Above image from the original production The Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, PA 1996
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Sins of the Mother
_The Sins of the Mother
A One Act Play for Five Women.
By
Tony Devaney Morinelli
This piece examines alcoholism and the barriers it
creates in an Irish American family. Two maiden daughters are trapped at home with their
alcoholic mother where Irish born bitterness and resentment replace love and
understanding.Inheritors of their
grandmothers sin the two daughters seek their redemption.
Contact:
Tony Devaney Morinelli tmorinelli@verizon.net tmorinelli@shipleyschool.org
610 - 348 - 4669 610 - 642 - 3782
The Sins of the Mother Cast
Marie (the mother)
Ellen (the elder
daughter)
Rose (the younger
daughter)
Aunt Theresa (Marie’s
sister)
Grandmother (a
vision)
THE SET: A large worn armchair center stage.The chair has a pillow and a coverlet.In front ofthe chair, a small coffee table.To one side a small couch to the other a small chair.A sideboard with side cabinets is to the
left.Near it a table.To the right is a dark area with a chair
where the GRANDMOTHER remains throughout.
IMPORTANT STAGING NOTE: All soliloquies are delivered
out to the audience.)
NOTE ON THE TEXT: The language attempts to reflect a
lower working class Philadelphia accent.All words that should end in "ing" are written "in."
The pronoun "you" has two forms. When the
word is not stressed it is pronounced "Ya" or "Yeh".When it is emphasized it is "You."
"I am" is often pronounced "Ahm."
There are no misspellings in the text.What may appear to be errors are attempts to
imitate local speech.
Phrasing plays an important role in approximating
local speech.Statements are short and
often repetitive.
There is a certain rhythm and cadence to their way of speaking.
(Ellen is about the room puffing pillows, fixing
things.On the sideboard are a birthday
cake and a present. Ellen finishes the wrapping on a package as she looks in
the side board drawer for a box of candles she calls:)
ELLEN: (to
herself) Where are those candles?
(to Rose) Rose!
Rose!
(to herself) I know I put
them in here somewhere.
(again, to Rose.) Yo,
Rose!
ROSE: (In the hall at the door.) Just a minute
I can’t hear you.
ELLEN: What?
ROSE: I can’t hear you.
I’m getting
the mail.
ELLEN: Rose!
(To herself)Where did they get to?
(Pause)
Rose!
Rose!
I know I put
them in here.
Rose,
Rose?
(Ellen unlocks one of the side doors of the cabinet.
She moves out some liquor bottles, puts them on top of the sideboard.)
I bet she moved them.
(She rummages in the cabinet
then returns the bottles and relocks the cabinet.)
ROSE: I said I can’t hear you.
(Coming in from the
hall.)
Why must you always
shout from the other room?
You’re just like her.
Always shouting.
ELLEN: I wasn’t shouting and I’m not like her.
(Composing herself.)
I didn’t know where you were.
Have you seen the box
of candles
The box of candles I
put in here?
ROSE: Did you look under the table cloths?
I was getting the
mail.
ELLEN: The mail ...
Did anything come for
me?
(She pokes her
fingers into the mail that Rose carries.)
ROSE: (thumbing through.)
Water bill,
junk,
here ...
this is yours.
(She holds the
letter with curiosity.)
"Westchester Teachers College?"
What's this?
ELLEN: Nothing.
(She grabs the
letter)
It’s for me.
ROSE: What’s in the letter?
ELLEN: It doesn’t concern you.
(Beat)
Where are those candles?
ROSE: (repeating with emphasis)
Did you look under the table
cloths?
ELLEN: They’re not in here.
(Flustered, annoyed.)
Are you sure you
didn’t move them?
(As she rummages
through the cabinet she leaves the letter on the sideboard.)
ROSE: (Rose looks in the drawer, lifts the table cloths and pulls
out the box of candles.)
You are just like her.
(beat)
Whadda ya call
these?
Things don’t go your
way and you get all hyper.
ELLEN: I’m not hyper.
You just can’t seem to
keep anything in order around here.
ROSE: They were right where they always are.
ELLEN: But this drawer is such a mess
you can’t find
anything.
ROSE: Don’t look at me.
I didn’t leave it that
way.
You know who’s always
rummaging through the cabinets.
Looking for her
key.
Told you not to hide
the key.
She'd wreck the whole
room to find it.
More trouble than it’s
worth.
ELLEN: Is that really necessary?
ROSE: Well, it’s true.
When she gets on a
binge
she can ransack the
whole room.
ELLEN: Rose, ..
That’s enough.
(Ellen breaths her
annoyance and redirects the subject.)
Do you want to call her in now?
ROSE: I suppose.
I really don’t see the
purpose.
ELLEN: Rose,
for once
just for once,
can’t you just do
something without a comment?
ROSE: Why do you keep it in the house anyway?
ELLEN: For company.
ROSE: Company?
What company?
ELLEN: You never know.
Suppose...
ROSE: Suppose what?
You expecting
someone?
Maybe the guy you had
here last month?
Still expecting him?
ELLEN: That’s not necessary.
ROSE: Neither is having...
ELLEN: Why must you make an argument of everything?
ROSE: I’m not arguing,
I’m just saying.
ELLEN: Well, don’t say.
And besides,
it helps sometimes to
keep her home.
ROSE: Only in a snowstorm.
And the boys down
Kelly’s wouldn’t know what to do without her.
ELLEN: Can you have a little respect, please.
And instead of
spending your time with useless comments you could be helping me get things together.
ROSE: I don’t know why you bother.
You know she’s going
to make a fuss.
ELLEN: And shed make a worse fuss if we don’t.
ROSE: Some fusses are worse than others.
(beat)
You didn’t answer my question.
(She picks up the
letter from the sideboard.)
What’s in this letter?
ELLEN: It’s addressed to me.
Not you.
(She grabs the
letter back.)
ROSE: OK,
take it.
I was just curious.
ELLEN: You don’t have to know everything.
ROSE: I was just asking a simple question.
ELLEN: And I’m giving you a simple answer.
ROSE: Touchy aren’t we.
Must be
important.
