Mo Yan - Frog

LITTLE LION:I knew you’d ask that. ( points to Gugu ) This is our Northeast Gaomi Township’s doctor of obstetrics, who has delivered thousands of babies and has cured many women of infertility. Who knows, maybe you yourself were one of her babies. She will testify for me, since she was with me throughout my pregnancy to the birth of my baby.

GAO MENGJIU:I have long been familiar with Gugu’s reputation. You are a local sage, someone who enjoys universal respect and whose words carry great weight.

GUGU:I delivered that child.

GAO MENGJIU:( asks Chen Mei ) Did she deliver your baby?

CHEN MEI:They blindfolded me in the delivery room, Your Honour.

GAO MENGJIU:This case is difficult to adjudicate. We will need DNA results.

The director goes up to whisper something to Gao, who has words with him under his breath.

GAO MENGJIU:( sighs, then sings ) Strange case, strange case, a very strange case — putting old Gao in a difficult place — to whom does the child belong — an ingenious plan has come to me. ( steps down ) Hear me, everyone, since your case has fallen into my hands, I must turn make-believe into real life and make my judgement! Yamen clerks!

CLERKS:Yes, sir!

GAO MENGJIU:If anyone disputes my judgement, use a shoe on their face.

CLERKS:Yes!

GAO MENGJIU:Chen Mei, Little Lion, each of you tells a convincing story, and I cannot choose one over the other. Therefore, I must ask Little Lion to give the child to me for now.

LITTLE LION:I won’t…

GAO MENGJIU:Yamen clerks!

CLERKS:( in unison ) Woo-wei…

The director whispers to Tadpole, who nudges Little Lion and indicates she should hand the baby to Gao Mengjiu.

GAO MENGJIU:( softly as he looks down at the baby ) A fine baby for sure. No wonder the two families are fighting over him. Hear me, Chen Mei, Little Lion, I cannot decide to whom the child belongs, so I must ask you to try to take him from me. Whoever wrests the child from my hands gets him. A messy case deserves a messy resolution. ( holds the child over his head ) Now!

Both Chen Mei and Little Lion rush up and grab hold of the baby, who begins to cry. Chen Mei wrests him away and holds him to her breast.

GAO MENGJIU:Yamen clerks, take the child away from Chen Mei and arrest her.

The clerks take the baby from Chen Mei and hand him to Gao.

GAO MENGJIU:Audacious Chen Mei, you falsely claimed that the baby was yours, yet you did not hesitate to wrest him out of my hands, something a real mother would not do. When Little Lion heard the baby cry, her motherly instincts would not let her do anything to harm her child, and she let go. Magistrate Bao settled a similar case centuries ago. The one who let go was the true mother. With this precedent, I award the child to Little Lion. For trying to take another’s child and lying in court, I ought to sentence Chen Mei to twenty lashes with a shoe sole. But in view of your disability, I mercifully withhold punishment. Leave this court!

Gao Mengjiu hands the baby to Little Lion.

Chen Mei shouts and struggles, but is stopped by the clerks.

CHEN BI:Gao Mengjiu, you are a muddled judge.

LI SHOU:( nudges Chen ) Let it be, old friend. I have already talked with Tadpole and Yuan Sai, who have agreed to give Chen Mei a hundred thousand yuan.

Curtain

Gugu’s yard, same scene as Acts II and IV.

Hao Dashou and Qin He are still making clay dolls.

Tadpole, manuscript in hand, stands to the side.

TADPOLE: (intones loudly) If someone were to ask me to name Northeast Gaomi Township’s predominant colour, without hesitation I would respond: Green!

HAO DASHOU:( grumbles ) What about red? Red sorghum, radishes, the red sun, red jackets, red peppers, apples…

QIN HE:Yellow earth, droppings, teeth, yellow weasels, everything yellow but gold.

TADPOLE:If someone were to ask me to name Northeast Gaomi Township’s predominant sound, I would proudly respond: the croak of frogs.

HAO DASHOU:What’s there to be proud about?

QIN HE:The cry of a baby is worth being proud about.

TADPOLE:The croak of a frog, like the heavy lowing of a young cow, like the sad bleating of a young goat, like the crisp sound of a hen when she lays an egg, like the loud and mournful sound of a newborn infant…

HAO DASHOU:How about a barking dog, a mewing cat, a braying donkey?

TADPOLE:( angrily ) Are you two messing with me?

QIN HE:In my view, your play is messing with you.

GUGU:( coldly ) Did I really say the things you just read?

TADPOLE:The Gugu in the play said them.

GUGU:Is the Gugu in the play me? Or isn’t it?

TADPOLE:It is and it isn’t.

GUGU:What does that mean?

TADPOLE:It’s a common principle in art. Like the dolls they make, modelled after real life but enhanced by their imagination and creativity.

GUGU:Are you really planning to stage your play? Aren’t you afraid of the trouble it could cause, since you’ve used people’s real names?

TADPOLE:This is just a draft, Gugu. In the final version I’ll use all foreigners’ names. Gugu will become Aunt Maria, Hao Dashou will be Henry, Qin He will be Allende, Chen Mei will be Tonia, Chen Bi will be Figaro… even Northeast Gaomi Township will become the town of Macondo.

HAO DASHOU:Henry? Interesting name.

QIN HE:I think I should be Rodin or Michelangelo, since their work resembles mine.

GUGU:Tadpole, play-acting is play-acting, reality is reality. I think that you — no, I have to include myself — we all treated Chen Mei badly. My insomnia has returned in recent days. All those crippled frogs that damned little devil brought out come to disturb me at night. Not only can I feel their chilled, slimy skin, but I can even smell their cold stench…

HAO DASHOU:Those are illusions brought on by your nervous condition, nothing but illusions.

TADPOLE:I understand how you feel, Gugu, and the way we dealt with this has weighed heavily on me. But I don’t know how else to deal with it. No matter how you look at it, Chen Mei was insane, a madwoman with a hideous, disfigured face, and giving the baby to her would have violated our responsibility to the child. Not only that, I was the child’s biological father, albeit a reluctant one. If his mother had gone off the tracks emotionally and could not even care for herself, then the father would have had to assume child-raising duties. Even the People’s Supreme Court would have made that determination. Am I right or not?

GUGU:Maybe she would have been fine if we’d given her the baby. Miracles can happen when you put a woman and child together.

TADPOLE:We couldn’t take the chance, not with the child’s wellbeing in the balance. People with mental problems are capable of anything.

GUGU:People with mental problems can still love children.