Reprinted here with permission from the playwright. To reproduce this script or produce this play, the playwright must be contacted directly.
ACT ONE
We see a series of platforms. Upstage Right is LEVEL 1 with a huge canvas and a curtain in middle hanging down and announcing a medicine show. A piano flanks the right side of this platform which represents Real Time. LEVEL 2 occupies the largest area, stretching downstage from Stage Left to Stage Center and sloping slightly upward. Here the main action of the narration takes place. LEVEL 3, set upstage behind Level 2, serves either as an extension of Level 2 or a place for Flashbacks to the narration.
Canvas painted in green and suggesting the Wilderness frame Level 3 and provides backdrop for Level 2 as well.
House lights darken. We hear distant cannon roar and explosions offstage.
Drum roll as stage lights come on.
SCENE 1
CAST wearing masks perform stunts: tumbling, juggling, dancing, tarot cards, etc. Music: WIZARD OIL.
CAST
Oh! I love to travel far and near throughout my native land;
I love to sell as I go 'long, and take the cash in hand,
I love to cure all in distress that happen in my way,
And you better believe I feel quite fine when folks rush up and say:
Chorus
"I'll take another bottle of Wizard Oil,
I'll take another bottle or two;
I'll take another bottle of Wizard Oil,
I'll take another bottle or two."
Now, listen to what I'm going to say, and don't you think
I'm jesting
When I tell you for your aches and pains that Wizard Oil's the best thing.
It's healing and it's soothing, it's refreshing and it's thriving,
The proof of which, wherever it's sold the people all are thriving.
Chorus
BARKERS
That's so! Wherever Wizard Oil is used, the people always thrive. I never get up to sell the second time in a town but I'm interrupted by the sweet silver voice of a young lady or the sonorous tones of a gentleman. they rush up to me with a half-dollar in their hands and soon I hear their sweet exclamations, which sound very much like this:
Chorus, 2X.
Level 1: BARKERS mount platform. THEY remove their masks. BARKER 1 has whiteface on, BARKER 2 blackface.
BARKER 1
(In voice) Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, welcome.
BARKER 2
(In sign) Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, welcome.
BARKERS
(Together) Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to present for your enjoyment and edification the most astonishing collection of humanity ever assembled in one place. Nature's aberrations. Freaks, if you will.
(CAST face about to audience)
Oddities of obession, driven by Godknowswhat inner demons. Presented in two-languages!
(CAST face about to audience)
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, two languages! One of the mouth. One of the hands. We are two yet we are one. Every word you hear(see), you also see(hear).
(CAST face about to audience)
Ladies and gentlemen, you're looking at a feat of linguistic synchronization performed nowhere else in the world.
Distant cannon roars and explosions offstage. CAST feign dying, snap back and laugh at audience.
BARKERS
The monumental War Between the States in its third year. But we have no foes here. Ladies and gentlemen, we're all friends tonight. This business is strictly apolitical. No Mason--Dixon line, only laughter and gratification. The human spirit demands entertainment.
(BARKER 1 moves among audience.)
We're not unmindful of the brave boys at the front, blue or gray as their uniforms may be, and the great sacrifice they are making, so let's hear three cheers for them. (Solemnly) To the gallant warriors, we dedicate tonight's performance.
Silence.
Drum roll.
BARKERS
Let's go on with the show, folks!
CAST march up to Level 1, hands up as bayonets.
PAINO PLAYER
Who Shall Rule This American Nation? Lyrics and words by Henry Clay Work, number 38.
Music: WHO SHALL RULE THIS AMERICAN NATION?
CAST
Who shall rule this American Nation?
Say, boys, say!
Who shall sit in the loftiest station?
Say, boys, say!
Shall the men who trampled on the banner?
They who now their country would betray?
They who murder the innocent freedmen?
Say, boys, say!
No, never! no, never!
The loyal millions say;
And 'tis they who rule this American Nation!
They, boys, they!
Logs and rocks are brought in and set on Level 2.
BARKERS
Ladies and gentlemen, a most bizzare event took place five short months ago outside Chancellorsville, a woods called the Wilderness. A netherworld of rotting logs, foul swamps and roaming wild hogs. (Beat) A young soldier was separated from his unit.
Cannon roar and explosions offstage.
Level 2: CONROY STUART, 24, staggers out of the bushes. HE wears the ragtag uniform of Confederacy and carries a rifle. HE is searching for his unit. Freeze.
BARKERS
Gathered at short notice, at great expense, brought to you by Wizard Oil, the principals of this belief-defying tale will relate the strange circumstances that thrust this soldier into their lives. The hairs on the back of your head will rise. We guarantee no less.
Cannons roar and explosions offstage.
CONROY sinks to ground.
CONROY
Sergeant! Sergeant... Sergeant, Sergeant...
Level 1.
BARKERS
Ladies and gentlemen, our first exhibt!
SERGEANT enters from curtian.
BARKERS
The Sergeant!
(Drum roll. SERGEANT removes his mask.)
Battle-hardened veteran of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. A survivor forged in courage and discipline, bearing the scars of duty and glory.
At Level 3, a table with paper and writing instuments and a chair are set.
SERGEANT
Thank you, sir, thank you. Um, folks, it takes all kinds to fight a war and I thought I've seen all, but one day he walked in – April 28, 1864 – how can I forget the day. Exactly a week before we took on the butcher Grant in the Wilderness. First time Grant and Lee ever clashed. Anyway...
(Crosses to Level 3, to music of The Bonnie Blue Flag).
We are a band of brothers, and native to the soil,
Fighting for the property we gained by honest toil;
SCENE 2
Level 3: CONROY enters, straight to the table and picks up a pen. Through the monologue, SERGEANT keeps up a prattle, preventing CONROY again and again from signing.
SERGEANT
Well, well, my boy. As fine a specimen of Southern manhood I've ever laid my eyes on. Well fed, tooif I may say so. You've not been hiding, by any chance, a hog or two? No matter, I'm glad to see you. President Davis and General Lee could use someone as healthy and fit like you. Hell, we could use any man who walks in. Heard Grant's hot for Richmond. Amassed 118,000 men and supply wagons stretching miles to doomsday. Let the sunvabitch try if he dares. One Southern boy's worth ten Yankees. Son, there's nothing like the roar of the cannons, the smell of gunpower, the red of the enemy's blood. Nothing's more glorious than to fight for freedom and, if God wills it, die for your country. What're you waiting for? You want to sign up, sign up!
(Quickly CONROY grabs the pen and signs.)
Conroy Stuart. Fine Southern name. Aren't you by any chance related to Jeb Stuart? If there's a man who's born with a sword in his mouth, it's ol' Jeb. Born to calvary like deer to hills... Not much of a talker, are you? All right with me long as you shoot good and ain't afraid of being shot back. We've enough guys who're good only at shooting their mouths off. Haven't I seen you somewhere before? Weren't you at Staunton, no, at Farmville?–
(CONROY bring his rifle up.)
What're you doing? Hey, there're decent folks out there–
(CONROY pulls the trigger. Gunshot.)
My God, you shot someone! (Yells to DS left) Anybody hurt? Just a dead hare? (To CONROY) It'd damn better be a hare. Jesus, it must be a hundred yards, least. Where did you learn to shoot like that?–I get it. You're the dummy who tried to enlist back at... No matter. Deaf mutes aren't allowed in the army. Against the regulations.
(CONROY does not move.)
Can't you understand? You can't fight. If you're not right in body, we can't use you. Too dangerous. In war, you get no second chance. I'll just tear the paper up.
(reaches for the paper. CONROY stabs it with the barrel of his rifle.)
For your own good. No hard feelings.
(tries to pull paper out, to no avail),
Don't be difficult. Damn it, why can't you go away like a good boy...
(THEY try to outstare each other.)
You could outstare the devil. My eyes're not what they used to be. Too much gunpowder, all the smoke–
CONROY
(In gesture only) Your eyes dead.
SERGEANT
My eyes're dead? No, they're not–you, you're the deadeye... I like you. You've a sense of humor.. Umm, it'd be a mortal sin to let your God-given talent go waste. And the Lord knows a good marksman's hard to come by, especially in those times.
CONROY
(In gesture only) You be my ears, I be your eyes.
SERGEANT
(Beat.) You be my eyes. I be your ears... You know what? Those twenty-pounders can wake the dead up... Or the deaf. Dead. Deaf. (Comes to a decision). You've spirit. I'll give you a great opportunity as nobody's ever going to give you.
(THEY shake hands)
I'll be a big brother. Stick close by me. Stick close for glory. Killing the enemy's the only reason you go to war. One Rebel's worth ten goddamn Yankees. A deaf mute should be worth at least five.
SCENE 3
Level 2: CONROY rises and continues his search, exits.
