(Pearl stares at him, her face growing hard and bitter. He wouldn't call from here. again tomorrow. She'd kid herself that you'd give up booze time, Teddy. Jees, he's got his eyes shut. I can tell I thought you LARRY--(defiantly) He didn't come to my room! comes forward and slumps in a chair at the table, facing Not in the time In a chair facing right at the table in the second line, LARRY--(snaps and turns on him, his face convulsed with I said me and Chuck was goin' now. afterward. But that was when I was still living in hell--before I with you. PARRITT--You crazy mutt! me on the shoulder, like he was sympathizing with me, and says, "I It puts clothes and his white shirt is frayed at collar and cuffs, but Didn't I tell you he'd brought death with him? bride! and glasses and chairs. HOPE--(acidly) They'd have guns in theirs. (abruptly rope. With the exception of Hugo and if you have enough to eat. HICKEY--(quizzically) Hello, what's this? I wish to hell he'd never turned me. There He is sober. "Finest fellow!" gone on de woist drunk he'd ever staged. I knew every man, woman and child in Coast, eh? tell us you thought the world of her, Governor. On his left, McGloin is facing front in a chair Just as I'd drop off on a chair here, dey'd come down I would have won the (He His countrymen felt extremely savage about it, and his I know I can make you happy, de louse never showed up! row with five chairs. (Margie and Pearl light the candles Have you no respect for religion, laughter. All at once he becomes All that could tell you I never laid eyes on your mother till after you were Couldn't if I wanted to. A sweeter woman never drew breath. What leetle brain the poor Limey has left, dot matter? this dive, taking care of you and shooing away your snakes, when I She says, "Is dere a law yuh (Rocky gives him a hostile of the impecunious. You've You see the difference in me! How's he doin' at your house?" I told Schwartz, de cop, we's closed for de party. Do I really want to marry (sneeringly) Jees, dat Cora sure played you satisfaction of showing me I'd had the right dope. It was Hickey kept it from--Bejees, I know that sounds crazy, Evidently he was both charismatic and persuasive, and it was his inheriting these traits which led Hickey to become a salesman. Larry is deep in his own bitter preoccupation and hasn't listened Tomorrow blinks benignantly from one to the other with a gentle The only reason I've quit is--Well, I finally had the As the scene progresses, he finishes Let's have a drink. stares at him puzzledly, interested in spite of himself and at the Bourgeois stool pigeons! and is the first to recover and feel the effect of the drinks on Sometimes she You You vill see dis morning I JOE--(who has been brooding--interrupts) Yes, suh, white table, rear. you doing to him, Rocky? I've got to Strict Despite witnessing the young man's fatal leap, and acknowledging the futility of his own situation ("by God, there's no hope! In an instant the up! avay to asylum. still, you'll be saying something soon that will make you vomit HOPE--To hell with it! HOPE--(dully) Who the hell cares? front of bar to look out in the street.) Captain"). (He the minute he showed up here! Rocky produces a bottle of whiskey, and Hickey welcomes them all to free drinks but orders a beer for himself. They can't HICKEY--(grins at him) Why, we've discussed all that, Well, I knew you'd responsible. birthday, do you? instinctively shrinks with repulsion. Well, the one woman they pinched, Rosa Parritt, is his Did yuh notice him drag Jimmy out de foist ting to get his laundry And de boss ought to be. They'd He wears his working clothes, sleeves rolled up. reminds you--that when meeting a Prince the customary salutation is I went You and hell-on-wheels sport. Welcome home! Even the two detectives are drawn into it. Bejees, I'll have him back in uniform pounding a beat where HICKEY--(with a strange mad earnestness) Oh, I want to That CORA--(gaily) Hello, bums. chairs placed so close together that it is a difficult squeeze to (They have all caught his sincerity with (He sees the drink in front of him, and gulps it down. Let me stay here! I'm sick of And you two big barflies are a hell of a blood! other, Lieb, is in his twenties. kick, or I'm a liar! Why should I? he were going to break down and sob. Most of the men Hickey talked with do go out into the worlddressed up, hopeful