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THE SAILORS OPERA

By Clem Gorman

Copyright © 2012

Enquiries: David Spicer Management

david@davidspicer.com

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Brief.

Eugene O’Neill, regarded as the founder of modern American drama, spent a troubled, lost year in Buenos Aires in 1930, as a young man.

He went there to escape his dysfunctional family, about whom he later wrote in his most famous play, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and to escape America, and his failed careers in academe and the theatre, the latter under the shadow of his famous actor father.

He wanted to be a poet, a seaman, an adventurer, and a lover, and he briefly embraced all these careers in, and before, Buenos Aires. He had also been deeply moved by the new naturalistic theatre then emerging in Europe. He associated with seamen in rough waterfront bars run by gangsters, had an affair with a prostitute, slept rough, drank too much, and agonized over his life and his future.

When he returned to America at the end of the year he was hell-bent on becoming a playwright, bringing naturalistic drama to his country.

The rest is history.

What happened in his brief year at the bottom of the world, and at the bottom of society? This play is my attempt to understand that.

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Cast.

Eugene O’Neill, 20

Maria, his lover late 20s

Driscoll, an Irish seaman 30s

Yank, an American seaman 40s

Louis, an American seaman 20.

Ashleigh, an English exile indeterminate.

The Gangster, Argentinian indeterminate.

University President Middle Aged.

James, O’Neill’s father Middle Aged.

(The University President and James are played by the actor who plays the Gangster).

The Time is 1910, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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The Sailors Opera

Eugene O’Neill in Buenos Aires

copyright © 2011 Clem Gorman

The Set.

Downstage, left, a park bench as described in Scene 1. It is struck when not needed.

The main set is the backroom of the Sailors Opera, a bar for sailors in Buenos Aires which was flourishing in 1910. There are table and chairs, and little else save a bar downstage right.

On an elevated platform downstage right, above the bar, is Maria’s upstairs room in Buenos Aires in 1910. It consists of a bed, a table on which stands a jug, a chair, a round bath, and a small wardrobe. There is one window, curtained at all times, and a bare lamp.

When the main Sailors Opera scenes are shown, that is when, twice, sketches are being presented by O’Neill and his cronies, the stage becomes the stage of the Sailors Opera main room, and the theatre audience

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becomes the audience of the Sailors Opera: so this play could effectively be presented in cabaret format.

The Sailors Opera. copyright © 2011

Prolog.

A ceremony to award the Pulitzer Prize, Columbia University, 1940s. At a lectern stands the PRESIDENT of the University. He reads from a paper.

PRESIDENT It is now my great pleasure to award

The Pulitzer prize for Literature to

Mr. Eugene O’Neill, for his

contributions, as a playwright, to the

American theater.

EUGENE O’NEILL, a tall, stooped man with grey hair wearing a respectable but ruffled jacket, walks up and takes the prize: they shake hands. O’Neill fronts the microphone. He speaks dourly, as if tired.

O’NEILL Thank you. I will always be a stranger

who never feels at home ... who must

always be a little in love with death.

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FX; the sound of applause, halting, uncertain.

CROSSFADE. O’Neill crosses, discarding his grey wig and jacket, underdressed in much rougher clothing. He throws his Pulitzer onto a table as he goes.

He settles down on a park bench and arranges newspapers over himself. Darkness falls. He sleeps.

FADE to black.

Scene 1. Day. 1910.

A park bench on the Paseo Colon, a boulevard in Buenos Aires. From time to time, PASSERSBY move across stage, never looking at the bench. Traffic noises, car horns, the rattle of a streetcar. The foghorn of a large ship departing port, indicating that the docks are nearby.

It is a warm day in autumn. Around the bench are scattered empty alcohol bottles, newspapers, empty food tins, and other rubbish including a couple of filthy men’s garments. A tap is next to the bench, with a tin mug below it, into which it drips.

It is evident that someone is sleeping on the bench, the body covered in newspapers. There is no movement.

Suddenly the newspapers fly in the air as EUGENE O’NEILL wakes violently, eyes staring, arms flailing, crying out some gibberish as he flings his body upwards as though expecting attack.

Seeming to realize that none is forthcoming, he relaxes, rubs his eyes, yawns, stretches, looks about him. 6 | P a g e

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He is tall and lanky, somewhat awkward in stance and movement. He is wearing a pair of what may once have been quite nice trousers, now grubby and dirty, unironed. Over a nondescript shirt which has seen better days – when it was a shirt – he wears a shapeless jacket, the pockets hanging open because he has walked with his hands in them, the buttons missing, the material stained and discolored. As for the shoes ...

His face is expressionless, as it often is. He is tall but stooped, his hair tousled, and he has three or four days of beard growth. Yet, he is a handsome man, with striking looks and piercing blue eyes which fix on whatever, or whoever, he is looking at – often women.

EUGENE Good morning, Buenos Aires!

He speaks slowly and deliberately, in a cultivated New England accent. The city does not answer except for the hoot of a nearby ship in dock. He rises, unhurriedly, and then unsteadily, scratching himself. He discovers something in his jacket pocket and pulls it out. It is an apparently empty gin bottle. He unscrews the cap and upends the bottle over his palm. He sniffs his palm. Nothing. He throws the bottle down. He appears to change his mind, bends down and picks it up. He puts it back in his jacket pocket.

He turns on the tap, pulls some grass, and “cleans” his teeth with the wet grass. He washes his face, and dries it on his jacket.

He jiggles his jacket ineffectually as if to make it less shapeless. He rubs both shoes against the backs of his trouser legs, equally ineffectually.

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Thus prepared for whatever life may throw at him, he sets off, not altogether steadily, to engage the world.

Scene 2. Later that day.

The backroom of the Sailors Opera. It is similar to the backroom of the bar set in O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness, or the set of The Iceman Cometh. Tables and chairs, decrepit and bearing the scars of many wild nights, occupy most of the space, pushed rather close together like the tables and chairs in The Iceman Cometh. There is a bare light globe, as though nobody in this bar would ever want to read anything. When men wish to go to the bar they have to sidle and push through chairs and tables, an obstacle race which becomes more difficult the more they drink. On the walls are several old seafaring posters, basically advertisements for shipping lines, faded and torn.

The bar, downstage right, is as bare and functional as possible. Above the bar, rows of glasses upended on metal racks. Behind, a few miserable bottles on shelves in front of a cracked and stained mirror. A spittoon in front of the bar, and sawdust on the 8 | P a g e

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floor. No stools. The barman need not be seen, deep in shadow behind the bar.

The few glasses and bottles on the tables are in need of a good wash.

At two of the tables, hunched over their drinks and grumbling when they speak, looking not at each other but into deep spaces before their eyes, sit DRISCOLL, YANK, ASHLEIGH, and LOUIS.

Driscoll is a very large and powerful Irishman, with tousled hair which someone once told him was appealing to women. His nose has been broken in some fight which he probably does not remember, and there is a long scar on his cheek. His large hands seem to dwarf his glass. He wears a colourful shirt, but plain pants, big boots, and a wide belt. On the third finger left hand he sports a large black ring, and his sleeves are rolled up to halfway along his big biceps. He moves slowly, unless there is a sudden need to move quickly, in which case he is like greased lightning. He oozes physical power and the pride in strength that such a man may have. He has a deep, persuasive voice that seems to come from the bowels of a ship.

Yank is strong, but light in build, athletic looking except for his paunch alone, the result of far too much drink. He holds his head low, like a wary snake, and his movements are quick and darting. He has been handsome, but no longer, his face beginning to sag and blotch. He could be reasonably young, but seafaring, especially his love of the open deck, and alcohol have taken their toll. His voice is light and fast, like an ocean breeze, with a New York working-class accent. He is always leaning forward as if striving to launch himself into an adventure that may 9 | P a g e

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change his life.

Ashleigh is English, and has the clipped, confident speech of the upper middle class, a surgeon or a barrister. He dresses neatly but not ostentatiously, in good taste, though his clothes are obviously old and have been mended often. His manner can seem effete at times, though not camp, and his voice is arch, perennially sarcastic. He is tall, and aloof in bearing. He seems never to look at the person he is addressing, and gives the impression that he has wandered into this bar for one drink, and does not feel at home among these men. He is a bitter man, a witness and not a man of action, detached but wishing to be an initiator.

Louis is very nicely dressed, though his clothes are crumpled from sleeping on barroom tables and pool tables. He speaks as though he does not expect anyone to take the slightest notice of what he says: he says it anyway, just for the record. He has the voice of one who has spent his entire life indoors. He dotes on Eugene, who hardly notices him. He starts at his own shadow and lives on fear, nervous and insecure. He is slight in figure, carefully non-aggressive. He suffers from a deep-seated sense of self-pity, and thwarted entitlement.

DRISCOLL (belligerently)At toimes, you know, the heat

in the stokehole is so great that my pants

start to smoke. Every toime I turn toward the

furnace door with a shovel full of coal the

skin on me face starts peelin’. But I never

flinch, you know, I never flinch. There are

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not many men who can keep pace with me down

dere!

YANK Not for me, Driscoll, old buddy. Give me the

open deck where I can see da ocean, and feel

her movin’ beneath me feet. Every time the

ship rises up on a great, wide wave, I feel

as if she’s strokin’ the breasts of the sea-

mother! Like the sea was makin’ love to her!

ASHLEIGH You should be the poet, Yank, and not Eugene.

LOUIS Eugene’s a fine poet. He’s maturing and when

he does, look out America!

DRISCOLL Talking about breasts, did you not see that

woman in the film last noight, in the

Barracas?

They laugh.

YANK Now dere’s a woman with breasts like the sea.

He gestures to indicate her breasts rising and

falling like waves on the sea.

They laugh.

ASH Yank, do you know the best part of the sea?

Where you really know the ocean for what it

is?

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YANK No but you gonna tell me, am I right?

ASH The bottom. When you’ve gone so far down, you

can go no further. They say there are

creatures there that boggle the imagination,

giant squids as big as a whale and fish with

strange shapes, that welcome you to the world

of death.

He grins an evil grin. Silence.

DRISCOLL Shut up, Ashleigh. Chokin’ our lungs with

coaldust, breakin’ our backs and hearts in

the hell of the stokehole, feedin’ that damn

furnace, feedin’ it our loives along with the

coal, caged from the soight of your sun and

your wind. A man’s work, for sure. No foine

language down there, Yank. I know what

droives the ships, and it’s not poetry!

LOUIS I get seasick. I’m dreading the voyage home

to the States.

YANK Come out on deck with me, Louis, feel the

swell of the sea beneat’ ya feet!

DRISCOLL Come down to my furnace, it’ll kill you, or

it’ll cure you.

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ASH Did you see that sailor get killed in the bar

last night, chaps?

DRISCOLL Aye, so drunk he didn’t see the knife in

toime.

LOUIS And men stepped over his body on the way to

and from the bar, as if he were an overturned

chair.

YANK No, sailors always stand a chair up when it

falls. God, I’m so hungry! If I don’t eat

somethin’, it’ll be me fallin’ down.

He mimes falling.

PAUSE.

Driscoll hands Yank a dollar bill, looking away.

DRISCOLL Here.

YANK Oh thank you Driscoll, thank you Buddy! I’ll

pay you back!

DRISCOLL Sure you will. Next time, don’t be so quick

to spend it.

Yank goes to the bar. Driscoll shakes his head. He calls after Yank.

And buy food!

(To the others) Does he forget how hard it was to

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earn?

LOUIS I got some money from home yesterday, look

what I bought.

He shows them a new ring on his finger, alongside others.

DRISCOLL Money from home’s not hard to earn, Louis.

Yank returns from the bar: not with food, but a

drink.

Do you have enough food on yer plate, there?

ASH Has anyone seen our dear Eugene today?

LOUIS He slept on the beach last night. I saw him

on a park bench over on the Paseo Colon, down

near the docks.

DRISCOLL Now there’s a man who’s generous with his

money.

ASH When he has any. They say his father’s a

famous actor.

YANK He’ll never be a sailor, that’s for sure,

he’s just playin’ at it.

LOUIS He worked hard on the ship when we sailed

down.

ASH He’s a spoiled brat who never learns. Greedy

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for life, but what will it bring him?

Disillusion.

DRISCOLL Keep your big words for England, Ashleigh,

this is a sailor’s bar.

YANK Eugene sleeps with women once and falls in

love wid ‘em! And now he’s in love with

Maria. We all know her!

They laugh.

YANK Because she runs this bar she thinks she can

treat men like scum.

LOUIS They say no man has ever seduced her ...

DRISCOLL ... but she chooses the men she loikes!

They laugh, nervously.

ASH And now she has her eye on our Eugene. Women

chew him up and spit him out, and she’ll do

the same.

DRISCOLL Perhaps not. She’s no ordinary woman.

ASHLEIGH Oh? You’re in love with her too?

They laugh.

DRISCOLL I take as I find. And I find her ... out of

the ordinary.

LOUIS They say she went to a university.

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They all stare in wonderment at him.

YANK Yeah? How come she’s runnin’ a sailor’s bar?

DRISCOLL Like I said, she’s no ordinary woman.

ASHLEIGH You think everyone’s special, Driscoll.

They agree, laughing.

Enter EUGENE O’NEILL, straight from the park bench, and yet still, somehow, looking out of place in this bar.

ASH Greetings, sailor boy. Ship ahoy!

Eugene glowers.

EUGENE I need a drink.

He goes to the bar, watched by the others. He puts his hand in his pocket, slowly withdraws it, goes to one of the tables, sits, head down, sulking.

PAUSE.

DRISCOLL Do you want a drink?

EUGENE (tersely) Never mind.

DRISCOLL I said,do you want a drink?

PAUSE. Eugene hunches his shoulders.

EUGENE Never mind!

Driscoll offers Eugene a dollar bill. Eugene looks away. Driscoll continues to hold it out. Finally, Eugene snatches it and goes to the bar.

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YANK Who’s got a coin to match mine?

ASH Not I, said the fly.

YANK Louis?

LOUIS I don’t believe in gambling.

Yank mimics him.

YANK “I don’t believe in gambling”. Ashleigh?

ASH Oh for God’s sake, you’re such a damned

nuisance Yank. You’ve just begged your drink

money from Driscoll. Anyone would think

you were an alcoholic!

Ashleigh slaps a coin on the table, keeping his hand over it. Yank slaps his down. They bend over the coins, intent, serious. The others watch.

Yank Evens.

ASH Heads.

They move their hands away.

Yank Yes!

He grabs both coins while Ashleigh turns away, sullenly. Yank to bar.

ASH You lose at everything, Yank, except when it’s going to do you harm!

Eugene returns with a bottle of gin. He takes the old bottle from his pocket and throws it away. He offers the new bottle to Louis.

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Eugene For my friends!

Louis drinks, then grimaces.

LOUIS I’ll never get used to this stuff.

EUGENE But it softens the world, for a while at least. Driscoll?

Driscoll takes the bottle and swigs, hands it back.

Eugene Ashleigh?

ASH I thought you’d never ask.

He drinks for too long. Driscoll takes it from him and hands it back to Eugene.

Yank returns with another drink.

YANK My turn.

ASH You’ve just had two drinks!

YANK You’ve all had ya turn. Eugene?

Eugene hands Yank the bottle. Yank sucks it in, belches. He sits and begins drinking his own drink.

