Bradbury, Ray - SSC 17
Page 7
Gomez flips at Martinez’s belt buckle swiftly. Martinez falls to and, hopping about, starts to get his pants off.
VAMENOS
Give me! Give!
GOMEZ
Form a circle! In! In! Close in!
The men circle Martinez. We see his pants flourished on the air. We see the white pants fly upward on the air.
VAMENOS
Quick, here come the maniacs with the razors. Right leg, right! Yes! Ah! Left leg, easy, ah-ow!
The men bend, leaving Martinez to hop around getting into the white pants. The siren pulls up offstage and dies. A light from the ambulance has flushed the stage.
VAMENOS
The zipper, cows! Zip my zipper! Ow!
The ambulance men run onstage with a portable carrier. Vamenos lies back down, exhaling.
VAMENOS
Madre mia, just in time. Gracias, compadres, gracias.
Martinez strolls off away, casually buckling the belt on the white trousers. The ambulance men bend and examine Vamenos.
ONE INTERN
Broken leg. What happened?
GOMEZ
He-
VAMENOS
(quickly)I fell down… running after a woman.
The interns look from Vamenos to the others, expectantly. At last, Gomez nods.
GOMEZ
(quietly)He fell down… running after a woman.
They are all proud of Vamenos and his fine lie, in this moment. Now he is placed on the canvas carrier gently by the men. Martinez has put on the white coat.
VAMENOS
Compadres… ? Don’t be mad with me.
VILLANAZUL
Who’s mad?
Now the carrier is lifted and the men stand around Vamenos as he speaks, faltering.
VAMENOS
Compadres, when… when I come from the hospital… am I still in the bunch?
There is a long silence.
VAMENOS
You won’t kick me out? Look, I’ll give up smoking, keep away from Murillo’s, swear off women-
MARTINEZ
(gently)Vamenos. Don’t promise nothing.
Vamenos looks at Martinez, his eyes brimming.
VAMENOS
Oh, Martinez, you sure look great in our suit. Compadres, don’t he look beautiful?
They carry Vamenos out.
VILLANAZUL
Vamenos, I’ll go with you!
Villanazul waves to the others and hurries out.
MANULO
I’ll go with you, Vamenos!
GOMEZ
Me, we’ll all go with you, Vamenos!
The siren brays. The guitar music plays. The men run out. Darkness.
When the light comes on again it is the raw overhead bulb in the tenement room under which stands Dominguez ironing the white coat on a board. Martinez stands nearby with the pants over his arm. Now Dominguez finishes and holds up the coat.
DOMINGUEZ
There! Clean, pressed! White as a gardenia! Sharp as a razor!
They place the suit on the dummy and stand back.
GOMEZ
So… it’s late. Two o’clock. Friends, the room is yours. Sleep.
He nods, he waves about. The men move to collapsible cots. Some lie on the floor. But they make a circle, enclosing the suit on the dummy. They all lie, looking at its whiteness. Martinez alone remains standing by the suit, fixing its lapels.
MARTINEZ
Ay, caramba, what a night. Seems ten years since seven o’clock, when it all started and I had no friends. Two in the morning I got all kinds of friends. Even Celia Obregon, the girl in the window. All kinds of friends. I got a room. I got clothes. You tell me. Hey!(softly)Funny. When I wear this suit, I know I will win at pool like Gomez. I will sing and play the guitar like Manulo. I will dance like Dominguez. I will talk fine talk like Villanazul. Be strong in the arms like Vamenos …So… so, tonight I am Gomez, Manulo, Dominguez, Villanazul, Vamenos. Everyone … Ay … ay …
There is a moment of silence. Outside, flushing in through the windows, we see the light of various neon signs flashing on and off. Martinez stands musing.
GOMEZ
(quietly)Martinez? You going to sleep?
MARTINEZ
Sure. I’m just-thinking.
MANULO
What?
MARTINEZ
(softly)If we ever get rich, it’ll be kind of sad. Then we’ll all have suits. And there won’t be no more nights like tonight. It’ll break up the old gang. It’ll never be the same after that.
