Goodnight Children Everywhere and Other Plays

by Richard Nelson

  MACREADY: I don’t know. (Short pause) You have something else to do.

  MRS. POPE: If I’m needed I will be there. (Short pause) If I’m not my sister has planned a tea— She would like me to— She needs some help. (Beat. Turns to the others) But I wouldn’t want to— If it’s a bother. I can work all morning. Right through lunch if you wish. If that would help.

  MACREADY: I’ll do what I can, Mrs. Pope.

  MRS. POPE: I don’t want to be a problem, so if— (Turns to the others) If it’s going to cause anyone any . . . (Beat) Is it? (Beat) I guess it isn’t, Mr. Macready. No one said—

  MACREADY: I’ll do what I can, Mrs. Pope.

  (Long pause. Only now does it become clear just how drunk Macready is. He holds his head, breathes heavily, then finally, and suddenly, stands up.)

  And now I will go. (Beat) Before I drink too much. I do not want to drink too much. John, will you see me to a cab?

  (Ryder stands and takes Macready’s arm. Macready turns to the others and points.)

  A good day! A very good day it has been! Do not be disheartened!

  WEMYSS (Standing): Actually we can help. We’re leaving as well. (To his daughter) Let’s go, Catherine.

  MISS WEMYSS (To the others): Thank you for letting me join you. I have enjoyed myself very much.

  (Wemyss takes Macready’s arm from Ryder and helps him out. Catherine follows. Ryder watches them go.)

  CLARK: Why should we be disheartened? He said he thought rehearsals were going well. I think rehearsals are going well.

  MRS. POPE: Please sit and stay, Mr. Ryder. Unless you have to . . .

  (Beat.)

  RYDER: No. (Looks around the table) I don’t have to . . . Thank you. I’d like to very much. (Sits back down. Pause) Any idea who Mr. Forrest will get to play Macduff?

  TILTON (Before anyone can answer): Ever seen Macready act?

  MRS. POPE: We’re rehearsing with—

  TILTON: I mean from the audience. I have seen him many many times. (Beat) Each time—it gets even worse.

  MRS. POPE (To Ryder): Sorry, he’s—

  RYDER (Holding up his hand): No, no, please, don’t—not for my sake. Just—

  CLARK: He’s been fine to work with. (Beat) I’ve worked with worse.

  MRS. POPE: He actually spent some time with me on a scene he isn’t even in.

  BRIDGES: I saw his Richard in Philadelphia on his last tour. (Beat) I don’t much like that sort of acting. It’s not why I go to the theatre.

  CLARK: People like it.

  TILTON: English people like it.

  BRADSHAW: Not just English people. He’s performed all around the—

  TILTON: Then people who want to be English people. They like it.

  BRADSHAW: Maybe.

  BRIDGES: Rich people like it.

  TILTON: I agree with that too.

  MRS. POPE: The Astor Place Opera House people will like it. So he’ll do fine. We’ll do fine.

  BRIDGES: As long as there’s an audience.

  MRS. POPE: I say take what you can get.

  (Short pause.)

  BRIDGES: On my own, I never go to the Astor Place.

  MRS. POPE: It’s expensive.

  BRADSHAW: The dressing rooms are rather nice though.

  MRS. POPE: They are, aren’t they?

  (Short pause.)

  RYDER: I’ve— (Beat) I have played Macduff.

  BRADSHAW: English actors I’ll wager are very different from American actors.

  MRS. POPE: I hear when they go out—like this, as a group—they only speak in verse to each other.

  RYDER (Quickly): No, that’s not true. We don’t.

  (The others laugh.)

  We really don’t. (Realizes that it is a joke and laughs with the others)

  TILTON: I’ve worked with English actors. The first thing you learn is never leave out your money.

  MRS. POPE: When someone’s passing through—when anyone is—and you know you can’t find him again, you do not leave out your money. It has nothing to do with being—

  BRIDGES: Are you enjoying America, Mr. Ryder?

  CLARK: You’ve been before?

  RYDER: No, I haven’t. (Beat) That’s why Mr. Macready, well, besides wanting the company, he thought I should see for myself. He said, “John, you are not going to believe this. I want to be there to see your face.”

  (Beat. Thomas Fisher, Jane Bass, Helen Burton, and Anne Holland—all actors working with Edwin Forrest at the Broadway Theatre—enter, on their way to Tilton’s table, which he has been saving for them.)

  FISHER (While entering): This one? Is this our table? How many—? (Starts to count chairs)

  MISS BASS (To Mrs. Pope at a distance): Hello. How are you?

