Trickster's Famous Deeds



A Trilogy of Theatrical Plays For Children



Florentin Smarandache




TRICKSTER AND THE BEAR

A theater play for children



PLAYERS:       Trickster - a young waghalter with moustache and wearing peasant shirt
    and trousers, black boots and a fur cap;
    An old man;
    Blue Emperor;
    Emperor's daughter;
    Bear: dark-brown, two or three times bigger than a man;
    SCENE I


                          A winter scene, a road under snow in a village. It is snowing. All along the
                          performance of this scene and during scene III, white confetti (natural or artificial
                          cotton) as snow flakes must be spread down from the ceiling of the stage - the children
                          like it very much.


Trickster:           (Blithe, singing playfully and whistling)
       I am Trickster the merry
       I am wandering alone
       I am Trickster the merry
       In the world my name's renown!


                         (The scenery is running backwards on a movie screen from the backstage
                         wall while Trickster is walking and singing. At the end of his song the village
                         will fade away in the distance and the Emperor's palace will come in sight on the
                         screen. Now the rhythm of the song is changing.)


                         Lonely wandering
                         The entire world                       First Stanza
                         With spurred boots
                         I don't feel cold
                         Refrain:
                         Lots of children sprite and gay
                         come to see him on the stages          Second Stanza
                         of the puppets theatre play
                         Trickster, a joy for little ones in ages.


Watchman       : (With a profound voice)
    Who are you, there. At the palace gate?
Trickster    : An honest man! I am coming from far away, from over the seas and lands.
Watchman    : And why did you come here?
Trickster    : I am strolling on the long roads of the world and now I am here in this vast and
     lonely land in winter time!!
Watchman    : And how? Are you coming with ill thought, are you coming with ill intentions?
Trickster    : How on Earth!! Watchman!! I am strolling through the world. Everybody knows me.
Watchman    : What's your name?
Trickster    : I am called Trickster - the Wag!!! I think you have heard of me.
Watchman    : Of course! Why didn't you say it from the very beginning? All the folks know you!!
           : (To the audience) You children, do you know him?
Audience    : Yes!!
              :    Or: No!
              :    Or: Yes and No!
Watchman    : If you know him, enjoy yourselves! He is again among us!
              :    Or: You don't know him? He is your friend, everybody's friend.
              :    Or: for you, those who don't know him, I will tell you that Trickster is
              :    the best merry friend of the children.
              :    (To Trickster): I'll let you enter the palace Trickster,but a great danger is menacing
              :    you up there.
Trickster    : It doesn't matter to me at all!
Watchman    : the Blue Emperor is very sad because his daughter can never marry.
Trickster    : I'll marry her.
Watchman    : Finding a possible groom is not the problem. Plenty of brave, strong, young men like
              : you have tried to marry her but all of them have failed.
Trickster    : I shall try too. It is worth trying. The trial is not the death.
Watchman    : On the contrary. This trial means that you run the risk of dying. Many princes and
              : knights who have tried have been smashed to smithereens. Their corpses are now in a
              : common grave. Ninety nine Prince Charmings have already died and if you enter, you
              : could be the hundreth.
Trickster    : How do you imagine that I will perish so easily? Have you ever seen a dead devil?
Watchman    : Trickster!! Trickster!! God bless you!!!
Trickster    : Take it easy watchman!!! Mind your gate and do not bother about me!!
Watchman    : Trickster, my boy!! I am speaking to you as if you were my own child. I'd advise you
         : to turn back on your way into the wide world though the Blue Emperor has ordered me
         : to hold any young man if he is of marrying age. I am not to let him leave our land until he
         : tries his powers at the palace to break the spell on the Blue Emperor's daughter. He is to
         : sleep one night in a room with the Bear and to awake unharmed the next morning.
Trickster   : To turn back after such a long journey and go back to where I cam from? Not a chance!!
        : Watchman!! Maybe destiny has directed me here, maybe arriving here is my own good
        : fortune!
Watchman   : As you like, but my good nature induces me to warn you!
Trickster   : Thank you very much watchman. I'll be very careful.
Blue Emperor   : (His voice coming from backsage) Hey!! What's going on there at the gate of the
        : palace? (Pause) Who is strolling on our lands?
Watchman   : (Whispering to Trickster) the Blue Emperor is coming!! (Loudly to the Emperor)
        :  . . . a poor man . . . he is asking for lodging . . .
Blue Emperor   : Is he young?
Watchman   : . . . yes . . . no . . . he is . . .
Trickster   : I am called Trickster, Your Highness!
Blue Emperor   : Ha!! Ha!! Ha!! You don't say!! I have not heard of you for such a long time until
        :  today!! I thought you were already dead for at least a century!! But it is not too late
        : to die tonight.
        : (To the Watchman) Open the gate!
        : (The watchman opens the gate, which makes a great deal of noise from the heavy
        : and rusted bolts. The gate suddenly slams shut behind Trickster and the bolts are
        : swiftly locked. Spear-carrying soldiers suddenly appear and grab him. The Blue
        : Emperor's Machiavellian laughter is heard and then the noise of swords being
        : drawn from their scabbards. The Blue Emperor and his daughter are coming onto
        : the stage.)
Blue Emperor   : Ha! Ha! Ha! Your popularity will lower from now on. You will make a mockery
        : of . . . yourself now! (He is pointing towards the audience.)
Watchman   : Take pity on him, Your Highness! For pity's sake! We all love Trickster, we love
        : him for his lovely jokes! Take pity on him!!
Blue Emperor   : That's it! An Emperor is supposed to have no mercy for his underlings, otherwise they
        : will not obey any more. But I will give you a chance, Trickster. If you take the risk and
        : remain alive after sleeping one night with the Bear from the palace, I'll give my daughter
        : to you as a wife as well as one quarter of the entire empire. (The watchman is crying.)
        : Tell me Trickster, do you dare to take the risk?
Watchman   : Pay attention, Trickster! This Bear is not a usual one. It is as giant as a mountain. The
        : Blue Emperor is keeping it in a cellar that is a cold and damp grotto. He is eating a
        : man every night. The Emperor's daughter is sighing.)
Blue Emperor   : Hey! You, watchman, accompany this undaunted young man to the bear's grotto. And
        : don't forget. Tomorrow, in the small hours of the morning do take and throw out his
        : bones so not to filth the air of the palace.
Emperor's Daughter   : Father, have mercy on him! He is such a stout fellow with unrivaled features that
        : I have never seen until now!
Blue Emperor   : First of all, he must prove his bravery. I do not give my daughter to the first
        : newcomer.
Trickster   : Your Highness, I want to ask something of you!
Blue Emperor   : Let's hear it! Speak!
Trickster   : Do lend me until tomorrow morning a bag with hot pies and a bag with fir-wood splints.
        : A bag with nuts, a bag with stones and place in a fifth bag a razor, mirror, soap a
        : shaving brush, a chopper and a number of deal boards and pins. I'll try to do in the
        : Bear.
Blue Emperor   : Do give him what he wishes! Let's see! (The watchman gets out into the side-scene and he
        : is coming back with five bags which he gives to Trickster. ) And now, do accompany him
        : to his fate! (Trickster is pushed from behind with spears off the stage to inside the grotto
        : where the Bear is kept.)


