LA MUJER QUE MANDA EN CASA

MujQMC

REPARTO

Todos serán hebreos, menos Jezabel.

I

Jezabel, the wife of Acab, King of the Israelites, tells her husband that if he loves her he will worship Baal, rather than the God of the Israelites, and that he will order his people to do the same.  After her persuasive words and tears, he agrees to do as she asks.  In private, Jezabel tells Criselia that the reason she wants Baal to be the god of the country is that he permits any kind of sin, so that she can do as she pleases and have lovers if she wishes.

Jezabel calls for Nabot, Raquel's husband, to come to her.  When he arrives she pretends to be asleep.  He admires her beauty, but laments her cruelty.  She professes to love him and tells him that he should accept Baal and her love, but he refuses.  He does kiss her hand in respect and puts his hat back on at her request.  She then pretends to wake up and says she was only feigning sleep.  He still holds to his God and refuses her love, whereupon she swears revenge.  He vows to let them kill him before he'd renounce the God of Israel.  All this is witnessed by Raquel, who sees them but is not close enough to hear what they say.  She misinterprets what she sees and becomes jealous of Jezabel.

The King comes and announces that they have killed more than three hundred Israelite prophets and leaders and that Elías is fleeing.  At this moment Elías enter, however, and predicts that there will be a terrible draught and famine throughout the land as a punishment to Acab and his people for deserting their God.  Acab tries to stab Elías, but he gets away.  The King, however, orders his soldiers to follow Elías.

Jehú, Abdías and Josepho discuss the fact that they must obey the King, but they don't like it.  Jehú (like Elías, Raquel and Nabot earlier in the play) affirms that there is a great deal of danger in having a woman running the kingdom.

II

Three years have elapsed and there is a great drought.  A group of shepherds has come down from the hills to look for food in the valley.  They finally decide to eat one of their animals and they choose Coriolín's burro to be the first, which upsets Coriolín, of course.

Abdías, the King's majordomo, has been hiding two hundred prophets in two caves for these three years, and he is hoping to find some innocent person who will aid him in taking food to them when he encounters Coriolín, still mourning his burro.  Abdías promises him another if he'll help.

Meanwhile, two crows snatch bread and a roasted bird from Acab's plate. He becomes upset, thinking this is an evil omen, and sends his soldiers after the crows, which carry the food from the King's table to Elías.  The latter takes this as a sign that the time has come for him to take action.

Acab wants to buy or trade for Nabot's vineyard, which adjoins the palace.  Nabot refuses to deal with the King, because according to Hebrew law he, as the oldest son, cannot sell his patrimony.  The King is angry at his refusal and tells him he may regret his decision.

Back in the country Lisarina and Coriolín are talking.  She is jealous of his affection for Birena, and his scorn for Lisarina serves to make her angry, as well.  When two soldiers who are following the crows come hunting Elías, she tells them that Coriolín knows where he is and that he has a new burro that was given to him as a bribe to keep quiet.  The soldiers seize Coriolín and take him away.

Jehú tells Jezabel that Abdías has found Elías, who had brought back to life the Prince of Sarepta and had lived there for more than six months, subsisting on a never-ending supply of oil and flour, after which he lived in the mountains of Carmelo, where the crows brought him food.  Then Jehú tells of how Elías challenged three hundred or more of Baal's prophets to a life or death contest to see which could set fire, through his god, to an ox on an altar over a woodpile.  Baal's prophets failed, but Elías dug a trench, filled it with water, called on his God, and started a great fire, followed by a rain.  The people acclaimed him for these marvelous feats.  After hearing all this, Jezabel becomes angry and wants revenge and is determined to find Elías and make him pay for insulting Baal.

III

Elías, fleeing from Jezabel, is tired and discouraged.  He falls asleep, but an angel appears to tell him to awaken and eat the bread and water that is near his head.  He eats a part of it, then goes back to sleep, but the angel wakes him again and tells him to finish.  He does so, and finds himself with new strength.

Acab is complaining to Jezabel that the Israelites no longer respect him and he wants to die.  He tells her how Nabot refused him the vineyard, to which she replies that she will take care of that situation.  Taking Acab's seal, she summons Nabot and tells him that he must make a choice.  Opening a curtain, she reveals a table which three silver fuentes with a message on each.  The first one holds a crown, his reward if he will kill Raquel; the second, the choice of iron to punish him or a lady's headdress to promise him love; the third, rocks lying in a pool of blood, to show his fate if he refuses her.  Saying that life is short, after all, that he must serve his God, Nabot turns down her offer.

Jezabel immediately sends out the notice that Nabot has been blasphemous.  She finds two witnesses against him, and he is tried and stoned to death.  Upon learning of Nabot's death, Raquel curses Acab and Jezabel and their children, but Abdías tells her that Elías has prophesied her curse:  that Acab will die in battle, his sons will all be killed and Jezabel will be killed and eaten by dogs.

After some time has passed, some soldiers appear, chasing a prophet, but Jehú stops them, telling them that Acab has been killed in battle by an arrow and that his son, Ococías, reigned for a short time but has also been killed, and now his second son, Jorán, is king.  The prophecies of Elías are being fulfilled.  Jehú also tells how God anointed him and told him that he is to be the King of Israel.  Upon hearing this the soldiers all swear loyalty to Jehú.

Jorán has been wounded, but Criselia brings Jezabel the news that he is still alive and appears to be improving.  She asks the Queen to release Raquel from prison as a reward for this good news.  Jezabel refuses, but she does decide that after three years of mourning Acab's death she will now shed her widow's garb and show her beauty.  Left alone, she hears a woman's voice singing the story of Nabot and Raquel, ending by predicting that Jezabel will be torn apart by dogs.  This frightens her.

Abdías comes and tells Jezabel to flee because Jorán is dead and Jehú is coming as the new King.  She decides to make herself beautiful and offer to Jehú herself and her crown in an effort to save herself.

Raquel crowns Jehú.  Then Jezabel appears on her balcony to wish Jehú well and offer herself to him.  When he sees her, Jehú orders his soldiers to the balcony, and they throw her down, where she is torn apart and eaten by a pack of dogs, as in the prophecy.

Jehú tells Raquel that all of Acab's seventy sons will die so that her revenge will be complete and the prophecies fulfilled.  Raquel says that Nabot's death is fully avenged.  Jehú's last statement is that now Israel is free of Jezabel and that this story should serve as a lesson that rulers should not let their wives run their affairs.