Three Plays of Tennessee Williams

by Tennessee Williams

  STELLA: In the first place, Blanche wouldn't go on a bus.

  STANLEY: She'll go on a bus and like it.

  STELLA: No, she won't, no, she won't, Stanley!

  STANLEY: She'll go! Period. P.S. She'll go Tuesday!

  STELLA [slowly]: What'll—she—do? What on earth will she—do!

  STANLEY: Her future is mapped out for her.

  STELLA: What do you mean?

  [Blanche sings.]

  STANLEY: Hey, canary bird! Toots! Get OUT of the BATHROOM!

  [The bathroom door flies open and Blanche emerges with a gay peal of laughter, but as Stanley crosses past her, a frightened look appears on her face, almost a look of panic. He doesn't look at her but slams the bathroom door shut as he goes in.]

  BLANCHE [snatching up a hairbrush]: Oh, I feel so good after my long, hot bath, I feel so good and cool and—rested!

  STELLA [sadly and doubtfully from the kitchen]: Do you, Blanche?

  BLANCHE [brushing her hair vigorously]: Yes, I do, so refreshed!

  [She tinkles her highball glass.]

  A hot bath and a long, cold drink always give me a brand new outlook on life!

  [She looks through the portieres at Stella, standing between them, and slowly stops brushing]

  Something has happened!—What is it?

  STELLA [fuming away quickly]: Why, nothing has happened, Blanche.

  BLANCHE: You're lying! Something has!

  [She stares fearfully at Stella, who pretends to be busy at the table. The distant piano goes into a hectic breakdown.]

  SCENE EIGHT

  Three-quarters of an hour later. The view through the big windows is fading gradually into a still-golden dusk. A torch of sunlight blazes on the side of a big water-tank or oil-drum across the empty lot toward the business district which is now pierced by pinpoints of lighted windows or windows reflecting the sunset. The three people are completing a dismal birthday supper. Stanley looks sullen. Stella is embarrassed and sad. Blanche has a tight, artificial smile on her drawn face. There is a fourth place at the table which is left vacant.

  BLANCHE [suddenly]: Stanley, tell us a joke, tell us a funny story to make us all laugh. I don't know what's the matter, we're all so solemn. Is it because I've been stood up by my beau?

  [Stella laughs feebly.]

  It's the first time in my entire experience with men, and I've had a good deal of all sorts, that I've actually been stood up by anybody! Ha-ha! I don't know how to take it.... Tell us a funny little story, Stanley! Something to help us out.

  STANLEY: I didn't think you liked my stories, Blanche.

  BLANCHE: I like them when they're amusing but not indecent.

  STANLEY: I don't know any refined enough for your taste.

  BLANCHE: Then let me tell one.

  STELLA: Yes, you tell one, Blanche. You used to know lots of good stories.

  [The music fades.]

  BLANCHE: Let me see, now... I must run through my repertoire! Oh. yes—I love parrot stories! Do you all like parrot stories? Well, this one's about the old maid and the parrot. This old maid, she had a parrot that cursed a blue streak and knew more vulgar expressions than Mr. Kowalski!

  STANLEY: Huh.

  BLANCHE: And the only way to hush the parrot up was to put the cover back on its cage so it would think it was night and go back to sleep. Well, one morning the old maid had just uncovered the parrot for the day—when who should she see coming up the front walk but the preacher! Well, she rushed back to the parrot and slipped the cover back on the cage and then she let in the preacher. And the parrot was perfectly still, just as quiet as a mouse, but just as she was asking the preacher how much sugar he wanted in his coffee—the parrot broke the silence with a loud—[She whistles]—and said—"God damn, but that was a short day!"

  [She throws back her head and laughs. Stella also makes an ineffectual effort to seem amused. Stanley pays no attention to the story but reaches way aver the table to spear his fork into the remaining chop which he eats with his fingers.]