Scene II



          (The grotto of the Bear. The stage is in a shade of darkness. There are stalagmites and
          stalactites and a little water spring. A frightful, giant, mangy bear is sleeping on a very
          large bed.)
Trickster   : (Singing) wake up, wake up you lazy bones!!
Bear   : (Sick and tired) I don't wake, I don't wake. I am dropping with sleep.
          (Trickster noisily casts his bags to the ground. The Bear is starting as if from a deep dream
          and he is looking at Trickster with large red eyes. He is speaking to Trickster in an attempt
          to frighten him.)
          Grrrr! Grrrrr! Grrrrrr! (Threatening with his great paws) Grrrr! (Trickster remains
          undaunted.) So! You are not frightened. All others were fainting away in a swoon at the
          first sight of me.
Trickster   : How on Earth! I have just forgotten to get frightened.
Bear   : I beg you, do get frightened, otherwise the Blue Emperor could get angry!
Trickster   : I have forgotten to get frightened, seeing you so big and bulky.
Bear   : Honest?
Trickster   : Do not wonder about nothing! Stand up on two legs when somebody enters your home!
Bear   : (Stretching himself lazily) Grrrr! Grrrr! Grrrr! Who is that one who dares to oblidge me?
Trickster   : The politeness is obliging you. Do you want to be considered an ill-bred from beneath the
          Earth? Good manners teach you to be polite and respectful with unknown people.
Bear   : (The same play with his paws) Grrrr! Grrrr! Grrrr!
Trickster   : Mind your place, mind your behavior! Behave yourself! Tell me you haven't been ashamed
          to grow like that: pell-mell and uncontrolled? Whom else have you seen looking like that?
Bear   : Shame? To me? What do you think? Let's make a contest to see who will be the winner.
Trickster   : A contest, surely! Of course, a good idea. Let us go into a contest to become friends
Bear   : How do you prefer: to fight with swords, with spears or to struggle in a wrestling match?
Trickster   : I don't like those kinds of fighting! I don't want any bloodshed even in a fight with a bear.
          Any dolt may win in a fight with a sword. We shall fight with words. Let's see who is the
          cleverest!! (Pause) But wake up, you idler! What's that! You are going to sleep at the
          same time as the hens!! What are you: a bear or a masher? (The bear is looking in wonder
          at this little being who is speaking in an unstintingly towards him.)
Bear   : (Ironically) Whom have I the honor of meeting?
Trickster   : Who am I? Only a stupid thing like you does not know who I am!
          Let's see if you can guess!
Bear   : Maybe you are a Prince who has come here to marry the Blue Emperor's daughter!!!
Trickster   : What kind of a Prince carries a bag? (He is laughing.) The Blue Emperor's daughter!!!
          (The bear is standing up on two legs and he looks like a very large rock ready to collapse
          over Trickster.)
Bear   : But I shall eat you just like that!! Grrrr! Grrrr! Grrrr!
Trickster   : (Frightened, looking upwards to the bear but speaking down to him) You, little bear!
          Behave yourself! First of all, do sit down when you speak to me, you will get tired!
          (The bear sits down on the bed, no longer looking like a giant. Trickster is breathing
          very hard, it seems that he is no longer frightened.)
          Look here, I am caustic and I'll turn your stomach if you eat me. Do you see these - (he
          is pointing towards the bags). I suggest that you first of all taste a bit of pie with honey.
          I know that you are very fond of honey, abiding the stings of a swarm of bees when you
          are caught at their hive.
Bear   : (Licking his lips) how I'd like that!!!
Trickster   : (Addressing the audience with an aside, so as not to be heard by the bear): I shall give him
           a bag with splints. (Trickster throws a big, tough splint from the bag with the splints while
          he is eating a pie from the bag with pies. The bear is trying to eat the splint, trying very hard,
           forcing himself to gnaw at the splint but he cannot so he is crying.)
Trickster   : You are not able to eat a pie!! And you dare to compete with me!! Don't you?
          (The bear is discredited and goes to great lengths to eat all the splints. Afterwards he begins
          to complain, holding his belly with his paws.)
Bear   : Alas!!! My belly is hurting me!! My belly is hurting me!!
Trickster   : What's the matter with you? What's hurting you? Your belly is hurting you just from eating
          pies?
Bear   : (Pretending he is not hurt.)No!! Nothing hurts me!!
Trickster   : This means that you cannot eat nuts, not a single nut!
Bear   : That bag with nuts is not enough for me, I'll crack them all with my large teeth.
Trickster   : You are only puffing yourself up.
          (Addressing the audience so as not to be overheard by the bear)
          I'll give him the bag with the stones so that he will crack his own teeth on them.
          (Trickster gives him the bag with stones.)
Bear   : I'll crack the nuts with my teeth and not with a hammer as you are doing.
Trickster   : O.K. !! If you think you are so stout!!
          (The bear is striving with all his might to crack the "nuts", but he is cracking all his teeth
           instead and he is spitting them from his mouth like glass beads.)
Bear   : Alas!!! I am now toothless, I have no teeth in my mouth anymore!!
Trickster   : A few minutes ago you were saying that all my nuts are not enough for your teeth but I
          see now that it is quite otherwise: all your teeth were not enough for a single nut. You are
           not worth your salt. If you were living in a forest with all the other bears, you would not
           survive, you would die of starvation. The Blue Emperor is your luck, he is feeling pity for
           you and he is throwing you some leftovers from his dinner as if you were a dog
Bear   : Are you insulting me? Do you dare to insult me?
Trickster   : What has induced you into such a rage? Now, toothless you cannot do anything to anyone
          any more.
          (Trickster is producing from a bag a razor, mirror, soap and a shaving brush. He is fixing
          the mirror on a wall and he begins shaving his face calmly.)
Bear   : What are you doing up there?
Trickster   : I am shaving myself to be smart and not covered with locks like you. The Emperor's
          daughter will get frightened when she sees you so ugly as you look just now.
Bear   : I love the Emperor's daughter very much. I have killed all her suitors and that's why I'll
          kill you too.
Trickster   : I don't like the Blue Emperor's daughter and I don't intend to marry her; she is too
          haggard and spoiled. I have come here to teach you how to entrance her, how to behave
          yourself to give up your bad habits (meanwhile he is finished shaving and he is showing
          his face to the bear.)
          Look at my cheeks, how smart I am!!
Bear   : (Admiringly) shave me, too!!
Trickster   : Do you think that you can support it?
Bear   : With great pleasure!! I want the Blue Emperor's daughter to fall in love with me.
Trickster   :  O.K.!! But do not grow angry. You have three inches of long locks and it will be hard to
          shave them.
Bear   : Do, try!!
Trickster   : O.K.!! Be attentive now!!
          (He arranges two boards on the floor)
           Lie there!
          (The bear is lying on the boards, Trickster is catching the bear's paws, two by two, with
          some other shorted boards.)
Bear   : But what do you intend to do with me?
Trickster   : You must stay motionless, like this was a surgical operation.
Bear   : But the doctors use anesthetic, so that you do not feel the pain.
Trickster   : Do not worry. I have thought of everything.
          (Trickster is pouring water on the bear and then he makes soap lather all over
          Trickster takes the stick so that the lather spreads all over the cave.)
Bear   : Alas!! What's going on here? Alas!!!
Trickster   : You have to be patient, I have to tease your fur because it is too dirty and filthy.
Bear   : But I see that you are clubbing me!!
Trickster   : I do not club you, I am clubbing your fur to soften it so as to more easily cut those locks
           of yours. Haven't you observed that men lather their cheeks very well before shaving.
Bear   : (In a half voice) of course, I have seen them!!
          (Trickster takes a great chopper out of a bag and begins cutting the bear's great locks.)
           Alas! Alas! Alas! Grrrr! Grrrr!
Trickster   : Do not make such a hubbub, you could wake up our neighbors. The Blue Emperor could
          hear it.
          (The bear is lamenting in a lower voice and he is tossing around on the boards. After a
          while Trickster : )
          I have grown tired. I am sure that you have never shaved yourself in all your life and you let
          your beard grow since the day you were born.
          (Trickster moves the boards, setting the bear's paws free. The bear is hardly breathing.)
          Now, take this handkerchief (he gives him a handkerchief) and defend me against the
          flies because I have toiled so hard for you. I want to rest in your bed until tomorrow morning
          and you must see that no one disturbs me.
          (Trickster is lying on the bed and he falls asleep lightly snoring. The bear looks very stultified
           and deploring, barely standing on his feet. The light in the cave is growing slowly brighter.
           Dawn is coming. The bear is defending Trickster with the handkerchief. Outside, one can hear
          the voice of the Blue Emperor and his daughter lamenting.)
Blue Emperor   : Watchman, take Trickster's bones out of here and throw them away, the air is filthy!
Watchman   : Immediately, Your Highness!
          (The watchman is coming in the cave rubbing his eyes and creaking the door loudly.)
Bear   : (With his finger at his muzzle) quiet! Silence! Mister Him is sleeping!! (He
          is pointing towards Trickster;
          (The watchman stumbles over a stalagmite and falls down in surprise seeing the poor
          appearance of the bear.)
Watchman   : (Aside) What an apparition of a bear!! How could Trickster make such a mockery of him?
Trickster   : Who is disturbing my rest?
Bear   : (To Trickster pointing towards the watchman.) Boss!! He has fainted away when seeing how
          handsome I am!!
          (The bear is slapping the watchman's face with his paws.)
Watchman   : Don't touch me with your paws, beast!
Bear   : (To Trickster.) He cannot believe his eyes how handsome I am.
Watchman   : (Running quickly out of the cave and shouting)
          Your Highness!! Courtiers!! Do something quickly to see the miracle!!!
          (They are all coming into the cave and are astonished.)
Bear   : (Very proud of himself, speaking to Trickster.) My beauty has taken their breath away.
          Grrrr! Grrrr! I am the most handsome bear in the whole world!!
Blue Emperor   : To the devil! You are the most ugly!!
Bear   : (Smiling towards Trickster), they are not yet accustomed to my new appearance.
Blue Emperor   : You! Get out of my palace! I need no more such frights. You are stultifying me!!
Emperor's Daughter   : But father, do respect your own pledge to Trickster.
Blue Emperor   : If I have taken this pledge that I would give him my daughter as wife and a quarter of the
          whole empire, I must obey.
All the courtiers   : Hurray!! Trickster will live with us from now on!!!
Trickster   : Your Highness!! I am very proud of the honor you are granting to me, but I am not worthy
          of your daughter and your empire. My destiny is to stroll free along the entire world, to
           help other people to get rid of troubles and the evil which still exists. I cannot tarry in only
          one empire, the other will feel my absence. (The Emperor's daughter is crying.) I am sure
          you will find another worthy bridegroom. I am not looking for riches and power. I am
          content with my poverty and my freedom, I want to be free as the birds in the sky.
Watchman   : Go away and be free and healthy, Trickster!!
Blue Emperor   : I am grateful to you, you broke the spell which held my unmarried daughter. What
          will you do now?
Trickster   : Your Highness! I want to ask you to give me this bear. I will teach him many things .
Bear   : (Starting eagerly), I am ready at any moment!!
Trickster   : To employ him in a circus so that he may greet with his paws at his temple the children
          from all over the world, to do somersaults and to walk on string. An itinerant circus will
          take him from country to country and when he is an old bear, he will retire to a zoo with a
          well deserved pension. He is gifted and well trained.
Blue Emperor   : I have the exact same thoughts as Trickster.
Emperor's Daughter   : Do come to us as well with your itinerant citcus!
Bear   : Grrrr!! Grrrr!! Of course, surely!!
Courtiers   : Goodbye Trickster! See you later !!
Trickster and the Bear   : (Going away), see you later!!!



