Three Plays (13 page)

—Lying! Dying! Liars!

[His voice dies out. There is the sound of a child being slapped. It rushes, hideously bawling, through room and out the hall door. Brick remains motionless as the lights dim out and the curtain falls.]

CURTAIN

ACT THREE

{Note: This was the original 3rd act. An updated version is found at the end of this act 3 along with Williams' explanation.}

There is no lapse of time.

Mae enters with Reverend Tooker.

MAE
: Where is Big Daddy! Big Daddy?

BIG MAMA
[entering]
: Too much smell of burnt fireworks makes me feel a little bit sick at my stomach.—Where is Big Daddy?

MAE
: That's what I want to know, where has Big Daddy gone?

BIG MAMA
: He must have turned in, I reckon he went to baid....

[Gooper enters.]

GOOPER
: Where is Big Daddy?

MAE
: We don't know where he is!

BIG MAMA
: I reckon he's gone to baid.

GOOPER
: Well, then, now we can talk.

BIG MAMA
: What is this talk, what talk?

[Margaret appears on gallery, talking to Dr Baugh.]

MARGARET
[musically]
: My family freed their slaves ten years before abolition, my great-great-grandfather gave his slaves their freedom five years before the war between the States started!

MAE
: Oh, for God's sake! Maggie's climbed back up in her family tree!

MARGARET
[sweetly]
: What, Mae?—Oh, where's Big Daddy?!

[The pace must be very quick. Great Southern animation.]

BIG MAMA
[addressing them all]
: I think Big Daddy was just worn out. He loves his family, he loves to have them around him, but it's a strain on his nerves. He wasn't himself tonight, Big Daddy wasn't himself, I could tell he was all worked up.

REVEREND TOOKER
: I think he's remarkable.

BIG MAMA
: Yaisss! Just remarkable. Did you all notice the food he ate at that table? Did you all notice the supper he put away? Why, he ate like a hawss!

GOOPER
: I hope he doesn't regret it.

BIG MAMA
: Why, that man—ate a huge piece of cawn-bread with molasses on it! Helped himself twice to hoppin' John.

MARGARET
: Big Daddy loves hoppin' john.—We had a real country dinner.

BIG MAMA
[overlapping Margaret]
: Yais, he simply adores it! An' candied yams? That man put away enough food at that table to stuff a nigger
field
-hand!

GOOPER
[with grim relish]
: I hope he don't have to pay for it later on....

BIG MAMA
[fiercely]
: What's
that
, Gooper?

MAE
: Gooper says he hopes Big Daddy doesn't suffer tonight.

BIG MAMA
: Oh, shoot, Gooper says, Gooper says! Why should Big Daddy suffer for satisfying a normal appetite? There's nothin' wrong with that man but nerves, he's sound as a dollar! And now he knows he is an' that's why he ate such a supper. He had a big load off his mind, knowin' he wasn't doomed t'—what he thought he was doomed to....

MARGARET
[sadly and sweetly]
: Bless his old sweet soul....

BIG MAMA
[vaguely]
: Yais, bless his heart, wher's Brick?

MAE
: Outside.

GOOPER
: —Drinkin'...

BIG MAMA
: I know he's drinkin'. You all don't have to keep tellin'
me
Brick is drinkin'. Cain't I see he's drinkin' without you continually tellin' me that boy's drinkin'?

MARGARET
: Good for you, Big Mama!

[She applauds.]

BIG MAMA
: Other people
drink
and
have
drunk an' will
drink
, as long as they make that stuff an' put it in bottles.

MARGARET
: That's the truth. I never trusted a man that didn't drink.

MAE
: Gooper never drinks. Don't you trust Gooper?

MARGARET
: Why, Gooper, don't you drink? If I'd known you didn't drink, I wouldn't of made that remark—

BIG MAMA
:
Brick?

MARGARET
: —at least, not in your presence.

[She laughs sweetly.]

BIG MAMA
:
Brick!

MARGARET
: He's still on the gall'ry. I'll go bring him in so we can talk.

BIG MAMA
[worriedly]
: I don't know what this mysterious family conference is about.

[Awkward silence. Big Mama looks from face to face, then belches slightly and mutters, 'Excuse me....' She opens an ornamental fan suspended about her throat, a black lace fan to go with her black lace gown and fans her wilting corsage, sniffing nervously and looking from face to face in the uncomfortable silence as Margaret calls 'Brick?' and Brick sings to the moon on the gallery.]

I don't know what's wrong here, you all have such long faces! Open that door on the hall and let some air circulate through here, will you please, Gooper?

MAE
: I think we'd better leave that door closed, Big Mama, till after the talk.

BIG MAMA
: Reveren' Tooker, will
you
please open that door?!

REVEREND TOOKER
: I sure will, Big Mama.

MAE
: I just didn't think we ought t' take any chance of Big Daddy hearin' a word of this discussion.

BIG MAMA
: I
swan!
Nothing's going to be said in Big Daddy's house that he cain't hear if he wants to!

