TEATRO EN VIVO LIVE THEATER
Oh Celos!
OTELLO
I see them babbling around! I see them beyond me.
Yes, it's true.
It is those couples who spread the noise of their love beyond.
You should pay more attention, I am not here to give you bread and wine,
but to bless with life lessons,
as circuses are already full of laughter,
and passion makes cold cemeteries pile up.
I look at your love. Babble with emotions.
Spring of joy where good hearts drink.
But also, fateful hemlock, revealing the depth of blood in blind feats.
Oh! Love, love!
Forbidden homeland for libertines and front men, deprived of bonds and convictions.
Love!
That noble emanation of beautiful feelings and horrors as well…
Love gave rise to our civilization and also love has made vast empires fall down,
Thus, the highest palaces of virtues have been perverted by their excesses.
Oh, love...love!
-
Damn love!
My story is that of any common man.
But this man was me, and I was at the service of the Republic of Venice.
He was a moor and had on his chest the blessing of a beautiful flower.
That man never imagined how the gods would test him
under the vices of lie and distrust.
A moor with dark skin, black hair and eyes as dark as nights which lost their wake,
I found no light deep into my veins,
for a wavering, auburn soul passed through me.
Her skin was full of stars. Twinkling stars that blinded my reason.
How many men have lost their heads in the gallows and the bonfire of misfortune due to a delicious body and a devoted feeling of passion?
-
Damn love!
May anyone contradict me if they have not lost their judgment when they meet a noble heart?
So do not judge me, but neither praise me, nor tempt your soul.
You better use compassion over reason tonight.
Today, I'm going to talk about the symptoms of love, because it happened to me.
And there is no time or day that I don´t blame this weak perception of my emotions!
As she was my beloved, and she loved me.
But this blind warrior fury with no understanding inside me
drowned her neck and hopes down to her soul.
Because I strangled her with these stale hands and took her last breath
when her spirit finally surrendered to all my fears.
Or is jealousy a minor issue?
No, I think not!
Why did I believe a mediocre man over the woman at issue?
Unfair. Suspicious. Treacherous.
Obfuscated man and arrogant male.
Untamed beast, lacking female empathy and intuition.
Poor women!
History punishes them dishonoring their image and their word.
it punishes their dresses, their senses, their mistifying gaze and their dreamy hands.
And that beautiful body of hers is burned at the stake of slander
and their heads have rolled so many times because life is so ungrateful.
Oh, women, women!
So many thousands of years and you are the great losers of history.
So many thousands of years and the club is still tattooed on their skin and their memory.
Oh, women!
Forgive our offenses and have mercy of these clumsy lambs.
You'd better write a whole new story.
We make war and always seek redemption,
which makes us feel a little better.
You are life-givers and certainly have more virtue and compassion.
It is in you to give days a twist, without copying the unhealthy of men and their species
to gather the joy and comfort lost on Earth.
Because we agree that we are all concerned about love.
Or not?
II
And why did jealousy kill the woman in question? you'll wonder, then!
How would I know that my ensign had no regard for me, yet he had resentment and bad faith?
My gentile condition sank me with my father-in-law because of the ensign,
Iago pretended to be loyal and bragged about his betrayal behind my back.
My father-in-law, Senator Brabantio, confronted me.
I was accused by him in the council chambers before the doge himself and I told the truth.
I am a hard man; that's how I've been since my childhood. Meager life made me a warrior.
I was accused due to my origin and little education, they said I was not up to such delicate beauty.
She, so elegant and gracious, from a good and respected family.
I was even accused of practicing magic,
when the love of Desdemona and mine only took away our nights and sleep.
It was never magic, and in such a case it would be the magic in our hearts that brought us together.
I am a man of word and it was my honor against those who defamed me.
Brabantio adored me. I would tell my stories at his table
and talked about my hard past and my childhood.
I suddenly realized that she was listening too.
We both fell in love.
She fell for my stories and I fell for her gestures and sighs.
We loved each other as we saw ourselves as humans. That made all the difference.
The doge was not surprised about my past and my defense against defamation,
but he needed that maiden's voice to reaffirm it.
After the Council expiated me, Brabantio left the scythe of doubt in me.
Which nailed my insecurity and an inadvertent madness.
Because he told me:
"If she outsmarted her father, what could you expect, but something worse…”
We know the subtle language of seduction women use.
She could be good or bad. I had a beautiful and healthy woman…
I am a moor with a kind and honest soul. Hence I believe in those who seem honest.
Iago deceived me with his hypocrisy and I was so soft, that I believed everything he told me.
So naive. So insecure. I was so stubborn.
My good will made me believe what the ensign said.
This man unleashed hell when I saw daylight coming.
Jealousy is leprosy and scabies for lovers.
Just as the leper's skin color changes, so does your mood.
It stays deep inside you for a long time until it bursts.