ELLEN: Can we just drop this please?
(Beat)
Is she awake?
ROSE: Dunno. (She slurs : "I don’t know.")
ELLEN:What time did she come
back?
ROSE: She was home just before you came in.
Just before six.
(Points
to the letter in Ellen’s hand.)
And I’m just curious,
that’s all.
ELLEN: Will you stop with the letter?
Was she feeling well
when she came in?
ROSE: Feeling well?
ELLEN: Was she?
ROSE: Was she what?
ELLEN: Feeling well.
ROSE: Well enough to find her way home.
Better than last
Thursday.
ELLEN: No need to bring that up again.
ROSE: It’s a long walk from Kelly’s.
ELLEN: Why must you be so sarcastic?
ROSE: It’s not sarcasm.
It’s an honest
appraisal.
ELLEN: There you go again.
ROSE: Come off it, El.
ELLEN: See if she’s awake yet.
ROSE: (to herself) Little Miss Perfect.
Livin in her Happy
Town dreams.
(Rose picks up a
little vase with a plastic flower and moves it to the small table in front of
the chair.)
(Goes to the bedroom door and listens.)
I hear moving around in
there.
She’s awake.
(Pause)
ELLEN: Should we wait until Aunt Theresa is here?
(Ellen fusses about
the table settings.)
I wanted to wait for
her.
ROSE: Why?
All she’ll do is talk
about aches and pains and tell mom how bad she looks.
ELLEN: She’s still her sister.
ROSE: Who keeps telling her that she looks like death?
ELLEN: That’s just her way.
ROSE: She’s annoying.
Always pushin Ma
around.
Always one uppin her.
ELLEN: It’s just her way.
ROSE: Just her way?
ELLEN: Just the way some people are.
ROSE:Ya know, you got a lot of
her in you too.
ELLEN: Aunt T'reesa
ROSE: Who'm I talkin about?
ELLEN: I do not.
ROSE: Yeh, you do.
_ELLEN: I’m not like her at all.
ROSE: She’ll come trippin in here with her little hat,
and little white
gloves
and little purse
like she’s miss
society.
Who she think she’s
kidding?
ELLEN: What are you talking about?
I don’t wear gloves.
ROSE: That’s not the point.
You’re always trying
to be somethin your not.
Always puttin on airs.
ELLEN: (Putting candles on the cake.)
There’s a difference
between putting on airs and just trying to do things nicely.
ROSE: Sure.
Whatever.
ELLEN: Trying to do things nicely makes what you already have
better.
Putting on airs is
pretending to be something you’re not.
ROSE: Have you ever looked at what’s outside that front door?
Do you know where we live?
ELLEN: What goes on outside has nothing to do with what goes on inside.
ROSE: Yeh, until you try to step outside
and you trip over a
drunk
a drunk passed out on
the front step.
ELLEN: Why do you have to be so sarcastic?
ROSE: I just try to make sense.
That’s all.
ELLEN: Sense?
If everything we did
made sense..
ROSE: You don’t have to explain to me.
I’ve been your sister
too long not to know.
So what’s in the
letter?
ELLEN: I told you more than once.
It’s for me.
(Trying to change
the subject.)
Aunt Theresa’s
late.
She should have been
here a half hour ago.
(Ellen starts looking
through the drawers again.)
Now where are the
matches?
ROSE: She’s always late.
No sense in waiting.
ELLEN: We should wait for Aunt Theresa.
(Continuing to
rummage through the drawers.)
Where did those
matches get to?
ROSE: They should be right there with the candles.
(Shouting over her
shoulder towards the bedroomas she walks toward the sideboard.)
Mom,
Mom.
Come on in here a minute.
ELLEN: You tell me I yell.
Listen to you.
Now who’s yelling?
You see.
You’re not so
different either.
(Beat)
And I said, wait for
Aunt Theresa.
(At the sideboard.)
They’re not here.
ROSE: I’m not yellin.
She’shalf deaf.
(Rose goes to the sideboard.)
Did you look in the
drawer?
ELLEN: And you’re not.
ROSE: What?
ELLEN: Deaf.
ROSE: Sometimes I wish I were.
It may be a lot
easier.
(Rose stops
searching for the candles in the sideboard.
All lights dim.Rose is lit in a
single beam. This is a private thought.)
A lot easier to be deaf.
Deaf to everything in this house
Deaf as the walls.
Hard like the walls.
Dark like the closets.
The closets.
A little girl behind the coats
The coats and the dresses
smelling of camphor and smoke and drink.
Curled into my knees tight under my chin;
buried;
my hands between my legs.
Hiding from the shouts,
hiding from the fights,
hiding from the men,
from the slaps,
hearing her scream,
hearing her cry.
Afraid to be found.
Afraid of the light when she opened the door.
Afraid of her kisses,
of his kisses
And who he would be.
Afraid
Of the hands
Of the fingers
The unknown face
The sour smell from dragging lips.
The gin smelly air
fogged with meaningless words
words mumbled
and twisted
and slurred.
(beat)
I am deaf.
I’ve had to be deaf.
Deaf from childhood,
deaf from infancy,
deaf from my birth.
Alone in closets of camphor
and wool
and smoke
and gin.
Waiting in the dark.
Waiting for what?
For the screams to stop?
For the beatings to stop?
Waiting for the silence where I could fall into sleep
among the boxes
and shoes
and tossed off stockings.
(beat)
Easier to be deaf.
(The Lights return to normal full stage)
ROSE: (Rose finds the matches beneath the table cloths in the drawer)
Here's your matches.
Mom!
Mom!
You awake in there?
Mom?
Mom?
MARIE: (Emerging from her room in night gown and robe.She is disheveled from sleep.)
What’s all the yellin?
Stop all the yellin.
ELLEN: I told you not to yell.
MARIE: I’m not deaf yet.
ROSE: Cut me a break, will ya El?
(Rose goes over to
her mother.)
ROSE: Need a hand?
MARIE: Think I’m a cripple too?
ELLEN: (going up behind Marie and covering her eyes)
You think
when you marry that louse he's going to stay with you?
