An AMBASSADOR, a WRESTLER, a CALLIGRAPHIST, a JESTER, GHOSTS,
MUTES, DANCING WOMEN, BEGGARS, SOLDIERS, POLICE, ATTENDANTS
and CASUAL LOITERERS






THE STORY OF HASSAN OF BAGDAD


ACT I

SCENE I

A room "behind the shop" in Old Bagdad. In the background a large
caldron steaming, for the shop is a sweet-stuff shop and the sugar
is boiling. The room has little furniture beyond the carpet,
old but unexpectedly choice, and some Persian hangings (geometrical
designs, with crude animals and some verses from the Koran
hand-printed on linen). A ramshackle wooden partition in one
corner shuts off from a living room what appears to be the shop.

Squatting on the carpet--facing each other:

HASSAN, the Confectioner, 45, rotund, moustache, turban,