La Verbena de la Paloma.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_XNnvmLQ1Q (VIDEO)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6kruzUQ-q0&list=PLhqP3gHjKioL1J5Isb5ILk0GTAUg-
BdSD&index=5 (AUDIO)
 Don Hilarión – Isabella Montoya
 Julián – Ariadna Moscoso
 Susana – Fabiana Lares
 Seña Rita- Luciana Amy Medina
 Casta – Isabella Velandia
 La Tía Antonia – Ana Maria Morales
 El Tabernero – Sofia Velandia
 Don Sebastián – Isabella Serrano
 Waiter - Dasha
 El Inspector -Laura Correal
 Guardia 1º – Juliana Cortes
 Doña Severiana – Ana Maria Rodriguez

Escenografia/sonido/baile: Natalia Botero, Juliana Cortes, Isa Cardona, Valentina Rumie,

Karol Peña, Luciana Medina, Valentina De Dios.

Host: Today we will present Verbena de la Paloma, a famous Spanish zarzuela. But let me
explain its name to you guys.

Paloma is a Madrid street, famous for a statuette of the Virgin which performed popularly
attested miracles in the late eighteenth century. This was celebrated by the verbena or
local religious festival spilling over into dancing and street carnival revelry. It was held on
August 14th annually. This zarzuela presents us with a slice of life on such a hot, carnival
night, and its characters are drawn from the working people the author have observed any
and every day in Madrid. It’s a love story filled with Spanish flavour and popular language
of the day.

So, with no further due please welcome our actresses!!!

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1ST SCENE
A busy Madrid street, with a chemist´s shop, bakery and wine bar.
Don Hilarión and Don Sebastián appear sitting at the door of the pharmacy. At the door of
the tavern they are playing tute on a small table, and sitting on stools, the Innkeeper and
two of his friends, waiters. La Tabernera serves them some half drinks from time to time.
Julián, sitting in a low chair and leaning against the wall of the tavern, sighs and laments.

HILARION: Castor oil is no longer bad to take. It is administered in pills, and the effect is
always the same.
SEBASTIAN: Today’s scientific advances say that it is outrageous!
HILARION: Es una brutalidad!
SEBASTIAN: Es una bestialidad!
HILARION: And the purgative lemonade? Nobody asks for it anymore!
SEBASTIAN: Oh, that lemonade! It never serves any purpose. It’s the same as orange soda!
HILARION: Well, that’s precisely why it’s not even chicha anymore nor lemonade!
SEBASTIAN: Well, the water of Loeches is still an effective balm.
HILARION: Today, science finds it very harmful!
SEBASTIAN: Today’s scientific advances say that it is outrageous!
HILARION: Es una brutalidad!
SEBASTIAN: Es una bestialidad!
HILARION: How hot it is tonight! This heat is an atrocity!
SEBASTIAN: And I have my head so sweaty at all hours!
HILARION: That’s good and convenient, Don Sebastian. He who sweats frequently
conquers all illness.
JULIAN: Some laugh and others really cry.
RITA: Julian!
JULIAN: Seña Rita, come on!
RITA: What’s wrong with you?
JULIAN: Me? Nothing!

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RITA: Crying the night away… Are you going to spend it this way?
JULIAN: What do you want me to do?
RITA: Be a man and so on.
JULIAN: I am, Seña Rita!
RITA: Well, prove it now.
JULIAN: Tonight, I’m going to try it.
(Getting up. Rita makes him sit down and offers him a drink.)
RITA: Quiet! Shut up and drink.
JULIAN: Maldita sea la……!!!!
TABERNERO: Forty.
1ST WAITER: Good.
2ND WAITER: If you missed the ace, you don’t charge forty, nor twenty, nor anything else.
TABERNERO: You guys had your turn to win before.
1ST WAITER: To another game.
2ND WAITER: Let’s go.
TABERNERO: (To the second waiter) You’re the one who deals.
JULIAN: Even the people of the town have their little hearts, and tears in their eyes, and
badly repressed jealousy. The blacksmith’s bigornia is this heart of mine. The more blows
they give it, the harder it’s cursed, and for a brunette chulapa, I see myself lost, and in my
face comes out the courage that I’ve hidden!
RITA: Oh, leave the brunette chulapa and have more sense!
HILARION: There are quite a few enterocolitis cases during the summer. I used to laugh at
everything, and I don’t laugh anymore.

Men and women come in (Chulos y chulas en buñoleria). They dance and sing, then go to
the Verbena. (Video min. 12)

JULIAN: You know, Seña Rita… This afternoon, without going any further, I wanted to take
her to the verbena, and she said no, that she had to do something. But what does she
have to do, my God, what does she have to do that is not with me, let’s see?
TABERNERO: (Playing) But, aren’t those drinks coming?

