Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (18 page)

[
Mae sits above Big Mama, Margaret turns R
to door, Gooper XLC a bit.
]

MAE:

Mommy, Mommy, Big Mama, we're just as hopeful an’ optimistic as you are
about Big Daddy's prospects, we have faith in prayer—but nevertheless
there are certain matters that have to be discussed an’ dealt with, because
otherwise—

GOOPER:

Mae, will y'please get my briefcase out of our room?

MAE:

Yes, honey.

[
Rises, goes out through hall
L.
]

MARGARET
[
X to
Brick on DS gallery
]:

Hear them in there?

[
X back to R gallery
door.
]

GOOPER
[
stands
above Big Mama. Leaning over her
]:

Big Mama, what you said just now was not at all true, an’ you know it.
I've always loved Big Daddy in my own quiet way. I never made a show of it. I
know that Big Daddy has always been fond of me in a quiet way, too.

[
Margaret drifts UR on gallery. Mae returns,
X to Gooper's L with briefcase.
]

MAE:

Here's your briefcase, Gooper, honey.

[
Hands it to him.
]

GOOPER
[
hands
briefcase back to Mae
]:

Thank you. Of ca'use, my relationship with Big Daddy is different from
Brick's.

MAE:

You're eight years older'n Brick an’ always had t'carry a
bigger load of th’ responsibilities than Brick ever had t'carry; he
never carried a thing in his life but a football or a highball.

GOOPER:

Mae, will y'let me talk, please?

MAE:

Yes, honey.

GOOPER:

Now, a twenty-eight thousand acre plantation's a mighty big thing
t'run.

MAE:

Almost single-handed!

BIG MAMA:

You never had t'run this place, Brother Man, what're you talkin’
about, as if Big Daddy was dead an’ in his grave, you had to run it?
Why, you just had t'help him out with a few business details an’ had
your law practice at the same time in Memphis.

MAE:

Oh, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy! Let's be fair! Why, Gooper has given
himself body and soul t'keepin’ this place up fo’ the past five
years since Big Daddy's health started fallin’. Gooper won't
say it, Gooper never thought of it as a duty, he just did it. An’ what did
Brick do? Brick kep’ livin’ in his past glory at
college!

[
Gooper places a restraining hand on
Mae's leg; Margaret drifts DS in gallery.
]

GOOPER:

Still a football player at twenty-seven!

MARGARET
[
bursts
into UR door
]:

Who are you talkin’ about now? Brick? A football player?
He isn't a football player an’ you know it! Brick is a sports
announcer on TV an’ one of the best-known ones in the
country!

MAE
[
breaks
UC
]:

I'm talkin’ about what he was!

MARGARET
[
X to
above lower gallery door
]:

Well, I wish you would just stop talkin’ about my husband!

GOOPER
[
X
to above Margaret
]:

Listen, Margaret, I've got a right to discuss my own brother with other
members of my own fam'ly, which don't include
you!

[
Pokes finger at her; she slaps his finger
away.
]

Now, why don't you go on out there an’ drink with
Brick?

MARGARET:

I've never seen such malice toward a brother.

GOOPER:

How about his for me? Why can't he stand to be in the same room with
me!

BRICK
[
on lower
gallery
]:

That's the truth!

MARGARET:

This is a deliberate campaign of vilification for the most disgusting and sordid
reason on earth, and I know what it is!
It's
avarice, avarice, greed, greed!

BIG MAMA:

Oh, I'll scream, I will scream in a moment unless this stops! Margaret,
child, come here, sit next to Big Mama.

MARGARET
[
X to
Big Mama, sits above her
]:

Precious Mommy.

[
Gooper X to bar.
]

MAE:

How beautiful, how touchin’ this display of devotion! Do you know why
she's childless? She's childless because that big,
beautiful athlete husband of hers won't go to bed with
her, that's why!

[
X to L of bed, looks at
Gooper.
]

GOOPER:

You jest won't let me do this the nice way, will yuh? Aw
right—

[
X to above wicker seat.
]

I don't give a goddam if Big Daddy likes me or don't like
me or did or never did or will or will never! I'm just
appealin’ to a sense of common decency an’ fair play!
I'm tellin’ you th’ truth—

[
X DS through lower door to Brick on DR.
gallery.
]

I've resented Big Daddy's partiality to Brick ever since
th’ goddam day you were born, son, an’ th’ way I've been
treated, like I was just barely good enough to spit on, an’ sometimes not
even good enough for that.

[
X back through room to above wicker
seat
.]

Big Daddy is dyin’ of cancer an’ it's spread all
through him an’ it's attacked all his vital organs includin’
the kidneys an’ right now he is sinkin’ into uremia, an’ you
all know what uremia is, it's poisonin’ of the whole system due to
th’ failure of th’ body to eliminate its poisons.

MARGARET:

Poisons, poisons, venomous thoughts and words! In hearts and minds!
That's poisons!

GOOPER:

I'm askin’ for a square deal an’ by God I expect to get one. But
if I don't get one, if there's any peculiar shenanigans
goin’ on around here behind my back, well I'm not a corporation
lawyer for nothin!

[
XDS toward, lower gallery door, on
apex.
]

I know how to protect my own interests.

[
Rumble of distant
thunder.
]

BRICK
[
entering
the room through DS door
]:

Storm comin’ up.

GOOPER:

Oh, a late arrival!

MAE
[
X
through C to below bar, LCO
]:

Behold, the conquerin’ hero comes!

GOOPER
[
X through
C to bar, following Brick, imitating his limp
]:

The fabulous Brick Pollitt! Remember him? Who could forget
him?

MAE:

He looks like he's been injured in a game!

