Read The Magic Tower and Other One-Act Plays Online
Authors: Tennessee Williams
The Magic Tower and Other One-Act Plays (2 page)
At Liberty
was produced by Ellen Stewart at La Mama Experimental Theater Club in New York City where it ran from May 14 through May 24, 1964. It was directed by Danny Gershwin; costumes were designed by Ellen Stewart; and Bob Douglas was the stage manager. The cast, in order of appearance, was as follows:
| GLORIA LA GREENE | Mary Engel |
| HER MOTHER | Mitzi Pazer |
Place: Blue Mountain, Mississippi. Time: the present, September. 2:30 a.m. Gloria La Greene is not very proud of her home. It may be seen why when a spotlight reveals a section of stage to represent the corner of an antiquated living room. A middle-aged woman in a dingy wrapper is seated stoically on a red-plush sofa. Beside her is a table supporting a red-globed oil lamp with a fringe of glass pendants. The outside door and a window are in the right wall; inner door to the left. There is an oval mirror, gilt-framed, and a large “glamour photo” of Gloria La Greene. (This is her stage name. Her real name is Bessie.)
The window is streaming with slow September rain. The woman sits rigidly as in a daguerreotype picture. A noise in the hall indicates Gloria’s return. The door is pushed slightly open and the mother stiffens still more at the sound of an altercation
.
GLORIA
[
from offstage
]: No, that’s enough, that’s enough! Charlie, don’t tear me to pieces.
[
Mother clears her throat and sits up very straight
.]
Shhht. [
Closes door from outside. There is a short silence; then a man’s laugh
.]
CHARLIE
[
offstage
]: Good night, Gloria.
GLORIA
: Thanks for a marvelous time!
[
She enters. Gloria is a thin, feverish-looking blond whose stage experience is stated with undue emphasis on her makeup. She wears a soiled white satin evening dress, part of an “excellent wardrobe,” and carries a copy of
Billboard
that she throws on the table
.]
Well. The Reception Committee!
MOTHER
: What was the trouble between you?
GLORIA
[
going straight to the mirror
]: The usual trouble.
MOTHER
: He wasn’t a gentleman?
GLORIA
[
feverishly inspecting herself in the mirror
] Hmmm?
MOTHER
: They never are, these picked-up acquaintances; men you meet in hotels.
GLORIA
: I wouldn’t expect them to be.
MOTHER
: Then why do you go out with them, Bessie?
GLORIA
: Hmmm? [
Suddenly turns from mirror
.] Oh, God in the Kingdom of Heaven, I wish
you’d—
!
MOTHER
:
Why
do you go
out
with them?
GLORIA
: Because, if I didn’t, I’d have to stay in with you! Isn’t that a pretty good reason?
MOTHER
: Your voice is hoarse.
GLORIA
: I know it, it’s always hoarse!
MOTHER
: Then is it wise to go out?
GLORIA
: Yes, yes, it’s wise! Infinite wisdom that’s me! The Sphinx of Egypt. I’ve got a job as her stand-in.
MOTHER
: You’re feverish.
GLORIA
[
removing the rabbit-skin cape
]: Am I?
MOTHER
: I can tell by the way you’re talking. You broke an engagement with Vernon. He was over. He stayed and had a talk with me.
GLORIA
[
inspecting her cape
]: This lining is rotten.
MOTHER
: He told me that you made yourself a. . . .
GLORIA
[
furiously
]: A what?
MOTHER
: A subject for talk in a hotel barbershop!
GLORIA
: Well, that’s marvelous. I’m delighted to hear it! Why should I get a press agent?
MOTHER
: He said that you pick up with strangers, transients at the Delta Planters Hotel.
GLORIA
: Indeed!
MOTHER
: Tonight he said you were out with a man that the Vigilantes had warned to stay out of Blue Mountain.
GLORIA
: He’s lying,
he’s—out
of his mind!
MOTHER
: No. You’re out of yours.