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RITA: Here I go, I said, (in a bad way).
1ST WAITER: Twenty in clubs.
2ND WAITER: This one’s screwed us up!...
JULIAN: Look, Seña Rita, I didn’t want to tell you what I saw this morning, you know?
Because I don’t want to have seen it, and I don’t want to remember it; and, in short, I
don’t want to have seen it.
RITA: Moler! What did you see?
JULIAN: (Sighing) Oh, my God! (Pause) I was coming this morning from the printer’s on my
usual way. Corredera Alta, Corredera Baja, and I turn off at La Luna to take Tudescos, and I
remember that I have to buy tobacco. When, distracted, as I cross the street, a Simon
comes down on me and soon drops me. The carriage gives a lurch, and the driver says to
me, “Morral,” and hits me with the whip and leaves to escape. But not so fast that I didn’t
see who was in the carriage. Do you know who was in the carriage, Seña Rita? Susana!
And she wasn’t alone! There was also a man!
RITA: Did you get a good look at them?
JULIAN: Her as I’m looking at you now.
RITA: And him?
JULIAN: I didn’t see him, but I felt him in here, (pointing to his chest) as if he were sitting
on my lungs, taking away my air to breathe. Yes, Seña Rita, there was a man with Susana! I
don’t know if he was handsome or ugly, young or old, one-eyed or not, I don’t know, but I
do know that she wasn’t alone! I ran after the carriage and meanwhile, I almost broke my
nose. The people gathered, the guard helped me. Yes, Seña Rita! The guard had a better
heart than the chulapa who stole mine, to take it for a ride in a car and throw it out the
window in the middle of the stream. Now, tell me if I have no reason to burn and disown
myself, and for this year’s verbena de la Paloma to be played!
(He says this ending sobbing, and almost bursts into tears. After a pause, Rita speaks.)
RITA: Hey, what if the person in the car with her was a woman?
JULIAN: A woman? That’s what she told me later when I saw her at her house: that she
was going with her sister; that they were late to go to the workshop and that they had
taken a car to go to deliver. To deliver!... That may have been true! To deliver! Since she
lives with her sister and her aunt, Susana is not Susana anymore!! They have spoiled her…
and me too… Oh, if I had carried the pistol in the Calle de la Luna! How would I have
stopped the car!
(Action of pointing at the coachman)
HILARION: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! That’s true! That’s true!
SEBASTIAN: Well, I’ll see you later if I see you.

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HILARION: Go with God, my dear Don Sebastian. (Don Sebastian leaves.)

HILARION: (Music, while he is singing the girls are dancing)

Don Sebastian is right, he’s very, very right. But if I like Eva’s daughters, what am I to do?
I don’t care what they say or the public opinion. And if I find myself like a boy, what am I to
do? A brunette and a blonde, daughters of the people of Madrid, I can’t resist them.
I fall into their arms already asleep, and when I wake up, I feel an inexplicable pleasure and
a delicious well-being.
And the two of them, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! They melt to see me happy, waiting for the
moment when I decide which of the two I like more. HAHAHA!
But sometimes I wonder: do these little girls want me just for my money?
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

TABERNERO: You’ve already seen that you’re a bunch of rascals.

(Getting up, the three of them) Well, now you come with me. We have an errand to run for
the lady before going to look for her at the verbena.
1ST WAITER: An errand?
2ND WAITER: Which one?
TABERNERO: On the way, I’ll tell you. Let’s go there.
WAITERS: Let’s go. (The three of them leave; the tavern porter puts in the stools and the
table and closes. The apothecary’s shop, the portal, and the buñolería also close. Music in
the orchestra while the mutation takes place.)

2ND SCENE
Latino neighbourhood. Casta, Susana and Antonia sitting at the door of their house. They
are two very pretty and very cheerful girls. They are dressed as cool, but with decency.
Aunt Antonia is a woman of fifty, fat and ordinary. She speaks in a voice so hoarse and
breathy that you can't understand half of what she says. There is light inside the room. In
the street are the 1st and 2nd Guardsmen walking around, and a man leaning against the
wall, under the street lamp, reading “La Correspondencia”. A flamenco singer is heard in
the café, accompanied by the piano. The people who are supposed to be inside are
clapping their hands and clapping their spoons on the glasses. With Casta, Susana and
their aunt Antonia sits Dña Severiana.
Antonia, Casta and Susana are sitting.
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DÑA SEVERIANA: And what a good singer she is! And you're not going to a party?