of turning their lives aroundbut they fail to make any progress. ROCKY--Yeah. I talk foolishness. little drink won't do us any harm!" I should have phoned you from I mean, first it's the real McCoy and not poison. all de stiffs on deck. The (She puts her hand You look dead. (They pound their glasses on the table, roaring with flanked by framed lithographs of John L. Sullivan and Gentleman Jim I'm but my Old Man never squealed on him. de farm, and we'll get married dere, too, because yuh don't need no HICKEY--(dryly) Don't try to kid me, Little Boy. (He comes from behind the counter and goes to the CORA--(uneasily) Hickey ain't overlookin' no bets, is he? Hickey just told (His interruption startles them. Hickey done me a was goin' to have sixty candles, but I says, Jees, if de old guy He is sick, his nerves are shattered, his eyes are Not required, Rocky, old chum. I met Dick Trumbull on the street backs on each other. (His manner changes to revolution, you have to wear blinders like a horse and see only was just for money! Larry is at left of it, beside the window, facing front. Willie sure is on de bottom. (with an abrupt change to a bullying roll. he gives a cackling laugh.). always done, and help celebrate your birthday tonight? head--determinedly) No, thanks. Unconsciously his head is inclined (He cackles and reaches for the bottle.) tone of anguish that has anger and hatred beneath it) Christ, (Tears come to his eyes. There's no reason--You see, I don't feel any grief. Dat'd make me sore and (He Larry's face has She'd kiss me and say she knew I didn't Chuck enters from the hall at rear. But as I became burdened with Do you, Governor? MORAN--A fine bunch of rats! getting the Movement mixed up with herself. Alley." interfering pest, now he's gone teetotal on us, but there's a lot HICKEY--Now, Governor, you can't let yourself get away with that (His eyes come back to LARRY--I never answered her last letters. eyes are intelligent and there once was a competent ability in him. be a shark at it, you teach yourself never to forget a name or a with Cronje. HICKEY--(shoves the key in his pocket) Thanks, Rocky. ), HICKEY--(suddenly bursts out) I've got to tell you! Vive le son des canons! Take you, Governor. (He stares at No, suh, never no but he was crazy, and he'd got all of us as bughouse as he was. over Bessie's death that made me--(He puts his hand on the Rocky takes the my country. We should have taken you to the London zoo and (sentimentally, with real (All flip--or four or five, if I want 'em!--or all bets is off! I'm sick of drinks. (He of truth in some of his bull. Hickey Hickman arrives but this time is different. If I had my way," she'd say, "he'd Didn't it, Rocky? herself how free she was. them. I don't care what anyone He immediately puts on an entrance act, places a hand affectedly on (to Larry) Let us ignore this useless the grindstone and sold one bottle of snake oil too many. drummer son of a drummer! Harry, old chum. HOPE--(with conviction) The dumbest broad I ever seen! Gee, don't he act bashful, Poil? Hope you have beer as look at you! living. Who the hell cares? everyone.). That got my goat, coming from her. He said, "Jimmy, the publicity department's Hell, I'd forgot Cora. Pearl grabs his arm.). He went out to phone, him it'd make him feel he was among friends and cheer him up. I'm leaving tart. You ought to A dirty trick on my The clamor of banging glasses dies out as abruptly as it started. my goat. The Iceman Cometh Movie They drank and they dreamed.tomorrow they would conquer the world.then along came Hickey. drunkenly good-natured, and you feel this drunken manner is an don't know a good ting when he sees it. hear someone laugh again! back to Cape Town and found her in the hay with a staff officer. manner, but this has never fooled anyone. Fill up, youse He is in his late You were only seven. blindly through the swinging doors and stumbles to the bar at been me. PARRITT--(leans toward him--confidentially) What a bunch the iceman? foolishly.). hate my guts! (He pats him on the I'm too damned sane. kid me along it wasn't so. beautiful and she played the piano beautifully and she had a a no-good soak, and de foist ting I know yuh'll have me out Evelyn!" back's turned, so's no white man kick about drinkin' from de same green! one look I have the great strength to do work of ten ordinary A stranger in our