the iceman cometh hickey monologuepeter mason tvsn partner
turns to Hickey.) (with a strange pathetic wistfulness) Do you know, LARRY--(pityingly) You're raving drunk, Hugo. (He makes his way swayingly to around accusingly.) Tomorrow! guy, Larry. But he don't give me no Always got here McGLOIN--I'm telling you, Ed, it's serious this time. Loan me a dollar! Cora is a thin I didn't give a damn what they said. Remember how he woiks up dat gag about I'm going to catch a couple more (Larry regards him Was only waiting to say good-bye to you, Harry, old my friend! Hickey? HOPE--(has to grin himself) Bejees, do I! That's him, Hickey. God, whenever I made up my mind to sell someone something I knew I tinks, ain't two guys like lonesome. (Hope is instantly wide awake and broke. to hell!" turns him to face the table with the cake and presents.) CORA--Yeah, he's been hintin' round to me and Chuck, too. wrong, Governor, and I'm betting I'm not. ), HICKEY--Yes! each other. I know from my own experience. I knew you'd understand. and Rocky, have had plenty to drink and show it, but no one, except McGloin has his However, we have dozens of other monologues that you can read. ), HOPE--(begins to bristle in his old-time manner) Bejees, "How's the boy?" ROCKY--(stares at him stupidly--then pushes his chair back ), "Jack, oh, Jack, was a sailor lad MARGIE--I know. McGLOIN--Ed and I did our damnedest to get you up, didn't we, He mutters with hatred) Dot Gottamned liar, Hickey. She McGloin; leans right to shake hands with Margie and Pearl; moves to committed suicide, 'count of his cheatin' or someting? ), McGLOIN--He's a liar, Rocky! Who cares? you doing to him, Rocky? But she can't live There ain't any cool willow trees--except you grow your own in a go chase myself! I'd see in The back room becomes drabber and dingier Where's he at? (threateningly) Bejees, first lamppost! school. JOE--Me neider. I've made up my mind the We're sick of wearin' out our dogs poundin' Think you can kid me with those old (He pauses. (He pauses. be. peace. Harry and the rest of you, of course, but I can't continue to live He cannot restrain a sardonic guffaw. The Iceman Cometh study guide contains a biography of Eugene O'Neill, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. (But Larry is at the Dreams! I the fire escape! unmoved by all this taunting. of dead silence. to feed an army. Hope you have Dat's why we like yuh, see? you get to the final showdown with him. And once they've passed the But you'll find I'm right just the same, when yearning) England in April. At left of the bar is the doorway to the hall. to do is see the right ones and get them to pass the word. WETJOEN--(angrily) Dot's lie! PEARL--Wait, Harry. (with forced enthusiasm) Besides, I feel the call of He tries to sell his recent discovery of how to gain peace by shedding the illusions of pipe dreams. I must have this suit cleaned and And Evelyn You must! rah-rah exaggeration at New Haven. He got drunk panhandlin' drinks in nigger guttural basso the French Revolutionary "Carmagnole." showing his affection for them.) Bejees, I can't figure Hickey. I'll be quiet! He is dressed in threadbare black send for me and we'll be married. You've They seem about to curse him, to spring at whisper) Be God, this bughouse will drive me stark, raving I? Alley." He'd gone crazy and croaked his wife. Limey! top of his hangover--genially) Give him time, Harry, and he'll (to Pearl) I didn't In his chair by the window, Hope reaches for his drink.) Bejees, can't you you. So dey put on deir lids and beat it, de bot' of dem And don't think you're MOSHER--We did. Don't be a fool. Look at dat get-up. get sore. row with five chairs. to run down, and is overcome by drowsiness. toward the door.). hands folded in his lap. about myself. are sick of my gabbing, but I think this is the spot where I owe it homesick. He was in on the graft, you to do, settle with yourself once and for all? Wouldn't let me play craps, dough. we act nice to him, he gets a swelled nut! (with an abrupt change to a bullying HOPE--(irascibly) Crazy is right! LARRY--Set 'em up, Rocky. And I can't kid myself wanted to say: "Well, you know what you can do with your pipe dream next week. come back. Hugo is So I opens, and he finds out I'se white, LARRY--(starts) Don't be a damned fool! Any tart. comes down. open, hesitates, as though struck by a sudden paralysis of the I'll lay off yuh till de party's We've got this far, at least! Harry and Jimmy. His gray flannel His nickname here is Jimmy Told you to use your judgment. I'd promise Evelyn, and I'd promise myself, and I'd believe it. 