DRISCOLL So, do you not offer us a drink, then?

YANK I paid for dis with me own money!

They turn away. He swills his drink quickly.

EUGENE So ... Ashleigh ... what did you do last night?

ASH That’s classified information. But it was lots of fun.

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EUGENE So, what was it?

ASH Next question.

EUGENE What about you, Yank?

Yank turns quiet, closes in on himself.

YANK I forget.

DRISCOLL Do you want to know what I did?

Eugene turns toward him.

I met a beautiful upper class woman, she took

me to a ball in the President’s Palace, we

danced the noight away, and then she took me

to her huge mansion on the hill, where we ...

ASH Eugene, leave it, alright?

PAUSE.

Eugene turns away, seeming to fold in upon himself. When he speaks, it is to himself.

EUGENE There’s a time to die, but you don’t see it

until it falls upon you.

YANK Ah, but if you’re afraid to die, you’re

afraid to live. Am I right?

Eugene drinks. He pulls a stubby pencil from his jacket, and a scrap of paper: a leaflet advertising some event or show. He writes on the back of it, wetting the pen with his tongue. He seems to be trying to shut them

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all out.

Enter THE GANGSTER. He is Argentinian, and impeccably dressed in the sharpest black clothes, complete with shining, pointed shoes, fashionable tight pants with a perfect crease, a tie, a high starched collar, waistcoat, a jacket that was obviously tailor made for his slim, elegant body. His hair is black and shiny and slicked back, like the male tango dancers seen in Buenos Aires today. He poses with every move, pointing his toe, positioning his hand on his hip,arching his back, raising his head, squaring his shoulders. You just know that he carries, at the least, a knife, and quite possibly a small handgun. He is a type of criminal very common in the waterfront districts of Buenos Aires during the late 19th and early 20th centuries: impossibly stylish, very violent, quick to anger at even an imagined slight, and unpredictable. He does not fear the lawbecause the police accept bribes to leave him alone. He runs prostitutes, bars,nightclubs, stolen goods, protection, gambling, drugs, and guns for hire. He is marginally more likely to be of Italian than of Spanish ethnicity, and is part of a complex and highly organized crime syndicate. He speaks English passably, with an accent. He surveys the assembled riff-raff of the seas.

GANGSTER There is a stench in this room. Do none of

you ... gentlemen ... bathe?

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agreement with him.

DRISCOLL We’re sorry, Sorr.

GANGSTER You’re sorry? I am sorry that you occupy my

back room, which is normally reserved for my

friends, and you drink so little that I lose

money.

They stare at him, uncomfortably. They have no answer to this truth.

You have no answer?

DRISCOLL We’ll drink more.

GANGSTER You will, or you will leave.

LOUIS Do you want to buy a ring?

He shows the Gangster his ring, and the Gangster studies it.

GANGSTER I have many rings finer than this. I was in

your country for some years, in Miami. I

bought only the finest jewelry.

He pockets Louis’ ring, much to Louis’ chagrin.

The Gangster laughs, harshly.

GANGSTER My patrons. The scum of Buenos Aires, the

riff-raff of the high seas, the dregs of

the waterfront.

ASH I have an answer to that: yes.

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GANGSTER Do I ned to remind you: every man who

drinks in my bar performs. A song, a

sketch, a poem, a joke. And you, my

ragged little bunch, must make an

entertainment for the sailors and scum in

the main bar. If you do not, then you

cannot continue to drink in this bar. I

will show you. Mister Driscoll, come here.

Driscoll reluctantly goes to him.

Mister Driscoll can dance, can you not?

Driscoll nods.

Then ...

The Gangster opens his arms. Driscoll goes to him and they adopt the very serious stance and attitude of the tango.

Clap your hands.

The men start to clap their hands. The Gangster and Driscoll dance the tango. It is very muscular, very masculine, as it must have been when it was invented, around the turn of the 20th century, as a dance between men, in brothels, waiting for the girls to be free. They finish.

The Gangster laughs, and turns to go.

EUGENE Men like you die young.

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The Gangster stops, turns, astonished, as though he cannot believe what he has heard.

DRISCOLL He’s drunk Sorr, he doesn’t even know where

he is. Take no notice.

The Gangster studies Eugene.

GANGSTER I will see you, when you are sober.

Exit Gangster. They all relax, exhaling. They drink, emptying their glasses. Eugene to bar, buys a drink, drains it in one gulp: another, drains it too. One more, now he’s out of money, carries it to table.

DRISCOLL I’m glad we’re on such good terms with the

management.

But their laughter is forced and thin. They drink again, each man an island.

And since you’re a writer, Eugene, you can

be our man to write this sketch, this

entertainment.

EUGENE I don’t write drama.

DRISCOLL If you can write, you can write

anything. Anyway, we rely on you. I know

that man. If he says we have to do a

sketch, or we can’t stay here, he means it.

Do we want to drink on a park bench in the

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Paseo Colon? And be moved on by the

Vigilantes? I don’t think so. So Eugene,

put on your thinking cap.

Enter MARIA.

Scene 3. Immediately following.

Hers is no ordinary entrance. She stops in the doorway, pauses, hand on the doorframe, and surveys the men with a cynical smile. MARIA is extremely attractive. She is voluptuous and in later years this may bring its problems for her, but right now, in her late twenties, she is at her physical peak. She wears red – either all red, or at least something red. Her lipstick is crimson,her hair black and tied with a narrow headscarf. She is tall, graceful, and full of cheek for any man she meets. She is aware of the effect she has on men, especially men who spend long weeks at sea and do not know how to relate to women. Yet she has a hint in her speech and bearing of self-mockery, as if she is playing a game from which she is detached. Her accent is Spanish, but her English is good, with a strong American flavour because of her American father, who spoke English at home before he disappeared when she was young. Her clothing is a little too daring for a “respectable” woman of those times, in that city. She enters the room now, moving between the chairs. All eyes

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follow her.

MARIA Mr Driscoll, I have not seen you for a

leetle while, you are well?

He does not speak, but glances across at Louis.

And you, leettle one, are you in love with

me?

Louis squirms himself inside out.

ASH He’s Louis. He is asexual.

She laughs.

MARIA Oh no he’s not, just a leetle confused,

perhaps.

Louis wriggles.

And Yank, I know you. And you of course,

Ashleigh, so remote in your high place.

Ashleigh smiles remotely. She comes to Eugene, stops.

But you, my Yankee friend, are you sore at me?

Eugene responds slowly.

EUGENE Ahh ... no.

MARIA Every time I see you, you are so cold, so

indifferent.

He replies coldly and indifferently.

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EUGENE I’m not cold and indifferent.

Maria speaks to the invisible barman.

MARIA A drink for this cold sailor from the

North.

When nothing happens she looks at the bar.

It’s alright. Put it on my tab. There you

are, sweet man. It’s Eugene, isn’t it?

Eugene goes to the bar, returns with a drink.

EUGENE Thank you.

MARIA “Thank you”. See? Cold and indifferent.

She holds out a cigarette case to him.

You smoke, do you not?

Eugene takes a cigarette.

Do not say thank you, once was enough. You

must never thank me.

EUGENE Thank ... OK.

MARIA You like me, no?

EUGENE We ... I remember we talked. In that bar,

in San Telmo.

MARIA (Teasingly) Talk has its place. When it

lead to action.

She dismisses talk with a gesture. She turns to the

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other men.

Do you not have conversations to get on

with? About the Roaring Forties, or the

Equator, or something?

The other men turn to each other, but continue to ogle her from their corners of their eyes. She returns her attention to Eugene.

Because I run this bar, you see, they think

my conversation also belong to them. Why

don’t you kiss me?

Eugene seems unsure about this, glancing at the men.

Oh don’t mind them. Here ...

She grasps Eugene’s chin, pulls it up toward her, and kisses him on the lips, very sensually. All conversation stops, then starts again. Eugene looks acutely embarrassed, finishes his drink in one go.

What is the matter? Have you no kiss

like that before?

Her voice is teasing, almost mocking.

His voice is husky, wavering.

EUGENE Sure.

MARIA Some men never kiss me. They want only my

body. But you are different, no? If there

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is one thing I know, it is men.

EUGENE I’m ...

He clears his throat.

I’m going to be the greatest poet in

America.

MARIA In America only? Have you no ambition? The

world, surely!

The others laugh, stop suddenly when she glares at them.

Do you know what? I think you and I should

go to my room. Yes, now. Why not? Come on.

She takes his hand. He hesitates.

EUGENE Ummm ...

MARIA You are in love with someone else? You did

not save yourself for me?

DRISCOLL Eugene ...

He stands and sits beside Eugene.

EUGENE I don’t know ...

DRISCOLL Do as she says. Learn a little about loife.

Eugene takes a deep breath.

MARIA You have a true friend.

Eugene nods. He starts to say thank you, but Driscoll stops him with a finger on Eugene’s lips.

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Eugene rises and is led out of the room by Maria.

ASHLEIGH If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes ...

DRISCOLL You’re goin’ to sneer at him.

ASHLEIGH No, actually I’m not. I do enjoy a laugh at

Eugene’s expense, that’s true. Well, for

us British, laughing at Americans is a

national sport, now that we’re not Number

One and they are. But I respect him. And

one day, mark my words, he will achieve

something. If he just can just lift himself

above the gutter.

SLOW FADE TO BLACK.

CROSS FADE: MARIA’S ROOM.

Scene 4. Later that morning.

It is as simple as can be, and yet very comfortably furnished. A double bed, with pillows piled on it, a mirrored washstand with a large water jug on it, a chair, a small wardrobe, a large round bathtub. A crucifix over the head of the bed.

MARIA So ... make yourself at home.

Eugene looks round, finally sits on the chair.

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EUGENE Nice room.

MARIA It is enough. Sit on the bed beside me.

EUGENE I’m alright.

MARIA I want you here beside Maria.

He hesitates, then sits beside her, putting some distance between them and crossing his legs.

(Efficiently) I sleep here, I work long

hours running that bar. My job is to make

a happy atmosphere there. Are you happy?

She laughs.

Of course you are not. You are a restless

soul, no? Prowling across the ocean,

looking for something, you do not know

what. I work in the bar till midnight. You

will visit me after then. First we will

have a drink downstairs, then we will lie

here and talk for a while. If I wish to

make love, that will be the time. But

please ... I get very bored with

conventional intercourse, so ... be

inventive.

EUGENE Umm ... could we just ... back up a little?

30 | P a g e

31

Why did you invite me here?

She laughs.

MARIA I do not need a reason! You are here

because I want you here. I like you.

EUGENE Look, I seem to be missing something ...

MARIA Oh I forget, you are from New England. I

will spell it out for you. I am inviting

you to be my ... special friend. For a

time. But you will not rule me.

PAUSE.

EUGENE But ... why?

She leans toward him.

MARIA I thought I make it clear. You are a

writer, no?

EUGENE I told you that, when we met in that bar.

MARIA And so, you want to write?

EUGENE That’s what writers do.

MARIA But you are no writing. You are drinking,

sleeping rough – “on the beach” as your

friends say – and look at you: dirty

clothes, half a beard, you smell – oh and I

forgot, you weel have a wash before we make

31 | P a g e

32

love, I cannot stand a dirty penis – you

are a lazy, self-pitying drifter, and you

are in need of my help.

EUGENE (recovering himself a little) I’m curing

the soul by means of the senses, as Oscar

Wilde once said.

MARIA (impatiently) Your soul does not need

curing, it is not sick. You just need

delousing and a place to work. And if you

are a writer, you must find your own

words, not the words of another writer.

EUGENE A writer’s always working. I observe, I

listen, I pick up information about life.

MARIA Then you are a hardworking self-pitying

drifter. Eugene, Eugene, let me help you!

I have talk to your friends about you.

They say you are very clever, no? But

you are no using it. A lost soul who can

give so much, if only he can find his

pathway!

SILENCE.

EUGENE I doubt anybody can help me.

32 | P a g e

33

MARIA You are full of doubt, I see that. I have

meet many men like you. Look, I can do

good things. I am no a bad person.

EUGENE They say you went to university.

MARIA That is a subject for our conversation,

after midnight. Now, you will come, no?

PAUSE. Eugene blows air into his cheeks, shakes his head.

EUGENE I always suspect anyone who wants to help

me.

MARIA I know you have many problem with your

family.

He looks up at her sharply.

EUGENE What do you know about my family?

MARIA This is a village, full of gossip. Your

father was absent, your mother was ...

you come away, and ...

She drifts into silence. She takes his hand.

I will no imprison you. I will no stop

you drinking. Altogether. I, too, drink.

Here everyone drinks. But ... for you,

in moderation, no?

33 | P a g e

34

EUGENE So ... why do you do this work?

She takes out a wallet and shows him a picture.

MARIA This is my daughter. She live with my aunt

in Cordoba. She does not know what I do,

and she weel never know I work in a

rough bar.

PAUSE.

EUGENE That’s a very fine thing you’re doing.

MARIA No, but thank you. Now, I want you to take

off your clothes and climb into that tub, I

weel heat up some water.

She stands, decisively. He stands, uncertainly.

OK, you have sleep rough, now you know what

that is like and you can write about it.

And take this.

She hands him money. He hesitates.

Call it a loan.

EUGENE Do you want me to protect you?

She stares at him coolly.

MARIA Be careful. I weel take one insult, but I

weel no take two.

EUGENE I’m sorry.

34 | P a g e

35

He takes the money.

MARIA Do not say sorry.

EUGENE How come you speak such good English?

MARIA My father was American. He leave my mother

and me when I am twelve.

He starts to ask another question.

No questions. I am here, you are here. We

go forward.

He nods.

EUGENE I ... I’m very grateful. But ... Driscoll

has said that from tonight I can sleep on

his floor. So ...

MARIA What, my leetle room is no good enough for

you?

EUGENE Yes, it’s beautiful but ... Driscoll is my

friend, I said yes, I can’t change my mind.

Among sailors, that’s not a thing you do.

MARIA You are ashamed your friends, as you call

them, will know you sleep with Maria!

EUGENE No!

PAUSE.

No. But I’m honor bound to accept

35 | P a g e

36

Driscoll’s offer.

PAUSE.

MARIA Very well. I would rather sleep alone. But

you will come to me at midnight, no? And I

will make you clean, and we can talk. I

need to talk to someone who thinks of more

than just ...

PAUSE.

EUGENE Ah, that’s better, there’s something in

this for you. I can come at midnight.

Maria smiles.

MARIA Which side of the bed do you like?

He nods, smiling.

CROSSFADE. Eugene crosses to a part of stage representing the Past, re-costuming as he goes.

Scene 5. Flashback.

O’NEILL, late teens, faces his father JAMES. James is already a little portly in his forties, and dresses like a respectable bourgeois. His voice has the elevated and somewhat pompous

36 | P a g e

37

quality of an actor used to projection in Victorian melodrama.

JAMES It’s quite clear to me where your future

lies, Eugene. You’ll follow me into the

family business, the theater. It has

provided this family with a very good

living. You’re nearly a man so it’s time

for you to make that choice. What do you

say Son? We’ll make a great team!

EUGENE I don’t know Dad. I just don’t ... I

doubt I’ll ever make an actor.

James gives every appearance of not having heard Eugene’s reply.

JAMES You’ll love the touring life. Traveling

the length and breadth of our great

country, applauded and feted everywhere ...