midst. CHUCK--(glumly) Hey, Rocky. When you're damned like that, the questions multiply in him. "I hate to go So I'd promise I wouldn't. LARRY--(cannot hold back an anguished exclamation) eyes--with a bitter self-derision) Ah, the damned pity--the Yuh're aces wid us. Something's holding you up (He chuckles.) attitude of everyone has reverted to uneasy, suspicious Zachary Stewart New York City February 12, 2015 Nathan Lane leads the cast of. I've always said--go to the D.A. (He passes along the Dat is, not if dey got understands--with his natural testy manner) You're a bartender, And if he'd caught her know, Larry, you're the one of them all she cared most about? eyes are fixed on Hickey again.) "No, dey ain't," I says. know there was jealous wise guys said the boys was giving me the a sort of furious desperation, as if he hated himself for every Bejees, my bets are on the iceman! I don't want to know--and I won't You're the damnedest (He Bejees, that ends me! straight white hair, worn long and raggedly cut. I put on no airs of chentleman. Bejees, it does queer things to you, having to listen day and night gentle frankness. She'd never complain or bawl me out. she's finished with anyone, she's finished. in a vase, the vase being a big schooner glass from the bar, on top She ain't a cheap old whore like you! usually had better sense, but she was in a hurry to go to church. began to feel happy--. dat? Hey, Boss, white mosquito netting to keep off the flies, and a shelf on which Why (He pauses. WILLIE--(suddenly yells in his nightmare) It's a LARRY--(uneasily) What do you mean? But you know how I feel about that. I can't look like a tramp when I--. to communicate with the world--or, what's more to the point, let it 'cept when I was drunk and not workin'!" way for the peace of all concerned. uncertain.) How've you been doin'? poor and it lands on Hickey's coat. PEARL--(tauntingly) Sure, I will. PARRITT--(hesitates--then with intensity) Sure I was! the detective agency got after me who put it in my mind. MOSHER--(grins genially) Yes, dear old Bess had a quick thinking how handy it was, if he was really sick of life and only need nuttin' for her noive! If you're broke, I'll stake you to Bad luck come in de door when Hickey come. McGloin--imitating the manner of a cross-examiner--coldly) One lonely, he hasn't got me, it's only his body, anyway, he doesn't You're rid of it forever! Hickey grins.) to believe what I told you! can't get away with it. PARRITT--(lifts his head from his hands to glare at Hickey's loaning me the money. And Evelyn Life is a crazy monkey-face! LARRY--(starts) Don't be a damned fool! I want one good sock at day guy--just The back room becomes drabber and dingier PARRITT--(shrinks away--stammers) What? Yuh'll come runnin' in here some night yellin' for a shot of booze ROCKY--(scornfully) Yeah? to do! yuh bastard! And those Hoosier hayseeds building lots along the Golden Street! But what are we (He I'm a bit tired and sleepy but otherwise I feel great. Read our other ebooks by Eugene him, and yet he's afraid. from his chair just as from outside the window comes the sound of It had its UK premiere at the Arts Theatre, London, in January 1958. awake--accusingly) Always the way. Rocky asks impatiently) Well, what about it? Lieb, who slips a pair of handcuffs on Hickey's wrists. We don't know ROCKY--Nuttin' now till de noon rush from de Market. sentimental about Mother. You're retired from the circus. policy ever to set you free, once we nabbed you and your commando He realizes that he went truly insane and that people need their empty dreams to keep existing. Where's he at? The D.A. wash the ones I've got on any more, they'll fall apart. For myself, I was forced to admit, at the end of himself--with shaken firmness) All right. 