You don’t think he's gonna be like your father, Theresa?
You think you found something better.
Well I’m telling you,
there ain’t nothin better.
He’s a louse like the rest
of‘em.
What kind of job you call what he's got?
What kind a job is that shovlin
coal in a furnace,
Like shovlin shit in a cow barn
And the penny he makes
Goes flat on the tap room bar.
You’re trying to put on airs like your sister Marie.
Well, she ain't come to nothin
Runs off with some gigolo.
And what it get her?
Pregnant with a kid and he goes off
Offto Australia.
(beat)
And where does she go?
Back to her mother,
Back to me.
Well I ain't takin you back
Takin you back
The way I done her.
I raised you.
I gave you everything I never had.
Takin in laundry,
Washing floors,
Cleanin rich peoples crap.
And this is how you pay me back?
(beat)
I'm tellin you Theresa,
you leave
you leave and you ain't comin back in.
I ain't got no room for tramps
in my house.
You go out and the door gets locked.
.
THERESA (She speaks to the audience - as though to her Mother)
Well I am leavin.
And I don’t care if I never come back.
What have you ever done for me.
You think you're gonna trap me here
Trap me here like you done to Marie?
I'm gettin out
You're a rummy,
nothin but a rummy
And you got no room to talk.
At least I got a man,
a good man
And he won’t leave me the way yours left you.
I don't even know if he was my father.
You probably don’t either.
But I’m gonna know who my husband is.
You're not chainin me here the way you done to my sister.
I’m gonna have children.
I’m gonna have a home.
I’m gonna have real life.
GRANDMOTHER: Then go ahead.
Go!
I still got Marie
and you can go ta
hell.
You’re an
ingrate.
An ingrate
and I won’t forget it.
(Lights return to full).
The following exchanges become quicker and quicker. Everyone
shouts.No one listens.
THERESA: (lights back up on the family)
Ya know,
ya can’t help but wonderin sometimes.
Ya know what I mean Marie?
ELLEN: You're not eating your cake mom.
Just try a little.
MARIE: I don’t eat cake Ellen,
you know that.
I don’t like that sweet stuff.
THERESA: Too much sweet stuff.
MARIE:All this commotion in
here.
It’s late.
There’s a draft.
ELLEN: There’s no draft mom.
THERESA: Your mother feels a draft.
MARIE: I said I feel a draft.
Where my sweater Rose?
You got a window open somewhere.
Where's my sweater?
ELLEN: Mom, the heat’s on seventy.
It’s warm in here.
MARIE: I said I’m cold.
Can’t you listen to
your mother?
THERESA: The woman’s cold Rose…..
You don’t want it to
get to her kidneys.
ROSE: (Taking the coverlet from the back of the chair and putting it over her
mother.)
Here you go, Mom.
THERESA: Ya know, ya gotta watch.
Doctor told me to
drink lots a cranberry juice.
Helps the
kidneys.
Potassium he says.
MARIE:Keep that cold air from
outside comin in here.
All that cold air
That cold air from
outside.
Can’t you keep the
heat up in this place?
ROSE: The heats on seventy, Mom.
You want it like an
oven?
THERESA: Ya know hon.
It’syour heatinbill an all,
but I still feel a
little chill.
MARIE: I feel like I'm gettin a headache.
ROSE: You gettina headache mom?
MARIE: Yeh, my heads startin to hurt.
You know how my head
starts to hurt
starts to hurt when it
gets like this.
ROSE: How did I guess?
THERESA: Too much sugar in that cake.
MARIE: You wanna get a little somethin for me hon?
Somethinto make my head feel better.
ROSE: How about some coffee, Mom?
MARIE: No coffee.
Keeps me up.
ROSE: But coffee..
MARIE: Somethin to help me sleep.
I'm so tired.
Don't make me get up.
ROSE: Has it been an hour already?
(With frustration if not disgust)
Can’t hold out for more than an hour.
(Beat).
THERESA: Rose, you don’t talk nice to your mother Rose.
ROSE: Aunt Theresa. .
THERESA:You don’t talk nice.
She's not a well
woman.
ROSE: Aunt Theresa you know as well as I do…
THERESA: It don’t matter.
You still talk nice to
your mother.
You know this woman's
not well
ROSE: I'm just trying…
THERESA: (Poking Marie with the end of her dessert fork.)
It’s good you got one
good daughter at home Marie.
ROSE: And what am I?
Don't I live here too?
THERESA: It’s respect,
I'm talking about,
respect.
ELLEN: Please, Rose, please
not tonight.
THERESA: Respect.
ROSE: Rose,
Always Rose.
THERESA: You know, Marie,
I don't care what you
say
MARIE: My heads going to explode.
Isn’t it time for bed
yet?
(She stands and
goes to the side cabinet)
THERESA: Your mother needs a daughter like Ellen at home.
MARIE: What are you talkin, Theresa? .
THERESA: Not like us, Marie.
Not like us.
We always shared
everything.
MARIE: Life was different.
THERESA: Ain't nothin different.
It’s respect.
ROSE: Respect?
ELLEN: Rose..
THERESA: Ya take care of your mother.
MARIE: My head is hurtin.
THERESA: (To MARIE)
Not like us Marie.
Not like us.
(Lights dim.
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MARIE and THERESA step out of the setting into their own tableau. They
do not face each other.
They speak out to the audience.
It is the past)
MARIE: What do you think you're doing Theresa?
You can’t leave her
like this?
THERESA: Oh no, just watch.
MARIE: And you’re gonna leave me alone to take care of her
To take care of her
myself:
THERESA: Let her take care of herself.
MARIE: She can’t.
You know she can’t.
THERESA: No.
She can't stand to see any of us have anything good,
anything better than what she had.
Face it Marie,
she never took care of me,
not you either for that matter.
All that fightin at night.
All those men who came and went.
When a gun went off
or a knife went flying
When the cops came.
How many times did they take us away?
How many times?
How many families did we live with?
How many times we got beat?
How many times we got ..
MARIE: Stop it!
Ya hear me? ..
Stop it!
Don't say it.
THERESA: Jimmy made it out of here
He made his way out
And so will I.
