Mrs Bryant Well, shall we have a little cup o’ tea while we’re waitin’? I’ll go put the kettle on. (Goes to kitchen.)
Everyone sits around now. Jenny takes out some knitting and Jimmy picks up a paper to read. There is a silence. It is not an awkward silence, just a conversationless room.
Pearl (to Jenny) Who’s lookin’ after your Daphne?
Jenny Ole mother Mann next door.
Pearl Poor ole dear. How’s she feelin’ now?
Jenny She took it bad. (Nodding at Jimmy.) Him too. He think he were to blame.
Pearl Blust that weren’t his fault. Don’t be so daft Jimmy Beales. Don’t you go fretting yourself or you’ll make us all feel queer look. You done nothin’ wrong bor – he weren’t far off dying ’sides.
Frank They weren’t even married were they?
Jenny No, they never were – she started lookin’ after him when he had that first stroke and she just stayed.
Jimmy Lost her job ’cos of it too.
Frank Well, yes, she would, wouldn’t she – she was a State Registered Nurse or something weren’t she? (To Beatie.) Soon ever the authorities got to hear o’ that they told her to pack up livin’ wi’ him or quit her job, see?
Jenny Bloody daft I reckon. What difference it make whether she married him or not.
Pearl I reckon you miss him Jenny?
Jenny Hell yes – that I do. He were a good ole bor – always joking and buying the gal sweets. Well, do you know I cry when I heard it? I did. Blust, that fair shook me – that it did, there!
Jimmy Who’s lookin’ after your kid then, Pearl?
Pearl Father.
Pause.
Jimmy (to Frank) Who do you think’ll win today?
Frank Well Norwich won’t.
Jimmy No.
Pause. Mrs Bryant enters and sits down.
Mrs Bryant Well the kettle’s on.
Pearl (to Beatie) Hev his sister got any children?
Beatie Two boys.
Jimmy She wanna get on top one night then they’ll hev girls.
Jenny Oh shut you up Jimmy Beales.
Mrs Bryant Hed another little win last night.
Jenny When was this?
Mrs Bryant The fireman’s whist drive. Won seven ’n’ six in the knockout.
Jenny Yearp.
Frank (reading the paper) I see that boy what assaulted the ole woman in London got six years.
Mrs Bryant Blust! He need to! I’d’ve given him six years and a bit more. Bloody ole hooligans. Do you give me a chance to pass sentence and I’d soon clear the streets of crime, that I would. Yes, that I would.
Beatie (springing into activity) All right Mother – we’ll give you a chance. (Grabs Jimmy’s hat and umbrella. Places hat on mother’s head and umbrella in her arms.) There you are, you’re a judge. Now sum up and pass judgment.
Mrs Bryant I’d put him in prison for life.
Frank You gotta sum up though. Blust, you just can’t stick a man in prison and say nothing.
Mrs Bryant Goodbye, I’d say.
Beatie Come on Mother, speak up. Anybody can say ‘go to prison’, but you want to be a judge. Well, you show a judge’s understanding. Talk! Come on Mother, talk!
Everyone leans forward eagerly to hear mother talk. She looks startled and speechless.
Mrs Bryant Well I – I – yes I – well I – Oh, don’t be so soft.
Frank The mighty head is silent.
Beatie Well yes, she would be wouldn’t she.
Mrs Bryant What do you mean, I would be? You don’t expect me to know what they say in courts do you? I aren’t no judge.
Beatie Then why do you sit and pass judgment on people? If someone do something wrong you don’t stop and think why. No discussin’, no questions, just – (Snap of fingers.) Off with his head. I mean look at Father getting less money. I don’t see the family sittin’ together and discussin’ it. It’s a problem! But which of you said it concerns you?
Mrs Bryant Nor don’t it concern them. I aren’t hevin’ people mix in my matters.
Beatie But they aren’t just people – they’re your family for hell’s sake!
Mrs Bryant No matters, I aren’t hevin’ it!
Beatie But Mother I –
Mrs Bryant Now shut you up Beatie Bryant and leave it alone. I shall talk when I hev to and I never shall do, so there!
Beatie You’re so stubborn.
Mrs Bryant So you keep saying.