The men lie thinking of it for a moment. Gomez nods at last, a sudden sadness in his voice.
GOMEZ
Yeah… it’ll never be the same… after that.
Martinez pulls the light cord. The light goes out. From outside the neon lights flash on and off, on and off.
Martinez strokes the white suit a last time, then lies down near it.
The men look at the suit in the flashing on-and-off light.
It stands in the middle of the room, in the middle of their lives, white in darkness, now seen, now vanishing, now seen, now vanishing, as the neon lights flash, flash, and again flash, flash, and the guitar plays slow, slow, a chord, another sweet, sad chord and the curtain slowly, slowly descends.
THE END
The Veldt
The curtain rises to find a completely empty room with no furniture of any kind in it. This room encompasses the entire front half of the stage. Its walls are scrim which appear when lighted from the front, vanish when lighted from the rear. In the center of the room is a door which leads to the living quarters of a house circa 1991. The living quarters dominate the entire rear half of the stage. There we see armchairs, lamps, a dining table and chairs, some abstract paintings. When the characters in the play are moving about the living area, the lights in the “empty” room, the playroom, will be out, and we will be able to see through into the back quarters of the house. Similarly, when the characters enter the empty playroom, the lights will vanish in the living room and come on, in varying degrees, as commanded, in the play area.
At rise of curtain, the playroom is dimly lit. An electrician, bent to the floor, is working by flashlight, fingering and testing electrical equipment set under a trapdoor. From above and all around come ultrahigh-frequency hummings and squealings, as volume and tone are adjusted.
George Hadley, about thirty-six, enters and moves through the living area to look through the playroom door. He is fascinated, delighted in fact, by the sounds and the flicker of shadows in the playroom. He looks out through the fourth wall, as he will do often in the play, and treats the audience area, on all sides, as if it were the larger part of the playroom. Much lighting, and vast quantities of sound, will come from the sides and back of the theater itself.
At last, excited, George turns and calls.
GEORGE
Lydia! Lydia, come here! She appears, a woman about thirty-two, very clean and fresh, dressed simply but expensively for a housewife.
GEORGE
(waving)Come on! It’s almost ready!
She joins him at the door as the humming, squealing dies. The electrician slams the trapdoor, rises, and comes toward them with his kit.
THE ELECTRICIAN
It’s all yours, Mr. Hadley.
GEORGE
Thanks, Tom.
The electrician turns to point a screwdriver into the room.
ELECTRICIAN
There’s your new-how does the advertisement read?- Happylife Electrodynamic Playroom! And what a room!
LYDIA
(ruefully)It ought to be. It cost thirty thousand dollars.
GEORGE
(taking her arm)You’ll forget the cost when you see what the room can do.
ELECTRICIAN
You sure you know how to work it?
GEORGE
You taught me well!
ELECTRICIAN
I’ll run on, then. Wear it in health!(exits)
GEORGE
&nb
sp; Good-bye, Tom.
George turns to find Lydia staring into the room.
GEORGE
Well!
LYDIA
Well…
GEORGE
Let me call the children!
He steps back to call down a hall.
GEORGE
Peter! Wendy!(winks at his wife)They wouldn’t want to miss this.
The boy and the girl, twelve and thirteen, respectively, appear after a moment. Both are rather pale and look as if they slept poorly. Peter is engrossed in putting a point to his sister as they enter.
PETER
Sure, I know, I know, you don’t like fish. OK. But fish is one thing and fishing is something else!(turning)Dad and I’ll catch whoppers, won’t we, dad?
GEORGE
(blinking)What, what?
PETER
(apprehensively)Fishing. Loon Lake. You remember… today… you promised…
GEORGE
Of course. Yes.
A buzzer and bell cut in. A TV screen, built into one wall at an angle so we cannot see it, flashes on and off. George jabs a button. We see the flickering shadows on his face as the screen glows.
GEORGE
Yes?
SECRETARY’S RADIO VOICE
Mr. Hadley…
GEORGE
(aware of his son’s eyes)Yes? Yes…
SECRETARY’S VOICE
A special board meeting is called for 11. A helicopter is on its way to pick you up.
