by Paula Vogel
Shut.Up…Now—get on the bed like a good wife.
WOMAN
V.O
(Live, simultaneous)
(Live, simultaneous)
Please—
Please—
(The Man strikes her again.)
MAN
THE VOICE
(Lip-sync)
(Live)
“Stop crying or—”
Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about.
THE VOICE
(Recorded sound from before)
“The woman is a harp.”
MAN
THE VOICE
(Lip-sync)
(Live)
“On. the. bed!”
On. the. bed!
(The Man backhands The Woman and she falls on the bed.)
THE VOICE
(Whispered under)
Now. don’t. move.
WOMAN
THE VOICE
(Together with Voice-Over)
(With Woman)
Don’t.
Don’t.
MAN
THE VOICE
(With The Voice, live)
(With Man)
Don’t Move.
Don’t Move.
(Voice-Over starts to plead quietly—“please” and “don’t”—until The Voice plays James Joyce.)
THE VOICE (Taking over): I’m beating you to teach you a lesson Understand? And I’ll stop when I feel like it. Bitch. What makes you think, with your big fat butt and your cow thighs, that you’re worth eighteen bucks? Huh? What man would pay for that?
(The Man unbuckles his belt, draws it from the loops, as The Woman continues to cry. A cry erupts from The Man’s throat at the same instant that The Woman, The Voice and Voice-Over cry, becoming one voice with four breaths, a strange keening.)
MAN (Crying): You’re the one making me do this, Charlene. You shouldof never—never gotten that restraining order—kicked me out of my own home! Jesus Christ, Charlene—why did you do that? Why?
WOMAN: Don’t cry—don’t—
(The Woman embraces The Man.)
MAN: A man’s home is his Castle. His. fucking. Castle. What we do in here is our business. It’s our fucking sacred business… Not the goddamn judge’s!
(The Man punches The Woman in the stomach and loops his belt around her neck and begins to strangle her.)
THE VOICE (Whispered under/simultaneous with Voice-Over): “…when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I swear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well we well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around his yes—”14
V.O.
(Simultaneous with The Voice above)
Get to the door Charlene can you shit keep calm no you can get out of this one no keep fighting try to try to get under the strap no ask him with your eyes to no please ask him would he no theres no air left no for the kids stay calm you can make it stars put your arms around him squeeze don’ stop stay calm keep eyes open ask oh god would I no to say no my god my god and no no air I can’t no—
(The Woman breaks free for a second.)
WOMAN: —Why?!!
(The Man strangles The Woman with his bare hands. He leaves. The Voice and Voice-Over follow him and The Boy and Girl disappear from view. But a tape recording of The Voice begins and then slows down, warped.)
THE VOICE: “…and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.”
(There is a flash of light, and a blackout. When the lights come back on, the stage is empty, except for the body of The Woman, strewn across the bed. The door opens, and The Girl walks in.
The Girl should see the body of The Woman. She stands still for a beat. The Girl walks quietly and quickly to the bed, and touches the body.
Then, The Girl steps into a spotlight, as the light dims on the body. The “stripper theme” music plays. She does not bump or grind.
If this play were a film script, we would see The Girl age before our eyes, transformed over the years from what she has just seen. The Girl dresses to the music. She puts on kneesocks, and a long-sleeve shirt. Then thick jeans and, finally, running shoes. She arranges her hair, tied back. Her body becomes a bit more worn, more protected from our gaze, her bones less light, her face more determined. She picks up the glasses The Woman wore and dons them. She walks over to the computer, turns it on, and as the theme music fades, she begins to type.)
GIRL: “Setting: At the beginning of the play we see a living room in a suburban townhouse. Downstage left, we see a large, white office desk, holding a computer. At the top of Act One, the mother is typing a screenplay.”
“CUT TO: INTERIOR. NIGHT.—”
(The Girl hears something; abruptly looks over her shoulder—is there someone outside the window? Beat.
The Girl sits still. Beat.
The Girl quietly stands and looks toward the window. She makes a decision.
The Girl crosses to the window. Beat. Then, tensing, The Girl violently pulls the blinds up. There is nothing there. Beat.
The Girl relaxes, and quietly draws the blinds close. Beat. The Girl turns, now facing the room. The Girl crosses to every light in the room, one by one, and turns them on until the room is blazing.
She returns to the computer. Sits. Takes a deep breath.
Then she turns back to the computer.)
GIRL: “VOICE-OVER: She was hot. She was throbbing. But she was in control. Control of her body. Control of her thoughts.”
(Blackout to:)
END OF PLAY
1 Note: References for cited material are listed at the end of the play.
CITATIONS
1Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, Vintage International Books, New York, 1989.
2These words were actually written by William Acton, nineteenth-century sexologist, The Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs in Childhood, Youth, Adult Age and Advanced Life Considered in Their Physiological, Social and Moral Relations, 3rd American ed., Philadelphia, 1871. But in this play they should be delivered as if written by Krafft-Ebing.
3Ibid.
4Ibid.
5I fabricated Case 103 quotes in the style of Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopathia Sexualis.
6D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterly’s Lover, Grove Press, New York, 1959.
7Henry Miller, Plexus, Grove Press, New York, 1965.
8T. H. Van de Velde, Ideal Marriage: Its Physiology and Technique, Covici Friede, New York, 1930.
9Plexus.
10James Joyce, Ulysses, Garland Publishing, Inc., New York, 1984.
11Ibid.
12Ibid.
13Plexus.
14Ulysses.
PAULA VOGEL won a 1992 Obie Award for Best New American Play for The Baltimore Waltz. Her plays have been produced at American Repertory Theatre, Circle Repertory Theatre, Center Stage and Yale Repertory Theatre, as well as throughout the United States and abroad. A member of New Dramatists, she has received grants and awards from the Pew Charitable Trust, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Fund for New American Plays, the AT&T OnStage award and the National Endowment for the Arts. For the past ten years, she has directed the MFA playwriting program at Brown University. Her screenplay adaptation of The Oldest Profession is currently in development, and she is working on new plays, The Mineola Twins and How I Learned to Drive.
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