Scene III



          ( The road is leading from the palace through a thick forest. The palace remains in
          the distance and then it disappears. Snow is coming down. Trickster and the bear are singing.
          Trickster is leading the bear with a chain tied onto the bear's collar. The bear makes
           somersaults and he is bowing, greeting the children in the audience.)
Trickster   : I am Trickster - the famous
          All the world I want to stroll
          I am Trickster - the famous
          and I want to help you all!!
Bear   : And I am the bear jester
          what could scare me? Nothing!
          Trickster is my only master
          and I am walking on strings!!
Both   : The first stanza from scene I.
Trickster   : Refrain I
Bear   : Refrain II
          (The curtain is falling down. Trickster is heard singing the first stanza.)
Trickster   : The first refrain.
          (June 1970 - 1986. Inspired from a fairy tale told to me by my Grandfather Smarandache
          N. Ion or Mandea as the call him - from Gorunesti-hamlet, Balcesti village - Valcea
          county.)





TRICKSTER AND THE DRAGON



PLAYERS:       Trickster;
    Bear;
    Dragon (seven headed).
    Trickster and the bear are walking through a forest. The forest is covered with snow.
It is a frosty night. Howls are heard somewhere in the distance. A light is sparkling.


TR>

Bear   : Master! Look there! There is a light up there!! Maybe it is a chalet for tourists or a cottage
          for a forester.
Trickster   : Take it easy! Don't rush like a stupid lamb into the mouth of a wolf!!
Bear   : But I am very cold because I have no more of my fur. You clubbed it and then cut it off.
          (gestures as if clubbing somebody.)
Trickster   : Never mind! Don't bother. You have to harden yourself to it. Your fellow bears are hibernating
          now in this weather, in their dens sucking their own paws of famine while you have pies
          and nuts . . . so many victuals.
Bear   : Don't speak any more of pies and nuts, I am sick of them, I'd rather not eat anything.
Trickster   : It's your own business!! But until we reach the other end of the forest, this forest is as
          black and thick as a brush, your belly will be absolutely empty and its skin will be
          near your back.
Bear   : Let it be the only trouble Trickster. But so that we don't get bored, let's tell a story!
          A fairy tale!
Trickster   : Let me think! Once upon a time there was a dragon, a very lovely and obedient dragon.
Bear   : I have never heard of a lovely dragon, nor of an obedient one! In all the fairy tales by my
           grandfather, the Oldbear, the dragons were all wild, frightful beasts.
Trickster   : This one was a nice and obedient one. He was a little cub just born to his mother. She was
          nurturing him with milk from her bosom and she was swinging and caressing him.
Bear   : (In disgust) poor him! She was caressing him!!
Trickster   : And our dragon was growing and he has now become a grown up dragon. And every night he
          was eating a .(pause)..a bear.
Bear   : Alas!! Trickster! Don't you know another fairy tale! I was so afraid my hair stood on end.
Trickster   : What hair? You have no more hair on you.
Bear   : Alas!! But, what do you think, are there really dragons?
Trickster   : Why are you asking me? You, as a bear, would know more about dragons since they are beasts
          nearer to your kin.
Bear   : Of my kin? What? Has he drunk water from the same jar as me? God bless my heart!!
Trickster   : Let's go on. so the dragon was eating a bear every night.
Bear   : Alas!! Hasn't he changed his menu? Always the same menu? Wasn't he tired of the same thing
          every night?
Trickster   : The bears were a sweet dessert for the dragon. Something he found very delicious.
Bear   : And what shall we do if we come face to face with such a wretched being? (Frightfully) What
          do you say about that Trickster?
Trickster   : If we stumble upon the tail of a dragon which is bathing in the sun on a stone, then we must
          fight to the death to defeat him.
Bear   : It would be wiser to take flight.
Trickster   : You cannot take flight as easily as you have incited him.
Bear   : And how do you think you can fight a seven headed beast where each head has its own mouth
          where he can bite with them all?
Trickster   : If you cannot defeat him in wrestling, you must defeat him with cleverness. You have to
           deceive him my little bear. You have to take away his mind so you defeat him in a fight
          without fighting. You must make him defeat himself.
Bear   : The dragons are now living in the woods and they are not to be met in the night are they?
Trickster   : If you say so!
Bear   : If that is so, where are they living?
Trickster   : Well! If they are not living in the woods that means that they are living in the towns, in
           houses or in blocks of flats.
Bear   : And so, they are not tramping in the night?
Trickster   : (Ironically) I think that they are not getting out of their dens because they are afraid of
          beasts.
Bear   : And in this case, what are they doing in their free time?
Trickster   : At night they are lying in their beds and with one head they watch television and with
           the other heads they read fairy tales written by Ion Creanga, Andersen or the Grimm
          brothers.
Bear   : As I reckon, they are multilateral persons.
Trickster   : A head is smiling, a head is sighing, a head is smoking and a head is drinking coffee
          in the morning.
Bear   : What a nice thing, they are behaving themselves.
Trickster   : One day he was coming back home from fishing. I forgot to tell you that he had become
          a fisherman renowned throughout the land. He was hypnotizing the fish with the middle
          head and with the first head he was grasping and gobbling the fish because this head had
          a larger mouth. He was fishing only for carps that were as big as a knapsack and . . .
Bear   : And?
Trickster   : and pikes and breams.
Bear   : And the other heads, what were they doing in the meantime?
Trickster   : The other heads were lurking by themselves little fishes and they were swooping upon
          their prey.
Bear   : This dragon was fishing with a rod with many hooks, but, go on.
Trickster   : And so, he was coming back home one day and he has found in the mail-box a
          telegram brought there by an ostrich. The telegram was from his aunt who let him know
          that she was ill and she was taken to a hospital. The dragon has bought a ticket and he
          took the first plane..(pause).
Bear   : And what?.Go on..
Trickster   : The pilot, a kangaroo dressed in service unit, pulled a lever and the plane took off while the
          Stewardess was speaking on a loudspeaker: "put on your belts". The warm womanly voice
          Has melted the dragon's heart.
Bear   : But what? Had he only one heart?
Trickster   : It doesn't matter. Listen to me.the stewardess was as beautiful as a swan with a long neck
          and a white gown and the dragon fell in love with her as soon as he saw her.
Bear   : Were there any other travellers on the plane?
Trickster   : Of course. A wild boar was among them and he has fallen asleep and was snoring
          So loudly that you might swear that he was walking through some creeping stalky pumpkins.
          He was in the plane with his swon and a herd of little pigs which were squeaking for
          sweets, chocolates, oranges juice. They could not stay still for a minute. The Wilde Boar
          family being the most numerous was also the noisiest. There it was a Pussy-cat also, she
          had brown fur and was wearing a little felt cap and a pinky bow and she was perfumed
          all over:from the top of her tail till her little ears. She was dozing away in the last row of
          chairs.