  (Mrs. Pope smiles and nods.)

  FISHER: We’ll need another chair.

  TILTON: Who’s—?

  FISHER: Ned and Robert are at the bar getting the drinks.

  CLARK: You can use these chairs.

  FISHER (Going to the table for the chairs): Nice to see you.

  CLARK: And you. (Beat) You know—

  FISHER: Of course I do. Why don’t you— If you want.

  MRS. POPE: We’re leaving. I’m leaving. We’ve been here how long?

  FISHER (Taking the chairs back to the other table): Another time then.

  BRADSHAW: Absolutely.

  (The Macready table now watches the other table.)

  TILTON (To Miss Bass): How’s Scott? Anyone seen Scott?

  MISS BASS: Ned spoke to him. (Beat) The doctor wants him to sleep.

  MISS BURTON: He wanted to come out with us. (Smiles and shakes her head)

  MISS HOLLAND: He’s going to be fine.

  TILTON: Someone was saying they’d seen him drinking.

  MISS BASS: Tonight?

  TILTON: They said this tonight, yes.

  FISHER: He didn’t seem himself, did he? Even in the dressing room. (Beat) And he never dries.

  MISS HOLLAND: He dried tonight?

  FISHER: I think so. (Beat) I’m not sure, but I think so. Sometimes with Scott it’s hard to tell.

  MISS HOLLAND (To Miss Burton): Save a place for Robert.

  (Miss Burton looks at her and moves over a chair.

  Edwin Forrest and Robert Jones, also an actor with Forrest’s Broadway Theatre company, enter carrying drinks.)

  FORREST (While entering): I’m spilling. (To Jones, who is behind him) Watch your step, don’t slip. (Beat) Someone should get a cloth and—I don’t want anyone to slip.

  MISS BASS (Getting up): I’ll ask at the bar.

  CLARK: We have a cloth. (To Bridges) Give me that. Give me the cloth.

  (Bridges does.)

  (Holding up the cloth) We have one.

  FORREST: Thank you.

  MISS BASS: I’ll take it.

  (She takes the cloth. Forrest looks at Jones.)

  JONES: Clark. Charlie Clark.

  FORREST: Thank you, Mr. Clark. (Starts to turn, stops, looks back at Clark) Have we worked together?

  CLARK: No. No, sir. (Beat) Not yet. (Laughs) Hopefully some day.

  (Forrest nods.)

  JONES: Charlie is—in fact, you all are, aren’t you? Working with Mr. Macready on his Macbeth.

  MRS. POPE: We are. That’s right.

  FORREST: And it’s going well?

  (They nod.)

  Good. (Winks at them and goes to the other table)

  JONES (To the Macready table): If you’d like to join—

  RYDER: I’d love to. Thanks. (Gets up. Introducing himself) Ryder. John Ryder.

  JONES: How do you do? English?

  RYDER: That’s right.

  CLARK (To others): Why don’t we . . . He’s asked us. I’m going to.

  (Gets up)

  MRS. POPE (Getting up): I can just stay a minute more.

  BRADSHAW: Me, too. One minute.

  (They move toward the other table, carrying their drinks. Forrest is beginning to serve.)

  FORREST: Who doesn’t ha
ve a glass? Who wants wine? Who wants beer? (Beat) Why don’t I just pass it around.

  RYDER: I heard you had a problem during the performance tonight.

  (Short pause.)

  FORREST: We did, yes. (Beat) Poor Mr. Scott, he—

  TILTON: I told them, Ned.

  FORREST (Turning to Tilton, then back to Ryder): Then you know. (To the others) Please, help yourselves. (Beat. To Ryder) Have we worked together?

  RYDER: I’ve never performed in America. Not that I have anything against it. (Beat) I’m a friend of Mr. Macready’s. I help him.

  FORREST: I’ve been to England.

  RYDER: Of course I know that. I’ve seen you—

  FORREST: Perhaps I saw you do something there.

  RYDER: Perhaps.

  FORREST: I’m sure I have. (Stares at Ryder then turns to Fisher) Mr. Fisher, I’ve a few notes about tonight that I’d like to give before I forget them. That’s if you have a moment.

  FISHER: Of course, Ned.

  FORREST: Bring your chair.

  (Fisher brings his chair and sits next to Forrest. Others have sat as well, except for Ryder.)

  RYDER (A little too loud): What role was the poor man who hurt himself playing?

  (Short pause. Others choose to consciously ignore Ryder’s question.)

