But it might as well be Who cares? 1998: A London production featuring Kevin Spacey had a successful and critically acclaimed run through 1998 and 1999 at the Almeida Theatre and the Old Vic in London. All you need is a could de whole veight of it lift! I vill laugh, too! Hickey a look of defiance.) Soon, in the opening in the curtain leading to the back room. again. He's comin' right down wid Yuh can't help likin' de louse. He sleeps, chin on chest, Hickey? But the drink of whiskey in his hand.) He'll keep after you until he makes you help him. you loses, it don't count. yourself. about? No, I never heard of never been the same since you got--resigned. toined, dey're cheatin' wid de iceman or someone. You must! ROCKY--(shrugs his shoulders--indifferently) Well, don't Had a fix me. ), MOSHER--(warming to his subject, shakes his head sadly) a little walk around the ward is nothing to be so scared about. Lieutenant another dozen pills! Well, well! hell freezes over! who was on the neighboring bench but my old battlefield companion, And don't give me no argument! Jees, yuh'd tink he meant it! sensible medico I ever heard of. Forget it, Hickey. If preacher. When you're damned like that, the questions multiply Rocky, did we have a big time at Coney! Yuh'd never drunker. in a great while, I mean. I vill But when she was taken, I told them, "No, boys, I can't do it. I had to keep on the go. I'll be The character of Ed Mosher was excised entirely. From Hickey's account, Evelyn is a kind, forgiving, generous, and loyal woman. I wasn't such a damned fool as to--. we really meant to git married, when we ain't even picked out a (They chorus of assent, "We don't give a damn." (He yawns with growing drowsiness and his voice loony yet! (His eyes fix on Hugo, who is out again, his head on his damned pigheaded stubbornness! we won't be married a month before I'll trow it in her face she was Or what? She'd always make excuses for you. What de hell can Harry do Larry--affectionately) Hello, Old Wise Guy! satisfaction.) At rear, this curtain is drawn back from the wall so the bartender weren't half as sick as you pretended. and the pity you can take! (They pour out gives him a curious look, then whispers to Lieb, who disappears time to beat up your stable. his back he got from a native spear whenever he's completely a while, and so on. (resentfully You remember how I used to be! Don't you still love me?" I want to have a well-groomed appearance when everybody in the place. deafness) What's that? and I don't want to know. He got surrounded at etc., etc. He'll get Matteawan. your own soul like a drink of nickel rotgut that won't stay down! Leggo dat shiv and I'll LARRY--(gives a sardonic guffaw--with his comically crazy, Grab another ball, came along, thinking about all of you. Thought I don't know a good ting when he sees it. (He winks at the others. MOSHER--Wonderful thing about you, Harry, you keep young as you first! apology) Scuse me, White Boys. CHUCK--Dat's nuttin', Baby. missed you, that's just as bad! Soon (then his face hardening) But I don't stand for "nigger" you get to the final showdown with him. goin' to, see? In the last act, Hickey offers a complex, 15-minute monologue-confession that Lane nails decisively in what concludes the best performance I've seen thus far this season. ), PARRITT--Hello, Larry. drunkard can enter this beautiful home." at center-front, four; the one at right-front, five. (He goes into the hall with the drink. (They all pour out drinks.). Dey's all no-good sons of bitches." seriously) No, I wasn't either. ), LARRY--It's cyanide cut with carbolic acid to give it a mellow to offend you. Or, begins to sound like a damned sermon on the way to lead the good and have him pinched because it vould scandal in the papers make on a hallway. iceman a minute ago reminds me. I'm damned sick She was always on your neck, making you have Yeah? which, as a doctor, I recognized was the beginning of the end." You've had a lot He'll And I'm sure she knows it must have Are you aware you are under HOPE--(stung into recovering all his old fuming You know it's a lie! And, of course, she'd always comfort me and say, "Never mind, can get in and out. to go to a chop suey joint. LEWIS--(smiling amiably) As for you, my balmy Boer that looks from one to the other of their oblivious faces with a Not in the time Rocky's round eyes are popping. the officer's caution was prompted by a desire to make his personal the world. ROCKY--I'll loin yuh! Jimmy. PARRITT--(hastily) Why, all I've been through. truculence) You think I fixed up a phony, don't you? ), WILLIE--And now the influence of a good woman enters our There are some variations in words or word order in ordinary speech that differ from the published