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When Lilacs Last (NY Fringe) Act Two
_ACT TWO
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 issmoothing out the pages of his Whitman.)
CHORUS:
That shadow my likeness that goes to and fro seeking a livelihood,
chattering, chaffering,
How often I find myself standing and looking at it where it flits,
How often I question and doubt whether that is really me;
But among my lovers and caroling these songs,
O I never doubt whether that is really me.
(BRENDANenters.)
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 doneit 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? ( he laughs as himself.)
JACKIE:
Sorry, I didn't mean.
BRENDAN: No, it's
OK.
It's like you said before.
It's what people expect.
(Taps
himself on the head.)
Bucket head ( he laughs.)
JACKIE: Sorry.
BRENDAN: No,
really.
It's ok,
See,
I like looking up there
Like looking at the stars.
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: My dad
took us to the shore once.
BRENDAN: Never been
there.
Never even saw the ocean.
JACKIE: You've
never seen the ocean?
BRENDAN: Nope.
JACKIE: Really?
BRENDAN: Never.
(beat)
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 it 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...
( A long
pause.An uncomfortable silence.)
BRENDAN:(suddenly serious)Do
believe in God?
JACKIE:(taken aback by the abrupt
question.)Do I what?
BRENDAN: God?
Do you
believe in God?
JACKIE: Why do you ask that?
BRENDAN: Because, sometimes I wonder.
(beat)
JACKIE: Wonder what?
BRENDAN: I mean I wonder why?
I wonder
why things are
the way
they are?
(beat)
You
know...
Why some
people
some
people
are the
way they are.
JACKIE: They just are
that's
all.
BRENDAN: Yeh,
But do
you think...
Do you
think there is a plan?
JACKIE:A plan?
BRENDAN: Yeh,
You
know...
How they
say everythinghassome purpose...
A
reason....
JACKIE:(
indifferent) I doubt it.
BRENDAN: (continuing
without listening.)
I
mean,
Does he
make us
make us
the way we are?
JACKIE: Who?
BRENDAN: You know, God....
JACKIE:(deliberately) I think we make
ourselves.
BRENDAN: Just us?
JACKIE: Just us.
BRENDAN: So, then you don't..
Don't
believe in God.
JACKIE: No,
No, I
don't...
BRENDAN: Really?
You
don't?
JACKIE: No,
I don't.
BRENDAN: So, who made all this?
JACKIE: Nobody.
BRENDAN: Nobody?
JACKIE: Nobody.
(beat)
No,
Nobody...
(somewhat angrily.)
Why do
have to have somebody?
They're
just there
That's all.
It's
just that way!
BRENDAN: So, what about Jesus, and
saints....
(beat)
and the
pope?
JACKIE:
Brendan,
What are
you talking about?
It's all
stories.
All
stories
They're
just all stories.
BRENDAN: But what about when you die?
JACKIE: Nothing.
BRENDAN: Nothing?
JACKIE: You die.
BRENDAN: Nothing happens?
JACKIE: No,
Nothing
happens.
BRENDAN
Nothing,
(JACKIE pages through LEAVES OF GRASS.)
Look,
( he finds the page.)
Listen.
Let me read you this.
I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them,
And the white skeletons of young men, I saw
them,
I saw the debris and debris of all the slain
soldiers of the war,
But I saw they were not as was thought,
They themselves were fully at rest, they
suffer'd not,
The living remain'd and suffer'd, the mother
suffer'd,
And the wife and the child and the musing
comrade suffer'd,
(BRENDAN looks at JACKIE.A moment of still silence. )
BRENDAN: (recomposing himself)
So,
What a
dope.
(beat)
What am
I saying
What am
I saying,anyway?
Stupid
isn't it?
(He nudges Jackie with his
elbow.)
I'm just
a dope.
You
know,
Bucket
head jock.
BRENDAN: (thinks quietly for a moment.)
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 poetry stuff now.
I get it.
(beat)
You know.
I like talking to you.
Just talking to you.
I do.
(beat)
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 part of the poem.There's more, like I showed you and 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!!
JACKIE: Yeh.
BRENDAN: Whitman?
JACKIE: Yeh,
Walt Whitman.
BRENDAN: Whitman?
You mean the bridge guy?!
(beat)
JACKIE: Yeh.
BRENDAN: 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.
(beat)
You just read it.
Walt Whitman.
BRENDAN:
I didn't know that.
(beat)
JACKIE: But it's
right in our book.
In our book at school.
BRENDAN: Yeh,
maybe.
But I didn't know that!
JACKIE: You really
don't get it.
Do you. BRENDAN?
Look, Walt Whitman.
(he shows him
the book title.)
Here it is.
BRENDAN: 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 that's not all he wrote
he wrote other things.
BRENDAN:
Other things?
JACKIE:
Yes.... not just this poem.
BRENDAN:
So, what else?