  FORREST (Barely audible, to Fisher): First let me say, what I thought you were doing in our first scene was quite laudable . . .

  TILTON (To the others): You just missed Macready himself.

  BRIDGES: He was with us. He bought us . . .

  (Conversations begin. Small groups of two or three, with only Ryder excluded.)

  CLARK: I’ve got work in Cincinnati whenever I want it.

  MISS BURTON: They all say that. Then you get to Cincinnati.

  CLARK: Not this time. I believe these people. (Beat) These people are different.

  MISS BURTON: Go to Cincinnati then.

  (Many overlapping conversations now so no one is understandable. This goes on for a few moments. Then blackout.)

  SCENE 2

  1 A.M.

  Parlor, Edwin Forrest’s house. A few chairs, a bookcase, etc. Forrest and Miss Bass sit in chairs, fairly near each other, and occasionally glance at each other. They also have glasses in their hands. Bradshaw stands at the bookcase browsing through the books. Ryder stands looking through a scrapbook. Long pause. Ryder closes the scrapbook, sets it on a table, notices a silver snuffbox and picks it up.

  RYDER: This is beautiful.

  FORREST (Turning to Ryder): Read what it says. (Beat) Read it out loud so Mr. Bradshaw can hear.

  (Bradshaw stops browsing.)

  RYDER (Reading from the snuffbox): “Presented to Edwin Forrest, Esq., by the members of the Sheffield Theatrical Company, as a mark of their esteem for him as an actor and a man.”

  (Beat.)

  FORREST: Something to cherish.

  RYDER: Certainly . . .

  FORREST: Coming as it does from actors.

  (Short pause.)

  BRADSHAW: This was when you were in England . . .

  FORREST: The last time. Let me see it. I haven’t noticed it for a long time.

  (Ryder hands him the box. Miss Bass gets up and goes to Forrest to look at the box. Short pause.)

  (To Miss Bass) They had a nice little ceremony. The man who made the speech was a very lousy actor.

  (He smiles, the others laugh lightly.)

  Brooke, I think his name was. Do you know him, Mr. Ryder?

  RYDER: I don’t know. I—I don’t think so.

  FORREST: I thought being English . . .

  RYDER: Maybe I do. I don’t know. (Beat) Brooke? I don’t know.

  (Forrest hands the box back to Ryder.)

  It is a beautiful box. (Puts it back on the table)

  FORREST (Holding up a decanter): Would anyone—?

  RYDER: I’m fine, thank you.

  (Forrest turns to Bradshaw, who shakes his head and goes back to browsing. He turns to Miss Bass, who now sits on the arm of his chair.)

  MISS BASS (Holding up her glass): I haven’t touched what I have.

  (Forrest puts the decanter down without pouring a drink.)

  FORREST (Without looking at Ryder): Have you already gone through both scrapbooks, Mr. Ryder?

  RYDER: I— Both? No. I didn’t know there were two. I’ve only seen this—

  FORREST: Miss Bass knows where the other one is kept.

  MISS BASS: I’ll get it. (Goes to a table, opens a drawer, takes out a book)

  FORREST: I call that section the Shakespeare Corner, Mr. Bradshaw.

  BRADSHAW: I can see why. (Laughs)

  FORREST: Warburton’s edition is certainly worth a look.

  BRADSHAW: Which is?. . .

  FORREST: To your left. (Beat) Up one. Two over. There. That’s right.

  (Bradshaw takes out a book.)

  I have nearly all the editions of Shakespeare’s work. Even— (Stops himself and smiles) But we’ll get to that. (Turns to Miss Bass, who has the scrapbook) I’ll take that, please. (Turns back to Bradshaw) The actor’s work—I don’t have to tell you—is much more than what is on the stage. These are but some necessary tools for one’s investigations. (Takes the scrapbook and opens it) Come here, Mr. Ryder. I plan to exhaust all of your enthusiasm as well as your patience.

  RYDER: I’m the one who asked to see—

  FORREST (Pointing out things in the scrapbook): Here I am as Richard III. (Smiles) This was in Dublin, you’ll be interested to know.

  (Forrest stares at the picture. Pause. Ryder looks at Miss Bass and then at Bradshaw, who has come to look over Forrest’s shoulder. Finally, Forrest turns the page.)

  Romeo.

  (Forrest stares at the picture, then sniffles, takes out a handkerchief and wipes a tearing eye. Ryder watches this, aware that he has no idea what is going on and uncomfortable because of this.)

  I also played Mercutio. First I played Mercutio. I was only a boy then.

