GOOPER: Let's be realistic—
MAE: —Big Daddy would never, would never, be foolish enough to—
GOOPER: —put this place in irresponsible hands!
BIG MAMA: Big Daddy ain't going to leave the place in anybody's hands; Big Daddy is not going to die. I want you to get that in your heads, all of you!
MAE: Mommy, Mommy, Big Mama, we're just as hopeful an' optimistic as you are about Big Daddy's prospects, we have faith in prayer—but nevertheless there are certain matters that have to be discussed an' dealt with, because otherwise—
GOOPER: Eventualities have to be considered and now's the time.... Mae, will you please get my briefcase out of our room?
MAE: Yes, honey.
[She rises and goes out through the hall door.]
GOOPER [standing over Big Mama]: Now, Big Mom. What you said just now was not at all true and you know it. I've always loved Big Daddy in my own quiet way. I never made a show of it, and I know that Big Daddy has always been fond of me in a quiet way, too, and he never made a show of it neither.
[Mae returns with Gooper's briefcase.]
MAE: Here's your briefcase, Gooper, honey.
GOOPER [handing the briefcase back to her]: Thank you——Of cou'se, my relationship with Big Daddy is different from Brick's.
MAE: You're eight years older'n Brick an' always had t' carry a bigger load of th' responsibilities than Brick ever had t' carry. He never carried a thing in his life but a football or a highball.
GOOPER: Mae, will y' let me talk, please?
MAE: Yes, honey.
GOOPER: Now, a twenty-eight thousand acre plantation's a mighty big thing t'run.
MAE: Almost singlehanded.
[Margaret has gone out on to the gallery, and can be heard calling softly to Brick.]
BIG MAMA: You never had to run this place! What are you talking about? As if Big Daddy was dead and in his grave, you had to run it? Why, you just helped him out with a few business details and had your law practice at the same time in Memphis!
MAE: Oh, Mommy, Mommy, Big Mommy! Let's be fair! Why, Gooper has given himself body and soul to keeping this place up for the past five years since Big Daddy's health started failing. Gooper won't say it, Gooper never thought of it as a duty, he just did it. And what did Brick do? Brick kept living in his past glory at college! Still a football player at twenty-seven!
MARGARET [returning alone]: Who are you talking about, now? Brick? A football player? He isn't a football player and you know it. Brick is a sports announcer on TV and one of the best-known ones in the country!
MAE: I'm talking about what he was.
MARGARET: Well, I wish you would just stop talking about my husband.
GOOPER: I've got a right to discuss my brother with other members of MY OWN family which don't include you. Why don't you go out there and drink with Brick?
MARGARET: I've never seen such malice toward a brother.
GOOPER: How about his for me? Why, he can't stand to be in the same room with me!
MARGARET: This is a deliberate campaign of vilification for the most disgusting and sordid reason on earth, and I know what it is! It's avarice, avarice, greed, greed!
BIG MAMA: Oh, I'll scream! I will scream in a moment unless this stops!
[Gooper has stalked up to Margaret with clenched fists at his sides as if he would strike her. Mae distorts her face again into a hideous grimace behind Margaret's back.]
MARGARET: We only remain on the place because of Big Mom and Big Daddy. If it is true what they say about Big Daddy we are going to leave here just as soon as it's over. Not a moment later.
BIG MAMA [sobs]: Margaret. Child. Come here. Sit next to Big Mama.
MARGARET: Precious Mommy. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I—!
[She bends her long graceful neck to press her forehead to Big Mama's bulging shoulder under its black chiffon.]
GOOPER: How beautiful, how touching, this display of devotion!
MAE: Do you know why she's childless? She's childless because that big beautiful athlete husband of hers won't go to bed with her!
GOOPER: You jest won't let me do this in a nice way, will yah? Aw right—Mae and I have five kids with another one coming! I don't give a goddam if Big Daddy likes me or don't like me or did or never did or will or will never! I'm just appealing to a sense of common decency and fair play. I'll tell you the truth. I've resented Big Daddy's partiality to Brick ever since Brick was born, and the way I've been treated like I was just barely good enough to spit on and sometimes not even good enough for that. Big Daddy is dying of cancer, and it's spread all through him and it's attacking all his vital organs including the kidneys and right now he is sinking into uremia, and you all know what uremia is, it's poisoning of the whole system due to the failure of the body to eliminate its poisons.
MARGARET [to herself, downstage, hissingly]: Poisons, poisons! Venomous thoughts and words! In hearts and minds!—That's poisons!
GOOPER [overlapping her]: I am asking for a square deal, and I expect to get one. But if I don't get one, if there's any peculiar shenanigans going on around here behind my back, or before me, well, I'm not a corporation lawyer for nothing I know how to protect my own interests.—OH! A late arrival!