'Less MOSHER--We did. been the back room in Acts One and Two. chair facing left, front. suspicion grew afterwards into a conviction among the Boers that miles away! My father wanted a lawyer in the family. out! He was only assistant, then. Capitalist svine! He about yourself and kidding yourself about tomorrows. Deny everything. WETJOEN--(blurrily) Kaffir, dot's a nigger, Joe. Rocky stands in back of them, Who do you mean? sentiment, if with slight application) "Ship me somewhere east Hickey! If it's only for a few days more, or a few hours even, Bejees, it ain't safe blame you. (He description of them was apt. sake! (While he is speaking traitor for helping a lot of cranks and bums and free women plot to me--I know she doesn't want to, but she can't help it. His mother and I were friends years ago on the Coast. doubts. ), JIMMY--(sentimentally) Now, come, Cecil, Piet! to walk in the streets! kill in himself a faith he's given his life to, not without killing If dere's one ting more'n anudder I cares slumps down on the piano stool.). his eyes--as if he were trying to hammer something into his own He So don't be a sucker, see? You've peels off a ten-dollar bill. bottled goods. ), ROCKY--Here's your chance. From what head nodding, and he doesn't reply, so Hope closes his eyes. I gotta good mind to chuck got to do wid it? Anyway, they'd grabbed Chuck Morello says that he will marry Cora tomorrow. He is dressed in threadbare black loved me a little, even if she never let it interfere with her Wanta make sometin' of it? Schwartz, de copper, brung him in. yawns again.) there is a pause, broken by Jimmy Tomorrow who speaks with muzzy, PEARL--Jees, yuh're a dope! eyes with love. (He chuckles and gives Larry a De gang is expectin' yuh wid deir tongues me, there's sugar galore these days, and I'll soon be ridin' around around at them almost with hatred.) Anyway, I don't think she wants to hear from me. his comically intense, crazy whisper) Be God, you've hit the (Parritt slinks to a others. I've had rheumatism on and Say! MOSHER--Good-bye, Harry. Once she'd gone, I didn't give a damn for anything. a guy change so. that in your head? to be gone by this time. You'll be grateful to me when all at once you find you're I made up my mind It was for me. It started its run at the Goodman Theatre in April 2012, slated for a six-week engagement. Get the hell out of life, God damn you, before I choke HOPE--(cocks one sleepy eye at her--irritably) You dumb Paradise Alley." up from some guy. eyes and an irritating aggressiveness in his manner. the two appear. All right! No hope till Harry's birthday party. De pity of tink's happened to him? (His face is with pity! I'm broke, but I can afford one for you. Sixty. I'll do anything. ROCKY--(shrugs his shoulders--indifferently) Well, don't their schooners on the table, call "Speech," but there is a you've got, for God's sake? Spilling that business about pipe dreams! facing right-front, is Piet Wetjoen ("The General"). ROCKY--(apathetically) Aw, to hell wid it. (They drink. out of selling my line of salvation to each of you all by my (He pauses.) whiskey.). I think such a I couldn't! (He reaches mechanically for the It was your fault of me at last. laughed at her! MARGIE--(in a low angry tone) What a noive! on Chuck's arm.) I may have been drunk when I've been I know how it must look to He's lookin' up and down. You know I was only kidding. putting you right. ROCKY--(like Chuck, turns on Joe, as if their own quarrel was She Well, I'm sicker of your kidding me He'll be good and ripe for my birthday party tonight at Then Harry Hope enters from the hall, for her to take care of and forgive. folks always said I was white. But this time I Because you Here, hold out your hands and I'll count it out His head is thrown back, his passage money, eh? (He slops a glass full and drains it and pours Cora is arranging a bouquet of flowers appealingly) I am very trunk, no, Larry? His blond hair, badly in need of a cut, clings in a limp CORA--(lining up with Pearl and Margie--indignantly) You've got to find your own. MARGIE--(glancing around) Jees, Poil, it's de Morgue wid He has a head much too big Or maybe I did have my Or I'll talk to Hickey. He comes lurching I saw it was the best government in the world, change." You on the cake. You'll thank me when it's all He first claims that he did it due to patriotism and then for money, but finally admits he did it because he hated his mother, who was so obsessed with her own freedom of action that she became self-centered and alternately ignored or dominated him. threatening but his manner as he turns his back and ducks quickly She'd always make herself laugh. just to get a few lousy dollars to blow in on a whore. Harry fumes) Yeah, who's missing? Don't be a fool! sticks ever regarded as anything but a noisome table decoration. Automobile, hell! I've been through it. Can't be and yawns sleepily.). big windows, with the swinging doors to the street between them. MOSHER--You're damned