Three Plays of Tennessee Williams

by Tennessee Williams

  GOOPER: Big Mama, what I have here is—

  MAE: Gooper explained that it's just a plan....

  BIG MAMA: I don't care what you got there, just put it back where it come from an' don't let me see it again, not even the outside of the envelope of it! Is that understood? Basis! Plan! Preliminary! Design!—I say—what is it that Big Daddy always says when he's disgusted?

  [Storm clouds race across sky.]

  BRICK [from bar]: Big Daddy says 'crap' when he is disgusted.

  BIG MAMA [rising]: That's right—CRAPPPP! I say CRAP too, like Big Daddy!

  [Thunder rolls.]

  MAE: Coarse language don't seem called for in this—

  GOOPER: Somethin' in me is deeply outraged by this.

  BIG MAMA: Nobody's goin' to do nothin'! till Big Daddy lets go of it, and maybe just possibly not—not even then! No, not even then!

  [Thunder clap. Glass crash, children commence crying. Many storm sounds | barnyard animals in terror, papers crackling, shutters rattling. Sookey and Daisy hurry from lawn. Inexplicably, Daisy hits together two leather pillows. They cry, 'Storm! Storm!' Sookey waves a piece of wrapping paper to cover lawn furniture. Mae exits to hall. Strange man runs across lawn. | Thunder rolls repeatedly.]

  MAE: Sookey, hurry up an' git that po'ch fu'niture covahed; want th' paint to come off?

  GOOPER [yells to Lacey, who appears]: Lacey, put mah car away!

  LACEY: Cain't, Mistah Pollitt, you got the keys!

  GOOPER: Naw, you got 'em, man.

  [calls to Mae]

  Where th' keys to th' car, honey?

  MAE: You got 'em in your pocket!

  [Dog howls. Daisy and Sookey sing to comfort children. Mae is heard placating the children. Storm fades away. | During the storm, Margaret sits on couch.]

  BIG MAMA: BRICK! Come here, Brick, I need you.

  [Thunder distantly. Children whimper. Mae consoles them. Brick crosses to Right of Big Mama.]

  BIG MAMA: Tonight Brick looks like he used to look when he was a little boy just like he did when he played wild games in the orchard back of the house and used to come home when I hollered myself hoarse for him! all—sweaty—and pink-cheeked—an' sleepy with his curls shinin'—

  [Thunder distantly. Children whimper offstage Mae consoles them. Dog howls.]

  Time goes by so fast. Nothin' can outrun it. Death commences too early—almost before you're half-acquainted with life—you meet with the other. Oh, you know we just got to love each other, an' stay together all of us just as close as we can, specially now that such a black thing has come and moved into this place without invitation. Oh, Brick, son of Big Daddy, Big Daddy does so love you. Y'know what would be his fondest dream come true? If before he passed on, if Big Daddy has to pass on.... You give him a child of yours, a grandson as much like his son as his son is like Big Daddy....

  MARGARET: I know that's Big Daddy's dream.

  BIG MAMA: That's his dream.

  BIG DADDY [off on gallery]: Looks like the wind was takin' liberties with this place.

  [Lacey appears in lawn area; Brightie and Small appear on lawn.]

  LACEY: Evenin', Mr. Pollitt.

  BRIGHTIE and SMALL: Evenin', Cap'n. Hello, Cap'n.

  MARGARET: Big Daddy's on the gall'ry.

  BIG DADDY: Stawm crossed th' river, Lacey?

  LACEY: Gone to Arkansas, Cap'n.

  [Big Mama has turned toward the hall door at the sound of Big Daddy's voice on the gallery. Now she crosses to door on to the gallery.]

  BIG MAMA: I can't stay here. He'll see somethin' in my eyes.

  BIG DADDY [on upper gallery, to the boys]: Stawm done any damage around here?

  BRIGHTIE: Took the po'ch off ole Aunt Crawley's house.

  BIG DADDY: Ole Aunt Crawley should of been settin' on it. It's time fo' th' wind to blow that ole girl away!