CASTA: We're waiting for Don Hilarion, the apothecary, who has offered us a ride.
DÑA SEVERIANA: Hija, what a bargain you have with that apothecary! You don't need
anything!
ANTONIA: He's very fond of us. And if they weren't silly, one of them would be his wife by
now.
CASTA: It's not so much, but we let ourselves be loved.
DÑA SEVERIANA: You're right, girls. But marrying an old man…
ANTONIA: Yes, they'd lose a lot!
CASTA: We'd lose our youth!
SUSANA: And we'd be stuck with an old man with all his chocheras!
DÑA SEVERIANA: And your boyfriend, Susana, won´t he go with you to the verbena?
SUSANA: My boyfriend doesn't go anywhere with me, he's already more repudiated and
more scorched than San Lorenzo.
ANTONIA: If only you had broken up with him when I told you...
SUSANA: I've already left him twice, and we're back to the same thing because of this
weakness of mine...
DÑA SEVERIANA: But won't you take care of the apothecary?
CASTA: Come on, if he knew that the apothecary was watching out for us, we'd have
already fallen down.
ANTONIA: And what if he gives us presents? Well, he does very well and he feels like it,
and he feels like it, and he feels like it, and he feels like it. That's it!
SUSANA: Well, Julian has to pay me tonight for all the bad times I've had since I've been
talking to him. (They hear a battle of dogs inside the house, biting, barking and howling.)
CASTA: Here come the damned dogs!
ANTONIA: Oh damned! That's because the neighbor's dog has gone into the house. Here I
come, here I come!
(Short music. Don Hilarion enters.)
HILARION: Oh, what a night awaits me with my pretty chulapas! I'm the same as in my first
age; all the females seem pretty to me. There they are waiting for me at the gate. OMG!...
There's the old woman too!

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CASTA and SUSANA: Chit, chit, chit, chit!...
HILARION: They're calling me. What a pleasure!
CASTA and SUSANA: Chit, chit, chit, chit!...
HILARION: I can't help myself!
CASTA and SUSANA: What a few hours to come!
HILARION: Don't scold me, it's ten o'clock.
ANTONIA: May God give us a very good night.
HILARION: A very good night to you. Before we go to the verbena, don't you think, my
girls, that we should cheer ourselves up with a little liquor?
CASTA and SUSANA: Yes, sir!
HILARION: There will be everything! There will be everything!
CASTA: Like in an apothecary's shop!
SUSANA: Of course there will be!
THE TWO: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
HILARION: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! OH you naughty ones! Well, wait! they'll bring it to us,
they'll bring it to us. (Don Hilarión enters and comes out of the café, dancing very happily
and behind him a waiter with a tray of liquors and ice creams. The two enter the house,
then the waiter comes out. Don Hilarion is seen inside dancing and cavorting with the
girls.)
HILARION: Oh why don´t you dance with me! (Hilarion dances with Susana, Casta and then
with aunt Antonia. Couples dance on both sides.) (They finish playing the piano and the
violin and a round of applause is heard in the café. Don Hilarion and the chulapas also clap
their hands.)

(Tabernero and the waiters 1, 2 and 3 enter from the right.)

TABERNERO: There they live, (pointing to the house) These girls, who are honest, although
they don't seem to be, because of the lack of principles of their aunt, Antonia, who has
raised them.
WAITERS: Now, now!
TABERNERO: It's not that their mother was absent or had any faults in her life that could
have embarrassed her, no, sir; I'm talking about since their mother's death, let's say.

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WAITER 1: Now, now!
TABERNERO: Susana has been talking to Julián for a year, and Julián has been talking to
Susana all that time too.
TABERNERO: Julián is an honest boy, but he can't repress himself.
WAITER: Well women are always to blame of everything that happens to men.
TABERNERO: Now, listen. My wife loves Julián as if he were her son, because she's his
godmother, and Julián's mother, poor thing, is unable. Julián is determined to give Susana
a scandal tonight at her house, or at the verbena, or wherever he finds her. We are here, in
case Julián comes, to avoid a scandal, even though my wife won't leave him alone.
WAITER 2: Well, there are people in the house (hearing the noise they make).
TABERNERO: Chist!... That doesn't matter to you, we're going to have a cup of coffee in the
meantime, and we're on the lookout.
WAITERS: Well, that's right. Let´s go. (The three of them enter the café talking.)