THOMAS MAGILL, 33 and in Union blue, enters. Griping a rifle, HE studies his surroundings. HE rests and drinks from his canteen. CONROY reenters upstage and exits. The two soldiers do not see each other. THOMAS removes a map from his pocke and marks on it.
Cannon roar and explosions.
THOMAS throws himself to ground. CONROY reenters, falling to ground.
Cannon roars and explosions.
THOMAS rises and runs into CONROY. Tableau.
THOMAS
(Throwing his hands up, in voice) Don't shoot! Don't shoot!
(CONROY tightens his grip on the rifle, more nervous than the other.)
You'll shoot me! For love of God, won't you ease off... ease off... (Seeing no response from CONROY) Don't you understand? Ease off, ease off. You deaf or something? (Beat) This is going to sound funny, sir, but I'm the deaf one. You understand what I said? (Points to his ear, shakes his head) No hear. Deaf, deaf... (Lower, then quickly raise his arms again) How the devil am I ever going to convince you drolling idiot?
CONROY
You deaf?
Unless indicated otherwise, CONROY and THOMAS sign only hereafter.
THOMAS
You know sign?
(Lowering his hands) You a soldier?
(CONROY raises his rifle, THOMAS immediately raises his hands.)
Really a soldier?
CONROY
Who are you?
THOMAS
I can't believe it, a deaf Rebel–
CONROY
WHO ARE YOU?
THOMAS
I'm deaf, too–
CONROY
There're others?
THOMAS
Other what?
CONROY
Yankees! More of you vermin around?
THOMAS
I wouldn't know.
CONROY
What do you mean you wouldn't know?
THOMAS
Just me. Honest, just me.
CONROY
What's your unit?
THOMAS
The Massachusetts 56th.
CONROY
Where is it?
THOMAS
My name's Thomas. (Quicklly raises his hands again.) Thomas Magill... Can I lower my hands a little? Easier to sign. I'll talk away from me. May I?... Thank you... I got separated. Or rather the others got separated.
CONROY
What're you talking about?
THOMAS
You know how it is, sir, in battle, all chaos, confusion. Men scrambling in all directions. and the place's a maze. You go around a tree and the tree goes around you–
CONROY
Get to the point.
THOMAS
I'm alone.
CONROY
I don't believe you.
THOMAS
You're lost, too.
CONROY
I'm not lost.
THOMAS
Of course, you're not.
CONROY
I'm a Virginian. I know my land. You're trepassing.
(Bends to take THOMAS' rifle, notices the map)
What's that?
THOMAS
Oh–a letter from home.
(HE grabs for it. CONROY forces him back.)
CONROY
A map?
(No reply) You need a map to find your way home?
THOMAS
I've a terrible sense of direction. You know how we the deaf have this problem. You have it, doesn't you–
CONROY
(Looks hard at THOMAS. Reads the map) Rapidan River. The Wilderness. Chancellorsville–what's that? An arrow's drawn toward... Spotsylvania Courthouse? Lee. You know where General Lee's heading, reorganizing... he's sending calvary to delay Grant?. Why, you're a spy, a dirty spy.
THOMAS
Wait a minute.
CONROY
We'll put you in front of a firing squad.
THOMAS
It was lying on the ground–I found it by accident. Honest–
CONROY
Or better hang you.
THOMAS
I don't spy! I just check the terrain ahead–all armies need water. Open space, soft ground to pitch tents. I'm a scout.
CONROY
Scout. Spy. Same thing.
(Puts map in shirt.)
THOMAS
I'm no spy! I can't evasedrop under a window or through a keyhole.
CONROY
You're not deaf.
THOMAS
But I am. You want to give me a hearing test?
CONROY
You used your voice with me. You speak well.
THOMAS
So what if a deaf mute can speak well.
CONROY
Deaf mute! (Closes on to THOMAS) Only a hearing person would use the term. Deaf mute.
(Spits on THOMAS.)
THOMAS
(Wipes spit off) How about my signing?
CONROY
You could have been a minister.
THOMAS
First I'm a dirty spy. Now I'm a man of God. What'll I be next, an opera singer?
CONROY
My minister signed.
THOMAS
Praise God, we have here a miracle! Was he good?
(Caricaturing a minister)
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
SCENE 4
Level 1:
BARKERS sets a box down.
BARKERS
Ladies and gentlemen, in his full glory as Heaven's spokesman,
Drum roll. MINISTER enters and removes his mask.
His Reverend the Minister! Guardian of our earthly souls. Literally with his hands, this one.
MINISTER
Thank you, my brothers and sisters, thank you in the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ. By what you believe, you determine your destiny. Or by what others believe. This young man, a soldier of the Lord, made his choice. Despite what Saint Paul and St. Augustine preached: Ex auditu fidem.
BARKERS
Faith comes through hearing.
MINISTER
Despite the influence of Aristotle through millenniums:
BARKERS
Those who are born deaf became senseless and incapable of reason.
Music: PRESIDENT HARRISON'S FUNERAL MARCH.
MINISTER/CHOIR
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy
staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine
enemies:
Thou anoinetest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Amen.
During the hymn, MINISTER has crossed to Level 3 where a pulpit and bench have been set up.
MINISTER
(In sign and voice) Today's sermon–
(CONROY rushes up, lays rifle outside.)
MINISTER
Wouldn't you take a seat, my son?
(CONROY sits on the bench.)
Today's sermon: Life Beyond Death. The simple man asks, "Does it exist?" The Lord in his infinite wisdom would not let us believe in something that does not exist. He has given us the choice of two paths to eternity. The Kingdom of Heaven. Eternal damnation.
CONROY
Heaven or hell.
MINISTER
(Sees CONROY) Very good, my son. Heaven or hell.
CONROY
Sir, may I ask a question?
MINISTER
Please, my son.
CONROY
Why did God make me different?
MINISTER
Why did God make you different?... Reasonable question. Each of us are in this life to be tested.
CONROY
Tested for what?
MINISTER
Why, your worthiness to enter the Kingdom of Heaven... What's wrong, my son?
CONROY
The test doesn't seem fair. Others do not go through what I have to.
MINISTER
God tests each of us according to His plan.
CONROY
What is His plan?
MINISTER
It is not for us to know.
CONROY
You don't know?
MINISTER
God does not explain himself.
CONROY
(Beat) Is the army a part of the test?
MINISTER
Army?
CONROY
Today I signed up with the Army of Northern Virginia.
MINISTER
But you're...
CONROY
I'm....? You seem shocked.
MINISTER
It was, uh, most unexpected. But it's very commendable, what you did. With God, anything is possible.
CONROY
Will I die in battle?
MINISTER
God will be with you.
CONROY
Then I won't die?
MINISTER
I didn't say that. What I mean is... We cannot know when we die, only when we live. Have faith,my boy.
CONROY
Faith in?
MINISTER
In God, of course, my boy.
CONROY
Sounds too easy.
MINISTER
What do you mean? (No reply) It's not a kind of crutch like nonbelievers say. It takes courage to have faith, to accept a belief on its face value. My son, if so many accepts it, how can you say they're wrong?
CONROY
Then God approves of my going to war?
MINISTER
The Lord is a man of war. Exodus 15:3. My son, faith in God strengthens faith in oneself. St. Paul and St. Augustine were wrong. I will save you.
CONROY
Was it hard for you to learn sign language.
MINISTER
(Beat) Through the grace of Jesus Christ, I've succeeded.
CONROY
Is that your test?
MINISTER
The Lord knows. Let us now sing. The congregation's waiting.
MINISTER/CHOIR
God save the South!
God save the South!
Her altars and firesides!
(CONROY joins)
God save the South!
Now that the war is nigh,
Now that we're arm'd to die
Chanting our battle cry
Freedom or Death!
MINISTER
(Stopping CONROY at door) When you enter the Kingdom of Heaven, you'll join the angels singing.
CONROY
I'll hear?
MINISTER
Faith, my son, faith.
SCENE 5
Level 2.
THOMAS
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
CONROY
You're not funny.
THOMAS
Oh, I thought I was pretty good.
CONROY
We also shoot, hang bad actors.
THOMAS
What are you, a dramatic critic?... Sorry if I've offended you. If I had known you take your faith seriously, I'd not do it.
CONROY
Do you have some kind of faith?
THOMAS
I don't go to church regularly. No matter, faith's not the easiest thing in the world when someone's pointing a gun at you... What do you want from me? If you're a bandit in disguise, you can have my money. Don't have much, but you're welcome to it–
CONROY
Lie down!
(THOMAS lies down on his stomach. CONROY moves around, for a cue as what to do next.)
THOMAS
What're you looking for, a newsboy, a cab, your sister?–
Cannon roar and explosion.
(THOMAS covers his head.
CONROY is thrown off his feet. THOMAS rises to escape. Another explosion throws HIM to ground. HE sees CONROY wincing in pain.)
