A Sunny Morning (One-Act Play) Summary

 A Sunny Morning (One-Act Play)

By Serafin Álvarez Quintero

and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero

About the Authors

Serafin Álvarez Quintero (1871-1938) and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero (1873-1944) were Spanish dramatists. They grew up in Utrera, a small town near Seville in the region of Spain called Andalusia. They began writing for the theatre at a young age. They were popularly known as the Golden Boys of the Madrid theatre. They collaborated in almost 200 dramas depicting the life, manners, and speech of Andalusia.

Their first stage piece, Gilito, was written in 1889. Among the brothers' best-known works are the comedies The Flowers (1901), A Sunny Morning (1905), and The Merry Heart (1906), as well as the uncharacteristically serious Malvaloca (1912). Several of their plays were translated into English by Helen and Harley Granville- Barker (1927–32). Their complete collection of plays was published in seven volumes as Obras Completas in the early 1950s.

A Sunny Morning is a light comedy that narrates the reunion of two lovers now in their 70s meeting at a park who in their youth were passionate lovers but torn apart by the cruelty of fate. The setting of this play is a sunny morning in Madrid, Spain on a bench in the park.

A Sunny Morning (Summary)

A Sunny Morning is a one act play written by two prominent Spanish writers Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero. It A Sunny Morning is a light comedy that narrates the reunion of two lovers now in their 70s meeting at a park who in their youth were passionate lovers but torn apart by the cruelty of fate. The setting of this play is a sunny morning in Madrid, Spain on a bench in the park.

It is written on the theme of love affairs between two ex-lovers who are now in their 70s. The story of the play is like this. In a sunny autumn morning, Dona Laura, a beautiful, white-haired old lady of about seventy is sitting at the corner of a park in Madrid and feeding the breadcrumbs to the birds. When she is feeding the pigeons with the bread crumbs, Don Gonzalo comes there with his servant Juanito. He is also of seventy. He sits at the end of bench with the old lady. Laura becomes angry. She describes him as a bad-tempered or ill-natured man. According to her he should have asked her permission before sitting on the bench.

Don Gonzalo begins reading his book. Because of the nature of Don, Laura starts pinching him. They both continue to use pinching words to each other. After some time, Don takes out his snuffbox and they both take the snuff. They become friends after sharing snuff together. They find something in common that they sneeze alternately three times each. Then, they talk about their hometown. They discuss about different cities, places, travel, people and the activities. Don tells Laura that he knows a girl named Laura Llorente who lived in the villa, and was the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. To his surprise, Dona Laura tells him that she lived in a villa at Maricela which is near Valencia. After the discussion on different matters, they realize that once they were in love but both of them want to hide their identities. To hide it, Laura tells him that the woman was her best friend. Similarly, Don tells her that the man was his cousin who was her lover.

Don describes appreciates her beauty. He explains the story of the man as he used to go on horseback passing her every morning. He used to throw a bouquet of flowers to her balcony which she used to get. In the afternoon, the lover used to return through the same way, and catch the bouquet of flowers which she provided him. They were in deep love but her parents wanted her to marry a merchant whom she disliked. Then, there was a debate between the lover and the merchant at sunrise on the beach. The merchant was badly wounded. The lover escaped to Seville and then to Madrid. He tried to communicate with Laura through letters, but all his attempts failed. After that, he joined the army. He was killed in a battle.

Laura also lies about that love affairs. She tells that her friend was unlucky and had a sad love affair. Laura tells him that her friend waited for days, months, a year and no letter came. She, without finding the lover, went to the sea shore, wrote her lover’s name on the sand and sat upon a rock. The tides rose to the rock and swept her out to sea. In reality, after three months Gonzalo suddenly ran off to Paris with a ballet dancer. On the other hand, Laura got married two years later.

In this way they do not reveal who they really are. They hide their love affairs. At the end of the play they they leave the park promising to meet the next day if it is sunny.

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