Bear   : This is the question : how could the dragon love the swan with one head while he...
Trickster   : He was loving her with all his being. But the swan was fond only of the dragon's
          second head who was the most good looking of them all. And thus, the other heads have
          become jealous of the second head. The dragon was cursing his fate thinking why hasn't
          he been born with only one head as all the people in the world. But their idyll has lasted
          till the first landing of the plane. The dragon has to get down at the first stop. The Wild
          Boar with his family and the Pussy-cat remaied in the plane to fly on. When they have
          parted,the swan was sighing and she starts crying and each tear dropped on earth became
          of a sudden a tree, an alder-tree and she has wept so much that all the airport became
          thick alderwood.
Bear   : A wood like the one we are passing through?
Trickster   : That's it!!...and the dragon...I can't remember anymore.
Bear   : What has happened to the dragon?
Trickster   : Let him alone !! Let me tell you about the swan !!
Bear   : What about the swan?
Trickster   : The plane just took off, it didn't reach yet 100 meters and there was an explosion!!
          Something out of order at the engines, they thought. The pilot has no time but to say:
          "we are falling down. .we are.:.But the local newspapers have written
          of wolfs-terrorists have had evil thought against the Wild Boar's family and they have
          hidden a time-bomb into the Pussy-cat's handbag.
Bear   : Poor little cubs!!
Trickster   : They say one of them has escaped alive. A squad of police-dogs with baldrics and pistols
           have run to the place of the accident and they have found the little pig and have rescued
          him. Do you know where the plane has fallen?
Bear   : No. Where?
Trickster   : Just here, in the Alderwood, that is the name of this wood.
Bear   : What a coincidence!!!
Trickster   : Mister captain Bulldog, the chief of the squad, has found the little pig routing among
          remnants of the plane saying that he was searching for his brothers. The swan has
          jumped but her parachute has not opened.
Bear   : And the dragon? What about him?
Trickster   : The dragon hasn't gone to the hospital anymore. He has taken a taxi and he has ridden to
          the wood in search for the stewardess and he has never come back home again.
Bear   : Has he remained in the woods?
Trickster   : Yes! He has remained. The Alderwood saga is telling this.
Bear   : Alas! My Lord! But to say so, your whole story is only a fairy-tale!
Trickster   : But still they are true stories!!
Bear   : I know you are telling it only to frighten me, aren't you? And which is the end of this
          story?
Trickster   : The dragon has become a wild beast because he was no more living among civilized
          people. A blue lake with white water lilies near its banks is now there where the swan
          has fallen and its deep waters it is the dragon's den. There, down on the bottom of the
          lake he has built a castle made of glass for himself and from it he is coming now out
          with a submarine and on the land he is going in the wood for his prey. He is lurking
          the prey with all his eyes.so he has lived and he is still living alone as a recluse in
          nowadays..
Bear   : No!! I hope he is not living anymore!!
Trickster   : And so I have mounted on a blue horse to tell you this story in force..
Bear   : The other dragons are doing evil things, aren't they?
Trickster   : No! The people have tamed them. You may find a lot of dragons at the Zoo.
          crocodiles, giant or poisonous snakes. or at the circus. All the children are coming
          to see them.
Bear   : I'd like to see a dragon, a seven headed dragon as those from the fairy-tales told me
          by my grandfather: Oldbear.
Trickster   : If you have good luck, you may meet one.
Bear   : I would be very glad!
Trickster   : I doubt it, you are posturing, just now, in his absence..
Bear   : (Straining his muscles) I am a stout bear. I was a weight-lifter champion and I am
          Not scared by the first new comer!! Alas!! But what is it? (He is picking up from
          The ground a little cap for the ladies).
Trickster   : It looks like Pussy-cat's little cap!
Bear   : So, the story was not at all a simple fairy-tale, was it? (The light grows brighter.)
Trickster   : Take care!! (The howls are louder now.)
Bear   : Master! I am afraid!! (He is hiding behind Trickster.)
Trickster   : It is my fault, I have started such a long way with such a coward! The children may
          Believe that all the bears are weaklings and cowards. Do you want to stultify all
          Your kin? (The seven headed dragon is coming on the stage. He is yelling with a
          Harsh voice and he is spitting fire and smoke from all his seven mouths.)
Dragon   : Well ! I've taken a good bath in the clear waters of this lake and now I am famished
          like a ...dragon. (Speaking to the two) What do you want on this lonely land?
Trickster   : (Addressing the bear) Look at him, a real dragon coming from the fairy-tales.
Bear   : Maybe he is a fugitive from the Zoo !!
Trickster   : The Harridan of the Woods has overrun us mounted on a rocket and she has heard your
          wish and now she has fulfilled it.
Bear   : I thank her for hearing my wish, but she would rather not fulfill it.
Dragon   : I have asked you, what are you doing on this lonely land, what do you want?
Bear   : Alas !! Trickster. But this dragon is a wild one !! (To the dragon shivering with fright)
          Me...I... I don't want anything !!
Trickster   : (To the bear) Shut up, you, good for nothing !! (To the dragon) I am very glad to see
          You, my friend !
Dragon   : Me !! Your friend !!
Trickster   : Poor bear !! He has become a crank !! He has killed so many dragons in the Alderwood
          that he has forgotten their number.
Dragon   : What? . . . Whom?...
Bear   : (After a pause) Me...I...I don't want anything !!
Trickster   : He has begged me on his knees of bear not to send him anymore to fight any living
          Being because he feels pity for them. He has squeezed in his arms a she-dragon with
          short tails at each of her heads, a sister of yours, that she gave away her soul through all
          her seven mouths.
Bear   : Me . . . I . . . I don't want anything !!
Trickster   : And then he has sworn to give up killing so you may be at ease, mister dragon, we will do
          you no harm. You are safe with us !
Dragon   : You want to say that this good for nothing bear . . (laughing)
Bear   : Me . . . I . . . I don't want anything !
Trickster   : Alas !! The bear is changing his hair but not his habits, as a wolf.
Dragon   : By no means ! I don't believe ! I'll swallow you alive !! (The bear is crying his eyes out.)
Trickster   : In any case, you can not swallow him (pointing towards the bear) he is too big, he is a
          giant. (To the bear) take it easy! I'll not insult you obliging you to fight with such a
          small and insignificant dragon.
Dragon   : I am the Lord of the Alderwood and of everything what it is in this forest. (He is spitting
          out puffs of flames.)
Trickster   : You are right, perhaps, because you are speaking so "ardently".
Dragon   : Don't you see how great I am? Do you?
Trickster   : You are not so great . . . rather like a skinny and frazzled hippopotamus.
Dragon   : Since the plane has crashed and my lovely swan has gone away beyond . . . I have changed
          lodging, I have come to live down in the deep waters of the lake near her grave in a
          castle made of crystal and I am coming out for hunting only at night. I was in mourning
          six months for my little love.
Bear   : Me . . . I . . . I don't want anything ! But, I feel like I am burning. Why am I burning?
