When Lilacs Last - One Act Version
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When Lilacs Last
THIS PLAY
CONTAINS MATURE LANGUAGE AND SUBJECT MATTER.
TO produce this piece please contact:
Tony Devaney Morinelli
tmorinelli@shipleyschool.org
610 525 4300 ex 4101
Two young men confront their sexuality. Brendan, school athlete, three sport champion and son of an abusive alcoholic father
speaks to us directly and introduces us to his world. Jackie, a highly verbal and intelligent young man losses himself to the poetry
of Walt Whitman. Jackie's father, a blue collar bridge worker locks out the world. To protect his family from the "Commies, the
Coloreds, the Queers and the Jews," he keeps a gun. He finds a copy of "Leaves of Grass" in his son's room & suspects his son's
sexual inclination. He will kill Jackie rather than see him queer.
Brendan's home: all to please an alcoholic and abusive father. Brendan must pass a poetry test to play in a game. Brendan seeks
the help of Jackie and discovers something that draws him to Jackie's company.
Brendan's team mates harass him for hanging around with faggots.
They attack Jackie with intense verbal violence.
Jackie returns home in torment. He finds his father's gun. He loads it.
Suddenly, Brendan calls to him from outside. Jackie puts down the gun. Brendan appeals to Jackie for forgiveness. As he
explains his regret he reveals that he has been looking for someone like himself. Jackie is taken aback and notes that he is not
gay. But Brendan has already revealed himself and collapses in anguish at Jackie's feet begging not to be disclosed.
Jackie raises Brendan from the floor. At that moment Jackie's father enters. He sees the two boys and picks up the gun. In the
heat of the moment he will kill his own son. Brendan grabs the gun and runs from the house.
Brendan alone. We see and hear the same tormentors that repeat , "We don't want no faggots, no homos, no queers, 'round
here." Brendan fires the gun.
WHEN LILACS LAST
A Play in a Montage
Cast:
JACK O'Donnell
MARIE O'Donnell
JACKIE O'Donnell, their son
JIMMY Conlin
BRENDAN Conlin, his son
CHORUS of Men and Women. The Chorus parts in this script are set up for four men and four women but the lines may also be
distributed according to need.
In the optimum casting, in addition to the adult chorus, there would be a chorus of teenagers.
__________________________________________________
Note on the text.
The text is written in dialect. What may look like misspellings are attempts to capture the working class Philadelphia speech. Thus,
"himself" is rendered "hisself", "you" (plural) is "yous," "contradict" is said "counterdict."
Production Notes.
The set for this piece should be kept at an absolute minimum.
Furnishings should be no more than simple wood chairs and stools painted black.
There may also be a simple black wood table.
The curtain warmer might be a black and white projection of the Walt Whitman Bridge.
The only other projection is "Philadelphia, 1955."
Costuming as well should be simple. 1950 type clothing may be suggested by t-shirts, jeans, and "house coats" available
anywhere.
Proper lighting is essential. All backgrounds should be kept at pale silver blues. Characters speaking lit accordingly.
The Chorus would be best placed below the action on the stage. They should face forward towards the audience, even though the
character to whom they may be speaking is behind them. _____
Lighting Chart:
X X X ( over table and chairs)
X (DSR X (DC) X (DSL)
_____________________________________________________________________________
Apron ______________
Chorus ______________ Chorus
steps
Characters speaking lit accordingly. All monologues are delivered directly to the audience.
When Brendan calls for Jackie, Brendan stands facing out DSL. Jackie stands facing out DC.
The Chorus would be best placed below the action on the stage. They should face forward towards the audience, even though the
character to whom they may be speaking is behind them.
THE PLAY
The stage.
There is no curtain.
Before the play begins, we see :
The back wall shows a projection, black and white, of the Walt Whitman bridge.
On stage we see:
Stage right - a simple wooden table with a chair on each side, facing DS. Behind the table is a small stool or table that holds the
only props needed: a six case of bottled beer and a stage revolver.
Just before the play begins the image of the bridge fades to
a projection that reads:
PHILADELPHIA 1955
The principal character ( BRENDAN) appears in silhouette.
The words then begin to fade, as they do, his silhouette emerges from the back wall.
It is BRENDAN.
BRENDAN: (first down stage on the apron, then descending to out on the floor just ahead of the chorus, before the audience.)
Where you are now
The place where you are now
leave it behind.
Leave it behind and come with me.
Come with me to where I live.
Come with me to a different time.
A different place.
This is Philadelphia.
South Philadelphia.
South Philadelphia,
1955.
(beat)
Philadelphia
(beat)
Penn's city of Brotherly love.
Brotherly love.
Philadelphia
(beat)
So, let me tell you this story.
Let me tell you.
A story you may know
It may even be your story
Your story with different names.
Your story at a different time
But still,
The same story.
(beat)
Do you know this world?
Or even just a part of it?
Did you know this world?
Did you know it?
But choose to forget it?
Was this you?
Is this what you said?
Were these your words?
But have you forgotten?
Is that what you chose to do?
Chose to forget the shame?
Chose to forget the truth?
(beat)
Have you hidden it?
Have you forgotten it?
(beat)
But, It's not forgotten.
Not forgotten.
(beat)
It will not let itself be forgotten.
Not let itself be forgotten
Because it is beyond you.
Beyond the world you create.
Beyond the world you want it to be.
There is another world.
A world you close your eyes to.
A world you will not hear
A world you will not speak of.
But,
But, still.
It is a crying voice
A crying voice.
( half beat)
An endless voice
It speaks in all times
It speaks in all worlds
It speaks of all our children.
(beat)
But wait.
(beat)
Before we tell you,.
Before we tell you this story.
There is one thing I need to ask
Just one thing,
One thing I need to ask.
I need to ask you.
Need to ask you.
Not to judge.
Please, I ask you.
Please, don’t judge.
Don't judge this world.
Yes,
We want to judge.
Yes, I know.
Judging.
Weighing.
Taking stock.
It's what we do.
It's how we measure.
How me measure ourselves against others.
To some we say “yes”
To some we say “no”.
So easy to do.
Not a moment’s thought.
Here in my space.
Here where I stand,..
You are right.
You are wrong.
You are like me.
You are different.
You, I accept.
You, I reject.
That's what we do.
But, this was our world.
This is what we knew.
This is what we thought.
This is what we said.
Our words are not always words we want to hear.
What we did was not always do the right thing to do.
But this was our world.
(beat)
Stay with me for a moment.
Let our voices speak.
Let them speak
Perhaps our voices are not unlike your own.
So, when you hear them
You may ask:
(beat)
Don’t I know them?
SCENE
(Lights up on first the CHORUS Leader as he begins his narration then -
gradually revealing the CHORUS.)
CHORUS LEADER
First time down this street?
First time on this block?
Brick homes.
Row homes.
Philly homes.
City of homes.
Bricks
Red bricks
Houses of bricks
Shoulder to shoulder
Rib to rib.
One window out front
One window out back
A view of the alley
A view of the street
Row homes
Brick homes
A white marble stoop.
CHORUS
1.White kids
2. Black kids
3. Pollacks,
4. Daygos and Jews (Daygos=Italians.)
1.Coloreds and Mics ( Mics= Irish)
2. Unloaded the ships
3. Unloaded the stocks
4.Stole from the hold
1.A fifth from the box.
2. And then the others
3. The others with skills
4. They shimmied the iron
1. And bolted the beams
2. Over the river
3. They mastered the steel
4. Over the water
1. They fashioned the bridge.
2. Under the bridge they work the docks.
3. Under the bridge the load the ships.
4. The rivets
1. The girders
2. The crossbeams
(Women step out of the mix and move down and left. Men remain behind.)
Women only
1. Our men
2. Our husbands
3. Our fathers
4. Our sons
1. Father to son
2. Brother to brother
3. father
1. husband
4. son.
1. Iron and steel
2. Steel and iron.
3. Father and son.
4. Man to man.
(Men now step down and right.)
MEN ONLY
1. This is our street.
2. This is our block.
3. These are our wives.
4. These are our kids.
1. An ' we built that bridge.
2. We work them docks.
3. We climbed them girders.
4. We weld that steel.
1. We sweat on that bridge.
2. Men died on that bridge.
3. And what yous gonna name it?
4. "Walt Whitman Bridge?"
ALL: (loudly) Walt Whitman?!!
( A Priest steps out of the crowd.)
PRIEST:
"Walt Whitman ?
"A bridge is a beautiful and graceful structure that thrusts heavenward
then descends again to security to the opposite bank."
(break)
Whitman?
(beat)
Walt Whitman?
(beat)
A poet?
Godless and selfish,
(beat)
This man's life and works are personally objectionable to us,
This, ….
This …
homo-erotic
Revolting works
revolting imagery that is not confined
but permeates...
permeates the fetid whole."
(In the next exchange, Men and Women stir into a mix and speak as one.)
CHORUS ( speaking together.)
(heavily )
Not in our city!
(they stomp feet in unison.)
Not in our homes!
(they stomp again.)
NOT IN OUR CITY!
NOT IN OUR HOMES!
SCENE
BRENDAN: This is his house.
Jackie's house.
A row home like mine
A brick home like mine
His father, like mine.
Worked on the bridge,
like mine.
(semi beat)
His mom,
Well,
His mom was there.
(semi beat)
That's not like mine.
My mom left
left when my dad came back.
Came back from the war.
Or, that's what they tell me.
(beat)
But Jackie's dad,
like my dad,
Went to work every morning
Came home every night
Every night with the paper
Under his arm the paper.
In his hand the lunch box.
The empty lunch box.
(Lights up on JACK, JACKIE's father. He enters the kitchen after his day on construction at the new bridge. In the kitchen (
suggested)/ His wife, MARIE, is preparing dinner. JACK enters with his lunch box, newspaper. )
JACK: Yo, Marie.
Marie, Ahm home.
(beat)
God damn, lock.
Gotta fix 'at lock.
(beat)
Be sure you keep 'at door locked, Marie.
Keep it locked.
Never know who's tryin' ta get in here.
All kinds out 'ere on na street. ( out there on there street.)
Ya never know.
( he hands her his lunch box. He takes off his jacket. JACK takes off his shoes and rubs his feet.)
MARIE: How was yer lunch, Jack?
OK?
JACK: What was that you give me?
MARIE: Oh, somthin' new.
JACK: Somethin' new?
MARIE: Yeh,
I made ya salami.
A salami sammich.
JACK: What?
MARIE: Salami,.
(beat)
JACK: What?
MARIE: Salami, Jack.
(beat)
Eye-talian salami.
I got it down at the corner.
Down at Fiorelli’s.
you know.
The eye-talian.
the eye-talian on the corner.
JACK: that guinea wop?
Prob'ly in the mob.
MARIE: Well,
he says to me.
(beat)
Mrs. O Donnel.
You always take the same thing.
You come in every week an' you say
" pound of Baloney" Mr. Fiorelli."
or
"pound of Ham", Mr Fiorelli'"
Then he said.
Somethin' monkey talk,
Somthin' in Eye-talian'
You know
How they do.
Then he sez
"Sama t'ing's not good all da time."
(semi beat)
How 'bout if I sugges some-a-tin differen?"
(beat)
So, I says.
You know,
My Jack,
He likes his sammich (sandwich) the way I makes it.
That's what he likes.
(semi beat)
Then he says.
"How 'bout some-a-tin new?"
JACK: New?
MARIE: So, I sez.
OK.
OK, Mr Fiorelli.
Let's try "some-a-tin new. "
(beat)
So, he gives me 'at 'er salami/ ( that there salami)
An' I put it in yer sammich. (in your sandwich)
Nice man, that Fiorelli.
JACK: Well, don't get it no more.
MARIE: Why not, Jack?
JACK: jus' don' get it no more,
All that greaseball stuff.
That greaseball stuff gets me here ( he thumps his stomach with his fist).
Right here. (again)
Ya know.
(beat)
Don't buy it no more.
MARIE: ya didn' like it?
JACK: No, I didn’ like it.
Jus' stick with the ham.
The ham an' the baloney, MARIE.
An you can leave out the cheese too.
Gives me gas.
MARIE: Sure, Jack. Jus' ham an' b'loney.
JACK: An' be sure I get a TastyKake.
How many times I tol' you ' that.
MARIE: But I gave you TastyKakes.
JACK: Yeh, but not 'em chocolate ones.
They stick in yer mouth.
The roof a' yer mouth.
Gi' me 'em Krimpets or 'em ones with somthin' innem.
You know, the ones wit' the jelly or the cream.
MARIE: Sure, Jack, sure. I'll get 'em jus' for you.
(beat)
So, how'd it go today Jack?
I seen yer almos' to the cenner of the bridge.
JACK: They was back again today.
MARIE: Who was back again?
JACK: You know..
all them people
people shoutin' and screamin'
them people carryin' them signs.
MARIE: Ya mean about what they's callin' the bridge?
JACK: Yeh, about what they's callin' it
(beat).
Even had a priest with 'em
Yeh,
Some priest.
But ya know.
Ya know what?
They're right.
They're right, Marie.
I don't go for that protestin' stuff
But they're right.
(beat)
Ya know,
I take my life in my hands ev'ry day up them beams.
Ev'ry day.
MARIE: Yeh, I know.
JACK: Up them beams ta drive in them rivets.
Up on them beams....
(beat)
Fellas even get killed
Know what I mean?
Fellas get killed.
'Member that Pollock guy?
What was his name?
(beat)
MARIE: I don' remember Jack.
JACK: Belinski.
(beat)
Yeh, Belinski.
That's it.
That was his name.
Belinski.
Went to the Pollock Church.
Always eatin' that smelly sausage in his lunch.
Boy, did that stink!
(half beat)
That fella left three kids.
Three kids, Marie.
Know what I mean?
Yah know?
(half beat)
Fellas get killed.
They get killed.
An' their gonna call this bridge after some freakin' poet pansey?
Some poet pansey!
What the hell?
(Jack opens his newspaper.)
(reading the paper)
Look at this crap.
What the hell's wrong with this country?
What the hell they doin'?
Look at this!
Jus' look at this!
(beat)
What's this colored woman on a bus?
Coloreds on buses!
Who wants to read about coloreds on busses?
Oughtta know their place.
Always makin' trouble.
Oughtta know their place.
Damn cullerds.!
TO produce this piece please contact:
Tony Devaney Morinelli
tmorinelli@shipleyschool.org
610 525 4300 ex 4101
Two young men confront their sexuality. Brendan, school athlete, three sport champion and son of an abusive alcoholic father
speaks to us directly and introduces us to his world. Jackie, a highly verbal and intelligent young man losses himself to the poetry
of Walt Whitman. Jackie's father, a blue collar bridge worker locks out the world. To protect his family from the "Commies, the
Coloreds, the Queers and the Jews," he keeps a gun. He finds a copy of "Leaves of Grass" in his son's room & suspects his son's
sexual inclination. He will kill Jackie rather than see him queer.
Brendan's home: all to please an alcoholic and abusive father. Brendan must pass a poetry test to play in a game. Brendan seeks
the help of Jackie and discovers something that draws him to Jackie's company.
Brendan's team mates harass him for hanging around with faggots.
They attack Jackie with intense verbal violence.
Jackie returns home in torment. He finds his father's gun. He loads it.
Suddenly, Brendan calls to him from outside. Jackie puts down the gun. Brendan appeals to Jackie for forgiveness. As he
explains his regret he reveals that he has been looking for someone like himself. Jackie is taken aback and notes that he is not
gay. But Brendan has already revealed himself and collapses in anguish at Jackie's feet begging not to be disclosed.
Jackie raises Brendan from the floor. At that moment Jackie's father enters. He sees the two boys and picks up the gun. In the
heat of the moment he will kill his own son. Brendan grabs the gun and runs from the house.
Brendan alone. We see and hear the same tormentors that repeat , "We don't want no faggots, no homos, no queers, 'round
here." Brendan fires the gun.
WHEN LILACS LAST
A Play in a Montage
Cast:
JACK O'Donnell
MARIE O'Donnell
JACKIE O'Donnell, their son
JIMMY Conlin
BRENDAN Conlin, his son
CHORUS of Men and Women. The Chorus parts in this script are set up for four men and four women but the lines may also be
distributed according to need.
In the optimum casting, in addition to the adult chorus, there would be a chorus of teenagers.
__________________________________________________
Note on the text.
The text is written in dialect. What may look like misspellings are attempts to capture the working class Philadelphia speech. Thus,
"himself" is rendered "hisself", "you" (plural) is "yous," "contradict" is said "counterdict."
Production Notes.
The set for this piece should be kept at an absolute minimum.
Furnishings should be no more than simple wood chairs and stools painted black.
There may also be a simple black wood table.
The curtain warmer might be a black and white projection of the Walt Whitman Bridge.
The only other projection is "Philadelphia, 1955."
Costuming as well should be simple. 1950 type clothing may be suggested by t-shirts, jeans, and "house coats" available
anywhere.
Proper lighting is essential. All backgrounds should be kept at pale silver blues. Characters speaking lit accordingly.
The Chorus would be best placed below the action on the stage. They should face forward towards the audience, even though the
character to whom they may be speaking is behind them. _____
Lighting Chart:
X X X ( over table and chairs)
X (DSR X (DC) X (DSL)
_____________________________________________________________________________
Apron ______________
Chorus ______________ Chorus
steps
Characters speaking lit accordingly. All monologues are delivered directly to the audience.
When Brendan calls for Jackie, Brendan stands facing out DSL. Jackie stands facing out DC.
The Chorus would be best placed below the action on the stage. They should face forward towards the audience, even though the
character to whom they may be speaking is behind them.
THE PLAY
The stage.
There is no curtain.
Before the play begins, we see :
The back wall shows a projection, black and white, of the Walt Whitman bridge.
On stage we see:
Stage right - a simple wooden table with a chair on each side, facing DS. Behind the table is a small stool or table that holds the
only props needed: a six case of bottled beer and a stage revolver.
Just before the play begins the image of the bridge fades to
a projection that reads:
PHILADELPHIA 1955
The principal character ( BRENDAN) appears in silhouette.
The words then begin to fade, as they do, his silhouette emerges from the back wall.
It is BRENDAN.
BRENDAN: (first down stage on the apron, then descending to out on the floor just ahead of the chorus, before the audience.)
Where you are now
The place where you are now
leave it behind.
Leave it behind and come with me.
Come with me to where I live.
Come with me to a different time.
A different place.
This is Philadelphia.
South Philadelphia.
South Philadelphia,
1955.
(beat)
Philadelphia
(beat)
Penn's city of Brotherly love.
Brotherly love.
Philadelphia
(beat)
So, let me tell you this story.
Let me tell you.
A story you may know
It may even be your story
Your story with different names.
Your story at a different time
But still,
The same story.
(beat)
Do you know this world?
Or even just a part of it?
Did you know this world?
Did you know it?
But choose to forget it?
Was this you?
Is this what you said?
Were these your words?
But have you forgotten?
Is that what you chose to do?
Chose to forget the shame?
Chose to forget the truth?
(beat)
Have you hidden it?
Have you forgotten it?
(beat)
But, It's not forgotten.
Not forgotten.
(beat)
It will not let itself be forgotten.
Not let itself be forgotten
Because it is beyond you.
Beyond the world you create.
Beyond the world you want it to be.
There is another world.
A world you close your eyes to.
A world you will not hear
A world you will not speak of.
But,
But, still.
It is a crying voice
A crying voice.