He leans toward Eugene confidentially.

And the ladies do love a handsome young

actor!

He nudges Eugene and laughs: Eugene does not.

EUGENE Dad, I need some time ...

JAMES I can teach you acting, you’ll get better

with time. Give it a chance, Son. Do it

37 | P a g e

38

for me, and you’ll find that later you’ll

be doing it for yourself. But, down the

track, if you’re not happy, I’ll

understand.

EUGENE Would you?

JAMES Sure I would! Trust me, Son. Give it a go.

PAUSE.

Please.

PAUSE. Eugene takes a deep breath.

EUGENE Sure.

JAMES You’ll do it? You’ll join me?

EUGENE Yep.

James embraces Eugene joyfully.

JAMES You’ll never regret this decision, Son,

I’ll see to that. Hey, what say we go out

for dinner tonight? The finest restaurant

in town. My shout. Yes?

EUGENE (resignedly) Sure.

JAMES That’s my boy. A father and son team.

That’s my boy!

Exit James. Eugene buries his head in his hands in despair.

38 | P a g e

39

CROSSFADE. Eugene crosses to bar.

Scene 6. That afternoon.

The BACKROOM. LOUIS, DRISCOLL, ASHLEIGH, YANK.

They are in different seats, but otherwise nothing’s changed. Louis is nervous and agitated, Ashleigh remote, Driscoll fiercely held in, Yank looking half-sharp. A ship’s hooter sounds its mournful moan.

DRISCOLL Fog in da harbor.

LOUIS I hate that sound. It’s like the devil,

calling “last drinks”.

ASHLEIGH I’ll never sail again. I’ll rot here until

I die.

DRISCOLL Shut up, Ashleigh.

ASHLEIGH Being on the sea leads to home, and I can

never go home.

LOUIS Why ...

He stops himself.

ASHLEIGH So, Eugene’s with another man-eater.

YANK I wonder if she’s told him da one about her

daughter in Cordoba!39 | P a g e

40

They all laugh.

ASHLEIGH And once she’s got enough money she’s going

to buy a little business selling baby

clothes and give her daughter a better

life!

They laugh again.

DRISCOLL That woman has helped more than one lost

soul get back on his feet.

ASHLEIGH Why would she do that?

DRISCOLL (Shaking his head) Not all human actions

are self-serving, Ashleigh.

ASHLEIGH One way or another, they are. And the only

way a man can get back on his feet is if he

does it for himself, not running to

some hard bitch for comfort.

DRISCOLL Then we’ll see you back on your feet, will

we?

PAUSE.

YANK I need some action. I can’t stay cooped up

in dis shithole. I need to break da cycle!

Driscoll offers Yank a bill.

DRISCOLL Buy yourself a drink and settle down.

40 | P a g e

41

YANK It’s no use offering’ me money all the time

Driscoll, you know I can’t pay yer back!

Enter EUGENE. His entrance could not be more different than his earlier one. He literally bounces in, grinning broadly, and holding a fistful of money, which he waves at them. He looks much cleaner, neater.

EUGENE Money is the root of all evil, so let’s go

to the Devil!

ASHLEIGH Ah! The fancy man returns! Mine’s a G and

T.

He offers Eugene his glass, which Eugene ignores.

EUGENE Drinks are on me! Go to the bar and order

what you like!

He bursts into song, climbing onto a table.

Oh, Whiskey is the life of man ...

It is infectious and the others join in.

ALL Whis-key! Johnny!

EUGENE Oh, I’ll drink whiskey when I can ...

ALL Oh, whiskey for me Johnny!

EUGENE Oh whiskey drove me mother mad ...

They are enjoying it now, all standing, holding their glasses aloft.

ALL Whis-key! Johnny!

41 | P a g e

42

EUGENE An’ whiskey nearly killed me Dad ...

ALL Whis-key! Johnny!

EUGENE Let’s celebrate! Gentlemen, order your

drinks!

All rush to the bar. They all come back with drinks and bottles. Eugene is loquacious, effervescent, ebullient.

Drink! Like there’s no tomorrow. For there

may not be!

He drinks, spilling a lot.

Good friends are like gold!

He drinks more, spilling more. He embraces them one by one. Yank barely tolerates it and has to squirm out of it, Louis wallows in it, and Ashleigh pulls away. Only Driscoll accepts it as a gesture of friendship, returning the hug and smiling. Eugene dances now, holding his drink as if it were a woman. Then he dances with Louis, but the others shun the dancing, Driscoll with a laugh, Yank with a scowl, Ashleigh with a look of horror.

Gentlemen, songsters, out for a spree

Damned from here to Eternity!

God have mercy on such as we ...

Baaa, baaa, baaa!

He falls forward onto a table, howling with

42 | P a g e

43

laughter. He rises.

You know what! I think we should do that

sketch, for the assembled sailors of the

world. Right here at the Sailors Opera!

DRISCOLL I’ll drink to that!

YANK Hey, I just had a flash! In my head! I am

gonna do somethin’ that will bring in da

money. And I know what it’s gonna be.

No one is listening, but he stares into space, envisioning his scheme to make money.

BLACKOUT.

Scene 7 Near midnight, the same evening.

The park bench on the Paseo Colon. Night. EUGENE is alone, pacing up and down. He is taciturn again, hunched, inward.

EUGENE So I’m saying to Father ... I’m saying ...

what am I saying?

PAUSE.

Oh yeah. I’m saying ... no: he’s saying to

me ... “Son” - he can be a little pompous

at times, as though he’s playing a scene

from The Count of Monte Cristo – “Son, your

43 | P a g e

44

mother’s not well, she’s resting upstairs”.

And so I say “Why? Can I go to her?” And he

jumps in quickly, with “No! No you can’t.

She’s asleep”.

Eugene writes.

At this point, his father JAMES enters, played by the actor who plays Ashleigh.

EUGENE “What’s wrong with her, Dad?”

James turns away.

Yes, my father turns away. And he says:

JAMES “She’s just ... she has a headache. Best to

leave her alone when she’s like that. She’s

... in a different place”.

EUGENE “I wish my mother didn’t have to endure

these awful headaches”.

JAMES “We must love her, Eugene, that’s all we

can do”.

Eugene looks perplexed. He writes.

And then my brother Jamie comes in. From a

bar, he’s been out at a bar, of course,

and he’s all cheerful and red-faced and his

eyes are too bright. And he says:

44 | P a g e

45

DRISCOLL enters, playing Jamie, Eugene’s brother. A good-time Charlie, a Broadway Sport.

JAMIE “Hey Brother, what news?”

EUGENE And he laughs. Jamie’s laugh, that’s

something I will never forget. And he

throws his arms around me, and I smell

his breath ...

He mimes this. He writes.

And his breath smells of whiskey, and

excitement, and bars, and girls, and I

say ... what do I say?

PAUSE.

I say “Jamie, we’re just talking about our

mother”. And then ... oh yes, then Jamie

turns silent. His bonhomie disappears ...

Jamie turns silent and his bonhomie disappears.

His face crumples, and I think “what am I

not being told?”

PAUSE.

This was in the early stages, of course.

He writes.

JAMES “You can’t talk to her now. She’ll listen

45 | P a g e

46

but she won’t listen”.

JAMIE “Yes, that’s the way it always affects

her”.

EUGENE What? What affects her? What are you

talking about?

PAUSE.

A clock from the English Tower chimes twelve times.

Midnight!

He looks away.

It’s all still there.

He quotes.

“They are not long, the days of wine and roses:

Out of a misty dream

Our path emerges for a while, then closes

Within a dream”.

PAUSE.

Who’m I fooling?

Exit Eugene.

BLACKOUT.

LIGHTS.

46 | P a g e

47

Scene 8. After midnight, same evening.

Maria’s room. MARIA is putting new sheets on the bed, wearing only a slender nightdress. Enter EUGENE. She straightens, looks coolly at him.

MARIA Hello.

EUGENE Hello.

He goes to her, takes her in his arms, is about to kiss her. She disengages.

MARIA I hope you have been inventive.

FAST FADE TO BLACK.

PAUSE. RUSTLINGS.

No Eugene, not like that. Here, I will show you.

FADE.

Scene 9. The backroom. The following afternoon.

Ragtime piano music can be heard.

LOUIS is standing DS, just outside the backroom, staring into the main bar. He moves to the backroom. The MEN, including EUGENE, are seated, as usual, drinking, as usual, at tables. Enter Louis.

LOUIS There’s a topless girl in the bar playing

violin with no strings!47 | P a g e

48

DRISCOLL She’s there to get the men excited so

they’ll go with one of the hookers.

EUGENE Working men are exploited at every turn.

YANK There speaks a workin’ man!

Yank laughs.

Eugene turns slowly to stare at Yank. Driscoll puts a hand on Yank’s shoulder.

DRISCOLL What about that entertainment we promised

our gangster friend?

The others perk up.

ASHLEIGH Yes, anything, anything!

YANK Sure, let’s do it.

DRISCOLL Eugene? You’re the poet.

EUGENE I’ve been ...

He ponders what he has been.

I was ... thinking about some scenes

from the life of my family.

DEAD SILENCE.

ASHLEIGH That certainly sounds like a giggle.

EUGENE Forget it.

DRISCOLL No no, come on, tell us now.

PAUSE.

48 | P a g e

49

EUGENE Oh, it’s too personal. All the people are

still alive.

YANK We need somethin’ racy.

LOUIS Eugene, you knocked round Broadway, you

must know some racy stories.

YANK Yeah, somethin’ dirty.

EUGENE Broadway’s controlled by money men. It’s

all vaudeville and melodrama. Not a single

intelligent show from one end to the

other.

ASHLEIGH Oh, well, I’m sure our sailor friends out

there in the main bar would appreciate

something intelligent. Why don’t we

ask them?

He calls out.

I say there, Lads, would you like an

entertainment that’s all about ... let’s

see ... the thoughts of Friedrich

Nietzsche?

EUGENE Yes!

YANK No.

PAUSE.

49 | P a g e

50

Who is he?

ASHLEIGH A song and dance man.

YANK Oh, well, sure, yeah ...

ASHLEIGH Yank, Eugene’s pulling your leg. He’s a

German philosopher. He’d bore the pants off

you.

EUGENE No he wouldn’t! He’s a wonderful thinker!

DRISCOLL Eugene, here’s the story. A sailor is dyin’

of ... somethin’. Call it ... malnutrition,

scurvy ...

They murmur their understanding of that story: they’ve all seen it happen.

And to keep his spirits up, his mates sing

the old sea chanties.

ALL (except Eugene) Yes! Good one!

DRISCOLL Eugene?

Eugene (Disappointedly) Sure. OK. I’ll write

something.

ASHLEIGH Some men laugh too much, some not enough,

and some throw themselves to the wolves.

Which reminds me, my glass is empty.

DRISCOLL Shut up Ashleigh.

50 | P a g e

51

He goes to the bar.

YANK Hey, we gonna have an entertainment. Won’t

dat be great, huh?

PAUSE.

But no one is listening.

BLACKOUT.

Scene 10. Later.

Eugene sits morosely as the others chatter quietly. Driscoll indicates to Eugene to go sit with him at a table apart from the others. Spot them.

EUGENE So why the big secrecy Driscoll?

DRISCOLL I just needed to see how you’re gettin’

along.

EUGENE Why does everyone suddenly want to help me?

DRISCOLL You obviously can’t help yourself.

He pulls a wad of bills from his pocket and offers them to Eugene, who recoils.

EUGENE (Aghast) I can’t take that!

DRISCOLL You can’t afford not to. You can’t stand

tall if your pockets are empty.

EUGENE I might get robbed.

He laughs, alone.

51 | P a g e

52

DRISCOLL Look, I come by this money easy loike. Take

it, it’ll only burn a hole in me pocket.

EUGENE There sure is a lot about you I don’t know.

DRISCOLL And you don’t need to. Now take it, or do

I have to shove it up your arse?

EUGENE You have a very persuasive turn of phrase.

He takes the money.

What can I do for you?

DRISCOLL Me? Nothin’. Tink of it as money from home.

Look, we’re all down on our luck, so ...

EUGENE Well ... while we’re in the business of

doing good turns, I’m worried about young

Louis.

DRISCOLL He’d barely be younger than you!

EUGENE He’s drifting. I’m worried about where he

might end up.

DRISCOLL And this from a man who has feet firmly

planted on the ground? Look, you worry

about yourself, now.

EUGENE Well, I guess thanks are called for.

DRISCOLL No. They are not. But, one thing.

EUGENE Yes?

52 | P a g e

53

DRISCOLL Do somethin’ with your loife.

Scene 11. Later again that afternoon. Park bench.

EUGENE is pacing up and down, talking to himself under his breath. He once again holds a pencil and a piece of paper, to which he clings tightly. As he talks – some of which can be heard – he scribbles on the piece of paper.

EUGENE You’ll be OK Scotty, you’ll be OK.

He scribbles.

Just hold on, Scotty ...

He says something inaudible.

Hold onto life, Scotty ...

Hey, that’s good.

He scribbles.

Remember the sea chanties we used to

sing?

He sings.

Shenandoah, I love your daughter

A – way, you rollin’ river!53 | P a g e

54

For her, I’d cross the waters.

Away, so far away,

Across the wide Missouri!

Hey Scotty, remember those dirty films

in Barracas? They didn’t leave much to

the imagination! Eh?

He scribbles. He says something inaudible. He laughs.

Breathe the life into you Scotty, and

breathe out the sickness!

He scribbles.

There’ll be good days ahead. Scotty?

Scotty? Speak to me!

He scribbles. He looks t what he has written.

Yes. Yes, that’ll work. That’ll work fine.

With another chanty or two.

He pulls out the money Driscoll has given him, fingers it, grins, exits.

FADE.

54 | P a g e

55

Scene 12. Next morning.

THE BACKROOM. LOUIS, YANK and ASHLEIGH are there,

as usual, in their usual positions, drinking.

EUGENE enters, at speed, elated, high, ebullient.

EUGENE I’m in the money my friends! Let’s live!

He goes to the bar.

I’m shouting the bar, Barman! Whatever

they want!

They are not slow to respond, basically rushing the bar. Eugene pulls out wads of bills and literally throws them over the bar.

There we are Barman, keep the change!

As Louis leaves the bar, cradling his drink, Eugene grabs him and dances with him: Louis spills some of his drink.

Barman, another drink for my friend Louis!

LOUIS It’s alright, really, I’ve still got most

of it.

But he sucks at his drink as if Eugene may be about to dance with him again.

The others return to their places, drinking, laughing, grinning. None of them thank Eugene.

Eugene takes Louis by the elbow, and takes him aside. He pulls out his wad and peels off most of it. Then he puts the bills he has peeled off back with the wad and thrusts the whole wad into Louis’ hands.55 | P a g e

56

EUGENE Here, I want you to have this.

LOUIS No, I can’t!

EUGENE You can! You must! Louis, you’ve been a

good friend to me. We’ve sailed together,

that means something!

LOUIS Where did you get the money?

EUGENE On the horses.

LOUIS That much?

EUGENE Do not look a gift horse in the mouth, my

friend. Old Chinese proverb.

LOUIS I sure could do with it. I got some money

from home, but it’s gone, I don’t know what

happened to it.

EUGENE Well, remember how hard this was to come

by, and spend it accordingly.

Louis grins at him.

