Read Online Three Plays by Tennessee Williams - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Tennessee Williams
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easy with them....
[He spreads his hands as if caressing the air.]
You know what I'm contemplating?
BRICK [vaguely] : No, sir. What are you contemplating?
BIG DADDY : Ha ha!— Pleasure! —pleasure with women!
[Brick's smile fades a little but lingers.]
Brick, this stuff burns me!——Yes, boy. I'll tell you something that you might not guess. I still have desire for women and this is my sixty-fifth birthday.
BRICK : I think that's mighty remarkable, Big Daddy.
BIG DADDY : Remarkable?
BRICK : Admirable , Big Daddy.
BIG DADDY : You're damn right it is, remarkable and admirable both. I realize now that I never had me enough. I let many chances slip by because of scruples about it, scruples, convention—crap.... All that stuff is bull, bull, bull!—It took the shadow of death to make me see it. Now that shadow's lifted, I'm going to cut loose and have, what is it they call it, have me a—ball!
BRICK : A ball, huh?
BIG DADDY : That's right, a ball, a ball! Hell!—I slept with Big Mama till, let's see, five years ago, till I was sixty and she was fifty-eight, and never even liked her, never did!
[The phone has been ringing down the hall. Big Mama enters, exclaiming:]
BIG MAMA : Don't you men hear that phone ring? I heard it way out on the gall'ry.
BIG DADDY : There's five rooms off this front gall'ry that you could go through. Why do you go through this one?
[Big Mama makes a playful face as she bustles out the hall door.]
Huh!—Why, when Big Mama goes out of a room, I can't remember what that woman looks like, but when Big Mama comes back into the room, boy, then I see what she looks like, and I wish I didn't!
[Bends over laughing at this joke till it hurts his guts and he straightens with a grimace. The laugh subsides to a chuckle as he puts the liquor glass a little distrustfully down on the table. | Brick has risen and hobbled to the gallery doors.]
Hey! Where you goin'?
BRICK : Out for a breather.
BIG DADDY : Not yet you ain't. Stay here till this talk is finished, young fellow.
BRICK : I thought it was finished, Big Daddy.
BIG DADDY : It ain't even begun.
BRICK : My mistake. Excuse me. I just wanted to feel that river breeze.
BIG DADDY : Turn on the ceiling fan and set back down in that chair.
[Big Mama's voice rises, carrying down the hall.]
BIG MAMA : Miss Sally, you're a case! You're a caution, Miss Sally. Why didn't you give me a chance to explain it to you?
BIG DADDY : Jesus, she's talking to my old maid sister again.
BIG MAMA : Well, goodbye, now, Miss Sally. You come down real soon, Big Daddy's dying to see you! Yaisss, goodbye, Miss Sally....
[She hangs up and bellows with mirth. Big Daddy groans and covers his ears as she approaches. Bursting in:]
Big Daddy, that was Miss Sally callin' from Memphis again! You know what she done, Big Daddy? She called her doctor in Memphis to git him to tell her what that spastic thing is!! Ha- HAAAA! —And called back to tell me how relieved she was that—Hey! Let me in!
[Big Daddy has been holding the door half closed against her.]
BIG DADDY : Naw I ain't. I told you not to come and go through this room. You just back out and go through those five other rooms.
BIG MAMA : Big Daddy? Big Daddy? Oh, Big Daddy!—You didn't meant those things you said to me, did you?
[He shuts door firmly against her but she still calls.]
Sweetheart? Sweetheart? Big Daddy? You didn't mean those awful things you said to me?—I know you didn't. I know you didn't mean those things in your heart....
[The childlike voice fades with a sob and her heavy footsteps retreat down the hall. Brick has risen once more on his crutch and starts for the gallery again.]
BIG DADDY : All I ask of that woman is that she leave me alone. But she can't admit to herself that she makes me sick. That comes of having slept with her too many years. Should of quit much sooner but that old
[He spreads his hands as if caressing the air.]
You know what I'm contemplating?
BRICK [vaguely] : No, sir. What are you contemplating?
BIG DADDY : Ha ha!— Pleasure! —pleasure with women!
[Brick's smile fades a little but lingers.]
Brick, this stuff burns me!——Yes, boy. I'll tell you something that you might not guess. I still have desire for women and this is my sixty-fifth birthday.
BRICK : I think that's mighty remarkable, Big Daddy.
BIG DADDY : Remarkable?
BRICK : Admirable , Big Daddy.
BIG DADDY : You're damn right it is, remarkable and admirable both. I realize now that I never had me enough. I let many chances slip by because of scruples about it, scruples, convention—crap.... All that stuff is bull, bull, bull!—It took the shadow of death to make me see it. Now that shadow's lifted, I'm going to cut loose and have, what is it they call it, have me a—ball!
BRICK : A ball, huh?
BIG DADDY : That's right, a ball, a ball! Hell!—I slept with Big Mama till, let's see, five years ago, till I was sixty and she was fifty-eight, and never even liked her, never did!
[The phone has been ringing down the hall. Big Mama enters, exclaiming:]
BIG MAMA : Don't you men hear that phone ring? I heard it way out on the gall'ry.
BIG DADDY : There's five rooms off this front gall'ry that you could go through. Why do you go through this one?
[Big Mama makes a playful face as she bustles out the hall door.]
Huh!—Why, when Big Mama goes out of a room, I can't remember what that woman looks like, but when Big Mama comes back into the room, boy, then I see what she looks like, and I wish I didn't!
[Bends over laughing at this joke till it hurts his guts and he straightens with a grimace. The laugh subsides to a chuckle as he puts the liquor glass a little distrustfully down on the table. | Brick has risen and hobbled to the gallery doors.]
Hey! Where you goin'?
BRICK : Out for a breather.
BIG DADDY : Not yet you ain't. Stay here till this talk is finished, young fellow.
BRICK : I thought it was finished, Big Daddy.
BIG DADDY : It ain't even begun.
BRICK : My mistake. Excuse me. I just wanted to feel that river breeze.
BIG DADDY : Turn on the ceiling fan and set back down in that chair.
[Big Mama's voice rises, carrying down the hall.]
BIG MAMA : Miss Sally, you're a case! You're a caution, Miss Sally. Why didn't you give me a chance to explain it to you?
BIG DADDY : Jesus, she's talking to my old maid sister again.
BIG MAMA : Well, goodbye, now, Miss Sally. You come down real soon, Big Daddy's dying to see you! Yaisss, goodbye, Miss Sally....
[She hangs up and bellows with mirth. Big Daddy groans and covers his ears as she approaches. Bursting in:]
Big Daddy, that was Miss Sally callin' from Memphis again! You know what she done, Big Daddy? She called her doctor in Memphis to git him to tell her what that spastic thing is!! Ha- HAAAA! —And called back to tell me how relieved she was that—Hey! Let me in!
[Big Daddy has been holding the door half closed against her.]
BIG DADDY : Naw I ain't. I told you not to come and go through this room. You just back out and go through those five other rooms.
BIG MAMA : Big Daddy? Big Daddy? Oh, Big Daddy!—You didn't meant those things you said to me, did you?
[He shuts door firmly against her but she still calls.]
Sweetheart? Sweetheart? Big Daddy? You didn't mean those awful things you said to me?—I know you didn't. I know you didn't mean those things in your heart....
[The childlike voice fades with a sob and her heavy footsteps retreat down the hall. Brick has risen once more on his crutch and starts for the gallery again.]
BIG DADDY : All I ask of that woman is that she leave me alone. But she can't admit to herself that she makes me sick. That comes of having slept with her too many years. Should of quit much sooner but that old
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