( half beat)
An endless voice
It speaks in all times
It speaks in all worlds
It speaks of all our children.
(beat)
But wait.
(beat)
Before we tell you,.
Before we tell you this story.
There is one thing I need to ask
Just one thing,
One thing I need to ask.
I need to ask you.
Need to ask you.
Not to judge.
Please, I ask you.
Please, don’t judge.
Don't judge this world.
Yes,
We want to judge.
Yes, I know.
Judging.
Weighing.
Taking stock.
It's what we do.
It's how we measure.
How me measure ourselves against others.
To some we say “yes”
To some we say “no”.
So easy to do.
Not a moment’s thought.
Here in my space.
Here where I stand,..
You are right.
You are wrong.
You are like me.
You are different.
You, I accept.
You, I reject.
That's what we do.
But, this was our world.
This is what we knew.
This is what we thought.
This is what we said.
Our words are not always words we want to hear.
What we did was not always do the right thing to do.
But this was our world.
(beat)
Stay with me for a moment.
Let our voices speak.
Let them speak
Perhaps our voices are not unlike your own.
So, when you hear them
You may ask:
(beat)
Don’t I know them?
SCENE
(Lights up on first the CHORUS Leader as he begins his narration then -
gradually revealing the CHORUS.)
CHORUS LEADER
First time down this street?
First time on this block?
Brick homes.
Row homes.
Philly homes.
City of homes.
Bricks
Red bricks
Houses of bricks
Shoulder to shoulder
Rib to rib.
One window out front
One window out back
A view of the alley
A view of the street
Row homes
Brick homes
A white marble stoop.
CHORUS
1.White kids
2. Black kids
3. Pollacks,
4. Daygos and Jews (Daygos=Italians.)
1.Coloreds and Mics ( Mics= Irish)
2. Unloaded the ships
3. Unloaded the stocks
4.Stole from the hold
1.A fifth from the box.
2. And then the others
3. The others with skills
4. They shimmied the iron
1. And bolted the beams
2. Over the river
3. They mastered the steel
4. Over the water
1. They fashioned the bridge.
2. Under the bridge they work the docks.
3. Under the bridge the load the ships.
4. The rivets
1. The girders
2. The crossbeams
(Women step out of the mix and move down and left. Men remain behind.)
Women only
1. Our men
2. Our husbands
3. Our fathers
4. Our sons
1. Father to son
2. Brother to brother
3. father
1. husband
4. son.
1. Iron and steel
2. Steel and iron.
3. Father and son.
4. Man to man.
(Men now step down and right.)
MEN ONLY
1. This is our street.
2. This is our block.
3. These are our wives.
4. These are our kids.
1. An ' we built that bridge.
2. We work them docks.
3. We climbed them girders.
4. We weld that steel.
1. We sweat on that bridge.
2. Men died on that bridge.
3. And what yous gonna name it?
4. "Walt Whitman Bridge?"
ALL: (loudly) Walt Whitman?!!
( A Priest steps out of the crowd.)
PRIEST:
"Walt Whitman ?
"A bridge is a beautiful and graceful structure that thrusts heavenward
then descends again to security to the opposite bank."
(break)
Whitman?
(beat)
Walt Whitman?
(beat)
A poet?
Godless and selfish,
(beat)
This man's life and works are personally objectionable to us,
This, ….
This …
homo-erotic
Revolting works
revolting imagery that is not confined
but permeates...
permeates the fetid whole."
(In the next exchange, Men and Women stir into a mix and speak as one.)
CHORUS ( speaking together.)
(heavily )
Not in our city!
(they stomp feet in unison.)
Not in our homes!
(they stomp again.)
NOT IN OUR CITY!
NOT IN OUR HOMES!
SCENE
BRENDAN: This is his house.
Jackie's house.
A row home like mine
A brick home like mine
His father, like mine.
Worked on the bridge,
like mine.
(semi beat)
His mom,
Well,
His mom was there.
(semi beat)
That's not like mine.
My mom left
left when my dad came back.
Came back from the war.
Or, that's what they tell me.
(beat)
But Jackie's dad,
like my dad,
Went to work every morning
Came home every night
Every night with the paper
Under his arm the paper.
In his hand the lunch box.
The empty lunch box.
(Lights up on JACK, JACKIE's father. He enters the kitchen after his day on construction at the new bridge. In the kitchen (
suggested)/ His wife, MARIE, is preparing dinner. JACK enters with his lunch box, newspaper. )
JACK: Yo, Marie.
Marie, Ahm home.
(beat)
God damn, lock.
Gotta fix 'at lock.
(beat)
Be sure you keep 'at door locked, Marie.
Keep it locked.
Never know who's tryin' ta get in here.
All kinds out 'ere on na street. ( out there on there street.)
Ya never know.
( he hands her his lunch box. He takes off his jacket. JACK takes off his shoes and rubs his feet.)
MARIE: How was yer lunch, Jack?
OK?
JACK: What was that you give me?
MARIE: Oh, somthin' new.
JACK: Somethin' new?
MARIE: Yeh,
I made ya salami.
A salami sammich.
JACK: What?
MARIE: Salami,.
(beat)
JACK: What?
MARIE: Salami, Jack.
(beat)
Eye-talian salami.
I got it down at the corner.
Down at Fiorelli’s.
you know.
The eye-talian.
the eye-talian on the corner.
JACK: that guinea wop?
Prob'ly in the mob.
MARIE: Well,
he says to me.
(beat)
Mrs. O Donnel.
You always take the same thing.
You come in every week an' you say
" pound of Baloney" Mr. Fiorelli."
or
"pound of Ham", Mr Fiorelli'"
Then he said.
Somethin' monkey talk,
Somthin' in Eye-talian'
You know
How they do.
Then he sez
"Sama t'ing's not good all da time."
(semi beat)
How 'bout if I sugges some-a-tin differen?"
(beat)
So, I says.
You know,
My Jack,
He likes his sammich (sandwich) the way I makes it.
That's what he likes.
(semi beat)
Then he says.
"How 'bout some-a-tin new?"
JACK: New?
MARIE: So, I sez.
OK.
OK, Mr Fiorelli.
Let's try "some-a-tin new. "
(beat)
So, he gives me 'at 'er salami/ ( that there salami)
An' I put it in yer sammich. (in your sandwich)
Nice man, that Fiorelli.
JACK: Well, don't get it no more.
MARIE: Why not, Jack?
JACK: jus' don' get it no more,
All that greaseball stuff.
That greaseball stuff gets me here ( he thumps his stomach with his fist).
Right here. (again)
Ya know.
(beat)
Don't buy it no more.
MARIE: ya didn' like it?
JACK: No, I didn’ like it.
Jus' stick with the ham.
The ham an' the baloney, MARIE.
An you can leave out the cheese too.
Gives me gas.
MARIE: Sure, Jack. Jus' ham an' b'loney.
JACK: An' be sure I get a TastyKake.
How many times I tol' you ' that.
MARIE: But I gave you TastyKakes.
JACK: Yeh, but not 'em chocolate ones.
They stick in yer mouth.
The roof a' yer mouth.
Gi' me 'em Krimpets or 'em ones with somthin' innem.
You know, the ones wit' the jelly or the cream.
MARIE: Sure, Jack, sure. I'll get 'em jus' for you.
(beat)
So, how'd it go today Jack?
I seen yer almos' to the cenner of the bridge.
JACK: They was back again today.
MARIE: Who was back again?
JACK: You know..
all them people
people shoutin' and screamin'
them people carryin' them signs.
MARIE: Ya mean about what they's callin' the bridge?
JACK: Yeh, about what they's callin' it
(beat).
Even had a priest with 'em
Yeh,
Some priest.
But ya know.
Ya know what?
They're right.
They're right, Marie.
I don't go for that protestin' stuff
But they're right.
(beat)
Ya know,
I take my life in my hands ev'ry day up them beams.
Ev'ry day.
MARIE: Yeh, I know.
JACK: Up them beams ta drive in them rivets.
Up on them beams....
(beat)
Fellas even get killed
Know what I mean?
Fellas get killed.
'Member that Pollock guy?
What was his name?
(beat)
MARIE: I don' remember Jack.
JACK: Belinski.
(beat)
Yeh, Belinski.
That's it.
That was his name.
Belinski.
Went to the Pollock Church.
Always eatin' that smelly sausage in his lunch.
Boy, did that stink!
(half beat)
That fella left three kids.
Three kids, Marie.
Know what I mean?
Yah know?
(half beat)
Fellas get killed.
They get killed.
An' their gonna call this bridge after some freakin' poet pansey?
Some poet pansey!
What the hell?
(Jack opens his newspaper.)
(reading the paper)
Look at this crap.
What the hell's wrong with this country?
What the hell they doin'?
Look at this!
Jus' look at this!
(beat)
What's this colored woman on a bus?
Coloreds on buses!
Who wants to read about coloreds on busses?
Oughtta know their place.
Always makin' trouble.
Oughtta know their place.
Damn cullerds.!
Ya know,
Ev'ry body's got a place.
A place.
Know what I mean?
(beat)
(He turns to the sports page.)
Cripes! Look at this!
Even baseball ain't sacred
It ain't sacred I tell ya.
Look what they're doin'.
What they doin' to our team.
Philly team
(beat)
Athalectics ( note: the Philadelphia pronunciation of Athletics is "athaletics.")
Athaletics off to God knows Kansas
Philadelphia Athletics.
(beat)
-Philadelphia - not Kansas.
(beat)
Ya hear me, Marie?
Where's fuckin' Kansas?
(semi-beat)
Ain't nothin' makes sense.
The whole country’s goin’ ta hell inna han’basket.
MARIE:
Kansas,
Yeh, Kansas, JACK,
Kansas.
You know.
You know,
Dorothy
You know,
Judy Garland.
Judy Garland and that little dog.
That little dog.
What was his name??
The little dog and the midgets and the witch.
(MARIE starts to sing off key.)
"Somewhere,
over the rainbow...."
JACK:
(JACK joins in the final notes and continues:)
"Over the rainbow...."
(beat)
Rainbows.
Yeh.
Rainbows.
Right.
Rainbows an' midgets.
No wonder the kid's the way he is.
(beat)
MARIE:
Toto!
JACK:
(JACK pays no attention.)
That kid should be out workin'
MARIE:
That's his name!
JACK:
Should be out after school makin’ a penny for hisself.
MARIE:
Toto!
(JACK ignores MARIE.)
JACK:
Ta hell inna han’basket.
(beat)
Why ain’t he home yet?
Why ain't he home yet MARIE?
MARIE : I don’t know. What time is it?
JACK: After five.
MARIE: After five already?
(she looks at the kitchen clock.)
Yeh.
You're home.
I guess it is.
JACK: ( He looks up at the kitchen clock.)
Yeh,
After five.
Where the hell is that kid?
MARIE: He’ll be home soon. .
JACK: Wastin' his time.
MARIE: Said somethin’ this mornin’ ‘bout stayin’ to work after school.
JACK: (suspicious) He done somethin’ wrong?
MARIE: No, Maybe he just was stayin’.
JACK: That kid better not got hisself in trouble.
MARIE: I’m sure JACKIE ain’t in no trouble.
Not like him.
JACK: It’s never like ‘em.
That’s what they all say.
Can’t trust these kids.
MARIE: You know as I think on it JACKIE said somethin’ about workin on the school paper
Or somethin’.
JACK: School paper.
He oughtta be out sellin papers.
Sellin papers on the corner like I did.
MARIE: Kids don’t sell newspapers no more, JACK.
(MARIE continues with the table) He should be home.
He should be home soon.
JACK: Can’t see why he has the time to be hangin; ‘round after school.
He got time, he oughtta be out gettin a' after school job somewhere.
MARIE He can’t be doing no job.
JACK: What’s wrong with a job. Won’t kill him.
If he’s got that kinda time, let him get a job.
A job.
MARIE: He'll get ' round to it.
He'll get roun'.
JACK: you spoil that kid MARIE.
You keep treatin' him like 'at an' you gonna turn him a sissy.
You hear what Ahm tellin' ya.
A sissy.
He should be out workin'
Out sellin’ newpapers.
Makin’ hisself a buck.
Doin' a job like a man.
MARIE: These kids ain’t like us JACK.
They got it too good to worry about makin’ somethin’.
(JACKIE enters.)
JACK: Where the hell you been? (He swats JACKIE on the back of his head with the newspaper.)
JACKIE: I told mom.
JACK: What!
JACKIE: I told mom.
JACK: what?!
JACKIE: I'd be after school.
(The following exchange is simultaneous.)
MARIE: Oh, that's right he ......
JACKIE: (preempting her thought)"be after school"
JACK: What the hell you after school for?
_________________________
JACK: You get yourself into trouble?
JACKIE: No, Pop.
I told mom I was going to work on the school magazine.
MARIE: I’m sorry.
I tol' your dad it was somethin’ but I couldn’t quite remember.
JACK: Don’t pick up for him MARIE. (To JACKIE)
You got time to fool with that stuff you got time to get a job,
do some work around here.
JACKIE: They wanted me to give them my stuff.
JACK: What stuff?
JACKIE: You know,
the stuff I write.
JACK: You should be helpin’ out at home.
JACKIE: Mr. Jacobs says he wants to print it in the school magazine.
JACK: You wanna print?
Go to work and print.
Help your mother out in the house.
MARIE: Gonna put you in print, huh?
JACKIE: Yeh, he wants to put it in the school magazine.
MARIE: All them words.
It’s the Irish in ya.
The gift a’ gab.
JACK: Well, I don’t want you stayin’ after school no more.
You get yourself home where you belong.
Tomorrow, ya get home early and go lookin' for a part time job- ya got so much time ta kill.
(To Jackie) Get yourself upstairs and wash yer han’s before dinner.
Go on.
(beat)
Ta hell inna han’basket, I tell ya,
Ta hell inna han’basket.
(Lights down)
SCENE
( Lights up on BRENDAN who appears SL. Then, up center on JACKIE who is seated SR of the table.)
BRENDAN:
That was Jackie's dad.
That was Jackie's mom.
That how they saw things.
But for Jackie.
For Jackie there was something else.
Something that this street,
Something that these houses,
Something these red bricks
Didn't see.
Something they didn't hear.
Something they didn't say.
JACKIE: (reciting a passage from Walt Whitman's When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed)
When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d—and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
O ever-returning spring! trinity sure to me you bring;
Lilac blooming perennial, and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.
(JACKIE addresses the audience directly.)
Me...?
Why bother?
(beat)
I don't fit.
Don't fit
(beat)
Don't belong.
(beat)
I know that.
I always knew that.
It's ok.
(beat)
Just looked
Looked for someone.
Someone.
Looked for anyone
Anyone.
(beat)
Someone who could...
I don't know....
(beat)
I don't know...
But some one...
Ya know.....
Someone with words.
With new words.
With words that ...
(beat)
I don't know,
(beat)
I don't know,.
(beat)
Words. ...
Words have a taste.
They have a feeling
Words that do something
Words that say something
Words that make us
Words that move...
(beat)
See, .... the thing is....
I love words
I love their sound
I love their feel
They have a taste
They have a smell
They have a feeling
(beat)
Words do everything
You know that?
(beat)
Everything.
Words kiss.
Words touch.
(beat)
sometimes words even kill..
(beat, pause.)
----------------------------------------
SCENE
(Lights down on Jackie. BRENDAN remains lit.)
BRENDAN:
And me?
Where did I live?
Not so different.
I'll show you my house.
This is my house.
Like Jackie's but different.
My house.
My house with me and my dad.
Just me and my dad.
Just us.
My mom left.
I don't really know my mom.
I remember her some ways.
But I don't know her.
It's just me
Me and my dad.
(beat)
My Dad.
I remember the scent.
I remember the scent
As he entered the house
The scent of the after shave.
The hint of the beer.
The shine of the hair cream
The red glow of the wind roughed skin.
(half beat)
Here,
Come.
Come in with me.
And when you see
You may remember.
Even the scent may come to you
The beer,
The after shave
The glow.
(beat)
You may remember.
(BRENDAN begins to move behind the table.)
____________________________________________________________
SCENE
(Lights up center as BRENDAN moves from SR to C behind the table. He is making dinner for his father. Hot dogs. This is
pantomime There are no real items.)
(JIMMY CONLIN from left wing.)
JIMMY CONLIN:
BRENDAN, you home?
BRENDAN: Yeh, Dad. In the kitchen.
BRENDAN: Yeh.Pop, sure/
(beat)
ready for dinner?
Got your dinner.
Hungry?
Got dinner ready in a minute.
Hot dogs.
JIMMY enters. Brendan hands his father a beer. The beer bottle is one of the only real props. - There is no refrigerator or kitchen.
The prop may be on an inconspicuous stool behind the central table.)
JIMMY: Just what I could use. (Jimmy slugs the full bottle.)
(beat)
Jus' been tellin' the fellas 'bout you.
Been tellin the fellas down at Sharkey's
Had a round 'a shots for all the guys.
A round 'a shots
Tol' em all about you.
Bought 'em a round a shots.
(beat)
BRENDAN: Yeh, Pa.
Sure.
JIMMY: Ain't none of 'em got a kid like you.
BRENDAN: Yeh, Pa?
JIMMY: Ain't none of 'em....( Jimmy staggers in his drunken stupor. He takes off his jacket and tries unsuccessfully to put it on the
back of the chair.)
Ok. So tell me.
Tell me.
How'd that there scrimmage go.
BRENDAN: Great Pop, great. Crawled right over 'em/ Scored three times.
JIMMY: Yeh, well, you could do better.
BRENDAN: Coach said I did ok.
Here ya go, Pop.
(Brendan brings him his dinner.)
JIMMY: That coach don’t know shit. I says you can do better.
(looking at the pantomimed hotdog.)
I could use another beer with this.
(Brendan gets him another beer.)
BRENDAN: sure, Pop. Sure.
JIMMY: (beer in hand.)
Ya know ya got it in ya from me.
From your ol' man.
From me’s where ya got it.
(beat)
Ya got it from your ol' man.
(beat)
Where's the mustard?
(beat)
BRENDAN: Here ya go, Pa.
Here's your mustard.
JIMMY:
(repeating in drunkenness.)
From me's where ya get it.
I couldda been somethin'.
Couldda been out there.
Out there with the big time.
Wouldn't have to be climbin' some riggin'
Crawlin' over some beam
Shovin' some bolt inta some girder.
Humpin' some fuckin' bridge.
(beat)
Coulda been somthin'
(beat)
Wasn't so hot with basketball.
(Jimmy eats and drinks.)
Basketball . Huh, That's for them cullerds anyway.
gotta be some ten foot spear-chucker for basketball.
(beat)
But, football.
I tell ya, football.
Football, ya gotta have balls.
Know what I mean?
Ya gotta have balls!
BRENDAN: Yeh, Pa. I know.
JIMMY: ( already drunk.)
You know?
You know?
Whadda you know?
(In his drunken state, JIMMY falls off his chair.)
You don' know shit.
(beat)
Movin' yer ass aroun' na kitchen.
Whadda you know.
What the hells wrong wit' you.
(BRENDAN goes to help him up. As BRENDAN helps his father back up into his chair JIMMY continues.)
You some kinna fairy?
Some kinna fairy always inna kitchen?
BRENDAN: I'm just gettin' your dinner, Pop.
(Beat)
JIMMY:You don't know nothin'
You an' your pansy-ass coach.
