Read Three Plays for Free Online Page A
Authors: Tennessee Williams
is—
[Brick hops awkwardly forward and strikes at her again with his crutch.]
— alive! I am alive! I am...
[He hurls the crutch at her, across the bed she took refuge behind, and pitches forward on the floor as she completes her speech.]
—alive!
[A little girl, Dixie, bursts into the room, wearing an Indian war bonnet and firing a cap pistol at Margaret and shouting: 'Bang, bang, bang!' Laughter downstairs floats through the open ball door. | Margaret had crouched gasping to bed at child's entrance. She now rises and says with cool fury:]
Little girl, your mother or someone should teach you— [gasping] —to knock at a door before you come into a room. Otherwise people might think that you—lack—good breeding....
DIXIE : Yanh, yanh, yanh, what is Uncle Brick doin' on th' floor?
BRICK : I tried to kill your Aunt Maggie, but I failed—and I fell. Little girl, give me my crutch so I can get up off th' floor.
MARGARET : Yes, give your uncle his crutch, he's a cripple, honey, he broke his ankle last night jumping hurdles on the high school athletic field!
DIXIE : What were you jumping hurdles for, Uncle Brick?
BRICK : Because I used to jump them, and people like to do what they used to do, even after they've stopped being able to do it....
MARGARET : That's right, that's your answer, now go away, little girl.
[Dixie fires cap pistol at Margaret three times.]
Stop, you stop that, monster! You little no-neck monster!
[She seizes the cap pistol and hurls it through gallery doors.]
DIXIE [with a precocious instinct for the cruellest thing] : You're jealous! —You're just jealous because you can't have babies!
[She sticks out her tongue at Margaret as she sashays past her with her stomach stuck out, to the gallery. Margaret slams the gallery doors and leans panting against them. There is a pause. Brick has replaced his spilt drink and sits, faraway, on the great four-poster bed.]
MARGARET : You see?—they gloat over us being childless, even in front of their five little no-neck monsters!
[Pause. Voices approach on the stairs.]
Brick?—I've been to a doctor in Memphis, a—a gynaecologist.... I've been completely examined, and there is no reason why we can't have a child whenever we want one. And this is my time by the calendar to conceive. Are you listening to me? Are you? Are you LISTENING TO ME!
BRICK : Yes. I hear you, Maggie.
[His attention returns to her inflamed face.]
—But how in hell on earth do you imagine—that you're going to have a child by a man that can't stand you?
MARGARET : That's a problem that I will have to work out.
[She wheels about to face the hall door.]
Here they come!
[The lights dim.]
CURTAIN
ACT TWO
There is no lapse of time. Margaret and Brick are in the same positions they held at the end of Act One.
MARGARET [at door] : Here they come!
[Big Daddy appears first, a tall man with a fierce, anxious look, moving carefully not to betray his weakness even, or especially, to himself.]
BIG DADDY : Well, Brick.
BRICK : Hello, Big Daddy.—Congratulations!
BIG DADDY : —Crap....
[Some of the people are approaching through the hall, others along the gallery | voices from both directions. Gooper and Reverend Tooker become visible outside gallery doors, and their voices come in clearly. They pause outside as Gooper lights a cigar.]
REVEREND TOOKER [ vivaciously ]: Oh, but St Paul's in Grenada has three memorial windows, and the latest one is a Tiffany stained-glass window that cost twenty-five hundred dollars, a picture of Christ the Good Shepherd with a Lamb in His arms.
GOOPER : Who give that window, Preach?
REVEREND TOOKER : Clyde Fletcher's widow. Also presented St Paul's with a baptismal font.
GOOPER : Y'know what somebody ought t' give your church is a coolin' system, Preach.
REVEREND TOOKER : Yes, siree, Bob! And y'know what Gus Hamma's family gave
[Brick hops awkwardly forward and strikes at her again with his crutch.]
— alive! I am alive! I am...
[He hurls the crutch at her, across the bed she took refuge behind, and pitches forward on the floor as she completes her speech.]
—alive!
[A little girl, Dixie, bursts into the room, wearing an Indian war bonnet and firing a cap pistol at Margaret and shouting: 'Bang, bang, bang!' Laughter downstairs floats through the open ball door. | Margaret had crouched gasping to bed at child's entrance. She now rises and says with cool fury:]
Little girl, your mother or someone should teach you— [gasping] —to knock at a door before you come into a room. Otherwise people might think that you—lack—good breeding....
DIXIE : Yanh, yanh, yanh, what is Uncle Brick doin' on th' floor?
BRICK : I tried to kill your Aunt Maggie, but I failed—and I fell. Little girl, give me my crutch so I can get up off th' floor.
MARGARET : Yes, give your uncle his crutch, he's a cripple, honey, he broke his ankle last night jumping hurdles on the high school athletic field!
DIXIE : What were you jumping hurdles for, Uncle Brick?
BRICK : Because I used to jump them, and people like to do what they used to do, even after they've stopped being able to do it....
MARGARET : That's right, that's your answer, now go away, little girl.
[Dixie fires cap pistol at Margaret three times.]
Stop, you stop that, monster! You little no-neck monster!
[She seizes the cap pistol and hurls it through gallery doors.]
DIXIE [with a precocious instinct for the cruellest thing] : You're jealous! —You're just jealous because you can't have babies!
[She sticks out her tongue at Margaret as she sashays past her with her stomach stuck out, to the gallery. Margaret slams the gallery doors and leans panting against them. There is a pause. Brick has replaced his spilt drink and sits, faraway, on the great four-poster bed.]
MARGARET : You see?—they gloat over us being childless, even in front of their five little no-neck monsters!
[Pause. Voices approach on the stairs.]
Brick?—I've been to a doctor in Memphis, a—a gynaecologist.... I've been completely examined, and there is no reason why we can't have a child whenever we want one. And this is my time by the calendar to conceive. Are you listening to me? Are you? Are you LISTENING TO ME!
BRICK : Yes. I hear you, Maggie.
[His attention returns to her inflamed face.]
—But how in hell on earth do you imagine—that you're going to have a child by a man that can't stand you?
MARGARET : That's a problem that I will have to work out.
[She wheels about to face the hall door.]
Here they come!
[The lights dim.]
CURTAIN
ACT TWO
There is no lapse of time. Margaret and Brick are in the same positions they held at the end of Act One.
MARGARET [at door] : Here they come!
[Big Daddy appears first, a tall man with a fierce, anxious look, moving carefully not to betray his weakness even, or especially, to himself.]
BIG DADDY : Well, Brick.
BRICK : Hello, Big Daddy.—Congratulations!
BIG DADDY : —Crap....
[Some of the people are approaching through the hall, others along the gallery | voices from both directions. Gooper and Reverend Tooker become visible outside gallery doors, and their voices come in clearly. They pause outside as Gooper lights a cigar.]
REVEREND TOOKER [ vivaciously ]: Oh, but St Paul's in Grenada has three memorial windows, and the latest one is a Tiffany stained-glass window that cost twenty-five hundred dollars, a picture of Christ the Good Shepherd with a Lamb in His arms.
GOOPER : Who give that window, Preach?
REVEREND TOOKER : Clyde Fletcher's widow. Also presented St Paul's with a baptismal font.
GOOPER : Y'know what somebody ought t' give your church is a coolin' system, Preach.
REVEREND TOOKER : Yes, siree, Bob! And y'know what Gus Hamma's family gave
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