The Magic Tower and Other One-Act Plays (3 page)

GLORIA
: Oh, nothing was wrong about it, we were just kids. I went to Cheyenne when I heard. He was already dead. I got there ten minutes too late, they’d pulled the sheet over his head. It’s wasn’t quite long enough, though. His hair stuck out, as loud as the Fourth of July! It was sort
of—impertinent
looking! Congratulations, I said, you don’t need legs any longer.

MOTHER
: Who did you say that to?

GLORIA
: Nobody. Myself. [
Gets up tiredly
.] I practiced my dance routine this morning at the Elk’s Social Hall. My wind’s kind of bad but otherwise I’m okay.

MOTHER
: You can’t expect a complete return to health, Bessie.

GLORIA
: Can’t I?

MOTHER
: No, you’ve had hemorrhage, Bessie. The tissues can heal but . . .

GLORIA
[
wildly
]: STOP IT! [
In her cry there is all the tortured passion for life that a human heart can contain
.] Stop it, Mother! [
Pause
.] There’s only one lie contained in this advertisement. At
liberty—that’s
the lie!
—I
am not at liberty, Mother, I’m caught in a trap!

MOTHER
[
closing her eyes
]: So am I.

GLORIA
: Oh, but I’m not discouraged!
—No
, it’s just that I haven’t had such good luck to brag about lately . . . [
She turns and exits the door, left. The mother stiffly waiting. After a moment, a burst of hysterical sobbing is heard through the door. The mother leans over slowly and turns down the lamp
.]

MOTHER
:
Yes—And
neither have I.

CURTAIN OR BLACKOUT

The Magic Tower
premiered on March 23, 2011 at the Southern Rep Theatre, New Orleans, as part of the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival’s centennial tribute to Williams. It was directed by Aimée Hayes; the set design was by Ashley Sehorn; the costume design was by Laura Sirkin-Brown; the sound design was by Mike Harkins; the props were designed by Sarah Zoghbi; and the lighting design was by Joan Long. The cast, in order of appearance, was as follows:

JIM
[
dropping the magazine and sniffing
]: Do I smell something burning?

LINDA
[
with a startled gesture
]: Oh! I’m afraid you do. It’s your shirt.

JIM
[
jumping up
]: My
white
shirt? My
only
white shirt? Linda, how
could
you?

LINDA
: It was very simple, Jim. I was just looking at you and I completely forgot what I was doing.

JIM
: Simple is right! Did it burn very much?

LINDA
: Just the tail of it, darling!

JIM
: Thank heavens for that! Hmmm. Maybe I’d better get out of the room when you’re ironing my shirts.

LINDA
: Please don’t! I don’t want you to!

JIM
: Why not?

LINDA
: I like so much having you here.

JIM
[
naïvely flattered
]: Do you really?

LINDA
[
impulsively hugging him
]: Of course I do, my lord and master! I feel so warm and snug and protected when you are in this little room with me! [
She goes over to the bureau and places his shirt in a drawer
.] It is just as though I were locked up in the top room of a tower with the stairs so long and steep that nobody but you could ever come near me again.

JIM
: What a poetic idea that is! I think I’ll have to paint a picture of you, Linda, in your magic tower . . .

LINDA
[
smiling with sudden pleasure
]: In OUR magic tower!

JIM
: Yes, and with your long black hair flowing out of the window like Mélisande’s. . . .

LINDA
: Oh, no. Not out of the window. I never look out of the window if I can help it. It’s all so hopelessly ugly out there, those awful billboards and filling stations and delicatessens! I like to think of
our—our
magic
tower—as
being surrounded by wonderful green forests. . . .

JIM
: Yes, that’s it. Green forests! Forests of pine trees!

LINDA
: Yes, and lovely clear blue lakes!

JIM
[
suddenly laughing as the vision explodes
]: With crocodiles to eat the bill collectors up!