LOUIS Spending money’s the only thing I’m good

at.

Enter DRISCOLL. He looks at Eugene. Eugene moves away from Louis, who is visibly putting the money into a wallet.

EUGENE I ... Louis was ...

Driscoll moves to the table.

56 | P a g e

57

DRISCOLL I see everyone’s got a dhrink.

Eugene searches in his pockets: nothing. He looks sheepish as if the floor should swallow him.

EUGENE I ... gave the barman some money.

Without speaking, Driscoll moves to the bar.

PAUSE.

EUGENE I say: let’s start the rehearsal!

YANK You got some words for us to say?

EUGENE That I have!

He waves the piece of paper.

DRISCOLL Then let’s do it!

They all start moving tables and chairs, confusingly, bumping into each other, no one quite sure what to do.

DRISCOLL Let’s have some chaos here. My friends, we

move dese tables into a semi circle. That’s

half a circle. Doesn’t matter which half,

OK?

They start moving tables and chairs into a semi circle, as he directs. Eugene picks up his drink.

EUGENE To life!

CROSSFADE. Eugene crosses to Past, recostuming.

57 | P a g e

58

Scene 13. Flashback.

EUGENE at 20 with his father JAMES. Both are tense, avoiding eye contact, resentful.

EUGENE Dad, I’m exhausted!

JAMES You’ll get stronger Son. It grows on you,

the touring. And your acting is getting

better.

EUGENE My acting is pitiful.

James grasps his son by the shoulders.

JAMES Have courage, son, have patience.

Eugene moves away.

EUGENE Do you tour to get away from Mother?

PAUSE.

JAMES I did not hear you say that.

EUGENE Shouldn’t we be at home, helping her?

PAUSE.

JAMES And what if she’s beyond help?

EUGENE We can’t think like that!

PAUSE.

JAMES If I thought there was a way to help

her ...

58 | P a g e

59

EUGENE So you run away.

JAMES And at the mature age of twenty, you’re

in a position to sit in judgement on me?

EUGENE I don’t know, Father. I’m just trying to

... find the right thing to do.

JAMES You may think it acceptable to insult

your father. But I don’t.

Exit James.

EUGENE Father! Talk to me! Don’t just run! We

have to find a way!

He stares helplessly after his father.

CEOSSFADE. Eugene to backroom bar.

LIGHTS.

Scene 14. Later.

THE BACKROOM. EUGENE, YANK, DRISCOLL, ASHLEIGH, LOUIS.

EUGENE is marshalling the troops. DRISCOLL, YANK, ASHLEIGH and LOUIS manoeuvre confusedly.

EUGENE No, Louis, not there, I want you here.

He points. Louis, rolling his eyes, goes to where

59 | P a g e

60

Eugene points.

And Dris, if you don’t mind, over here.

Because you block out Ashleigh.

ASHLEIGH Ashleigh doesn’t mind being blocked out!

EUGENE Ashleigh can do what he’s told, for once.

ASLEIGH I beg your pardon!

DRISCOLL Do you want us to be thrown out of the

backroom?

ASHLEIGH Aye aye, sir!

EUGENE This is our sketch, it has to work!

EUGENE OK ... everyone’s in place. Now, you all

have the words I wrote out for you?

ASHLEIGH Which we can’t read!

He sees Driscoll turn toward him.

Aye aye, Sir!

EUGENE Are we ready?

They all murmur yes. Yank is lying down on a table, looking sick. The other men are gathered round him.

OK, we start the rehearsal! So I’ll say:

Ladies and gentlemen ... the Backroom

Players now take great pleasure in

presenting to you ... a sketch

60 | P a g e

61

of life at sea! It’s called “The Dying

Sailor!” Start the sketch!

The men look at him, do nothing.

I said: start the sketch!

YANK Who starts?

EUGENE Driscoll!

They all look toward Driscoll, who is stage struck, open mouthed, staring out at the audience, who double as the audience at the Sailors Opera in 1910.

Dris!

Driscoll does not respond. Eugene goes to him, taps him on the shoulder.

Driscoll turns his head slowly to stare at Eugene. Suddenly.

DRISCOLL Oh! Right!

He reads slowly and painfully from his sheet of paper: obviously a man who left school very young.

Scotty! Scotty! Hold on there, Scotty!

EUGENE Just “hold on, Scotty!”

DRISCOLL I said that.

EUGENE No you said ... anyway go on.

DRISCOLL Hold onto ... what’s the next word?

Eugene goes to him, exasperatedly.

EUGENE “Life. Hold onto life”.

61 | P a g e

62

DRISCOLL Oh, roight. “Hold onto life, now”.

EUGENE Scotty.

DRISCOLL Scotty.

PAUSE. They all look at each other, petrified.

DRISCOLL Remember those sea chanties we used

to sing?

PAUSE.

EUGENE Yank, you say yeah.

YANK Yeah.

EUGENE Dris, now you sing.

DRISCOLL I can’t sing.

EUGENE You told me you could!

DRISCOLL I thought you said dhrink!

EUGENE Ash?

ASHLEIGH Count me out.

EUGENE Alright, I’ll do it.

He sings.

Shenandoah, I love your daughter.

A-way, you rollin’ river!

For her, I’d cross your waters.

Away, so far away,

Across the wide Missouri!

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63

DRISCOLL Is this me now?

EUGENE Yep!

DRISCOLL Hey Scotty, remember those dirty films

we used to see in Barracas?

Louis timidly approaches Eugene, tugs his sleeve.

LOUIS Eugene?

EUGENE Not now Louis. Ash, it’s your line.

LOUIS Eugene, do I get something to say?

EUGENE Louis, you said you didn’t want words!

LOUIS But I like your words.

EUGENE Oh for God’s sake. Alright, you can say

the next line. Sorry Ash.

He hands Louis his sheet, and points.

Here.

Louis reads it carefully, speaks in a cultivated New England accent.

LOUIS They didn’t leave much to the imagination,

did they?

HE STOPS.

Louis beams with pride, looks out at the audience for applause, gets none. By now the room is quiet, and the piano stops.

EUGENE And ...?

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64

DRISCOLL Oh. Remember being out on the open deck,

the wind and the salt air, and the waves

rolling forever into the distance ..

Meanwhile, I’m down in da stokehold feedin’

the damn furnace!

EUGENE Ash?

ASHLEIGH Breathe the life into you Scotty, and

breathe out the sickness!

EUGENE Well done! And ...?

ASHLEIGH Oh. There’ll be good days ahead. Is that

the best line you could come up with

Eugene? “There’ll be good days

ahead?” Why not something about breathing

the freedom of life at sea, on the immense

expanse of the wide, blue ocean?

EUGENE Thank you Ashleigh, I’ll certainly bear

that in mind for when it hits Broadway.

Now, Yank, you try to raise yourself

into a sitting position.

Yank does.

You gasp.

Yank does.

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65

You groan.

Yank lets out a hideous bellow.

A groan will suffice. And then you flop

back, dead.

YANK Don’t I get more to say? Just “yeah,”

that’s it?

EUGENE OK, you can say “now I leave this stinking

ship, and my spirit can fly free over the

clean, pure, vast ocean that I love”

YANK Hey, hey, one at a time. Talk me t’rough

it.

EUGENE “Now I leave this stinking ship”.

YANK (Mechanically) Now I leave this stinking

ship.

EUGENE Ahhh ... what was it ? ... Oh yeah; “and

my spirit can fly free”.

YANK And my spirit can fly free.

EUGENE “Over the clean, pure, vast ocean that I

love”.

YANK Over the ... (he can’t keep a straight

face) the clean (he starts to laugh, tries

to suppress it) ... the ocean ... love.

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66

He laughs uncontrollably. Then, remembering, he flops back, dead.

EUGENE And .. Dris ...

DRISCOLL Oh. Ahhh ... Scotty, speak to me! Scotty?

Scotty?

EUGENE He’s gone.

DRISCOLL He’s gone.

EUGENE And ... curtain.

They all look at him.

DRISCOLL What curtain?

EUGENE That’s the end, the sailor’s dead.

Yank sits up.

YANK I wanna drink!

Eugene pushes him back down, and turns to the audience.

EUGENE The sailor is now dead. The end!

SILENCE. They all look at each other.

Enter GANGSTER, stony faced. After a moment, he breaks into a smile.

GANGSTER That was very good. You may continue

to drink here, for now. Who has written

this?

No one tells him.

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67

He becomes menacing in tone.

Who has written this?

PAUSE.

Do you want to drink in this bar?

EUGENE OK, I wrote it. I know it’s crap.

GANGSTER Then you are not as much a fool as I

thought. You must do another one.

Driscoll to Gangster.

DRISCOLL I can pay, so that we can keep on drinkin’

here.

GANGSTER It will not be necessary. If your friend

can write more sketches, you may keep

drinking here. And I want you to present

this sketch to the scum out there, my

“patrons”.

DRISCOLL Eugene, here, is a foine writer.

Exit Gangster.

Eugene rushes up to Driscoll.

EUGENE I can fight our own battles!

DRISCOLL No. You can only start battles, which you

are unable to finish. But now is the time

for you to celebrate. It is possible to be

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68

a winner, Eugene.

The men, and Maria, turn to each other, congratulating each other, and in particular they gather round Eugene, congratulating him. Maria hugs him.

MARIA It was wonderful!

DRISCOLL You are a man of many talents, are you not?

Those sailors will really understood what

it is about!

EUGENE I wouldn’t say that sketch was very

talented.

DRISCOLL Well, now, you can be wrong, you know,

strange though that might sound.

Eugene looks at him, smiles.

YANK Hey, fellas, do you know what I’m gonna do

to make some dough? I’m gonna do a robbery!

Who’s in with me? How about it Eugene?

EUGENE Is it safe to rob a bank?

YANK Oh sure! Nothing could be safer. The guard

might shoot you, the customers might grab

you, the police might come, how safe you

wanna be?

EUGENE How much would you get?

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69

YANK You gotta lotta questions. Who cares? We

steal, we eat. What’ve you eaten today?

EUGENE It would have to be worthwhile.

YANK Eugene, you’re on your uppers. You got no

money, no prospects, no nothin’. How

worthwhile is that? Are you in?

EUGENE I don’t know. I’m tempted.

Driscoll and Louis join them.

YANK Eugene and I are gonna rob a bank! Am I

right?

EUGENE I haven’t said that yet. I want to write

another sketch.

DRISCOLL You loiked doin’ that one?

EUGENE Yeah, actually I did.

YANK How much money’s that gonna make ya?

EUGENE indicates “none” with a gesture.

YANK And what’re you havin’ for dinner tonight?

Lamb veal, with roast potatoes, green

beans, mustard sauce, a nice bottle o’

wine, and dessert to follow?

They all groan at the thought of real food.

EUGENE Let me think about it.

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70

YANK Aw, nuts. Ya think about somethin’, you can

always think of a reason not to do it!

He turns away.

DRISCOLL That’s enough Yank. This is Eugene’s night.

He’s bought us time to enjoy our little

bar! All hail Eugene!

The others agree, grinning.

Eugene picks up his glass, puts it to his lips and starts to drink. MARIA stares at Eugene as he drains his drink. The others fall silent, afraid for Eugene.

MARIA Eugene!

He drops his glass on the table and whirls toward her.

What do you think you are doing?

EUGENE I’m ... celebrating. Rehearsing.

MARIA Rehearsing? For a life in the gutter? Is

this the height of your ambition? Getting

drunk with these ... bums?

The men all gasp, look at each other.

EUGENE Maria ... these are my ...

MARIA What? Friends? And what are they doing for

you? That friends might do?

EUGENE They’re celebrating with me.

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71

MARIA Well I am glad of that, but no if you start

to drink. I know you can no stop.

YANK He bought us all drinks.

MARIA And where, pray, did you get the money

for that?

SILENCE.

You are coming home with me right now!

EUGENE But ...

MARIA No buts. Buts are for failures. And I will

not let you mix with failures. Are you

coming?

PAUSE.

EUGENE Fellas ...

Exit Eugene And Maria, arguing.

Scene 15. Continuous from scene 14.

EUGENE Do not ever, ever, ever do that to me

again!

MARIA How can you waste your life like this?

After our talk, I think you weel be

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72

planning for a future!

EUGENE You said I could drink!

MARIA In moderation! With me. Not with those

alcoholic men. But I am glad you write a

play.

They arrive at her room. He closes the door.

They face each other, nose to nose, beside her bed.

MARIA Well, where did you get money for drinking?

Was it the money I give you?

EUGENE None of your business!

MARIA I have a right to know!

EUGENE None ... of ... your ... business!

MARIA Then do not come to my room!

EUGENE So is that the deal? You give me solace,

and then you own me?

MARIA Is that all this is to you? Solace?

EUGENE Don’t answer a question with a question!

MARIA Tell me where you got money to drink,

instead of writing like you promise.

EUGENE I promised nothing, Maria. And I did write.

They turn away from each other. Their tone is quieter, but still full of suppressed anger.

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73

MARIA I want to know where you got the money.

EUGENE I’ve written the sketch! We agreed to do

it, for the Gangster.

MARIA Where?

EUGENE On the park bench, what does it matter?

MARIA The money!

PAUSE.

EUGENE Not that it’s any of your business, but

Driscoll loaned me ...

MARIA Driscoll! He give you money?

EUGENE Not gave, loaned.

MARIA Oh, until you resume your million dollar

career! And where is the money I give you?

EUGENE I owed drinks to all those men.

MARIA And what did you have to do to get this ...

loan?

EUGENE How dare you!

MARIA There is nothing you can tell me about a

sailor’s life.

EUGENE Driscoll helps people, men like me, going

through hard times.

MARIA To take money from a poor man like yourself

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74

... you should be ashame!

EUGENE I’m not ashamed to live!

MARIA You are a whore!

EUGENE So is that why you took me in? Birds of a

feather?

She slaps his face.

PAUSE.

Alright. I’m sorry. But you’re going about

this the wrong way.

MARIA You gave away the money I gave you also.

PAUSE.

EUGENE No.

PAUSE.

A little.

PAUSE.

Some.

PAUSE.

Yes. Are you satisfied?

PAUSE.

MARIA You are the most stubborn man I ever meet.

EUGENE I’ll take that as a compliment.

She gives him some money.

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75

MARIA For you, alone.

EUGENE You know, one day you’ll all be wanting to

know me.

MARIA Oh yes, like that is going to happen!

She laughs.

PAUSE.

Well Eugene, I can lead a horse to water

... but , he have to want to drink.

EUGENE Ah, but you see, I need a reason to do it!

MARIA Well ...make one up.

He stares at her.

EUGENE You just don’t understand, do you?

MARIA You are in trouble, Eugene! What is wrong?

EUGENE What is wrong? What is wrong? You ask me

that? Look around. Look at ... everything

... the world, your bar, anywhere ... what

do you see?

MARIA I see ... men and women. Life.

EUGENE Let me tell you what you see. You see

suffering. Everywhere, everyone, all day,

all night! People cry out for help, they go

to their churches, they pray for good

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76

fortune, they work, they struggle. I see it

in my family. We had money, my father was

famous, and yet ...

PAUSE.

I can’t stand it, you know. I just can’t

stand it! I said to myself: I’ll travel,

I’ll leave it all behind me.

PAUSE.

It’s alright, forget it. I’ve had too much

to drink. I think I’ll sleep at Driscoll’s

tonight.

