MAY DAY EVE

By: Nick Joaquin

FADE IN

Narrator (Grandfather): And it was May again. It was the first day of May

and witches were aboard in the night. For it was a night of divination, a
night of lovers and those who cared might gaze in a mirror and would there
behold the face of whoever it was they were fated to marry.

It was the May Day Eve. A mystique May Eve.

(background music)

SCENE 1 [GIRLS’ ROOM]

(someone closed the door)

(screams)

GIRL #1: Enough girls! Anastasia! We’re trying to sleep.

GIRL #2: Go ahead and scare the boys instead! You old witch!
GIRL #3: She’s not a witch. She’s Saint Anastasia. (in a mocking tone)
Virgin and Martyr. (laughs)
(everyone laughs)
GIRL #1: Oh wait. Anastasia, are you still a virgin?
ANASTASIA: (laughs) NO! But I am seven times a martyr because of you girls!
And oh, your mother told me to stay here all night. So enough with the
talking and go to sleep now!
AGUEDA: We won’t sleep until you tell us your story.
ANASTASIA: Story? About what?(smiles slyly)
AGUEDA: How you managed to conquer seven husbands.
(laughs)
GIRL#1: Seven husbands?! For real?
AGUEDA: Yea (rolls eyes) So, Anastasia, how did you know they are the ones
you have to marry?
ANASTASIA: (shakes head)
AGUEDA: Go on Anastasia!
GIRL #2: Oh, interesting. How did you know Anastasia?
AGUEDA: Go on old woman, prophesy! Who shall I marry, old gypsy?
(insulting laughter)
ANASTASIA: Do you really want to know?
(everyone nods)
ANASTASIA: Well then. I guess, there’s no turning back now// You may learn
in a mirror if you are not afraid.
AGUEDA: What?! Mirror? (sarcastic laugh) You’ve got to be kidding me.
(everyone’s making noise)
GIRL #4: (storms into the room) GIRLS! YOU’RE TOO LOUD! My mother is trying
to sleep downstairs. Can you please go to bed now?!
AGUEDA: Oh there you are! Hey, come join us. Old Anastasia has a story to
tell.
GIRL #4: No! That’s enough. It’s past 12 already. Let’s sleep now.
AGUEDA: NO! I won’t go to sleep not unless I learned about this mirror this
old witch is talking about!

GIRLS: Yea. Yea (noise again)

ANASTASIA: Okay. If you insist. Hmmm. Very well. Here’s what you have to
do. You must take a candle. Go into a room that is dark and that has a
mirror in it. You must be alone in the room. Go up to the mirror. Close
your eyes and say:

Mirror, mirror, show to me, him whose woman I will be.” 

If all goes right, just above your left shoulder will appear the face of
the man you will marry.

GIRL #4: But what if all goes wrong?

ANASTASIA: Then may God have mercy on you! Because, you might see…
GIRLS: What?!
ANASTASIA: The devil
(screams)
AGUEDA: Are you girls for real? You don’t believe her, do you?! This is the
year 1847 already, there’s no such thing as devil anymore!
ANASTASIA: (sarcastic laugh)
Agueda: Okay! Okay!(clears throat) Well then. I’m going.
GIRL#4: WHAT?!
GIRL #1: Agueda go back here! Don’t listen to her!
GIRL#2: Are you insane?! It’s a mortal sin! You might see the devil!
AGUEDA: Hah! You know very well that it’s just nonsense! (points to
Anastasia) She’s just nonsense! And besides I’m not afraid. I’m going!
Come, old woman. Give me that candle. It's best for me to go.
(about to leave the room)
GIRL #3: Anastasia! Stop her! Girls!

(Agueda went to see if Anastasia was right)

SCENE 2 [DARK ROOM]

(Agueda opens the door)

(starts walking slowly towards the mirror)
(Agueda removes the fabric covering the mirror)
(takes a deep breathe then exhaled)

Agueda: Mirror, mirror

show to me
(distractions)
whose woman I will be.
Badoy: (enters suspiciously)

(sound of wood cracking)

 
SCENE 3 Agueda and the Devil Badoy

(Agueda saw Badoy’s reflection in the mirror)

(Badoy was drunk)

Devil/Badoy: Charms like yours have no need for a candle, fair one!(smiles
and gives a low mocking bow)
 
Agueda:(glares at Badoy)What are you doing here?
(Badoy bursts into a happy bully laugh)
 
Badoy: (examines Agueda) Hmmm. Wait. I remember you!You are Agueda, whom I
left, nothing but a mere infant and came home to find a tremendous,
splendid beauty (paused and then remembers something) Ah! I danced a waltz with
you but you wouldn't give me the polka!
Agueda:I’d have enough of your foolishness. Let me pass.
Badoy:(blocks the way)But I want to dance the polka with you fair one.
Agueda: I told you,enough with your pranks! Now let me be! LET ME PASS!
(pushes Badoy aside)
 
Badoy:(grabs Agueda's wrist) No! Not until we have danced!
Agueda: Lower your voice. It’s already late you’ll wake everyone.Just let
me pass
Badoy: I don't care about them!
Agueda: What do you want?
Badoy: All I want is a dance! A dance with you!
Agueda: Oh, shut up! Go into the devil!
Badoy:(laughs)What a temper has my woman!
Agueda:AHHHHHH!! 
Badoy: Ah, ah! Now you'll wake them.
Agueda: I am not your woman! Anastasia was right! I might see the devil and
here is standing in front of me!
Badoy: Hah! You’re unbelievable. Why do you treat me and all of my friends
as if we're mortal enemies? Such ill treatment, I do not like at all, my
fair maiden.
Agueda: And why not? You do not know how I detest you! Oh, I detest you,
you arrogant young man! You go to your beloved Europe and come back an
elegant lord and w-we poor girls too tame to please you. You wear me! You
bore me! You fussy young men!