Mr Bryant enters, he is clean and dressed in blue pin-striped suit.
Mr Bryant You brewed up yit?
Mrs Bryant (jumping up and going to kitchen) Oh hell, yes – I forgot the tea look.
Mr Bryant Well, now we’re all waitin’ on him.
Jenny Don’t look as if Susie’s comin’.
Beatie Stubborn cow!
Silence.
Jenny Hev you seen Susie’s television set yit?
Beatie I seen it.
Frank Did you know also that when they fist hed it they took it up to bed wi’ them and lay in bed wi’ a dish of chocolate biscuits?
Pearl But now they don’t bother – they say they’ve had it a year now and all the old programmes they saw in the beginning they’re seein’ again.
Mrs Bryant (entering with tea) Brew’s up!
Beatie Oh, for Christ’s sake let’s stop gossiping.
Pearl I aren’t gossiping. I’m making an intelligent observation about the state of television, now then.
Mr Bryant What’s up wi’ you now?
Beatie You weren’t doin’ nothin’ o’ the sort – you was gossiping.
Pearl Well that’s a heap sight better’n quotin’ all the time.
Beatie I don’t quote all the time, I just tell you what Ronnie say.
Frank Take it easy gal – he’s comin’ soon – don’t need to go all jumpin’ an’ frantic.
Beatie Listen! Let me set you a problem.
Jimmy Here we go.
Beatie While we’re waitin’ for him I’ll set you a moral problem. You know what a moral problem is? It’s a problem about right and wrong. I’ll get you buggers thinking if it’s the last thing I do. Now listen. There are four huts –
Frank What?
Beatie Huts. You know – them little things you live in. Now there are two huts on one side of a stream and two huts on the other side. On one side live a girl in one hut and a wise man in the other. On the other side live Tom in one hut and Archie in the other. Also there’s a ferryman what run a boat across the river. Now – listen, concentrate – the girl loves Archie but Archie don’t love the girl. And Tom love the girl but the girl don’t go much on Tom.
Jimmy Poor bugger.
Beatie One day the girl hears that Archie – who don’t love her, remember – is going to America, so she decides to try once more to persuade him to take her with him. So listen what she do. She go to the ferryman and ask him to take her across. The ferryman say, I will, but you must take off all your clothes.
Mrs Bryant Well, whatever do he wanna ask that for?
Beatie It don’t matters why – he do! Now the girl doesn’t know what to do so she ask the wise man for advice, and he say, you must do what you think best.
Frank Well that weren’t much advice was it!
Beatie No matters – he give it. So the girl thinks about it and being so in love she decides to strip.
Pearl Oh I say!
Mr Bryant Well, this is a rum ole story ent it?
Beatie Shut up Father and listen. Now, er – where was I?
Mr Bryant She was strippin’.
Beatie Oh yes! So, the girl strips and the ferryman takes her over – he don’t touch her or nothing – just takes her over and she rushes to Archie’s hut to implore him to take her with him and to declare her love again. Now Archie promises to take her with him and so she sleeps with him the night. But when she wake up in the morning he’ve gone. She’s left alone. So she go across to Tom and explain her plight and ask for help. But soon ever he knowe
d what she’ve done, he chuck her out see? So there she is. Poor little gal. Left alone with no clothes and no friends and no hope of staying alive. Now – this is the question, think about it, don’t answer quick – who is the person most responsible for her plight?
Jimmy Well, can’t she get back?
Beatie No, she can’t do anything. She’s finished. She’ve hed it! Now, who’s to blame?
There is a general air of thought for a moment and Beatie looks triumphant and pleased with herself.
Mrs Bryant Be you a-drinkin’ on your tea look. Don’t you worry about no naked gals. The gal won’t get cold but the tea will.
Pearl Well I say the girl’s most responsible.
Beatie Why?
Pearl Well, she made the choice didn’t she?
Frank Yes, but the old ferryman made her take off her clothes.
Pearl But she didn’t hev to.
Frank Blust woman, she were in love!
Beatie Good ole Frank.
Jenny Hell if I know.
Beatie Jimmy?
Jimmy Don’t ask me gal – I follow decisions, I aren’t makin’ none.