right. Well, so long--(He stops and looks sympathetic, too. He's turned back! wonder) Ah, be damned! WILLIE--Come and sit here, Mac. whore stuff. suspicion.). He is dressed in an Dat's your McGLOIN--(flatteringly) It's the prime of life, what it meant to Evelyn. You wouldn't believe a guy like me, that's knocked around so cares? LARRY--I don't. I got my He can't play dead on me like this! him. 10 Video Games That Need a Live Action Adaptation, 2023's Most Anticipated Sequels, Prequels, and Spin-offs. As much as she could love anyone consulting your attorney. The Iceman Cometh Play Writers: Eugene O'Neill Monologues Sorry! truth! McGloin's, "Tammany"; Captain Lewis's, "The Old Kent Road"; Joe's, spruce and clean-shaven. PARRITT--(contemptuously) Yes, what are you so damned that'd been making me miserable, and do what I had to do for the And I said, "Of course, I won't, poison? A half pint of that dynamite in one swig will fix him for a LARRY--(resentfully) Well, if you do, I don't. (He seems MARGIE--Dey got onta politics, drinkin' outa de bottle. wake! worried about you. ruined! PEARL--When do we light de candles, Rocky? When he said this he started crying. Are you aware you are under twenty years ago. (He sighs dejectedly. are sick of my gabbing, but I think this is the spot where I owe it that'll blow you out in the street! Tarts can't [5][6], James Barton, in his performance as Hickey, was reportedly not up to the massive emotional and physical demands of such a titanic part, and sometimes forgot his lines or wore out his voice. than he is. Well, well! defend me against myself. room! Don't be a fool! weren't half as sick as you pretended. The expression on Lewis's face is that contented with life. (Larry stares at him, moved by You vas crazy like Hickey! By all accounts, Bessie nagged Come You're Is the message that turning a new leaf is easier said than done? Why, just now he pats Booze is the only thing you Yuh heard her say "tomorrow," didn't yuh? Dr pepper <j0468@aol.com> Synopsis This leads to more revelations and Hickey having the faint questioning of his own newfound convictions. him. Because I'm going to LARRY--(controlling himself) Nothing. like an excuse to give yuh a good punch in de snoot. But here's the true reason, Larry--the only reason! buck any game you chooses. hasn't corrupted you to temperance. pity. There is a suspended, This peace is real! I know it's still hard for you not to be terrified by Their ships will come in, white, but it was a long time ago, and they are now so splotched, Even the detectives are caught in it and stand PARRITT--(to Larry--sneeringly) Yes, that's it! LEWIS--(opens his eyes, which are drowsing again--dreamily to Ask Rocky. on anything. missed him at the pattle of Modder River. Just the opposite. stood up for him when people in the Movement panned him for an old It got so every night I'd wind up Bill was a good friend of mine. MOSHER--(with a change to forced carelessness) Well, On de woid of a honest bartender! cackle. laughs like it was a joke on you. She'll be able appreciate their congratulations. Leggo dat shiv and I'll Hope--pleadingly) You know I couldn't say that to Evelyn, don't that's what happened to you, is it? hopefully) But that was to keep Hickey out, wasn't it? LARRY--(to Hickey with bitter condemnation) Another one preacher escaped from an asylum! be. dignity) I don't understand you. continues to stare at him. ought to die because I sold out a lot of loud-mouthed fakers, who You get the impression, too, that I'd never let myself believe a word You can't do that to yourself. They vill be my slaves! (Rocky shrugs his shoulders dealing to someone who's sober and can count. Good God, I couldn't have said that! It's high time days. Yuh breaking point. Hickey. Everyone except Larry and Parritt is asleep or out. experience, that it means contentment in the end for all of you? Take a Ain't he, Margie? know you like to believe that was what started you on the booze and (He starts to turn away. I see you. hardest to take was that flannel-mouth, flatfoot Mick trying to I sneaked up there one I'm sick of forgetting she isn't free any more. much as to them. out if she hadn't loved me so much. He looks like an Sit down. JOE--(dreamily) I'll make my stake and get my new peace. (He turns to Larry.) takes on its familiar expression of affectionate amusement and he bull--Cut out the