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The wife, experiencing the cravings associated with pregnancy, notices some rapunzel growing in the nearby garden and longs for it. She refuses to eat anything else and begins to waste away. Her husband fears for her life and one night he breaks into the garden to get some for her. When he returns, she makes a salad out of it and eats it, but she longs for more so her husband returns to the garden to retrieve more. As he scales the wall to return home, the sorceress catches him and accuses him of theft. He begs for mercy and she agrees to be lenient, allowing him to take all the rapunzel he wants on condition that the baby be given to her when it's born. Desperate, he agrees.
Key moment:
The moment of confrontation between the husband and the witch
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Set in the middle of the night, at the garden of the witch’s landed bungalow, in 1800s Singapore. HUSBAND is having difficulty climbing over the 1.5m tall walls because he’s short.
Enter HUSBAND and WITCH.
WITCH: EXCUSE ME! Are you trying to steal my vegetables? Get off!
HUSBAND: Please, help me… I’m so sorry to bother you but alas, I am in dire need of these vegetables. Please… My wife is pregnant and she refuses to eat anything else...
WITCH: How does that concern me? I’m not getting anything in return, am I? Do you think my cabbages are easy to grow? HUH!
HUSBAND: O-of course not, your benevolence. All I need is a head of your very nice cabbage…
WITCH: Indeed, my cabbages are very nice. Hm. How about a head for a head? Since you’ve stolen my cabbage, I’ll take your life. OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!
HUSBAND: Please don’t! I’m begging your magnanimous self, please spare this poor man...
WITCH: Alright… then what about your baby? Once your wife gives birth, you must hand it over to me immediately.
HUSBAND: Wait, but… No! That’s so unfair! What a preposterous proposition!!!!
WITCH: It is what it is. Weren’t you the one who stepped into my garden? I don’t think you have any rights to be negotiating with me, you THIEF!
HUSBAND: Please… I’m so sorry… I’ll do anything! I’ve always dreamed of starting a family of my own, and now it's finally happening.
HUSBAND begins to cry, tears dropping down his cheeks. 😢
WITCH: What’s done has been done. You should have thought carefully about your decision to enter my garden. Now choose - your life, or your baby.
HUSBAND: I…
HUSBAND: (sighs dejectedly) I’ll give you my baby. My wife is due in 3 months.
WITCH: Good. That wasn’t such a difficult choice, now was it? At your core, all you humans are selfish.
HUSBAND: ...Are you not human?
WITCH: (looks into audience’s eyes)
WITCH: Anyways! I’ll come find you then. Don't even think about running away, I will find you. And your precious baby
HUSBAND: Yes, of course…
HUSBAND falls off the wall as he attempts to climb over the wall. Exit HUSBAND and WITCH.
THE END