Сценарий по сказке О.Уайльда "День Рождения Инфанты"
проект по английскому языку (5 класс) по теме

based on the fairy tale by Sir Oscar Wilde

Characters:

The Infanta of Spain

Her servants

Her children-guests

Don Pedro of Aragon, the Infanta’s uncle

The Dwarf

the Infanta’s garden:

Tulips

Lizards

Butterflies

Lemons

Pomegranates

Birds

Roses

at the performance:

children-toreadors

a snake juggler

a gypsy troop

(garden in the palace of the Spanish King. In the left corner several chairs, in the right corner a big mirror, closed with dark cloth. The garden is full of flowers and animals. They are all excited)

Roses: Today is the Birthday of the Infanta! We are so delighted! She’ll need the most ravishing flowers! The little Infanta is just twelve years old. She is a real Princess and the Infanta of Spain, but she has only one birthday every year, just like the children of quite poor people. It’s so unfair! She deserves more feasts, she is so handsome!

Butterflies: It is naturally a matter of great importance that she should have a really fine day for the occasion.

Roses: And it is really a fine day. Our scent is sweet and delicious like never before! No other smell can compete with us!

Tulips: Oh, she’s so beautiful, this girl! Her golden hair is like moonlight, her eyes – like sapphires, her lips - like corals. What a wonderful dress in her favourite pink and grey colours she has! And those pink slippers with red roses peep out so nicely beneath her dress. She’s indeed the most nice-looking girl in the all world. How happy she is! She is rich, handsome and young – things that are really worth having!  

Lizards: You don’t know that girl! We feel so sorry for her. She is only allowed to play with the children of her rank.

Butterflies: That is why she only plays alone! And those terrible people around her. They are horrible! Her father, the King, doesn’t even speak to her daughter, only gives her everything she wants!

Lemons: You know, looking at her he thinks only of the young Queen, her mother. He still can’t recover after her death almost twelve years ago. He still once a month comes to her funeral in an old chapel, hoping, that she’ll awake of her long sleep.  

Pomegranates: No doubt that he would have given up his throne, if he hadn’t been afraid to leave the little Infanta at the mercy of his brother, Don Pedro of Aragon, whose cruelty even in Spain is notorious. I’ve heard the palace rats say that he caused the Queen’s death.

Birds: They say, he presented her with a pair of poisoned gloves. Oh, poor Queen! She was so beautiful and kind that we liked to fly to her window and sing for her. But her daughter is twice as beautiful and has the same pretty manners. We are sure, twice as good! Such a beauty can’t have a cold heart!

Roses: Look, she is coming here! She will surely like our refined scent!

(enter Infanta with her servants. She is irritated, but dances)

Infanta: My father might have stayed with me on my birthday! What do the stupid state affairs matter! Oh he has gone to that gloomy chapel, where the candles are always burning and where it is so cold and stuffy. What for does he do this in such a bright day, when the sun is shining!

Servants: Your uncle is much more sensible, isn’t he? He has paid you such nice compliments! He has always been very attentive and kind to you!

Infanta: I like my uncle. And he’s promised to make the best birthday I can only imagine! He allows me to invite any of my young friends, whom I want to amuse me. Come, my friends!

(enter the children)

We are going to watch a performance now! You’ve probably never seen anything like this! Brave toreadors will kill hobbyhorses with wooden swords, an African juggler will make the most incredible snakes dance for us, and a troop of gypsies will sing and dance. How lucky you are! You will be impressed greatly. It’s a pity I know it all. I can hardly be amused. However, my uncle promised to make a surprise for me! I’m so intrigued!

(sit on the chairs – the performance begins. Don Pedro sits with them)

(enter the toreadors )

Children (supporting with cheering and applauding): How wonderful! How nice! It’s wonderful!

Infanta (sadly): As usual. Nothing new.  

(enter the juggler and the snakes)

Children: Real snakes! We are afraid! They are going to bite us! We want to see focuses!

(the juggler makes a focus, picks a bouquet out of his basket and gives it to the Infanta )

Infanta (turning to her uncle): Is it your surprise? I’m not amused!

Don Pedro: Have patience, dear. The best will be later.

(enter the gypsy troop)

Don Pedro: Do you like them, darling? They are said to be the best performers in all the countries!

Infanta (irritated): Are they your surprise? I’m not amused!  

Don Pedro: Wait a little, dearest.

(enter the Dwarf. He starts dancing and looks at the Infanta, charmed by her beauty. Everyone laughs)

Don Pedro: What would you say about my present now?

Infanta (laughing): That’s the ugliest creature I could ever imagine! And the most amusing one! Where did you take him? Why hasn’t he danced for me before?

 Don Pedro: He was found only yesterday by two nobles. They brought him to the palace as a present for you. His father is very poor and he was very glad to get rid of such a useless and ugly child. Look at him! He laughs with us. Perhaps the most amusing thing about him is that he doesn’t know about his ugliness!