CONROY
My leg.
THOMAS
(Returning to CONROY) Where does it hurt? You caught a shrapnel. The pain'll get worse after you get over the shock.
CONROY
I don't want to lose my leg.
THOMAS
Doesn't look too serious. I'll bandage it.
(Removes his handkerchief.)
CONROY
Was it yours or mine?
THOMAS
What?
CONROY
The cannons.
THOMAS
It has to be mine.
CONROY
You can tell?
THOMAS
Yeah, I can tell.
CONROY
You can hear the difference?
THOMAS
They got you. (Beat) Nothing personal. (Bandages the leg) You should be all right until help comes-
(CONROY points his rifle at THOMAS. THEY look at each other.)
CONROY
You know too much. You had the map. I'm sorry.
THOMAS
I too am sorry, heathen.
CONROY
Heathen?
THOMAS
I don't suppose you've heard of the Good Samartian.
CONROY
(Beat) No, I haven't heard. You're going back with me.
THOMAS
To where?
CONROY
To my unit.
THOMAS
What for?
CONROY
You're my prisoner.
THOMAS
Prisoner? What'll you do with me? Make me talk? My voice's not very good–
CONROY
We'll hold you until... we'll have to see what happens.
(Struggles to his feet)
THOMAS
How'll you'll find your unit? On one leg? Don't expect me to carry you in my arms. We could run into mine. and you can rot in my prison.
CONROY
Shut up and move.
THOMAS
Now it's getting embarrassing, being ordered around by a cripple.
CONROY
Don't ever think of escaping. My finger's not crippled.
THOMAS
Can we be reasonable about this?
CONROY
No.
THOMAS
You were lying there, bellowing like a cow–
(CONROY pushes HIM with barrel of rifle)
We won't be going very far.
CONROY
I'll decide that.
THOMAS
In fact, we'll be going nowhere except maybe Kingdom Come.
CONROY
Then to Kingdom Come, we come.
THOMAS
Has it occurred to you, my dear conquering hero, that it'll soon be dark.
CONROY
So?
THOMAS
In the dark of the forest, in the dark of the night...
Level 1:
BARKERS
In two days in the Wilderness Grant lost 17,500 men, Lee more than 8,000. Ladies and gentlemen,the Wilderness is not a battle but a blind and bloody hunt to death, a Union private called it. Comrades firing upon comrades all the while their commanders consulted their compasses and ended up right back where they started. The Wilderness: a woods, a swamp, a hellhole! Underbrush stained with blood. Shallow graves. Thickets tangled with human bones.
(BARKER 1 produces a skull.)
In the very spot they fought a battle the previous year. A strategic standstill. A spiritual standstill. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a Wilderness of the soul, wherein everyone of us must each find our way out. (Disappear behind curtain)
Level 2:
THOMAS
It will not be easy to find our way.
CONROY
You afraid of the dark?
THOMAS
(In voice only) Halt, identify yourself.
CONROY
(Looks over his shoulder) What?
THOMAS
(In voice only) Bang! Bang!
CONROY
Don't play games with me!
THOMAS
I'm dying.
(falls to ground, as if dying.)
CONROY
Cut it out!
THOMAS
The password, Soldier boy.
CONROY
Password?
THOMAS
You've gotta give a password. Like... Avenzoar. Beecher's Buns. Charlemagne. A lot of nervous people are out there, yours and mine. Ghosts. And they're spooked. (Play-acting a sentry) Halt! Who's there? Identify yourself! Password! How'll you answer? You as much as grugle, they pump you full of holes. A leaf rustles, they vapor it to glory . My tentmate once shot a cow. Strayed in the camp. He got a medal.
CONROY
What does the military genius suggest?
THOMAS
Settle for the night. Build a fire. Have a little supper–
CONROY
You have food?
THOMAS
Be my guest, Mr... You have a name?
CONROY
My name doesn't matter.
THOMAS
It doesn't matter who you are? Come on, your name's not a military secret, is it?
CONROY
(Finally) Conroy Stuart.
THOMAS
Ah, Mr. Stuart, I'm honored to make your acquaintance. You are cordially invited to an evening of gastronomic delights featuring premium government-issued hardtack and coffee. Black tie optional. Thomas Magill at your service. Thank you. Now, with your permission, I'll get a fire going.
(CONROY raises his rifle.)
This is getting somewhat ridiculous. Mr. Private Conroy Stuart,I can think 3 compelling reasons for not running into this void although one's enough. First,I've nowhere to go. Second, I don't know where to go. Third, I don't want to go. What do you say we agree to a truce. I give my word of honor that I won't attempt an escape. I won't take that dangerous thing away from you. I won't harm a hair of yours. I won't
yell for help. I won't eat all the food. A solemn agreement between gentlemen, huh?... You keep up this distrust, you'll get constipation.
CONROY
(Beat) All right.
THOMAS
You're not coming to dinner with it, are you?
(mimes bayoneting a steak.)
CONROY
Till dawn.
THOMAS
Till dawn.
(CONROY puts rifle down, but close to him. THOMAS gathers wood, cautiously.)
SERGEANT
(Entering DS right) Hey, you seen the boy? Yeah, the mute. I took my eyes off him for a moment and he vaporized–shut up. I can see better than you can smell a polecat. He ran off during the attack?... You didn't see where he was going? Toward the rear? (Beat) Was he all right? Thanks. Yeah, we surprised them bluecoats... Hell of a night to be out. Gotta be a way to bring our wounded in. A spark's all you need to set the place ablaze, the damn bushes. Happened yesterday, the poor devils lying helpless while being burned alive... Is he among them? Is he still alive. (Exits.)
SCENE 6
Night noises. A campfire has been set up, along with a coffee pot and cup.
THOMAS
(Preparing coffee) Now we let it boil, bubble, brew. The hardtack'll take time. Easier to sop a brick.
CONROY
(Looking in the pot) Worms?
THOMAS
All government-issued. We'll leave them in. For flavor.
(THEY settle.)
CONROY
How did you get in the army?
(THOMAS chuckles.)
I'd like to know.
THOMAS
By the easiest way.
CONROY
What is it?
THOMAS
Money.
CONROY
Bribe?
THOMAS
You can call it that. (sees CONROY's puzzled look) At the post office one fine morning there was this richly-dressed gentleman. Ambling around, shaking hands with everyone.
Like some hoity-toity Congressman, which he turned out to be. (Pause) He offered me one thousand one hundred dollars.
CONROY
For what?
THOMAS
To go to war in his place. He's been drafted.
CONROY
You mean he bought his way out?
(THOMAS nods)
And he was a Congressman? Coward!
THOMAS
All perfectly legal. The President of the United States himself paid for a substitute–
SCENE 7
Level 1.
BARKERS
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to introduce the Reverend Minister turned the Honorable Legislator.
Drum roll. LEGISLATOR enters.
Only in a democracy a man from any station in life can serve the people. Did we say we're apolitical? Indeed, we are. Indeed.
LEGISLATOR
My fellow citizens, the beauty of democracy is that the people
(BARKER 1 holds out a coin. LEGISLATOR looks at one side.)
can elect someone to represent their interests
(looks at other side)
whatever they may be.
(Kisses BARKER 2's hand and at the same time palms the coin and shakes BARKER 1's hand.)
An envoy of the people speaks all languages. Shortly after I was elected to the Congress of the Confederate States of America, I was invited to give a speech in Chancellorsville...
(Crosses to Level 3 where a throng of well-wishers including CONROY and SERGEANT assembles, waving little flags. HE steps on a soapbox.
Plenty of cheering and flag-waving through the speech.)
My fellow citizens, the Confederacy was inspired by the immortal words of a fellow Virginian: all men are created equal and endowed by their Creators with the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
And may I add at the hour of its struggle to remain a free nation, free from outside interference, free to pursue our way of life: the right to the defense of their country! What nobler duty can a citizen offer upon the altar of freedom?
(sees CONROY)
Look at this lad! Look at the pride in his eyes. Look at the resolve with which he hold his weapon of redemption. Look at the bravery and patriotism pouring out of every pore of his being! Let him be a shining example! He's staking the blossom of his youth for the South's right to exist the way God intends us to exist. God is on our side! Our cause is just!
Deafening cheers, handshakes, etc. ALL exit except for LEGILATOR and WHORE. They look at each other and walk off together.
THOMAS
Ol' Abe's too old to fight anyway.
CONROY
I can't believe anyone'd do it for money.
THOMAS
A lot of others were doing it.
CONROY
What kind of people are you Northerns?
THOMAS
I needed the money.
CONROY
My country need me.
(THOMAS looks at him for a moment and reaches for his
knapsack. CONROY reaches for his rifle. THEY freeze.)
THOMAS
In her last letter Mary sent this.
(Removes and hands a daguerreotype over to CONROY.)
CONROY
She's beautiful. Your wife?