MARIE: The war took Jimmy away.
He had to go.
THERESA: Well, this is my war.
A war where I win.
There’s a man who cares about me,
No, he ain’t rich
He ain't even good lookin'
And he just works at the plant like the rest of us
But he’s the first person who ever even thought about me.
Who thought about me!
He treats me good.
Treats me nice.
(beat)
Ya know,
Ya know,
There’s this bible story
A bible story I heard wonced in
church
Heard it once and it always stayed with me
Know what it said?
It said,
‘Leave the dead to bury the dead,”
The dead to bury the dead.
Well, she’s dead.
She’s always been dead
But, she’s not buryin me with her!
MARIE: But she’s our mother.
THERESA: Our mother.
Our mother?
She’s a gin soaked
rummy who let herself get knocked up
Get knocked upby god knows who
and we get the blame.
Who was he?
Who was my father?
Who was your father?
I don't even know if
we have the same father.
She prob'ly don't know
neither.
She had 'em open for
anything that passed.
(beat)
You wanna stay,
Stay.
That's your problem.
Go ahead.
Crawl in there with
her.
Crawl in.
Get buried with her.
MARIE: Theresa..
THERESA: Damn it, Marie.
Same father or not
you’ll always be my sister.
I’ll be there for you,
but not for her..
not for her.
(The scene changes.
MARIE and THERESA go back to their former places.
We are back in the present.)
ROSE: That’s alright mom.
Aunt Theresa never
liked me so much.
THERESA: I never said nothin like that, Rose.
I never said I don’t
like you.
You’re my sister’s
kid.
I never said nothin
like that.
I only said you should
talk with more respect.
ROSE: Sure, Aunt Tree.
THERESA: You hear what I said,
Didn’t you Marie?
You heard what I said.
I didn’t say nothin like that.
I just mean that Rose could be more like.
ELLEN: Please,
Let’s not start.
THERESA: I ain’t startin nothin hon.
I was only sayin …
ELLEN: Fine,Aunt Tree.
Let's just forget it.
There's something I want to talk about.
Something I want to ask mom.
(She goes to her mother and holds her back from the cabinet)
Mom, please.
Not now.
It’s your birthday.
Have some of your cake.
MARIE: I'm too tired.
I think I need to go
back to sleep.
ELLEN:Not now.
There's something I
want to tell you.
MARIE: My head.
ELLEN:Mom, please..
MARIE: My head feels like
ROSE: (to Ellen)What did
I tell you?
ELLEN: Mom,
please.
(she moves her back
to the chair)
MARIE: Why don't you do your mother a favor and get her a little
something.
ELLEN: Not now, Mom.
Just sit a minute,
I need you to listen.
THERESA: What are talkin Ellen.
You're not gonna give
this woman trouble are ya?
ELLEN: No, Aunt Tree.
Just listen.
(Beat)
Mom,
I've been saving my
money.
I've working over time
Working over time
and saving my money.
THERESA: You're a good girl, Ellen.
Smart to save your
money.
ELLEN: I have an idea.
I've thought about it
for a long time now.
MARIE: What are you talkin, girl?
ELLEN: An idea.
MARIE: What kinna idea?
ELLEN: Something I wanna do.
MARIE:Your not thinkin about
then damn nuns again..
ELLEN: No mom.
It's not that.
Not that at all.
That was a mistake.
THERESA: Good god girl.
You don't wanna be
thinkin about that again.
(To ROSE)
Nearly killed
her.
It's still cold in
here.
(THERESA picks at the cake.)
MARIE: Them damn nuns,
Them nuns thinkin
theys better
better than everybody else;
always puttin ideas in
your head
Tryin to trick you
into some convent.
ELLEN: No, Mom,
it's not the nuns.
Mom.
(beat)
I'd like to go back to
school.
ROSE: So that's what's in the letter.
ELLEN: Yes,
that's what's in the
letter.
MARIE: Them nuns always makin themselves out to be so perfect..
THERESA: Go back to school?
(She licks cake crumbs from her fingers.)
MARIE: Makin life miserable for everybody else.
THERESA: I'm a good church goer
when I can get Jack to
take me,
but them nuns.
God bless -em
but you know,
somethin ain't right.
ELLEN: You know what I mean.
Go to college.
Get a degree.
THERESA: A degree!
What you gonna do with
a degree?
ROSE: A degree?!
MARIE: Stoptalkin nonsense
ELLEN: It's not nonsense, Ma.
MARIE: Ya talk ridiculous.
ROSE: (sarcastically)
This is a good one
Ellen.
A real good one.
ELLEN:Why not?
In the long run we'd
all benefit.
MARIE: School?
Whadda ya mean school?
Who put these ideas in
your head?
Ya talk ridic'lus
You don't need no
school
What makes you
think....?
(Lights dim.Grandmother
appears.She speaks out to the
audience.)
Grandmother:Where'd you get
ideas like that?
From them people they put you with, right?
(beat)
Them people they put you with Christmas
Christmas
When they take you away from your own mother
Puttin you with some strangers
(beat)
Them damned nuns,
comin round here to check on everything.
Comin round all the time
Askin me questions
Askin 'bout everything
Askin where....
(beat)
They don't even know what a man is
Don't even know
and they go around
go around tellin everybody else how to live.
Stickin my kids in some rich folks house for Christmas.
For Christmas.
Always around snoopin
putting their noses in other people's business.
Tryin to make your own mother look bad.
Like they come from families made in heaven
families that never saw gin on the table.
Takin you away
Away from yer mother
Makin you somethin you ain't.
Just to cause trouble.
That's who got you up to this.
MARIE: ( to the audience but addressing her mother.)
I
was just wondering, Mamma.
What if I was to go to the secretary school.
Suppose I could do it?
Grandmother:
Secretary
school?
Secretary
school?
How you
goin to secretary school?
You even
got the nickel for the trolley up town?
Lazy
That's all
you are
Lazy.
You think you're
better than us?
You think just because they put you in some big house
some big place with parlors
and maids
and golden mirrors
you think you can be like them?