EXIT Eugene.

She kicks the bed, fights back tears.

FADE.

Scene 16.

THE BACKROOM. THE MEN are still congratulating each other and drinking, Maria with them.

EUGENE My sketch was lousy, why won’t somebody

say it?

The men stop talking and turn toward Eugene.

DRISCOLL What’s wrong?

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77

EUGENE I ... I can’t write, can I?

DRISCOLL You made us all go quiet, and that’s

somethin’ I never seen before.

EUGENE Really?

DRISCOLL You spoke to men who know the sea. Why

wouldn’t we pay attention?

Eugene does not answer. Maria comes to Eugene.

MARIA Come on. For once, you do no make me

angry.

EUGENE But you wish I did, right?

He turns and exits with her.

Scene 17. Later that day.

MARIA’S. Enter MARIA followed by EUGENE.

He sits on the bed.

EUGENE I’m exhausted.

MARIA Eugene, I have something to say to you.

EUGENE Oh?

She produces a letter and flashes it at him.

MARIA Can you explain this?

77 | P a g e

78

PAUSE. He glances at the letter.

EUGENE Can you explain why it’s in your hand?

MARIA That does not matter.

EUGENE How did you get that?

MARIA It was addressed to you, at Driscoll’s,

alright? And he give it to me, in all

innocence. Because you are now here more

than you are there.

He grabs the letter, reads a bit of it, pushes it away.

EUGENE I don’t want to talk about this.

MARIA How could you do this to that poor woman!

Marry her, and then you abandon her!

EUGENE Now you listen to me: what happened or

didn’t happen between me and Kathleen is

none ... of ... your ... business!

MARIA If you come to my bed, it is my business.

EUGENE That is a confidential letter from a woman

to her husband.

MARIA Who abandons her when she is pregnant and

run away to Argentina!

EUGENE It wasn’t ... I didn’t ... look, I can’t

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79

discuss this with you!

MARIA What sort of man walks out on his pregnant

wife?

EUGENE It took me by surprise, I wasn’t ready!

PAUSE

I didn’t want to be a father.

MARIA You were still a child yourself.

EUGENE Tell me this: do you believe in love? Or is

it just another bourgeois slavery?

MARIA Of course I believe! But is rare. What

people call love is maybe just horse

trading. But if you ever love, or someone

love you – in proper way, not like puppy –

then you are free as you ‘ave never been.

You do not need alcohol, or sex, or drug.

He stares at her.

PAUSE.

EUGENE I think I had better leave.

PAUSE.

MARIA Then go.

He jumps up, moves about the room angrily.

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80

EUGENE You offer me your bed, but it’s not free,

is it? There’s a price.

MARIA Like?

EUGENE You take over my life!

MARIA Your life? You call this a life?

EUGENE I confide in you and you throw it back in

my face?.

MARIA It is a surprise to you that there is

suffering in the world? And that is why

you run away from your family, and your

wife and child?

EUGENE I shouldn’t have told you anything.

MARIA Eugene, everywhere you go, it is the same

world. All we can do, is our leetle bit to

make it a leetle bit better, a leetle bit

of the time.

EUGENE Again, you moralize at me! How dare you!

MARIA If you are here, I weel speak!

EUGENE Oh God, what I’d do not to be here.

MARIA Thank you!

EUGENE I didn’t mean ...

PAUSE.

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81

MARIA You say you are writer, but is no good to

write about people out there, people you do

not know, and yet you hurt someone who is

close to you?

EUGENE You weren’t there. There was something, in

my marriage, but it died. I don’t have to

live with a corpse.

MARIA Your child is no a corpse!

PAUSE.

EUGENE Do you want to know why I left my pregnant

wife? It was because she had become an

echo of my father. Telling me to accept

responsibility –on her terms – to work as

an actor with my father, to settle down

and become a family man. I couldn’t! I

have these hungers, I have these ...

dreams, these ... I don’t know, I call

them my necessities, things I have to

do, things I have to learn, a man I have

to become. Don’t ask me to say what things,

what dreams, what man: I don’t know! That’s

what I’m trying to find out! Alright, I

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82

walked out on her, it broke her heart, I’m

not proud of that, but I had to! I would’ve

hurt her more if I’d stayed but she can’t

see that! And neither can you!

PAUSE.

Doing what my father does would be like

death to me. I was suffocating, Maria!

PAUSE.

I’m not here to drink with sailors, I’m

not here to sleep on park benches, I’m

here to ...

He shrugs.

MARIA Find the man you want to be.

EUGENE The man I have to be, the man I was meant

to be.

MARIA So, why do you no write about this

suffering that upset you?

EUGENE It’s always the poor. The workers and the

sailors and the prostitutes and the lost,

hopeless desperadoes. You can laugh

at me, but they prey on my mind! But what

can I do for them?

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83

MARIA It is no their suffering that hurt you,

it is your suffering.

PAUSE

MARIA I weel never laugh at you. But one day,

somehow, you must write all this down, and

perhaps what you write weel do that leetle

bit to help some ... desperado. But do not

be like you tell me your father is. He love

his audience but he can no love his own

children.

EUGENE I am not a child!

MARIA Unless you help yourself, Eugene, you

will never help anyone else.

He picks up an ornament and throws it to the floor. She grapples with him, slaps his face. They struggle. They fall apart. They stand, panting, glaring at each other.

No. Eugene, just ... no!

FADE OUT.

FADE IN.

Scene 18.

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84

They are sitting, separately, morose. Eugene takes from his jacket pocket a crumpled piece of paper.

EUGENE I wrote you a poem.

MARIA Yes.

EUGENE (reads) “You are a flower of the street,

You are a child of the slums.

It was Fate that made us meet,

You are the reason I have come

To this wild city:

Where I do not speak the language:

You and I speak our own language

Above all jealousy and pity ...”

MARIA Enough.

EUGENE There’s more.

MARIA Eugene ...

She sits up and looks at him.

I am no a child of the slums. My father

was diplomat in your embassy here. My

mother worked in a bank. She die and I was

alone. This city is not kind to those who

are alone. I work where I work, because of

my daughter!

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85

EUGENE Alright, I’m sorry.

MARIA You lie to yourself, Eugene.

EUGENE One thing I do not do, is lie to myself!

She jumps up, moves about agitatedly.

MARIA Your whole life is a lie! You here in

Buenos Aires, mixing with sailors and

gangsters? You are from a wealthy family.

EUGENE That’s why I’m here, to escape that damned

family! I read Nietszche to free my mind of

their hypocrisy!

MARIA Nietszche? Ha! He writes for people

who run away from their responsibilities!

EUGENE He answers all my moods. Whatever I feel,

and it’s usually a storm of some kind, I

can find it in Nietszche. Sometimes when I

read him I feel as if I’m with him in his

madness. And what would you know about

Nietszche?

MARIA Oh, because I am a bar manager I cannot

read? I cannot think? My brain is between

my legs?

She throws open the wardrobe. It is piled high with

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86

books.

In my line of work, I need to escape

sometimes! Here I have your world, your

books. Shakespeare, Ibsen, Strindberg, the

Greeks ... and, yes, Nietszche.

She slams the door shut. He is stunned.

EUGENE I’m sorry.

MARIA If I am not mistaken, Nietszche say never

to apologize.

PAUSE.

Eugene, if we are going to share a bed, we

must be truthful with each other. We are at

the bottom in this world, all we have is

our honesty!

EUGENE Total honesty?

MARIA Of course, what else?

PAUSE.

EUGENE I just can’t see the world the way other

people see it.

MARIA So, tell me, in honesty, what do you want?

What do you actually want?

EUGENE Want? How should I know?

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87

MARIA Tell me! We said honesty, yes?

PAUSE.

EUGENE I want to ... I want to be able to ... to

see ...

MARIA See what?

EUGENE I don’t know! I feel blind! There’s

something ...

MARIA Tell me this: what kind of writing do

you most admire?

PAUSE.

EUGENE Admire? That’s hard. I love the writing

of Ibsen.

MARIA Ah yes, the new writing in the theater

in Europe. I have one of his plays.

Would you like to write like him?

PAUSE.

EUGENE Not like him, but ...

MARIA In that way.

EUGENE In that way. Yeah. Yeah, I guess I

would. But ...

MARIA No no! No buts. Only what you hope, not

what you fear. Why do you no write like

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88

that?

PAUSE.

EUGENE I ... look, it’s complex.

MARIA Is no complex.

EUGENE It’s complex.

MARIA It is no complex!

PAUSE.

EUGENE Well, then, I can’t answer you.

MARIA You must no answer me. You must answer

yourself. You must answer the writer

inside Eugene.

PAUSE. She goes to him, puts her arms around him.

EUGENE Maybe ... among men and women who have

nothing ... who have lost everything ...

who are despised ... maybe among them, I

thought ... I don’t know!

SILENCE. They hold each other.

MARIA It is alright.

She lets him go, turns away.

EUGENE Down here, I can’t fall any further. My

father can’t disapprove of my companions.

And my mother ...

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89

MARIA Tell me about your mother.

He turns away.

EUGENE No. Never ask me that.

PAUSE.

You want honesty? I can ... make love, but

I can’t feel that ... whatever it is that

men feel, when they love.

MARIA Eugene, the truth. Is simple, like always.

I wish I have the words ... you are so

innocent.

EUGENE That’s precisely what I hate about myself!

MARIA So you are here to lose your innocence?

SILENCE.

Eugene, I want you to do something for me.

EUGENE What?

She picks up a bucket that has been sitting in a corner.

MARIA This is the bucket where I wash myself, and

I put there the filth and rubbish of my

room. I want you to take it downstairs, and

pour it into the gutter.

PAUSE.

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90

EUGENE Don’t ask me to do that.

MARIA I am telling you to do it.

EUGENE I can’t.

MARIA Eugene, slop it out!

EUGENE I should slop it all over you!

She pulls a knife, from somewhere, and shows it to him. A look of shock and horror comes over him.

You’d stick me?

MARIA Do not threaten me!

PAUSE.

EUGENE If it means that much to you ...

MARIA No, Eugene, I want it to mean that much to

you!

He turns and exits, carrying the bucket. She slowly puts the knife back in its hiding place. She kicks the bed.

Shit!

BLACKOUT.

LIGHTS.

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91

Scene 19. A short time later.

MARIA is still standing in the center of the room. A very early version of a gramophone is playing scratchy Latin dance music, maybe tango. She has put a big flower behind her ear, and high heels and a pretty dress. She is smoking a joint.

When EUGENE enters, she begins dancing, sensually, holding out her arms to him. He stops, looks at her, smiles, puts the bucket down, and goes to her.

EUGENE I feel as though I’m going to explode!

MARIA Come here.

They dance. It may be that they dance a tango, which would be appropriate, but that is a dance which looks awful unless done very well, and Eugene was no dancer by all accounts, so it might be that they just do some sensual wiggling, or perhaps a samba or other Latin dance. He dances with more energy and aggression than seems appropriate, as though great anger is building within him.

They kiss, he roughly. She puts the joint into his lips. He sucks, coughs, grins, sucks more, now that he knows what it is. He blows the air out slowly, and she inhales it. They start to dance more closely, swaying their bodies in harmony.

They start to remove each others’ clothes, she giggling, he in deadly earnest.

The music abruptly stops. They fall onto the bed and begin to make love.

EUGENE Oh God, let it end like this! I’m scared 91 | P a g e

92

I’m going to explode!

BLACKOUT.

Scene 20.

Flashback. EUGENE with JAMES.

JAMES is pacing up and down furiously, head down. EUGENE is pleading with him.

EUGENE I need time to think, Dad, you just

don’t leave me any ...

James stops, turns on Eugene.

JAMES What do you need to think about? You

have a comfortable life, you travel,

you ... express yourself. What ...

on earth do you need to think about?

EUGENE Precisely that. What I am doing with my

life!

JAMES What you are doing with your life is

making a future for yourself! Making

a man of yourself into the bargain.

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93

Oh, and I might add, if it’s not too

impertinent, making your father happy!

EUGENE I need to think about what my life’s

all about. What I really want to do.

Who I want to be. I need to get away

from America, Dad.

JAMES Now who’s running away?

EUGENE Just so I can sort things out. I can’t

think with ...

PAUSE.

JAMES With what? With me around?

EUGENE I didn’t say that. I just ... please try

and understand.

JAMES And Katherine? What about Katherine? You’ve

just married her, for God’s sake. Why do

that if you’re going to run away?

PAUSE.

EUGENE That, dear Father, is the reason I need

to get away and think.

PAUSE. James stops and takes a deep breath. He faces Eugene.

JAMES You’ve made up your mind. Nothing I say

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94

will have the slightest effect. I’ll

put some money into an account for you,

and you can run anywhere you choose.

JAMES starts to exit.

EUGENE I want you to understand!

James pauses.

JAMES Do you? Really?

Exit James.

BLACKOUT.

Scene 21. Late afternoon the next day.

BACKROOM. DRISCOLL, LOUIS, ASHLEIGH, YANK, all sunk in depression, drinking, solemn.

Enter MARIA, very serious-faced. She is not colourful, wearing dark red and brown. She confronts them. They stare up at her.

MARIA Eugene is gonna go on a bender.

SILENCE. They stare at her.

I said: Eugene O’Neill is about to go on a

bender. That is your word, no? Bender?

Drink himself sick, go wild?

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95

ASHLEIGH I seem to have heard the word.

YANK Half his luck, I can’t even afford a drink.

DRISCOLL Sit down, Maria. Can I get you something?

She stands beside him.

MARIA I am afraid for him. He only just hold on

to his sanity.

DRISCOLL You’re his sanity roight now, he holds on

to you.

MARIA I am a weak reed, Driscoll.

ASHLEIGH He’s not yet at the bottom of his Hell, and

until he is, there’s no chance for him to

start coming up.

DRISCOLL Tank you for that wisdom, Ashleigh, now

shut up.

LOUIS How do you know he’s going on a bender?

MARIA He is a volcano. I can feel some wild ...

thing in his mind! He is angry. He

frighten me a leetle. I think he weel kill

himself.

DRISCOLL I know all about Catholic guilt, Maria.

I’ve had me soul scarred by experts.

If the world doesn’t hurt him enough, he

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does it to himself. Look, leave it with me.

I’ll look after him.

PAUSE

MARIA Alright.

Exit Maria.

After she has left, EUGENE emerges from hiding under a table.

EUGENE Has she gone?

ASH Physically, yes, but she’s still in your

mind.

DRISCOLL What turmoil we may foind, when seeking

peace.

ASH Are you going on a bender, Eugene? Can I

come too?

EUGENE I’m holding on, Ashleigh, I’m holding on.

Now, I want to talk about this sketch of

mine.

YANK I’ve decided which place I’m gonna bust.

It’s the American Bank in Recoleta. They

only got one guard, and he’s half

asleep. I’m gonna walk in, all cool like,

as if I own the joint, and I’m gonna cosh

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him over the head ...

He shows them a crude cosh he has made.

Then I take his gun and I say to the teller

“stick “em up, this is a holdup, see?”

EUGENE You might think the guys in this place are

all hopeless cases, but I can see potential

in them. They can be heroes, they can say:

“I matter!”

YANK Then I grabs the dough, see? And I high-

tail it outa there. Am I right?

DRISCOLL How do you make your getaway?