(La Señá Rita and Julián enter from the right. Music)

RITA: You're already in front of the house. What are you going to do now?
JULIAN: I don't know, Seña Rita, I assure you. On one side your head, on the other the
heart! This one says yes, this one says no: which one talks the most?
RITA: Neither of the two. Men who are men, sign that they are.
JULIAN: Oh, Seña Rita! Are you watching? Am I a child? Am I a ruffian? (Wanting to go to
the house. Rita stops him.)
RITA: Let's go and see! Hold still, Julián, and let's party in peace! And the shameful man
shuts up and it's over! I'm so sorry to hear that you've been so sad. As you see her going to
the Verbena with someone else I'm so sorry for the way that you feel and to hear you say
it, if she's already dating someone and she's told you that with you she doesn't want
anything anymore. Well you bite your tongue and you step back and tell the other one
¨Keep her to yourself¨!!
JULIAN: And an honest cashier who earns 4 pesetas and owes nothing and approaches a
girl who has always been honest and wants to marry her as the truth is, he now has to
keep his mouth shut. I can't do it myself and no one else will do it, I really love her and it's
the honest truth… I don't tell my adversary ¨Go and keep her¨!
SEÑA RITA: Come on Julianillo! Then you will say that you are not a child!
JULIAN: Don’t call me a child Seña Rita!!! Do you hear them? I can't take it anymore!

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RITA: Let's go and see! Hold still, Julian! (She makes him withdraw a little and consoles
him.)
HILARION: Let's go to the verbena.
CASTA and SUSANA: Let's go there. (Don Hilarion comes out of the house carrying Casta
and Susana by the arm, who take out Manila shawls.)
RITA: They're here.
JULIAN: (God help me!) The apothecary! (Amazed)
RITA: Don Hilarion!
HILARION: (Wiggling) I'm a dandy! I'm a rascal!
RITA: Take it for a laugh, (To Julián) it will be better.
JULIAN: Yes, Seña Rita, (To Rita) She's right. (When Don Hilarion and they are about to start
walking, Julian steps forward and stops them with very good manners. Rita stays in the
background.)
JULIAN: Good evening, gentleman.
HILARION: Good evening to you.
SUSANA: I was expecting that!
HILARION: Who is he?
SUSANA: I don't know.
JULIAN: She's very weak of memory; but, anyway, how could it be? I'll see if she
remembers that she's ever seen me. Two words, if you'll excuse me. (To Don Hilarion.)
SUSANA: Here I am, let's see. (Determined.)
CASTA: It's a boy who follows her, (To Don Hilarión) but don't be alarmed. (Julián takes
Susana by the hand and leads her ahead of him.) (Rita, the Tabernero and the waiters take
Julián, who continues threatening Susana and Hilarión, to the right. Huge confusion. The
Guard forces Hilarión to go to the left with him and Aunt Antonia. The Chorus dissolves,
each one going their own way).

3RD SCENE
Couples of different classes appear dancing to the beat of the crank piano. The sidewalks
are full of people watching the dance. At the door of the silk store, Don Sebastián and
Doña Severiana (his wife) are seated on chairs. There is much animation, and Don
Sebastián applauds and cheers on the couples that are passing, very engrossed.

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Don Hilarion is coming down the sidewalk on the right, agitated and convulsed. After
looking everywhere, he heads for the silk store.
SEBASTIAN: Are you okay, my friend? Well, you should have a glass of sherry, which is the
best thing in the world.
HILARION: I accept, my friend.
SEBASTIAN: Come with me.
Julian, who comes from the right, stops and looks all around, pale and discomposed. The
dance continues.
JULIAN: They've slipped away from me, but I'll find them. I'll poke the apothecary's eye
tonight, and the old woman, who's to blame for everything, I'll squeeze her until she's
lifeless and breathless. I'll find you, even if it's underground! Oh, my God, what a Verbena
de la Paloma!... (He goes to the left, looking at everyone.)

Then an Inspector, in uniform, and a Guard lead Julián, Casta, Susana, and Aunt Antonia;
behind them, many people come out whistling at them. The dance is suspended.

RITA: He has escaped me. That Indian is going to kill his mother and me too. Damn it!

(General shout) Ouch!

SEBASTIAN: What's that? (Getting up)

RITA: Didn't I say so? (Going to the forum)
SEVERIANA: They're hitting each other!
ANTONIA: This rogue, more than a rogue!
CASTA: Aunt! (Scolding her)
SUSANA: Will you shut up... or not? (Angry)
ANTONIA: No me da la gana, no me da la gana!
JULIAN: I only ask you to take me away, but without the old woman, because I'll kill her.
GUARD: Silence!
SUSANA: (And you'd do very well, because of her we look like this!)
RITA: (With energy) You got away with it!