Well, go back again
Go back again
and this time look in them golden mirrors.
Look at them mirrors
look at 'em.
Take a look and see what's in em.
Whadda ya see?
What?
Take a look
Take a good look and see
See that you ain't nothin but a serving girl.
And it's your job to wash them mirrors
and make them shine.
Make them shine.
You un'ertstand?
(beat)
Tryin to put on airs
Just like your ol' man
Always think you're better than everybody else.
Well life don't work that way.
The image dissolves.
THERESA: You go off to school and who's gonna take care of your mother?
ELLEN: Going to school doesn't mean I can't take care of you.
ROSE: How can you be doing school and work?
How we gonna pay the
bills?
ELLEN: I'll still be here.
I'll start out part
time.
ROSE: Part time?
We can't even manage
with both of us full time
Not even full time.
Between the regular
bills
and the cost of
keeping her supplied.
ELLEN: We can do it.
We can cut corners a
bit.
ROSE: Cut corners?
Where we gonna find
rent lower than this?
And what you gonna do
for her?
Ration her out?
MARIE:(in a panic)
I don't give a damn
what the hell you do.
I'll move out.
I'll get my own
place.
I don't need none of
you.
ROSE: No one said you have to move out, Mom.
No one's leavin you
alone.
MARIE:I don t care what the
hell you do.
ROSE: I don't want to listen to this.
Ellen, you're doing it
again.
MARIE: Get the hell out of my way.
(MARIE goes back to
the cabinet)
I don't wanna see none of you.
ROSE: I told you Ellen.
I told you you would
start her up.
(Even louder and more confused)
THERESA: You're gonna kill that woman.
She's a sick
woman.
MARIE: I'm goin back to bed.
THERESA: You're gonna kill her.
First your father
walks out on her and now you.
THERESA: They put her away once when your father walked out.
(The following continues in a kind of verbal violence.Overlapping - no one listening.)
MARIE: I don't need nobody.
Not none of you.
(She pounds the
cabinet.)
Open this cabinet, I
said.
THERESA: (burst of nervous anger)
And she's your
mother.
A sick woman.
Don't try to put your
responsibility on somebody else.
ELLEN: We wouldn't think of it Aunt Tree.
MARIE: You hear me..
I said open it...!
ROSE: And you wouldn't think of helping.
She's your sister,
remember.
THERESA: Don't be a smart mouth Rose...
ELLEN: Rose, don't start trouble.
Mom, you don't need
that.
ROSE: The trouble started long before me.
MARIE: You gonna listen to your mother?
THERESA: You should be ashamed of yourself.
ROSE: For what?
THERESA: For not carin' for that sick woman.
MARIE: Don't nobody care about me.
(violently)
Open the damn cabinet!
ROSE: That sick woman?
That sick woman?
She's a drunk,
a drunk and the two of
you keep her there.
THERESA: Why, I never...
ROSE: You never what...?
You
never what?
(beat)
You come here every
day,
day in and day out
and all you do is tell
her how sick she is.
You gloat on it.
You live on it.
You thrive on it.
(To Ellen)
And you,
you keep her in a
constant drunk
A constant drunk just so you can feel like some wounded
martyr.
She's not the one they
should put away.
It's you two!
THERESA: I should smack your face.
How dare you talk to
me like that?
ELLEN: Rose, Rose, stop it.
Stop it!
MARIE: (backing against the sideboard)
I won't go back.
You can't make me go back.
Go back to that place.
All them women.
Women walkin in
circles.
Women like ghosts.
All day sewin buttons.
Women with their
tongues hangin,
Spit droolin down
their chins.
Clothes fallin offa
them
Starin at the wall
Talkin to the air
They give em string
String and beads.
Sewin buttons.
Buttons and beads.
(beat)
(Marie starts arguing with an unseen person.)
I won't.
You can't make me.
I won't.
I won't.
The GRANDMOTHER becomes part of the scene.Only MARIE sees her and speaks to her.The others participate in the conversation
without realizing what MARIE sees.The
scene culminates in the GRANDMOTHERS monologue.)
GRANDMOTHER (appearing):
You do as you're told or Ill call them
nuns.
They'll come to take
you away.
They'll take you back to the home.
Back to the home.
That's where they'll take you!
MARIE: Don't let them take me, mommy.
I'll be good.
I'll be good.
Don't let them take me....
GRANDMOTHER: You don't deserve the home ya got.
MARIE: I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
(The image fades. She sees
ELLEN.)
(To Ellen)
Get me a little somethin. Hon.
Get me a little somthin.
ROSE: Mom. Stop it.
Stop it.
MARIE. Leave me alone
ELLEN: Get her to sit down.
ROSE : You satisfied Ellen.
You satisfied
now?
ELLEN: Stop it Rose.
(MARIE'S mother appears again.)
GRANDMOTHER: You're a spoiled ingrate.
MARIE: I don't wanna go.
THERESA: Look what you're doin to your mother.
ROSE:(trying to restrain her mother.)
How long do we wait till you back out of this one?
ELLEN: I'm not backing out.
I'm going to school.
GRANDMOTHER: You don't deserve nothin.
MARIE: (out of control.)
Open the damn cabinet !!!
(She slaps Rose across the face.)
The following should move very deliberately - a full scene without
words.
ROSE goes abruptly to the drawer, takes out the key, unlocks the
cabinet, takes out a glass, fills it and hands it to her mother.
MARIE drinks the first one fast, holds out the glass.
ROSE goes back and slowlypours
again.
This one she drinks a bit more slowly.)
MARIE: I don't care what the hell you do. You can all go to the devil.
(Lights dim.We see the
GRANDMOTHER)
GRANDMOTHER: (to the audience.)
You can all go to the devil
and may you all rot in hell.
You think you have it rough.
You think it's all unfair.
Do you know what it is to sleep on the dirt?
To have your father come into the house reelin with the drink
And push your face into the mud?
You talk to a lad
and he makes you smile
You make him smile
And the priest calls you whore
And the people where you live drive you out with sticks and stones?
And you run off to the city
To walk day and night in the black streets of Cork
Hidin in alleyways so the drunks don't grab ya
Sleepin under back steps to keep off the rain.