BRENDAN: Just makin' you dinner Pa.
JIMMY: (ignoring Brendan.)
Them fuckin' Commies.
Them Commies in Korea screwed me outta it.
Got me right in the ass.
Messed up my legs for good.
BRENDAN: Yeh, Pop, I know. You told me.
JIMMY: Yeh, I tol' ya. An' don't you forget it. Your ol' man got shot in the ass for this country.
(beat)
BRENDAN: Pop,
JIMMY: What?
BRENDAN: Pop.
JIMMY: What?
BRENDAN: You want another?
JIMMY: Another what?
BRENDAN: Another hotdog.
JIMMY: No, I don't want nothin'!
Get me another beer.
BRENDAN: If you're ok, then I'm gonna go out for a while.
JIMMY: where the hell you goin'?
BRENDAN: I wanna talk to one of the kids in my class.
JIMMY: Yeh, what for.
BRENDAN: I need help with my English.
JIMMY: Wha the fuck for ?
You don' speak English?
BRENDAN: No, Pop. It's poetry.
JIMMY: Poetry?
BRENDAN: Yeh, we gotta test. And if I don't pass, I can't play.
JIMMY: You can'(t) play. What the hell's wrong with those people? ( note: the "t" of can't is not pronounced.)
(beat)
I know - I know.
Don' tell me.
They're all them pansy teachers with their noses up their assses..
(beat)
(He swigs his beer,)
So, where you goin'?
BRENDAN: Just down the street.
JIMMY: Just down the street where.
BRENDAN: Jackie's.
JIMMY: Where!?
BRENDAN: Jackie's
JIMMY: Jackie who?
BRENDAN: Jackie O'Donnell
JIMMY: O'Donnell ?
That little fag?
That little fag down the street?
What you goin' over there for.
I don' like that kid.
I don' want you hangin' round wit' him.
Little light in the loafers
Ev'ry body's got a place.
A place.
Know what I mean?
(beat)
(He turns to the sports page.)
Cripes! Look at this!
Even baseball ain't sacred
It ain't sacred I tell ya.
Look what they're doin'.
What they doin' to our team.
Philly team
(beat)
Athalectics ( note: the Philadelphia pronunciation of Athletics is "athaletics.")
Athaletics off to God knows Kansas
Philadelphia Athletics.
(beat)
-Philadelphia - not Kansas.
(beat)
Ya hear me, Marie?
Where's fuckin' Kansas?
(semi-beat)
Ain't nothin' makes sense.
The whole country’s goin’ ta hell inna han’basket.
MARIE:
Kansas,
Yeh, Kansas, JACK,
Kansas.
You know.
You know,
Dorothy
You know,
Judy Garland.
Judy Garland and that little dog.
That little dog.
What was his name??
The little dog and the midgets and the witch.
(MARIE starts to sing off key.)
"Somewhere,
over the rainbow...."
JACK:
(JACK joins in the final notes and continues:)
"Over the rainbow...."
(beat)
Rainbows.
Yeh.
Rainbows.
Right.
Rainbows an' midgets.
No wonder the kid's the way he is.
(beat)
MARIE:
Toto!
JACK:
(JACK pays no attention.)
That kid should be out workin'
MARIE:
That's his name!
JACK:
Should be out after school makin’ a penny for hisself.
MARIE:
Toto!
(JACK ignores MARIE.)
JACK:
Ta hell inna han’basket.
(beat)
Why ain’t he home yet?
Why ain't he home yet MARIE?
MARIE : I don’t know. What time is it?
JACK: After five.
MARIE: After five already?
(she looks at the kitchen clock.)
Yeh.
You're home.
I guess it is.
JACK: ( He looks up at the kitchen clock.)
Yeh,
After five.
Where the hell is that kid?
MARIE: He’ll be home soon. .
JACK: Wastin' his time.
MARIE: Said somethin’ this mornin’ ‘bout stayin’ to work after school.
JACK: (suspicious) He done somethin’ wrong?
MARIE: No, Maybe he just was stayin’.
JACK: That kid better not got hisself in trouble.
MARIE: I’m sure JACKIE ain’t in no trouble.
Not like him.
JACK: It’s never like ‘em.
That’s what they all say.
Can’t trust these kids.
MARIE: You know as I think on it JACKIE said somethin’ about workin on the school paper
Or somethin’.
JACK: School paper.
He oughtta be out sellin papers.
Sellin papers on the corner like I did.
MARIE: Kids don’t sell newspapers no more, JACK.
(MARIE continues with the table) He should be home.
He should be home soon.
JACK: Can’t see why he has the time to be hangin; ‘round after school.
He got time, he oughtta be out gettin a' after school job somewhere.
MARIE He can’t be doing no job.
JACK: What’s wrong with a job. Won’t kill him.
If he’s got that kinda time, let him get a job.
A job.
MARIE: He'll get ' round to it.
He'll get roun'.
JACK: you spoil that kid MARIE.
You keep treatin' him like 'at an' you gonna turn him a sissy.
You hear what Ahm tellin' ya.
A sissy.
He should be out workin'
Out sellin’ newpapers.
Makin’ hisself a buck.
Doin' a job like a man.
MARIE: These kids ain’t like us JACK.
They got it too good to worry about makin’ somethin’.
(JACKIE enters.)
JACK: Where the hell you been? (He swats JACKIE on the back of his head with the newspaper.)
JACKIE: I told mom.
JACK: What!
JACKIE: I told mom.
JACK: what?!
JACKIE: I'd be after school.
(The following exchange is simultaneous.)
MARIE: Oh, that's right he ......
JACKIE: (preempting her thought)"be after school"
JACK: What the hell you after school for?
_________________________
JACK: You get yourself into trouble?
JACKIE: No, Pop.
I told mom I was going to work on the school magazine.
MARIE: I’m sorry.
I tol' your dad it was somethin’ but I couldn’t quite remember.
JACK: Don’t pick up for him MARIE. (To JACKIE)
You got time to fool with that stuff you got time to get a job,
do some work around here.
JACKIE: They wanted me to give them my stuff.
JACK: What stuff?
JACKIE: You know,
the stuff I write.
JACK: You should be helpin’ out at home.
JACKIE: Mr. Jacobs says he wants to print it in the school magazine.
JACK: You wanna print?
Go to work and print.
Help your mother out in the house.
MARIE: Gonna put you in print, huh?
JACKIE: Yeh, he wants to put it in the school magazine.
MARIE: All them words.
It’s the Irish in ya.
The gift a’ gab.
JACK: Well, I don’t want you stayin’ after school no more.
You get yourself home where you belong.
Tomorrow, ya get home early and go lookin' for a part time job- ya got so much time ta kill.
(To Jackie) Get yourself upstairs and wash yer han’s before dinner.
Go on.
(beat)
Ta hell inna han’basket, I tell ya,
Ta hell inna han’basket.
(Lights down)
SCENE
( Lights up on BRENDAN who appears SL. Then, up center on JACKIE who is seated SR of the table.)
BRENDAN:
That was Jackie's dad.
That was Jackie's mom.
That how they saw things.
But for Jackie.
For Jackie there was something else.
Something that this street,
Something that these houses,
Something these red bricks
Didn't see.
Something they didn't hear.
Something they didn't say.
JACKIE: (reciting a passage from Walt Whitman's When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed)
When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d—and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
O ever-returning spring! trinity sure to me you bring;
Lilac blooming perennial, and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.
(JACKIE addresses the audience directly.)
Me...?
Why bother?
(beat)
I don't fit.
Don't fit
(beat)
Don't belong.
(beat)
I know that.
I always knew that.
It's ok.
(beat)
Just looked
Looked for someone.
Someone.
Looked for anyone
Anyone.
(beat)
Someone who could...
I don't know....
(beat)
I don't know...
But some one...
Ya know.....
Someone with words.
With new words.
With words that ...
(beat)
I don't know,
(beat)
I don't know,.
(beat)
Words. ...
Words have a taste.
They have a feeling
Words that do something
Words that say something
Words that make us
Words that move...
(beat)
See, .... the thing is....
I love words
I love their sound
I love their feel
They have a taste
They have a smell
They have a feeling
(beat)
Words do everything
You know that?
(beat)
Everything.
Words kiss.
Words touch.
(beat)
sometimes words even kill..
(beat, pause.)
----------------------------------------
SCENE
(Lights down on Jackie. BRENDAN remains lit.)
BRENDAN:
And me?
Where did I live?
Not so different.
I'll show you my house.
This is my house.
Like Jackie's but different.
My house.
My house with me and my dad.
Just me and my dad.
Just us.
My mom left.
I don't really know my mom.
I remember her some ways.
But I don't know her.
It's just me
Me and my dad.
(beat)
My Dad.
I remember the scent.
I remember the scent
As he entered the house
The scent of the after shave.
The hint of the beer.
The shine of the hair cream
The red glow of the wind roughed skin.
(half beat)
Here,
Come.
Come in with me.
And when you see
You may remember.
Even the scent may come to you
The beer,
The after shave
The glow.
(beat)
You may remember.
(BRENDAN begins to move behind the table.)
____________________________________________________________
SCENE
(Lights up center as BRENDAN moves from SR to C behind the table. He is making dinner for his father. Hot dogs. This is
pantomime There are no real items.)
(JIMMY CONLIN from left wing.)
JIMMY CONLIN:
BRENDAN, you home?
BRENDAN: Yeh, Dad. In the kitchen.
BRENDAN: Yeh.Pop, sure/
(beat)
ready for dinner?
Got your dinner.
Hungry?
Got dinner ready in a minute.
Hot dogs.
JIMMY enters. Brendan hands his father a beer. The beer bottle is one of the only real props. - There is no refrigerator or kitchen.
The prop may be on an inconspicuous stool behind the central table.)
JIMMY: Just what I could use. (Jimmy slugs the full bottle.)
(beat)
Jus' been tellin' the fellas 'bout you.
Been tellin the fellas down at Sharkey's
Had a round 'a shots for all the guys.
A round 'a shots
Tol' em all about you.
Bought 'em a round a shots.
(beat)
BRENDAN: Yeh, Pa.
Sure.
JIMMY: Ain't none of 'em got a kid like you.
BRENDAN: Yeh, Pa?
JIMMY: Ain't none of 'em....( Jimmy staggers in his drunken stupor. He takes off his jacket and tries unsuccessfully to put it on the
back of the chair.)
Ok. So tell me.
Tell me.
How'd that there scrimmage go.
BRENDAN: Great Pop, great. Crawled right over 'em/ Scored three times.
JIMMY: Yeh, well, you could do better.
BRENDAN: Coach said I did ok.
Here ya go, Pop.
(Brendan brings him his dinner.)
JIMMY: That coach don’t know shit. I says you can do better.
(looking at the pantomimed hotdog.)
I could use another beer with this.
(Brendan gets him another beer.)
BRENDAN: sure, Pop. Sure.
JIMMY: (beer in hand.)
Ya know ya got it in ya from me.
From your ol' man.
From me’s where ya got it.
(beat)
Ya got it from your ol' man.
(beat)
Where's the mustard?
(beat)
BRENDAN: Here ya go, Pa.
Here's your mustard.
JIMMY:
(repeating in drunkenness.)
From me's where ya get it.
I couldda been somethin'.
Couldda been out there.
Out there with the big time.
Wouldn't have to be climbin' some riggin'
Crawlin' over some beam
Shovin' some bolt inta some girder.
Humpin' some fuckin' bridge.
(beat)
Coulda been somthin'
(beat)
Wasn't so hot with basketball.
(Jimmy eats and drinks.)
Basketball . Huh, That's for them cullerds anyway.
gotta be some ten foot spear-chucker for basketball.
(beat)
But, football.
I tell ya, football.
Football, ya gotta have balls.
Know what I mean?
Ya gotta have balls!
BRENDAN: Yeh, Pa. I know.
JIMMY: ( already drunk.)
You know?
You know?
Whadda you know?
(In his drunken state, JIMMY falls off his chair.)
You don' know shit.
(beat)
Movin' yer ass aroun' na kitchen.
Whadda you know.
What the hells wrong wit' you.
(BRENDAN goes to help him up. As BRENDAN helps his father back up into his chair JIMMY continues.)
You some kinna fairy?
Some kinna fairy always inna kitchen?
BRENDAN: I'm just gettin' your dinner, Pop.
(Beat)
JIMMY:You don't know nothin'
You an' your pansy-ass coach.
BRENDAN: Just makin' you dinner Pa.
JIMMY: (ignoring Brendan.)
Them fuckin' Commies.
Them Commies in Korea screwed me outta it.
Got me right in the ass.
Messed up my legs for good.
BRENDAN: Yeh, Pop, I know. You told me.
JIMMY: Yeh, I tol' ya. An' don't you forget it. Your ol' man got shot in the ass for this country.
(beat)
BRENDAN: Pop,
JIMMY: What?
BRENDAN: Pop.
JIMMY: What?
BRENDAN: You want another?
JIMMY: Another what?
BRENDAN: Another hotdog.
JIMMY: No, I don't want nothin'!
Get me another beer.
BRENDAN: If you're ok, then I'm gonna go out for a while.
JIMMY: where the hell you goin'?
BRENDAN: I wanna talk to one of the kids in my class.
JIMMY: Yeh, what for.
BRENDAN: I need help with my English.
JIMMY: Wha the fuck for ?
You don' speak English?
BRENDAN: No, Pop. It's poetry.
JIMMY: Poetry?
BRENDAN: Yeh, we gotta test. And if I don't pass, I can't play.
JIMMY: You can'(t) play. What the hell's wrong with those people? ( note: the "t" of can't is not pronounced.)
(beat)
I know - I know.
Don' tell me.
They're all them pansy teachers with their noses up their assses..
(beat)
(He swigs his beer,)
So, where you goin'?
BRENDAN: Just down the street.
JIMMY: Just down the street where.
BRENDAN: Jackie's.
JIMMY: Where!?
BRENDAN: Jackie's
JIMMY: Jackie who?
BRENDAN: Jackie O'Donnell
JIMMY: O'Donnell ?
That little fag?
That little fag down the street?
What you goin' over there for.
I don' like that kid.
I don' want you hangin' round wit' him.
Little light in the loafers
Ya know what I mean.
BRENDAN: Pop, I need some help in English and he can help me.
JIMMY: What kinna stuff he gonna help ya with?
BRENDAN: You know Pop.
JIMMY: No, I don't know.
What kin'na stuff?
BRENDAN: You know, like poems and all.
All that stuff in poems.
You know.
JIMMY: I don' want you over there.
BRENDAN: But Pop, if I don't pass this test, they won't let me play.
JIMMY: What the hell's wrong with these people?
Fuck ass teachers.
BRENDAN: Pop, he's the smartest kid in school. He can help me.
JIMMY: God dammit,
Ok
Soes you can play.
BRENDAN: Yeh, Pop.
JIMMY: Yeh, yeh.
Ok- Them pansies
Them pansies, I suppose
Them pansies get that stuff.
But you just do your school stuff.
Un'erstan?
School stuff.
But don' let him get nowheres near you
Hear what Ahm sayin'?
(beat)
And don't sit nowheres near him. You keep to ya'self. Hear me?
BRENDAN: Yeh, Pop. I.... But I don't...
JIMMY: No, you don't.
But I do.
I do!
I know them fags.
Found out 'bout them ass fucks in Korea.
I know 'bout them/
Sneakin' up on you.
Crawlin' up at night/
At night when you're alone.
(beat)
Worse than the god damn commies.
Worse than the commies.
I KNOW.
I KNOW
You watch it, ya hear me!
BRENDAN: Yeh, Pop, Sure.
Sure, I hear ya.
(beat)
I guess I’m not that hungry.
I’ll just go now and get it over with.
JIMMY: ‘Member what I told ya!
SCENE:
(lights down on all except Jimmy. From his chair at the table. He talks toward center.)
JIMMY:
That kid don' know.
He don know what's out there.
Don' know nothin' about the war.
Don't know nothin' about them....
(beat)
You know......
(beat)
He don' know how it got so lonely.
He don' know what happens
When ya get lonely.
(beat)
(Jimmy rise from his chair and comes DSC. He changes his tone.)
Yeh, That kid's gonna be a winner.
Goin' straight to the Eagles ( pronounced "Ihguls")
Run all over them Browns
Flatten them Steelers.
This kid's championship.
Not gonna get shot in the ass like me
Not like me
I tell ya
Not like me.
(lights down on Jimmy.)
__________________________________________________________
SCENE
(Lights half up on Brendan, stage left.)
(lights on CHORUS)
CHORUS:
O BOY of the West!
To you many things to absorb, I teach, to help you become pupil of mine.
Yet, if blood like mine circle not in your veins;
If you be not silently selected by lovers, and do not silently select lovers,
Of what use is it that you seek to become pupil of mine?
(Note: Whitman writes: "Eleve of mine." But the French would be meaningless to the audience and so the plays translates "eleve"
to "pupil". )
(Lights down on CHORUS. Remain up on Brendan.)
_________________________________________
SCENE
BRENDAN: So, I knew JACKIE.
Knew him because he was really smart.
The smartest kid in school.
(beat)
But when I really met Jackie.
I went to him for help.
Help with poetry.
(beat)
Poetry.
(beat)
But there was something else.
Something in Jackie that I knew.
Something in Jackie that I felt.
Something I didn’t have in my mind.
Something I didn’t have words for.
But something I knew.
Something.....
Something that connected.
Something that was Jackie.
Something that was me.
__________________________________________________
SCENE
( Brendan enters the moment. He calls to Jackie from the street.)
STAGING NOTE: BRENDAN comes down stage left to the apron. He calls out to JACKIE while facing the audience. JACKIE, in
return, comes down stage right to the apron and speaks outward. When JACKIE invites BRENDAN inside, the two meet center
stage as lights come up on them.)
BRENDAN:
JACKIE!
He, JACKIE!
You home?
Hey, JACKIE!
JACKIE: ( Stage right)
Hey, Yo.
BRENDAN?
BRENDAN:
hey, yo, JACKIE.
You got a minute?
JACKIE: Me?
(beat)
Yeh
BRENDAN: Can you come out.
I need to talk to you.
JACKIE: Yeh, sure.
Just a minute.
(Jackie goes toward Brendan)
(The two meet CS.)
JACKIE: Hey
BRENDAN: Hey.
JACKIE: Come on in.
( The two move the table. In effect, the table becomes Jackie's bed . BRENDAN and JACKIE sit on the edge.)
BRENDAN: Listen, Jackie.
I was just wondering.
(beat)
We have this test coming up.
The essay test.
JACKIE:
Yeh.
BRENDAN: Well.
(beat)
Well,
I can use some help.
JACKIE: Help? Help ,with what?
BRENDAN: You know that poem we got in school.
You know.
For English. you know.
the one by the bridge guy.
JACKIE:" When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloomed?"
BRENDAN: yeh," When Lilacs Last. "
That's the one.
JACKIE: Yeh.
BRENDAN: Well, I know you're good at this stuff.
JACKIE: I try.
BRENDAN: No man, you're good.
JACKIE: ( a silent nod)
BRENDAN: I mean, you know, like this poem we have to do. For me, for me .. Well, I just don't.......
I just don’t get that stuff.
JACKIE: what's not to get?
BRENDAN: I mean, sometimes I think I do .... but, not really.
JACKIE: Did you read it yet?
BRENDAN: Yeh, I read some but....
JACKIE: Well, then, just read it,
BRENDAN: me?