Beatie Father?
Mr Bryant I don’t know what you’re on about.
Beatie Mother?
Mrs Bryant Drink you your tea gal – never you mind what I think.
This is what they’re waiting for.
Pearl Well – what do Ronnie say?
Beatie He say the gal is responsible only for makin’ the decision to strip off and go across and that she do that because she’s in love. After that she’s the victim of two phoney men – one who don’t love her but take advantage of her and one who say he love her but don’t love her enough to help her, and that the man who say he love her but don’t do nothin’ to help her is most responsible because he were the last one she could turn to.
Jenny He’ve got it all worked out then!
Beatie (jumping on a chair thrusting her fist into the air like Ronnie, and glorying in what is the beginning of a hysteric outburst of his quotes) ‘No one do that bad that you can’t forgive them.’
Pearl He’s sure of himself then?
Beatie ‘We can’t be sure of everything but certain basic things we must be sure about or we’ll die.’
Frank He think everyone is gonna listen then?
Beatie ‘People must listen. It’s no good talking to the converted. Everyone must argue and think or they will stagnate and rot and the rot will spread.’
Jenny Hark at that then.
Beatie (her strange excitement growing; she has a quote for everything) ‘If wanting the best things in life means being a snob then glory hallelujah I’m a snob. But I’m not a snob Beatie, I just believe in human dignity and tolerance and cooperation and equality and –’
Jimmy (jumping up in terror) He’s a communist!
Beatie ‘I’m a socialist!’
There is a knock on the front door.
Beatie (jumping down joyously as though her excited quotes have been leading to this one moment) He’s here, he’s here! (But at the door it is the postman, from whom she takes a letter and a parcel.) Oh, the silly fool, the fool. Trust him to write a letter on the day he’s coming. Parcel for you Mother.
Pearl Oh, that’ll be your dress from the club.
Mrs Bryant What dress is this then? I didn’t ask for no dress from the club.
Pearl Yes you did, you did ask me, didn’t she ask me Frank? Why, we were looking through the book together Mother.
Mrs Bryant No matters what we was doin’ together I aren’t hevin’ it.
Pearl But Mother you distinctly –
Mrs Bryant I aren’t hevin’ it so there now!
Beatie has read the letter – the contents stun her. She cannot move. She stares around speechlessly at everyone.
Mrs Bryant Well, what’s the matter wi’ you gal? Let’s have a read. (Takes letter and reads contents in a dead flat but loud voice – as though it were a proclamation.) ‘My dear Beatie. It wouldn’t really work would it? My ideas about handing on a new kind of life are quite useless and romantic if I’m really honest. If I were a healthy human being it might have been all right but most of us intellectuals are pretty sick and neurotic – as you have often observed – and we couldn’t build a world even if we were given the reins of government – not yet any rate. I don’t blame you for being stubborn, I don’t blame you for ignoring every suggestion I ever made – I only blame myself for encouraging you to believe we could make a go of it and now two weeks of your not being here has given me the cowardly chance to think about it and decide and I –’
Beatie (snatching letter) Shut up!
Mrs Bryant Oh – so we know now do we?
Mr Bryant What’s this then – ent he comin’?
Mrs Bryant Yes, we know now.
Mr Bryant Ent he comin’ I ask?
Beatie No he ent comin’.
An awful silence ensues. Everyone looks uncomfortable.
Jenny (softly) Well blust gal, didn’t you know this was going to happen?
Beatie shakes her head.
Mrs Bryant So we’re stubborn are we?
Jenny Shut you up Mother, the girl’s upset.
Mrs Bryant Well I can see that, I can see that, he ent coming, I can see that, and we’re here like bloody fools, I can see that.
Pearl Well did you quarrel all that much Beatie?
Beatie (as if discovering this for the first time) He always wanted me to help him but I never could. Once he tried to teach me to type but soon ever I made a mistake I’d give up. I’d give up every time! I couldn’t bear making mistakes. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t bear making mistakes.
Mrs Bryant Oh – so we’re hearin’ the other side o’ the story now are we?
Beatie He used to suggest I start to copy real objects on to my paintings instead of only abstracts and I never took heed.