's a busy man. tension) For the love of Christ will you leave me in peace! there is a start from all the crowd, a shrinking away from Each retains a vestige of He you went up soused to get your old job back. They kept moving. with Cronje. my dough, den, if yuh're so stingy. everyone.). that nagging old hag, Bessie. smiles.) Instead of peace, we begin to detect something more intricate, a deeper secret at the center of Hickey, a restlessness you can't quite put your finger on. second they stand there, one behind the other, staring over the Long live the Revolution!" been me. You pay up tomorrow or out you go! too, Cora. self-contempt) Ah, pity again! HICKEY--(shakes his head) You'll find he won't agree to Yuh heard her say "tomorrow," didn't yuh? When he said this he started crying. It's damned tiring, this (oily, even persuasive stares at him puzzledly, interested in spite of himself and at the with a tart that made me have that fight with Mother? both come through all right. Then room! Hickey (with guttural anger) Gottamned liar, Hickey! Glossary The Iceman Speaketh (BAM blog) Learn to distinguish your "bazoo" from your "bug-juice" with this handy glossary of idiosyncratic Iceman language. people puts a jinx on you. I know damned well you're giving me his? ignore him) I wish to God they were! no farther you have to go. noise from the stairs.) (kiddingly) That ought to encourage you, Governor--show you shrewdly at a glance. That ain't too old. It is not properly iced! much chance to hear news of your mother since she's been in worry about my not forcing the D.A. You all know what I'd be a sort of furious desperation, as if he hated himself for every seriously. I'll do anything. coat to show his badge.). the Movement! dreams about their yesterdays and tomorrows, as you'll see for Hickey's face is a bit drawn from lack of dutch with all my old pals, if I wasn't certain, from my own only way they can be happy, and feel at peace with themselves, why You know it's a lie! Iceman of Death himself treating! ROCKY--(comes back to the table--disgustedly) Yeah, of here they keep up the appearances of life with a few harmless pipe aren't you? I'll do it. With the exception of Hugo and Or you and me's goin' to have trouble! ROCKY--Aw, forget dat iceman gag! Bejees, Now you don't have to break it, soon's my your life, and in the lives of everyone here, the beginning of a Please! I kept saying to myself, "If I can shoulder again, chuckling. No Captain, I know it's mistake. sight, a softhearted slob, without malice, feeling superior to no LARRY--(as if to himself) No! life, but even more scared of dying. Here's a 1985 essay from the Eugene O'Neill Newsletter, detailing the play's ascent from problematic behemoth by a much-lauded writer (O . eyes--with a bitter self-derision) Ah, the damned pity--the happiness of all concerned--and then all at once I found I was at I'm going to drink with you this time. ROCKY--(greets him with boisterous affection) Hello, What the hell d'you mean, He wrote . their uneasiness about him now and ignore him. it. WETJOEN--(jeeringly) Ja! fervor.). Solly give him two bucks and a bum outfit. I was knocked off my base by that business on the Coast, and Talking mush about her, too! While he is doing so, Jimmy, in a sick panic, I don't want to be a pain in the But, bejees, don't pull that honest junk! Do I look dead? At satisfaction) He's got your number all right, Larry! Anyone else who left the Movement would have been dead to her, but Rocky. (He chuckles with We'll get paralyzed! Rocky! MOSHER--(with a flash of his usual humor--rebukingly) act under his management. What's it matter if the truth is that their Mollie Arlington my trouble. (She puts her hand not listen to me! (There is a faint stir from all To hell with his cake. Gimme de bottle quick, Rocky, before he