JACKIE: Yeh, ...just read it.
BRENDAN: I’m not such a good reader.
JACKIE: I’m sure you are. Here, just read.
(JACKIE passes BRENDAN a book. It is not the text book from school.)
BRENDAN: This isn't the right book.
JACKIE: Yes it is.
BRENDAN: No, I'm talkin' about our poem book.
Our poem book from English class.
JACKIE: It's the same thing.
My book has the same thing.
Here.
Look.
It's right here.
BRENDAN: Where?
JACKIE: Here.
The same thing.
(half beat)
The same thing.
(beat)
Just read it.
BRENDAN: (reading)
When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d—and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
O ever-returning spring! trinity sure to me you bring;
Lilac blooming per - en - ni - al, (Brendan stumbles over the word "perennial" )
and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.
(beat)
I'm not sure I get it.
JACKIE: Well, you know what it's about, right?
BRENDAN: well, kind of. I think so.
Jacobs said it was about Lincoln.
JACKIE: Lincoln. Right. About Lincoln's death.
His assassination.
BRENDAN: Yeh, OK. So?
JACKIE: So, the poem is all about Lincoln.
BRENDAN: Yeh, but I don't see how.
JACKIE: OK, Look. Just take it piece by piece.
BRENDAN: Whad'da ya mean?
JACKIE: Piece by piece.
Verse by verse.
BRENDAN: I don't know....
JACKIE: Look. When was Lincoln shot?
BRENDAN: I don't know.
JACKIE: April. He was shot in April.
BRENDAN: So...
JACKIE: And he was the star in the Western sky.
BRENDAN: Star in the Western sky.
JACKIE: Yeh, 'cause he was president.
The star.
BRENDAN: Yeh. I never thought of that.
(half beat)
But what does that have to do with lilacs.
JACKIE: Because, lilacs come out in April.
BRENDAN: So, then, what's a lilac?
Is it like a rose?
JACKIE: No, no. they're like...
Lilacs are like bunches.
Clusters.
Purple, sometime white.
They have a strong scent,
and their leaves are heart-shaped.
BRENDAN: Oh, ...
(beat)
Heart shaped.
(beat)
You mean like......
(beat)
You mean like he's saying....?
JACKIE: Like he's saying ,.. what?
BRENDAN: I don't know. ...
That's my problem. I don’t know what he’s saying.
(beat)
So, anyway....
What does "per - en - ni - al" mean?
JACKIE: It means it comes back into flower every year at the same time. And so, when we see them they make us remember.
BRENDAN: They make us remember ?
(beat)
They make us remember every year.
(beat)
They make us remember.
Ok.
(beat)
But then. But then he says:
"him I love."
(beat)
See, now.
What's that crap?
(beat)
..he some kind of....?
(beat)
This some kind of,
You know,
Faggot stuff?
JACKIE: No, no!
Nothing like that at all.
He's talking about Lincoln.
He's talking about big things.
He's talking about people.
BRENDAN: Oh,
See, I didn’t get that, I….
JACKIE: Lincoln.
Lincoln.
He loves Abraham Lincoln.
Loves him for what he did.
BRENDAN: Yeh, for what he did.
(beat)
JACKIE: Yeh, you know, it's like...
It's like you love God.
BRENDAN: Oh,
So, It's not...
It's not that other stuff.
(beat)
You know.
Like he was .... you know.
JACKIE: Like he was a queer?
BRENDAN: Yeh, you know...
JACKIE: No, it's not that.
BRENDAN: Yeh, yeh.
Ok. Now, I see.
JACKIE: It's not so tough.
Once you get the hang of it.
Poems make a lot of sense.
BRENDAN: I suppose they do.
But for a smart guy like you it’s easy.
JACKIE: Not really, you just have to take your time.
And, anyway, I’m not so smart.
BRENDAN: You got the best grades in class.
JACKIE: But that’s because it’s all I do. I don’t do much else.
After all, look at you. You’re the star player on every team. You’ve got every girl in the school chasing after you.
BRENDAN: Nah, not really.
I mean, I don't mind foolin' around with them
But,.... you know.....
JACKIE:
No, I don't. But I sure wouldn't mind knowing.
BRENDAN: (hesitantly)
Yeh, well.
May be I can introduce you to a few of them.
JACKIE:
OK, you're on.
BRENDAN:
Anyway.
This poem.
(beat)
See.
when I read this stuff I just read what it says.
I mean, , You know --- I read what it says.
But you see things.
More things.
You see something else.
I just don't get that.
I just don't get it when a teacher tells you it has a meaning.
But you.
You, do.
(beat)
How do you do that? How do you see that something else?
JACKIE: I don't know.
I don't think I try.
It just happens.
BRENDAN: I wish I could do that.
It just seems so hard.
JACKIE: I think you just have to give yourself a chance.
BRENDAN: Yeh, maybe.
But I’m not the book type.
You know.
JACKIE: Maybe you just think that.
Maybe you just think that because that’s what people expect.
BRENDAN: What they expect?
JACKIE: Yeh, what they expect.
BRENDAN: What do you mean?
JACKIE: Come on Brendan.
Think about it.
You’re supposed to be the jock,
the football star.
BRENDAN: Yeh,.... maybe.
(beat)
JACKIE: You're not supposed to like poems.
BRENDAN: But I don't.
JACKIE: But Brendan, how do you know if you never tried?
BRENDAN: I guess I don't.
But you think I could?
JACKIE: Why not?
(beat)
JACKIE: So, anyway. Want to finish the poem?
BRENDAN: Yeh, I do.
But you know what.
(beat)
People think I'm too stupid for poems?
JACKIE: That's not what I was trying to....
BRENDAN: No, no. You're right.
Maybe it is what people think.
Maybe that is what they want me to be
And so that's what I do....
(beat)
But, you know.
You know,
I think I got the idea now.
What you showed me.
I do, I think I got it.
(beat)
You know,
Maybe I’ll try the rest of it on my own.
(BRENDAN moves away from JACKIE.)
Thanks, a lot.
(beat)
BRENDAN:(hesitantly.)
Hey, JACKIE, you wanna to down to Greenberg's Drug Store for a cherry coke?
My treat.
JACKIE: Well, I would,....
BRENDAN: We can just talk.
JACKIE: But I have tons of work to finish here.
BRENDAN: Oh. Yeh. OK.
Well, I suppose I should be getting home.
I told my dad I wouldn't be long.
I'll see you again. ok.
JACKIE: Sure. Anytime.
BRENDAN: Thanks, again.
(BRENDAN exits left. JACKIE, right.)
________________________________________________
SCENE
CHORUS
1. O slender leaves!
2. O blossoms of my blood!
3. I permit you to tell in
your own way of the heart that is under you,
4. O I do not know what you mean there underneath yourselves,
1. you are not happiness.
(Calamus WW)
_____________________________________________
BRENDAN: Pop, I need some help in English and he can help me.
JIMMY: What kinna stuff he gonna help ya with?
BRENDAN: You know Pop.
JIMMY: No, I don't know.
What kin'na stuff?
BRENDAN: You know, like poems and all.
All that stuff in poems.
You know.
JIMMY: I don' want you over there.
BRENDAN: But Pop, if I don't pass this test, they won't let me play.
JIMMY: What the hell's wrong with these people?
Fuck ass teachers.
BRENDAN: Pop, he's the smartest kid in school. He can help me.
JIMMY: God dammit,
Ok
Soes you can play.
BRENDAN: Yeh, Pop.
JIMMY: Yeh, yeh.
Ok- Them pansies
Them pansies, I suppose
Them pansies get that stuff.
But you just do your school stuff.
Un'erstan?
School stuff.
But don' let him get nowheres near you
Hear what Ahm sayin'?
(beat)
And don't sit nowheres near him. You keep to ya'self. Hear me?
BRENDAN: Yeh, Pop. I.... But I don't...
JIMMY: No, you don't.
But I do.
I do!
I know them fags.
Found out 'bout them ass fucks in Korea.
I know 'bout them/
Sneakin' up on you.
Crawlin' up at night/
At night when you're alone.
(beat)
Worse than the god damn commies.
Worse than the commies.
I KNOW.
I KNOW
You watch it, ya hear me!
BRENDAN: Yeh, Pop, Sure.
Sure, I hear ya.
(beat)
I guess I’m not that hungry.
I’ll just go now and get it over with.
JIMMY: ‘Member what I told ya!
SCENE:
(lights down on all except Jimmy. From his chair at the table. He talks toward center.)
JIMMY:
That kid don' know.
He don know what's out there.
Don' know nothin' about the war.
Don't know nothin' about them....
(beat)
You know......
(beat)
He don' know how it got so lonely.
He don' know what happens
When ya get lonely.
(beat)
(Jimmy rise from his chair and comes DSC. He changes his tone.)
Yeh, That kid's gonna be a winner.
Goin' straight to the Eagles ( pronounced "Ihguls")
Run all over them Browns
Flatten them Steelers.
This kid's championship.
Not gonna get shot in the ass like me
Not like me
I tell ya
Not like me.
(lights down on Jimmy.)
__________________________________________________________
SCENE
(Lights half up on Brendan, stage left.)
(lights on CHORUS)
CHORUS:
O BOY of the West!
To you many things to absorb, I teach, to help you become pupil of mine.
Yet, if blood like mine circle not in your veins;
If you be not silently selected by lovers, and do not silently select lovers,
Of what use is it that you seek to become pupil of mine?
(Note: Whitman writes: "Eleve of mine." But the French would be meaningless to the audience and so the plays translates "eleve"
to "pupil". )
(Lights down on CHORUS. Remain up on Brendan.)
_________________________________________
SCENE
BRENDAN: So, I knew JACKIE.
Knew him because he was really smart.
The smartest kid in school.
(beat)
But when I really met Jackie.
I went to him for help.
Help with poetry.
(beat)
Poetry.
(beat)
But there was something else.
Something in Jackie that I knew.
Something in Jackie that I felt.
Something I didn’t have in my mind.
Something I didn’t have words for.
But something I knew.
Something.....
Something that connected.
Something that was Jackie.
Something that was me.
__________________________________________________
SCENE
( Brendan enters the moment. He calls to Jackie from the street.)
STAGING NOTE: BRENDAN comes down stage left to the apron. He calls out to JACKIE while facing the audience. JACKIE, in
return, comes down stage right to the apron and speaks outward. When JACKIE invites BRENDAN inside, the two meet center
stage as lights come up on them.)
BRENDAN:
JACKIE!
He, JACKIE!
You home?
Hey, JACKIE!
JACKIE: ( Stage right)
Hey, Yo.
BRENDAN?
BRENDAN:
hey, yo, JACKIE.
You got a minute?
JACKIE: Me?
(beat)
Yeh
BRENDAN: Can you come out.
I need to talk to you.
JACKIE: Yeh, sure.
Just a minute.
(Jackie goes toward Brendan)
(The two meet CS.)
JACKIE: Hey
BRENDAN: Hey.
JACKIE: Come on in.
( The two move the table. In effect, the table becomes Jackie's bed . BRENDAN and JACKIE sit on the edge.)
BRENDAN: Listen, Jackie.
I was just wondering.
(beat)
We have this test coming up.
The essay test.
JACKIE:
Yeh.
BRENDAN: Well.
(beat)
Well,
I can use some help.
JACKIE: Help? Help ,with what?
BRENDAN: You know that poem we got in school.
You know.
For English. you know.
the one by the bridge guy.
JACKIE:" When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloomed?"
BRENDAN: yeh," When Lilacs Last. "
That's the one.
JACKIE: Yeh.
BRENDAN: Well, I know you're good at this stuff.
JACKIE: I try.
BRENDAN: No man, you're good.
JACKIE: ( a silent nod)
BRENDAN: I mean, you know, like this poem we have to do. For me, for me .. Well, I just don't.......
I just don’t get that stuff.
JACKIE: what's not to get?
BRENDAN: I mean, sometimes I think I do .... but, not really.
JACKIE: Did you read it yet?
BRENDAN: Yeh, I read some but....
JACKIE: Well, then, just read it,
BRENDAN: me?
JACKIE: Yeh, ...just read it.
BRENDAN: I’m not such a good reader.
JACKIE: I’m sure you are. Here, just read.
(JACKIE passes BRENDAN a book. It is not the text book from school.)
BRENDAN: This isn't the right book.
JACKIE: Yes it is.
BRENDAN: No, I'm talkin' about our poem book.
Our poem book from English class.
JACKIE: It's the same thing.
My book has the same thing.
Here.
Look.
It's right here.
BRENDAN: Where?
JACKIE: Here.
The same thing.
(half beat)
The same thing.
(beat)
Just read it.
BRENDAN: (reading)
When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d—and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
O ever-returning spring! trinity sure to me you bring;
Lilac blooming per - en - ni - al, (Brendan stumbles over the word "perennial" )
and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.
(beat)
I'm not sure I get it.
JACKIE: Well, you know what it's about, right?
BRENDAN: well, kind of. I think so.
Jacobs said it was about Lincoln.
JACKIE: Lincoln. Right. About Lincoln's death.
His assassination.
BRENDAN: Yeh, OK. So?
JACKIE: So, the poem is all about Lincoln.
BRENDAN: Yeh, but I don't see how.
JACKIE: OK, Look. Just take it piece by piece.
BRENDAN: Whad'da ya mean?
JACKIE: Piece by piece.
Verse by verse.
BRENDAN: I don't know....
JACKIE: Look. When was Lincoln shot?
BRENDAN: I don't know.
JACKIE: April. He was shot in April.
BRENDAN: So...
JACKIE: And he was the star in the Western sky.
BRENDAN: Star in the Western sky.
JACKIE: Yeh, 'cause he was president.
The star.
BRENDAN: Yeh. I never thought of that.
(half beat)
But what does that have to do with lilacs.
JACKIE: Because, lilacs come out in April.
BRENDAN: So, then, what's a lilac?
Is it like a rose?
JACKIE: No, no. they're like...
Lilacs are like bunches.
Clusters.
Purple, sometime white.
They have a strong scent,
and their leaves are heart-shaped.
BRENDAN: Oh, ...
(beat)
Heart shaped.
(beat)
You mean like......
(beat)
You mean like he's saying....?
JACKIE: Like he's saying ,.. what?
BRENDAN: I don't know. ...
That's my problem. I don’t know what he’s saying.
(beat)
So, anyway....
What does "per - en - ni - al" mean?
JACKIE: It means it comes back into flower every year at the same time. And so, when we see them they make us remember.
BRENDAN: They make us remember ?
(beat)
They make us remember every year.
(beat)
They make us remember.
Ok.
(beat)
But then. But then he says:
"him I love."
(beat)
See, now.
What's that crap?
(beat)
..he some kind of....?
(beat)
This some kind of,
You know,
Faggot stuff?
JACKIE: No, no!
Nothing like that at all.
He's talking about Lincoln.
He's talking about big things.
He's talking about people.
BRENDAN: Oh,
See, I didn’t get that, I….
JACKIE: Lincoln.
Lincoln.
He loves Abraham Lincoln.
Loves him for what he did.
BRENDAN: Yeh, for what he did.
(beat)
JACKIE: Yeh, you know, it's like...
It's like you love God.
BRENDAN: Oh,
So, It's not...
It's not that other stuff.
(beat)
You know.
Like he was .... you know.
JACKIE: Like he was a queer?
BRENDAN: Yeh, you know...
JACKIE: No, it's not that.
BRENDAN: Yeh, yeh.
Ok. Now, I see.
JACKIE: It's not so tough.
Once you get the hang of it.
Poems make a lot of sense.
BRENDAN: I suppose they do.
But for a smart guy like you it’s easy.
JACKIE: Not really, you just have to take your time.
And, anyway, I’m not so smart.
BRENDAN: You got the best grades in class.
JACKIE: But that’s because it’s all I do. I don’t do much else.
After all, look at you. You’re the star player on every team. You’ve got every girl in the school chasing after you.
BRENDAN: Nah, not really.
I mean, I don't mind foolin' around with them
But,.... you know.....
JACKIE:
No, I don't. But I sure wouldn't mind knowing.
BRENDAN: (hesitantly)
Yeh, well.
May be I can introduce you to a few of them.
JACKIE:
OK, you're on.
BRENDAN:
Anyway.
This poem.
(beat)
See.
when I read this stuff I just read what it says.
I mean, , You know --- I read what it says.
But you see things.
More things.
You see something else.
I just don't get that.
I just don't get it when a teacher tells you it has a meaning.
But you.
You, do.
(beat)
How do you do that? How do you see that something else?
JACKIE: I don't know.
I don't think I try.
It just happens.
BRENDAN: I wish I could do that.
It just seems so hard.
JACKIE: I think you just have to give yourself a chance.
BRENDAN: Yeh, maybe.
But I’m not the book type.
You know.
JACKIE: Maybe you just think that.
Maybe you just think that because that’s what people expect.
BRENDAN: What they expect?
JACKIE: Yeh, what they expect.
BRENDAN: What do you mean?
JACKIE: Come on Brendan.
Think about it.
You’re supposed to be the jock,
the football star.
BRENDAN: Yeh,.... maybe.
(beat)
JACKIE: You're not supposed to like poems.
BRENDAN: But I don't.
JACKIE: But Brendan, how do you know if you never tried?
BRENDAN: I guess I don't.
But you think I could?
JACKIE: Why not?
(beat)
JACKIE: So, anyway. Want to finish the poem?
BRENDAN: Yeh, I do.
But you know what.
(beat)
People think I'm too stupid for poems?
JACKIE: That's not what I was trying to....
BRENDAN: No, no. You're right.
Maybe it is what people think.
Maybe that is what they want me to be
And so that's what I do....
(beat)
But, you know.
You know,
I think I got the idea now.
What you showed me.
I do, I think I got it.
(beat)
You know,
Maybe I’ll try the rest of it on my own.
(BRENDAN moves away from JACKIE.)
Thanks, a lot.
(beat)
BRENDAN:(hesitantly.)
Hey, JACKIE, you wanna to down to Greenberg's Drug Store for a cherry coke?
My treat.
JACKIE: Well, I would,....
BRENDAN: We can just talk.
JACKIE: But I have tons of work to finish here.
BRENDAN: Oh. Yeh. OK.
Well, I suppose I should be getting home.
I told my dad I wouldn't be long.
I'll see you again. ok.
JACKIE: Sure. Anytime.
BRENDAN: Thanks, again.
(BRENDAN exits left. JACKIE, right.)
________________________________________________
SCENE
CHORUS
1. O slender leaves!
2. O blossoms of my blood!
3. I permit you to tell in
your own way of the heart that is under you,
4. O I do not know what you mean there underneath yourselves,
1. you are not happiness.
(Calamus WW)
_____________________________________________
SCENE
(JACK, stage left. To the audience.)
JACK:
A man does his job.
For the wife. For the kids.
Don’t give nobody no trouble.
You know the world these days is so full of them others.
You know what I mean
Them Liberals and them Commies.
Them Jews and them faggots.
Everywhere you go.
All them movies.
Them magazines.
All that crap that’s everywhere you go.
You think I don’t know?
You think ‘cause who I am, what I do, I don’t know.
Well think again.
What makes you think yous the only one.
I know.
Yeh, that’s right. I know.
They’re all around us.
Commie Reds
The Cullerds.
The Jews
The Queers
Well, they’re not takin’ me.
I can tell you that.
