The Eternal Summer of War
El eterno verano de la guerra
by Hugo Alfredo Hinojosa (Mexico), 2011
Five male, two female.
A son returns scarred from a faraway war; a father pimps and kidnaps at a border-town brothel; a mother despairs at her family’s implosion; two gamblers risk their lives seeking nihilistic thrills; a girl fights for freedom the only way she knows how, and a naïve dreamer walks blindly to a terrifying fate
Why do you think I’ve got a glass roof and not cement…? This is the only room where I know if it’s day or night. I listen to the people walking overhead. It’s quite fun: watching the women, the animals, their crooked footsteps. I’m getting old here, with this furniture and those photos…
I envy your youth… The path you’ve chosen, the fact that you’re leaving me here under this glass roof, listening to strangers laughing at night, others whispering, swapping secrets. What are you doing here? Telling me to my face you’re scared of going to some two-bit war. You want me to feel sorry for you?
Don’t worry; start biting your fingernails again if you like, like before; I won’t tell anyone, Officer.
This translation of The Eternal Summer of War was commissioned by the English Stage Company at The Royal Court Theatre.
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