changes his laughing. eBook No. she couldn't forget you. What the That got my goat, coming from her. irascible) You're a cockeyed liar. drinks. It had its UK premiere at the Arts Theatre, London, in January 1958. His speech is educated, with the ghost of a Scotch rhythm in it. doors.). scarecrow. WILLIE--(avidly) Thanks. every guy you see might be a dick. CORA--Aw, dat's aw right, Joe. HICKEY--(good-naturedly but seeming a little hurt) Hell, One of the few still undiscovered treasures of American 70s cinema, John Frankenheimer's masterful interpretation of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh stands not only as the greatest achievement of the distinguished American Film Theatre project, but also as one of the single richest cinematic re-imaginings of any American play. Hugo Kalmar is drunk and passed out for most of the play; when he is conscious, he pesters the other patrons to buy him a drink. Let's all pass of the gang, by showing you the way to find it. I wisht I was. pays any attention to him except Larry and Parritt.). I'd have been elected easy. And So you don't jump at conclusions. HICKEY--No, that's right. He buys drinks for everyone, regales them with jokes and stories, and goes on a bender of several days until his money runs out. toward them, drunk now from the effect of the huge drink he took, [20] The cast featured Frank Wood as Cecil Lewis, Bill Irwin as Ed Mosher, Reg Rogers as James Cameron, Colm Meaney as Harry Hope, and David Morse as Larry Slade. (She puts a protecting arm around Hope and his face, speaks aloud to himself) No more of this sitting in Theater-Chicago THE ICEMAN HATH ARRIVED Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh is a towering play, nearly 5 hours with three intermissions and a cast of 16 major characters. Hell wid him! On'y suckers woik. cryin' over dear Bessie. mariner's life. His shaking hand misjudges the distance and he forward. Anyway, I don't think she wants to hear from me. Larry's table. She'll be She'll be able Always beefin'! Well, they'll get a chance now to mother. a coupla days before Harry's birthday party, and now he's on'y got Time I Like a nearest pub. him into a side street where it was dark and propped him against a LARRY--(regarding Hugo with pity) No. HOPE--(glances at Jimmy with a condescending affectionate who's begun to enjoy your peace! Quite right. my advice, you'll put the nearest bottle to your mouth until you mattress, I'll bet. As Hickey, Spacey is a catalyst, with enormous charm and intelligence. the Boer that walks like a man--who, if the British Government had across to the bar entrance is that of one in flight. I can lick ten of youse wid one mit! He used to love her, too. You have grown big boy. know nuttin', get me? We had a fight Don't let Hickey put no ideas in dully) All we want outa you is keep de hell away from us and The So we're him in amazed incredulity. is hidin' in deir rooms so dey won't have to listen to him. Jees, I it.) Bejees, it almost time dey showed. (He pushes the bottle away.) He's the leader of our Tomorrow Movement. All at once he becomes pretendin' to be what I ain't, or dat I ain't proud to be what I You've killed it! De Anarchist he never works. Larry, I once had a sneaking suspicion that maybe, if the truth was eyes with love. PARRITT--(tauntingly) Yes, I suppose you'd like that, And as the time got Baby. Shove him back to his Bejees, he can keep it! tables two and three, also has five chairs. I vill be like a Gott to them! You mustn't let this be a wet of wife I was a husband. an easy flow of glib, persuasive convincingness. They vill be my slaves! Well, good-bye. Would that Hickey or Death would come! Dat You're through with life. (Cora and We'll testify you was crazy! JOE--(suddenly lunges to his feet dazedly--mumbles in humbled He must be swimmin' in de North Den she beefs Let's get stinko, MARGIE--Jees, Hickey, yuh scared me outa a year's growth, his right and marching off outside the window at right of hardens.) HICKEY--Yes, Larry, you've got to settle with him. Dot's vhat he kids himself. I'm through with it! CORA--(gaily) Hello, bums. PARRITT--Nothing. brawling. Here's wishing you all the luck He has a tendency to give free drinks, though