They’re not takin’ me.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I don’t go for none a that brick throwin'
I ain't gonna smash no winda's
Or carry no signs.
But I think ya deserve what ya deserve.
An' I'm gonna take care a my own.
Soes that once in a while you can take the wife and kids away
Take ‘em away.
Take ‘em to the shore.
Get a nice motel.
Sit on na beach.
Get a little sun.
(The SCENE continues.)
(MARIE, stage right continuing to the audience.)
MARIE:
Yah know, JACK’s a good man.
But, he gets mad if I don't keep the lock on the door.
He wants that door locked.
He's afraid for us.
Afraid of all them out there on the street.
I gotta tell ya too.
Jack's not one a them that drinks.
He don’t never drink.
Never see him down at Sharkey's
Not even a beer inna house.
An' Jack never raised a han' ta me.
Never a han'.
(beat)
Yeh, we have are squabbles.
But, who don’t?
You never have a fight with your husban'?
(beat)
Ahm home all day.
JACK don' like th’idea of me workin'.
(beat)
Sometimes though, JACK's got a temper./
Who ain't after all.
We all got our ways about us.
He jus' don' like nobody tellin' 'im what ta do or ya know....
Yeh, he’s stric(t) with Jackie. ( the "t" of strict is not normally pronounced.)
But that’s ‘cause he want him to be right
To grow up
To be a man.
(beat)
One thing I gotta say.
One thing I keep on him about.
I don' like he keeps a gun in the house.
I jus never liked that sort a thing.
I know what he means.
he wants to protect us.
But, I don' know. You know, a gun.
ya never know..
It can jus' go off, I keep tellin' him.
Jus like that JACK, '
It can jus' go off.
____________________________________________________
(JACK moves to center stage as light comes up over the table. He picks up JACKIE'S book.)
JACK:
MARIE.
Yo,
MARIE!
MARIE:
What is it JACK.
JACK:
Get up here.
(MARIE moves center stage.)
MARIE:
What is it JACK?
What you so excited 'bout?
JACK:
You see this?
Look at this!
MARIE:
What?
JACK:
This book. I found it in his room.
MARIE:
School.
JACK:
This ain't no school book.
You see what it says?
MARIE. (taking the book.)
Leaves of Grass.
Funny name.
Grass don't have leaves.
JACK:
What the hell's wrong with you
- look at the name.
MARIE:
Walt Whit....
Oh - that's the bridge,...
JACK:
Yeh, that's right, - the bridge!
You heard the priest what he said.
They had all them people down there.
You know what they was talkin' about?
MARIE:
JACK, you're not sayin...
JACK:
What the hell you think I'm sayin'?
(beat)
Here, look at this!
First page I open.
(Jack reads from Hymn to Myself He stumbles somewhat over the words.)
I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning,
How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn'd over
upon me,
And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue
to my bare-stript heart,
And reach'd till you felt my beard, and reach'd till you held my
feet.
What kinna stuff is that?
What kinna stuff!!
Who writes that kinna stuff?
Some kinna pervert.
Some kinna ....
Not .....
(beat)
The fellas was right.
They was right, MARIE.
It's no wonder.,
No wonder the priest had 'em all down 'ere.
Like what he said...
There's somethin' wrong with sombody who writes this kinna stuff.
Yeh, but let me tell ya,
Some thin' not right with a kid who wants ta read it.
Why he want to read this stuff?
(beat)
Heh?
(beat)
Why?
Why?
Ahm askin' ya!
MARIE: Whad da ya sayin' Jack?
JACK: You heard me.
There's somethin' wrong,
Ahm tellin' ya.
Somethin' wrong.
(beat)
Well, not in my house.
Noty while's I got somthin' ta say about it.
Not my son.
MARIE: Jack, what does he know 'bout them things?
He's justa kid....
JACK: No son a mine.
(JACKIE suddenly enters.)
JACKIE:
Mom, Pop, what are you....
JACK: (severely)
Go downstairs MARIE.
MARIE:
Uh...
JACK:
( he repeats with authority.)
Go downstairs!
JACKIE:
Pop...
(Beat)
(JACK strikes JACKIE loud and hard across the side of the face with the book. JACKIE covers his face as he breaks into tears.)
JACK:
Tell me what this is!
Tell me!
BRENDAN:
It's a book Pa.
JACK:
I know it's a damn book, you think I'm stupid?
What the hell kin'na book is what I wanna know.
JACKIE: (sobbing)
A book of poems, Pa
A book of poems.
(MARIE is lit stage left. Her cries break between Jackie and Jack.)
MARIE:
O holy virgin Mary !
What am I supposed to do?
JACK:
Yeh, I know, That's what I'm talkin' about.
You think I don' know who this guy was? (he grabs him by the collar)
You think I don' know.
I heard the fellas talkin'
I know all about this guy.
Ya know what he was?
Ya know?
A goddamn pansy.
That's what.
MARIE:
Don' let him hit the boy.
He's jus' a kid.
He don' know nothin' bout them things.
(JACK grabs JACKIE by the collar.)
JACK:
You some kinna faggot?
You some kinna faggot?
(beat)
Tell me!
Tell me!
and I'll kill ya now. ( as he shakes Jackie.)
MARIE:(Lit stage left)
Oh Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
Is there somethin' wrong the kid?
Is he one 'a them not right?
One them not right?
JACKIE:
No, Pa,
No.
They're just poems.
MARIE:
Oh, Saint Jude,
don' let it be.
Not my boy.
Not my JACKIE.
JACK:
I don' want you readin' none a this stuff. (Rattles him)
You hear me!?
( swats him with the book)
Not in my house.
(He becomes far more intense.
He swats him again.)
(JACK pulls away.
JACK Takes the book and heaves it across the room.)
(looking at the book. ...)
(Jack cries out:)
God damn faggots!
(Lights down)
___________________________________
SCENE
(We see JACKIE slowly rise. He stands sobbing and searches for his book. JACKIE moves down center to the apron. He sits on
the front stoop. Still sobbing, he is smoothing out the pages of his Whitman. )
(BRENDAN enters.)
BRENDAN:
Hey Jackie, I was just going to call up to you.
I was just on my way home from practice
And hoping I would catch you.
Was gonna call up to you.
Didn't think you'd be out here.
JACKIE: Hey, BRENDAN, how's it going?
BRENDAN: Yeh, I was wondering if I would catch you.
Just wondering on my way home.
(beat)
(BRENDAN looks slowly at JACKIE.)
You ok? You look like you’ve been…
JACKIE: Yeh, fine. Just got something in my eye.
BRENDAN: You reading your poems?
JACKIE: Yeh. Same old thing.
BRENDAN: I gotta tell you. I've been working on that poem.
You know...
JACKIE: "When lilacs..."
BRENDAN: Yeh, that one.
I think I'm gonna be ready for the test.
I really am.
JACKIE: Yeh, I'm sure you'll do fine.
BRENDAN: Well, I couldn't have done it myself.
You really helped me out.
(BRENDAN pats JACKIE on the back.)
JACKIE: That's ok. ( as BRENDAN pats) It's ok.
BRENDAN: You know, there's another part in that poem.
I wanted to ask you about.
I think I get it, but I'm not sure.
JACKIE: What part is that?
BRENDAN: Let me see your book.
(beat)
( as an aside thought.)
How come you're reading it out on the stoop?
JACKIE: Hot inside.
Just wanted to get outside
Get some fresh air.
BRENDAN: Yeh, . .is warm tonight.
(beat)
But, look, you can see some stars.
JACKIE: Stars?
BRENDAN: Yeh, the stars.
JACKIE: You look at the stars?
BRENDAN: Yeh, I do.
JACKIE: I wouldn't have figured you .....
BRENDAN:
Why, cause I'm .... a jock?
JACKIE:
Sorry, I didn't mean.
BRENDAN: No, it's OK.
It's like you said before.
It's what people expect.
JACKIE: Sorry.
BRENDAN: No, really.
It's ok,
See,
I like looking up there
I like looking up there and just wondering.
Wonder if there's anybody up there?
You ever wonder that?
JACKIE: Yeh, I guess
Sometimes.
BRENDAN: You know,
They say that if you get away from here
Get away from the city
Get way outside
Outside in the country
The sky is white with stars
So many you can't even imagine/
JACKIE: You mean like the Milky Way.
BRENDAN: Yeh, the Milky Way.
(beat)
BRENDAN: You ever been out of the city?
JACKIE: Went to the shore once.
BRENDAN: Never been there.
Never even saw the ocean.
JACKIE: You've never seen the ocean?
BRENDAN: Nope.
Never.
Except in movies.
(beat)
Maybe when they finish the bridge.
JACKIE: Yeh, maybe.
(long beat as BRENDAN catches himself looking too intently at JACKIE)
BRENDAN: (Suddenly) But you have all your books.
( he takes the book.)
So, anyway.
I want to show you this part.
Gotta find it.
(BRENDAN takes JACKIE'S book.)
Wait, this isn't the right one.
This isn't our book from school.
(JACK, stage left. To the audience.)
JACK:
A man does his job.
For the wife. For the kids.
Don’t give nobody no trouble.
You know the world these days is so full of them others.
You know what I mean
Them Liberals and them Commies.
Them Jews and them faggots.
Everywhere you go.
All them movies.
Them magazines.
All that crap that’s everywhere you go.
You think I don’t know?
You think ‘cause who I am, what I do, I don’t know.
Well think again.
What makes you think yous the only one.
I know.
Yeh, that’s right. I know.
They’re all around us.
Commie Reds
The Cullerds.
The Jews
The Queers
Well, they’re not takin’ me.
I can tell you that.
They’re not takin’ me.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I don’t go for none a that brick throwin'
I ain't gonna smash no winda's
Or carry no signs.
But I think ya deserve what ya deserve.
An' I'm gonna take care a my own.
Soes that once in a while you can take the wife and kids away
Take ‘em away.
Take ‘em to the shore.
Get a nice motel.
Sit on na beach.
Get a little sun.
(The SCENE continues.)
(MARIE, stage right continuing to the audience.)
MARIE:
Yah know, JACK’s a good man.
But, he gets mad if I don't keep the lock on the door.
He wants that door locked.
He's afraid for us.
Afraid of all them out there on the street.
I gotta tell ya too.
Jack's not one a them that drinks.
He don’t never drink.
Never see him down at Sharkey's
Not even a beer inna house.
An' Jack never raised a han' ta me.
Never a han'.
(beat)
Yeh, we have are squabbles.
But, who don’t?
You never have a fight with your husban'?
(beat)
Ahm home all day.
JACK don' like th’idea of me workin'.
(beat)
Sometimes though, JACK's got a temper./
Who ain't after all.
We all got our ways about us.
He jus' don' like nobody tellin' 'im what ta do or ya know....
Yeh, he’s stric(t) with Jackie. ( the "t" of strict is not normally pronounced.)
But that’s ‘cause he want him to be right
To grow up
To be a man.
(beat)
One thing I gotta say.
One thing I keep on him about.
I don' like he keeps a gun in the house.
I jus never liked that sort a thing.
I know what he means.
he wants to protect us.
But, I don' know. You know, a gun.
ya never know..
It can jus' go off, I keep tellin' him.
Jus like that JACK, '
It can jus' go off.
____________________________________________________
(JACK moves to center stage as light comes up over the table. He picks up JACKIE'S book.)
JACK:
MARIE.
Yo,
MARIE!
MARIE:
What is it JACK.
JACK:
Get up here.
(MARIE moves center stage.)
MARIE:
What is it JACK?
What you so excited 'bout?
JACK:
You see this?
Look at this!
MARIE:
What?
JACK:
This book. I found it in his room.
MARIE:
School.
JACK:
This ain't no school book.
You see what it says?
MARIE. (taking the book.)
Leaves of Grass.
Funny name.
Grass don't have leaves.
JACK:
What the hell's wrong with you
- look at the name.
MARIE:
Walt Whit....
Oh - that's the bridge,...
JACK:
Yeh, that's right, - the bridge!
You heard the priest what he said.
They had all them people down there.
You know what they was talkin' about?
MARIE:
JACK, you're not sayin...
JACK:
What the hell you think I'm sayin'?
(beat)
Here, look at this!
First page I open.
(Jack reads from Hymn to Myself He stumbles somewhat over the words.)
I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning,
How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn'd over
upon me,
And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue
to my bare-stript heart,
And reach'd till you felt my beard, and reach'd till you held my
feet.
What kinna stuff is that?
What kinna stuff!!
Who writes that kinna stuff?
Some kinna pervert.
Some kinna ....
Not .....
(beat)
The fellas was right.
They was right, MARIE.
It's no wonder.,
No wonder the priest had 'em all down 'ere.
Like what he said...
There's somethin' wrong with sombody who writes this kinna stuff.
Yeh, but let me tell ya,
Some thin' not right with a kid who wants ta read it.
Why he want to read this stuff?
(beat)
Heh?
(beat)
Why?
Why?
Ahm askin' ya!
MARIE: Whad da ya sayin' Jack?
JACK: You heard me.
There's somethin' wrong,
Ahm tellin' ya.
Somethin' wrong.
(beat)
Well, not in my house.
Noty while's I got somthin' ta say about it.
Not my son.
MARIE: Jack, what does he know 'bout them things?
He's justa kid....
JACK: No son a mine.
(JACKIE suddenly enters.)
JACKIE:
Mom, Pop, what are you....
JACK: (severely)
Go downstairs MARIE.
MARIE:
Uh...
JACK:
( he repeats with authority.)
Go downstairs!
JACKIE:
Pop...
(Beat)
(JACK strikes JACKIE loud and hard across the side of the face with the book. JACKIE covers his face as he breaks into tears.)
JACK:
Tell me what this is!
Tell me!
BRENDAN:
It's a book Pa.
JACK:
I know it's a damn book, you think I'm stupid?
What the hell kin'na book is what I wanna know.
JACKIE: (sobbing)
A book of poems, Pa
A book of poems.
(MARIE is lit stage left. Her cries break between Jackie and Jack.)
MARIE:
O holy virgin Mary !
What am I supposed to do?
JACK:
Yeh, I know, That's what I'm talkin' about.
You think I don' know who this guy was? (he grabs him by the collar)
You think I don' know.
I heard the fellas talkin'
I know all about this guy.
Ya know what he was?
Ya know?
A goddamn pansy.
That's what.
MARIE:
Don' let him hit the boy.
He's jus' a kid.
He don' know nothin' bout them things.
(JACK grabs JACKIE by the collar.)
JACK:
You some kinna faggot?
You some kinna faggot?
(beat)
Tell me!
Tell me!
and I'll kill ya now. ( as he shakes Jackie.)
MARIE:(Lit stage left)
Oh Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
Is there somethin' wrong the kid?
Is he one 'a them not right?
One them not right?
JACKIE:
No, Pa,
No.
They're just poems.
MARIE:
Oh, Saint Jude,
don' let it be.
Not my boy.
Not my JACKIE.
JACK:
I don' want you readin' none a this stuff. (Rattles him)
You hear me!?
( swats him with the book)
Not in my house.
(He becomes far more intense.
He swats him again.)
(JACK pulls away.
JACK Takes the book and heaves it across the room.)
(looking at the book. ...)
(Jack cries out:)
God damn faggots!
(Lights down)
___________________________________
SCENE
(We see JACKIE slowly rise. He stands sobbing and searches for his book. JACKIE moves down center to the apron. He sits on
the front stoop. Still sobbing, he is smoothing out the pages of his Whitman. )
(BRENDAN enters.)
BRENDAN:
Hey Jackie, I was just going to call up to you.
I was just on my way home from practice
And hoping I would catch you.
Was gonna call up to you.
Didn't think you'd be out here.
JACKIE: Hey, BRENDAN, how's it going?
BRENDAN: Yeh, I was wondering if I would catch you.
Just wondering on my way home.
(beat)
(BRENDAN looks slowly at JACKIE.)
You ok? You look like you’ve been…
JACKIE: Yeh, fine. Just got something in my eye.
BRENDAN: You reading your poems?
JACKIE: Yeh. Same old thing.
BRENDAN: I gotta tell you. I've been working on that poem.
You know...
JACKIE: "When lilacs..."
BRENDAN: Yeh, that one.
I think I'm gonna be ready for the test.
I really am.
JACKIE: Yeh, I'm sure you'll do fine.
BRENDAN: Well, I couldn't have done it myself.
You really helped me out.
(BRENDAN pats JACKIE on the back.)
JACKIE: That's ok. ( as BRENDAN pats) It's ok.
BRENDAN: You know, there's another part in that poem.
I wanted to ask you about.
I think I get it, but I'm not sure.
JACKIE: What part is that?
BRENDAN: Let me see your book.
(beat)
( as an aside thought.)
How come you're reading it out on the stoop?
JACKIE: Hot inside.
Just wanted to get outside
Get some fresh air.
BRENDAN: Yeh, . .is warm tonight.
(beat)
But, look, you can see some stars.
JACKIE: Stars?
BRENDAN: Yeh, the stars.
JACKIE: You look at the stars?
BRENDAN: Yeh, I do.
JACKIE: I wouldn't have figured you .....
BRENDAN:
Why, cause I'm .... a jock?
JACKIE:
Sorry, I didn't mean.
BRENDAN: No, it's OK.
It's like you said before.
It's what people expect.
JACKIE: Sorry.
BRENDAN: No, really.
It's ok,
See,
I like looking up there
I like looking up there and just wondering.
Wonder if there's anybody up there?
You ever wonder that?
JACKIE: Yeh, I guess
Sometimes.
BRENDAN: You know,
They say that if you get away from here
Get away from the city
Get way outside
Outside in the country
The sky is white with stars
So many you can't even imagine/
JACKIE: You mean like the Milky Way.
BRENDAN: Yeh, the Milky Way.
(beat)
BRENDAN: You ever been out of the city?
JACKIE: Went to the shore once.
BRENDAN: Never been there.
Never even saw the ocean.
JACKIE: You've never seen the ocean?
BRENDAN: Nope.
Never.
Except in movies.
(beat)
Maybe when they finish the bridge.
JACKIE: Yeh, maybe.
(long beat as BRENDAN catches himself looking too intently at JACKIE)
BRENDAN: (Suddenly) But you have all your books.
( he takes the book.)
So, anyway.
I want to show you this part.
Gotta find it.
(BRENDAN takes JACKIE'S book.)
Wait, this isn't the right one.
This isn't our book from school.
JACKIE:
No, but it has the poem.
BRENDAN:
It does
Where?
Where is it in this book?
JACKIE: Here.
Right here...
Let me find it for you ....
Let me find it.
(JACKIE opens his book to the right page.)
Here you go.
BRENDAN:
Yeh,
Yeh,
Hold on.
Where's that part?
Where's that part? (looking at the book.)
Down here somewhere. ( he searches.)
Yeh, here it is.
( He reads from the book .He reads slowly and with intent.)
O cruel hands that hold me powerless -- O helpless soul of me!
O harsh surrounding cloud that will not free my soul.
(Beat)
BRENDAN: (Looking directly at Jackie.) Yeh. I mean.. I think I get this part.
(beat)
“Cruel hands….”
(beat)
Yeh,
Yeh,
I know....
I know what this means.
(There is a silent, uncomfortable moment where Brendan catches Jackie's eyes.)
I know what that means.
Do you.....?
(beat)
JACKIE: (interrupting the moment.) I told you it's not that hard.
BRENDAN: Yeh,
Not that hard.
(Continuing hesitantly.)
