The Praying Mantis (La mantis religiosa

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=25% BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="0d1ad653.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="home page"><IMG SRC="0d2b51f0.jpg" border=0 width="181" height="31" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A><A HREF="plays.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Complete List of Plays"><IMG SRC="0d3b51f0.jpg" border=0 width="181" height="31" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A><A HREF="news.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="General Information Latest News"><IMG SRC="0d4b51f0.jpg" border=0 width="181" height="31" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A></FONT><A HREF="de_la_perra.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Marco Antonio de la Parra"><IMG SRC="0d7b51f0.jpg" border=0 width="181" height="31" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A><A HREF="ramos_perea.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Roberto RamosPerea"><IMG SRC="0d8b51f0.jpg" border=0 width="181" height="31" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A><A HREF="sieveking.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Alejandro Sieveking"><IMG SRC="0e2b51f0.jpg" border=0 width="181" height="31" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A><A HREF="santana.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Rodolfo Santana"><IMG SRC="0dab51f0.jpg" border=0 width="181" height="31" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A><A HREF="rovner.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Eduardo Rovner"><IMG SRC="0d9b51f0.jpg" border=0 width="181" height="31" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A><A HREF="schmidt_huber.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Guillermo Schmidhuber"><IMG SRC="0e1b51f0.jpg" border=0 width="181" height="31" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A><A HREF="mn.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Maritza Núñez"><IMG SRC="123b51f0.jpg" border=0 width="181" height="31" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="kardun.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mauricio Kartun"><IMG SRC="0d5b51f0.jpg" border=0 width="181" height="31" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A></FONT><A HREF="cpt.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Message from the Host of Latin America"><IMG SRC="0deb51f0.jpg" border=0 width="181" height="31" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="email.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Place an order / Contact Us"><IMG SRC="0dfb51f0.jpg" border=0 width="181" height="31" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A></FONT></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" width="100%" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="0cf5c5c3.gif"> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="109aad20.jpg" border=0 width="170" height="210" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> The Praying Mantis (La mantis religiosa</div> <bR> <div> Over 300 professional and university performances!!!!</div> <bR> <div> AUTHOR: <A HREF="sieveking.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Alejandro Sieveking">Alejandro Sieveking</A></div> <div> COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Chile</div> <bR> <div> translated by Prof. Charles Philip Thomas</div> <bR> <div> CAST: 3 women 2 men</div> <bR> <div> SETTING: The parlor of a large Victorian house in Chile.</div> <bR> <div> SYNOPSIS: </div> <bR> <div> Adela, Juan's fiance and youngest sister in the house, has invited him home to meet the family. For Adela the lusty but naive Juan is her passport to freedom from her family's isolation, to the world beyond. Desperate for even a brief happiness to hold onto for the rest of her life, Adela asks Juan to rob his bank so they can escape the town and travel--she envisions one exotic travel poster after the other. </div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mantisbook.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Book: The Praying Mantis and Other Plays"><IMG SRC="11c699f0.jpg" border=0 width="105" height="159" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="15" VSPACE="0"></A><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" >For others, Juan also seems to be the chance for change. Adela's two older sisters, Lina and Llalla, are now subjects of scandal because each has supposedly murdered her suitor in self defense. They are in mourning, but they are not above trying to seduce Juan for themselves. Prim and salacious, Llalla and Lina first suspect Juan is also a detective; later they nervously but seductively tumble out the details of their little murders--crimes their relatives in the courts managed to hush up. When they're not needling each other about what each one's dead suitor called the other sister (``necrophagic'' is one of the more telling epithets), Llalla and Lina fuss and fawn over Juan, ask him to admire their pointless wedding gowns, and whenever Adela leaves the room, separately seek to seduce him. </FONT></div> <bR> <div> The third sister is heard only through a massive door. She is discarded except at dinnertime, when a live chicken is flung through the door. From the heights of their virginal purity, the seen sisters revile Teresa, calling her a deformed monster, an insect, a praying mantis, maneater, and (supposedly) the real killer of their lovers. Aparicio, the father, sees Teresa as a ``saint'' and ``angel'' whose holy birth killed his unworthy wife. Juan, caught up in the midst of all these jarring explanations, hears moans and screams from behind Teresa's elaborately carved door. The contradictions naturally disturb and intrigue him; he's drawn to the one sister who hasn't tried to entrap him. His Pandora-like temptation ends the play on the note of horror we've been expecting, but not in the way we have anticipated. </div> <bR> <bR> <div> Other works by <A HREF="sieveking.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Alejandro Sieveking">Alejandro Sieveking</A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="doves.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Innocent Doves (Ingenuas Palomas) ">Innocent Doves (Ingenuas Palomas)</A></div> <div> <A HREF="daylight.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Daylight Spirits (Animas de día claro) ">Daylight Spirits (Animas de día claro)</A></div> <div> The Ragged Rascals Ran (Tres tristes tigres)</div> <div> Everything Will Go-Went-and is Going to Hell (Todo se irá-se fue-se va al diablo)</div> <div> Paradise Half-Lost (El paraíso semi-perdido)</div> <div> Almost Happiness  (Parecido a la felicidad)</div> <div> My Brother, Christian (Mi hermano, Cristián)</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>