Mrs Bryant Oh, so you never took heed.
Jenny Shut you up I say.
Beatie He gimme a book sometimes and I never bothered to read it.
Frank (not maliciously) What about all this discussion we heard of?
Beatie I never discussed things. He used to beg me to discuss things but I never saw the point on it.
Pearl And he got riled because o’ that?
Beatie (trying to understand) I didn’t have any patience.
Mrs Bryant Now it’s coming out.
Beatie I couldn’t help him – I never knew patience. Once he looked at me with terrified eyes and said, ‘We’ve been together for three years but you don’t know who I am or what I’m trying to say – and you don’t care do you?’
Mrs Bryant And there she was tellin’ me.
Beatie I never knew what he wanted – I didn’t think it mattered.
Mr Bryant And there she was gettin’ us to solve the moral problem and now we know she didn’t even do it herself. That’s a rum ’un, ent it?
Mrs Bryant The apple don’t fall far from the tree – that it don’t.
Beatie (wearily) So you’re proud on it? You sit there smug and you’re proud that a daughter of yours wasn’t able to help her boyfriend? Look at you. All of you. You can’t say anything. You can’t even help your own flesh and blood. Your daughter’s bin ditched. It’s your problem as well isn’t it? I’m part of your family aren’t I? Well, help me then! Give me words of comfort! Talk to me – for God’s sake, someone talk to me. (She cries at last.)
Mr Bryant Well, what do we do now?
Mrs Bryant We sit down and we eat that’s what we do now.
Jenny Don’t be soft Mother, we can’t leave the girl crying like that.
Mrs Bryant Well, blust, ’tent my fault she’s cryin’. I did what I could – I prepared all this food, I’d’ve treated him as my own son if he’d come but he hevn’t! We got a whole family gathering specially to greet him, all on us look, but he hevn’t come. So what am I supposed to do?
Beatie My God, Mother, I hate you – the only thing I ever wanted
and I weren’t able to keep him, I didn’t know how. I hate you, I hate . . .
Mrs Bryant slaps Beatie’s face. Everyone is a little shocked at this harsh treatment.
Mrs Bryant There! I hed enough!
Mr Bryant Well what d’you wanna do that for?
Mrs Bryant I hed enough. All this time she’ve bin home she’ve bin tellin’ me I didn’t do this and I didn’t do that and I hevn’t understood half what she’ve said and I’ve hed enough. She talk about bein’ part o’ the family but she’ve never lived at home since she’ve left school look. Then she go away from here and fill her head wi’ high-class squit and then it turn out she don’t understand any on it herself. It turn out she do just the same things she say I do. (Into Beatie’s face.) Well, am I right gal? I’m right ent I? When you tell me I was stubborn, what you mean was that he told you you was stubborn – eh? When you tell me I don’t understand you mean you don’t understand isn’t it? When you tell me I don’t make no effort you mean you don’t make no effort. Well, what you blaming me for? Blaming me all the time! I haven’t bin responsible for you since you left home – you bin on your own. She think I like it, she do! Thinks I like it being cooped up in this house all day. Well I’m telling you my gal – I don’t! There! And if I had a chance to be away working somewhere the whole lot on you’s could go to hell – the lot on you’s. All right so I am a bloody fool – all right! So I know it! A whole two weeks I’ve bin told it. Well, so then I can’t help you my gal, no that I can’t, and you get used to that once and for all.
Beatie No you can’t Mother, I know you can’t.
Mrs Bryant I suppose doin’ all those things for him weren’t enough. I suppose he weren’t satisfied wi’ goodness only.
Beatie Oh, what’s the use.
Mrs Bryant Well, don’t you sit there an’ sigh gal like you was Lady Nevershit. I ask you something. Answer me. You do the talking then. Go on – you say you know something we don’t so you do the talking. Talk – go on, talk gal.
Beatie (despairingly) I can’t Mother, you’re right – the apple don’t fall far from the tree do it? You’re right, I’m like you. Stubborn, empty, wi’ no tools for livin’. I got no roots in nothing. I come from a family o’ farm labourers yet I ent got no roots – just like town people – just a mass o’ nothin’.
Roots (Modern Plays) Page 7