GEORGE
I… thanks.
George snaps the screen off, but cannot turn to face his son.
GEORGE
I’m sorry, Peter. They own me, don’t they?
Peter nods mutely.
LYDIA
(helpfully)Well, now, it isn’t all bad. Here’s the new playroom finished and ready.
GEORGE
(hearing)Sure, sure … you children don’t know how lucky you are.
The children stare silently into the room, as George opens the door very wide so we get a good view.
WENDY
Is that all there is to it?
PETER
But-it’s empty.
GEORGE
It only looks empty. It’s a machine, but more than a machine!
He has fallen into the salesman’s cadence as he tries to lead the children through the door. They will not move. Perturbed, he reaches in past them and touches a switch. Immediately the room begins to hum. Slowly, George Hadley steps gingerly into the room.
GEORGE
Here, now. Watch me. If you please.
George has addressed this last to the ceiling, in a pompous tone.
The humming becomes louder.
The children wait, unimpressed.
George glances at them and then says, quickly:
GEORGE
Let there be light.
The dull ceiling dissolves into very bright light as if the sun had come from a cloud! Electronic music begins to build edifices of sound.
The children, startled, shield their eyes, looking in at their father.
GEORGE
Paris. The blue hour of twilight. The gold hour of sunset. An Eiffel Tower, please, of bronze! An Arc de Triomphe of shining brass! Let fountains toss forth fiery lava. Let the Seine be a torrent of gold!
The light becomes golden within the room, bathing him.
GEORGE
Egypt now! Shape pyramids of white-hot stone. Carve Sphinx from ancient sand! There! There! Do you see, children? Come in! Don’t stand out there!
The children, standing on either side of the door, do not move. George pretends not to notice.
GEORGE
Enough! Begone!
The lights go out, leaving only a dim light spotted on George’s face. The electronic music dies.
GEORGE
There! What do you think, eh?
WENDY
It’s great.
GEORGE
Great? It’s a miracle, that’s what it is. There’s a giant’s eye, a giant’s ear, a giant’s brain in each of those walls, that remembers every city, town, hill, mountain, ocean, every birdsong, every language, all the music of the world. In three dimensions, by God. Name anything. The room will hear and obey.
PETER
(looking steadily at him)You sound like a salesman.
GEORGE
(off balance)Do I? Well, no harm. We all have some melodrama in us needs bleeding out on occasion. Tones the system. Go in, kids, go on.
Wendy creeps in a toe. Peter does not move.
GEORGE
Peter, you heard me!
Helicopter thunder floods the house. All look up. Huge shadows flutter in a side window. George, relieved, breaks, moves from the room.
GEORGE
There’s my helicopter. Lydia, will you see me to the door?
LYDIA
(hesitating)George… ?
GEORGE
(still moving)Have fun, kids!(stops, suddenly, thinking)Peter? Wendy? Not even “Thanks”?
WENDY
(calmly)Thanks a lot, dad.
She nudges Peter, who does not even look at his father.
PETER
(quietly)Thanks…
The children, left behind, turn slowly to face the door of the playroom. Wendy puts one hand into the room. The room hums, strangely, now, at her approach. It is a different sound from the one we heard when George entered the place. The hum now has an atonal quality.
Wendy moves out into the empty space, turns, and waits for Peter to follow, reluctantly. The humming grows.
WENDY
I don’t know what to ask it for. You. Go ahead. Please. Ask it to show us something.
Peter relents, shuts his eyes, thinks, then whispers.
WENDY
What? I didn’t hear you.
PETER
The room did. Look.
He nods. Shadows stir on the walls, colors dilate. The children look about, obviously fascinated at what is only suggested to the audience.
WENDY
That’s a lake. Loon Lake!
PETER
Yes.
WENDY
Oh, it’s so blue! It’s like the sky turned upside down. And there’s a boat, white as snow, on the water! It’s moving toward us.
We hear the sound of water lapping, the sound of oars at a distance.
WENDY
Someone’s rowing the boat.
PETER
A boy.
WENDY