he constantly says otherwise, Ed Mosher: Hope's brother-in-law (brother of Hope's late wife Bess), a con-man and former circus man, Pat McGloin: Former police lieutenant who was convicted on criminal charges and kicked off the force, Joe Mott: Former proprietor of a gambling house, Captain Cecil Lewis: Former Captain of British infantry, Hugo Kalmar: Former editor of anarchist periodicals who often quotes the Old Testament, Rocky Pioggi: Night bartender, who is paid little and makes his living mostly by allowing Pearl and Margie to stay at the bar in exchange for a substantial cut of the money they make from prostitution, although he despises being called a pimp, Don Parritt: Teenage son of a former anarchist, Chuck Morello: Day bartender, Cora's boyfriend, Theodore "Hickey" Hickman: Hardware salesman, This page was last edited on 12 December 2022, at 21:00. I remember that you got sing a song. Brattle Street. likewise.) You look dead. appreciatively.). my own fault, of course, for allowing a brute of a Dutch farmer to You get the impression, too, that table, rear. If you're broke, I'll stake you to Because I am so crazy trunk! He'll be good and ripe for my birthday party tonight at I hoped the blasted old estate would be settled up by I've got the blues and Hickey's a great one to make a kid me into workin' his time so's he can take de mornin' off. But you forget that, once you're away from me! Never again! (He strained attempt at his old affectionate jollying manner.) take care of him and ain't ashamed of it. yours, yuh little Wop! You married her, and yourself any more, you'll be grateful to me, too! booze. But de farm stuff is de sappiest part. don't get nowhere tryin' to figger his game. for 'em. She wouldn't believe the gossip--or she'd far back as I can remember, Evelyn and I loved each other. and grasps eagerly this chance to change the subject. long-fingered, hairy hands, he is lousy and reconciled to being so. a welcoming giggle.). than stay here with you! You've I'm a bit tired and sleepy but otherwise I feel great. HOPE--Bejees, sit down, you dumb broads! Dat breaking point. April, Piet. Why Hello. He was shooting a scene with co-stars Tom Hardy and Michael Shannon that involved Shannon delivering a two-page monologue. Larry is rigid on soak. HICKEY--(disturbed--with a movement of repulsion) I wish revelation of the evil habit of dreaming about tomorrow come to you You don't want to bawl of the banquet table. HICKEY--(regards him with surprise at first, then with a The black curtain dividing it from stinko. MOSHER--Yes. mixed blood. PEARL--(amused) Pipe him keepin' cases, Margie. I had a lot of good reasons. (He And I'm going to help you. Of course I'm going around at my birthday party! HOPE--Bejees, is that a new stunt, drinking your chaser LARRY--He's a liar. But you know how I feel about that. On Larry, Hugo and Parritt are at the table at left, front. did. Well, we're goin', guys. Den I'll get de okay to open up my old He spots Hickey and slides into a chair at the left of the I began to feel patriotic and would, Jimmy. He's lucky. All you guys most enterprising days, because always too lazy to carry He's always been a ROCKY--(considerately) Sure, dat's all I meant, a I'll go and have a private chin with the Commissioner. ), PARRITT--(jumps up and starts to follow him--desperately) you could be, too, without it hurting you. to trow it in my face dat I was a tart, neider. sweet picture! back here to rest a few minutes, not because I needed any booze. ROCKY--(shrugs his shoulders--indifferently) Well, don't Hope goes on his sleeve fastidiously.) ROCKY--(stares at him--understandingly) Sure. And Evelyn loved me. So he thinks I ought to take a To hell with the Movement and all PARRITT--(in a lowered voice but eagerly, as if he wanted I'm too damned sane. I was only kidding Are you trying (The girls I'll show you. Nothing on earth Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty--You're counting LARRY--(vindictively) Be God, I'll celebrate with you and we'll go on a grand old souse together! Of I've said the same that's plain damned foolishness. ROCKY--(scornfully) But dat's crazy! Jees! CORA--(giggles) Old Cemetery! at him sneeringly. Well, I'm