A Sunny Morning (One-Act Play)Summary
About the Authors
Serafin Álvarez Quintero (1871-1938) and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero (1873-1944) were Spanish dramatists. They grew up in Utrera, a small town near Seville in the region of Spain called Andalusia. They began writing for the theatre at a young age. They were popularly known as the Golden Boys of the Madrid theatre. They collaborated in almost 200 dramas depicting the life, manners, and speech of Andalusia.
Their first stage piece, Gilito, was written in 1889. Among the brothers' best-known works are the comedies The Flowers (1901), A Sunny Morning (1905), and The Merry Heart (1906), as well as the uncharacteristically serious Malvaloca (1912). Several of their plays were translated into English by Helen and Harley Granville- Barker (1927–32). Their complete collection of plays was published in seven volumes as Obras Completas in the early 1950s.
A Sunny Morning is a light comedy that narrates the reunion of two lovers now in their 70s meeting at a park who in their youth were passionate lovers but torn apart by the cruelty of fate. The setting of this play is a sunny morning in Madrid, Spain on a bench in the park.
Summary
In a sunny autumn morning, Dona Laura, a handsome, white-haired old lady of about seventy enters the corner of a park in Madrid with the help of her maid Petra. Her mental faculties appear to be fine. She sends Petra to chat with her lover. She feeds the pigeons with the bread crumbs. At the same time, Don Gonzalo a gentleman of seventy, also enters the park with his servant Juanito. He sits at the end of bench with the old lady. Laura is angry. She says that he should have asked her permission before sitting on the bench.
They become friends after sharing snuff together. They find something in common that they sneeze alternately three times each. Then, they talk about their hometown. Gonzalo says that he is from Valencia. To his surprise, Laura reveals that she lived in a villa at Maricela near Valencia. They realize that once they were in love but decide to hide the fact. He tells Laura that he knows a girl named Laura Llorente who lived in the villa, and was the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. Laura tells him that the woman was her best friend. He remembers his cousin, who was her lover.
Gonzalo admires her beauty. Laura adds that her friend was unlucky and had a sad love affair. The lover used to pass by on horseback every morning through the rose garden and throw a bouquet of flowers to her balcony which she caught. In the afternoon, the lover would return through the same way, and catch the bouquet of flowers she would toss him. But her parents wanted her to marry a merchant whom she disliked. Then, there was a duel between the lover and the merchant at sunrise on the beach. The merchant was badly wounded. The lover fled to Seville and then to Madrid. He tried to communicate with Laura through letters, but all his attempts failed. After that, he joined the army and went to Africa. He died there with the flag of Spain in his hands and whispering the name of Laura.
Laura tells him that her friend waited for days, months, a year and no letter came. She, without finding the lover, went to the sea shore, wrote her lover’s name on the sand and sat upon a rock. The tides rose to the rock and swept her out to sea. In reality, after three months Gonzalo suddenly ran off to Paris with a ballet dancer. On the other hand, Laura got married two years later. They do not unveil who they really are. They leave the park promising to meet the next day.