Can I ask you something?
JACKIE: Sure, what?
BRENDAN: When you….
When you and your dad…
(beat)
Has your dad ever….?
JACKIE: Has my dad ever what?
BRENDAN: I don't know.
(beat)
You ever talk to him about this stuff.
JACKIE: What stuff?
BRENDAN: You know, .... poems and all?
JACKIE: Poems?. .... my pop?.... poems?. .. No.
BRENDAN: mine neither.
(beat)
Oh. What the fuck...
(BRENDAN slaps JACKIE on the back.)
JACKIE: (laughing) Yeh. ...What the fuck...
BRENDAN:
(beat)
You know.
I really like talking to you about this stuff.
(beat)
Funny, 'cause I never thought I would.
But you know.
You showed me something.
You really did.
JACKIE: That’s ok.
BRENDAN: No, really.
I get this stuff now.
I like talking to you.
And I like this poem.
JACKIE: Hey, listen, if you really like it I'll lend you this book. The poetry book they give us in school only has this poem. But
Whitman wrote tons of others. See.
(he shows him the cover of Leaves of Grass.)
The whole thing's called "Leaves of Grass."
"Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman.
BRENDAN:
Walt Whitman!!
The bridge guy?!
(beat)
Wait a minute.
You mean, the poem that's in our book
The poem that's in school
The poem is the bridge guy?
JACKIE:
Yeh.
You just read it.
Walt Whitman.
BRENDAN:
I didn't know that.
(beat)
Now that you say it....
(beat)
I guess I never paid attention.
Never put it together.
JACKIE: Yeh, it's the same person.
BRENDAN: I still don't get it.
If we read it in school
What's the problem?
What's the big deal?
JACKIE
Because he also wrote other things.
BRENDAN:
Other things?
JACKIE:
Yes.... not just this poem.
BRENDAN:
So, what else?
JACKIE: What else?
(beat)
Other things.
BRENDAN: You mean that stuff they’re all talking about?
(beat)
That faggot stuff?
JACKIE: BRENDAN, I just like to read.
I don’t pay attention to any of that.
I like to read.
These are great poems.
Great words.
Great ....
I don't know...
Just great!
BRENDAN: Yeh, but does he really write about that stuff?
You know…
What they say?
JACKIE: They’re poems.
That’s all.
Here.
(He offers him the book.)
Borrow it and see for yourself.
BRENDAN: No, man, that's ok. I’m not messin’ with any of that stuff. One poem at a time's enough for me.
Thanks.
(Beat)
(BRENDAN turns to go, then turns back.)
BRENDAN: Maybe….
(BRENDAN takes the book. He looks at it for a moment, then hands it back.)
No.
Maybe not.
Thanks.
See ya later.
____________________________________________
__________________________________
No, but it has the poem.
BRENDAN:
It does
Where?
Where is it in this book?
JACKIE: Here.
Right here...
Let me find it for you ....
Let me find it.
(JACKIE opens his book to the right page.)
Here you go.
BRENDAN:
Yeh,
Yeh,
Hold on.
Where's that part?
Where's that part? (looking at the book.)
Down here somewhere. ( he searches.)
Yeh, here it is.
( He reads from the book .He reads slowly and with intent.)
O cruel hands that hold me powerless -- O helpless soul of me!
O harsh surrounding cloud that will not free my soul.
(Beat)
BRENDAN: (Looking directly at Jackie.) Yeh. I mean.. I think I get this part.
(beat)
“Cruel hands….”
(beat)
Yeh,
Yeh,
I know....
I know what this means.
(There is a silent, uncomfortable moment where Brendan catches Jackie's eyes.)
I know what that means.
Do you.....?
(beat)
JACKIE: (interrupting the moment.) I told you it's not that hard.
BRENDAN: Yeh,
Not that hard.
(Continuing hesitantly.)
Can I ask you something?
JACKIE: Sure, what?
BRENDAN: When you….
When you and your dad…
(beat)
Has your dad ever….?
JACKIE: Has my dad ever what?
BRENDAN: I don't know.
(beat)
You ever talk to him about this stuff.
JACKIE: What stuff?
BRENDAN: You know, .... poems and all?
JACKIE: Poems?. .... my pop?.... poems?. .. No.
BRENDAN: mine neither.
(beat)
Oh. What the fuck...
(BRENDAN slaps JACKIE on the back.)
JACKIE: (laughing) Yeh. ...What the fuck...
BRENDAN:
(beat)
You know.
I really like talking to you about this stuff.
(beat)
Funny, 'cause I never thought I would.
But you know.
You showed me something.
You really did.
JACKIE: That’s ok.
BRENDAN: No, really.
I get this stuff now.
I like talking to you.
And I like this poem.
JACKIE: Hey, listen, if you really like it I'll lend you this book. The poetry book they give us in school only has this poem. But
Whitman wrote tons of others. See.
(he shows him the cover of Leaves of Grass.)
The whole thing's called "Leaves of Grass."
"Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman.
BRENDAN:
Walt Whitman!!
The bridge guy?!
(beat)
Wait a minute.
You mean, the poem that's in our book
The poem that's in school
The poem is the bridge guy?
JACKIE:
Yeh.
You just read it.
Walt Whitman.
BRENDAN:
I didn't know that.
(beat)
Now that you say it....
(beat)
I guess I never paid attention.
Never put it together.
JACKIE: Yeh, it's the same person.
BRENDAN: I still don't get it.
If we read it in school
What's the problem?
What's the big deal?
JACKIE
Because he also wrote other things.
BRENDAN:
Other things?
JACKIE:
Yes.... not just this poem.
BRENDAN:
So, what else?
JACKIE: What else?
(beat)
Other things.
BRENDAN: You mean that stuff they’re all talking about?
(beat)
That faggot stuff?
JACKIE: BRENDAN, I just like to read.
I don’t pay attention to any of that.
I like to read.
These are great poems.
Great words.
Great ....
I don't know...
Just great!
BRENDAN: Yeh, but does he really write about that stuff?
You know…
What they say?
JACKIE: They’re poems.
That’s all.
Here.
(He offers him the book.)
Borrow it and see for yourself.
BRENDAN: No, man, that's ok. I’m not messin’ with any of that stuff. One poem at a time's enough for me.
Thanks.
(Beat)
(BRENDAN turns to go, then turns back.)
BRENDAN: Maybe….
(BRENDAN takes the book. He looks at it for a moment, then hands it back.)
No.
Maybe not.
Thanks.
See ya later.
____________________________________________
__________________________________
SCENE
BRENDAN: Yes, I talked to Jackie
Yes, I saw him almost every day.
Always after school.
At his house.
On his front stoop.
I called.
I called to him
"Jackie, you there?"
Called to the front window
Called and he was there
We talked on the stoop
We talked in his room
We talked to each other
We talked as friends.
But always alone.
And never in class
Never at lunch
Never in the halls.
Never in the lockers.
(beat)
Still, somehow they must have seen me.
My friends must have seen me.
(beat)
My friends.
My friends in class.
My friends on the field.
My friends in the hall.
All the people I knew.
People who liked me.
Who said they liked me.
They knew
(stop)
So, then at school.
(Lights up on the chorus.)
CHORUS
1. you hang around with that guy?
2. Don't be fooling around with that stuff.
3. You know what those guys are like.
4. Yeh, "fairy nice fella."
1. Sick
2. Kick his ass.
3. Man, don't even say it.
4. Plays on the other side of the fence.
1. Fuckin' homos
2. You know what he wants.
3. Queers.
4. Don't even say it.
-----------------------------------------------------
SCENE
BRENDAN:
They spoke
They had something to say.
I heard them
I knew what they said.
I knew them
I knew me.
Where else could I go?
Where else could I be?
Only BRENDAN
BRENDAN
Who else was there?
Who else?
Who else talked to me?
Really talked to me?
To me?
(beat)
Could I go home?
Home?
What was at home?
(beat)
There was my dad.
My dad and those Friday nights.
Those Friday nights together.
Friday nights on the couch.
Friday night in front of the TV.
The Friday night fights.
Just him and me.
Just him and me.
We watched every fight.
On a left hook...
JIMMY:
“What the fuck” .
BRENDAN:
A slip.....
JIMMY:
“What’s wrong with that asshole?”
BRENDAN.
We’re together.
Father and son.
He talks.
He talks.
But not to me.
To the screen..
To the voice.
To the ring.
He talks to the TV.
But he never talks to me.
Fixed on the screen.
He never looks my way.
Never see his eyes.
JIMMY: ( he is smoking a cigarette.)
Now, that was a fight!
Hey, get me another beer, will ya, BRENDAN?
Need another beer after that fight.
(Brendan goes for another beer.)
Marciano, man.
I’m tellin’ you. Them guinnie wops and them cullerds.
They know how ta fight.
These guys really have it down!
( Jimmy opens the bottle. Sips. Spits out the beer.)
JIMMY :
What the f…….
This beer’s hot!
BRENDAN:
Shouldn’t be.
JIMMY:
I said, it’s hot.
BRENDAN:
But...
JIMMY:
You counterdictin' me?
BRENDAN:
No, pop…..
JIMMY: (JIMMY slowly rises from his chair and advances toward BRENDAN.)
What you say?
BRENDAN:
Nothin' Pop.
JIMMY:
(Jimmy, with the cigarette between his teeth, begins to slap Brendan, one side then the other with each exchange.)
You counterdictin' me?
(slap)
What’s your problem?
(slap)
What’s your problem, boy?
(slap)
BRENDAN:
I got it from the frige…..
JIMMY:
This beer’s fuckin hot.
(he grabs BRENDAN by the arm, twists it behind him)
BRENDAN: (imploring.)
It didn’t feel warm when I picked it up.
JIMMY:
Didn’t feel warm?
(beat)
Didn’t feel warm?
(twists BRENDAN’s arm tighter.)
You dumb shit!
Stupid cunt!
What the fuck you know?
BRENDAN:
Please, Pop.
No!
JIMMY:
What the fuck you know?
(beat)
You like warm beer?
Warm?
You like it warm?
Wanna know what the fuck warm is?
Heh?
Ya wannah know?
Wanna know?
BRENDAN:
No, Pa,
No.
JIMMY: (He raises the cigarette. )
You want warm.
Here’s warm.
(beat)
Here’s warm.
Here’s fuckin’ hot.
(JIMMY presses his lit cigarette into BRENDAN’s neck. )
(BRENDAN writhes and slips to the floor. )
JIMMY:
You stupid fuckin' girly cunt!
JIMMY: (becoming even more possessed and fitful goes back for the bottle of beer.)
You can't get nothin’ right?
Nothin'.
(beat)
You’re like your ol’ lady.
that stupid bitch.
A stupid bitch....
Gin whore....
Gin whore went runnin' off.
(BRENDAN is still on the floor.)
(beat)
JIMMY: (Putting his foot on BRENDAN’S chest and pouring the beer in his face.)
Here you little creep.
Piss on you.
Go on.
( He bends and pours the beer into BRENDAN’s face.)
Go on.
Drink it.
Drink my piss.
BRENDAN:
No, Pop,
No
I don’t like....
JIMMY:
Go ahead you little pussy.
Go ahead.
Drink it.
Go ahead.
You drink it.
You drink it warm.
Warm.
Drink it warm.
Like piss.
(There is a pause as JIMMY stagers and slowly straightens himself. He look down at Brendan. JIMMY kicks BRENDAN who is still
writhing on the floor. )
JIMMY: (Wiping him mouth with the back of his sleeve.)
Cry Baby.
(beat)
(quietly)
Fuck.
Ahm gone down to Sharkies.
Pussy kid
(JIMMY exits.)
_______________________________________
(Brendan remains lit DSC as the chorus speaks.)
SCENE
CHORUS
THERE was a child went forth every day;
And the first object he look’d upon, that object he became;
And that object became part of him for the day, or a certain part of the day, or for many years, or stretching cycles of years.
The early lilacs became part of this child,
And grass, and white and red morning-glories, and white and red clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird,
( BRENDAN slowly rises from the floor and comes downstage.)
BRENDAN:
Was I a good son?
You tell me.
Oh, I did everything a good son would do.
I was out there every day.
In fall, out there arching that goal post pass.
In winter, sinking that final basket.
In spring, that grasping outing glove.
Just for him
Football
Basketball
Baseball
(beat)
The touchdown.
The basket
The run…
Out there ready
Always ready.
Always
I loved him.
How much I loved him.
Did he love me?
(beat)
Could he love me?
(beat)
I don't know.
In all ways.
There was no better son.
_________________________________________________________
SCENE (continues)
BRENDAN: What was there at home?
What was there at school?
Seeing JACKIE was the only time I felt like something.
Seeing JACKIE was the only thing that felt good.
The only thing that.....
(beat)
That,
(beat)
I don't know.
(beat)
The only thing.
(BRENDAN facing the audience and calling from stage left.)
BRENDAN: JACKIE, hey, JACKIE, you home?
JACKIE: Yeh. What's up?
BRENDAN: Got a minute?
JACKIE: Sure. I'll be right out.
(JACKIE and BRENDAN move center stage.)
BRENDAN. Hey, how's it goin'?
JACKIE:
(beat)
Whoa! Hey, what happened to you?
BRENDAN: Oh, got tackled I guess.
JACKIE: Sure looks like it.
You like to get beat up like that?
BRENDAN: Hey,
That's part of the game.
JACKIE: I suppose so.
(beat)
So, what’s up?
BRENDAN: I just wanted to tell you..
The test.
The essay test.
I passed.
Passed with a "C",
But I passed.
I gotta say.
You really helped me make sense of that poem.
JACKIE: Sure. No problem.
BRENDAN: No really.
You helped me a lot.
JACKIE: It's ok.
(beat)
BRENDAN: Yeh.
JACKIE:
So,
Now you can play.
Play in the game..
BRENDAN:
Yeh.
I can play.
Makes my old man happy.
JACKIE: See,
I told you you could do it.
BRENDAN:
Yeh,
You did.
JACKIE:
So, you're on your own now.
BRENDAN:
On my own?
JACKIE:
Yeh, you passed the test.
You get the poem.
You see what it means.
BRENDAN:
Oh,
Yeh,
(beat)
Well.
Well, we can still talk, right?
JACKIE:
Sure.
BRENDAN:
Yeh.
JACKIE: And you won't have to worry about your friends.
BRENDAN:
Worry about my friends?
JACKIE:
Look,
I know.
BRENDAN:
I....
JACKIE:
You don't have to explain.
BRENDAN:
But.
(beat)
Oh,
What do they know?
(beat)
Look, I was thinking.
Maybe,
Maybe, I would like to borrow that book.
JACKIE: You mean the Whitman?
BRENDAN: Yeh, the one our poem in class came from.
JACKIE: Really? You want to read it?
BRENDAN: Yeh, can I?
JACKIE: Sure.
Here.
(JACKIE hands BRENDAN the book and exits. Lights dim except on Brendan. To the audience:)
BRENDAN:
I borrowed the book.
I read it.
I read the book.
The whole book.
It was different.
Different than just the poem they gave us in school.
I read.
Page by page I read.
At first it wasn't easy.
But I kept on going.
At first there was nothing.
At first there was no point.
But then I knew
I knew why I read,
I read for JACKIE.
I wanted to read.
To read for him.
To read to tell him
To read to show him
To read.....
(beat)
Then, it happened
At a certain point
It happened
At a certain point.
It took me across
Took me across a bridge
Across a bridge
To someplace new.
First there were the words
Words not like words
Words people here don't say
Words
Then there was something in the sound.
The sound of the words
The sound of the words in my ears.
The sound of the words in my head.
And there was something in the feel.
Something like a beat
Something like a " tum,/ ta , tum / ta , tum."
I felt it.
I felt it inside me.
And, then, in a funny way.
In a funny way,
Things began to make sense.
There was a deeper sound.
A sound inside me.
The words seemed to fit.
The words seemed to by my words.
Words I didn't know I had.
(Brendan reads from Calamus)
Not heat flames up and consumes,
Not sea-waves hurry in and out,
Not the air, delicious and dry, the air of the ripe summer, bears lightly along white down-balls of myriads of seeds,
Wafted, sailing gracefully, to drop where they may;
Not these—O none of these, more than the flames of me, consuming, burning for his love whom I love! 5
O none, more than I, hurrying in and out:
—Does the tide hurry, seeking something, and never give up? O I the same;
O nor down-balls, nor perfumes, nor the high, rain-emitting clouds, are borne through the open air,
Any more than my Soul is borne through the open air,
Wafted in all directions, O love, for friendship, for you.
(WW Not Heat Flames.)
__________________________________
BRENDAN: Yes, I talked to Jackie
Yes, I saw him almost every day.
Always after school.
At his house.
On his front stoop.
I called.
I called to him
"Jackie, you there?"
Called to the front window
Called and he was there
We talked on the stoop
We talked in his room
We talked to each other
We talked as friends.
But always alone.
And never in class
Never at lunch
Never in the halls.
Never in the lockers.
(beat)
Still, somehow they must have seen me.
My friends must have seen me.
(beat)
My friends.
My friends in class.
My friends on the field.
My friends in the hall.
All the people I knew.
People who liked me.
Who said they liked me.
They knew
(stop)
So, then at school.
(Lights up on the chorus.)
CHORUS
1. you hang around with that guy?
2. Don't be fooling around with that stuff.
3. You know what those guys are like.
4. Yeh, "fairy nice fella."
1. Sick
2. Kick his ass.
3. Man, don't even say it.
4. Plays on the other side of the fence.
1. Fuckin' homos
2. You know what he wants.
3. Queers.
4. Don't even say it.
-----------------------------------------------------
SCENE
BRENDAN:
They spoke
They had something to say.
I heard them
I knew what they said.
I knew them
I knew me.
Where else could I go?
Where else could I be?
Only BRENDAN
BRENDAN
Who else was there?
Who else?
Who else talked to me?
Really talked to me?
To me?
(beat)
Could I go home?
Home?
What was at home?
(beat)
There was my dad.
My dad and those Friday nights.
Those Friday nights together.
Friday nights on the couch.
Friday night in front of the TV.
The Friday night fights.
Just him and me.
Just him and me.
We watched every fight.
On a left hook...
JIMMY:
“What the fuck” .
BRENDAN:
A slip.....
JIMMY:
“What’s wrong with that asshole?”
BRENDAN.
We’re together.
Father and son.
He talks.
He talks.
But not to me.
To the screen..
To the voice.
To the ring.
He talks to the TV.
But he never talks to me.
Fixed on the screen.
He never looks my way.
Never see his eyes.
JIMMY: ( he is smoking a cigarette.)
Now, that was a fight!
Hey, get me another beer, will ya, BRENDAN?
Need another beer after that fight.
(Brendan goes for another beer.)
Marciano, man.
I’m tellin’ you. Them guinnie wops and them cullerds.
They know how ta fight.
These guys really have it down!
( Jimmy opens the bottle. Sips. Spits out the beer.)
JIMMY :
What the f…….
This beer’s hot!
BRENDAN:
Shouldn’t be.
JIMMY:
I said, it’s hot.
BRENDAN:
But...
JIMMY:
You counterdictin' me?
BRENDAN:
No, pop…..
JIMMY: (JIMMY slowly rises from his chair and advances toward BRENDAN.)
What you say?
BRENDAN:
Nothin' Pop.
JIMMY:
(Jimmy, with the cigarette between his teeth, begins to slap Brendan, one side then the other with each exchange.)