  [Field-hands laugh, exit. Big Daddy enters room.]

  Can I come in?

  [Puts his cigar in ash tray on bar. | Mae and Gooper hurry along the upper gallery and stand behind Big Daddy in hall door.]

  MARGARET: Did the storm wake you up, Big Daddy?

  BIG DADDY: Which stawm are you talkin' about—th' one outside or th' hullaballoo in here?

  [Gooper squeezes past Big Daddy.]

  GOOPER [crosses toward bed, where legal papers are strewn]: 'Scuse me, sir...

  [Mae tries to squeeze past Big Daddy to join Gooper, but Big Daddy puts his arm firmly around her.]

  BIG DADDY: I heard some mighty loud talk. Sounded like somethin' important was bein' discussed. What was the powwow about?

  MAE [flustered]: Why—nothin', Big Daddy...

  BIG DADDY: What is that pregnant-lookin' envelope you're puttin' back in your briefcase, Gooper?

  GOOPER [at foot of bed, caught, as he stuffs papers into envelope]: That? Nothin', suh—nothin' much of anythin' at all...

  BIG DADDY: Nothin'? It looks like a whole lot of nothing!

  [Turns to group:]

  You all know th' story about th' young married couple—

  GOOPER: Yes, sir!

  BIG DADDY: Hello, Brick—

  BRICK: Hello, Big Daddy.

  [The group is arranged in a semi-circle above Big Daddy.]

  BIG DADDY: Young married couple took Junior out to th' zoo one Sunday, inspected all of God's creatures in their cages, with satisfaction.

  GOOPER: Satisfaction.

  BIG DADDY: This afternoon was a warm afternoon in spring an' that ole elephant had somethin' else on his mind which was bigger'n peanuts. You know this story, Brick?

  [Gooper nods.]

  BRICK: No, sir, I don't know it.

  BIG DADDY: Y'see, in th' cage adjoinin' they was a young female elephant in heat!

  BIG MAMA [at Big Daddy's shoulder]: Oh, Big Daddy!

  BIG DADDY: What's the matter, preacher's gone, ain't he? All right. That female elephant in the next cage was per-meatin' the atmosphere about her with a powerful and excitin' odour of female fertility! Huh! Ain't that a nice way to put it, Brick?

  BRICK: Yes, sir, nothin' wrong with it.

  BIG DADDY: Brick says the's nothin' wrong with it!

  BIG MAMA: Oh, Big Daddy!

  BIG DADDY: So this ole bull elephant still had a couple of fornications left in him. He reared back his trunk an' got a whiff of that elephant lady next door!—began to paw at the dirt in his cage an' butt his head against the separatin' partition and, first thing y'know, there was a conspicuous change in his profile—very conspicuous! Ain't I tellin' this story in decent language, Brick?

  BRICK: Yes, sir, too ruttin' decent!

  BIG DADDY: So, the little boy pointed at it and said, 'What's that?' His Mam said, 'Oh, that's nothin'!'—His Papa said, 'She's spoiled!'

  [Field-hands sing off. Big Daddy crosses to Brick.]

  BIG DADDY: You didn't laugh at that story, Brick.

  [Big Mama crying. Margaret goes to her.]

  BRICK: No, sir, I didn't laugh at that story.

  [Big Mama sobs. Big Daddy looks toward her.]

  BIG DADDY: What's wrong with that long, thin woman over there, loaded with diamonds? Hey, what's-your-name, what's the matter with you?

  MARGARET [toward Big Daddy]: She had a slight dizzy spell, Big Daddy.

  BIG DADDY: You better watch that, Big Mama. A stroke is a bad way to go.

  MARGARET: Oh, Brick, Big Daddy has on your birthday present to him, Brick, he has on your cashmere robe, the softest material I have ever felt.

  BIG DADDY: Yeah, this is my soft birthday, Maggie.... Not my gold or my silver birthday, but my soft birthday, everything's got to be soft for Big Daddy on this soft birthday.

  [Maggie kneels before Big Daddy. As Gooper and Mae speak, Big Mama hushing them with a gesture.]