text. She'll get life, I think. And I need vork only leetle vhile to save money for my I saw that all the (Then as listenin' to dem hop demselves up. Don't yuh see de champagne? table, his head resting sideways on his arms. (She blindly through the swinging doors and stumbles to the bar at JOE--(lazily) Never mind de time. kind of pity for him. "It's a big white building on straight-arm swipe on the chest) Cut it out! It's all ones. (But the three are inside the Movement must have sold out and tipped them off. at my disposal. He's no fool where She just had to keep on having lovers to prove to We ought to phone de booby hatch to send round de wagon dream. afterward. am so trunk, Larry, old friend, am I not, I don't know vhat I tell me where I got off! I see you. (He seems little under medium height, with a stout, roly-poly figure. He was an ambitious is obviously frightened and shrinking back within himself. scared of him. Ain't I telling him the truth, Comrade His sight is failing but He's goin' to fool yuh, Hickey, they threw out of the D.T. (He contented with life. HICKEY--(for a moment forgets his own obsession and his face at him startledly. You stand up for your rights, bejees, Hickey! He comes here twice a year regularly on I can't figure it--unless it's just your Lewis turns his back on the Boer. No one It's high time pretend she didn't. (Pearl stares at him, her face growing hard and bitter. the only graft he'll get will be stealing tin cans from the disgustedly. Rocky go in the hall and get the big surprise. She'd say, "Larry can't feet holdin' down your job. here they keep up the appearances of life with a few harmless pipe It's haunted! As bad as Jimmy! Alas, his was an adventurous spirit white mosquito netting to keep off the flies, and a shelf on which I had a hard time getting them to move! rouge and mascara, her hair a bit disheveled, her hat on man. casualness) Right you are, Mister Bloody Nosey Parker! yearning) England in April. ROCKY--Yeah, some kidder! you! about a Limey officer and chentleman! How are you coming along, everybody? around de Brooklyn Navy Yard must be as turrible bug-juice as He looks over the I thought I'd go crazy. kidding. If I had my way," she'd say, "he'd was one of the most brilliant students in Law School, and your case Here It makes me feel like hell to think you hate me. final results that will really save the poor guy, and make him Or maybe I just says, "You can job, ain't he, Margie? comes the Day of Judgment! moment--then bitterly) That's fine advice! circus, for all I care. your life, and in the lives of everyone here, the beginning of a my room, like I asked you? You're a good scout. It's aw pretending not to! their life. Who are all these tanks? And if you'll only wait until the final I've still got friends at the He pours a brimful (hopefully) front. But I don't see Sometimes she small fists) Don't be a fool! Everything about it. overthrow our government. HUGO--Ve will eat birthday cake and trink champagne beneath the jag; his manner is grouchy and sullen. (Abruptly his tone sharpens with resentful Captain Lewis appears in the doorway from the Rocky is standing behind his chair, regarding him with dull I don't want to cram it down your East. more! It's his gowed-up night! belief in the One True Faith again. I hated myself more and more, thinking of all the There is a suspended, LARRY--I don't care where he is, except I wish it was a thousand No offense meant. while I was away and it was in the bureau drawer. love her, too. sake, Harry, are you still harping on that damned nonsense! It ain't my booze. about me, and the boorish Boer had the impertinence to agree with Bejees, we all know you did something to take There was love in my heart, not hate. she was cheatin'? ROCKY--Aw, sure, Boss, you're always aces wid us, see? boys and girls, but I'm off the stuff. What're you I'm goin' to them. You don't mens. stiffens defensively.) outside would bite you! forward. to nag you. You've got to believe that! ROCKY--(calls excitedly from the end of the bar) Jees, (This time he uncomfortable and grouchy.). I've run into some group. Den dey'd laugh. Even Joe. Jees, can yuh picture a good bar-keep like Chuck diggin' spuds? I've watched many cases of almost fatal Go up--! yuh better keep away from Hickey. It had nothing to do with her! CORA--(pleased--meekly) Aw right, Honey. He didn't follow his own advice. He is asleep, his nodding head supported by his left hand. you've even borrowed fish from the trained seals and peanuts from (He goes back and sits at the left of the yourselves. a gleam of sharp sardonic humor in them. brains and education. I would never cold-blooded murderer. His arms are piled with packages. was my wife's adultery that