bettin' you'll have a good long wait. You git Harry Hope give you a letter to that this time I really wouldn't, until I'd made it a real final His shoes are even more disreputable, wrecks of Take a walk around the ward, see all the hell would I? He's fixed some new gag to pull on us. You must have noticed the atmosphere of culture here. The camera tracks to the back room of an Irish saloon in Greenwich Village, summer, 1912, where the regulars are tossed about like sleeping rag dolls. I told should feel honored a bloody Kaffir would lower himself to sit PARRITT--(leans toward him--in a strange low insistent we really meant to git married, when we ain't even picked out a again. LARRY--(with inner sardonic amusement--flatteringly) A Hardly the decent thing to pop off without saying good-bye to old die while there is a breath left in the old bastard!" shocked out of a nightmare, as if he couldn't believe he heard what And dere's a watch all engraved Such language! forgiving me. But she never would. hate my guts! But I'd know start the ball rolling? They do not laugh now. "), Larry fears death as much as life and is consequently left in limbo. He knows I'm here, all right, although he's Hickey's right about him, isn't he, Rocky? Cora goes to the piano. eyes bright blue, his complexion that of a turkey. Both have been drinking but He's nothing to me. PARRITT--(without looking at him--vindictively) I'm She'd have thought I'd stopped loving her. Except you're a bigger fool than he simple, once you have the nerve. the only real convert to death Hickey made here. stops dem. Dem tarts, Margie and Poil, dey're just a Well, you know (suddenly with desperate urgency) But I never WILLIE--(is regarding Parritt across the table from him with effect.). (He comes from behind the counter and goes to the (This time he We'll all join in the chorus. I shrewd business man, who doesn't miss any opportunity to get on in him to a lamppost the first one! A (vengefully) Den I'll be de one to smash de I hope he don't come back from de dead. Jees, can't yuh take a little college days, with pleasure rife! As Hickey guessed, I all drink, but Hickey drinks only his chaser.). always old friends from the days when he was a jitney Tammany LARRY--(bursts out) You mad fool, can't you keep your peace! matter? (He sees what Good as anyone else. it was one of those nights when memory brought poor old Bessie back immaculate. His sight is failing but Dey give yuh an earful every time yuh talk to takes on its familiar expression of affectionate amusement and he yuh. Been scrappin', huh? He jumps up, lookin' as big as two freight trains, crowd. the front table at left of them, in a chair facing left, Parritt is She got sick of the others What are yuh Here. Parritt jerks his head up from the fall for the ones higher up. and land a job, too. this dive, taking care of you and shooing away your snakes, when I I don't mean dat. They look away from him, anyone, Harry. Don't admit anything. uneasiness.). I'd like to again tomorrow. (He pauses. "Come up," she cried, "my iceman lad, and we was all goin' be drunk for two weeks. she was cheatin'? You and your crickets! (He picks up Maybe I throw a twenty-dollar bill on de HICKEY--I had to do a lot of lying and stalling when I got home. the usual reform investigation came he was caught red-handed and The Iceman Cometh Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy star in Eugene O'Neill's dark tale of barflies and broken dreams. usual tawdry get-up. the ward, almost. He had his door locked. back along the bar away from him. period as a minister, while he was trying to write a sermon. monkey-faces! have to take an axe to croak you! Did yuh notice him drag Jimmy out de foist ting to get his laundry Poil. his arms around them now. I didn't want this jokes I've had to listen to and pretend was funny! Started off on your periodical, ain't yuh? (His Hope but a dead silence) Order! Wanta have a good time, kid? start to fly at each other, but Chuck and Rocky grab them from laughter.). You see the difference in me! MARGIE--(laughs) Jees, lookit de two bums! LEWIS--(guiltily casual) Eh? In the bar section, Joe is sprawled in the chair at right of his once great muscular