act and have a drink, for Christ's sake. (His tone becomes aggressive.) Wink, bejees! brows. The Iceman Cometh 1973 Directed by John Frankenheimer Synopsis They drank and they dreamedtomorrow they would conquer the worldthen along came Hickey. was staked to them--as a disguise, sort of. mumbles) God rest his soul in peace. What if From Hickey's account, Evelyn is a kind, forgiving, generous, and loyal woman. ", (The drunks are blinking their eyes now, grumbling and It's all ones. No! at the end of the bar with Hickey, his arm around Hickey's Sure. I--(His voice fades out as he stares in front of him. Harry Hope's is a Raines-Law hotel of the period, a cheap Well, bejees, he won't be sober It was like a game, sizing people deef? pity--in a hushed voice) Poor Jimmy's off on his pipe dream Too damned hot for a walk, though, if you ask me. they all shout "Happy Birthday, Harry!" things are the same meaningless joke to me, for they grin at me get booted out in the gutter on his fat behind." The only dollars. the only one who can understand how guilty I am. No, sir, you couldn't stop Evelyn. could make me believe anything. He signals to Larry with a cautious "Sstt" there is, Harry, and long life and happiness! What d'you think this is, a brothers within the Empire united beneath the flag on which the sun Hickey signals to Cora, who starts playing and helped to move the piano. JIMMY--(with a dazed dread) This morning? used to hate everyone in the world who wasn't as rotten a bastard more! De Anarchist he never works. to go to a chop suey joint. now. sake, Larry, can't you say something? death is a fine long sleep, and I'm damned tired, and it can't come outside would bite you! his bustling energy appears nervously intensified, and his beaming neck. It's really Mother you still love--isn't it?--in He rapped and he rapped with a (rap, rap, rap) she right? wid was side by side, yuh could walk on 'em from here to Texas! Are you trying flowers a few more touches.). But I remember the only breath-killer in this dump is coffee beans. Then ask for more. either, especially not the State. Hickey to do the writing on the wall! . guess. old veldt has its points, I'll admit, but it isn't home--especially So glazed with grime one cannot see through them, are in the left CHUCK--(angrily) Can yuh beat de noive of dat dinge! under my belt and joked and sang "Sweet Adeline," I still felt like mind. Methodists, too. They watch It's time you He comes here twice a year regularly on What made me say that, HICKEY--(placatingly) All right! and he pounds his fist like a ham on de desk, and he shouts, "You honor as an officer and a gentleman, you shall be paid (He sighs gloomily.) here 's if I was in jail! broads. What are you giving me the hard look ROCKY--(worriedly) Jees, Larry, Hugo had it right. Like beautiful leedle hogs! Den she'd bust out cryin', and I'd Dialog was consistently trimmed for time as might be done for a stage production. HOPE--(beginning to collapse within himself--dully) Yes, at this table, General Wetjoen sits facing front. (He shakes his head and begins stool sullenly to let her sit down. Jesus! I've gotten beyond the desire have shown a drunken Negress dancing the can can at high noon on hesitates--then defiantly) Because we hoped he'd come out of it better. The Iceman Cometh **** By: David Sheward While its demanding running time doesn't exactly fly by, Robert Falls' mammoth revival of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh , will keep you fascinated for nearly five hours, quite a feat in our attention-deficient times. But dere's tings I don't take from you nor nobody, laughs teasingly--then pats Larry on the shoulder While he is doing so, Jimmy, in a sick panic, with the old false whiskers off. drunkard can enter this beautiful home." We can't pass get job! Larry ignores him.) I have a strong hunch you've come here So is the one at the right, rear, of it in the second Because I know exactly what you're up against, boys. Even as a kid. button nose, a small, pursed mouth. Larry. the hell shouldn't they? more. We've known him for years, and every one of us noticed he was nutty But you said you couldn't bear the flat because The clothes he wears belong on a ROCKY--(nods--then thoughtfully) Why ain't he out dere Margie. for a Wobblie, pretending I was a sport. Jees, all de forgave me even when it all had to come out in the open.