmet Murat ildan
A Play of Two Acts
Translated by Yurdanur Salman
Plot Summary
The play passes in the early XVIIth Century England, the times of Elizabeth I.
ACT1 - Scene I: A Sunday morning in London, near Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Shakespeare comes across Francis, a young man, a great admirer of Shakespeare, from Stratford upon Avon. Francis is looking for the Globe Theatre. He would like to be a playwright and he thinks he can get some help from his fellow countryman, William of Stratford. Since Francis has never seen Shakespeare before, Shakespeare hides his identity and plays a trick on Francis. He behaves like a man ho has never seen Shakespeare’s plays.
Scene II: In a wooded place near the Globe Theatre, two Puritans talk each other. They hate theatres, players and especially playwrights. In fact, Second Puritan is planning a bloody design, a plot against Shakespeare. For this, he has already hired a detective whose job is to enter the Globe and bring some information useful for the plot. The information is that Lord Chamberlain’s men are going to perform a play called Hamlet. According to what the detective said, there is a ghost in Hamlet and the actor playing the ghost is Shakespeare himself. Plot will take place during the rehearsals. A murderer will stab the ghost on the stage. While two Puritans talk about the plot, Francis comes and hides behind a tree. He learns about the bloody design. He decides to persuade Shakespeare to get the role of the ghost in Hamlet without informing him about the plot. He will risk his life for Shakespeare.
Scene III: The detective gets caught by John Heminges, William’s colleague. In the cellar of the Bull Inn, Shakespeare and Heminges interrogate the detective. The detective does not actually know about the plot; he only knows that he is hired by the owner of a press to steal Hamlet part by part and print it as a book. So, Shakespeare and Heminges could not discover anything about the plot
ACT2 - Scene I: Puritans learn that the detective gets caught. But the plan will not be affected. Murderer is not a man but a young and a beautiful girl, Susanna.
Scene II: In a wooded place near the Globe Theatre, Susanna is watching the theatre building from among the trees. Francis sees her and affected by her beauty, decides to talk to her. He thinks she is a theatre lover. Trusting her, Francis talks about the plot against Shakespeare…
Scene III: In a dark street, Susanna knocks on the door of the Second Puritan. She believes that he is a traitor otherwise how could Francis know about the plot? She pulls out a dagger from her waist to kill him. But the Second Puritan persuades her that he can not be the traitor; he accuses of the First Puritan, his neighbour. The Second Puritan knocks at the next door. He stabs the dagger into the First Puritan. The plan has obviously changed. Shakespeare must be killed not on the stage but on his way home at night.
Scene IV: Inside the Globe Theatre Francis sits between a few props for Hamlet. Shakespeare, Heminges and Richard Burbage enter. Francis no longer wants to be a playwright, but now he wants to be a player. Shakespeare and his friends decide to make Francis sweat a little. Since he wants to be an actor, they start doing some test on him. At the end, Francis gets the part of the ghost to show his talents in acting.
Scene V: In a narrow street in midnight, Francis follows Shakespeare secretly. He wants to be sure that master William gets to his house safe and sound. It is foggy and the fog gradually gets thicker. Francis looses Shakespeare from his sight. He sees something. The Second Puritan covers Susanna’s mouth and about to kill her. Francis thinks that the Second Puritan is holding Shakespeare! He attacks the Second Puritan. Shakespeare, hearing these voices comes. The Second Puritan strikes on Francis and jumps onto Shakespeare. He is about to stab the knife into Shakespeare. Susanna’s scream is heard and then the knife is stabbed into the Second Puritan’s back…