YANK My ... oh yeah, well, I can ... there’ll be

a streetcar, maybe. Don’t you worry, I got

it all figgered out! Eugene, you in?

EUGENE Alright, yes! I’m in. Now listen to what

I’m saying!

YANK Hey, that’s great! Ya hear that? Eugene and

I, we’re gonna be rollin’ in the dough!

He laughs, jumps on a table, plays air guitar, sings.

I’m gonna be in the mo-ney! I’m gonna be in

the mo-ney!

EUGENE I want us to peform this sketch that we

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did. I want it to be real down-to-earth

stuff, honest, not ... theatrical. Just

like real life, you know?

YANK Eugene, are ya really wid me?

EUGENE This is not the time, Yank, I’m talking

about the new sketch. Are you with me?

Yank thinks about this.

DRISCOLL I don’t know, Eugene, whether we’re going

to be able to do this for you, we’re just

simple sailors.

YANK I could catch a cab, what’m I thinkin’?

With all the money I get from the robbery,

I can afford a taxi!

ASH Yes, and you can tip him, too, with a

hundred dollar bill. That should go

unnoticed.

YANK Eugene, I need to know. Are we partners?

Eugene stops and slowly turns to Yank.

EUGENE Look ... I guess ... maybe ... you should

go ahead without me Yank, if you really

think you’re going to do it.

He turns back to the others. Yank stares at Eugene.

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99

FADE TO BLACK as they all drink.

LIGHTS.

Time has passed. Eugene is drinking, hunched over. His body language is tense, morose.

EUGENE None of you want to listen to me!

DRISCOLL Eugene, take us as you foind us.

Eugene grunts, does not make eye contact, sits, swigs, stares at nothing, just like the others.

I just don’t want you to be disappointed.

Eugene grunts, does not respond.

Is everything alright with Maria?

Eugene looks coldly at Driscoll, looks away, swigs. The bottle is empty. He throws it away.

Easy, easy.

ASHLEIGH Eugene, dear fellow, would you like to join

me in sipping absinthe drips?

Eugene responds with alacrity, going to Ashleigh. They begin sipping absinthe drips. Driscoll shakes his head.

Eugene’s speech is slurred.

EUGENE I belong to no man, no woman, no country,

I’m free!

DRISCOLL A terrible state to be in, to be sure. We

all hunger to belong somewhere. Freedom is

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100

merely a delayin’ tactic. Can I get

you a coffee, now?

EUGENE Leave me alone.

FADE TO BLACK.

FADE IN LIGHTS.

Time has passed. Eugene is now slumped, only half present, locked inside himself, angry, like a volcano. Suddenly he erupts, leaping up.

EUGENE I can’t take any more! I can’t stand it

any more!

He overturns the table, Ashleigh saving the absinthe bottle just in time. Driscoll goes to steady Eugene, who pushes him away heavily. They tussle. Driscollsubdues Eugene, for the moment.

Alright!

Driscoll lets him go. Eugene grabs his glass, smashes it against a table, and tries to gouge his wrists with the broken glass.

Louis leaps in, is knocked over by a blow from Eugene. Ashleigh and Yank cringe away. Driscoll again subdues Eugene in time to stop him harming himself.

DRISCOLL Enough! That’s enough! D’you hear me?

Eugene struggles against the big man’s grip. He drops the broken glass. Louis stands, shakily.

Do ... you ... hear me?

But Eugene does not appear to have heard. Driscoll

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breaks into a sea chanty. As he sings, one by one the others join in, until at last Eugene joins in too, swaying, as Driscoll gently lets him go.

At Catherine’s Dock I bade adieu

To Pol and Bet, and lovely Sue,

The anchor’s weighed, the sails unfurled,

We’re bound to plow the watery world:

Don’t you see we’re Outward Bound!

ALL Don’t you see we’re Outward Bound!

They laugh, relieved at the easing of tension.

DRISCOLL There’ll be no more of this, alroight?

Eugene nods.

Now pick up that glass!

Eugene picks up the broken glass. He is sobbing.

Pick up the table.

Eugene picks up the table.

Now sit down and behave loike a man!

Eugene turns instead to Louis. He embraces him, crying.

EUGENE Oh Louis, I’m so sorry! Forgive me!

Louis nods, almost submerged in Eugene’s embrace.

Enter GANGSTER.

GANGSTER What’s going on here?

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102

Eugene whirls, confronts him.

EUGENE What’s going on? I’ll TELL you what’s going

on! You, Sir, are exploiting the working

men who run the ships that keep this city

alive! You are a criminal, no more and no

less, lower than the rats that infest this

bar!

DRISCOLL Eugene!

Eugene goes chest to chest with the Gangster, whose face is like a black cloud.

EUGENE You exploit working men and deny them the

fruits of their labor!

The Gangster steps back and opens his jacket, revealing a pistol stuck into his belt.

Driscoll sings.

DRISCOLL At Catherine’s Dock I bade adieu

To Pol, Bet, and lovely Sue ...

But no one joins in, as they’re busy taking cover.

GANGSTER You are on thin ice, Senor!

EUGENE Oh, yeah? Well let me tell you ...

Eugene is starting to wag a finger. Driscoll pulls him back, holding his hand over Eugene’s mouth.

DRISCOLL He doesn’t know what he’s saying! He’s

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dhrunk! Ignore him!

Eugene pushes Driscoll’s hand away from his mouth.

EUGENE I know what I’m saying! This place is a

disgrace! The drinks are watered, the food

is disgusting, you turn a blind eye to men

being murdered in your bar, you sell drugs

to sailors, your prostitutes are slaves

from all over the world ...

DRISCOLL Sir, he doesn’t ...!

GANGSTER Let him go.

DRISCOLL Sir, he doesn’t ...

GANGSTER Let him go!

There is a quiet authority about the Gangster’s voice that makes Driscoll comply. The Gangster steps up to Eugene.

GANGSTER You are a brave man, Senor. If you want to

work for me, come to my office.

Exit Gangster.

Eugene holds his hands over his face, breaking down. Driscoll puts his arm around him. LIGHTS slowly FADE.

ASHLEIGH Fancy a drop of absinthe, old chap?

BLACKOUT.

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104

INTERVAL.

Scene 22. Three days later.

MARIA’S. EUGENE is asleep on the bed. He stirs, starts to wake.

MARIA enters, carrying a bowl of soup.

MARIA Well! Sleepy head is awake.

EUGENE Ohhh, God!

He holds his head.

Water. Give me water!

MARIA I’ve brought you some soup.

EUGENE Give it to me!

He grabs it, sucks it in, spilling some. A moment later, he vomits it all up.

Oh God, give me a drink!

She pours water from the jug on the sideboard and gives him the glass.

He sucks it in, one gulp.

More!

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105

MARIA That’s enough for the moment.

EUGENE What happened?

MARIA What happened? After we talk, you have been

asleep for three days. You are very

disturb, you cry, you fight me, you weel

not eat. Then you sleep more.

PAUSE.

EUGENE Three days?

MARIA Three days.

PAUSE.

EUGENE I was drinking.

MARIA Oh? Who would have thought?

Eugene slowly lifts himself. He looks awful.

EUGENE I’m sorry.

MARIA I do not care about your sorry. I care that

you stop to destroy yourself.

EUGENE You sound like my schoolteacher.

MARIA You were like an animal.

EUGENE We are all animals! What are you, a nun?

Do you want to audition to play my mother?

MARIA No more excuses, Eugene!

He goes face to face with her.

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106

EUGENE You know something? I hate you for the way

you talk to me! You live in the gutter and

you put on airs and graces?

MARIA If you want to be my friend ...

EUGENE I want to be free of all women, they close

me in, they hold me too tightly ...

MARIA ... Or no tightly enough!

EUGENE You will suffocate me!

MARIA I will break you free!

PAUSE.

EUGENE You will what?

MARIA You weel look inside yourself, and that

will free you!

EUGENE You presume too much.

MARIA No one has ever talk honest with you, have

they? No one ever care enough for you, to

say “Eugene, only you can save yourself”.

EUGENE I’m not afraid to drown. A sailor can’t be

afraid of drowning.

MARIA But you choose to sail!

PAUSE.

Your mother, maybe she run from the animal

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107

inside her.

EUGENE Don’t you ever talk about her!

MARIA Fine! I quit! Run! I no care! But do no

drag me into your sickness!

She turns from him, prepares herself for her afternoon shift.

EUGENE Water?

He sits up.

I have to have water.

She ignores him. He rises unsteadily, looking like a ghost, and pours himself several glasses of water from the jug, all of which he swallows.

Do you want me to stop seeing you?

MARIA It is the afternoon. I need to work.

He nods. He holds his head in his hands. She puts her hand on his shoulder.

You cannot go on like this. You know that.

He nods, head in hands.

FADE.

Scene 23. Midnight that night.

MARIA’S. She is cleaning off her makeup as EUGENE 107 | P a g e

108

enters, unsteady, unfocussed, looking as if he has seen a ghost. He does not speak, but searches in a cupboard. He finds a bottle of methyl alcohol, unscrews the top, starts gulping.

She rushes at him, fights for the bottle, takes it from him, pushing him to the floor, goes to the window, opens it, and pours the contents out the window. He climbs to his feet, swaying, making a dramatic gesture with his arms.

EUGENE It’s hopeless! I can’t do it!

MARIA Do what?

EUGENE My sketch was crap and you know it.

MARIA I do not!

EUGENE Would Ibsen write that sketch?

MARIA It was your first attempt, you must walk

before you fly. First you write about what

you know, and later you will write about

what you need to know.

EUGENE No, my father was right about me. I’ll

never amount to anything.

MARIA You are twice the man your father is!

EUGENE You don’t know him.

MARIA If he says that about you I know him

enough.

She goes to him and strokes him: his face is dark.

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109

EUGENE The truth is, I long for death, Maria.

MARIA No! I won’t let you talk like that!

She grabs his shoulders.

I know you better than you know yourself,

you fool of a man! Why would I lie to you

about this? For your money? For your sex?

EUGENE You see good where it doesn’t exist!

MARIA I see good where it is hidden from

sight!

PAUSE.

Why do you write?

EUGENE What sort of question is that?

MARIA Humor me.

PAUSE.

EUGENE Well ... alright, actually, I think I have

the answer to that. Recently I was drinking

in a bar in La Boca with a journalist

friend down from Boston, and we talked

all night about poetry, and love, and

literature, and he said: “Eugene, you write

to step out of yourself, out of your body

and out of your own little mind, because

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110

you’re so intense, and so locked up inside

yourself, that you have to get some sort of

objectivity about your life and the lives

of people around you.” And he went on: “we

Americans, we hold our emotions in, we find

it hard to express the way we feel. Maybe

it’ll take someone like you to write

something that’ll help America unlock its

feelings”.

PAUSE.

How could I have forgotten him saying that?

PAUSE.

She speaks intensely to him.

MARIA He said that? There, you see? Always it is

the best people who lack confidence in

themselves, and the worst who ‘ave too

much. You’ve got something to give

but it is locked up inside you.

EUGENE You can’t make me be what I’m not!

MARIA And you cannot stop yourself to be what you

are! All that logic you learn in your North

American schools, that is not the way for

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111

you. You are an artist! If you look inside

yourself, you can find the meaning of your

life!

EUGENE There is no meaning in my life!

MARIA There is the meaning you make! Eugene

O’Neill is not something you are given and

that is it. You can make yourself whatever

you want to be!

He stares at her.

EUGENE How I would love to believe that.

He stares at her.

MARIA Your first work of art, Eugene, is

yourself.

PAUSE. He jumps up, moves about vigorously if unsteadily.

EUGENE An artist has to break away from

everything that imprisons him, delve into

life, at all levels!

MARIA Oh? At all level? So next week you are

meeting the Board of Directors?

EUGENE You live through your body, in your body,

for your body! I disdain mine. At school

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112

there were teachers who said they wanted to

help me. But they could only do it within

the limits of the prison they were in, but

couldn’t see. They were trying to lock me

in their prison with them. I fought them

then, and I fight them now.

MARIA They are not here to fight with. I am here.

SILENCE. He stares at her.

Eugene, I see pain every night in my bar!

Poor fools of men who drink themselves

stupid, who fight each other when they

should be fighting the system that make

them prisoner. Women who stay with men who

beat them. And then a man come in and he

say: I have a system, it weel end all human

suffering. But it is no a system these poor

men need, it is love. The very thing they

run away from!

PAUSE.

EUGENE What I’d like to know, is how you can live

your life in this human swamp and be so

naive.

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113

MARIA If I do not believe in something, I cannot

live. Every man and woman need a faith. You

need something to believe in. And you

should start with yourself.

EUGENE When I’m with you the world seems like a

different place.

MARIA It is possible to be happy, Eugene.

She goes close to him.

I would love to have your child. Would you

stay here for me?

He goes to her, buries his head in her breasts, looks up at her.

EUGENE Help me ...!

She holds him.

MARIA Of course not, why would I do that?

FADE.

Scene 24. Next day.

THE PARK BENCH. EUGENE, writing on a scrap of paper. He looks up,

thinks, paces about, writes some more.

Enter MARIA, as his mother. She looks vague, distracted, troubled.

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114

CHANGE LIGHTS: suggesting memory, the past. Maria as MARY TYRONE.

MARY It kills the pain, you see. You go back

until at last you are beyond its reach.

Only the past when you were happy is real.

EUGENE Mother? Are you alright?

But Maria as Mary fades away.

ENTER ASHLEIGH, carrying a bottle. His entry breaks the spell of the scene from Eugene’s past.

ASHLEIGH Greetings, Sailor boy. Where is everybody?

EUGENE They’ll probably turn up.

ASHLEIGH I’d offer you a drink but ...

EUGENE Never again, that stuff, for me. Listen,

I’ve written a poem.

ASHLEIGH My dear fellow, that’s the sort of shameful

secret best kept to oneself.

ENTER LOUIS and DRISCOLL.

You’re just in time to hear Eugene admit to

being a secret poet.

He drinks.

And now ... we listen, in raptures.

EUGENE Have you quite finished? OK, here goes:

(Reads) The music blares into a ragtime

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115

tune –

The dancers whirl around the polished

floor;

Each powdered face a set expression wore

Of dull satiety, and wan smiles swoon

Of rouged lips at sallies opportune

Of maudlin youth whose sodden spirits soar

On drunken wings: while through the opening

door

A chilly blast sweeps like the breath of

doom.

PAUSE

How do you like it?

ASHLEIGH “Sodden spirits” – I could feel at home in

that world!

EUGENE No but seriously. Should I continue?

ASHLEIGH There’s more?

EUGENE No. Should I continue writing poetry?

ASHLEIGH Writing poetry should be against the

Constitution.

LOUIS I liked it.

EUGENE Thank you Louis. But does it ... does it

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116

... has it ... Oh, I don’t know ...

DRISCOLL Well ...

EUGENE It’s alright, don’t answer, I can see the

looks on your faces.

He thrusts the scrap of paper into his jacket pocket, turns away.

ASHLEIGH I know a poem. “Be drunk. Be drunk on love,

be drunk on wine, be drunk on poetry. But

be drunk!”

EUGENE Baudelaire.

DRISCOLL An artist takes a long time to mature,

Ashleigh. There has to be an adult behind

the writer.

ASH Ah, “adult”.

LOUIS I think you should definitely write poetry,

Eugene.