GLORIA
[
rips the torn lining out of the cape
]: I will be,
soon—if
I don’t get out of this stifling atmosphere.
MOTHER
: Where would you be otherwise, jobless, in your condition?
GLORIA
:
Oh—The
Miami Biltmore! It’s two-thirty.
MOTHER
: I know what time it is. I’ve done nothing but watch the clock.
GLORIA
: When I was out on the road all those times, you didn’t know where I was, you didn’t know who I was out with!
MOTHER
: No.
GLORIA
: But you slept, didn’t you?
MOTHER
: No.
GLORIA
: Jesus, the way you look, I believe you. Mother, you look like death.
MOTHER
: So do
you—like
death at a masquerade party!
GLORIA
[
unconsciously facing the mirror
]: I’ve had lots of compliments on my appearance lately.
MOTHER
: No doubt. [
With a short laugh
.] Sarcastic remarks from people who laugh at you privately?
GLORIA
[
with a sudden, imploring desperation
]: Why should anyone laugh?
MOTHER
[
relentlessly
]: You give them occasion to, Bessie.
GLORIA
: Naturally, after ten months cooped up sick in this jerk-water town, I’m
not—the
radiant creature I once used to be.
MOTHER
: Forget that “radiant creature” and come down to earth.
GLORIA
:
Drag
me
down—if
you can.
MOTHER
: I also talked to the doctor. He was shocked when I told him how much you’re running around. [
Gloria looks frightened
.] He mentioned the X-ray pictures. They’re not too good.
GLORIA
[
hoarsely
]: What did he say about them?
MOTHER
: He said the lung-tissues can heal if you give them a chance.
GLORIA
: I’m restless, I have to go out. I can’t stay in all the time.
MOTHER
: Your energy’s feverish, Bessie. You feel like doing more than you’re fit for.
[
Gloria sinks upon sofa beside her mother. She sits very rigidly. Neither looks at the other. There are several inches of space between them
.]
GLORIA
: I can’t just sit here and wait for something to happen. Polish my nails and curl my hair and wait for Christ’s Second Coming! Is that what you and the doctor would recommend for me?
MOTHER
: No, Bessie.
GLORIA
: I’m glad of that!
MOTHER
Vernon
is—
GLORIA
: Yes! Vernon
is
! And that’s absolutely
all
!
MOTHER
: I believe he would still marry you if you came to your senses.
GLORIA
: Vernon does not represent the future I plan for myself.
MOTHER
: I remember you said the same thing ten years ago.
GLORIA
: Well, it’s still true.
MOTHER
: There’s quite a difference between the future and the past.
GLORIA
: I know that.
MOTHER
: The past keeps getting bigger and bigger at the future’s expense! [
Pause
.]
GLORIA
[
with a desperate effort to shake off despair
]: We drove into Meridian and bought a copy of
Billboard
. It has my ad in it. [
Rises quickly and snatches up magazine
.] Look here, listen to this! [
Reads aloud in a high, excited voice. Trembling and drunkenly, she crouches toward the table lamp for better light
.] “At Liberty.” [
She pauses to cough
.]
MOTHER
[
ironically
]:
Yes—At
liberty!
GLORIA
[
going on breathlessly
]: “Leads,
ingenues—27
, blond,
attractive—”
MOTHER
: Huh!
GLORIA
: “5 ft. 2, 114 lbs., singing, dancing,
specialties—”
[
The mother makes a stiff, fretful gesture. Gloria reads with rising excitement, panting breathlessly
.] “Quick study,
versatile—
Ex
cellent
wardrobe—Write
!
Wire!
—Gloria
La
Greene—Blue
Mountain—”
[
Here suddenly the enthusiasm dies out and she looks at her mother with a frightened expression
.]
Blue—Mountain—Mississippi
. . . . [
Coughs
.] How do you like it?
MOTHER
[
grimly
]: It’s full of misrepresentations.