THOMAS
An angel God let got away.
CONROY
You were saying about money.
THOMAS
One thousand one hundred dollars. Four times as much as the usual rate for a substitute. Mary was ill. The money paid for the doctor, medicine and special food. She regained her strength to give birth to (indicates the daguerreotype)
CONROY
(Looks at daguerreotype again) Two?
THOMAS
Twins. Anne. Carole.
CONROY
God, they're so cute.
THOMAS
They must be ten, no, eleven months now.
CONROY
Can they... ?
THOMAS
Hear? (On one hand) Yes. (simultaneously n the other hand) No.
CONROY
You're not sure?
THOMAS
Mary wrote that they both have same reddish-brown hair. Blue eyes. Rosy and pump cheeks. Little upturned noses. They look so alike, like they came out of the same mold. They even cry at the same time for diaper change. Yet...
CONROY
One hearing, one deaf?
THOMAS
One hearing, one deaf.
CONROY
How did that happened?
THOMAS
The doctor couldn't figure it out, so it must be hereditary. From Mary's side. There's an aunt and a great grandmother.
CONROY
Which is which?
THOMAS
I'm still trying to get them straight. I think Ann's hearing, Carol's deaf. Maybe the other way around. It'll help tell the girls apart.
CONROY
Is Mary deaf?
THOMAS
No.
CONROY
I suppose she know sign language.
THOMAS
Some.
CONROY
(Beat) How did she feel about your being in the army? (No reply) I don't mean to pry.
THOMAS
She thought I shouldn't be. (Beat) Mary thought I was going too far. Said it was bad enough that I surrounded myself with all the fashionable books and magazines, that I attended the lectures at Harvard, straining to lipread from the front row, that I attended all the concerts and theatre just to be seen. She said I can't accept being what I am. Conroy, Is it so wrong to want to improve oneself?
CONROY
No.
THOMAS
How else can you be accepted by the world in general?
CONROY
I ask myself the same questions all the time.
THOMAS
You do?
CONROY
I've been deaf all my life.
THOMAS
Your parents deaf?
CONROY
Only outside home.
THOMAS
Outside home?
CONROY
We lived on a farm. Maybe fifty miles from here. At home sounds has no meaning for us, only sights. Of the wind howling, animals raising their heads up, a lamp in the middle of the night. We never think of what we are, only who we are to each other, me, my mother, my father. (Pause) It's different when we leave the farm. In the village, on the train, whereever we encounter a hearing person, we became deaf mutes.
THOMAS
For me, Mary is home.
CONROY
You love Mary?
THOMAS
Of course, I love her. What are you trying to imply?
CONROY
Nothing.
THOMAS
I love her but not because she's not deaf.
CONROY
Take it easy.
THOMAS
You have a wife?
CONROY
I'm not married.
THOMAS
Girl friend? Is she deaf?
SCENE 8
Level 1:
BARKER 2 is playing the piano.
BARKER 1 rushes in lines up the cartons, beckoning BARKER 2 who rushes up to join him. BARKER 1 calls BARKER 2's attention to the piano which continues to play on.
BARKERS
Gotcha! HaHaHa. Play on, little magic piano, play on.
WHORE and WHORE'S FRIEND enter with opera glasses. THEY sit on the cartons and enjoy the show. A melodrama sketch of LEGISLATOR coming in and sitting between THEM. Music: TAKE THEM AWAY.
LEGISLATOR
Riding in the Park, or down town shopping–
At the Matinee, or singing in the choir–
Everywhere a dazzling blaze of beauty
Blinds my eyes, and sets my soul afire.
Chorus
How My heart thumps, and how my head whirls!
Don't you look this way, beautiful girls!
Oh, take them away, they'll drive me crazy!
Oooooohhh!! – the saucy, pretty, winning, witty,
mischief-loving girls!
Repeat
As I sit besides them, charming creatures,
Little do they know how I am tempted to
Throw my arms around their necks, and kiss them!
Thou, of course, I know it wouldn't do.
Chorus, Repeat
BARKERS
(Reentering) The world's oldest specimen- – after the shaman, the venerated forebear of the purveyors of Wizard Oil!
Drum roll. WHORE rises from her seat.
Around the temples of Uruk, Babylon, Athens and Jerusalem, her sisters flourished, worshipped for their special wares. Ladies and gentlemen, in flesh, in flesh, the Whore!
WHORE
King Solomon had a thousand wives and whores. Can't imagine how else he got so wise. Knew all about passion. Passion's my trade. As for love, it's just an avocation. Oh, let me see... I was at the opera. I decided to walk back, it was such a glorious day... (Exits.)
LEGISLATOR
Gliding through the gateway, there they go! there they go!
Don't they make you think of a broken string of pearls?
Tripping up the stairway, here they come! here they come!
While the zephyrs frolic in their curls!
Chorus, Repeat
Level 3: WHORE brushes her hair in front of a "mirror."
Behind her is a couch. CONROY enters, pushed from behind. HE does a double-take.)
WHORE
Hello honey... Sergeant!
SERGEANT
Belle!
WHORE
About the time you get here, you old rascal.
SERGEANT
Woman, we're at war. Miss me?
WHORE
Hmmmmm... who's this?
SERGEANT
The answer to South's prayers.
WHORE
He is?
SERGEANT
No finer marksman, there is. Treat him good, Belle.
WHORE
Hello. You want some refreshment, don't you? Horizonal refreshment, I believe you gentlemen call it...
SERGEANT
He's a rather shy one.
WHORE
Your first visit?–Don't answer me. So many of you. It must be in the army manual. A visit to little ol' Belle, all a part of soldering.
SERGEANT
The Yankees've 450 houses in Washington.
WHORE
You mean 450 like this one?
SERGEANT
That's what I heard. The Army of the Potomac is huge. Huge.
WHORE
Huge. Well, once you taste it, you'll never have enough. (To CONROY) Well, my young buck, you'll find out soon enough. (Takes his hand) Strong hands. (Pulls his hand down her breast) Like it, huh? Looks like you've swallowed your tongue, hee hee. (Turns away).
(SERGEANT gestures for CONROY TO pull pants down. CONROY looks down, then at SERGEANT questioningly. SERGEANT repeats gesture. CONROY obeys.)
WHORE
(Turns back to CONROY) Oh. A man of action. Belle can tell.
SERGEANT
(Taking leave) Gotta run along. Take good care of him. Like I said, he's shy. Awfully shy.
(CONROY runs after SERGEANT but is hampered by the pants at his ankles. SERGEANT points to the bed, salutes and exits. CONROY shuffles to bed and sits on it.)
WHORE
Oh, you've gotta get them boots off first. Hee hee. While you're at it, I'll take care of some business, if you don't mind.
(Pulls a bucket from behind counch. CONROY looks in the bucket.)
What's the matter? Oh, we womanfolks gotta save our water. Our patriotic duty. They say it'll be distilled into niter for gunpowder. Well, you can look the other way... .
(Bends over bucket and starts to pull her drawers dwon. CONROY bolts up for the door. WHORE blocks it.)
You pee, too, don't you? Come on, give Belle a nice smile and we'll be friends again. (Leads CONROY back to bed) I like you. You have the look I had when I first came to this town... All the ladies promenading in their beautiful dresses. Leaning on their handsome escorts' arms. Drinking champagne, dancing to music. That's how to live, I told myself. With passion. Many of my admirers were big men in the community. Pillars of government, business and church. Why some folks get uptight about what I do, I'll never understand. I'm not bitter. A girl's gotta make a life. I supply a demand. I don't prostitute my spirit, only my body... You know, without passion, a man's but a lump of two day old dog shit. Limp in bed, limp in life. You look like a man of passion, mi cheri. In your quiet way. Belle can tell. You reach inside me, something about you. A gentle intensity. I've never been in love.
(CONROY touches WHORE'S cheek)
When you're in love, you find compassion for the rest of the world..
Scene 9
Level 2: Night and pissing noises.
Both CONROY and THOMAS' backs are to audience. THEY're peeing.
THOMAS
Yeah, I've been to a brothel. Once, twice. Before I got married. (Returning to campfire, buttoning his pants) You must have been nervous, a canary in the closet with a cat.
CONROY
Nope.
THOMAS
Nope?
CONROY
Why should I be?
THOMAS
It's your first time, wasn't it?
CONROY
Nothing to it.
THOMAS
Nothing to it.
CONROY
It came naturally.
THOMAS
Yeah, yeah. (Checks the coffee pot)
CONROY
Thomas.
THOMAS
Yes?
CONROY
How do you tell if someone likes you?
THOMAS
Umm, a good sign would be when you feel like talking after you're finished.
CONROY
Finished?
(THOMAS pumps his hips.)
Oh. I felt like talking, yes, I wanted to, but she wanted to, too. And she kept talking, as if I understood everything she said.