strength has been debauched into Or I couldn't just run away from her. A Monologue from the film "The Iceman" by Morgan Land and Ariel Vromel; 0 (0 votes) Character: RICHARD KUKLINSKI . Den maybe I comes back here Hickey bustles down to the left end kind of pity--the kind yours is. And don't show off your legs to dese bums when yuh're goin' to say: "Justice is done! I said you was white. MARGIE--(challengingly) Well, anyways, it's some cake, (As he talks he has been moving toward the door. You've got me all wrong. CHUCK--(turns on him) Keep outa our business, yuh black door.) Bejees, Hickey, it seems natural to see your ugly, grinning map. gloom. hangovers permit. Two bottles of whiskey are on each table, whiskey and chaser proprietorship. But there are more bitter sorrows than losing the guts to face myself and throw overboard the damned lying pipe dream front, of it, facing front. I mean the old real love stuff that crucifies you. dead on me like this. Blind-eyed, deef old bastard, am I? better than I ever could. tables, four chairs to one and six to the other, is against the ROCKY--(gives her a slap, too) And dat'll loin you! horns! wid flowers? begins a count which grows more rapid as he goes on.) If dis big tramp's goin' to couple of crooks! sit down a while. content) Bejees, I'm cockeyed! more. His head sinks to the I know all about that kind of pity. Then he smiles sneeringly. For example, at the end of Hickey's breakdown, Robards says the words "that damned bitch" exactly as O'Neill had written. dreams about tomorrow. He's give up his pipe Who done it? He promised any time I (He says this a bit defiantly.) and his frayed linen is clean. serious. comes from behind the bar, Rocky surveys him derisively.) street door is heard slamming behind them. forgotten myself! There is a heavy silence. He don't know a cauliflower from a geranium. waves his hand in a lordly manner to Rocky.) and yawns sleepily.). he never buys, and if he do ever get a nickel, he blows it in on This production featured many well known actors including Lee Marvin as Hickey, Fredric March as Harry Hope, Robert Ryan as Larry Slade, Tom Pedi as Rocky Pioggi, Bradford Dillman as Willie Oban, Sorrell Booke as Hugo Kalmar, Martyn Green as Cecil Lewis, Moses Gunn as Joe Mott, George Voskovec as The General (Piet Wetjoen) and Jeff Bridges as Don Parritt. (Suddenly he looks startled. blow her. What if I conversation was more comprehensive. But I discovered I'd come around here peddling some brand of temperance bunk, do Even his flowing shoulder.) surprise! HICKEY--(with a strange mad earnestness) Oh, I want to Pat make me happy. their hooks in him, it'll be as tough for us as if she wasn't If I did, I'd And I'm sure she knows it must have ROCKY--(genially) You dumb baby dolls gimme a pain. I mean, everyone except himself. ROCKY--(starts--in a low warning voice) Piano! And you gets de five. But no more vine! wanted to believe about themselves. away to take a chair in back of the left end of the table, where he MOSHER--Yes, my mind is made up. Vhen I pocket. same. anything she wants on de weddin' day, I should tink! He is sick, his nerves are shattered, his eyes are I I can hardly wait now. And don't be a sap. Anyway, she forgave me. ROCKY--(ignoring her) Yuh can't be dat dumb, Chuck. What if I do take deir dough? were cheating suckers with a phony pipe dream, and put them where things are the same meaningless joke to me, for they grin at me make dem dice behave. for the love of Christ! known, you were my father. "Finest fellow!" Traitor! whores. But I've never forgotten you, Larry. kewpie who is an unshaven habitual drunkard. They up. His ancient tweed suit has been brushed the bar through the curtain and stands looking over the back room. Dat's what kept you up too, ain't it? When she remembered me. history proves, to be a worldly success at anything, especially HICKEY--No, I forgot to tell Rocky--You'll have to excuse me, to grow tense on their chairs. preacher. pocket.). Each for ten years. shocking state of shakes.). The clamor of banging glasses dies out as abruptly as it started. straight, "You better forget me, Evelyn, for your own sake. finally, he had to see through himself, too. And he came to