EUGENE Look, I have a sketch in mind. I want to

tell you about it.

ASH I’ll give you a drink, old chap. And you

can tell us about your sketch. Is it funny?

After that last one, I want funny.

EUGENE Just one.

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117

ASH Well, it always starts with one.

CROSSFADE. Lights on Driscoll and Louis, talking. FREEZE others, as they listen in background to Yank.

DRISCOLL Eugene’s in a good mood today.

LOUIS You can never tell.

DRISCOLL Even when you know him, you don’t know him.

LOUIS I’ve never got close to him.

DRISCOLL So anyway, what do you think about my idea?

LOUIS About working on the great liners?

Fantastic! I wish I’d thought of it.

Imagine being an officer on the

Cunard Line! They wear these marvellous

white uniforms and they walk about the

ship, among all the passengers, like gods!

DRISCOLL Alright, I know a man at one of the

big shipping lines. I’ll have a talk to

him.

CROSSFADE: Eugene, Ashleigh.

EUGENE It’s ... well it’s about this ... there are

these ... I ... I get haunted ...don’t

laugh ... I get these ... you know, my

family, so much pain ... it’s ... no,

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118

forget it.

ASHLEIGH I’m listening.

EUGENE No it’s ... it’s not formed in my head.

It’s like my vision of Hell.

ASHLEIGH Well, that certainly sounds like a bellyful

of laughs!

The others turn away.

DRISCOLL Hey, look. The Vigilante’s comin’ this

way.

YANK He’s gonna move us on.

They all start to saunter slowly away from the park bench, looking nonchalant.

Ashleigh pockets his bottle. They move off, looking back over their shoulders.

Scene 25. Midnight that night.

MARIA’S ROOM. MARIA is pacing about, angry, as only she can be.

EUGENE is almost cowering, yet trying to assert his body language by appearing nonchalant.

MARIA I cannot go on like this, Eugene. I give

you money, you get drunk. It is

impossible!

EUGENE I was waiting for the limits of your 118 | P a g e

119

generosity!

MARIA You can leave whenever you want. I do not

have a father to stake me. I must work, for

my daughter!

EUGENE Oh yes, I forgot, the daughter.

MARIA Do you not believe I have a daughter? Look

...

She takes a wallet from a drawer. From it she pulls a piece of paper.

Here is a letter from my daughter.

She thrusts it at him.

Read it!

He looks t it.

EUGENE It’s in Spanish.

She takes the letter from him.

MARIA “Cara” is heart, alright? She says “Mother,

I love you with all my heart. Come home

soon”. Do you believe that is what

it says?

EUGENE Yes, yes, OK. I’m sorry.

MARIA Eugene, you are more of a child than she

is!

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120

He shrugs, turns away.

PAUSE.

Say “I love you”.

EUGENE It was your choice to take me in!

MARIA Say “I love you”.

EUGENE When we started, you said I could only be

your man for a while.

MARIA I want you, Eugene O’Neill, to be able to

say those words.

EUGENE Look, can we go to bed? I’m tired of this.

MARIA Oh, you are tired? Poor Eugene! He has had

a hard day destroying himself and now he is

tired!

EUGENE Why do you want me to love you?

MARIA I want you to say those words. Even if it

only for a day, you should love.

EUGENE You plucked me out of a bar.

MARIA I choose you. There is no much that I can

choose. And I choose you because you are

not like other men.

PAUSE.

EUGENE I am too much like other men.

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121

MARIA The one you need to love is yourself.

PAUSE.

EUGENE Look ...

PAUSE.

I get this pain in the head, it won’t go

away!

MARIA You can drown yourself, or you can look at

where your pain comes from!

EUGENE If that’s my choice, I’ll drown!

MARIA No! I won’t let you! You will become a man,

You will find your faith!

EUGENE You can’t make me!

PAUSE.

MARIA (quietly) Can you hear yourself?

PAUSE. They turn away from each other.

I know what you are doing. I tried to live

a life that was not mine. I married a man

who work for the Government. We had the

child. But I could no stay. It was no my

life. I take her. All of us, we need to

live the life that is ours.

PAUSE. He has turned way.

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122

Listen to me!

EUGENE No!

MARIA Then listen to the voice inside yourself.

PAUSE.

MARIA Write all the play about the man who die on

the ship. It is strong. It is emotion. The

word drama mean conflict, anger, struggle.

Drama make you cry, make you laugh, make

you feel!

PAUSE.

You ‘ave too much feeling for this world, a

man like you must let it out. Is no for

you, poetry. If you stand outside yourself,

like your friend say, you can write your

feeling.

PAUSE.

You will have no peace until you do this!

PAUSE.

EUGENE I’ll have no peace, whatever I do.

PAUSE.

MARIA There must be a moment, like a moment that

come in every life, when you say: alright.

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123

Enough. Then you start. It make me so angry

that you have everything, and you do no

care!

They face each other, she resolute, he uncertain. He turns away, angry.

PAUSE.

I am nothing. But you don’t have to be.

EUGENE You should go back to your university.

MARIA I weel still be nothing. A nothing with a

piece of paper. The mother of a beautiful

little girl. This city is full of women

more beautiful than me. But you ...

PAUSE

EUGENE You really believe that, don’t you?

MARIA I wish I could write the words on your

brain!

PAUSE.

I was wrong, before. I do ‘ave one talent.

I seem to be able to ...know about people.

I have help other men, you know. Men who

were not so stubborn.

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124

PAUSE

Your father is not a kind man, is he?

PAUSE.

EUGENE My mother ... there was a time, once. I’ve

never told anybody about this. My mother

came to me, in my room, something she never

did, and she sat down and she looked

at me, earnestly, just the way you do, and

she ... I knew she was trying to tell me

something that really mattered. She said

“Eugene, there are many demons in this

world that will ... try to ... control you.

And if you let it happen, you just give

in, the demons will tighten their grip on

you, get their fingers around your

neck, and you will never be able to follow

your dreams. But if you can find some

strength, deep inside yourself, some

... power ... then maybe you can fight them

off. But if not, you will have to

find some where to escape to. Somewhere

that no one will ever find you!” And then

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125

suddenly she just jumped up and ran out of

the room.

PAUSE.

And I felt as if I’d never left her body.

She is silent, looking at him. She reaches out and touches him.

FADE.

Scene 26. Afternoon. A short time later.

The PARK BENCH. ASHLEIGH is being walked up and down by DRISCOLL

and LOUIS, holding his arms.

Enter EUGENE.

EUGENE What’s happening?

DRISCOLL Ashleigh’s a bit the worse for wear. We’re

walking it off.

ASHLEIGH (drunkenly) I am not the worse for wear. I

wear my intoxication with grace. I’m merely

close to my end, and that’s a consummation

devoutly to be desired!

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126

DRISCOLL We’re going to save you despite yourself.

ASHLEIGH How sublime would it be, to be beyond

saving.

LOUIS We need coffee.

DRISCOLL And I need a large house with a swimmin’

pool. Keep walkin’.

ASHLEIGH Will nobody listen to me? I don’t want to

be saved! I want to bury myself in

degradation until I die of it! I want to

relieve my family of myself, and the

shame I brought on them by having an affair

with a man of the male gender. That was my

crime, but my punishment never ends. Oh,

half the British aristocracy were doing it,

but my mistake was to be discovered in

flagrante, as they say over the Channel.

In a world governed by hypocrisy,

the honest man is the only criminal!

DRISCOLL Yes yes, the world is on your shoulders.

Now keep walkin’. Eugene, if you go on the

way you’re goin’, you can end up like this

man.

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127

EUGENE (sings) I’m as free as the breeze!

I can go where I please.

Over land, over seas.

Open road, open sky!

ASH Yes, it’s so much fun being free.

Ashleigh dry retches.

Oh, my God, let me die!

FADE.

Scene 27. Midnight.

MARIA’S room. She is finishing sweeping the floor.

Enter EUGENE intensely. He paces.

EUGENE Sometimes, I believe I can do something,

and then ...

MARIA Take me back. To your family. I want to

know about them.

EUGENE No, you don’t! I don’t. Nobody does!

MARIA Do not speak to me in that tone!

PAUSE.

Be calm. What happened with your mother?

EUGENE I shouldn’t have said what I said.

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128

MARIA We are past that. I want you to talk. I

weel listen. I weel no speak.

LIGHT CHANGE. THE PAST. Maria becomes his mother.

MARIA (As Mary Tyrone) I play so badly now.

Sister Theresa will give me a dreadful

scolding ... I’ll practice every day from

now on. But something horrible has happened

to my hands. The fingers have gotten so

stiff ... the knuckles are all swollen.

They’re so ugly. I’ll have to go to the

Infirmary and show Sister Martha. She’ll

tell me pray to the Blessed Virgin, and

they’ll be well again in no time. Let me

see. What did I come here to find?

CHANGE LIGHTS: MARIA’s room.

EUGENE She became a different person, when she was

... using ... that stuff. You couldn’t

reach her.

MARIA You needed her.

EUGENE It was my fault. It started with my birth.

MARIA That was no your fault.

EUGENE She thought it was. I ruined her life!

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MARIA You were a tiny baby. She should no have

blame you.

EUGENE She couldn’t stand the pain.

She holds him.

MARIA It is alright, it is alright.

He breaks free.

EUGENE It will never be alright!

MARIA You must write about it. You must write it

out of you soul.

She shakes her head slowly.

PAUSE.

You weel no stop drinking, weel you?

EUGENE I need the alcohol to stay sober.

MARIA I weel no beg you any more.

PAUSE.

I’m really just like those poor sad men at

the Sailors Opera. They’re going down with

the ship, only their lives are the ship.

MARIA Write your real sketch.

EUGENE I am writing! I write my poetry!

MARIA Eugene ... Eugene ... your poetry is not

worthy of you.

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He stares at her.

MARIA It is your excuse for no writing.

EUGENE I’m a good poet!

MARIA Eugene, would Ibsen write it?

PAUSE. He stares at her.

EUGENE And now that you sleep with me as your

“special friend”, do you feel less of a

whore?

MARIA I tell you before, I weel take one insult,

but no two!

EUGENE This time, I am not sorry.

PAUSE.

MARIA It might be better, I am afraid, if you

find somewhere else to sleep.

EUGENE Then tell me why you do this.

PAUSE. She does not answer.

Working in a bar near the docks. Living in

one room. Not seeing your daughter.

sleeping with strangers. We’re being

honest, or so I thought? Come on, It’s your

turn!

MARIA If a man sleep with many women, he is hero.

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131

If a woman sleep with many men, she is

slut!

PAUSE.

MARIA I know who you are angry with, and it is no

me. If I try to help the poor lost souls I

find in my bar, is no a bad thing! You are

angry at your mother.

EUGENE I’m not angry with her. I just can’t bear

what was wrong with her!

MARIA So you run away? When she need you? And

from your wife, and from your child ...

from all women! You are desperado!

EUGENE I respect women!

MARIA Eugene, the only you can do anything for

your mother is to be near her! She miss

you, she love you. I am sure of that. She

can no show her love because she is no

herself, but she want to. She need your

support. You can no be angry with someone

because they are weak. We are all weak,

we are human being! If you want to be

writer, you ‘ave to feel for the weak

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ones, you ‘ave to ’ave compassion, no

anger!

EUGENE A man has a right to expect that his mother

will be ...

MARIA What? A saint?

PAUSE.

You must write the drama and let it out,

Or it weel cripple you!

PAUSE.

Every woman you meet, every woman you sleep

with, you weel be angry with her. When you

drink it is like you pour gasoline on the

flame of your anger!

SILENCE.

EUGENE So ... Maria ... I can see you are very

good at justifying yourself.

MARIA This is all you can say? That this is the

end. I have had enough. Get out. Get out.

He does not move.

MARIA Get out!

PAUSE.

Eugene exits. She stares after him.

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133

Scene 28. Later that night.

PARK BENCH. EUGENE.

He reads from his poem. He reads it as if it someone else’s poem, which he finds distasteful and almost laughable.

EUGENE (Reads) The music blares into a ragtime

tune –

The dancers whirl around the polished

floor;

Each powdered face a set expression wore

Of dull satiety, and wan smiles swoon ...

He puts his hand down. Slowly, methodically, he tears it up and throws it away.

He picks up a piece of broken glass, left over from the broken bottle in scene 1. He starts trying to cut his wrists. As anyone knows who has tried this, it is not as easy as one might think. He cannot cut through the skin. With a motion of disgust Eugene throws the broken glass to the ground. A ship’s horn, mournful, echoing. He stares in its direction.Slowly, he pulls a piece of paper from his pocket, and a pencil, whose lead he wets with his tongue. He starts writing, speaking the words he writes.

EUGENE And she said: ‘I had something but I lost

it”. Words to that effect. “When I had it,

I was never lonely or afraid”. And I cried

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134

out “Mama!” But she said : “you must not

try to touch me. You must not try to hold

me”. I remember that. Oh God, I remember

that!

He stops writing. He thinks.

Enter MARIA.

Hello.

MARIA There is much I have no say to you. About

my husband. I want you to know, Eugene. I

criticize you because you leave Kathleen.

When we have a baby, he can no ... what you

say? ... he can no handle it. He is away

many nights, he is drinking very much. I

warn him but ... in the end I leave, I take

the baby.

PAUSE.

But then later, friends tell me he is a

broken man. They say he wanted me to help

him, to help him be a man. So I say OK, I

weel try again with him. So I take our baby

and I go to where he is living with his

sister. She meet me at the door and she

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135

says: he is dead. He has taken his life.

And she close the door in my face.

EUGENE I’m sorry. I wish I could help you.

MARIA You are writing about your family?

EUGENE I’ll try.

He shows her the piece of paper.

MARIA It might take a long time to get it out.

EUGENE Yes. I owe you that.

PAUSE. Maria removes outer garment, is underdressed as Mary. LIGHT CHANGE.

My mother could never say sorry. I got

angry with her once, and instead of

actually talking to me about ...it ... the

drug she was taking ... like a mature

mother and son, she fell back on

defensiveness and vagueness. She was

sinking, you see, sinking like a great,

beautiful, tired ship that can’t stay

afloat any longer ...

MARIA as MARY. FX: foghorn.

MARY Just listen to that awful foghorn. Why is

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136

it that fog makes everything sound so sad

and lost?

EUGENE I know, Mother, You know I know.

But Mary is not talking to him, but to the past.

MARY I must go upstairs. I haven’t taken enough.

I hope, sometimes, without meaning it, I

will take an overdose. I could never do it

deliberately. The Blessed Virgin would

never forgive me.

Maria sheds the role of Mary. She goes to Eugene, cradles his head.

MARIA For you, nothing can ever be the way it is

for others.

PAUSE.

For me, too.

SILENCE. Eugene stars at her, unable to speak.

It is alright. I weel go now.

They embrace, but there is not the warmth or affection there has been between them. Eugene starts to speak but she puts her finger on his lips.

Exit Maria, sadly.

He watches her go, remains staring after her.

SLOW FADE.

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137

Scene 29. Later that day.

THE BACK ROOM. DRISCOLL, LOUIS, EUGENE, ASHLEIGH, YANK.

Eugene is earnestly trying to convince them.

EUGENE It will work, I promise you. I’ve started

putting down a few ideas.