JACKIE: What else?
(beat)
Other things.
I just read you some.
Some of what else he wrote.
BRENDAN: But that
was about soldiers.
About soldiers dying.
JACKIE: Yeh, Soldiers
Soldiers dying
But he also wrote about other things.
About soldiers loving.
BRENDAN: You mean that
stuff they’re all talking about?
(beat)
That faggot stuff?
JACKIE:
Yeh, if you want to,
Yeh,
That faggot stuff.
(beat)
Look, BRENDAN,
I just like to read.
I don’t listen to them.
I listen to this ( he points to
the book.)
This guy's talking.
He's talking to me.
BRENDAN: Yeh, but does
he really write about that stuff?
You know…
What they say?
JACKIE:
What they say?
They’re poems.
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.
(beat)
(BRENDAN
asks hopefully.)
Say,
You have time for a Cherry Coke down at Greenberg's?
JACKIE: (shakes his head,"No.")
BRENDAN: Sure?
JACKIE: Sure...
BRENDAN: Ok.
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.
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(Lights up
on the chorus.)
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(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'reon 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)
You know.
It's not just that poem.
Not just about Lilacs.
(beat)
You know....
The other things..
The other things too.
I mean about god and all.
JACKIE: Oh, forget
it.
I was just talking.,
BRENDAN: No,
really.
I've been thinking about that.
(beat)
That it's maybe just a joke....
(pause)
So, what
am I saying?
(BRENDAN gives a forced laugh.)
What am
I saying,anyway?
Stupid
isn't it?
(He nudges Jackie with his elbow.)
I'm just
a dope.
You
know,
Bucket
head jock.
(beat)
(Addressing Jackie again with a
different tone.)
Laugh!
(beat)
Go
ahead...
(Brendan pokes Jackie playfully
in the side.)
(beat)
Laugh!
(He pokes him again.)
(beat)
Come on
man!
(Another poke.)
You know
your problem?
(Brendan pokes at Jackie ad lib
with each line.)
You
don't get out.
Don't
get it.
You need
to get out...
Need to
get out.
Play a
little ball.
(Hecontinues to poke and tickle Jackie.)
Rough it
up a little bit.
(poke)
(Jackie squirms a bit.He laughs>)
See,
See what
I mean,
You need
to laugh a little.
Loosen
it up.
JACKIE:
Ok. OK
BRENDAN:
(Brendan grabs Jackie in a hold.)
Now I got ya....
(beat)
I got
ya...
(beat)
You
gonna get out a them books?
(Brendan squeezes Jackie
tighter.)
Gonnaget outta 'em?
(beat)
Huh?
Huh?
(beat)
Gonna
get out??
(Repeat ad lib.)
JACKIE: (laughing)
Yea,
Yea,
I'll get
out 'a 'em.
BRENDAN:(Squeezing lovingly)
No more
poems?
_JACKIE:
No more
poems!
(The physical interplay becomes
more intimate but still playful. Brendan eventually pins Jackie and sits on
him. Ad lib.)
BRENDAN:
No more
books?
JACKIE:
No more
books.
BRENDAN:
Sure?
JACKIE:
Sure!
(PAUSE)
(BRENDAN now has JACKIE in a hold
such that they are face to face. There is a moment of realization. A great
hesitation.BRENDAN drops JACKIE and
backs off.There is a moment of mutual
discomfort.)
JACKIE:
You're
nuts.
You know
that?
BRENDAN: (speaking
of himself as he lets JACKIE go andstraightens himself.)
Bone
head.
(beat)
What can
you expect?
___________________-
(BRENDAN
disengages himself from JACKIE. )
(Long Pause)
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. ( he hands him the book.)
(JACKIE hands BRENDAN the book
and exits)
BRENDAN: ( As Jackie exits.) Hey,
I still owe you a Cherry Coke!.
Invitation still stands.
(Lights dim
except on Brendan. BRENDAN: To the audience:)
BRENDAN:
I borrowed the book.
I read it.
I read the book.
Morning, noon and night....
I didn't get all of it.
But, there was something about it.
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 there was something inside me.
Something that made me want to read.
I wanted to read.
To read for him.
To read to tell him
To read to show him
To ....
(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.
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.
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.
PRIEST:
These are my people
This is their world.
An honest world
A hard working world
Good people.
Working people
------------------------------
(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 downthe 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 cullerdsand 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 Rose'velt
That Rose'velt 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' thatta 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,
(We see JACKIE with books in his hand.He is up stage. TheCHORUS moves from the floor level to the
stage as they verbally attack JACKIE. Theyengulf 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!!!
WHY?
Leave me alone!!!
8.YOU Queer!
JACKIE: Why can't
you???
9.Ass fuck
JACKIE: Leave me
alone??
10.Adam and Eve
1. Not Adam and Steve!
JACKIE: I'm not!