It gives you an imperceptible itch and deforms your entire soul.
Over time, you lose sensitivity, and you think that's all right
and yet everything goes wrong.
Then, understanding peels out your eyes,
and your sight is filled with that pus that drips distrust,
and irritation and humor become thirst for revenge against your beloved.
You seek for a cure, but there isn't one when she is in good health.
Then you get ulcers in your heart and do not even know how to stop it, silently.
These wounds of reason mute your throat and you burn inside because you do not speak.
You lose your teeth and hair. You become grotesque in spirit and body.
Pride defeats you, and you become more despicable and more violent,
your soul becomes atrophied, and the beauty of your body loses its elegance.
and the person who loves you looks at you and, little by little, you start causing repulsion and disgust.
You disgust them and you look at yourself in the mirror and see yourself full of pain and with no grace.
What happened to you?
You were a pleasant heart, turned into rashes and secretions of bad mood, disdain and hate.
You have become a leper and a mangy, those who do not get anything tender for being so needy.
III
My romance was already talked about everywhere. My wife was cherished, and I was almost a divine being.
Cyprus was happy about my marriage with such a sweet woman, full of energy and fluidity.
Desdemona was respected, as she was modest and brave,
and everybody followed her for her perseverance and, even more, for her kindness.
Everyone acknowledged my love for Desdemona when the war in Cyprus ended.
I was so happy, that I even rewarded my sailor for his bravery.
Everything around me was bliss and the sky showed good luck.
However, that Iago got me in big trouble.
He slowly wove his trap and even Cassio was completely tricked by it.
That ensign was not silly at all.
He managed to confuse humble and well-known heroes.
Why did I believe that heartless ruffian?
He was clever with imagination and even better with his loquacity.
I punished Casio because of Yago and I didn't reward him for being such a good guy.
Iago stabbed me in the back, full of malice and tricks.
He took away my peace, filled my brains with dung,
My Desdemona had the worst outcome, as I was so brutal.
I was an untamable moor. I gave my wife confidence and bravery,
safety and faithful lover gestures.
But Iago was clever with his words and mean-spirited ideas.
And with so many words my mind was lost in the latrine.
I trusted my wife, but it was Iago who set Cassio as an offer to vile outrage.
"If she outsmarted her father" I can still hear him saying that.
This ensign planned very carefully how to attack me.
He planted the poisoned rupture in my mind
and as much as I wanted to stay away from mortal thoughts,
feeling trapped with doubts and jealousy dominated me.
Did my origin make me insecure and easy prey for them to play with me?
The fact that I am a mulatto, poor and without much education
made me stubborn like a goat that always strikes on the same place.
Fury embraced me and I would not calm down. Even Iago asked me with uneasiness,
but once the soul is corrupted it is hard to go back to a peaceful body.
Iago and I decided to carry out a disastrous plan:
Cassio would die at his hands for him to become lieutenant.
I would kill Desdemona with my knife in her belly.
A vain handkerchief would be the seed and hemlock of their death.
In this play we all die.
Some for being innocent, others for being damned and me, for being a traitor and being lost.
How can one distinguish a manipulator?
I believed in Iago, and everyone around him.
How can one identify the devil dressed as an ensign?
who shamelessly turned our lives around with wit and seduction?
Everyone has their virtues. Iago's was to deceive with great pleasure.
It seems that my trait then was to be an idiot,
distinguished by my naivety and gullibility.
The handkerchief was both remedy and poison!
The doge`s court forgave Cassio for being a drunk and that was the end and my defeat.
I´ll never have peace of mind again, and all my confidence is crumbling.
I lost my sanity.
I offended my Desdemona in front of fair and good men.
I humiliated myself and became a haughty outlaw.
I was poisoned by anger and madness.
The handkerchief was both remedy and poison!
She told me:
"Are you killing me because I love you? Oh, cruel death!
Why are you biting your lip angrily?
You are all shaken by bloodthirsty passion.
They are omens; however, I hope, I hope that they do not threaten me, no”,
I was ruin, I was a damn servant of jealousy and a stateless of heaven and soul.
I strangled her on her bed!
I loved her and killed her with my hands soiled by revenge.
Let this be heard: I strangled her on her bed!
Jealousy was my leprosy and scabies, lover's illness
they do not understand love and make it hell without shelter.
Listen to me, you in the audience:
The handkerchief was both remedy and poison!
I strangled her on her bed!
I turned love into the rottenest food a child of destiny can have
The handkerchief was both remedy and poison!
I strangled her on her bed!
And I drank the seeds of pain when I found out that I had become that Impaler leper,
dominated by the most perverse symptoms of the most sublime human feeling,
the one we all call Love.
The handkerchief was both remedy and poison!
I strangled her on her bed!
Love is the remedy, my friends, but improperly taken love is the most sorrowful and cruel punishment…
I strangled her on her bed!