THOMAS
Through the whole evening, she never knew?
CONROY
If she knew, she didn't show it. Or seemed to care. I'm the one who never knew.
THOMAS
Incredible.
CONROY
She liked the silent type.
THOMAS
So you only groaned and grunted.
CONROY
The coffee's ready.
THOMAS
And moaned. (rolls over in laughter.)
(CONROY pours coffee into a cup.
Sorry, Great Lover. Everyone should have a sublime experience at least once in his life.
(In silence THEY share the cup of coffee, each lost in his thoughts of the loved one. THOMAS reaches for his daguerreotype. CONROY studies him.)
THOMAS
Tell me, moon, thou pale and gray.
(Invites CONROY to join him)
Tell me, moon, thou pale and gray.
Pilgrim of heaven's homeless way,
In what depth of night or day
Seekest thou repose now?
CONROY
What is it?
THOMAS
The World's Wanderers. By Percy Bysshe Shelley.
CONROY
How come you know all these things?
THOMAS
(Beat) It started with intense headaches and high fevers. Vomitting. Then I went into a coma. Meningitis. Infection of membranes of the spinal cord and brain. I was eleven years
THOMAS (CONT.)
old. When I regained consciousness, I woke up to a dream I just had. You see familiar faces. You speak to them. They speak back. But no sound ever comes out. You continue on like you all understand what is going on. Nothing is ever completely clear, nothing every clearly complete. At least that's what I remember of my dreams.
CONROY
I have dreams like that.
THOMAS
My ears just closed shop. My mouth still works, for which I should be grateful. My parents arranged for a private tutor so I'd know pyramid are in Egypt, tell a tomato from a pomegranate, and if you cut the meat with your little fingers out, you appear less gauche. Awkward, uncouth person. Bumpkin. Oaf.
CONROY
You think I'm one?
THOMAS
I didn't say.
CONROY
I get the impression.
THOMAS
It wasn't intentional.
CONROY
I can read and write.
THOMAS
Where did you learn? There can't be any school for the deaf in the South. The first one opened in Hartford only twenty years ago.
CONROY
My mother taught me.
THOMAS
Who taught her?
CONROY
She taught herself.
THOMAS
You may yet go to the National College for the Deaf and Dumb.
CONROY
College?
THOMAS
Ol'Abe is not so preoccupied with the war that he couldn't take time to sign the Bill for the school's establishment.
CONROY
Honest?
THOMAS
It happened this spring.
CONROY
You'll enroll?
THOMAS
I don't know.
CONROY
(Beat) I envy you.
THOMAS
We're always envying someone.
BARKERS
Of the hundreds of thousands, no, of the millions of men in uniform, blue and gray, running amuck across half a continent, they ran into each other. Incredible? Apocryphal? Improbable – impossible? Any less preposterous than the fact that a creature, no, a human being, can live through a day, through a week – through a lifetime, without hearing... the voice of a fellowman, the song of a bird, the beat of rain against the roof? Ladies and gentlemen, great stories, great events, great deeds skeptics do not make. Fate, we salute thee (bow with backsides to audience), thee ever the jokester.
THOMAS
You really envy me?
CONROY
I guess I should. (Pause) After the fall of Sumter, I rushed to the recruiting office. A long line was forming, every man in the county was signing up. My turn came. (Pause) The officer was polite. He smiled. He made me feel like a ten year old boy who had showed up with his sling shot. I went to another town. Then another. Everytime, it was the same story.
THOMAS
For what purpose?
CONROY
What?
THOMAS
You want to get in badly?
CONROY
Yes.
THOMAS
Please continue.
CONROY
You ever experienced the fear of rejection?
THOMAS
All the time.
CONROY
Then you should understand the uncertainity of the certainity. You know what to expect when someone discovers you're different than them. Yet you are never too certain of how he'd react. This uncertainly gives you a glint of hope, not much, but enough to give you courage to go on because you have nothing to lose. You following me?
THOMAS
Yes, we live on the edge.
CONROY
I was getting nowhere, I was becoming desperate. Last month, at a recruiting office, I walked straight to the desk. I did nothing, said nothing. I just picked up the pen. The Sergeant said something. I smiled and nodded. And I signed up. When the sergeant realized what I was, I brought my rifle up.
THOMAS
Good Lord, you threated him?
CONROY
I shot a hare.
THOMAS
A hare?
CONROY
I shot its ears off. At two hundred yards.
THOMAS
You must be pretty good.
CONROY
Better than good. You have to be better than good.
THOMAS
Better than good.
CONROY
I've been using it since I was six.
THOMAS
I would hate to be in your sights.(Beat) Been in much action?
CONROY
This is my first battle.
THOMAS
Hell of a place to start.
CONROY
We didn't have much time. We're being invaded. (Silence) You weren't lying about finding the map?
THOMAS
I wasn't lying.
CONROY
Honest?
THOMAS
Why should I lie?
CONROY
(Beat) Do your unit accept you?
THOMAS
When the army's full of gamblers, thieves, fornicators and swindlers, I should think I'd be acceptable.
CONROY
They know you're deaf?
THOMAS
I didn't ask.
CONROY
You made corporal.
THOMAS
Someone has to be promoted. Reward of survival.
CONROY
How do you get along with your Sergeant?
THOMAS
Fine when sober or drunk. Mostly drunk.
CONROY
My Sergeant looks after me. Too well. Pushes my shadow off, makes roll calls in my dreams. I'd like to be more independent. How do you manage, like in a parade formation?
THOMAS
The trick is simple: Get yourself in the rear. Keep your eyes open, watch out of the corners.
(Forms a line of men with his fingers of one hand, "self" with index finger of other hand. moves them accordingly, the sole finger forever lagging behind and catching up.)
They march forward, you march forward. They march backward, you march backward. they turn right, you turn right. They turn left, you turn left. They fart, you fart.
CONROY
Do I have to remain in the rear?
THEY laugh, holding their sides.
You're killing me.
THOMAS
Under General McCellan, we do it all the time. March, march, march. The only command the Little Napoleon ever gives.
Something moves upstage on Level 3.
CONROY holds a hand up.
Scene 10
Level 3. Drum roll.
An easel with a sign is set up Upstage Left of Level 1. (STELLA)
BARKERS
Ladies and gentlemen, in Africa
(STAGE MANAGER enters with a basin of water and towel. BARKER 1 washes his face.)
dwells a race as dark as the continent itself... perhaps the lost tribe of Judas, perhaps the missing link, perhaps the rejects from God'celestial oven,
(BARKER 1 turns to audience, having washed his whiteface off, grinning.)
The Colored Man! Look at my/his blackness. Look at how amazingly I/he resemble you! I/He walk upright, on two legs. I/he manipulate things in my/his hands. I/He even speak, funny though. I/He Can be trained to piick cotton, to open doors, to cook grits, to sing and dance.
(WHORE turns the sign over and paces words with a pointer.)
Music: KINGDOM COMING.
BARKER 1/SLAVE
Say, darkeys, hab you seen de massa
Wid de muffstash on his face,
Go long de road some time dis mornin',
Like he gwine to leab de place?
He seen a smoke way up de ribber,
Whar de Linkum gumboats lay;
He tok his hat, an' lef berry sudden
An' I spec he's run away!
De massa run? ha, ha!
De darkey stay? ho, ho!
It mus' be now de kingdom comin',
An' de year ob Jubilo!
Scene 11
Level 2: Night noises.
THOMAS
What is it?
CONROY
Something moved.
THOMAS
Where?
(CONROY grabs his rifle and rises. He moves cautiously upstage, Level 3, followed by THOMAS. CONROY suddenly leaps at a bush, his rifle forward and ready. SLAVE rises, his hands up.)
THOMAS
A slave.
CONROY
I can see.
THOMAS
Take it easy.
CONROY
He'll have a knife.
THOMAS
I doubt it.
(CONROY does not lower gun.)
He's as scared as you.
CONROY
I'm not scared. I don't trust him.
THOMAS
He's harmless. My tutor taught me one doesn't equal two.
CONROY
(Looks hard at THOMAS but lowers rifle) What does he want?
THOMAS assumes role of interpreter:
(S)-sign only
(V)-voice only
(S/V)-sign and voice
(V) lines are signed by MICHAEL. SLAVE lines are signed RACHEL.
(CONROY prods SLAVE toward campfire.)
THOMAS
(V) We are friends. You have a name?
CONROY
What did you say?
THOMAS
I asked for his name.
(S/V) Please tell us your name.
SLAVE
(S) Josh.
THOMAS
(S/V) I'm Thomas. (to CONROY) Come on. (No response.) (V) He's Conroy.
SLAVE
(S) Why you wave your hands?
THOMAS
(S/V) Talk.
SLAVE
(S) Talk? You talk with hands?
(Mimces talking with his hands.)