  BLANCHE: Apparently Mr. Kowalski was not amused.

  STELLA: Mr. Kowalski is too busy making a pig of himself to think of anything else!

  STANLEY: That's right, baby.

  STELLA: Your face and your fingers are disgustingly greasy. Go and wash up and then help me clear the table.

  [He hurls a plate to the floor.]

  STANLEY: That's how I'll clear the table!

  [He seizes her arm]

  Don't ever talk that way to me! "Pig—Polack—disgusting—vulgar—greasy!"—them kind of words have been on your tongue and your sister's too much around here! What do you two think you are? A pair of queens? Remember what Huey Long said—"Every Man is a King!" And I am the king around here, so don't forget it!

  [He hurls a cup and saucer to the floor]

  My place is cleared! You want me to clear your places?

  [Stella begins to cry weakly. Stanley stalks out on the porch and lights a cigarette.

  The Negro entertainers around the corner are heard.]

  BLANCHE: What happened while I was bathing? What did he tell you, Stella?

  STELLA: Nothing, nothing, nothing!

  BLANCHE: I think he told you something about Mitch and me! You know why Mitch didn't come but you won't tell me!

  [Stella shakes her head helplessly]

  I'm going to call him!

  STELLA: I wouldn't call him, Blanche.

  BLANCHE: I am, I'm going to call him on the phone.

  STELLA [miserably]: I wish you wouldn't

  BLANCHE: I intend to be given some explanation from someone!

  [She rushes to the phone in the bedroom. Stella goes out on the porch and stares reproachfully at her husband. He grunts and turns away from her.]

  STELLA: I hope you're pleased with your doings. I never had so much trouble swallowing food in my life, looking at that girl's face and the empty chair!

  [She cries quietly.]

  BLANCHE [at the phone]: Hello. Mr. Mitchell, please.... Oh.... I would like to leave a number if I may. Magnolia 9047. And say it's important to call.... Yes, very important.... Thank you.

  [She remains by the phone with a lost, frightened look.]

  [Stanley turns slowly back toward his wife and takes her clumsily in his arms.]

  STANLEY: Stell, it's gonna be all right after she goes and after you've had the baby. It's gonna be all right again between you and me the way that it was. You remember that way that it was? Them nights we had together? God, honey, it's gonna be sweet when we can make noise in the night the way that we used to and get the colored lights going with nobody's sister behind the curtains to hear us!

  [Their upstairs neighbors are heard in bellowing laughter at something. Stanley chuckles.]

  Steve an' Eunice...

  STELLA: Come on back in.

  [She returns to the kitchen and starts lighting the candles on the white cake.]

  Blanche?

  BLANCHE: Yes.

  [She returns from the bedroom to the table in the kitchen.]

  Oh, those pretty little candles! Oh, don't burn them, Stella.

  STELLA: I certainly will.

  [Stanley comes back in.]

  BLANCHE: You ought to save them for baby's birthdays. Oh, I hope candles are going to glow in his life and I hope that his eyes are going to be like candles, like two blue candles lighted in a white cake!

  STANLEY [sitting down]: What poetry!

  BLANCHE [she pauses reflectively for a moment]: I shouldn't have called him.

  STELLA: There's lots of things could have happened.

  BLANCHE: There's no excuse for it, Stella. I don't have to put up with insults. I won't be taken for granted.

  STANLEY: Goddam, it's hot in here with the steam from the bathroom.

  BLANCHE: I've said I was sorry three times.

  [The piano fades out.]

  I take hot baths for my nerves. Hydro-therapy, they call it. You healthy Polack, without a nerve in your body, o
f course you don't know what anxiety feels like!

  STANLEY: I am not a Polack. People from Poland are Poles, not Polacks. But what I am is a one hundred percent American, born and raised in the greatest country on earth and proud as hell of it, so don't ever call me a Polack.

  [The phone rings. Blanche rises expectantly.]