GOOPER
: Well, Big Mama, it's—

[Mae gives him a quick, hard poke to shut him up. He glares at her fiercely as she circles before him like a burlesque ballerina, raising her skinny bare arms over her head, jangling her bracelets, exclaiming:]

MAE
:
A breeze! A breeze!

REVEREND TOOKER
: I think this house is the coolest house in the Delta.—Did you all know that Halsey Banks' widow put air-conditioning units in the church and rectory at Friar's Point in memory of Halsey?

[General conversation has resumed; everybody is chatting so that the stage sounds like a big bird-cage.]

GOOPER
: Too bad nobody cools your church off for you. I bet you sweat in that pulpit these hot Sundays, Reverend Tooker.

REVEREND TOOKER
: Yes, my vestments are drenched.

MAE
[at the same time to Dr Baugh]
: You think those vitamin B12 injections are what they're cracked up t' be, Doc Baugh?

DOCTOR BAUGH
: Well, if you want to be stuck with something I guess they're as good to be stuck with as anything else.

BIG MAMA
[at gallery door]
:
Maggie, Maggie, aren't you comin' with Brick?

MAE
[suddenly and loudly, creating a silence]
:
I have a strange feeling, I have a peculiar feeling!

BIG MAMA
[turning from gallery]
: What feeling?

MAE
: That Brick said somethin' he shouldn't of said t' Big Daddy.

BIG MAMA
: Now what on earth could Brick of said t' Big Daddy that he shouldn't say?

GOOPER
: Big Mama, there's somethin'—

MAE
: NOW, WAIT!

[She rushes up to Big Mama and gives her a quick hug and kiss. Big Mama pushes her impatiently off as the Reverend Tooker's voice rises serenely in a little pocket of silence:]

REVEREND TOOKER
: Yes, last Sunday the gold in my chasuble faded into th' purple....

GOOPER
: Reveren', you must of been preachin' hell's fire last Sunday!

[He guffaws at this witticism but the Reverend is not sincerely amused. At the same time Big Mama has crossed over to Dr Baugh and is saying to him:]

BIG MAMA
[her breathless voice rising high-pitched above the others]
: In my day they had what they call the Keeley cure for heavy drinkers. But now I understand they just take some kind of tablets, they call them 'Annie Bust' tablets. But
Brick
don't need to take
nothin'
.

[Brick appears in gallery doors with Margaret behind him.]

BIG MAMA
[unaware of his presence behind her]
: That boy is just broken up over Skipper's death. You know how poor Skipper died. They gave him a big, big dose of that sodium amytal stuff at his home and then they called the ambulance and give him another big, big dose of it at the hospital and that and all of the alcohol in his system fo' months an months an' months just proved too much for his heart.... I'm scared of needles! I'm more scared of a needle than the knife.... I think more people have been needled out of this world than-

[She stops short and wheels about.]

OH!
—here's Brick! My precious baby—

[She turns upon Brick with short, fat arms extended, at the same time uttering a loud, short sob, which is both comic and touching. | Brick smiles and bows slightly, making a burlesque gesture of gallantry for Maggie to pass before him into the room. Then he hobbles on his crutch directly to the liquor cabinet and there is absolute silence, with everybody looking at Brick as everybody has always looked at Brick when he spoke or moved or appeared. One by one he drops ice cubes in his glass, then suddenly, but not quickly, looks back over his shoulder with a wry, charming smile, and says:]

BRICK
: I'm sorry! Anyone else?

BIG MAMA
[sadly]
: No, son. I wish you wouldn't!

BRICK
: I wish I didn't have to, Big Mama, but I'm still waiting for that click in my head which makes it all smooth out!

BIG MAMA
: Aw, Brick, you—BREAK MY HEART!

MARGARET
[at the same time]
:
Brick, go sit with Big Mama!

BIG MAMA
: I just cain't
staiiiiiiiii-nnnnnd
—it....

[She sobs.]

MAE
: Now that we're all assembled—

GOOPER
: We kin talk....

BIG MAMA
: Breaks my heart....

MARGARET
: Sit with Big Mama, Brick, and hold her hand.

[Big Mama sniffs very loudly three times, almost like three drum beats in the pocket of silence.]

BRICK
: You do that, Maggie. I'm a restless cripple. I got to stay on my crutch.

[Brick hobbles to the gallery door; leans there as if waiting. | Mae sits beside Big Mama, while Gooper moves in front and sits on the end of the couch, facing her. Reverend Tooker moves nervously into the space between them; on the other side, Dr Baugh stands looking at nothing in particular and lights a cigar. Margaret turns away.]

BIG MAMA
: Why're you all
surroundin'
me—like this? Why're you all starin' at me like this an' makin' signs at each other?

[Reverend Tooker steps back startled.]

MAE
: Calm yourself, Big Mama.

BIG MAMA
: Calm you'self,
you'self
, Sister Woman. How could I calm myself with everyone starin' at me as if big drops of blood had broken out on m'face? What's this all about, Annh! What?

[Gooper coughs and takes a center position.]