THOMAS
(V) We don't hear well.
SLAVE
A lot of folks do not hear well.
CONROY
What did you two say?
THOMAS
We don't hear well.
CONROY
Are you ashamed to say we're deaf. Even to a slave?
THOMAS
I'm not ashamed. Easier to explain this way.
SLAVE
What you doing?
THOMAS
(S/V) I'm trying to teach him some social graces.
CONROY
Social graces?
SLAVE
(S) You not Union soldier?
THOMAS
(S/V) I'm Union.
SLAVE
(S) And him?
THOMAS
(S/V) He's... a friend.
SLAVE
(S/V) His uniform different.
THOMAS
(S/V) Sloppy dresser. No taste.
SLAVE
(S/V) Why you two together?
THOMAS
He asks why we're together. You want to answer this one?
CONROY
I have nothing to say to him.
THOMAS
Come on.
CONROY
(V) He invited me to dinner.
THOMAS
(S/V) You hungry?
CONROY
(V) I'm not eating with a slave.
SLAVE
(V) Slave no more! Me run away.
CONROY
(V) You ran away? Where did you came from?
(No reply)
Ask him!
(SLAVE tries to escape but CONROY stops him.)
THOMAS
(S/V) Josh, we're not taking you back.
CONROY
(V) Where did he come from?
SLAVE
(S) Far down, down the road.
CONROY
(V) Where?
SLAVE
(S) Big cotton place near bay. Big white house with pink columns. Master big man.
CONROY
That would near Richmond.
SLAVE
(S) You Southern?
CONROY
(V) Virginian.
SLAVE
(S) You were going kill me.
THOMAS
(S/V) No, he wasn't. He thought you were some...
SLAVE
Beast.
THOMAS
(S/V) You're no beast.
SLAVE
Beast of burden.
THOMAS
(S/V) You been running how long?
SLAVE
(S) Sunrise. I heard Federals coming. I decide I run. Run, hide, run. Like beast.
CONROY
(V) Where're you going? (No reply)
THOMAS
You can tell me.
SLAVE
(S) North. Lincoln going allow colored troops. I join. I put uniform on, same as yours. I come back, fight the like of (points to Conroy
No S:) him. Fight for freedom. I kill, kill. War free me.
CONROY
What did he say?
THOMAS
I can't understand his accent–
CONROY
The hell you don't. You're no different than all the hearing people–
THOMAS
Conroy
CONROY
Deciding what is good for me to know know or not know.
SLAVE
What you two saying? You talking about me?
CONROY
Tell me what he said!
SLAVE
You didn't say what I say about him?
THOMAS
(S/V) All right. Josh said... Fight ... the likes of you. Fight for freedom. I kill, kill. War free me.
CONROY
(V) War frees me.
Music off stage: PRESIDENT HARRISON'S FUNERAL MARCH.
(SLAVE cocks his ear.)
SLAVE
(S) Someone is blowing a horn.
THOMAS
Taps.
Fadeout.
END OF ACT ONE.
COUNTERFEITS
ACT TWO
PRESET: Level 2: Table with tablecloth and utensils, 2 chairs. (STAGE MANAGER)
Scene 1
Drum roll.
SERGEANT
(Entering at DS Right) You can stop scratching yourselves. We're marching to Spotsylvania. Important that we take the Courthouse before Chimney Hat Abe's stooges get there. Don't admire the scenery too much on the way. Gotta keep harassin' them, let 'em have your fleas and lice. Corporal, you take charge. I'll reconnoiterer the area ahead. Couldn't sleep last night. Gotta find the boy also. (Rubs his eyes) Easier to see the second coming of the Lord. (Exits.)
Level 1: Music: DIXIE
I wish I was in de land ob cotton,
Old times dar am not forgotten;
Look away! Look away!
Look away! Dixie Land.
In Dixie Land whar I was born in,
Early on one frosty mornin,
Look away! Look away!
Look away! Dixie Land.
Den I wish I was in Dixie,
Hooray! Hooray!
Level 2: CONROY shakes sleep off, writes a letter. SLAVE wakes up. HE and CONROY eye each other.)
In Dixie Land, I'll take my stand,
To lib an die in Dixie,
Away, away,
Away down south in Dixie,
Away, away,
Away down south in Dixie.
Scene 2
Drum roll.
BARKERS
God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers. A Jewish proverb. Couldn't be more true? Ladies and gentlemen, the one and the only Mother! A fine line she sews between tender loving care and tyrannical loving care!
MOTHER
(Removes mask) It was like a Union shell hit the house. (Starts transformation from BARKER to MOTHER) I should have known. I should have suspected. I did not expect it when I should havet. (Beat) There are people who think it is wrong for me to bear child. It is the duty of a woman to be a mother, regardless of what she is.
(MOTHER exits, reappears bringing a pot. CONROY sits at table, fidgeting. MOTHER ladles soup into bowls and sits.)
MOTHER
Conroy, say the grace, please.
CONROY
Lord, thank thee for our daily bread. Bless our home and the South. Amen.
MOTHER
You said the grace differently tonight. What is it?
CONROY
Mother, I've some exciting news.
MOTHER
Yes?
CONROY
I'm in the army.
MOTHER
The army?
CONROY
I enlisted this afternoon.
MOTHER.
Conroy, don't be silly. You can't be in the army.
CONROY
I can't?
MOTHER
Of course, you can't.
CONROY
But you've always said I could.
MOTHER
You're teasing me.
CONROY
I wouldn't tease you like that.
MOTHER
(Beat) They accepted you?
(CONROY nods.)
MOTHER
What did you do?
CONROY
I showed the sergeant. I shot a hare.
MOTHER
And he let you in?
CONROY
Yes, I'm leaving in the morning.
(MOTHER rises from table.)
Where are you going?
(stops HER)
You're not going to see the Sergeant, are you?
MOTHER
You don't know what you're in for.
CONROY
You know I've been trying to get in the army for a long time. Three years. You never discouraged me. Now you're saying I can't be in.
MOTHER
I never expected you'd be accepted.
CONROY
You mean you never believed in me but leading me on all the time? (No reply) Ever since I was little, you've telling me I can do anything if I set my mind to. That I'm no different than others boys.
MOTHER
(Slumps on a chair) Conroy, believe me, everything I taught you about your abilities and self-pride, I mean it... I should have, but did not teach you what is realistic, what is not.
CONROY
My being in the army isn't realistic?
MOTHER
When you have hopes and dreams, it's not always easy to explain what is realistic and what is not.
CONROY
I've shared all of them with you.
MOTHER
Yes.... it's not easy to explain to a child.
CONROY
I am not a child.
MOTHER
No, you're not any more.
CONROY
Father would have approved.
MOTHER
Your father...
CONROY
He loved the land. He loved the South.
MOTHER
Yes.
CONROY
Every night he told me stories about the brave men who came to the South, conquered the land and defended their homes. He taught me how to shoot.
MOTHER
You were so young.
CONROY
Nothing would have stop Father from fighting for his country. It wouldn't have taken him three years to get in.
MOTHER
Conroy, if you stay, you'd be no less a man.
CONROY
Mother, I am substituting for Father.
Silence.
MOTHER
My son, you know so little about the world outside home. I have tried to protect you, yet prepare you for it. I've taught you to trust yourself, your ability to succeed, so you can take care of yourself and contribute to society in some way. You'll be called to prove yourself. You will be tested again and again. It is our lot in this life. Nothing we can do about it. We are the outsiders.
CONROY
Mother.
MOTHER
I won't stop you from going because if I do, I'd be stopping myself also. My son, regardless of what situation you find yourself in, just remember to do your duty. Do it well. Only then will you be accepted, only then will you feel complete.
CONROY
Mother, you'll be proud of me.
MOTHER
Keep warm at night.
CONROY
Yes, mother.
MOTHER
And dry.
CONROY
Yes, mother.
MOTHER
Write me.
CONROY
I promise.
MOTHER
(Beat) Yes, your father would have approved. Bring honor to him.
CONROY
Mother, I will.
(MOTHER kisses his forehead. HE exits into Level 2, leaving MOTHER alone for a moment.)
Level 2: at same time, SLAVE finds and holds up a skull.
Thicket replaces table, etc. (ANTONIETTE, STELLA, RACHEL)
Scene 3
Level 2: SLAVE approaches CONROY. Following dialogue is carried mainly in mime and gestures, underlined words also voiced.
SLAVE
(Points skull to sleeping Thomas) Northern? (To Conroy) Southern? (To self) Slave?
(places skull down in front of CONROY, carefully like a peace offering.)
My mother? Preacher? Big slaveowner? No matter. Skull white. White. Under skin, me white. Dead, we all white. White. Yet we different. Why? You hate me. You want kill me.
CONROY
This my land. I fight defend it.