  GOOPER: Maggie, I hate to make such a crude observation, but there is somethin' a little indecent about your—

  MAE: Like a slow-motion football tackle—

  MARGARET: Big Daddy's got on his Chinese slippers that I g
ave him, Brick. Big Daddy, I haven't given you my big present yet, but now I will, now's the time for me to present it to you! I have an announcement to make!

  MAE: What? What kind of announcement?

  GOOPER: A sports announcement, Maggie?

  MARGARET: Announcement of life beginning! A child is coming, sired by Brick, and out of Maggie the Cat! I have Brick's child in my body, an' that's my birthday present to Big Daddy on this birthday!

  [Big Daddy looks at Brick.]

  BIG DADDY: Get up, girl, get up off your knees, girl.

  [Big Daddy helps Margaret rise. He bites off the end of a fresh cigar, taken from his bathrobe pocket, as he studies Margaret.]

  Uh-huh, this girl has life in her body, that's no lie!

  BIG MAMA: BIG DADDY'S DREAM COME TRUE!

  BRICK: JESUS!

  BIG DADDY: Gooper, I want my lawyer in the mornin'.

  BRICK: Where are you goin', Big Daddy?

  BIG DADDY: Son, I'm goin' up on the roof to the belvedere on th' roof to look over my kingdom before I give up my kingdom—twenty-eight thousand acres of th' richest land this side of the Valley Nile!

  [Exit through doors, to gallery.]

  BIG MAMA [following]: Sweetheart, sweetheart, sweetheart—can I come with you? [Exits.]

  GOOPER: Brick, could you possibly spare me one small shot of that liquor?

  BRICK: Why, help yourself, Gooper boy.

  GOOPER: I will.

  MAE: Of course we know that this is a lie!

  GOOPER [drinks]: Be still, Mae!

  MAE: I won't be still! I know she's made this up!

  GOOPER: God damn it, I said to shut up!

  MAE: That woman isn't pregnant!

  GOOPER: Who said she was?

  MAE: She did!

  GOOPER: The doctor didn't. Doc Baugh didn't.

  MARGARET: I haven't gone to Doc Baugh.

  GOOPER: Then who'd you go to, Maggie?

  [Offstage song finishes.]

  MARGARET: One of the best gynaecologists in the South.

  GOOPER: Uh-huh, I see—May we have his name please?

  MARGARET: No, you may not, Mister—Prosecutin' Attorney!

  MAE: He doesn't have any name, he doesn't exist!

  MARGARET: He does so exist, and so does my baby, Brick's baby!

  MAE: You can't conceive a child by a man that won't sleep with you unless you think you're—

  [She forces Margaret on to couch. Brick starts for Mae.]

  He drinks all the time to be able to tolerate you! Sleeps on the sofa to keep out of contact with you!

  GOOPER: Don't try to kid us, Margaret—

  MAE: How can you conceive a child by a man that won't sleep with you? How can you conceive? How can you? How can you!

  GOOPER [sharply]: MAE!

  BRICK: Mae, Sister Woman, how d'you know that I don't sleep with Maggie?

  MAE: We occupy the next room an' th' wall between isn't soundproof.

  BRICK: Oh...

  MAE: We hear the nightly pleadin' and the nightly refusal. So don't imagine you're goin' t'put a trick over on us, to fool a dyin' man with—a—

  BRICK: Mae, Sister Woman, not everybody makes much noise about love. Oh, I know some people are huffers an' puffers, but others are silent lovers.

  GOOPER: This talk is pointless, completely.

  BRICK: How d'y' know that we're not silent lovers? Even if y'got a peep-hole drilled in the wall, how can y'tell if sometime when Gooper's got business in Memphis an' you're playin' scrabble at the country club with other ex-queens of cotton, Maggie and I don't come to some temporary agreement? How do you know that—?

  MAE: Brick, I never thought that you would stoop to her level, I just never dreamed that you would stoop to her level.

  GOOPER: I don't think Brick will stoop to her level.