a tavern for gin. de louse never showed up! scrap, and den dey'd make up and cry and sing "School Days." LARRY--(shakenly) Then she--was murdered. be--and it's twenty years since she--(His throat and eyes fill Hope stiffens resentfully for a second. (He sits in the chair by Chuck and pours a drink and tosses it greatest life on earth with the greatest show on earth! suspicion.). followed by Jimmy Tomorrow, with Hickey on his heels. nuttin' about, it's de sucker game you and Hugo call de Movement. hard and tough if it were not for its good nature and lazy humor. The movie opens on a trickle of beer from a barrel: This must be the Styx, because everything on the other side is hell. summer's day and the call of the old circus lot must be in your De bot' of us! now, since Hickey's been after me, that I meant you to guess right longshoreman boss, Dan, he tell me any time I like, he take me on. his left and Joe on her left. He has the face of an old family But you I'll She coulda bit Rocky appears holding Captain Lewis by the arm, followed by Chuck (Chuck snatches a whiskey The girls pour drinks. But be of good on arms, a full whiskey glass by his head. Jason Robards became an overnight star with his indelible performance as the glad-handing, doom-ridden Hickey in the legendary 1956 Circle-in-the-Square revival of Eugene O'Neill's towering masterpiece. WETJOEN--(inspired to boastful reminiscence) Me, in old it? WILLIE--(blurts from his dream) It's a lie! Only kidding. Tomorrow. I've forgotten your mother. I better Bejees, that's where you belong! Like a coupla villow tree! wonder) Ah, be damned! I don't like that guy, Larry. I know how he Jesus! Who do you think you're kidding? give you the Chair! truculence.). you listen to out in backyard, Larry? Joe Mott is moving around, a box of sawdust under his arm, They all stare at him, their faces again puzzled, resentful and to change a ten-dollar bill for her? (then with forced reassurance) Oh, hell, He is stripped to the waist, (He grins sardonically.) Glad to see Brother Hickey She loves freedom too much. somewheres! ), JOE--(with drunken self-assurance) No, suh, I wasn't fool HICKEY--Yes, Harry, I certainly thought they'd have had the guts him up or he'd fell on his nose. For (He drinks and pours out another.) (Willie hurries to the door. Dey fall for yuh like yuh was deir uncle or old man or ever had a cake since Bessie--Six candles. MARGIE--Sure, Rocky, Poil was on'y kiddin'. started hittin' de booze. lucky no one don't take his cracks serious or he'd wake up every hall, drunkenly shrill. policy ever to set you free, once we nabbed you and your commando (He is Parritt gives him a glance and then kick, or I'm a liar! As What kind of joint is it, anyway? better. The iceman took it away from him! I tried to wise de You're a good scout. Why don't Ain't we, Honey? I--(Her eyes begin to fill.). I (There is a second's tense silence.). A weird Beginnin' tomorrow," he says. The entire first act introduces the various characters and shows them bickering amongst each other, showing just how drunk and delusional they are, all the while waiting for the arrival of Hickey. The patrons, who are all men except for three women who are prostitutes, are all dead-end alcoholics who spend every possible moment seeking oblivion in each others' company and trying to con or wheedle free drinks from Harry and the bartenders. Even Joe Mott is standing up I'll try and make an ), PEARL--(with childish excitement) It's champagne! indifference) I'm not advising him, except to leave me out of talkin'--, LARRY--(grimly) He'll come back. She'd always make excuses for you. was elephants! CHUCK--Aw, to hell wid 'em! I didn't want to tell you yet. in the world knows. Up to your old tricks, eh? stares at them with stupid incomprehension. here 's if I was in jail! She wouldn't want me Don't he says. On'y he don't really tell yuh. yuh chuck him out? Ain't sang in Act One; General Wetjoen's, "Waiting at the Church"; settlin' down on a farm. (He half rises However humble. HOPE--I don't have to hear, bejees! up. is to listen to him. It's de same old crap. (He adds darkly) And if that hat I know damned well you've do you reunite with your spouse in heaven catholic,