DRISCOLL Eugene, I don’t want to rain on your

parade, as they say in your country, but

dese sailors, dey don’t want anythin’

too serious, y’know? Their lives are

awful, they have no future, y’know? Dey

want to laugh.

EUGENE I don’t do Broadway. This is a serious

sketch about my family. I need to do this,

fellas!

They look dubious.

PAUSE.

And yet it frightens me like you wouldn’t

believe.

DRISCOLL Well, whatever frightens you, that’s what

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138

A sailor does.

EUGENE I saw a play by Henrik Ibsen, it was called

“Hedda Gabler”. It was amazing, it could’ve

been real life! It wasn’t sugar coated like

the Broadway plays. That’s the drama

America needs!

They do not look excited. They do not make eye contact with him.

Enter MARIA. They all look at her, then at Eugene. Eugene hesitates, then continues.

Will you do it for my sake? Because we’ve

sailed together?

PAUSE

Can we just do a little rehearsal?

DRISCOLL OK. We’ll do it. Come on then, fellas,

gather round. Eugene, what’ve you got for

us?

EUGENE Thanks Driscoll. Well, there’s this little

scene, it goes round and round in my head.

My mother comes down from her room, OK?

Ummm ...Maria, do you mind playing my

mother?

MARIA OK.

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139

EUGENE So you say these lines ...

He shows her a piece of paper. She studies it.

MARIA You must not try to touch me, you must

not try to hold me. It isn’t right, when

I’m hoping to be a nun.

EUGENE You see, she’s going back in her mind to

when she was a girl at school, do you see

that?

LOUIS Uh huh.

EUGENE So then, I’ve got to write something for

one of the men to say.

He laughs at himself.

EUGENE I thought maybe: Jamie could say ... Yank

... no, never mind, Driscoll, would you

play my brother Jamie?

DRISCOLL OK.

EUGENE And you say: It’s no good. Something like

that.

DRISCOLL It’s no good.

EUGENE No, but it has to be bitter. Like you’re in

the stokehold, and no one cares about what

you have to go through.

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140

This time, Driscoll says it with feeling.

DRISCOLL It’s no good!

EUGENE That’s better. That’s better. Hey, we can

do this! So then Jamie, he recites this

poem that he remembers from his university

days. I’ll do this bit:

(recites) Let us go hence, go hence; she

will not see.

Sing all once more together; surely she,

she too, remembering days and words that

were,

will turn a little toward us, sighing; but

we,

we are hence, we are gone, as though we had

not been there.

Nay, and though all men seeing had pity on

me, She would not see.

Eugene seems lost in a reverie, as though he were back in the world of his past, living through his nightmare again. Driscoll touches his shoulder and he comes back to them.

EUGENE There’s got to be some way of figuring out

what went wrong. Was there a time, was

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141

there a moment? Or did we all carry the

seeds of our suffering inside us, and there

was never anything that any of us could

have done?

They are all staring at him. He becomes aware of this.

Don’t worry about me.

DRISCOLL In the end, every man has to make his own

bed.

SLOW FADE TO BLACK.

Scene 30. Later that morning.

MARIA’S ROOM.

Maria is getting dressed in her usual flamboyant garb.

Enter EUGENE. He carries a bedraggled-looking bunch of dead flowers.

MARIA What are you doing?

EUGENE You look very attractive.

MARIA Am I as faded as them?

EUGENE I want to say thank you.

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142

MARIA No, you do not, please.

EUGENE Maybe Nietszche was wrong.

MARIA Maybe it is wrong to try to change a man.

EUGENE Nothing that’s done with passion can ever

be wrong.

PAUSE.

She smiles.

MARIA I forgive you yesterday. Come here.

He goes to her and they hug.

You and I both expect too much from people.

But do no forget: you have found much

kindness here in Buenos Aires.

EUGENE I’ll try to remember that.

MARIA I watch you thrashing like a sailor in the

water, and I ache for you.

EUGENE I’ve worked everything out for myself.

MARIA Yes?

EUGENE I’m going to be a playwright.

PAUSE.

MARIA (smiling) Oh. That is good. You have

work everything out for yourself.

PAUSE.

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143

You can come here any time I am not

working, clean yourself up, have a rest,

eat.

EUGENE Thanks.

PAUSE.

Will you be in my sketch?

MARIA Sure. I think I like your mother.

He grins.

EUGENE (ironically) You think?

PAUSE.

They both grin.

FADE TO BLACK.

Scene 31. That afternoon.

PARK BENCH. EUGENE is found working on a script for

the sketch, focussed, engrossed. He does not notice DRISCOLL enter.

EUGENE Oh ... hi Dris.

DRISCOLL I’ve had some bad news.

EUGENE What?

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144

DRISCOLL I have to leave this city Eugene.

EUGENE What, an outraged husband threatening to

shoot you?

DRISCOLL Our gangster friend has given me a quiet

message. Leave by ship, or leave by hearse.

I’ve decided on the ship.

EUGENE Something to do with all that money you

give away to everyone who’s down and out?

DRISCOLL It’s not about me havin’ it, it’s about how

I get it. You see, I’ve been in competition

with our gangster friend in the business of

gamblin’. I’ve been runnin’ a gamblin’ club

in dis area, and he takes exception to

the competition.

EUGENE Very mean-spirited of him. So, where are

you off to?

DRISCOLL Well, it’s always been me habit to go to

the shippin’ company, and embark on the

next ship, goin’ anywhere. That way it’s

always an adventure.

EUGENE I envy you. But ... I’m going home. It’s

time.

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145

DRISCOLL Good man. And your friend Louis, I think

he’s found his callin’.

EUGENE And Ashleigh’s going to Hell, so that

leaves only Yank.

DRISCOLL You can sleep in me room until the rent

runs out.

EUGENE Will you be here for the sketch tomorrow?

DRISCOLL Try to stop me. And Eugene?

EUGENE Yeah?

DRISCOL Has it ever occurred to you to ask yourself

why Maria did all this for you?

PAUSE.

EUGENE I don’t know.

PAUSE.

Everybody wants to believe in something.

DRISCOLL Whatever it is, don’t you think you owe her

a debt of thanks?

EUGENE She knows. Driscoll, I’ve decided to give

playwriting a go.

DRISCOLL Write about what you know. We all know more

than we think. Once you know where you’re

going, it’s surprising how much you do

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146

know.

They embrace.

FADE TO BLACK.

Scene 32. That afternoon.

THE BACKROOM. DRISCOLL, EUGENE, ASHLEIGH, LOUIS.

Eugene is extolling the virtues of his new sketch.

EUGENE ... Look, all these sailors have families,

back wherever they came from.

ASHLEIGH Which they came here to forget!

DRISCOLL Shut up Ashleigh. Where’s your family?

AHLEIGH My family, dear boy? Oh my gosh, well, to

start with ...

DRISCOLL Shut up, Ashleigh.

PAUSE.

We’re doin’ the sketch. Move these tables.

As the men move the tables, Louis comes to Eugene.

FREEZE men, spot Louis and Eugene.

LOUIS I’m leaving, Eugene. I hope you understand.

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147

I’m ... I need the soft life, Eugene, the

lush life. I’m not much good at this down-

and-out routine.

EUGENE You’ve hardly been down and out. You’ve had

money from home, you’ve been renting a

room.

LOUIS Look around you.

EUGENE Point taken.

LOUIS I came here for an adventure. Well, if this

is an adventure, I’ve had one. And you

don’t need me.

EUGENE You do what you have to do.

They embrace, and Louis helps move the tables as the men UNFREEZE.

They all stop and turn as YANK enters. He appears OK. He has his arms folded across his chest. He grins.

YANK Hey guys, look at dis!

He opens his arms and paper money flies out from his hands into the air.

We’re rich! Well, I am.

They all speak at once.

ALL Hey Yank, that’s wonderful! Good on you

Buddy! Can I borrow five bucks?

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148

Suddenly, Yank’s knees buckle and he staggers. Driscoll and Eugene grab him and help him to a table. They lie him on the table. Eugene takes his hands away, and they are stained with blood.

YANK De guard ... I hit ‘im on da head ... I

took his gun ... but I didn’t knock him out

... he had anudder gun in his boot.

EUGENE Oh my God!

YANK If y’ask me ... dat’s very dishonest.

He flops back, groaning, holding his chest.

DRISCOLL Yank! Yank! Hold on there, Yank!

EUGENE Just hold on, Yank!

They undo his shirt, look, look at each other, shake their heads.

DRISCOLL Hold onto life, Yank!

PAUSE. They all look at each other, petrified.

Remember those sea chanties we used to

sing?

PAUSE.

Yank speaks with an effort.

YANK Yeah.

Eugene sings.

Shenandoah, I love your daughter.

A-way, you rollin’ river!148 | P a g e

149

For her, I’d cross your waters.

Away, so far away,

Across the wide Missouri!

DRISCOLL Hey Yank, remember those dirty films we

used to see in Barracas?

LOUIS They didn’t leave much to the imagination,

did they?

HE STOPS.

DRISCOLL Oh. Remember being out on the open deck,

the wind and the salt air, and the waves

rolling forever into the distance ..

Meanwhile, I’m down in da stokehold feedin’

da damn furnace!

EUGENE Ash?

ASHLEIGH I’m no poet.

EUGENE Yank needs you.

ASHLEIGH Breathe the life into you Yank, and breathe

out the sickness! There’ll be good days

ahead. Breathing the fresh salt air,

looking out at the immense expanse of

the wide, blue ocean.

EUGENE Yank, you try to raise yourself into a

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150

sitting position.

Yank does.

Take a deep breath.

Yank lets out a hideous bellow.

EUGENE Think of your spirit, flying free over the

clean, pure, vast ocean that you love.

YANK I love da ...

Yank flops back, dead.

Yank?

They all lean toward Yank.

Yank?

They lean back. Driscoll covers Yank’s face with a table cloth.

PAUSE.

Eugene heads toward the bar.

EUGENE Barman, absinthe!

Driscoll grabs him.

DRISCOLL Eugene ...

PAUSE.

Honor Yank by not drinking yourself into a

stupor.

PAUSE.

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151

Eugene sighs, turns back.

ASHLEIGH Barman, I’ll have that absinthe.

Ashleigh to bar. Eugene and Driscoll return to the tables.

Enter GANGSTER.

GANGSTER What is happening this time?

He sees what is happening. He goes to Yank, pulls back the tablecloth, looks at Yank’s face.

EUGENE He tried to ...

The Gangster stops him with a raised hand. He raises the cloth over Yank’s face, replaces it.

GANGSTER This man must have a funeral. I will pay...

Exit Gangster.

They all sit, on tables or chairs, silently.

DRISCOLL We’ll watch him, until his spirit has well

and truly gone.

They nod.

SLOW FADE as they watch.

Scene 33. Next morning.

MARIA’S. MARIA She is finishing getting dressed, brushing her hair.151 | P a g e

152

Enter EUGENE.

They stand looking at each other.

EUGENE There were some things between us that

weren’t said.

MARIA Not every thing need to be said.

EUGENE I’ve thought about that. I’ve been thinking

about a lot of things.

MARIA Do no say ...

EUGENE I need to say it.

PAUSE.

MARIA You have change me. That is enough.

EUGENE Look ... I’ve been thinking. Why don’t you

go to your daughter, now? You must saved a

bit. She’s the lost soul who needs you,

more than any of the poor sad guys you meet

in that bar.

He hesitates.

Look at Ashleigh and Yank. That could’ve

been me, if not for you. Now Yank’s dead,

and I could’ve been dead with him.

PAUSE.

What’s your daughter’s name?

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153

MARIA Juanita.

EUGENE You go to Juanita. She’s where you belong.

MARIA I know. You are right, I know. I just ...

EUGENE We can all get caught in a rut.

PAUSE.

MARIA Now, it is you help me.

EUGENE No, now it is we help each other.

MARIA maybe I go to go back to university.

EUGENE I wish you luck.

MARIA You are leaving too?

He nods.

EUGENE I’m going home.

MARIA Your time here is finish.

PAUSE.

EUGENE The sketch is only a sketch, but one day

I’ll write that play. When they’re all dead

but me.

MARIA That is good.

PAUSE.

They stand, awkwardly.

Well then, goodbye.

EUGENE Will you stay for my sketch? We’re

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154

Performing it tonight for the whole Sailors

Bar.

MARIA Of course.

They hug, momentarily, part. Then they hug again, this time with feeling.

Eugene turns away from her and exits at speed. She stares at the door. She takes a deep breath, turns, continues brushing her hair.

BLACKOUT.

Scene 34. That evening.

THE BACKROOM. EUGENE, MARIA, DRISCOLL, ASHLEIGH, LOUIS.

Eugene addresses them. Ashleigh is slumped over a table, a bottle of absinthe before him.

EUGENE Well, folks, this is it. We’ve had no real

rehearsal, but you’ve all got your lines on

paper in front of you ...

Ashleigh raises his head, shouts something unintelligible, then flops his head down again.

... So we’ll do the best we can. Any

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155

questions?

DRISCOLL Yes, what do we do when the sailors start

booing?

EUGENE What all good thespians do, speak louder

and take note of where the exits are.

LOUIS We’d better wake up Ashleigh, he’s supposed

to be playing your brother.

Driscoll touches Ashleigh on the shoulder, whereupon Ashleigh slides to the floor and lies there, unconscious.

EUGENE Well, he’s already playing my brother, so

we’ll let him off. Driscoll can read my

brother’s part. OK, are we ready to roll?

Murmurs of assent.

OK, assume your starting positions!

There is some confusion as to what their starting positions are, but after a moment they have arranged themselves on, beside, or at the tables.

FX: Sound of honky tonk piano. But it becomes abstract, as if from a distance, unreal. The short scene that follows is played as if it is still forming in O’Neill’s mind. In this excerpt from Long Day’s Journey Into Night Driscoll plays Tyrone and Ashleigh plays Jamie. (Note: I have reduced speeches and cut lines between from the actual published script: this is only O’Neill’s first attempt to grasp and write down what was going on in his family’s

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past.)

JAMIE I can’t help being suspicious. It’s hell

for Mama, she watches us watching her.

TYRONE I know.

JAMIE Around three o’clock I woke up and heard

her moving about the spare room.

TYRONE The foghorn kept her awake.

JAMIE It was her being in the spare room that

scared me. When she starts sleeping in

there, it’s a sign ...

TYRONE It’s like a curse she can’t escape.

Actors look upstairs. FREEZE actors.

CROSSFADE. Maria steps forward from the blackout to downstage, and addresses audience.

MARIA Eugene O’Neill returned to the United

States from Buenos Aires in 1911. He

immediately set about exploring the new

naturalistic drama that was revolutionizing

theatre in Europe, challenging the old

Victorian model represented by his

father. By 1912 he was busy writing his

first plays, which were successful from the

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start, firstly in New York and later

throughout the nation. He is credited with

laying the foundations of the modern

American theatre. Before an artist

can be born, the germ of his or her art

must be conceived in the artist’s life.

O’Neill’s drive toward drama was born in

his family’s distress arising from his

mother’s addiction to painkillers, and was

midwifed by Maria, a woman he briefly loved

in Buenos Aires, in his brief year at the

bottom of the world and at the bottom of

society, finding himself as a man, and as

an artist, far away from his family, his

social class, his education, and his

country.

PAUSE.

But not without help.

She exits the stage.

FADE TO BLACK.

THE END.

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