SLAVE
Your land? I pick, pick cotton. I sweat, I bleed, I shed tears. Your land?
CONROY
(Beat) I fight be free.
SLAVE
Free? What is free?
CONROY
Me no speak. Me no hear. People treat me like pet dog.
SLAVE
Pet dog walk free. You walk free. I walk not free.
CONROY
My spirit bound, suppressed.
SLAVE
You feel rage?
CONROY
I feel rage. Me free yet not free.
SLAVE
You free yet not free.
CONROY
You understand?
SLAVE
(Nods.) Free is peace, peace inside.
CONROY
Under skin, we all deaf and dumb.
(CONROY and SLAVE.)
THOMAS
(Waking up) What's going on? (sees the skull) What's that? (S/V) Did I miss something?
CONROY
(V) We were having a conversation.
THOMAS
(S/V) The two of you?
CONROY
(V) Three of us. (Tosses skull to THOMAS) Under skin, we're all white, deaf and dumb.
THOMAS
(S/V, uncertainly) That's good one... How's the leg?
CONROY
(V) The pain feels worse.
(SLAVE bends over CONROY and checks leg. HE goes upstage.
Rising, CONROY grabs his rifle, grimacing in pain.)
CONROY
What's he doing?
(SLAVE returns with some plants and mud.)
SLAVE
(S) Plants. Earth. Water. Make leg well.
(CONROY looks at THOMAS questioningly)
THOMAS
Let him. You've nothing to lose. You could soon be praying for maggots.
CONROY
Sadistic, aren't you?
THOMAS
Maggots eat dead flesh, prevent spread of gangrene.
Distant drum roll, off stage, followed by music: UNCLE JOE'S HAIL COLUMBIA.
Uncle Joe comes home a singing,
Hail, Columby!
Glorious times de Lord is bringin'–
Now let me die.
Fling de chains into de ribber
Lay de burden by;
Dar is one who will delibber–
Now let me die.
Chorus
Ring de Bells in eb'ry stepple!
Raise de Flag on high!
De Lord has come to sabre His people–
Now let me die.
SLAVE
They're coming.
CONROY
What?
SLAVE
(S) I hear singing.
CONROY/THOMAS
(V) Who?
Ring de Bells in eb'ry stepple!
Raise de Flag on high!
CONROY
Who?
De Lord has come to sabre His people–
Now let me die.
CONROY
(Grabbing SLAVE, in gesture) Where you hear?
SLAVE
There, there. (Points to DS left)
CONROY
Southerns? Yankees?
THOMAS
I don't know.
CONROY
Damn the Wilderness!
SLAVE
They moving this way.
CONROY
Could they be moving toward Spotsylvania?
THOMAS
Spotsylvania? My God, they're not retreating.
CONROY
What?
THOMAS
We always turn back.
CONROY
What're you saying?
THOMAS
Nothing, nothing. I'm guessing.
Uncle Joe comes home a singing,
Hail, Columby!
Glorious times de Lord is bringin'–
Now let me die.
SLAVE
Seem they're turning this way.
CONROY
(Grabs front of THOMAS' shirt) Tell me!
Fling de chains into de ribber
Lay de burden by;
Dar is one who will delibber–
Now let me die.
THOMAS
Grant's not like other commanders. He doesn't retreat.
CONROY
He'll push on to Richmond? (No reply) Gather your things.
THOMAS
They could be mine.
CONROY
Or mine! We're going to them!
THOMAS
We don't know.
CONROY
I'll take a chance.
SLAVE
What going on?
CONROY
Gather your things–or leave them!
(HE grabs SLAVE who has backed away.)
SLAVE
What you want?.
THOMAS
Listen to me–The truce last night–
CONROY
It's over. (herding THOMAS and SLAVE)
THOMAS
It worked!
SLAVE
What going on? Don't leave me out.
CONROY
Move, move!
THOMAS
I shared my provisions–
SLAVE
He taking me back?
THOMAS
I treated your leg–
CONROY
Move, dammit, move!
SLAVE
(Holds on to CONROY) We all white, deaf, dumb!
(THOMAS tries to escape, CONROY pushes SLAVE and blocks THOMAS' way. SLAVE escapes. THEY look at each other.)
CONROY
You better come along. (No response) Or I'll...
THOMAS
You'll what?
CONROY
Move.
THOMAS
Shoot me?
CONROY
Shut up!
THOMAS
You'll shoot me? You'll shoot me in cold blood?... What're you waiting for?
CONROY
Don't make me.
THOMAS
At this distance you can't miss. The great sharpshooter doesn't miss. What'll the tally be? A hundred? Ninety? Perhaps eighty... only seventy? Come on, don't be so modest. You're better than good–
CONROY
Shut up.
THOMAS
Or do you shoots only rabbits? More challenge. (Bobs head as if watching a rabbit hop). You're welcome to my ears. I've no use for them.
CONROY
SHUT UP!
THOMAS
You'd rather impress your sergeant, bringing in a live one? Now won't that be really hysterical, a dummy leading a dummy in!
(CONROY hits THOMAS with the butt of his rifle. THOMAS crumbles to ground.)
Level 1:
BARKERS
Put a rifle in the hands of a mortal man and you turn him into a godlike Samson slaying a thousand Philistines, at a foot, a yard, half a mile. A jawbone more deadly than the claws of a tiger, the teeth of a crocodile and the venom of a viper. Man bends a finger.
(BARKER 1 mimes pulling the trigger with a finger. BARKER 2 blows away from her palm.)
The fickle finger of fate.
Scene
CONROY
(Stunned) Are you all right? I didn't mean to hit you. I'm sorry. I'd no idea it'd be like this, the war. Not what I had expected. Yesterday we got the order to take our positions. To stop you Yankees. We waited and waited. Nothing in sight. I looked around me. Trees, trees, thickets. Couldn't see beyond fifty feet in any direction. Someone on my left offered me a piece of jerky. He looked awfully young, maybe sixteen, seventeen. Eager and proud. And scared, I thought. He smiled at me. I smiled back. Then suddenly...
The following is done in mixture of sign, mime and acting. Underlined words are voiced.
The earth shot up in front of us. It shook and shook. I thought my ears opened. A rain of dirt, twigs, rocks. I
CONROY (CONT.)
covered my head with my arms. Suddenly I felt something wet and warm on the backs of my hands. Sticky. Red. I flexed my fingers, no pain, but they seemed all right. I looked up. This young soldier, he was standing, his hands grasping at the air, grabbing at his head. Only it's gone. Blown off. A geyser of blood's shooting up. He began to run around like a butchered chicken, fluttering its wings. I didn't know what to do, I got up. Ran after him, brought him down. Held him until he stopped struggling. I crawled back to my place. I wiped the blood from my eyes. Then I saw a bluecoat charging up. A bayonet was fixed to his rifle. He didn't see me, I brought my rifle up. Had him in my sights... My finger froze. I couldn't pull the trigger.
(returns to sign/voice)
I ran away. I didn't look where I was going. I only wanted to get away from it all. Thomas, I'm no coward, I could have easily brought the bluecoat down, but I couldn't. I couldn't bring myself to shoot another human being.
THOMAS
It hardly takes any bravery to pull the trigger.
CONROY
But it's the only thing I'm good at, shooting. Squirrels, grouse, deer, hares. They never escaped me, I don't miss often... My father was killed by a rifle. He stepped on a twig. Some hunter thought he was a deer. If he only could hear the hunter...
THOMAS
I'm sorry.
CONROY
I was eleven years old.
THOMAS
I got meninigitis at eleven.
CONROY
I've reached my dream, I now wear the uniform of my country. I've been accepted. (refers to his rifle) It is my weapon to acceptance.
THOMAS
Conroy, I've never shot a man.
CONROY
You've never–never?
THOMAS
God's truth.
CONROY
You've been in the war for a year.
THOMAS
I volunteered for scout duty. So I won't have to kill.
CONROY
A soldier's duty is to kill.
THOMAS
I have no desire of playing Providence and hold a man's fate in my hands.
CONROY
But you must have fired your rifle sometime.
THOMAS
I avoid confrontation. If I can't, I'd aim over the head. It's not difficult to miss.
CONROY
Father taught me not to miss.
THOMAS
Conroy, why don't we just go our separate ways?
CONROY
You want me to let you go?
THOMAS
We'll each go back to our own units. Nobody'll know we met.
CONROY
No... The slave knows.
THOMAS
Who'd he tell?
CONROY
He'll remember two deaf–
THOMAS
No, he's his own life to remember. So do you and I.
(Backs away slowly, freezes as CONROY raises his rifle.)
THOMAS
I never saw the map. I don't have any idea of what Lee's up to.
CONROY
You can't say nothing.
THOMAS
We never met.
CONROY
You'll do your duty.
THOMAS
Conroy, listen to me–
CONROY
You'll do your duty, won't you?