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 Priest
steps from the crowd:
PRIEST
This man'slife and works are
personally objectionable to us,
This, ….
This…
homo-erotic!
(beat)
Revolting works
revolting imagery
revolting language
That is not confined
but permeates...
permeatesthe
fetid whole."
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The CHORUS
returns to their place on the floor below the stage and continues:.)
CHORUS
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’twant.
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: (CS))
Andwhere 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?
(BRENDAN explodes.)
WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME!?
(beat)
Why?
Why?
Why do I have to be this.
Tell me why,..,.
Tell me 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.)
God?
Did you do this?
Did you?
Why?
Why?
Am I some joke?
What – so you’re playing a joke.
A joke....
(beat)
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)
You fucked it up
So, fuck you.
Hear me?
Fuck god
(to the
audience)
There is no god!
No god!
(beat)
A sick god.
(beat)
I won't be your joke!!
(beat)
This is what there is!
This!
( BRENDAN
pounds his chest.)
(beat)
This!
(He beats
his temples.)
Me!
Me!
(beat)
Yeh,
God dammit...
Me!
Did you make me?
Did I make me?
Did your god make me?
(beat)
Your god?
your god of justice?
Justice?
Whose justice?
your god of love?
Love??
What do yo know???
(beat)
Love ??
Love for who????
(beat)
Fuck it.
Fuck you !
Fuck your god.!
Fuck the wholegoddamn thing!
There is no god.
There is no reason.
It's just a big joke.
(beat)
Just a big joke.
A big joke!
You hear me?!
And I'm the one they're laughing at!
I'm the fuckin' joker.
A joke,
(beat)
Right?
(beat)
Go ahead.
Tell your jokes.
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.
Kick me.
Spit on me
Beat me to death.
(beat)
Yeh,
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!
I hate them fuckin' faggots!
Yeh,
I’m with you!
(He beats his head with his fist)
(long pause)
(finally with great calm resolve.)
I hate me.
(half beat)
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 thinkI 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.
Orwhen I'm walkin'
Walking home after the game.
Walking home when it gets dark.
I look up
(beat)
Yeh,
I look up
up intothe night
Into that black
That black
that black with all those spots
Those shining spots....
Yeh,
(semi)
Into the stars.
(semi)
Into the stars.
Yeh, me.
Me.
I like looking at the stars.
I do.
(beat)
And, I've read about them.
I have.
(semi)
I have.
(semi)
Don't laugh.,..
I have.
(beat)
'Cause when you're .....
(semi)
By yourself....
(beat)_
Yeh,
I see those few stars
Those few stars you can see in a city night sky.
Iimagine up there someone like
me.
Someone 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
I tried reading them..
I tried some....
……
JACKIE:
You read the poems?
Read them on your own?
BRENDAN:
Yeh, I did
I read them.
(beat)
Well,
I read some.
(beat)
Not all ,
But some...
I read them on my own.
And I think
I think I see.
JACK:
You do?
What?
What do you see?
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:
I don't want ....
(beat)
I just want....
(beat)
(pause)
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 never read it?
JACKIE: I don't
remember.
BRENDAN:
You don't?
JACKIE:
No,
I don't think so...
BRENDAN: Well....
(beat)
You know,
I…..
Well….
The two boys…
The two boys "clinging..."
(Pause)
JACKIE: Yeh,....
BRENDAN:
Well,
I think….
Well…
JACKIE:
Well,
What?
BRENDAN:
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,
(semi)
You know,
Like those guys today.
You know.
Like what they said to you.
JACKIE:
What they said....
What they said...
(semi)
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.
He holds him
in his gaze.BRENDAN moves his face close to JACKIE .
BRENDAN:( silently or very faintly)
JACKIE, I .....( BRENDAN wants to say, "I love you.")
(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
(He sees the gun that JACKIE has left on the table. He
picks it up.)
I blow your fuckin’ brains out.
You goddam queer.
No son of mine!
Faggot!
Homo!
Faggot!
( he raises
the gun in his son's face.)
God damn queer!
(He aims the gun.)
JACKIE:
Dad!
Dad!
JACK:
(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
backto DSC in the dark.
Then, he is lit center stage.
CHORUSlit dimlyMain 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’twant.
1: 2: : No
faggots
3,4,No Queers.
1,2,3,4
Round here.
ALL: Round here
Round here!
All: NO!
(ESSENTIAL STAGE NOTE: The vowel “O” becomes a wail, a dissonant
chord that becomes louder and louder. Members of the CHORUS should assign
themselves notes at chromatic levels.)
( 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 endsthe
torment.
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.)
(WW)
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 BRENDAN.
Lights
down.)
END OF
PLAY
When Lilacs Last is a cpyrighted work. It is offered royalty free but we ask that you notify us of your intent to produce. tmorinelli@shipleyschool.org