LINDA
: Oh, yes! And a dragon to breathe fire in Mrs. O’Fallon’s face every time she comes up for the rent! Oh, no! There wouldn’t be any rent or any bill collectors or Mrs. O’Fallons, would there? That’s the marvelous thing about living in a magic tower, Jim. There’s only two people. The knight and the lady!

JIM
: The enchanted prince and princess!

LINDA
: And they’re always together. She won’t let him leave her.

JIM
: Can’t he even go hunting for supper?

LINDA
: No, he can’t leave her a single moment because when he’s gone the magic tower starts to crumble. If he stays away very long it falls to pieces and turns to a desert island. . . . So even if she moons over him so much that she burns the tail of his only white shirt he has to forgive her and stay right here in the magic tower looking perfectly happy about it!

JIM
[
laughing and returning to the couch with his magazine
]: Poor old Linda! It’s all just make-believe, isn’t it?

LINDA
: Make-believe? Of course it isn’t! It’s absolutely real.

JIM
: You can’t tell me you don’t find this life pretty dull after the excitement of the show business. Moving around from place to place all the time. . . .

LINDA
: What makes you think I found moving around from place to place exciting?

JIM
: Didn’t you? I should think you’d have found it terribly exciting!

LINDA
: Terribly is right. Just like being tied to the tail of a runaway horse.

JIM
: Hmmm. I’d have liked it. Do you know, I’ve never been outside this city. I’ve grown up in the middle of it. All this ugliness. Mmmm. I’d give anything to have been the places you’ve been. At least you’ve got that. Memories. Things to look back on. . . .

LINDA
: Memories. Yes. I have lots of those. Some of them aren’t so swell.

JIM
: And now it’s all narrowed down to just this one little room. You must get awfully tired of it. . . .

LINDA
: If I tell you something very seriously will you promise to take my word for it?

JIM
: What?

LINDA
: In this little room I’ve been completely happy for the first and only time in my life! [
She sets the iron on its end
.] Pull the cord out, will you, Jim. The iron’s getting too hot.

JIM
[
obeying this direction
]: Hmmm. You really mean that, Linda?

LINDA
: Of course I mean it. I’m completely happy here.

JIM
[
stretching out on the couch
]: Why?

LINDA
: I don’t know.

JIM
: It isn’t a very handsome room.

LINDA
: No.

JIM
: The wallpaper is atrocious.

LINDA
: Yes.

JIM
: Nothing very grand about the furnishings.

LINDA
: No.

JIM
: Too hot in summer. Too cold in winter. The roof leaks
in—[
counting wet spots on floor
]
—one
, two, three places!

LINDA
: Yes.

JIM
[
filling his pipe
]: What is it then?

LINDA
[
smiling to herself
]: I think you know.

JIM
: Something very supernatural I suppose.

LINDA
: No. Something very natural. [
She places more ironed pieces in bureau drawers
.]

JIM
[
laughing
]: Well, I give up.

LINDA
: I’m surprised at your stupidity. What else could make me completely happy but
just—our
being here together like this. You and I. A few feet of space between us, that’s all!

JIM
: So that’s why you’re happy!

LINDA
: Yes. That’s why I’m happy. So you see it wasn’t just make-believe about the magic tower. When two people make their own world there is something rather magical about it, don’t you think?

JIM
: And did you mean it about the tower falling to pieces when I go out?

LINDA
: Yes, I meant that, too. When you go
out—when
you just go out of this room for a
moment—something
happens.

JIM
[
laughing
]: The spell is broken!

LINDA
: Yes. The spell is broken. I begin to look around me and I say to myself, “What atrocious wall paper! How damp the air is! If the roof continues to leak at this rate I shall have to learn how to swim before dark!”

JIM
: And what the devil are we going to have for supper tonight!

LINDA
: Oh, yes. That is the most immediate problem. What do we eat and when?

JIM
: I know. Mrs. O’ Fallon had chicken for dinner. I’m going to raid the Frigidaire right now. [
He gets up and runs a comb through his hair
.]

LINDA
: And leave me up here by myself? I might drown before you get back. No. I’m going with you.