Silence.
THOMAS
This is bigger than duty... I would never shoot you, even if I could... You–you yourself can't kill either.
CONROY
I was unprepared, I was in a shock. Won't happen again.
THOMAS
Yeah, it's not heroic to let thine enemy live.
CONROY
I'm a soldier
THOMAS
What makes you think you're a soldier?
SERGEANT
(Entering Level 2) I'll give you a great opportunity, as nobody's ever going to give you. I'll be a big brother. Stick close by me. Stick close for glory. Destroying the enemy's the only reason you go to war.
Scene 5
THOMAS
You're not a soldier. You're a parrot.
CONROY
Parrot?
THOMAS
A parrot is a bird–
CONROY
I know what a parrot is.
THOMAS
It mimickes words it doesn't know, doesn't understand, doesn't feel, doesn't believe. It says what you want to hear. So it gets its reward. Polly wants a cracker, Polly wants a cracker.
CONROY
You accusing me of–
THOMAS
I'm not accusing, I'm telling you–
CONROY
(Grabs front of THOMAS' shirt) I'm not a parrot. I'm a patriot.
THOMAS
Same thing, different spelling.
MINISTER
(Entering Level 2) It's not a kind of crutch like nonbelievers say. It takes courage to have faith, to accept a belief on its face value. My son, if so many accept it, how can you say they're wrong?
CONROY
You wouldn't understand.
THOMAS
For the love of God, tell me why I can't?
CONROY
You're a Northern.
THOMAS
What's so sacred about the Confederacy that I'm too thick-headed to appreciate?
CONROY
I believe in it.
THOMAS
You believe in a losing cause.
CONROY
It lets me be a part of it.
THOMAS
Sure. It's letting everyone off the street be a part: schoolboys, grandpas, cripples, deaf mutes, anyone who can hold a rifle without blowing his own head off! I'll tell you why your Lee's running scared. Grant's waging a war of attrition. It's a matter of time before there's none of you left.
LEGISLATOR
(Entering Level 2) What nobler duty can a citizen offer upon the altar of freedom? Look at this lad! Look at the pride in his eyes. Look at the resolve with which he holds his weapon of redemption.
CONROY
Then I'll die for my country.
THOMAS
If you don't shoot or hang me, I'll certainly die in the filthy conditions of your prison. I must stay alive for my family. Mary, the girls need me. They've never seen their father.
WHORE
(Entering Level 2) You reach inside me, something about you. A gentle intensity. I've never been in love. When you're in love, you find compassion for the rest of the world...
CONROY
I've never been in love. I could love.
MOTHER
(Entering Level 2) I won't stop you from going because if I do, I'd be stopping myself also. My son, regardless of what situation you find yourself in, just remember to do your duty. Do it well. Only then will you be accepted, only then will you feel complete.
Scene 6
CONROY
My father would have approved.
THOMAS
What is your song?
CONROY
Song? What're you now talking about?
THOMAS
It's not easy to forget what it was like before I lost my hearing. The lyrics, the melodies, the bands. They'd send you in a flag-waving frenzy. Stir you to the romance of arms. Make you braver than you are. You want to go to war, to see blood flow. The other fellow's, of course.
CONROY
I don't need a goddamn song.
THOMAS
Of course, how dumb, dumb, of me. You've never heard of Wagner, Mendelssohn, Bach, Beethoven-do you know Beethoven was deaf? Difficult as it is for you to believe, music is the Great Seducer. It creates a kind of reality that has nothing to do with reality.
CONROY
Get to the point.
THOMAS
What drives you? What makes you so goddamn determined to partake in this carnage in order to be a member of the fucking human race?
Drum roll.
THOMAS
Conroy, come to your sense. We're no soldiers. We're just playing make-believe. Admit it. As far as the world is concerned, a deaf soldier is an anomaly.
CONROY
We can be soldiers.
THOMAS
We're blind engineers on a train. A runaway train.
CONROY
Not if we show the world.
THOMAS
For God's sake, we're DEAF!
SLAVE
Pet dog walk free. You walk free. I walk not free...
You feel rage?... You free yet not free... (Nods)
Free is peace, peace inside.
THOMAS
We're deaf!
All FREAKS renter Level 2.
SERGEANT
In war, you get no second chance.
MINISTER
The Lord is a man of war.
WHORE
You look like a man of passion, mi cheri.
LEGISLATOR
Our cause is just!
SLAVE
Under skin, we all white, deaf and dumb!
MOTHER
Bring honor to your father.
THOMAS
Polly wants a cracker. Polly wants a cracker.
SERGEANT
Glory, my laddie, glory.
MINISTER
Faith, my boy, faith.
WHORE
Passion, my buck, passion.
LEGISLATOR
Your country, fellow citizen, your country.
SLAVE
Freedom, white man, freedom.
MOTHER
Duty, my son, duty.
THOMAS
We're deaf, Conroy, We're deaf!
CONROY
(Grabbing THOMAS' arm) Why do you keep pointing to your ear?
THOMAS
What?
CONROY
You did it when I captured you yesterday.
THOMAS
I acted on instinct.
CONROY
You hoped I'd take pity on the poor dummy?
THOMAS
I wasn't thinking. It all happened fast.
CONROY
Yeah. I got in the army only when I stopped pointing to my ear.
Louder Drum roll.
I can let you go if you can promise to desert.
THOMAS
Desert?
CONROY
A lot of men do it.
THOMAS
I signed up for three years. I honor my commitments.
CONROY
A hearing person can do it. He can afford to desert. It's a painless way to prove you're like others.
THOMAS
I will not do it!
Louder Drum roll.
CONROY
Of course, you and I won't do it. We can't. We have to do our duty. To prove ourselves. We wanted to be accepted as full members of society.
THOMAS
Are you trying to prove a deaf person can kill as well as anyone?
CONROY
You're no different than me.
THOMAS
I signed on for money.
CONROY
Only too gladly. The war's the biggest thing going on in the country, the ultimate opportunity to pass for someone you are not, a hearing person.
Cannon roar and explosions.
THOMAS
Damn it, I needed the money.
CONROY
You can't escape your deafness.
THOMAS
It's easy for you to say that. You isolate yourself on a farm, but in Boston they'll smile you politely down to ground. Poor Conroy, he's a deaf mute. Be careful not to touch him, dear, it may be contagious. If you don't speak with your voice, you're not normal!
CONROY
Who the hell is normal?
THOMAS
You tell me.
CONROY
Our deafness isn't the real issue. I've accepted it. You haven't. That's where we differ. I want the world to accept me for what I am. You want the world to accept you for what you are not.
CONROY
I admired and envied you yesterday. I no longer do.
THOMAS
I never asked you to–
Cannon roar and explosion.
CONROY
It'd be the same if we were colored, deformed, Jewish, Indian, or even Southern and Northern. (Pause) You're already a prisoner before we met. I'm too.
THOMAS
Yes, you're right... We're prisoners of our expectations.
CONROY
No, we're prisoners of others' expectations.
THOMAS
The walls of my prison are higher.
(THEY look at each other. CONROY tosses THOMAS' rifle at THOMAS.)
CONROY
Go to your family. They need you. You'll need them.
THOMAS
Thanks.
CONROY
Thanks.
(CONROY holds his hand out. THEY shake. SERGEANT enters unseen.)
CONROY
Good luck. Perhaps we'll meet again when this is all over.
SERGEANT
Conroy! What the hell's going on–
(THOMAS rushes past CONROY upstage to Level 3. SERGEANT fires and misses.)
SERGEANT
Damn it! Get him!
(CONROY aims but hesitates.)
Fire, fire, you mute!
THOMAS
(off stage) No! No, no!
(CONROY pulls the trigger.)
SERGEANT
Got him! I've always known you've it in you. Where the hell have you been? You had me plenty worried... What was you doing, that funny business with the Yankee? (mimics signing). Was he like you, another deaf mute?
Music: GET OFF THE TRACK
Ho! the Car Emanicipation rides majestic thro'the nation,
Bearing on its train the story: LIBERTY, a nation's glory.
Roll it along through the nation, Freedom Emanicipation! ...etc.
Scene 6
Level 1.
BARKERS
Ladies and gentlemen, here's what you've been waiting for. Our star attraction! At Spotsylvania, this sharpshooter extraordinare picked off twenty-seven men. Single-handedly! Even the gods of war were in awe. A silent man of arms. A warrior deaf to all but God. A combatant of mute passion. A mother's dumb son in uniform. Ladies and gentlemen, one of a kind: Conroy Stuart! The Counterfeit Hearing Man! The Counterfeit Soldier!
See the people run to meet us, at the deposits thousands greet us.
All take seats with exultation in the Car Emanicipation.
Huzzah! huzzah! Emanicipation soon will bless our happy nation!
Blackout.
CURTAIN