[Brick enters from the gallery with a tranquil, blurred smile, carrying an empty glass with him.]
MAE: Behold the conquering hero comes!
GOOPER: The fabulous Brick Pollitt! Remember him?—Who could forget him!
MAE: He looks like he's been injured in a game!
GOOPER: Yep, I'm afraid you'll have to warm the bench at the Sugar Bowl this year, Brick!
[Mae laughs shrilly.]
Or was it the Rose Bowl that he made that famous run in?
MAE: The punch bowl, honey. It was in the punch bowl, the cut-glass punch bowl!
GOOPER: Oh, that's right, I'm getting the bowls mixed up!
MARGARET: Why don't you stop venting your malice and envy on a sick boy?
BIG MAMA: Now you two hush, I mean it, hush, all of you, hush!
GOOPER: All right, Big Mama. A family crisis brings out the best and the worst in every member of it.
MAE: That's the truth.
MARGARET: Amen!
BIG MAMA: I said, hush! I won't tolerate any more catty talk in my house.
[Mae gives Gooper a sign indicating briefcase. | Brick's smile has grown both brighter and vaguer. As he prepares a drink, he sings softly:]
BRICK: 'Show me the way to go home, I'm tired and I wanta go to bed, I had a little drink about an hour ago—'
GOOPER [at the same time]: Big Mama, you know it's necessary for me t'go back to Memphis in th' mornin' t' represent the Parker estate in a lawsuit.
[Mae sits on the bed and arranges papers she has taken from the briefcase.]
BRICK [continuing the song]: 'Wherever I may roam, On land or sea or foam.'
BIG MAMA: Is it, Gooper?
MAE: Yaiss.
GOOPER: That's why I'm forced to—to bring up a problem that—
MAE: Somethin' that's too important t' be put off!
GOOPER: If Brick was sober, he ought to be in on this.
MARGARET: Brick is present; we're here.
GOOPER: Well, good. I will now give you this outline my partner, Tom Bullitt, an' me have drawn up—a sort of dummy—trusteeship.
MARGARET: Oh, that's it! You'll be in charge an' dole out remittances, will you?
GOOPER: This we did as soon as we got the report on Big Daddy from th' Ochsner Laboratories. We did this thing, I mean we drew up this dummy outline with the advice and assistance of the Chairman of the Boa'd of Directors of th' Southern Plantahs Bank and Trust Company in Memphis, C. C. Bellowes, a man who handles estates for all th' prominent fam'lies in West Tennessee and th' Delta.
BIG MAMA: Gooper?
GOOPER [crouching in front of Big Mama]: Now this is not—not final, or anything like it. This is just a preliminary outline. But it does provide a basis—a design—a—possib
le, feasible—plan!
MARGARET: Yes, I'll bet.
MAE: It's a plan to protect the biggest estate in the Delta from irresponsibility an'—
BIG MAMA: Now you listen to me, all of you, you listen here! They's not goin' to be any more catty talk in my house! And Gooper, you put that away before I grab it out of your hand and tear it right up! I don't know what the hell's in it, and I don't want to know what the hell's in it. I'm talkin' in Big Daddy's language now; I'm his wife, not his widow, I'm still his wife! And I'm talkin' to you in his language an'—
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 came 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 Big Daddy always says when he's disgusted?
BRICK [from the bar]: Big Daddy says 'crap' when he's disgusted.
BIG MAMA [rising]: That's right—CRAP! I say CRAP too, like Big Daddy!
MAE: Coarse language doesn't seem called for in this—
GOOPER: Somethin' in me is deeply outraged by hearin' you talk like this.
BIG MAMA: Nobody's goin' to take nothin'!—till Big Daddy lets go of it, and maybe, just possibly, not—not even then! No, not even then!
BRICK: 'You can always hear me singin' this song, Show me the way to go home.'
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 and used to come home all sweaty and pink-cheeked and sleepy, with his—red curls shining....
[She comes over to him and runs her fat shaky hand through his hair. He draws aside as he does from all physical contact and continues the song in a whisper, opening the ice bucket and dropping in the ice cubes one by one as if he were mixing some important chemical formula.]
BIG MAMA [continuing]: 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, especially now that such a black thing has come and moved into this place without invitation.
[Awkwardly embracing Brick, she presses her head to his shoulder. | Gooper has been returning papers to Mae who has restored them to briefcase with an air of severely tried patience.]
GOOPER: Big Mama? Big Mama?
[He stands behind her, tense with sibling envy.]
BIG MAMA [oblivious of Gooper]: Brick, you hear me, don't you?
MARGARET: Brick hears you, Big Mama, he understands what you're saying.
BIG MAMA: 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 gave him a child of yours, a grandson as much like his son as his son is like Big Daddy!