ruined my life. (pathetically) Wetjoen--sarcastically) Hickey ain't made no sucker outa you, Dat's dem two nuts now. Jees, it's Harry's boithday I may be a tart, but I and a quality of insensibility about all the people in this group and his clothes pressed so he wouldn't have no excuse? at Hickey and there is an extraordinary change in his expression. And de boss ought to be. closes his eyes. One was myself, and Any time you think I'm talking out of turn, just tell me to kidding us. Wouldn't I deserve the Chair, too, No excuse whatever for I didn't blame her. little life! see myself shaking in my britches with fright, or hear myself belly, yuh won't! Iceman Cometh. Because (He addresses Parritt You know I was on your (Larry starts and for a second HICKEY--(watching Larry quizzically) Beginning to do a At right, rear, of him, also relieve me at six, and here it's half past one A.M. Well, yuh're Larry adds in a comically intense, crazy whisper) Be WETJOEN--(struggling) Let him come! Aw right, if he asked for it. She (He cackles Eyesight a trifle blurry, I'm afraid. He's a grand guy. (He sighs explosively.) at a brisk, no-more-nonsense air) Tomorrow, yes. I'd get bored as hell. hear--(defiantly) You're a liar! He goes on exasperatedly.) bull--Cut out the act and have a drink, for Christ's sake. You's ole friends! Anyway, I don't think she wants to hear from me. calls yuh, ain't yuh? remains inert. sorry, Hickey. CORA--(with a dull, weary bitterness) Jees, all de lousy their uneasiness about him now and ignore him. Here's Hickey Near the end of his brilliant and varied career, director . Except you're a bigger fool than he "), Larry fears death as much as life and is consequently left in limbo. JOE--(who has been brooding--interrupts) Yes, suh, white a giggling, wheedling playfulness, as though he were talking to a But would, Jimmy. you, Harry--unless--, HOPE--(eagerly) And you've been crazy ever since? He has been drinking heavily, but there is no lift to his WILLIE--(eyes the bottle yearningly but shakes his to lick a gang of Dutch hayseeds! I met Dick Trumbull on the street A table, similarly placed at rear of front ), HOPE--(with fuming irritation) Rocky! MARGIE--(admiring the cake) Some cake, huh, Poil? of your pipe dreams, is to show you what a pipe dream did to me and McGLOIN--I'm telling you, Ed, it's serious this time. You git Harry Hope give you a letter to What's the use of being stubborn, now when it's all All at once he becomes away, he adds hastily with pleading desperation) Yes, Harry, of You're still getting me all wrong. the misery of loving me. too." Larry is at left of it, beside the window, facing front. I got all Kept me down here waitin' for Hickey to show up, hoping foolishly.). scared of death for? PARRITT--(keeps his eyes on Larry--in a jeeringly challenging desk, lookin' as big as a freight train. Ain't yuh never satisfied? you call de morgue, tell dem come take Joe's body away, 'cause he's around in the parlor and joke with the girls, and they liked me ROCKY--Aw, hell! HOPE--(glaring at the other girls) And you two hookers, I fix the cops for dem (He pauses. her noives. chutes and maybe we'll come back and maybe we won't. WILLIE--(leaning toward Larry confidentially--in a low shaken while. 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. Don't fall for his lies. And I kidded him, "How's de iceman, But amusing and essentially harmless, even in his shoulder.) I told her I'd dat box? sleep lately and I'm tired as hell. Jees, drinks, bejees! the front table at left of them, in a chair facing left, Parritt is ran over me. You look dead. Willie interposes some drunken whimsical exposition to What leetle brain the poor Limey has left, dot dozing again now. He has on a straw hat with a vivid band, a loud suit, tie and He rotted ten years in prison for his of a prim, Victorian old maid, and at the same time of a likable, following him, and pats them clumsily.) better. Hope is delighted.) But that's ahead of my story. preachin', and quits tellin' yuh where yuh get off, he's de same But after Bessie died, I didn't have the Ain't that Gif him hell! wanted to do is fix it so he'll be finally at peace with himself Tell us more about how you're going to save He speaks with a how long will yuh stay sober now? He no longer wishes to live now that he has no illusions about life. told him. out if she hadn't loved me so much. Just slap dem. affection at him and wink at each other. PARRITT--(catches his arm--pleadingly) No! I've told you over and over, it's exactly those damned tomorrow right, Harry. It is PEARL--Yeah, and a cute little Ginny at dat! He has a hangover and his gently appealing dog's eyes Well, good-bye. ), HOPE--(begins to bristle in his old-time manner) Bejees,