  BLANCHE: Oh, that's for me, I'm sure.

  STANLEY: I'm not sure. Keep your seat.

  [He crosses leisurely to phone.]

  H'lo. Aw, yeh, hello, Mac.

  [He leans against wall, staring insultingly in at Blanche. She sinks back in her chair with a frightened look. Stella leans over and touches her shoulder.]

  BLANCHE: Oh, keep your hands on me, Stella. What is the matter with you? Why do you look at me with that pitying look?

  STANLEY [bawling]: QUIET IN THERE!—We've got a noisy woman on the place.—Go on, Mac. At Riley's? No, I don't wanta bowl at Riley's. I had a little trouble with Riley last week. I'm the team-captain, ain't I? All right, then, we're not gonna bowl at Riley's, we're gonna bowl at the West Side or the Gala! All right, Mac. See you!

  [He hangs up and returns to the table. Blanche fiercely controls herself, drinking quickly from her tumbler of water. He doesn't look at her but reaches in a pocket. Then he speaks slowly and with false amiability.]

  Sister Blanche, I've got a little birthday remembrance for you.

  BLANCHE: Oh, have you, Stanley? I wasn't expecting any, I—I don't know why Stella wants to observe my birthday! I'd much rather forget it—when you—reach twenty-seven! Well—age is a subject that you'd prefer to—ignore!

  STANLEY: Twenty-seven?

  BLANCHE [quickly]: What is it? Is it for me?

  [He is holding a little envelope toward her.]

  STANLEY: Yes, I hope you like it!

  BLANCHE: Why, why—Why, it's a—

  STANLEY: Ticket! Back to Laurel! On the Greyhound! Tuesday!

  [The Varsouviana music steals in softly and continues playing. Stella rises abruptly and turns her back. Blanche tries to smile. Then she tries to laugh. Then she gives both up and springs from the table and runs into the next room. She clutches her throat and then runs into the bathroom. Coughing, gagging sounds are heard.]

  Well!

  STELLA: You didn't need to do that.

  STANLEY: Don't forget all that I took off her.

  STELLA: You needn't have been so cruel to someone alone as she is.

  STANLEY: Delicate piece she is.

  STELLA: She is. She was. You didn't know Blanche as a girl. Nobody, nobody, was tender and trusting as she was. But people like you abused her, and forced her to change.

  [He crosses into the bedroom, ripping off his shirt, and changes into a brilliant silk bowling shirt. She follows him.]

  Do you think you're going bowling now?

  STANLEY: Sure.

  STELLA: You're not going bowling.

  [She catches hold of his shirt]

  Why did you do this to her?

  STANLEY: I done nothing to no one. Let go of my shirt. You've torn it

  STELLA: I want to know why. Tell me why.

  STANLEY: When we first met, me and you, you thought I was common. How right you was, baby. I was common as dirt. You showed me the snapshot of the place with the columns. I pulled you down off them columns and how you loved it, having them colored lights going! And wasn't we happy together, wasn't it all okay till she showed here?

  [Stella makes a slight movement. Her look goes suddenly inward as if some interior voice had called her name. She begins a slow, shuffling progress from the bedroom to the kitchen, leaning and resting on the back of the chair and then on the edge of a table with a blind look and listening expression. Stanley, finishing with his shirt, is unaware of her reaction.]

  And wasn't we happy together? Wasn't it all okay? Till she showed here. Hoity-toity, describing me as an ape.

  [He suddenly notices the change in Stella]

  Hey, what is it, Stella?

  [He crosses to her.]

  STELLA [quietly]: Take me to the hospital.

  [He is with her now, supporting her with his arm, murmuring indistinguishably as they go outside.]