You counterdictin' me?
(slap)
What’s your problem?
(slap)
What’s your problem, boy?
(slap)
BRENDAN:
I got it from the frige…..
JIMMY:
This beer’s fuckin hot.
(he grabs BRENDAN by the arm, twists it behind him)
BRENDAN: (imploring.)
It didn’t feel warm when I picked it up.
JIMMY:
Didn’t feel warm?
(beat)
Didn’t feel warm?
(twists BRENDAN’s arm tighter.)
You dumb shit!
Stupid cunt!
What the fuck you know?
BRENDAN:
Please, Pop.
No!
JIMMY:
What the fuck you know?
(beat)
You like warm beer?
Warm?
You like it warm?
Wanna know what the fuck warm is?
Heh?
Ya wannah know?
Wanna know?
BRENDAN:
No, Pa,
No.
JIMMY: (He raises the cigarette. )
You want warm.
Here’s warm.
(beat)
Here’s warm.
Here’s fuckin’ hot.
(JIMMY presses his lit cigarette into BRENDAN’s neck. )
(BRENDAN writhes and slips to the floor. )
JIMMY:
You stupid fuckin' girly cunt!
JIMMY: (becoming even more possessed and fitful goes back for the bottle of beer.)
You can't get nothin’ right?
Nothin'.
(beat)
You’re like your ol’ lady.
that stupid bitch.
A stupid bitch....
Gin whore....
Gin whore went runnin' off.
(BRENDAN is still on the floor.)
(beat)
JIMMY: (Putting his foot on BRENDAN’S chest and pouring the beer in his face.)
Here you little creep.
Piss on you.
Go on.
( He bends and pours the beer into BRENDAN’s face.)
Go on.
Drink it.
Drink my piss.
BRENDAN:
No, Pop,
No
I don’t like....
JIMMY:
Go ahead you little pussy.
Go ahead.
Drink it.
Go ahead.
You drink it.
You drink it warm.
Warm.
Drink it warm.
Like piss.
(There is a pause as JIMMY stagers and slowly straightens himself. He look down at Brendan. JIMMY kicks BRENDAN who is still
writhing on the floor. )
JIMMY: (Wiping him mouth with the back of his sleeve.)
Cry Baby.
(beat)
(quietly)
Fuck.
Ahm gone down to Sharkies.
Pussy kid
(JIMMY exits.)
_______________________________________
(Brendan remains lit DSC as the chorus speaks.)
SCENE
CHORUS
THERE was a child went forth every day;
And the first object he look’d upon, that object he became;
And that object became part of him for the day, or a certain part of the day, or for many years, or stretching cycles of years.
The early lilacs became part of this child,
And grass, and white and red morning-glories, and white and red clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird,
( BRENDAN slowly rises from the floor and comes downstage.)
BRENDAN:
Was I a good son?
You tell me.
Oh, I did everything a good son would do.
I was out there every day.
In fall, out there arching that goal post pass.
In winter, sinking that final basket.
In spring, that grasping outing glove.
Just for him
Football
Basketball
Baseball
(beat)
The touchdown.
The basket
The run…
Out there ready
Always ready.
Always
I loved him.
How much I loved him.
Did he love me?
(beat)
Could he love me?
(beat)
I don't know.
In all ways.
There was no better son.
_________________________________________________________
SCENE (continues)
BRENDAN: What was there at home?
What was there at school?
Seeing JACKIE was the only time I felt like something.
Seeing JACKIE was the only thing that felt good.
The only thing that.....
(beat)
That,
(beat)
I don't know.
(beat)
The only thing.
(BRENDAN facing the audience and calling from stage left.)
BRENDAN: JACKIE, hey, JACKIE, you home?
JACKIE: Yeh. What's up?
BRENDAN: Got a minute?
JACKIE: Sure. I'll be right out.
(JACKIE and BRENDAN move center stage.)
BRENDAN. Hey, how's it goin'?
JACKIE:
(beat)
Whoa! Hey, what happened to you?
BRENDAN: Oh, got tackled I guess.
JACKIE: Sure looks like it.
You like to get beat up like that?
BRENDAN: Hey,
That's part of the game.
JACKIE: I suppose so.
(beat)
So, what’s up?
BRENDAN: I just wanted to tell you..
The test.
The essay test.
I passed.
Passed with a "C",
But I passed.
I gotta say.
You really helped me make sense of that poem.
JACKIE: Sure. No problem.
BRENDAN: No really.
You helped me a lot.
JACKIE: It's ok.
(beat)
BRENDAN: Yeh.
JACKIE:
So,
Now you can play.
Play in the game..
BRENDAN:
Yeh.
I can play.
Makes my old man happy.
JACKIE: See,
I told you you could do it.
BRENDAN:
Yeh,
You did.
JACKIE:
So, you're on your own now.
BRENDAN:
On my own?
JACKIE:
Yeh, you passed the test.
You get the poem.
You see what it means.
BRENDAN:
Oh,
Yeh,
(beat)
Well.
Well, we can still talk, right?
JACKIE:
Sure.
BRENDAN:
Yeh.
JACKIE: And you won't have to worry about your friends.
BRENDAN:
Worry about my friends?
JACKIE:
Look,
I know.
BRENDAN:
I....
JACKIE:
You don't have to explain.
BRENDAN:
But.
(beat)
Oh,
What do they know?
(beat)
Look, I was thinking.
Maybe,
Maybe, I would like to borrow that book.
JACKIE: You mean the Whitman?
BRENDAN: Yeh, the one our poem in class came from.
JACKIE: Really? You want to read it?
BRENDAN: Yeh, can I?
JACKIE: Sure.
Here.
(JACKIE hands BRENDAN the book and exits. Lights dim except on Brendan. To the audience:)
BRENDAN:
I borrowed the book.
I read it.
I read the book.
The whole book.
It was different.
Different than just the poem they gave us in school.
I read.
Page by page I read.
At first it wasn't easy.
But I kept on going.
At first there was nothing.
At first there was no point.
But then I knew
I knew why I read,
I read for JACKIE.
I wanted to read.
To read for him.
To read to tell him
To read to show him
To read.....
(beat)
Then, it happened
At a certain point
It happened
At a certain point.
It took me across
Took me across a bridge
Across a bridge
To someplace new.
First there were the words
Words not like words
Words people here don't say
Words
Then there was something in the sound.
The sound of the words
The sound of the words in my ears.
The sound of the words in my head.
And there was something in the feel.
Something like a beat
Something like a " tum,/ ta , tum / ta , tum."
I felt it.
I felt it inside me.
And, then, in a funny way.
In a funny way,
Things began to make sense.
There was a deeper sound.
A sound inside me.
The words seemed to fit.
The words seemed to by my words.
Words I didn't know I had.
(Brendan reads from Calamus)
Not heat flames up and consumes,
Not sea-waves hurry in and out,
Not the air, delicious and dry, the air of the ripe summer, bears lightly along white down-balls of myriads of seeds,
Wafted, sailing gracefully, to drop where they may;
Not these—O none of these, more than the flames of me, consuming, burning for his love whom I love! 5
O none, more than I, hurrying in and out:
—Does the tide hurry, seeking something, and never give up? O I the same;
O nor down-balls, nor perfumes, nor the high, rain-emitting clouds, are borne through the open air,
Any more than my Soul is borne through the open air,
Wafted in all directions, O love, for friendship, for you.
(WW Not Heat Flames.)
__________________________________
SCENE
(transition)
SCENE
CHORUS ( the chorus speaks in an echo Woman first, men second.)
1. (women) Brick homes.
1. (men) Brick homes.
2. Row homes.
2.Row homes.
3.Shoulder to shoulder
3.Shoulder t o shoulder.
4. Rib to rib.
4. Rib to rib.
1. One window out front
1.One window out front.
2.One window out back.
2. One window out back
3. A view of the alley
4. A view of the street
1. A white marble stoop.
------------------------------
(Lights up center stage. Marie holds the gun. Light up stage left on Jack.)
MARIE:
JACK, Do we really gotta keep this thing in here?
JACK: Don’t start with that again MARIE. You know what I gotta say about it,
MARIE: It’s just that…..
JACK: It’s just that.
It’s just that.
And that’s all there is to it.
JACK: (comes down the steps from the stage and addresses the audience directly.)
A gun? Yeh, I always kept a gun.
Always.
You know it’s the final word.
A gun says, “you can’ push me around”.
“You can’t take what’s mine:”
An' that's why they don' like it.
And I ain’t talking just about your dagos and cullerds and portarickins.
I'm talkin' about the govvament.
The govvament.
They don' like real men havin' no guns.
Why?
Why?
"Cause they's afraid.
Afraid a real men that make this country.
Jus' look aroun'
Look aroun' ya I sez.
That Rosevelt
That Rosevelt and then that Truman.
Them Democrats
Them Democrats sold us out.
Sold us out to the Reds,
Look what it got us.
Look at Germany.
Look at Poland.
I know
The Pollack fellas tol' me all about it.
Look at Korea.
I know.
Korea
I was there.
I was there with a wife an' a baby kid.
I saw all that stuff.
All of it.
Sold us out.
Sold out.
(beat)
But nobody's sellin me out.
Nobody's fuckin me up the ass.
I keep that gun
Keep that gun for when they come
An’ you know they’re comin’
They’re all part of it down there in Washington.
Look what they done to Joe McCarthy last year.
They shut him up.
Shut him up good.
They ain't doin' that ta me.
Yeh, so that’s why I have a gun.
And I have a right to.
I know it.
You can’t hold that against me.
I talked to the boys about it.
They all agree.
Most of ‘em have guns too.
No crime.
No crime an’ I know it.
JACK ( to MARIE)
Put it back MARIE.
Jus’ leave it.
Jus’ leave it where I left it.
SCENE
CHORUS
Come, said my soul,
Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,)
That should I after return,
Or, long, long hence, in other spheres,
There to some group of mates the chants resuming,
(Tallying Earth's soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,)
Ever with pleas'd smile I may keep on,
Ever and ever yet the verses owning--as, first, I here and now
Signing for Soul and Body, set to them my name,
__________________________________________________
BRENDAN:
So, now.
Now, let me show you that last day.
You may not want to see that day.
You may not want to face it.
You may not want to face that world
A world you may remember.
A world you chose to forget
But it was my world.
The last day of my world.
The last day.
That last day at school.
The day that changed it all.
The day that changed everything.
The day when I knew what I was.
(beat)
No,
Not what I was...
(beat)
Who I was.
SCENE
(We see JACKIE with books in his hand. He is up stage. The CHORUS moves from the floor level to the stage as they verbally
attack JACKIE. They engulf him. )
(sarcastic and syrupy)
1. Hey look, it’s the poem boy.
2. He knows the answers.
4. Got all the answers right.
3. He knows the answers.
4. He reads poems
5. Pretty poems
6. Pretty boy.
(beat)
(Now, viciously.)
7. Faggot
JACKIE: NO!!!
8. Queer.
9. Ass fuck
10. Adam and Eve
JACKIE: I'm not!
(We see Jackie falling to the floor., attacked by their words. JACKIE finds his own words ad lib. in response to the verbal attacks
The CHORUS returns to their place on the floor below the stage and continues:.)
1. Not Adam and Steve
1. Get outta here.
4. Creep
5. Queer
6. Fairy
1. Ass fuck.
JACKIE: No!
2. What a pansy
3. Girly boy
4. Looser
1. We
(stomp)
2. don’t want
(stomp)
3. your kind
(stomp)
4. 'round here.
(stomp)
( the cries escalate – they are animal cries.)
1 and 2. We don’t want
(They stomp with their feet.))
3 and 4 you’re kind
(stomp)
1,2,3,4 Round here
(stomp)
(The foot stomping continues with greater ferocity between each line.)
1, 2, 3, 4/. Round here. Round here.
We don’t want.
1,2 : No faggots
3,4, No Queers.
1,2,3,4 Round here.
CHORUS and JACKIE:
NO!
(STOMP!)
(BRENDAN has been watching from stage left. JACKIE rises. BRENDAN moves stage center as JACKIE looks at him and exits SR.)
____________________________________________
SCENE
BRENDAN: (SC)
And where was I that day?
Where was I?
I let him stand there.
I let him stand there for ....
(beat)
Why didn't I ?
Why didn't I stop them?
Why didn't I .....
(beat)
Who were they talking about?
Who ....?
(beat)
He gave me.....
(beat)
It wasn't just him.
He's not the only one.
Who were they screaming at?
(beat)
I wanted to join them.
I wanted to .....
(beat)
God damn it!
Why?
What's wrong with me!?
(beat)
Why?
Why?
Why do I have to be this.
Why do I have to ….
Why can’t I be…..
It’s not fair.
It’s not fair.
Who did this?
Is it God who did this?
Is this from God?
(BRENDAN looks up to the heavens.)
Did you do this?
Did you?
Why?
Why?
Am I some joke?
What – so you’re playing a joke.
Answer me!
Damn you,
Answer me!
Am I a joke?
You hear me?
Answer me!
You think it’s funny?
You think it's funny?
Huh! Huh,
Is it funny?
Funny!?
(beat)
Well, fuck you.
(Fuck god.) Line may be omitted.
(to the audience)
Fuck all of you.
Tell your faggot jokes.
Spit at the homos.
Beat up on the queers.
Beat their fuckin faces.
Kick their pussy asses.
Go ahead.
Go ahead.
I’ll join you,
I’ll beat their fuckin’ faces in.
I’ll kick them in their twisted balls.
I hate those fuckin' faggots.
I hate them!
Do you hear me?
I hate them!
Yeh,
I’m with you!
(He beats his head with his fist)
I’m with you.
________________________________________
(transition)
SCENE
CHORUS ( the chorus speaks in an echo Woman first, men second.)
1. (women) Brick homes.
1. (men) Brick homes.
2. Row homes.
2.Row homes.
3.Shoulder to shoulder
3.Shoulder t o shoulder.
4. Rib to rib.
4. Rib to rib.
1. One window out front
1.One window out front.
2.One window out back.
2. One window out back
3. A view of the alley
4. A view of the street
1. A white marble stoop.
------------------------------
(Lights up center stage. Marie holds the gun. Light up stage left on Jack.)
MARIE:
JACK, Do we really gotta keep this thing in here?
JACK: Don’t start with that again MARIE. You know what I gotta say about it,
MARIE: It’s just that…..
JACK: It’s just that.
It’s just that.
And that’s all there is to it.
JACK: (comes down the steps from the stage and addresses the audience directly.)
A gun? Yeh, I always kept a gun.
Always.
You know it’s the final word.
A gun says, “you can’ push me around”.
“You can’t take what’s mine:”
An' that's why they don' like it.
And I ain’t talking just about your dagos and cullerds and portarickins.
I'm talkin' about the govvament.
The govvament.
They don' like real men havin' no guns.
Why?
Why?
"Cause they's afraid.
Afraid a real men that make this country.
Jus' look aroun'
Look aroun' ya I sez.
That Rosevelt
That Rosevelt and then that Truman.
Them Democrats
Them Democrats sold us out.
Sold us out to the Reds,
Look what it got us.
Look at Germany.
Look at Poland.
I know
The Pollack fellas tol' me all about it.
Look at Korea.
I know.
Korea
I was there.
I was there with a wife an' a baby kid.
I saw all that stuff.
All of it.
Sold us out.
Sold out.
(beat)
But nobody's sellin me out.
Nobody's fuckin me up the ass.
I keep that gun
Keep that gun for when they come
An’ you know they’re comin’
They’re all part of it down there in Washington.
Look what they done to Joe McCarthy last year.
They shut him up.
Shut him up good.
They ain't doin' that ta me.
Yeh, so that’s why I have a gun.
And I have a right to.
I know it.
You can’t hold that against me.
I talked to the boys about it.
They all agree.
Most of ‘em have guns too.
No crime.
No crime an’ I know it.
JACK ( to MARIE)
Put it back MARIE.
Jus’ leave it.
Jus’ leave it where I left it.
SCENE
CHORUS
Come, said my soul,
Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,)
That should I after return,
Or, long, long hence, in other spheres,
There to some group of mates the chants resuming,
(Tallying Earth's soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,)
Ever with pleas'd smile I may keep on,
Ever and ever yet the verses owning--as, first, I here and now
Signing for Soul and Body, set to them my name,
__________________________________________________
BRENDAN:
So, now.
Now, let me show you that last day.
You may not want to see that day.
You may not want to face it.
You may not want to face that world
A world you may remember.
A world you chose to forget
But it was my world.
The last day of my world.
The last day.
That last day at school.
The day that changed it all.
The day that changed everything.
The day when I knew what I was.
(beat)
No,
Not what I was...
(beat)
Who I was.
SCENE
(We see JACKIE with books in his hand. He is up stage. The CHORUS moves from the floor level to the stage as they verbally
attack JACKIE. They engulf him. )
(sarcastic and syrupy)
1. Hey look, it’s the poem boy.
2. He knows the answers.
4. Got all the answers right.
3. He knows the answers.
4. He reads poems
5. Pretty poems
6. Pretty boy.
(beat)
(Now, viciously.)
7. Faggot
JACKIE: NO!!!
8. Queer.
9. Ass fuck
10. Adam and Eve
JACKIE: I'm not!
(We see Jackie falling to the floor., attacked by their words. JACKIE finds his own words ad lib. in response to the verbal attacks
The CHORUS returns to their place on the floor below the stage and continues:.)
1. Not Adam and Steve
1. Get outta here.
4. Creep
5. Queer
6. Fairy
1. Ass fuck.
JACKIE: No!
2. What a pansy
3. Girly boy
4. Looser
1. We
(stomp)
2. don’t want
(stomp)
3. your kind
(stomp)
4. 'round here.
(stomp)
( the cries escalate – they are animal cries.)
1 and 2. We don’t want
(They stomp with their feet.))
3 and 4 you’re kind
(stomp)
1,2,3,4 Round here
(stomp)
(The foot stomping continues with greater ferocity between each line.)
1, 2, 3, 4/. Round here. Round here.
We don’t want.
1,2 : No faggots
3,4, No Queers.
1,2,3,4 Round here.
CHORUS and JACKIE:
NO!
(STOMP!)
(BRENDAN has been watching from stage left. JACKIE rises. BRENDAN moves stage center as JACKIE looks at him and exits SR.)
____________________________________________
SCENE
BRENDAN: (SC)
And where was I that day?
Where was I?
I let him stand there.
I let him stand there for ....
(beat)
Why didn't I ?
Why didn't I stop them?
Why didn't I .....
(beat)
Who were they talking about?
Who ....?
(beat)
He gave me.....
(beat)
It wasn't just him.
He's not the only one.
Who were they screaming at?
(beat)
I wanted to join them.
I wanted to .....
(beat)
God damn it!
Why?
What's wrong with me!?
(beat)
Why?
Why?
Why do I have to be this.
Why do I have to ….
Why can’t I be…..
It’s not fair.
It’s not fair.
Who did this?
Is it God who did this?
Is this from God?
(BRENDAN looks up to the heavens.)
Did you do this?
Did you?
Why?
Why?
Am I some joke?
What – so you’re playing a joke.
Answer me!
Damn you,
Answer me!
Am I a joke?
You hear me?
Answer me!
You think it’s funny?
You think it's funny?
Huh! Huh,
Is it funny?
Funny!?
(beat)
Well, fuck you.
(Fuck god.) Line may be omitted.
(to the audience)
Fuck all of you.