          (Enlarging his eyes) Trickster ! But he is just the dragon from the fairy-tale. You have
          brought him here on this stage. It is not possible! It is only an image. .(The dragon
          is spitting fire out of puffery, large and whirling, flames through all his seven mouths.)...
          No, it is not only a fancy image! He is really alive and his flames are burning me.
Trickster   :  My dear dragon! Be so kind and lower the power of the flames. Anyhow, we are
          grateful to you, as we warmed ourselves by your flames during our debates. It is such
          frosty weather !.The icicles from our noses and ears have melted away.
Dragon   : My flames!! You will see much of them !!
Trickster   : You are such an itinerant stove. And on such a weather . . . our legs were benumbed,
          frozen over all.
Bear   : It is too hot!! I am suffocating . . . open the window !!
Trickster   : (Speaking to the bear) You are now a little thawed. (To the dragon) do you want to
           accompany us on our way till the end of the woods? To help us in avoiding all these
          pits in the road, do you want to light our way?
Dragon   : Look at them!! They want to make an underling out of me !
Trickster   : By no means! My friend dragon! We have great esteem for you, haven't we, bear?!!
Bear   : I . . . I don't want anything!!
Trickster   : What do you want.more than that? Here is our beloved dragon!
Dragon   : "Beloved" !! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Trickster   : We will prove it to you !
Dragon   : "I shall play with you as a cat with a mouse". (He is making gestures towards them to
          scare them and he is again spitting fire.)
Trickster   : You gave us such a warm welcome.that means that you have wanted to express your
          sympathy!
Dragon   : To express my "sympathy" for you ?!?!
Trickster   : You are disappointing us very much.
Dragon   : Well! I shall spit no more flames upon you from now on!! You are profiteers, aren't
          you?
Trickster   : (Making hints to the bear) Alas !! What a great misfortune upon us!!
Bear   : We will die frozen.
Dragon   : That is my intention: so that I may devour you peacefully.
Bear   : Alas!! Alas!!
Dragon   : Each of my heads will have his share from your flesh.
Bear   : He has so many heads!!
Trickster   : I stand to bet that the middle one is the strongest!
Middle head   : You are perfectly right!
Head 1   : (The head from the left side) That is only your fantasy, I am the strongest!
Middle head   : Even if you are the largest, I am the strongest! (He is spitting fire and he is stretching
          his neck towards the Head 1.)
Trickster   : I am making a bet on the middle head!
Bear   : I am taking sides with Head 1!
Head 1   : I am the strongest!!
Middle head   : No, I am.
Heads 2 and 3   : What are you doing brothers? You are hitting us too!!
Head 1   : Haven't you heard his pretence?
Trickster   : (To the bear) I make the bet the middle head will be the winner!
Bear   : I bet five guineas that Head 1 will defeat the middle one!
Trickster and Bear   : (Shaking hands) Agreed!
Head 7   : What are you doing there? You are instigating them, aren't you?
Bear   : Who? Us?
Trickster   : By no means!! But you, the little one, why do you meddle?
          Mind your own business!! You are a pointed head!!
Head 7   : I am not! Head 5 was born much more pointed.
Head 6   : Shut up, you urchin!!!
Head 7   : Hear him!!! Hear!! Listen, I'll tell it to our father!
Head 6   : Do try!! You know you are landing into trouble!! (He is spitting a whirl of
          flame towards Head 7.)
Trickster   : Head 7 is the weakest of them all! (Head 1 and the Middle Head are
          hitting each other with great force and they are curling their necks.)
Head 7   : Not always!
Heads 2 and 3   : Behave yourselves brothers! (They are spitting flames against the others.)
Head 1 and middle head   : What are you, referees??
Trickster   : They are meddling as a fly into a pot with milk, and they do not mind only
          their business. It is a matter of fact that a hierarchy of your heads must be
          established so everyone will know whom to speak to.
Bear   : Boss!! You have a great idea!!
Trickster   : On the devil! You need some order here!! (Pause) So, who is the chief?
All the heads   : I am!
Head 1   : I am the greatest!
Head 2   : I am the most handsome!
Head 3   : I am the cleverest!
Middle head   : You are making me laugh with my dressing on me.I am the strongest!
Head 5   : Of course, a strong skull . . . may be . . . I am the leader!
Head 6   : Ha! Ha! Ha! Look who is our leader, one who can not lead himself. I am the
          bravest!
Head 7   : Look at him! Where was the bravest! I didn't know till now!
Trickster and Bear   : We didn't know too!
Head 7   : I am the last born and I am the most beloved by our parents!
The rest of the heads   : You will be cold when our parents will kiss you!
Head 7   : I shall speak to our father!
The others   : You squeak!!! (While they are presenting themselves a fierceful fight starts,
          first between two then between groups and afterwards there is a general
          jumble fighting with fires and smoke and curled necks.)
Trickster   : What a wonderful show! A dragon fighting against himself! It is like a
          in a T.V. cartoon for children!
Bear   : And I like this way too! To be a spectator and not a fighter.
Trickster   : Alas!! My dear Bear! (He is caressing the bear on his muzzle.)
Bear   : Have you noticed my bravery? The dragon was shivering in front of me!!
Trickster   : You are joking!
Bear   : He has even lost his voice!
Trickster   : There are many who are brave after the war!! Even cowards as you! And especially them!!
          They are pretending to be brave afterwards because they are not brave during the fight!
Head 1   : Which head am I?
Bear   : Look at them, Trickster! You do not recognize them any more!!
Middle head   : You are the little one!
Head 1   : If it is so, then you are the ugliest!
Middle head   : No! Head 5 is the ugliest!
Head 1   : But who of us is that?
Head 6   : Trickster!!
Head 5   : Bear!!
All of them   : On the devil! Help us in our fight!!
Head 3   : We don't know anymore whom to hit!!
Head 2   : We have gotten entangled!
All of them   : Help us to fight!! Help! Help!
Trickster   : Hit each other, or better, each of you to beat himself. (The fight starts again.)
Trickster   : Go on! Go on! Hate each other as deeply as you can! (The heads are hitting each other.)
          Let's encourage them! Go on! Middle Head, go on!!
Bear   : Go on! Head 1! Go on!! Go on!!
Trickster   : Box! Box!!(The heads are hitting each other and then they start swallowing each other.)
Bear   : Hurray for Head 1 hip . . . hip . . . hoooraaay!!
Trickster   : Go on! Go on! Love each other like brothers!
Bear   : With entangled necks!!
Trickster   : It is like a dragon knitted by my grandmother!! Go on; you Middle Head!!! (The dragon
          enters into a death rattle then he dies away.)
Bear   : How easy it is to kill a dragon with no sword and no gun!! (Trickster and Bear are
          walking on the lane until the lake comes in sight. All the way they are singing:)
Trickster   : I am Trickster - the famous!
          All the world I want to stroll!               Refrain 1
          I am Trickster - the famous!
          And I want to help you all!!!
Bear   : And I am the bear Jester
          What could scare me? Nothing!           Refrain II
          Trickster is my only master
          And I am walking on string!
Both   : Lonely wandering
          The entire world
          With spurred boots
          I don't feel cold!
Trickster   : (Refrain I)
Bear   : (Refrain II)
Both   : Lots of children, spright and gay
          Come to see him on the stages
          Of the puppets theatre play;
          Trickster, a joy for the little ones in ages!
          (The curtain is falling down. Trickster is still
          heard singing Refrain I.)