Infanta (laughing very loudly and almost jumping): That’s surely the best surprise one can dream of! He’s so funny. These crooked legs and misshapen head! He’s absolutely fantastic!

Don Pedro: I have to remind you that a Princess of a royal blood shouldn’t make so merry before those, who are much lower in rank!

 Infanta: Don’t be so boring! He’s incredible!

(the Infanta takes a white rose out of her hair and throws it to the Dwarf. He lifts it and kisses, then goes away from the stage)

I want this beast to dance again for me after an hour of siesta. And now I have to go back and to change my dress to be the most brilliant Princess in the world!

(Infanta and all her guests go away. The dwarf appears in the garden with the white rose. He’s happy, he dances, sings some cheerful melody and smiles)

Roses: He is really far to ugly to be allowed to play in any place where we are.

Tulips: He should drink poppy-juice, and go to sleep for a thousand years!

Pomegranates: He is a perfect horror! Why, is head is completely out of proportion with his legs. If he comes near us, we’ll stupefy him. Few people know how poisonous our smell is!

The Dwarf: What a wonderful day! What a marvelous garden! These flowers are the most amazing things in all the world! (tries to touch them)

The Birds (to the flowers): Stop talking rubbish about him! We’ve seen him in the forest. He’s always been kind to us. He shared his poor breakfast with us. We don’t mind him being ugly!

The Lizards: Everyone can not be as beautiful as a lizard! That would be too much to expect. And he is really not so ugly, after all, if one shuts one’s eyes and does not look at him.

The Dwarf: What nice lizards and birds! (hugs them) How I adore them! I like to watch them while lying in the soft green grass. I like to run after lizards and to listen to birds’ songs. My charming Infanta is sure to like all the animals I love. We will go to the forest and play with them. I’ll give her my own small bed ad my breakfast.

The Roses (pointing at the animals, which play with the Dwarf): It only shows what a vulgarizing effect this rushing and flying about has. Well-bred people always stay exactly in the same place, as we do.

The Tulips: No one ever saw us jumping up and down, or galloping madly through the grass after dragon-flies. When we do want a change, we send for a garden, and he carries us to another bed. This is dignified, as it should be.

The Pomegranates: The birds and lizards, indeed, have not even a permanent address. They are like the gypsies and should be treated exactly in the same way!

The Dwarf: I know, she loves me as much, as I love her. And she is sure to understand my passion for nature! She is beautiful and sensitive. She will hear that music of winds and grass, we will listen to it together and I will never be as lonely as I used to be.

I give her all my love
That's all I do
And if she sees my love
She'd love her too
I love her

She gives me everything
And tenderly
The rose my lover brings
She brings to me
And I love her

A love like ours
Could never die
As long as I
Have her near me

Bright are the stars that shine
Dark is the sky
I know this love of mine
Will never die
And I love her

Bright are the stars that shine
Dark is the sky
I know this love of mine
Will never die
And I love her*

But where is my lady? Why isn’t she coming? I will find her. What is this? Maybe it’s a way to her apartment?

(comes to the cloth and pulls it off. He sees his own reflection in the mirror and can’t understand who it is. He looks around, but sees nobody. The Dwarf looks in the mirror again and sees that the reflection copies all his movements)

What is this? Is it an Echo? I don’t understand!

( kisses the white rose and sees the reflection doing the same. He understands that he sees his own reflection. He gives a cry of pain)

So that’s me! That’s how I look! I’m misshapen and hunchbacked; I’m ugly to look at! I’m a monster, and that was I, at whom all the children laughed! And the little Princess, she never understood me, she never felt my loneliness, she was just mocking at my ugliness, she was just making merry over me! Why didn’t they leave me in the forest, where there was no mirror to tell me, how ugly I was? Why didn’t my father kill me rather than sell me to this shame?

(He goes on crying, and then falls down and lies like a wounded thing. At that moment enters the Infanta with her servants, guests and Don Pedro)

Infanta: His dancing was funny, but his acting is funnier skill. Indeed, he is almost as funny as puppets, only, of course, not quite natural.  

(she sees the Dwarf and comes up to him)

That’s terrific, but now you must dance for me!

Children: Yes, you must get up and dance, for you as clever as the apes, and much more ridiculous!

Infanta (turning to Don Pedro): My funny little Dwarf is sulking. You must wake him up and tell him to dance for me!

Don Pedro (coming up to the Dwarf): You must dance. The Infanta of Spain and Indies wishes to be amused. (kneeling near him and putting his hand in the dwarf’s heart, then raising). Mi bella Princesa, your funny little Dwarf will never dance again. It is a pity, for he is so ugly that he might have made the king smile.    

Infanta: But why will he not dance again?

Don Pedro: Because his heart is broken.

Infanta (haughtily): For the future let those who come to play with me have no hearts.

(exit Infanta, her servants, her guests. Don Pedro closes the Dwarf’s body with the cloth from the mirror, looks in the mirror, sighs and goes away)