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ANTONIA: Who are you going to kill... Shut up, guripa, chulapo! (Julián's movement. The
Guard gets in the way. Sensation in everyone.)
INSPECTOR: (Coming out) Let's see, quiet. I'm aware of everything.
ANTONIA: Mr. Inspector, that rascal has disrespected me!
INSPECTOR: What do you mean?
ANTONIA: That I'll have two big dogs bite him.
INSPECTOR: With that voice, I can't understand a word you're saying.
ANTONIA: Too bad.
INSPECTOR: Don't answer me!
ANTONIA: Well, don't ask me and you'll see that I won't answer you.
INSPECTOR: Enough! Who are you?
CASTA: Casta Ruiz.
Inspector turns to look at Susana.
SUSANA: Susana.
INSPECTOR: Casta, Susana... Nonsense! And what are you to these two young women? (To
Antonia)
ANTONIA: Mother and aunt, all together.
INSPECTOR: What an outrage! (General laughter)
ANTONIA: What a barbarity! What a barbarity!
INSPECTOR: You shut up, madam!
ANTONIA: No se me da la gana!
GUARD: You shut up!
INSPECTOR: Well, we'll see…
ANTONIA: We're already seeing each other. Ha ha ha!
CASTA: You don't shut up, even if they kill you!
INSPECTOR: (To Julian) You, young man, what do you do for a living?
JULIAN: I am a printing press cashier.
ANTONIA: A printing press rat!

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(He wants to throw himself on her and is stopped.)

INSPECTOR: Hey, that's it! To the prevention with her. (To the Guard, he restrains her.)
GUARD: Where are you going, madam?
ANTONIA: I'm going alone to the prevention! And that rascal?
INSPECTOR: That's not on your count.
ANTONIA: (Furious) Uncle rascal! Bellows face! Bad man!
INSPECTOR: Get out of here!
GUARD: Let's go quickly! Oh, my God!
ANTONIA: Morralón, morralón, morralón!

(People whistling at her.)

Don Sebastián, who is coming out of the store.

SEBASTIAN: What is this? What has happened here, Don Andrés? (To the Inspector)
INSPECTOR: Hello, Don Sebastián! The usual thing at these kinds of parties. A quarrel
between this boy and an old woman I've just sent to prevention.
SEBASTIAN: Julianillo, is that you?
JULIAN: (Submissive) I am, Don Sebastián.
SEBASTIAN: What have you done, son?
JULIAN: Things of love, Don Sebastián. Take me to jail, Mr. Inspector. (With a resolute air)
SUSANA: And me with him, Mr. Inspector.
JULIAN: (To Susana) You with me? I don't believe you; I don't believe you. (Almost crying)
SUSANA: Well… you have to believe me, oh, please believe me!
SEBASTIAN: Come on, I'm already at the end of the street! Don Andrés, this boy is good
and honest. I'm his guarantor.
INSPECTOR: Your word is good enough, Don Sebastián.
RITA: Julian, let's go see your mother.

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SEBASTIAN: But, boy, are you going to go looking for your mother like that? (Looking at the
torn pants) You, Paco, (To the sales clerk) give him one of your pants, they'll be fine for
him.
JULIAN: You leave him alone.
SEBASTIAN: Come on, man.
JULIAN: As you wish. (Enters with the clerk in the store)
INSPECTOR: Come on, gentlemen, it’s over. What are you doing here? (To the public, who
are crowded together) Let's dance.

(The inspector dances with a girl. Inside the store, there is a great noise and the shouts of
Don Hilarión, who immediately stumbles out, pursued by Julián. New confusion, shouting
and whistling.)

HILARION: Help, he's killing me!

JULIAN: You old scoundrel!
SEBASTIAN: What is this?
INSPECTOR: What are you doing?
CASTA and SUSANA: Julian! (Stopping him)
RITA: Come here, you bastard!
SEBASTIAN: Are you crazy, boy? (Don Hilarion disappears into the crowd, shouting, and
Julian is held down.)
JULIAN: Excuse me, Don Sebastián. That canalla wanted to take from me what I love most
in the world.
SEBASTIAN: He did? I'm not surprised. Go on, get in the house and cool off, you're fired up
tonight.
INSPECTOR: And let's get it over with...
TABERNER: And let's see if you learn to repress yourself! (To Julián)
INSPECTOR: (To the public) Ladies and gentlemen, please do me a favor and don't make
another scandal at the Verbena de la Paloma!
CHORUS: For being the Virgin of the Dove, a shawl from China-nana (4x) I will give to you,
etc.

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