GLORIA
: Oh, it is not!
MOTHER
: It
is
! Can’t you even distinguish between a truth and a lie? You’re not twenty-seven, Bessie, you’re thirty-two.
GLORIA
: I don’t look it.
MOTHER
: You
do
!
GLORIA
: Nobody says I do.
MOTHER
: Why should they?
—Shout
it across the street at you?
GLORIA
: You want to destroy my confidence! Make me feel utterly hopeless. [
Sobbing a little
.] I’ve had bad times, no breaks, like
everyone else in show business. But I’m
not—
through
!
—Do
you think? [
The mother stares at her implacably. Then Gloria continues, slowly
.]
Oh—So
you think I
am
? [
Her voice rises almost to a scream
.] You sit on that old threadbare sofa, night after night, waiting there for me, like Mrs. Doomsday in person! Honest to God, your eyes, they’re like a tape measure, taking my size for a coffin! But
I’ll—I’ll
cheat you out of it, though!
MOTHER
: Bessie!
GLORIA
: Don’t Bessie me! [
She coughs and shudders
.]
MOTHER
: You’re drunk and you’re sick, your face is burning with fever! Look at your dress, how it’s torn!
GLORIA
: What if it is? I don’t care. [
Pause. She turns to the mirror
.] Where is it torn?
MOTHER
: The seam is ripped out at the waist.
GLORIA
: That can be mended.
MOTHER
: Yes, but other things can’t.
GLORIA
: Everything can be mended, it’s only a matter of time.
MOTHER
: Ah! Such sublime optimism.
GLORIA
: Sure. When people are starving, they take optimism and stuff it into their stomachs. Like water, like grass! It gives the illusion of having had a big dinner. [
Lifts her head stubbornly
.] I’m not discouraged. I never will be discouraged. Driving home in the rain, I thought to
myself—
MOTHER
: That tomorrow you’d be laid up!
GLORIA
: No!
MOTHER
: What
did
you think?
GLORIA
: That tomorrow I’d
be—
[
She suddenly smiles
.] Cast for a marvelous part in a Broadway production! You see, I’m an artist, Mother! I want to cry out, don’t stifle the passion in me!
MOTHER
: What kind of expression is that?
GLORIA
: A cry from the soul! [
She turns to the window abruptly and pulls it open. Pause
.] The weather-bird
says—the
rain will continue forever.
MOTHER
: Put down that window.
GLORIA
: No.
MOTHER
: You’re exposing your chest.
GLORIA
: To think I was born in this place, Blue Mountain, Mississippi. How do they get the mountain? It’s as flat as a board! But Christ in Chicago, they certainly picked the right color!
MOTHER
[
throws her cape over Gloria’s shoulders
]: There’s actually one other light still burning. Upstairs at the Bassetts’. Mrs. Bassett is dying.
GLORIA
: I might have known it.
—Death
is the only thing they’d leave the lights on for, in this fabulous city. There was only one boy here that I ever liked and that was Red Allison, Mother.
MOTHER
: Fell off the back of a freight car and lost both his legs. [
Pause
.]
GLORIA
: Better than what I lost.
MOTHER
: Yes? What did you lose?
GLORIA
: Wings on my dancing shoes.
MOTHER
: You’re talking absurdly, Bessie.
GLORIA
: I lost ’em not all at once, but gradually. They melted away in the sun like that Greek boy’s who wanted to fly so badly. Or maybe it was the rains they melted in. I don’t remember.
MOTHER
: You’re running a temperature.
GLORIA
: Red and I had a club composed of two members, him an’ me. We invented the rebel yell. Yes, and a constitution! The first rule in it was never to stop moving forward. Poor Red! He’s broken the rule.
MOTHER
: I wouldn’t be joking about it, a thing like that. A wild, irresponsible boy, but the end that he came to was tragic!
GLORIA
: We used to swim jaybird together at Sikeston’s Creek.
MOTHER
: Did you indeed!