Badoy: You’ve got to be kidding me, Agueda. How do you know about us? How can
you even be so sure?
 
Agueda: I heard about you talking among yourselves, and I despise the pack
of you!
Badoy: But clearly you do not despise yourself,Signora. You come to admire
your charms in the mirror even in the middle of the night!
Agueda: I was not admiring myself,sir!
Badoy: What then? The moon, perhaps?
Agueda:(Badoy is getting into her nerves)Oh! You!
(drops the candle, covers face and cries)
 
Badoy: Oh, do not cry, little one! Forgive me, I’ve said too much! Please!
Don't cry! It pains me too much to see your lovely face stained by such
cruel tears because of no one else other than me.

Agueda: (still sobbing)

Badoy: Enough, Agueda! No more tears! I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I was
just too drunk. I truly was! I’ve said too much. I’m sorry.
(Badoy reached for Agueda’s hand and planted a kiss on it)

Agueda:(shoves Badoy away again)Let me go!

Badoy: No! No, Agueda! Not without your forgiveness!
Agueda: Let me go! 
Badoy: Such I cannot do! Say you forgive me, Agueda!
Agueda: I said, LET…ME…GOOOO!!
(slaps Badoy)
Badoy: (touches face and laughs mockingly) My fair woman—
Agueda: (bites his knuckles and runs)

Badoy: (shaking his head)Oh what eyes she had, and what a pretty shade she
turns when angry.
(chanting while walking towards the mirror)
Badoy: Lalalalala. Oh my dear Agueda, you’re driving me insane. Never shall
I forget this night! Never!

NARRATOR: Badoy thought that what he felt that night was love. Like the
instant of falling in love. They have loved, then they fell // Badong
walked home on a May day midnight, without remembering, without even caring
to remember. May time passed And the heart forgot, the heart is
distracted // the storm broke over the hot-ripe orchards and the heart grew
old// He has grow old.
 SCENE 4[PRESENT]
Grandson: Oh, grandpa! You frightened me, grandpa!
Old Badoy: What are you doing down here at this hour?!
Grandson: Nothing, grandpa. I was only.. I was only...
Badoy: You were only?
Grandson: I was just…. Ugh!It was my friends, they told me I would see my
wife if I look into the mirror!
Badoy: Wife? What wife? You got duped again, you little brat.
Grandson: But grandpa! The boys at school said I would see her if I looked
into a mirror tonight and say: “Mirror, mirror, show to me, her whose lover
I will be.”
 
(Badoy takes his grandson and pulled him along to sit down on a chair)
 
Badoy: Why don't you put that candle down the floor, young man, and let us
talk over this.

So you want your wife already, eh? You want to see her in advance. // But
do you know that there are wicked games / and that wicked boys who play
them are in danger of horrors?
Grandson: Well, the boys did warn me I might see a witch instead.
Badoy: Exactly! A witch so horrible you may die of fright! And she will
bewitch you! she will
torture you! she will eat your heart and drink your blood!
 
Grandson:Oh, come on now, grandpa. It's 1890 already. There are no witches
anymore. Grow up, grandpa!
Badoy: Oh, no, my young man! And what if I tell you that I myself have seen
a witch?(whispers)
Grandson: You have?! Where?!
Badoy: Right in that mirror you were looking at.
Grandchild: When, Grandpa?
Badong: Not so long ago. There was this empty room and I suddenly felt the
need to go in there. And do you know what I saw?
Grandchild: The witch?
Badong: Exactly! She was staring at the mirror with candle in her hand.
Then our eyes met.
Grandchild: And then she bewitched you, Grandpa!
Badong: She bewitched me and she tortured me. She ate my heart and drank my
blood.
Grandchild: Oh, my poor Grandpa! Was she that horrible?
Badong: Horrible? God, no--- she was the most beautiful creature I have
ever seen! Her eyes were somewhat like yours. My God, she was enchanting!
But I should have known---I should have known even then---the dark and
fatal creature she was!
…. (A silence. )
Granchild: What a horrid mirror this is, Grandpa,
Badong: What makes you say that, hey?
Grandchild: Well, you saw this witch in it. And Mama once told me that
Grandma once told her that Grandma once saw the devil in this mirror. Was
it of the fright that Grandma died?
Badong: (silenced)
Grandchild: Don’t you think we should get rid of it?
Badong: (staring blankly)
Grandchild: Grandpa? // (sighs) You’re back at your old self again.

Okay then, it’s already. I should go to bed. Goodnight Grandpa

(Badong is still in silence)
Badong: Agueda… My dear Agueda…
NARRATOR: And for a moment he had forgotten that she was dead, that she had
perished, that they were at peace at last, her tired body set free---from
the trap of a May night. It is a pity that he had to regret the life he had
with Agueda, as she did with him. Yet the May Day Eve can be seen as a
blessing for the both of them. For they have both loved each other, even
though they failed to realize it.
Remembering how she had sobbed, remembering how she had bitten his hand and
how he had sung aloud in the dark room and surprised his heart in the
instant of falling in love. Now nothing, nothing was left of the young girl
who had vividly flamed in a one May day Eve.

(BACKGROUND MUSIC)

FADE OUT
 GROUP 4 (12-STEM 3)

CAST

Agueda Sofia Salvador

Badoy Justine Ray Añonuevo
Anastasia Fedis Joyce Ramos
Old Badoy Miguel Juntereal
Grandson Ralph Oabel
Girl #1 Dianne Balmeo
Girl #2 Adrian Lariza
Girl #3 Julio Cesar Calingasan
Girl #4 Miguel Juntereal