  (He smiles at Miss Bass, who smiles and takes his hand.)

  Mr. Wallack was the Romeo. He was much too old. Much. He should have known better. (Beat) Someone should have told him. Been honest with him. (Sighs and stands) I promised to show you something, didn’t I, Mr. Bradshaw. Excuse me. (Goes off)

  BRADSHAW (To Ryder): What’s he? . . .

  (Ryder shrugs.)

  I think I will have a little of that.

  (He pours himself a drink. The atmosphere in the room has suddenly relaxed.)

  RYDER (To Miss Bass): Have you worked with Mr. Forrest before? (Beat) I mean before this season.

  (She looks at Bradshaw, then back at Ryder.)

  MISS BASS: Yes. Yes. I have.

  RYDER: Then maybe you can help me. Do you think he was being serious when he said he wanted me for Macduff?

  MISS BASS: Yes, I’m sure he was being serious, Mr. Ryder. (Beat) He needs a—

  RYDER: Sometimes you don’t know. People say all sorts of things. (Beat) Especially late at night.

  MISS BASS: Rehearsals are tomorrow. I’m sure he expects you there.

  BRADSHAW: You know the part.

  RYDER: In England I’ve played it a hundred—

  (He stops himself as Mrs. Catherine Forrest enters. She is in her dressing gown. Awkward pause.)

  MRS. FORREST: I thought I heard voices. (Beat) Is my husband here or do you just come on your own now, Miss Bass?

  BRADSHAW: He went to get something.

  (Mrs. Forrest begins to go off in that direction.)

  MISS BASS: How are you, Mrs. Forrest?

  (She ignores this and goes off. Beat.)

  RYDER: I hadn’t realized he had a wife.

  (From off the sound of an argument. Forrest and his wife shouting at each other, though exactly what they are shouting about cannot be heard. Ryder, Bradshaw and Miss Bass try to ignore them. Ryder pours himself a drink.)

  BRADSHAW (To Ryder): Have you seen the—? (Nods toward the bookcase)

  RYDER: I haven’t
had the chance yet. But I’d love to. (Goes to the bookcase)

  BRADSHAW: An extraordinary collection.

  (They pretend to browse, as the argument continues off. Finally Forrest enters alone carrying a large book.)

  FORREST (While entering): Pope’s edition is also worth looking through. But before that . . . (Beat. Holds up the book) Here is what I wanted to show you. (Sits) The most precious thing I own.

  (Ryder and Bradshaw come closer.)

  I dare say, I believe it to be the only First Folio in the New World.

  RYDER: First Folio—? (Instinctively reaches for it)

  FORREST: Gentle. Gentle, Mr. Ryder. (Beat) She breathes. This book. She lives. (Opens it and reads) “Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories & Tragedies. Published according to the True original copies. London. Printed by Issac Jaggard and Ed. Blout, 1623.”

  (Pause. Forrest has heard something.)

  Now she’s crying.

  (Mrs. Forrest can be heard crying in the next room.)

  (To Ryder) Feel the cover.

  (He does.)

  As smooth as a child’s face. As smooth as a face. (Rubs his hand across Miss Bass’s face) What one needs to study to be a Shakespearean actor. (Gently pats the book) The truth lies in our hands. (Beat) The ignorance of the world knows no bounds, Mr. Ryder. I have twice been criticized for reading “dead vast” instead of saying “dead waste.” Some quartos have it even as “wast”—what ever that is supposed to mean—and also as “waist”—W-A-I-S-T. (Laughs) But in here, Mr. Ryder, our true authority, it is “vast.” (Beat) “Vast” for the vacancy and void of night. For the deserted emptiness. Not “waste.” Not for what has been thrown away. “Vast”! For the hole, the H-O-L-E! The loss of what is, what was, a loss that shall always remain a loss! (Beat) You study. You learn. (Beat) Like a face. That smooth. Rub your face against the book and feel it. Against your flesh.

  (Ryder takes the book and rubs it against his face, then hands it to Bradshaw, who does the same. Pause.)

  (Without looking at Ryder) Some of Macduff ’s lines we cut, Mr. Ryder. I shall give you such cuts tomorrow. (Pause) Poor Scott, cut his finger off from here. (Holds up his finger) Blood was everywhere. Somehow it even got on the sheets. (Beat) Big stain on Desdemona’s sheets. I noticed that as I— I was holding the pillow. (Looks up at them) Sometimes you lose yourself so much in a role. (Beat) Sometimes you— (Beat) Sometimes you are lost.