TRICKSTER, THE OUTERSPACE BEING AND THE OGRE


A Theatre Play For Children


PLAYERS:       Trickster;
    Bear;
    Outer space being (Outerspacer);
    Ogre.
          (Trickster and the Bear are passing a very large plain. They reach the foot of a high hill.
           It is a frosty, winter night.)



Trickster   : Bear! Do you believe in ogres?
Bear   : I believe that there are only drawn ogres in the animated cartoons or ogres
          drawn by my father on the kites he used to fly with a long string. We, all the
          bear cubs, were jumping up and down with joy and our necks were hurting us
          because we were looking upwards to the sky.
Trickster   : Alas! When you will see one in flesh and bones in front of you, you will not look
          at him admiringly at all!!
Bear   : To meet a living ogre?
Trickster   : Just like that!!!
Bear   : The ogres were living once upon a time when it was a milder weather, in the old
          fairy-tale stories and they died away at the same time as the dinosaurs.
Trickster   : But, perhaps they have gone away to other planets.
Bear   : Do you think that in those old times they were able to build rockets and other
          flying objects?
Trickster   : Let's suppose that there was another civilization before ours and it has destroyed itself.
Bear   : And that there are still survivors from that civilization?
Trickster   : How could I know? I was not born in those times.
Bear   : The ogres have wings, don't they?
Trickster   : Those drawn on the kites or from the cartoons, have wings.
Bear   : But let us speak seriously and not about toys for children. (A noise of engines then a
          bright light as in full daylight.)
Trickster   : What time is it, Bear?
Bear   : (Producing a watch out of a pocket) It is midnight. It should be the middle of the night
          but I see we are in the light of a summer day. How strange!! It seems that the Sun has
          come down on Earth. We have just come out from a dark wood and we are now on a
          brightly lit plain, it is like being under a spell.
          
          (Sounds like radio signals are heard.)
          
Trickster   : It seems to me that there is a flying saucer.
Bear   : You are mocking me! I have never seen a saucer flying by itself.
Trickster   : They are high flying saucers because they resemble outer-space ships, or UFO's or whatever
          they are calling them. (A metallic stair is lowered and a green living being with
          spectacles is coming down. The green outerspace being - the outerspacer - has a
          robot-like voice.)
Bear   : Look at him, how green he is, as he is eating only spinach like Popeye the Sailor man.
          An ogre with spectacles.what a puppet!!!
Outerspacer   : Zgri . . . gri . . . re . . . stri . . . tri . . . ri.!!
Bear   : What language is the ogre speaking, Trickster?
Trickster   : I don't understand a word!!! Maybe they are speaking a Chinese or German language.
Bear   : This is a mute ogre!! He does not know at least one internationally spoken language,
          does he?
Outerspacer   : Cri po ri po ..... Cri po ri po . . .
Bear   : And besides all that he does not have the well known mace.
Trickster   : Maybe he has forgotten it in the space-ship.
Bear   : Look, Trickster, the snow is melting under our feet. And look how warm it is. I am
          perspiring all over as in the middle of a summer day.
Outerspacer   : Ra re ri ro ru....Ra re ri ro ru . . .
Bear   : He is not the typical ogre!!
Trickster   : He has just arrived from the prehistoric times!!
Bear   : (Protecting his eyes with his paw.) Look how many little ogres there are in the flying-
          saucer. They are looking at us through the sidelights. A young couple of ogres are
          dancing. How unseemly!!
Trickster   : I am sure they are considering it very pleasant.
Bear   : BUT THERE IS SUCH FAIRY MUSIC, like from the other planets.
          (The Outerspacer is coming near them. He is of a smaller and thinner size than a man.)
Bear   : I am not afraid of any ogre, or para-ogre! If I should hit him once with my paw he would
          crash down to the ground. How stupid I was until now, my skin was shivering on me as
          soon as I was hearing their names.
Trickster   : Perhaps he is a dwarf ogre or somebody of their kin.
Bear   : What a creature!! But he looks kind and decent.
Trickster   : I believe you, there are some kindhearted and well-bred ogres.
Outerspacer   :  . . . kindhearted ogres . . .
Trickster   : What did you say, Trickster?
Trickster   : I didn't say anything!
Bear   : I thought that somebody was mimicing me.
Outerspacer   : Mi . . mi . . cing . . .
Bear   : Trickster, have you heard, just now?
Trickster   : I have heard nothing, Bear!
Outerspacer   :  . . . bear . . . bear . . .
Bear   : Alas!!! He is calling me! No! He is not calling me! I am sick!!! I am hearing things!
Outerspacer   :  . . . hearing things . . . I am hearing things . . .
Bear   : You are hearing things too, Trickster!
Trickster   : The pity is that I have said nothing!
Bear   : But who has spoken before?
Trickster   : I do not know!!!
Bear   : But who was it that said: "hearing things . . . I am hearing things "?
Trickster   : Me? You are out of your mind! I am not ill!
Outerspacer   :  . . . ill . . . I am hearing things . . .
Trickster   : I am in good health, great guns!!!
Outerspacer   :  . . . guns . . . guns . . .
Bear   : Trickster, I think that this green creature wants to pop a gun, he wants to shoot us.
          (He is pointing towards the outerspacer.)..my legs are melting..he wants to shoot
          us with a gun.
Trickster   : Remember well! You were boasting that if you could only touch him . . .
Outerspacer   :  . . . guns . . . guns . . .
Trickster   : Please, don't, we don't have any gun!!!! We are pacificts! Do you understand?
Outerspacer   :  . . . understand? . . . understand? . . .
Bear   : I don't want to have anything to do with such a monster! A green . . .
Trickster   : This "ogre" is not a monster but a clever being. He is even cleverer than you are.
Bear   : I don't believe it!
Outerspacer   :  . . . believe . . . believe . . . believe . . .
Trickster   : Are you able to create such a flying space-ship to fly quicker that the wind through
          stars and planets?
Bear   : I don't like flying in outer space. I feel myself much better here where I am
          accustomed, here on the Earth.
Trickster   : How would you receive a visitor from Mars or from the Moon?
Bear   : I would urge the dogs on him.
Trickster   : (Laughingly) Ha, Ha, Ha, and so you think that would scare them?
Bear   : I would throw stones at him. I would threaten him with a club.
Trickster   : And so! You would urge the dogs on him and you would stand against the flying
          saucer with a club!!! It is advisable to be hospitable with him and to make connection
          with these outer space beings.
Bear   : Who may know what kind of powers this ogre has hidden in himself?
Outerspacer   : Who may know what kind of powers this ogre has hidden in himself?
Bear   : Did you hear him? He has said it himself, he betrayed himself.
Trickster   : Take it easy! Haven't you caught the idea? He is learning our language.
Bear   : Look at him . . . How many aerial antennaes!!! An ogre with aerial antennae!!!
Trickster   : This ogre is coming from beyond our world. Maybe he is a scientific researcher
          or even a scientist on his planet. He wants to study the life on Earth.
Outerspacer   : He wants to study the life on Earth.
Bear   : My Lord!! How quickly an ogre learns a foreign language. I have tried very hard to
          catch the man's words and customs. And nobody can say that I am a narrow minded
          bear. Yesterday, I bought a dictionary and a handbook with the usual speech for
          conversations to get accustomed with the Shark's and Octopus's language to make a
          connection with them, to ask them what is happening in the seas and oceans of the
          Earth. I want to know if their emperor is still the brown whale and who is the new
          commander of the Shark's army. I would like to go to a party organized by the
          Jelly-fish ballarinas, by the Sea-Star fishes, by the Sea-Horse fishes in the honor
          of the Princess Siren . . .
Trickster   : You are dreaming. Bear!! Remember, you do not know how to swim.
Outerspacer   : Dri . . . bri . . . bear, you just do not know how to swim!
Bear   : Word of honor!! (The Bear wants to clap the Outerspacer on the shoulder but he is
          repelled with a jet of light.) Trickster, the monster is charged with electricity - it
          has the power of lightning!
Trickster   : He is keeping you at a distance. Maybe he is an outer space living being and not an
          Ogre as we are calling him.
Bear   : Then why has he disguised himself as an ogre?
Outerspacer   : . . . I guess your intentions . . . you not can lie me . . . (He is using very poor human language.)
Bear   : Listen to him!!! He is just speaking now!!
Outerspacer   : (With a strange accent, distorting words.) Me . . . understand all languages.use
          Telepathy . . . not listen with ears . . . the brain understands . . . receiving waves, rays . . .
          emanated by your brain.I am speaking to you not using mouth.
Bear   : O.K.!!
Trickster   : He has no mouth!!
Outerspacer   : Me without mouth. Me eat not.
Bear   : And you are not starving, are you?
Outerspacer   : I charge myself . . . with . . . solar energy.
Trickster   : This outerspacer is an immortal being!!
Bear   : How do you speak out the words if you are mouthless?
Outerspacer   : The loudspeaker is pronouncing the words. The cerebral waves scanned by a
          miniature radio fixed in my nape and changed into sounds perceptible to you . . .
Bear   : To say so, he has no ears!! What a creature!!
Trickster   : He has no eyes, too!!!
Outerspacer   : I need not eyes.
Bear   : And how do you see us?
Outerspacer   : Me . . . emanate radio infared rays in all directions. They are hitting objects and come
          back bringing information. As the bats at night maneuver their flying...
Trickster   : And thus, you are seeing us without seeing us!!!
Outerspacer   : Exactly so!!
Bear   : You cannot smell a ripe strawberry, or taste it, can you?
Outerspacer   : I don't like strawberries or anything else.
Bear   : What a pity!!! It is no good to be an outerspacer!!! Do you want to become an
          Earthling and to live with us? You are not eating . . . as for drinking.at all. Do you
          sleep?
Outerspacer   : What is the meaning of "sleep"?
Bear   : To lie in bed and to shut your eyes . . . but, I have forgotten, you have no eyes.
Outerspacer   : What?
Trickster   : To be out of work, I mean to stay motionless
Outerspacer   : I am out of work when I am out of order, on the stocks and I am in major overhaul or in
          complete overhaul. We have come on Terra to study the earthlings but I see the
          Earthlings are studying us.
          
