Cassandra, Sandra

Casandra, La Sandra
by Gabriela Aguilera (Chile), 2017
Two male, one female.

Out of the Wings at the Omnibus, London, 30 July 2019

After many years away, Alex returns reluctantly to Santiago to clear out his late mother’s flat. Buried in grief and surrounded by family possessions acquired over decades, his only wish is to empty the apartment and fly back to the States as soon as be possibly can. But when Sandra, a scatterbrained cashier from the supermarket across the street appears on his doorstep, he finds himself forced to confront the memories that he would rather have left behind. And as Sandra’s young colleague steps in to help clear out more of the old woman’s bric-a-brac, the truth is quietly revealed of why this apparently innocent cashier walked into Alex’s life in the first place. Or rather, of how on one ordinary day like any other at her checkout, Alex’s life walked uninvited into hers.

I don’t even recognise all these things
Things that don’t even have a colour any more
Overflowing things, things in the way, things that weigh heavy
That need breaking, undoing, throwing away
Should we cry over things?
Is it better to burn them?
To build a bonfire with what’s left here?
To turn them into a huge, blue, yellow fire?
A fire in the night
That warms the skin of the people left behind
The things are dead too
We should burn them
They’re useless
They’ve stopped breathing
They’ve no meaning
They don’t speak to anyone
I don’t want more things with no meaning
Can you hear them?

This play has been translated as part of a British Council Santiago project, which aims to translate a number of modern Chilean plays into English for the first time. Other plays in the selection include The Lady of the Andes by Bosco Cayo, The Desolate Prince, by Juan Radrigán, and The Recommendation by Egon Wolff, some of Chile’s most renowned and prolific playwrights.

It was first performed as a rehearsed reading at the Out of the Wings Festival on 30 July 2019, directed by Kate O’Connor. The cast were Faaiz Mbelizi, Angela Clerkin and Solomon Israel.