America they tell ya.
America will give ya the chance.
And so ya do what ya can in an honest way
to pay your way across.
You clean for the English and the high born Irish.
You scrub and you wash and you sweep and you tote.
Three years on your knees and every penny you save.
And so you sail on the ship.
And you sit in ablack hole
a black hole filled with dark Jews and daygos,
Pollacks and Greeks
who babble and jabber like the monkeys in the trees
and youstink and sweat and puke up your guts
For ten long days.
But you're goin to America
and there life is better.
And you get offthe boat and
they line you all up
And the poke you
and prod you
andthey mark you with chalk
Like the cows in the field they give you mark.
Who gets to enter
Who they send back
The cripples
The crazies
Them with the pox
But you make it past them
You make it through
Then they set you free walkin
And where do ya walk?
_Ya walk in the filth and the garbage and the tenement boxes.
And how do ya pay?
So, you go back to your knees.
Back to the floors
Back to the scrubbin'
And what do you find but more of the same that you left behind.
And none of its better.
All of its worse.
Even your own kind.
Even your own kind
treat you worse than English at home.
You're a maid.
A servant.
You clean out the dust bins and
wash all the crap buckets
and for two dollars a week they
allow you to stay. .
And so when a man,
on your one after noon,
shows you a kindness you take
any at all.
So you know what it means.
But even at that, It don't make
no matter
What else can you hope for?
You take what comes.
And soon it's no different.
Your face in the mud.
(beat)
Then drop by drop you learn it from them.
First you have a sip from his glass
and you do it to be cute,
then you let him buy you one
and you feel like a woman.
Then you start buyin for yourself
and when you do
it's the only thing that brings
a bit of comfort
It takes you to a new world
where you see no crap,
no dirty streets,
no parlor floors.
(beat)
And so you're free,
the only ship that can take you away.
(Lights return)
MARIE: I'm tired, Rose.I need
to rest. Help me rest. (She holds up the empty glass.)
ROSE: Not now ma.
I'll take you to your room.
You can lie down.
Aunt Theresa, I think you should go home.
Ellen, why don't you help Aunt Theresa?
Take her down to the corner for a cab.
THERESA: What? What are you sayin? I got no money for a cab.
(ROSE goes to the sideboard, opens a draw and takes out some cash.Goes to THERESA and pushes into her hand
still closed around her purse.)
ROSE: You heard me.
I think it's time for
you to go.
This night has been
long enough.
THERESA: That how you talk to your aunt.
To your mothers
sister.
ROSE: Do you wanna take mom with you?
(ROSE walks her
mother towards her room.)
MARIE: Just somethin to help me sleep.
THERESA: Don't let em be rude to you Marie.
Yous hear me.
Don't be rude to your
mother.
ROSE: Good night Aunt Tree.
(THERESA Leaves in a huff without a word .Ellen sees her out.)
MARIE: You won't leave me will you Rose.
You still need your
mother, don't you?
You're not like
Ellen.
You never thought you
was better than everybody.
Never pranced around
with all them books
tryin to make a show a
yourself.
You un'erstood your
mother.
You still need me, don't
you Rose.
Don't you.
(Rose has led Marie to the door of her room.)
ROSE: No, ma.
I won't leave
you.
Go lie down now.
MARIE: I need to sleep, Rose.
I'm tired of wakin up.
ROSE: I know, ma.
I know.
MARIE: Tired.
ROSE: Lie down.
Lie down.
(Rose goes back to the chair.
She picks up the glass and studies it.
Slowly, she lowers herself into Marie's chair.
She sees herself in the same
position.
Rose picks up the pillow and cradles it, then buries her face in
it.
Ellen returns and startles Rose.)
ELLEN: Did you get her back to sleep?
ROSE: She's in the bed but she's not asleep.
ELLEN : She won't sleep now.
She slept all
afternoon.
ROSE: So are you satisfied?
ELLEN: I'm sure she expected something
and I'm sure there's
something inside her that appreciates it.
(ELLEN starts clearing the coffee table and begins returning napkins
and dishes to the sideboard.)
ROSE: Yeh, sure.
ELLEN: In fact, I think there's something that enjoys it,
She just doesn't know
how to say it.
The only trouble is
your fault.
Getting on Aunt
Theresa the way you did.
ROSE: She had it coming.
I don't like the way
she gets on Ma.
Uses her to make
herself feel good.
ELLEN: you could still be a bit more patient with her.
No need to get her all
in a mood.
ROSE: You know as well as I do
she'll be right back
here tomorrow.
I don't know why, but
she will.
Can't get rid of her
if you try.
ELLEN: That because there is something inside her that is fundamentally
good, Rose.
That what you don't
understand.
It's just her way to
be catty.
But inside, underneath
.
ROSE: Inside,
underneath.
Who you kidding?
The only reason she
keeps coming back is to play it over mom
Because she has no
place else to go.
Uncle Jacks passed out
on the couch
and who else does she
know who would put up with her.
Aunt Theresa's stuck
here the same as us.
It's either here or
the bar or Uncle Jack
and that's as good as
the bad in either case.
Kills me the way she
keeps talkin about his bad leg.
The only thing bad
about his leg is that its hollow.
Phlebitis?
It's rum that lays him
out on the couch.
ELLEN: Why do you keep going on about that Rose?
Can you not once talk
about anything
without talking about
drinking?
ROSE: Because that's all there is to talk about around here.
What else does anybody
do that we know.
ELLEN: But it's the way it creeps into every conversation.
Don't you do other
things don't you know other people?
ROSE: Frankly no.
Why bother?
It all comes
home.
It all ends up right
here.
You go out
and the whole time
your away you think that she might be out cold on the front step.
You meet someone and
instead of seeing them all you can see is the look on her bleary eyes
The look in her eyes finding
fault with anyone or anything you may bring home.
But I can live with it.
I don't expect anything else.
ELLEN: Well, I can't be that way.
I think there can be
more.
I think ....
ROSE: When are you going to grow up Ellen?