          (Trickster and the Bear are laughing loudly.)
          
Outerspacer   : I understand not what you are speaking!!
Trickster and Bear   : We are not speaking, we are just laughing!
Outerspacer   : What is that? I can not laughing.
Trickster   : We will teach you, don't worry!! Do you want to come with me and the Bear Jester
          to the puppets theatre to tell the children customs from your planet, from your
          country?
Outerspacer   : Go, go; go, but you cannot beat outerspacer.
Trickster   : Whom to beat!!! You are so feeble that one knows not what to beat!! Besides, you are
          made of iron sheets so, no one would dare to hit you because he could hurt his hand or
           he could crash his bones. You have so many wheels, aerial antennas, wires and pins . . .
           One may prick his . . . his fingers if he would touch anywhere you.
Bear   : Trickster is a trainer, he has tamed and trained many of my kin, he even tamed a dragon
          some days ago and now he was planning to tame an ogre who is haunting somewhere
          over here. This ogre has his den in a cave digged up under a rock on the peak of this
          mountain.
Trickster   : Much esteemed Outerspacer!! We are enlisting you in our troupe and we wish you to
          become a cosmically renowned actor
Outerspacer   : (Addressing towards his teammate from the outer spaceship.) Zbii, zbii, bri, pri,
          cri, thrii, zgri . . . (The U.F.O. is answering with the same kind of sounds then it takes
          off. The bright light is lowering in intensity till the flying saucer looks like a star far
          away and disappears. The warm and the frost, the summer and the winter have changed
          places. The three are climbing up the mountain. The Outerspacer is moving with a
          robotlike rattle, and he is rotating the aerial antennas all the time.)
Bear   : Alas!! Trickster!! It is a fearfull frost!!
Outerspacer   : The frost does not exist, it is felt.
Bear   : You, one made of iron! Thank you!!
Trickster   : We'll take shelter in the first cave we find.
Outerspacer   : I shall not take shelter . . . cave . . . there it is . . . humidity, all my devices get rusted and . . .
          they get out of order . . .
Bear   : Do you hear him?
Trickster   : Never mind!! You may stay outside and watch. (An ogre is coming down from the peak
          of the mountain fluttering his wings.)
Bear   : Look up! A new Outerspacer!! It seems that he has wings! . . . But where is his flying
          saucer?
Trickster   : (Ironically) Perhaps he wants to go on foot. Maybe he is taking a walk through the
          galaxies.
Bear   : Alone?
Trickster   : Do ask him yourself!!
Ogre   : (Terrible) Who dares trespass on my private estate?
Bear   : (Cowardly) It is he who is questioning me!!
Trickster   : He is a real living (stressingly) Ogre!!
Bear   : Which private estate?
Ogre   : My private estate, which I am inheriting according to my Uncle Horribleogre's
          will recorded at the public notary. Haven't you seen the inscription:
          "NO TRESPASSING" (Silence)
Trickster   : Bear! Don't you hear what Mister Ogre is asking you?
Bear   : I . . . I . . . I don't know how to read!
Ogre   : Do learn! (Nervously) go to school! You have grown so great and you do not know the
          letters of the alphabet!!!
Outerspacer   : Og . . . Ogri . . . gri . . . ri . . .
Ogre   : (Pointing towards the Outerspacer) And who is this dullard? Why is he dressed
          like that? Is he going to a fancy-dressed ball?
Trickster   : Do not grow angry Mister Ogre! I shall take care of both of them. I invited them to
          accompany me in my travels.
Ogre   : And you are travelling on my estate, aren't you?
Outerspacer   : Trickster, you have promised to protect Outerspacer from being beaten by Mister Ogre.
Ogre   : What are you mumbling about up there? You nincompoop!!
Trickster   : He is an outer-space being. He has descended from the sky with a flying saucer. (Then
          speaking at the Ogre's ear.) He was programmed, I mean he was made as a robotlike
          toy, that kind of a toy with a key in its back and which is moving alone when the key
          winds the spring. It was programmed to destroy with his arms made of hard steel
          anything that he is meeting in his way!!!
Ogre   : You make me laugh!!
Trickster   : Do try and come near him!!
          
