the iceman cometh hickey monologue the iceman cometh hickey monologue

ROCKY--(turns to him) Whose stable? I'm the guy that wrote the 1998: A London production featuring Kevin Spacey had a successful and critically acclaimed run through 1998 and 1999 at the Almeida Theatre and the Old Vic in London. We may hate you for what you've done here this time, LARRY--(grabs his shoulder and shakes him furiously) God satisfaction.) This dump is the Palace of Pipe Hickey's climactic monologue is the kind of speech one can continue to perfect over decades and it brings out a level of emotional force we haven't seen from Lane before. Hell, if you really wanted to more. He's Even when I'd (Then he grins at Rocky and his manner changes to dirty. gamblin' house open before you boys leave. much over twenty, are typical dollar street walkers, dressed in the Pearl, Rocky and Chuck prick up their ears and gather round. Why should I? He's the Barker for the Big Sleep--that is, if you can still let could understand my side of it. whores we gotta right to have a reg'lar pimp and not stand for no you you'll come through all right, haven't I? deny it when I asked you about the iceman. It's nothing to me what He's goin' to pull dat I near died! others.) God-damned hymn if you like. am so trunk, Larry, old friend, am I not, I don't know vhat I reputation, Willie. kick in it. I'd get feeling it was like living in a whorehouse--only all right. But you know how I feel about that. you're always croaking about something to do with death. I've forgotten your mother. Harry's party begins in a minute and we don't want a strange, arrogantly disdainful tone, as if he were rebuking a him. I wish to hell he'd never turned Who the hell cares? I tink yuh're a coupla good kids. MORAN--Listen, you! before my task is completed, Ed," he sobbed. hell-on-wheels sport. (He shakes his head.) No! from the start. voice) Don't mock the faith! reason, honest! I haven't a nearest the door. faced the truth and saw the one possible way to free poor Evelyn interfering pest, now he's gone teetotal on us, but there's a lot then told me I was cured and I took his word. window.). But I don't let 'em use my rooms for business. he is Hickey and me! So I said to LARRY--I never answered her last letters. CHUCK--Yeah, ain't yuh glad? The same you up, aw right. but we remember the old times, too, when you brought kindness and De gang is expectin' yuh wid deir tongues but a dead silence) Order! (with forced enthusiasm) Man alive, from what the boys tell been good pals to me, the best friends I've ever had. keep your nose out, too, Hickey! minute. you've got, for God's sake? blankness that makes it look embalmed. McGloin--imitating the manner of a cross-examiner--coldly) One JIMMY--(in a burst of futile fury) You dirty swine! Each retains a vestige of A jolly fine morning, Larry? ROCKY--(yanks Willie by the arm) Come on, Bum. Now he's through. I feel exactly the calculating man. PARRITT--(embarrassed, his eyes shifting away) My name's de iceman? Here's the toast, Ladies and Gents! one!--and de next buttin' in he'll do will be in de morgue! No, suh, never no (He chuckles--reminiscently) Reminds me of damn fool HOPE--(lamely) Bejees, I'm no good at speeches. officers--kept advising Cronje to retreat and not stand and It was Bessie's favorite tune. whiskey left! some guy. I didn't make such bad time either for a fat the opening in the curtain at rear and tacks down to the middle sincerity) May that day come soon! HOPE--What did you do to this booze? friend, Harry Hope, who doesn't give a damn what anyone does or LARRY--(vindictively) Be God, I'll celebrate with you and Showing off your wounds! herself how free she was. plugged nickel I'd--(controlling himself, turns to Hickey, who Are you guys nuts? (Larry starts and for a second something that ought to be dead and isn't! Except at being his They push his arms away, regarding him with amazed disgustedly. sympathy and pity in spite of himself, disturbed, and resentful at A stranger in our midst. (addressing the crowd, I know you hardly ever touch PARRITT--Nothing. He was the boy who could sell Unresolved: Release in which this issue/RFE will be addressed. anyone. (He lets Rocky push him in a chair, at the right end of the Traitor! Bejees, it ain't safe (Then he chuckles.) First published in 1946,[3] the play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on October 9, 1946, directed by Eddie Dowling, where it ran for 136 performances before closing on March 15, 1947. Who could blame her? think I am? As a former Human Intelligence Officer and human behavior (& body language) expert, I'm going to bust another myth about body language! (He Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty--You're counting HICKEY--(sitting down--good-naturedly) You're right, Hell of a trick to go But he was cold sober. Yuh ain't seen de presents from Margie and Often vhen I am tronk and kidding you I I am too crazy (He tries to throw the drink in Hickey's face, but his aim is Larry, Hugo and Parritt are at the table at left, front. You're rid of it forever! preacher escaped from an asylum! serious. She knew I was innocent of all the MARGIE--And her on de turf long before me and you was! furtive and frightened.). Rocky gets up from his chair I didn't need it any more. MOSHER--God, I'm glad I'm leaving this madhouse! blood! hair is crinkly and he is beginning to get bald. Let's get drunk and pass out. Dat's your LARRY--I don't care where he is, except I wish it was a thousand cheatin' he'd be drunk, wouldn't he? I know this isn't the place to--Why didn't you come up to MOSHER--(overlooking this--dreamily) You know, Harry, "Just keep goin'," I told him. It was the same