(Affecting a brogue)
Were two darlinmaiden sisters who have taken the goodness to
care for their ailin mother.
Ah me mother she came
from Donegal where they et the pataytahs skins an all ( back to normal )
and were the potatoes.
She's a drunk, Ellen,
a rummy through and through
and were gonna shrivel up and waste away fermented in her gin.
ELLEN: Rose, that's enough.
ROSE: Tough to face isn't it but that's the truth and you know it.
ELLEN: That still doesn't mean you have to.
ROSE: Have to what?
Have to what?
ELLEN: Be crude about it.
ROSE: Crude?
Crude?
You think that guy you
brought in here is coming back after the show he got.
Talk about crude.
ELLEN: I'm sure he just thought mom was not feeling well.
ROSE: Not feeling well?
Wake up El!
Dancing around the
living room.
Singing "My Wild
Irish Rose".
She practically took
her dress off in front of him.
ELLEN: Her age.
He could have thought
she was senile.
ROSE: Senile?
When are you gonna
face it Ellen?
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She made a pass at him.
ELLEN: I'm sure he didn't notice.
ROSE: Then why hasn't he called back?
ELLEN: Hess been busy.
I know he had to go
away for a while.
ROSE: Away for a while?
Like your other
friends?
None of em come
back.
Why do you bring em
here in the first place?
ELLEN: It's our home.
Why shouldn't I?
ROSE: Because it's not a home.
ELLEN: Enough, Rose.
ROSE: Was it our home when she brought in her strays from the bar?
Was it our home every time she locked us out
in the yard while they were in here with
her?
Was it our home when
the nuns from social services came to take us away?
ELLEN: The ugly side.
You always see the
ugly side.
ROSE: Who are you kidding.
It's all game all part
of your act.
You need her to be on adrunk so
that she needs you.
That why you bring your friends here.
You bring them here so that she can scare them all away for you.
ELLEN: That not true_
ROSE: She's your excuse.
She's your excuse for
being afraid to find someone.
You think you have to
find some guy,
some prince for your
fairy tale
because that's how it
reads in your little book.
But it's not a man you
want.
It's just a part you
need in your picture books.
ELLEN: Things just don't work out for me.
ROSE: Oh, they work.
They work just the way
you want them to.
It's not a man you
want, is it Ellen?
It's not a man.
I know.
I know because I'm
your sister.
I know because I smell
them too.
They stand within a
foot of me and I can smell it on them.
They all smell of it.
And it sickens my
stomach.
They smell like her
bedroom when we were kids.
They smell like the
kitchen table where she gave them their morning coffee,
They smell like the
sofa where she put us to sleep.
Their smell was all
over
All over the rooms.
ELLEN: You're talking like a fool.
Who remembers those
days?
ROSE: Who remembers?
(beat)
Who forgets?
ELLEN: I do.
I forget.
I forget because I don't
need that in my life anymore.
I don't need to keep
going over it the way you do.
(violently)
I don't need it!
I don't want it!
ROSE: You do need it!
You do!
You need it because that's
all you know.
You need the shouts
and screams to know where you are.
You want the hysteria
You want the
chaos.
You want it because that's
the real world for you.
Yes, it's the ugly side.
Because the ugly side is what we got.
The ugly side is where we live.
The ugly side is what we are.
And no book of roses,
no hand painted card
No world somewhere else
is going to change it.
We're not free
As long as she's not free.
And she has us bolted in.
ELLEN: But you can change if you want to.
(Ellen fingers the
Book Of Gardens)
You can try,
You can make it
better.
ROSE: But that's just it El, you really don't try.
ELLEN: And what have you done?
What have you done ?
ROSE: I face who I am,
what we are,
where we live
and what we have to
live with.
This is no paradise
Ellen,
no matter how many
flower books you bring around here.
I know who I am.
ELLEN: And I know who I am
and its more than
this.
ROSE: More than what?
You couldn't last five
minutes outside this house.
ELLEN: Don't be ridiculous.
I'm a working woman
and I can take care of
myself in this world..
ROSE: A working woman.
Directory assistance
and a ten minute bus ride.
ELLEN: It pays the bills.
ROSE: And I don't help.
ELLEN: Of course you do.
I didn't say..
ROSE: A least I don't pretend standing behind a lingerie counter is
more than what it is.
I'm a shop girl
A shop girl who never
finished high school
(beat)
Stop pretending Ellen.
Grow up and stop pretending.
ELLEN: I'm not pretending.
Trying to see the good
side is not pretending.
ROSE: Your whole life is pretending.
Even keeping her here
and not sending her off to where she belongs is part of your pretending.
ELLEN: Stop talking nonsense
ROSE: Nonsense?
Nonsense?-
What would you do
without her El?
What would you
do?
She gives you all the
parts you need to play.
You love being the
martyr,
you love the
theatrics,
the suffering.
You swallow it down
like she does gin.
And that's not all you
need.
That's not all.
(beat)
You think I don't hear
you in the kitchen at night?
You think I don't
notice the extra glass you leave in the sink,
you think the smell isn't
on you just like it's on her?
ELLEN:(violently angry)
That not true and you
know it.
I don't drink.
I'll never drink.
ROSE: Then what's that you've been sipping at night?
ELLEN: I don't drink.
I don't.
It's not the same as
drinking.
It just sometimes she
makes me so worried I have a little something to help me sleep.
It's to help me sleep that's
all.
ROSE: Something to sleep.
(Rose goes to the
sideboard and holds the key in Ellen's face.)
That why you keep the
bottle locked up.
Why's it even in the
house?
For company?
What company?
Who ever comes
here?
Whets the key for
Ellen?
What's it for?
To keep it away from
her or to save it just for you?
ELLEN: How can you say....?.
ROSE: Go ahead,
buy your pretty books,
make your little cards
and set your birthday tables.
But you're not fooling
me.
You may be fooling
yourself.
Fooling yourself
because you have to .
But,, you're not
fooling me.
It's in your blood and
in mine too.
ELLEN: You're cruel.
You're cruel.
(Ellen cradles the
book andstarts crying over emotionally)
ROSE:In your blood, Ellen.
In your blood.
