On World Theater Day, we pay tribute to Álamo Oliveira and to the Azorean immigrant and the Americans with Azorean Roots

On October 23, 2016, Angra do Heroísmo’s Alpendre Theater Group premièred Álamo Oliveira’s one-act play Já Não Gosto de Chocolates — based on his acclaimed 1999 novel of the same title. Diniz Borges and Katharine F. Baker’s English translation of the novel, I No Longer Like Chocolates, was published in 2006.

In his column in Diário Insular, Victor Rui Dores praised the play for telling us “of the loves and hatreds of those who, after immigrating to America, feel lonely, exiled, and stateless. […] Joe Sylvia, né José Silva, [is] a Terceiran widower from Serreta who immigrated to the town of Tulare in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Given his extreme isolation, he lives apart from family members, who only visit according to schedule. Dissatisfied, unassimilated and misunderstood, in a succession of flashbacks he revisits his island memories, on the one hand — and, on the other, critically questions his daily American life. Without the ranch that had been his livelihood, and with his family rent asunder, Joe sits perplexed, bewildered by the world; he does not understand his children (naturalized Americans), nor grasp changes in the Azores resulting from the April 25, 1974, Carnation Revolution.” [Translated by Katharine F. Baker, excerpted from http://www.inolongerlikechocolates.com/play_chocolates.htm]

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Scene 1

(A room in an old-age home. Joe is sitting in a wheelchair. His dead wife Mary appears).

MARY

Joe? (pause) Joe?

JOE

Is that you, Mary?

MARY

Who would you want to it to be at this hour of life and death?

JOE

I thought my dying hour would be another time.

MARY

Not really. Actually, they call it eternity. But this is a sophism. Eternity is the sum of the hours of death.

JOE

In the sum of hours, memories abound.

MARY

Yes, good and bad.

JOE

We have many truckloads of memories.

MARY

Together we traversed freeways with upsets, adventures, misadventures, illusions, events…

JOE

We’ve crossed the sea by air; we found California; we’ve witnessed great changes in the world, progress, the Vietnam War, economic expansion, the assassinations of Dr. King and the Kennedys, the American moon landings…

MARY

Good and bad times. Good and bad thoughts.

JOE

Laughter and tears. (pause) I don’t know why I’m sad.

MARY

You’re alone too much. Rosemary [your private nurse], for all her professionalism, can’t cheer you up by herself. Now you’re so close to the end of your journey, you can already see the runway…

JOE

The runway?

MARY

…where you’ll land. Today the trips are made by plane. Can’t you see that we live and die much faster?

JOE

That’s why I don’t know what I’m doing here. By the way, where do you live now?

MARY

On a huge floor of fluffy cotton.

JOE

Is John with you?

MARY

Yes.

JOE

Why doesn’t he ever come see me?

MARY

It’s still not easy for him. You hurt him deeply. Give him time.

JOE

He just likes you. And you just like him. The rest of us, including me, could be run out of the room with a single dirty look from you.

MARY

Because others would look at me only to see if I’d already died. John didn’t. He’d come in like an angel to whom they withdrew their wings so as not to make noise. Do you remember the smile from his eyes?

JOE

Back then I still didn’t see how beautiful he was.

MARY

And how good.

JOE

And good. (pause) Have you ever thought about how our children poured out into this California. And yet, we’ve always tried not to lose sight of them.

MARY

I don’t know the strength of their destiny. We always thought we were doing what was best for them. But…

JOE

Only our Lucy made the journey without major waves.

MARY

Her timidity inhibited her from violating her principles. Sometimes her shrug could irritate me. When she dated Alfredo. Remember?

JOE

Yes. She did everything but back him up against the wall and make him swear he didn’t want her just as a passport in order to stay legal.

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Bruma Publications thanks Katharine F. Baker for allowing Filamentos to publish this excerpt from the excellent play that Álamo Oliveira wrote based on his Novel I No Longer Like Chocolates.