JIM
: I’ll say you aren’t! If Mrs. O’Fallon caught
you
in her Frigidaire it would be grand larceny.

LINDA
[
sadly
]: I know. She doesn’t approve of me. She thinks I married you for your family fortune. [
She gives him a shove toward door
.] Go on. Swipe a drumstick for me! [
When Jim goes out Linda’s happy manner vanishes. She shrugs her shoulders as though trying to dismiss some oppressive thought. Goes over to the window. Then, disgustedly
.] Rain . . . all the time! [
She places washbowl under one of the leaking places. Footsteps are heard and rapping at the door
.]

MRS. O
’
FALLON
[
offstage
]: Mrs. Flynn?

LINDA
[
anxiously
]: Oh, Mrs. O’Fallon! How charming of you to come up! Just when I was feeling so lonesome. . . .

MRS. O
’
FALLON
: Hmmm. No doubt. Hmmm. I see yer doin’ yer wash up here.

LINDA
[
brightly
]: Oh, yes. I’m quite domestic these days. . . .

MRS. O
’
FALLON
: Well, it ain’t allowed. It’s against the rules o’ the establishment, Mrs. Flynn. Roomers ain’t allowed to do their wash in the rooms!

LINDA
[
desperately
]: But Mrs.
O’Fallon—Jim
and
I—we
have to save every way that we can. . . .

MRS. O
’
FALLON
: Hmmm. No doubt. I should think yer would. Yer five weeks behind on yer rent right now. I’ve turned out many a roomer in the dead o’ winter fer bein’ less than that, Mrs. Flynn! This ain’t no charitable institution. . . .

LINDA
: I know, I know! I was just saying to Jim this
morning—
“Dear Mrs. O’Fallon, she’s been so patient with us. . . .”

MRS. O
’
FALLON
[
acidly
]: It’s yer husband that I’ve been patient with, Mrs. Flynn. I always have a great deal o’ sympathy fer young men like Jim who don’t know properly how to take care o’ themselves. . . .

LINDA
: I know. Jim has told me how lovely you were to him, Mrs. O’Fallon. Just like a mother, he said!

MRS. O
’
FALLON
: Just like a mother, is it? Well, I like that! I’m hardly as old as all that, Mrs. Flynn!

LINDA
: Oh, no! How stupid of me! It was an older sister, he said. Just like an older sister!

MRS. O
’
FALLON
: Hmmm! Yer a bit older than Jim is yerself, ain’t you, Mrs. Flynn!

LINDA
[
confused
]: Why, yes, I am a little bit older than Jim is . . . but what are you driving at, Mrs. O’Fallon?

MRS. O
’
FALLON
: I’ll tell yer what I’m driving at! Yer an able-bodied young
woman—why
don’t yer go back to work?

LINDA
: Go back with the show?

MRS. O
’
FALLON
: Oh, so it was
show business
you was workin’ in, was it?

LINDA
[
a little defiantly
]: Yes, it was.

MRS. O
’
FALLON
[
significantly
]: Humph! Well, well! An actress! And did you git fired?

LINDA
[
restraining
]: Why, no, I did not.

MRS. O
’
FALLON
: Then take my advice. Go back to yer show business, girl. Jim Flynn ain’t hardly a grown man, yit . . .

LINDA
[
quietly
]: He’s my husband, Mrs. O’Fallon.

MRS. O
’
FALLON
: Oh, I’m
aware
of that. I made him show me the license ere ever I gave him permission to bring you in. I know these young people!

LINDA
[
desperately
]: Oh, Mrs. O’Fallon! Jim and I are so happy here. So completely happy. Don’t you
see—if
I went back to the
show—all
of this would
end—we’d
be
separated—we’d
lose
each other! [
Covers her face with her hands
.] This wonderful thing that we’ve made
together—this
magic
tower—would
fall to
pieces—it
would all be ruined!

MRS. O
’
FALLON
: What kind o’ nonsense is this!

LINDA
: I’m sorry.