You're goin the same
road, Ellen.
Bubblin' booze.
Jumpin' gin.
in you just like me
(beat)
just like her.
And you know
what?
She knows it.
She knows it and she's
waiting.
Waiting to see you
slumped in that chair beside her,
waiting for you to
mumble your half words to hers.
You'll be her
company.
Her companion in the
bottle.
You know she doesn't
like to drink alone.
become just like
her.
And that's what will
make her happy.
That's what will
satisfy her,
knowing that you're
right there with her.
ELLEN: Cruel.
Cruel.
Just like her.
Every word from your
mouth.
Small and mean,
always finding
fault.
Nothing but
meanness.
You cut and you stab
just like she does.
ROSE: Meanness.
How can you call me
mean?
You want her to be
this way.
It gives you something
to pay attention to.
We coulda had a life.
We coulda done
something different.
But we didn't did
we?
Not you.
Not me.
We shoulda left her in
that place but we didn't.
Were took her
back.
Took her home because
we wanted to
because you wanted
whatever sick thing it is that she makes you feel.
(Brandishing the
bottle.)
And you just keep
locking yourself deeper inside it,
covering it over with
paper cards and pretty roses.
But you've never done
anything.
Anything to get us
out.
ELLEN: I do try.
I do.
ROSE: You wanna get out.
Here.
Take it!
take it!
(Pushing the bottle
in her face and then pouring out a drink.)
You feed off each other like roaches feed off their own shit.
(Rose flings the liquor at the Book of Gardens.)
(Marie appears from
her room)
MARIE: Whets the racket out here?
Can't get no sleep
with all this racket out here.
ELLEN: It's nothing ma.
ROSE: I don't know why I bother.
It just keeps goin
on.
And you won't get within a mile of the school.
You set her up with another of your impossible ideas.
You work her into a state and once you've got her all worked up
you back out of you plans
back out of whatever you're gonna do with some half baked excuse.
MARIE: (pointing to ELLEN)
She's gonna leave me,
Rose.
She's
gonna go off.
I know it.
Jus'like your ol' man.
Jus' like him.
ELLEN: Get her to be quiet.
(beat)
Can't you get her to
be quiet?
(beat)
Things happen Rose.
Things happen that don't
always let your plans go the way you want them to.
MARIE: I'm cold Rose.
I'm cold.
Help me sit down
(Rose helps Marie to her chair but continues speaking to Ellen.)
ROSE: They go just the way you want them to.
(semi beat)
Get Ma a blanket.
On the bed..
in my room.
ELLEN: Fine.
Fine
Just get her to be
quiet.
(as she exits for
the blanket)
I just want things to
be nice.
just for five minutes.
five minutes.
And I don't see you
doing anything to make it better.
ROSE: (For once, ROSE is silenced. Then)
_Nice.
Everything nice.
(beat)
Quiet.
Just for once.
Quiet.
(Pause)
ROSE (aside)
Once I saw a little girl in the park.
I saw her fall from the swing
She fell and hurt her arms and knees.
There was blood on her.
Blood washing around black rings of gravel and mud.
Her mother was there.
And ran to her in an instant.
She held the little girl and covered her in kisses.
Again and again she kissed her face
and her elbows
and her knees.
And when the little girl stopped crying
she carried her to the water fountain
And with the edge of her summer dress,
the mother washed off the little girls cuts and bruises.
When they went home I went to the same swing
I pumped myself as high as I could.
My feet raised above my head
and blocked the clouds and the sun
Then my face turned down and skimmed past the black mud beneath the
swing.
Again and again ,
back and forth ,
up and down
And then in complete dizziness I flung myself forward.
Flung myself free
Flung myself into arms that were not waiting
Blood covered the ground where my head struck
the pain passed through my nose
and into my mouth
and throat
and lungs
I tasted the hurt in the core of my heart.
But no one came to me.
No one saw me.
And so I sat alone and huddled
Curled into my knees and folded into my own arms.
(ROSE goes to her mother: She pours her a drink.MARIE Takes it and swallows fast.There is a brief moment of exhilaration. )
MARIE:I count on you, Rose.
I count on you to keep
me goin.
You've always been the
good one Rose.
If you wasn't there,
what would I do?
(Pause)
(Looks at her glass.)
Its empty Rose.
It always gets empty so fast.
You don't wanna make your poor ma get up.
Will you take care of me Rose?
Don't make me get up no more.
( She holds out the glass.)
ROSE: Sure, Ma.
MARIE: I'm so tired Rose, ya know.
If you could just take
somethin to go to sleep.
I jus' wanna sleep.
ROSE: Yeh, ma.
MARIE:I jus' wanna sleep,
but I keep wakin
up.
(Beat)
Fix my chair first, will ya, hon?
(Beat)
Fix this pillow.
Ya got a blanket?
Cover me.
Cover me.
I got a chill.
Something so that I could go to sleep.
I jus' wanna sleep
Ahm so tired.
(ROSE draws the pillow from behind her mother.)
ROSE: You tired, ma?
MARIE: Yeh, Honey.
I need to get some
sleep.
I get so tired wakin
up.
Wakin up
Why?
For what?
I jus' wanna sleep.
A good night of sleep;
(beat)
Help me get some
sleep.
(She holds out the
glass.)
I'm
tired a wakin up.
Tired.
Rose still has the pillow in her
hand.
She takes the glass and walks with the pillow to the sideboard.
She puts the pillow down on the sideboard and next to it the
glass.
Rose fills the glass.
She picks up the glass then puts it down.
Rose picks up the pillow and returns to the chair.
There is a coverlet on the chair.
Rose puts the coverlet over her mother.
As MARIE mumbles something inaudible, ROSE puts the pillow over MARIE's
face.
MARIE struggles but only for a moment.
ROSE kisses her mother on the forehead and then makes the sign of the
cross over herself.
Ellen enters.
She sees that MARIE is still.
ELLEN: Did she fall asleep already?
ROSE: (Very softly as she strokes her mother's hair)
Yeh.
She's asleep.
(beat)
Asleep.
(Ellen sits silently in the chair next to her mother. )