          (The Ogre tries but he is thrown back by a blue lightning.)
Ogre   : Alas!! But it is not necessary to wrestle. I shall throw my mace from 20 km. Far from
          here, and I shall crush his skull!
Trickster   : Which skull? He has no skull!! (The Ogre is in wonder) and besides your mace is
          a primitive weapon no more in use nowadays. They have invented bombs! (The
          Ogre is throwing his mace but the mace is repelled as a boomerang and lands squarely in the Ogre's
          chest, knocking the Ogre to the ground.)
Ogre   : Alas!! What's going on here? I see coloured stars!!
Trickster   : Take it easy, nothing too serious. Our Outerspacer has returned the mace back to you.
          Perhaps you need it to crack nuts. It is good for nothing else!! (The Bear is dancing.)
          
          (The bear is dancing.)
          
Bear   : He has done you in, dear Ogre!!
Outerspacer   : Outerspacer thank you very much for giving me your mace, but I need it not.
Trickster   : (Ironically) Listen to him, Ogre! He is thanking you.
Outerspacer   : Outerspacer is giving an iron ball to Ogre. (He is producing from somewhere a large red
          ball.)
Trickster   : He is offering you a gift a . . . bomb. (Pointing towards the red ball.) . . . in your head!
Ogre   : Nobody has vanquished me up till now. Who dares to fight with me? (The Bear is just
          scratching his nape with his paw.) Maybe Bear?
Bear   : I . . . I do not fight anybody!!! It is not suitable with the good manners. My
          schoolmistress will give me a bad mark for bad behavior.
Trickster   : (Ironically) You are right! The Bear has the most distinguished manners. And he is not
          degrading himself in such a plight to sully his little paws with your blood!
Bear   : I am as clean as a pussy-cat.
Outerspacer   : And he is as brave as a pussy-cat, too!
Ogre   : But who is there to face me? Perhaps you, Trickster?
Trickster   : (In wonder) I have no desire to fight. You are a nice little Ogre. But you have hurt our
          feelings, Mister Ogre. We thought of you as a decent Ogre
Bear   : (To Trickster) Where have you ever seen a decent wild beast?
Ogre   : I am eager to crash someone to the ground. (He is stretching in a rage.)
Trickster   : Behave yourself! We have no time for jokes. Look here, if you are eager to fight, we
          allow you to have a fight with our Outerspacer. We are in a hurry to climb you on the
          glass rock.
Bear   : Uncle Outerspacer, do throw that ball at him once and for all! (The Outerspacer throws
          the ball. The Ogre catches it but it lets it down immediately.)
Ogre   : Alas! It has burned my fingers. It was burning like fire.
Bear   : run away, it might explode. It could make thousands of splints out of you.
Outerspacer   : The ball won't explode. It is a toy for children to play with in kindergarten.
Trickster   : I have taken away its detonator. It can no longer explode.
Ogre   : It was scorching, incandescent . . . you, man . . . or robot . . . or whatever you are!!
          
           (The Ogre is swooping down on the outerspacer with his sword, but the sword
          bursts into pieces.)
          
Outerspacer   : YOU CANNOT KILL ANYBODY'S THOUGHTS.
Ogre   : Let me take my hunting rifle.
          (He is shooting but the outerspacer does not even stagger.)
Bear   : Trickster, since when do the ogres have rifles?
Trickster   : They have evolved too.
Bear   : And who are those who are selling them weapons? Or do the ogres have a weapons
          industry?
Trickster   : During Peter Ispirescu's time with his wonderful fairy tales, neither
          ogres or dragons knew anything about guns, bombs, planes or submarines
          remember? Prince Charming came from beyond our world on the wings of a giant bird
          which was ready to swallow him out of joy because he had rescued his chick from
          death.
          
          (The bear makes signs that he remembers.)
          
           If in those times there would have been planes or rockets Prince Charming would
          have been riding in a plane or a rocket. He would have sat comfortably on a chair with
          his head back and a glass of lemon juice in front of him . . .
Outerspacer   : Mr. Ogre is vainly striving, the ideas do not die .
Ogre   : Perhaps I haven't taken the correct aim . . . I'll try once more .
          (He takes aim and shoots but the cartridge explodes in the rifle
Trickster   : Give it up, you little ogre!
Outerspacer   : Me . . . I am living in your imagination. NOBODY CAN DESTROY FANTASY. IT
          IS IMPOSSIBLE.
          (The outerspacer disappears like a haze.)
Bear   : How quickly he has disappeared, hasn't he? Like a ghost.
Outerspacer   : Alas!! You, ogre!! Do kill the people's fantasy if you can!!!
          (The ogre is swooping towards the voice.)
Trickster   : Do catch the outerspacer ogre!! Look out, he is over there!!
          (He is pointing with one hand towards one side of the stage and with the other in
          the opposite direction. The Ogre is staggering.)
          Very well!!
Outerspacer's   : I am waiting for you Ogre!!
voice    
Ogre   : (To Trickster) Where is it hiding? . . . come on, where are you, ghost!!!
Trickster   : How is it? You don't see him do you? Look over there! (The same play with his
          hands.) Grasp him, Ogre!!
          (The Ogre is flummoxed. He is running from one side of the stage to the other.)
           If you had not run so quickly, maybe you would have caught him!!
Bear   : What a flummoxed Ogre!!
Outerspacer's   : Destroy the ghost Ogre!!
voice    
Ogre   : Alas!! I shall kill him! (He got dizzy.)
Bear   : (To Trickster) What a plight he is in now!!!
Ogre   : Stop where you are ghost!!
          (To Trickster) Where is he?
Trickster   : There, in the same place!! (The same play with his hands.) Quicker
          (The Ogre is falling down, finished.)
Trickster   : Lock him in handcuffs Bear!
          (The Ogre cannot stand anymore. The Bear is locking the Ogre's hands in cuffs.)
Ogre   : What? What are you doing to me?
Bear   : What a farce!!! An Ogre put in jail!!! The Prince Charming would have simply
           cut off his head.
Trickster   : We have the duty to bring him to trial and only if the judge issues a death verdict
          will a firing squad carry out the execution and the Ogre will be shot dead.
Bear   : the world will be rid of Ogres!!!
Trickster   : We have to fasten him to a rock and then run into the Ogre's palace to phone the
          Police to come and take him in for questioning, so that he will answer for his
          deeds.
          (The Bear is fastening the Ogre to a rock and then he and Trickster are moving off
          the stage. They come back after awhile. The siren of a police car is heard coming.
          Trickster and Bear are seen coming down from the peak of the mountain. They are
          singing.)
          
Trickster   : I am Trickster - the famous!
          All the world I want to stroll!               Refrain 1
          I am Trickster - the famous!
          And I want to help you all!!!
          
Bear   : And I am the bear Jester
          What could scare me? Nothing!           Refrain II
          Trickster is my only master
          And I am walking on string!
          
Both   : Lonely wandering
          The entire world
          With spurred boots
          I don't feel cold!
          
Trickster   : (Refrain I)
Bear   : (Refrain II)
          
Both   : Lots of children, spright and gay
          Come to see him on the stages
          Of the puppets theatre play;
          Trickster, a joy for the little ones in ages!
          
          (The curtain is falling down. Trickster is still
          heard singing Refrain I