GOOPER:

Yep, I'm afraid you'll have to warm th’ bench at the Sugar Bowl
this year, Brick! Or was it the Rose Bowl that he made his famous run in.

[
Another rumble of thunder, sound of wind
rising.
]

MAE
[
X to L of
Brick, who has reached the bar
]:

The punch bowl, honey, it was the punch bowl, the cut-glass punch
bowl!

GOOPER:

That's right! I'm always gettin’ the boy's
bowls
mixed up!

[
Pats Brick on the butt.
]

MARGARET [
rushes
at Gooper, striking him
]:

Stop that! You stop that!

[
Thunder.
]

[
Mae X toward Margaret from L of Gooper,
flails at Margaret; Gooper keeps the women apart. Lacey runs through the US lawn
area in a raincoat.
]

DAISY
and
SOOKEY
[
off UL
]:

Storm! Storm comin! Storm! Storm!

LACEY
[
running
out UR
]:

Brightie, close them shutters!

GOOPER
[
X onto R
gallery, calls after Lacey
]:

Lacey, put the top up on my Cadillac, will yuh?

LACEY
[
off
R
]:

Yes, sur, Mistah Pollit!

GOOPER
[
X to
above Big Mama
]:

Big Mama, you know it's goin’ to be necessary for me t'go back
to Memphis in th’ mornin’ t'represent the Parker estate in a
lawsuit.

[
Mae sits on L side bed, arranges papers she
removes from briefcase.
]

BIG MAMA:

Is it, Gooper?

MAE:

Yaiss.

GOOPER:

That's why I'm forced to—to bring up a problem that—

MAE:

Somethin’ that's too important t’ be put off!

GOOPER:

If Brick was sober, he ought to be in on this. I think he ought to be present when I
present this plan.

MARGARET
[
UC
]:

Brick is present, we're present!

GOOPER:

Well, good. I will now give you this outline my partner, Tom Bullit, an’ me
have drawn up—a sort of dummy—trusteeship!

MARGARET:

Oh, that's it! You'll be in charge an’ dole out
remittances, will you?

GOOPER:

This we did as soon as we got the report on Big Daddy from th’ Ochsner
Laboratories. We did this thing, I mean we drew up this dummy outline with the
advice and assistance of the Chairman of the Boa'd of Directors of th’
Southern Plantuhs Bank and Trust Company in Memphis, C. C. Bellowes, a man who
handles estates for all th’ prominent fam'lies in West Tennessee and
th’ Delta!

BIG MAMA:

Gooper?

GOOPER
[
X
behind seat to below Big Mama
]:

Now this is not—not final, or anything like it, this is just a preliminary
outline. But it does provide a—basis—a
design—a—possible, feasible—
plan!

[
He waves papers Mae has thrust into his
hand, US.
]

MARGARET [
XDL
]:

Yes, I'll bet it's a plan!

[
Thunder rolls. Interior lighting
dims.
]

MAE:

It's a plan to protect the biggest estate in the Delta from irresponsibility
an'—

BIG MAMA:

Now you listen to me, all of you, you listen here! They's not
goin’ to be no more catty talk in my house! And Gooper, you put that
away before I grab it out of your hand and tear it right up! I don't
know what the hell's in it, and I don't want to know what the
hell's in it. I'm talkin’ in Big Daddy's language now,
I'm his
wife,
not his
widow,
I'm still his
wife!
And
I'm talkin’ to you in his language an'—

GOOPER:

Big Mama, what I have here is—

MAE:

Gooper explained that it's just a plan . . .

BIG MAMA:

I don't care what you got there, just put it back where it come from
an’ don't let me see it again, not even the outside of the envelope of
it! Is that understood? Basis! Plan! Preliminary!
Design!—I say—what is it that Big Daddy always says when
he's disgusted?

[
Storm clouds race across
sky.
]

BRICK
[
from
bar
]:

Big Daddy says “crap” when he is disgusted.

BIG MAMA
[
rising
]:

That's right—
CRAPPPP!
I say
CRAP
too, like Big Daddy!

[
Thunder rolls.
]

MAE:

Coarse language don't seem called for in this—

GOOPER:

Somethin’ in me is
deeply outraged
by this.

BIG MAMA:

Nobody's goin’ to do nothin'!
till Big Daddy lets go of it, and maybe just possibly not—not even
then! No, not even then!

[
Thunder clap. Glass crash, off
L.

[
Off UR, children commence crying. Many
storm sounds, L and R:
barnyard animals in terror, papers crackling, shutters
rattling. Sookey and Daisy hurry from L to R in lawn area. Inexplicably, Daisy
hits together two leather pillows. They cry, “Storm!
Storm!” Sookey waves a piece of wrapping paper to cover lawn
furniture. Mae exits to hall and upper gallery. Strange man runs across lawn, R
to L.

[
Thunder rolls
repeatedly.
]

MAE:

Sookey, hurry up an’ git that po'ch fu'niture covahed; want
th’ paint to come off?

[
Starts DR on gallery.

[
Gooper runs through hall to R
gallery.
]

GOOPER
[
yells to
Lacey, who appears from R
]:

Lacey, put mah car away!

LACEY:

Cain't, Mistah Pollit, you got the keys!

[
Exit US.
]

GOOPER:

Naw, you got ‘em, man.

[
Exit DR. Reappears UR, calls to
Mae:
]

Where th’ keys to th’ car, honey?

[
Runs C.
]

MAE
[
DR on
gallery
]:

You got ‘em in your pocket!

[
Exit DR.

[
Gooper exits UR. Dog howls. Daisy and
Sookey sing off UR to comfort children. Mae is heard placating the
children.

[
Storm fades away.

[
During the storm, Margaret X and sits on
couch, DR. Big Mama X DC.
]