  SCENE NINE

  A while later that evening—Blanche is seated in a tense hunched position in a bedroom chair that she has re-covered with diagonal green-and-white stripes. She has on her scarlet satin robe. On the table beside chair is a bottle of liquor and a glass. The rapid, feverish polka tune, the "Varsouviana," is heard. The music is in her mind; she is drinking to escape it and the sense of disaster closing in on her, and she seems to whisper the words of the song. An electric fan is turning back and forth across her. Mitch comes around the corner in work clothes: blue denim shirt and pants. He is unshaven. He climbs the steps to the door and rings. Blanche is startled.

  BLANCHE: Who is it, please?

  MITCH [hoarsely]: Me. Mitch.

  [The polka tune stops.]

  BLANCHE: Mitch!—just a minute.

  [She rushes about frantically, hiding the bottle in a closet, crouching at the mirror and dabbing her face with cologne and powder. She is so excited her breath is audible as she dashes about. At last she rushes to the door in the kitchen and lets him in.]

  Mitch!—Y'know, I really shouldn't let you in after the treatment I have received from you this evening! So utterly uncavalier! But hello, beautiful!

  [She offers him her lips. He ignores it and pushes past her into the flat. She looks fearfully after him as he stalks into the bedroom.]

  My, my, what a cold shoulder! And such uncouth apparel! Why, you haven't even shaved! The unforgivable insult to a lady! But I forgive you. I forgive you because it's such a relief to see you. You've stopped that polka tune that I had caught in my head. Have you ever had anything caught in your head? No, of course you haven't, you dumb angel-puss, you'd never get anything awful caught in your head!

  [He stares at her while she follows him while she talks. It is obvious that he has had a few drinks on the way over.]

  MITCH: Do we have to have that fan on?

  BLANCHE: No!

  MITCH: I don't like fans.

  BLANCHE: Then let's turn it off, honey. I'm not partial to them!

  [She presses the switch and the fan nods slowly off. She clears her throat uneasily as Mitch plumps himself down on the bed in the bedroom and lights a cigarette.]

  I don't know what there is to drink. I—haven't investigated.

  MITCH: I don't want Stan's liquor.

  BLANCHE: It isn't Stan's. Everything here isn't Stan's. Some things on the premises are actually mine! How is your mother? Isn't your mother well?

  MITCH: Why?

  BLANCHE: Something's the matter tonight, but never mind. I won't cross-examine the witness. I'll just—[She touches her forehead vaguely. The polka tune starts up again.]—pretend I don't notice anything different about you! That—music again...

  MITCH: What music?

  BLANCHE: The "Varaouviana"! The polka tune they were playing when Allan—Wait!

  [A distant revolver shot is heard. Blanche seems relieved.]

  There now, the shot! It always stops after that.

  [The polka music dies out again.]

  Yes, now it's stopped.

  MITCH: Are you boxed out of your mind?

  BLANCHE: I'll go and see what I can find in the way of—

  [She crosses into the closet, pretending to search for the bottle.]

  Oh, by the way, excuse me for not being dressed. But I'd practically given you up! Had you forgotten your invitation to supper?

  MITCH: I wasn't going to see you any more.

  BLANCHE: Wait a minute. I can't hear what you're saying and you talk so little that when you do say something, I don't want to miss a single syllable of it.... What am I looking around here for? Oh, yes—liquor! We've had so much excitement around here this evening that I am boxed out of my mind!

  [She pretends suddenly to find the bottle. He draws his foot up on the bed and
stares at her contemptuously.]

  Here's something. Southern Comfort! What is that, I wonder?

  MITCH: If you don't know, it must belong to Stan.

  BLANCHE: Take your foot off the bed. It has a light cover on it. Of course you boys don't notice things like that. I've done so much with this place since I've been here.

  MITCH: I bet you have.

  BLANCHE: You saw it before I came. Well, look at it now! This room is almost—dainty! I want to keep it that way. I wonder if this stuff ought to be mixed with something? Ummm, it's sweet, so sweet! It's terribly, terribly sweet! Why, it's a liqueur, I believe! Yes, that's what it is, a liqueur!