Tell your faggot jokes.
Spit at the homos.
Beat up on the queers.
Beat their fuckin faces.
Kick their pussy asses.
Go ahead.
Go ahead.
I’ll join you,
I’ll beat their fuckin’ faces in.
I’ll kick them in their twisted balls.
I hate those fuckin' faggots.
I hate them!
Do you hear me?
I hate them!
Yeh,
I’m with you!
(He beats his head with his fist)
I’m with you.
________________________________________
lights dim slightly on Brendan as he freezes in place. Lights come up on the
chorus as we hear:)
SCENE
CHORUS
1. O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are,
2. that I may be with you;
(lights black out on Brendan.)
3.As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same room with you,
4. Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me
(WW)
________________________________________________
SCENE
(We see Jackie in the chair to SR of the table. Head in his hands. He is sobbing violently. He has found his father's gun. He raises
the gun in his hands. He loads it ( with the stage cartridge) He looks at the gun thoughtfully. Then suddenly , BRENDAN appears,
SL)
BRENDAN:
Hey JACKIE!
JACKIE!
You home?
JACKIE:
( we see JACKIE stage right - hearing but ignoring, still looking at the gun.)
BRENDAN:
JACKIE!
Listen. I need to tell you something!
(beat)
Look.
I'm sorry.
(beat)
Really.
(beat)
I need to talk to you.
JACKIE: ( drops the gun on the table. He moves to his "window" position DSR.)
Yeh,
What is it?
BRENDAN:
Can I come in?
I just wanna....
JACKIE:
Why?
BRENDAN:
I just wanna...
JACKIE:
What do you want?
BRENDAN:
I just wanna tell you,
JACKIE:
Tell me what!?
BRENDAN:
Just wanna tell you.
I .....
Jackie.
Jackie.
I know,
I think I really know,
I know
You must feel alone.
I know it.
It's hard not to,
Not to feel alone.
And I want you to know…
Well,,,,
I didn’t know anyone else, anyone else like you who showed me something new.
Who showed me what you …… (Brendan puts his hands on Jackie’s shoulders.)
JACKIE: Yeh? Showed you what?
Showed you what?!
Well where the hell were you today?!
(beat)
Go back to your friends on the team.
BRENDAN:
Well, it’s not like the guys.
The guys on the team
They’re friends.
You know,
friends on the field.
Laughs in the lockeroom.
Laughs in the hall.
Just hangin’ out in the parking lot.
Never think much about other things,.
It's not like ...
Not like with you.
Not like with you and me.
(beat)
Can I tell you something?
Can I?
(beat)
It may seem stupid
But it's not.
I mean,
Well,
(beat)
You know..
(beat)
You ever look at the stars?
You ever wonder....?
(beat)
You know,
After practice,
After practice when I’m walking home.
Or when I'm walkin'
Walking home after the game.
Walking home when it gets dark.
I look up at the stars.
You know how I like looking at the stars.
And I see those few stars
Those few stars you can see in a city night sky.
I imagine up there someone like me.
Some one like me on his way home.
On his way home up there on one of those stars.
He would be my twin.
My twin looking down at me.
A twin.
You ever think about a twin?
(beat)
Funny isn’t it.
Funny to think that’s he’s looking down.
Because…. Think about it
He’d be looking up too.
.. I wonder if he made the same mistake.
.
JACKIE:
Who knows?
Maybe he is out there somewhere.
BRENDAN:
And, You know, this book,
This book,
\Well
……
JACKIE:
You read the poems?
Read them on your own?
BRENDAN:
Yeh, I did
I read them.
I read them on my own.
And I think
I think I see.
JACK:
See?
See what?
BRENDAN:
Something.
I think I see something.
JACKIE: So, tell me.
BRENDAN: I don't really know
JACKIE: So, what are you saying?
BRENDAN: I don't know.
But .....
JACKIE: But what?
Look, Brendan, what do you want?
(beat)
BRENDAN: Can I read something?
Read something for you?
JACKIE: You want to read for me?
BRENDAN: A poem.
JACKIE: You're going to read me a poem?
BRENDAN: Yeh. Can I?
JACKIE: I guess. Sure. Why not?
BRENDAN: ( he reads)
We two boys together clinging,
One the other never leaving,
Up and down the roads going, North and South excursions making,
Power enjoying, elbows stretching, fingers clutching,
Arm'd and fearless, eating, drinking, sleeping, loving.
( Whitman: Calamus)
JACKIE: I don't remember that one.
BRENDAN:
You don't?
JACKIE: No, I don't.
BRENDAN: Well....
(beat)
You know,
I…..
Well….
The two boys…
I think….
Well…
I think….
(beat)
(then suddenly)
I think they’re like you and me.
JACKIE:
Like you and me?
How do you figure that?
BRENDAN:
Well,
You know,
Like those guys today.
You know.
Like what they said to you.
JACKIE:
BRENDAN,
They’re wrong.
They may think that,
But, really,
They’re wrong.
BRENDAN:
But…
But, I thought you..
I mean the way you like poems and books and reading and things.
I thought
BRENDAN: I thought you….
_____________________________________________________________________________
(Simultaneously)
BRENDAN: were like me.
JACKIE: they’re wrong.
(Silence)
JACKIE:
I was like you…?
BRENDAN:
(Silence)
JACKIE: You mean you're....
(beat)
BRENDAN:
JACKIE,
You’re not …..
You’re not gonna tell….
JACKIE, I….
I…..
(BRENDAN breaks down in tears.)
No,
No,
No, no, no.
Why?
Why?
(He falls to the floor sobbing violently.)
JACKIE:
BRENDAN.
BRENDAN
It doesn’t matter.
Listen to me.
It doesn’t matter.
(violently)
BRENDAN!
BRENDAN:
No,
No,
Why?
I don’t want this.
I didn’t ask for this.
JACKIE:
BRENDAN,
‘Come on.
Come on, man.
It’s ok
It’s ok
I’m your friend.
(beat)
I’m your friend.
Your friend…
(JACKIE bends down to raise up BRENDAN.
They move slowly,
BRENDAN looks directly into JACKIE’s eyes.
He holds him in his gaze. BRENDAN moves his face close to JACKIE .
BRENDAN: ( silently or very faintly)
JACKIE.
(at the same time as the above, JACK enters.
He is coming home after work.
He carries his lunch box and a newspaper rolled up.
JACK reaches center stage.)
JACK: What the ………….
(slowly) You,,, God.. Damn…. Queer.
I knew it.
I knew it
I blow your fuckin’ brains out.
You goddam queer.
(He sees the gun that JACKIE has left on the table. He picks it up.)
No son of mine!
Faggot! Faggot!
God damn queer!
(He raises the gun.)
JACKIE:
Dad!
Dad!
JACK: NO !
NO !
(beat)
No son a mine!
SCENE
(JACK is immobilized by his own threat.
BRENDAN rushes forward. He grabs the gun.
They all freeze in mutual disbelief.
BRENDAN rushes off with the gun.
The stage goes black . JACK and JACKIE exit.
_________________________________________________
SCENE
BRENDAN rushes back to DSC in the dark.
Then, he is lit center stage.
CHORUS lit dimly Main light is on BRENDAN.
We hear the torments:
1. Faggot
2. Queer.
3. Adam and Eve
4. Not Adam and Steve
5. Get outta here.
6. Creep
7. Queer
8. Fairy
2. What a pansy
3. Girly boy
4. Looser
1. We
(stomp)
2. don’t want
(stomp)
3. your kind
(stomp)
4. 'round here.
(stomp)
( the cries escalate – they are animal cries.)
ALL: We don’t want
you’re kind
Round here
Round here.
Round here.
We don’t want.
1: 2: : No faggots
3,4, No Queers.
1,2,3,4 Round here.
ALL: Round here
Round here!
All: NO!
(The vowel “O” becomes a wail, a dissonant chord that becomes louder and louder.
( As the torments grow louder BRENDAN raises the gun to his head. Suddenly – and simultaneously, BRENDAN has the gun in his
hand. He is panting. He is driven. Suddenly, as the chorus reaches the desired level, the sound stops, the stage goes black and
BRENDAN fires the gun. He ends the torment. )
Immediate Blackout with the shot.
________________________________________________________________
SCENE
(slowly timed pause)
CHORUS ( Lights rise slowly on the CHORUS.)
1.The war is completed-the price is paid-the title is settled beyond recall;)
2.Let every one answer! let those who sleep be waked! let none evade!
3. Must we still go on with our affectations and sneaking?
4. Let me bring this to a close-I pronounce openly for a new distribution of
roles;
5.Let that which stood in front go behind! and let that which was behind
advance to the front and speak;
6.Let murderers, bigots, fools, unclean persons, offer new propositions!
7. Let the old propositions be postponed!
(Each character appears on the far left and far right, lit in a single beam.)
JIMMY:(SL) That kid's gonna be a winner
Major leagues
Big time
World's not gonna shoot him in the ass like it done me.
Not gonna get shot in the ass like me
Not like me
Not like me
I'll tell ya
JACK: (SR)
Lots 'a fellas keep a gun in the house.
Lots 'a fellas.
MARIE: (SR next to JACK)
What about my boy?
Him too?
Is he not right?
BRENDAN: (appears center stage down.)
Reading from Leaves of Grass:
WHEN I read the book, the biography famous,
And is this, then, (said I,) what the author calls a man’s life?
And so will some one, when I am dead and gone, write my life?
(As if any man really knew aught of my life;
Why, even I myself, I often think, know little or nothing of my real life; 5
Only a few hints—a few diffused, faint clues and indirections,
I seek, for my own use, to trace out here.)
Judging others
Easy to judge
Easy to judge others
Do you know these voices?
Have you heard them?
Our voices.
Your voices
Voices we all hear
They are not silent.
(JACKIE enters next to BRENDAN.)
JACKIE: (reading)
WHEN lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d—and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
O ever-returning spring! trinity sure to me you bring;
Lilac blooming perennial, and drooping star in the west,
and thought of him I love.
_______________________________________________
(JACKIE turns toward BREDNAN.
LIGHTS DOWN.)
SCENE
CHORUS
1. O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are,
2. that I may be with you;
(lights black out on Brendan.)
3.As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same room with you,
4. Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me
(WW)
________________________________________________
SCENE
(We see Jackie in the chair to SR of the table. Head in his hands. He is sobbing violently. He has found his father's gun. He raises
the gun in his hands. He loads it ( with the stage cartridge) He looks at the gun thoughtfully. Then suddenly , BRENDAN appears,
SL)
BRENDAN:
Hey JACKIE!
JACKIE!
You home?
JACKIE:
( we see JACKIE stage right - hearing but ignoring, still looking at the gun.)
BRENDAN:
JACKIE!
Listen. I need to tell you something!
(beat)
Look.
I'm sorry.
(beat)
Really.
(beat)
I need to talk to you.
JACKIE: ( drops the gun on the table. He moves to his "window" position DSR.)
Yeh,
What is it?
BRENDAN:
Can I come in?
I just wanna....
JACKIE:
Why?
BRENDAN:
I just wanna...
JACKIE:
What do you want?
BRENDAN:
I just wanna tell you,
JACKIE:
Tell me what!?
BRENDAN:
Just wanna tell you.
I .....
Jackie.
Jackie.
I know,
I think I really know,
I know
You must feel alone.
I know it.
It's hard not to,
Not to feel alone.
And I want you to know…
Well,,,,
I didn’t know anyone else, anyone else like you who showed me something new.
Who showed me what you …… (Brendan puts his hands on Jackie’s shoulders.)
JACKIE: Yeh? Showed you what?
Showed you what?!
Well where the hell were you today?!
(beat)
Go back to your friends on the team.
BRENDAN:
Well, it’s not like the guys.
The guys on the team
They’re friends.
You know,
friends on the field.
Laughs in the lockeroom.
Laughs in the hall.
Just hangin’ out in the parking lot.
Never think much about other things,.
It's not like ...
Not like with you.
Not like with you and me.
(beat)
Can I tell you something?
Can I?
(beat)
It may seem stupid
But it's not.
I mean,
Well,
(beat)
You know..
(beat)
You ever look at the stars?
You ever wonder....?
(beat)
You know,
After practice,
After practice when I’m walking home.
Or when I'm walkin'
Walking home after the game.
Walking home when it gets dark.
I look up at the stars.
You know how I like looking at the stars.
And I see those few stars
Those few stars you can see in a city night sky.
I imagine up there someone like me.
Some one like me on his way home.
On his way home up there on one of those stars.
He would be my twin.
My twin looking down at me.
A twin.
You ever think about a twin?
(beat)
Funny isn’t it.
Funny to think that’s he’s looking down.
Because…. Think about it
He’d be looking up too.
.. I wonder if he made the same mistake.
.
JACKIE:
Who knows?
Maybe he is out there somewhere.
BRENDAN:
And, You know, this book,
This book,
\Well
……
JACKIE:
You read the poems?
Read them on your own?
BRENDAN:
Yeh, I did
I read them.
I read them on my own.
And I think
I think I see.
JACK:
See?
See what?
BRENDAN:
Something.
I think I see something.
JACKIE: So, tell me.
BRENDAN: I don't really know
JACKIE: So, what are you saying?
BRENDAN: I don't know.
But .....
JACKIE: But what?
Look, Brendan, what do you want?
(beat)
BRENDAN: Can I read something?
Read something for you?
JACKIE: You want to read for me?
BRENDAN: A poem.
JACKIE: You're going to read me a poem?
BRENDAN: Yeh. Can I?
JACKIE: I guess. Sure. Why not?
BRENDAN: ( he reads)
We two boys together clinging,
One the other never leaving,
Up and down the roads going, North and South excursions making,
Power enjoying, elbows stretching, fingers clutching,
Arm'd and fearless, eating, drinking, sleeping, loving.
( Whitman: Calamus)
JACKIE: I don't remember that one.
BRENDAN:
You don't?
JACKIE: No, I don't.
BRENDAN: Well....
(beat)
You know,
I…..
Well….
The two boys…
I think….
Well…
I think….
(beat)
(then suddenly)
I think they’re like you and me.
JACKIE:
Like you and me?
How do you figure that?
BRENDAN:
Well,
You know,
Like those guys today.
You know.
Like what they said to you.
JACKIE:
BRENDAN,
They’re wrong.
They may think that,
But, really,
They’re wrong.
BRENDAN:
But…
But, I thought you..
I mean the way you like poems and books and reading and things.
I thought
BRENDAN: I thought you….
_____________________________________________________________________________
(Simultaneously)
BRENDAN: were like me.
JACKIE: they’re wrong.
(Silence)
JACKIE:
I was like you…?
BRENDAN:
(Silence)
JACKIE: You mean you're....
(beat)
BRENDAN:
JACKIE,
You’re not …..
You’re not gonna tell….
JACKIE, I….
I…..
(BRENDAN breaks down in tears.)
No,
No,
No, no, no.
Why?
Why?
(He falls to the floor sobbing violently.)
JACKIE:
BRENDAN.
BRENDAN
It doesn’t matter.
Listen to me.
It doesn’t matter.
(violently)
BRENDAN!
BRENDAN:
No,
No,
Why?
I don’t want this.
I didn’t ask for this.
JACKIE:
BRENDAN,
‘Come on.
Come on, man.
It’s ok
It’s ok
I’m your friend.
(beat)
I’m your friend.
Your friend…
(JACKIE bends down to raise up BRENDAN.
They move slowly,
BRENDAN looks directly into JACKIE’s eyes.
He holds him in his gaze. BRENDAN moves his face close to JACKIE .
BRENDAN: ( silently or very faintly)
JACKIE.
(at the same time as the above, JACK enters.
He is coming home after work.
He carries his lunch box and a newspaper rolled up.
JACK reaches center stage.)
JACK: What the ………….
(slowly) You,,, God.. Damn…. Queer.
I knew it.
I knew it
I blow your fuckin’ brains out.
You goddam queer.
(He sees the gun that JACKIE has left on the table. He picks it up.)
No son of mine!
Faggot! Faggot!
God damn queer!
(He raises the gun.)
JACKIE:
Dad!
Dad!
JACK: NO !
NO !
(beat)
No son a mine!
SCENE
(JACK is immobilized by his own threat.
BRENDAN rushes forward. He grabs the gun.
They all freeze in mutual disbelief.
BRENDAN rushes off with the gun.
The stage goes black . JACK and JACKIE exit.
_________________________________________________
SCENE
BRENDAN rushes back to DSC in the dark.
Then, he is lit center stage.
CHORUS lit dimly Main light is on BRENDAN.
We hear the torments:
1. Faggot
2. Queer.
3. Adam and Eve
4. Not Adam and Steve
5. Get outta here.
6. Creep
7. Queer
8. Fairy
2. What a pansy
3. Girly boy
4. Looser
1. We
(stomp)
2. don’t want
(stomp)
3. your kind
(stomp)
4. 'round here.
(stomp)
( the cries escalate – they are animal cries.)
ALL: We don’t want
you’re kind
Round here
Round here.
Round here.
We don’t want.
1: 2: : No faggots
3,4, No Queers.
1,2,3,4 Round here.
ALL: Round here
Round here!
All: NO!
(The vowel “O” becomes a wail, a dissonant chord that becomes louder and louder.
( As the torments grow louder BRENDAN raises the gun to his head. Suddenly – and simultaneously, BRENDAN has the gun in his
hand. He is panting. He is driven. Suddenly, as the chorus reaches the desired level, the sound stops, the stage goes black and
BRENDAN fires the gun. He ends the torment. )
Immediate Blackout with the shot.
________________________________________________________________
SCENE
(slowly timed pause)
CHORUS ( Lights rise slowly on the CHORUS.)
1.The war is completed-the price is paid-the title is settled beyond recall;)
2.Let every one answer! let those who sleep be waked! let none evade!
3. Must we still go on with our affectations and sneaking?
4. Let me bring this to a close-I pronounce openly for a new distribution of
roles;
5.Let that which stood in front go behind! and let that which was behind
advance to the front and speak;
6.Let murderers, bigots, fools, unclean persons, offer new propositions!
7. Let the old propositions be postponed!
(Each character appears on the far left and far right, lit in a single beam.)
JIMMY:(SL) That kid's gonna be a winner
Major leagues
Big time
World's not gonna shoot him in the ass like it done me.
Not gonna get shot in the ass like me
Not like me
Not like me
I'll tell ya
JACK: (SR)
Lots 'a fellas keep a gun in the house.
Lots 'a fellas.
MARIE: (SR next to JACK)
What about my boy?
Him too?
Is he not right?
BRENDAN: (appears center stage down.)
Reading from Leaves of Grass:
WHEN I read the book, the biography famous,
And is this, then, (said I,) what the author calls a man’s life?
And so will some one, when I am dead and gone, write my life?
(As if any man really knew aught of my life;
Why, even I myself, I often think, know little or nothing of my real life; 5
Only a few hints—a few diffused, faint clues and indirections,
I seek, for my own use, to trace out here.)
Judging others
Easy to judge
Easy to judge others
Do you know these voices?
Have you heard them?
Our voices.
Your voices
Voices we all hear
They are not silent.
(JACKIE enters next to BRENDAN.)
JACKIE: (reading)
WHEN lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d—and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
O ever-returning spring! trinity sure to me you bring;
Lilac blooming perennial, and drooping star in the west,
and thought of him I love.
_______________________________________________
(JACKIE turns toward BREDNAN.
LIGHTS DOWN.)