  BRICK [sits with Margaret on couch]: What is your level? Tell me your level so I can sink or rise to it.

  [Rises.]

  You heard what Big Daddy said. This girl has life in her body.

  MAE: That is a lie!

  BRICK: No, truth is something desperate, an' she's got it. Believe me, it's somethin' desperate, an' she's got it. An' now if you will stop actin' as if Brick Pollitt was dead an' buried, invisible, not heard, an' go on back to your peep-hole in the wall—I'm drunk, and sleepy—not as alive as Maggie, but still alive....

  [Pours drink, drinks.]

  GOOPER [picks up brief case from foot of bed]: Come on, Mae. We'll leave these love birds together in their nest.

  MAE: Yeah, nest of lice! Liars!

  GOOPER: Mae—Mae, you jes' go on back to our room—

  MAE: Liars!

  [Exits through hall.]

  GOOPER [above Margaret]: We're jest goin' to wait an' see. Time will tell. Yes, sir, little brother, we're just goin' to wait an' see!

  [Exits to hall. | The clock strikes twelve. | Maggie and Brick exchange a look. He drinks deeply, puts his glass on the bar. Gradually, his expression changes. He utters a sharp exhalation. | The exhalation is echoed by the singers, who commence vocalizing with 'Gimme a Cool Drink of Water Fo' I Die', and continue till end of act.]

  MARGARET [as she hears Brick's exhalation]: The click?

  [Brick looks toward the singers, happily, almost gratefully. He crosses to bed, picks up his pillow, and starts toward head of couch. Margaret seizes the pillow from his grasp, holding it close. Brick watches her with growing admiration. She moves quickly throwing pillow on to bed. She crosses to bar. She grabs all the bottles from the bar. She pitches the bottles, one after the other, off the platform into the lawn. Bottles break. Margaret re-enters the room, stands facing Brick.]

  Echo Spring has gone dry, and no one but me could drive you to town for more.

  BRICK: Lacey will get me—

  MARGARET: Lacey's been told not to!

  BRICK: I could drive—

  MARGARET: And you lost your driver's license! I'd phone ahead and have you stopped on the highway before you got halfway to Ruby Lightfoot's gin mill. I told a lie to Big Daddy, but we can make that lie come true. And then I'll bring you liquor, and we'll get drunk together, here, tonight, in this place that death has come into! What do you say? What do you say, baby?

  BRICK: I admire you, Maggie.

  [Brick sits on edge of bed. He looks up at the overhead light, then at Margaret. She reaches for the light, turns it out; then she kneels quickly beside Brick at foot of bed.]

  MARGARET: Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you—gently, with love, and hand your life back to you, like something gold you let go of—and I can! I'm determined to do it—and nothing's more determined than a cat on a tin roof—is there? Is there, baby?

  [She touches his cheek gently.]

  CURTAIN

  THE END

  SHORT BIO

  Tennessee Williams was born in 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi, where his grandfather was the Episcopal clergyman. When his father, a travelling salesman, moved with his family to St Louis som

  e years later, both he and his sister found it impossible to settle down to city life. He entered college during the Depression and left after a couple of years to take a clerical job in a shoe company. He stayed there for two years, spending the evenings writing. He entered the University of Iowa in 1938 and completed his course, at the same time holding a large number of part-time jobs of great diversity. He received a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1940 for his play Battle of Angels, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 and 1955. Among his many other plays Penguin have published The Glass Menagerie (1944), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Summer and Smoke (1948), The Rose Tattoo (1951), Camino Real (1953), Baby Doll (1957), Orpheus Descending (1957), Something Unspoken (1958), Suddenly Last Summer (1958), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), Period of Adjustment (1960) and Small Craft Warnings (1972). Tennessee Williams died in 1983.

  Peter Shaffer has written of Tennessee Williams: 'He was a born dramatist as few are ever bor
n. Whatever he put on paper, superb or superfluous, glorious or gaudy, could not fail to be electrifyingly actable. He could not write a dull scene.... Tennessee Williams will live as long as drama itself.'