MAE [popping briefcase shut | an incongruous sound]: Such a pity that Maggie an' Brick can't oblige!
MARGARET [suddenly and quietly but forcefully]: Everybody listen.
[She crosses to the center of the room, holding her hands rigidly together.]
MAE: Listen to what, Maggie?
MARGARET: I have an announcement to make.
GOOPER: A sports announcement, Maggie?
MARGARET: Brick and I are going to—have a child!
[Big Mama catches her breath in a loud gasp. | Pause. | Big Mama rises.]
BIG MAMA: Maggie! Brick! This is too good to believe!
MAE: That's right, too good to believe.
BIG MAMA: Oh, my, my! This is Big Daddy's dream, his dream come true! I'm going to tell him right now before he—
MARGARET: We'll tell him in the morning. Don't disturb him now.
BIG MAMA: I want to tell him before he goes to sleep, I'm going to tell him his dream's come true this minute! And Brick! A child will make you pull yourself together and quit this drinking!
[She seizes the glass from his hand.]
The responsibilities of a father will—
[Her face contorts and she makes an excited gesture; bursting into sobs, she rushes out, crying.]
I'm going to tell Big Daddy right this minute!
[Her voice fades out down the hall. | Brick shrugs slightly and drops an ice cube into another glass. | Margaret crosses quickly to his side, saying something under her breath, and she pours the liquor for him, staring up almost fiercely into his face.]
BRICK [coolly]: Thank you, Maggie, that's a nice big shot.
[Mae has joined Gooper and she gives him a fierce poke, making a low hissing sound and a grimace of fury.]
GOOPER [pushing her aside]: Brick, could you possibly spare me one small shot of that liquor?
BRICK: Why, help yourself, Gooper boy.
GOOPER: I will.
MAE [shrilly]: Of course we know that this is—
GOOPER: 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!
MARGARET: Gracious! I didn't know that my little announcement was going to provoke such a storm!
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?
MARGARET: One of the best gynaecologists in the South.
GOOPER: Uh huh, uh huh!—I see...
[He takes out pencil and notebook.]
—May we have his name, please?
MARGARET: No, you may not, Mister Prosecuting Attorney!
MAE: He doesn't have any name, he doesn't exist!
MARGARET: Oh, he exists all right, and so does my child, Brick's baby!
MAE: You can't conceive a child by a man that won't sleep with you unless you think you're—
[Brick has turned on the phonograph. A scat song cuts Mae's speech.]
GOOPER: Turn that off!
MAE: We know it's a lie because we hear you in here; he won't sleep with you, we hear you! So don't imagine you're going to put a trick over on us, to fool a dying man with a—
[A long drawn cry of agony and rage fills the house. Margaret turns phonograph down to a whisper. | The cry is repeated.]
MAE [awed]: Did you hear that, Gooper, did you hear that?
GOOPER: Sounds like the pain has struck.
MAE: Go see, Gooper!
GOOPER: Come along and leave these love birds together in their nest!
[He goes out first, Mae follows but turns at the door, contorting her face and hissing at Margaret.]
MAE: Liar!
[She slams the door.
Margaret exhales with relief and moves a little unsteadily to catch hold of Brick's arm.]
MARGARET: Thank you for—keeping still....
BRICK: OK, Maggie.
MARGARET: It was gallant of you to save my face!
BRICK: —It hasn't happened yet.
MARGARET: What?
BRICK: The click....
MARGARET: —the click in your head that makes you peaceful, honey?
BRICK: Uh-huh. It hasn't happened.... I've got to make it happen before I can sleep....
MARGARET: —I—know what you—mean....
BRICK: Give me that pillow in the big chair, Maggie.
MARGARET: I'll put it on the bed for you.
BRICK: No, put it on the sofa, where I sleep.
MARGARET: Not tonight, Brick.
BRICK: I want it on the sofa. That's where I sleep.
[He has hobbled to the liquor cabinet. He now pours down three shots in quick succession and stands waiting, silent. All at once he turns with a smile and says:]
There!
MARGARET: What?
BRICK: The click....
[His gratitude seems almost infinite as he hobbles out on the
gallery with a drink. We hear his crutch as he swings out of sight. Then, at some distance, he begins singing to himself a peaceful song. | Margaret holds the big pillow forlornly as if it were her only companion, for a few moments, then throws it on the bed. She rushes to the liquor cabinet, gathers all the bottles in her arms, turns about undecidedly, then runs out of the room with them, leaving the door ajar on the dim yellow hall. Brick is heard hobbling back along the gallery, singing his peaceful song. He comes back in, sees the pillow on the bed, laughs lightly, sadly, picks it up. He has it under his arm as Margaret returns to the room. Margaret softly shuts the door and leans against it, smiling softly at Brick.]
Three Plays of Tennessee Williams Page 10