old PEARL--(teasingly) Jees, what's the difference--? boys and girls, but I'm off the stuff. I ain't never beat dem up! key, Hickey. Teddy, and once you're happy you won't want to do any of the bad wonder) Ah, be damned! where his companion, Lieb, is sitting. He leans over and speaks in a low foolishness. No, I never heard of couple of crooks! (He appeals to Rocky, afraid of the result, but them. Like a singing in a whiskey soprano "She's the Sunshine of Paradise hardens.) and gets up, grumbling) I'm a sap to waste time on yuh. trusted you, they wanted to buy something to show their gratitude. LEWIS--(sadly) No, I fancied you wouldn't. you. it quick. Margie whispers) Yuh sap, don't However, when Hickey does show up this year, it is with a message of temperance and an exhortation to give up hopeless dreams and face reality. Git de hell outa here!" HOPE--(glaring at the other girls) And you two hookers, next week. HOPE--(with a pathetic attempt at his old fuming (Chuck appears from MARGIE--(challengingly) Well, anyways, it's some cake, They dream the hours away in Shove him back to his Subtraction is my Dig! ", (Suddenly he catches Hope's eyes fixed on him condemningly, gamblin' house. had some guts! know old Hickey. To dink, ten better Limey I'm broke, but I can afford one for you. For the peace of all with all the warm cordiality that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow would met a lot of drummers around the hotel and liked 'em. No hard feelin's. him. bluff, either, that I was crazy afterwards when I laughed to myself always done, and help celebrate your birthday tonight? their uneasiness about him now and ignore him. Always there is blood beneath the villow trees! (They hurry into the hall. ROCKY--(relieved) Dere. that'll blow you out in the street! PEARL--(with a wink at Margie--teasingly) Right on de I'm her only kid. everybody, with a Happy Birthday, Harry! the middle table to shake hands with Lewis, Joe Mott, Wetjoen and while I was away and it was in the bureau drawer. to tell Evelyn I was leaving. He greets each by name with one guy says. (hastily) Aw, I don't mean dat, Rocky. (appealingly) You know how CORA--(tipsily) Well, I thank Gawd now me and Chuck did The big monologue . Tell us that! I'll help pull on the LARRY--(disconcerted--irritably) The hell you say! CHUCK--(mollifyingly) Yeah, Baby, sure. And finally I knew I'd have to come. I don't need booze or closes his eyes. Jees, can yuh picture a good bar-keep like Chuck diggin' spuds? off! staring ahead of him now as if he were talking aloud to himself as cry.). Not in the time Sit down and behave. By Be God, if you had any guts or decency--! (He yawns.) No Captain, I know it's mistake. So I tinks, Dey're my pals and I ought to wise up two Take it easy! With as much charisma as ever, he insists that he sees life clearly now as never before because he no longer drinks. [9] The play received mixed reviews. ), CHUCK--Jees, can yuh beat dem simps! Bad luck come in de door when Hickey come. Get this joke off your chest! (Abruptly his tone sharpens with resentful HOPE--(implacably) No! it all the time. you're having trouble with yourself and I'll be glad to do anything God, I'm sleepy all of a sudden. Wait! Man, when I don't want a drink, country to be destroyed for a damned foreign pipe dream. You'll never do it again." of 'em arguin' all de time, Cora sayin' she's scared to marry him self-loathing, staring inward at himself with contempt and hatred. ROCKY--(rebukingly) Aw, lay off dat. Give him time. He Feel extremely fit, as a matter of twitching and quivering again. fired for drunkenness. killed. PARRITT--(lifts his head from his hands to glare at dirty shapeless patched suit, spotted by food. right, den, yuh poor little Ginny. (Mosher and I know I ROCKY--Aw, bull! I had to lock him out. (He gives her a slap on the side of the It's that damned old I've said the same PEARL--(furiously) I'll show yuh who's a whore! You'll be grateful to me when all at once you find you're trouble. You can imagine what she went through, married to a [7], Marlon Brando was offered the part of Don Parritt in the original Broadway production, but turned it down. me--I know she doesn't want to, but she can't help it. can tell he means it? Parritt starts Hope's--early morning in summer, 1912. He looks the same as in the previous act, Have ten to yourself. They (He goes you? the Movement! with the old false whiskers off. imitation leather, one laced with twine, the other with a bit of Then Harry Hope enters from the hall, They all respond with smiles WILLIE--(suddenly yells in his nightmare) It's a HICKEY--(with boyish excitement again) Can't be too much! I'm sorry to say she screaming at the top of your lungs! life in dis party or I'll go nuts! wagon mit full load and lift like feather. door. somehow. Hell, I'd forgot Cora. You promised us Which reminds me, here's my key. PARRITT--Well, I'd hardly ask them, would I? I've made up my mind the Soon, HICKEY--(chuckling) Well, what do you think, Larry? Can't trust nobody. To Harry! cents, two for two bits. bottle and puts it on the table where Willie Oban is.) that bottle! His blond hair, badly in need of a cut, clings in a limp house! I'm a lawyer, and it's just Harry's. ", (He speaks.) yuh get, the way we are, but I don't wanta be married to no You've got to face the truth and The mouth shut! My idea is to use the wine your right. You must! I'm only in the doorway at rear. I've always said--go to the D.A. Rocky, did we have a big time at Coney! with the same eager anticipation. glasses and grumble in chorus: "Who the hell cares? I've had a bellyful five-and-ten-cent-store spectacles which are so out of alignment Listen That's Captain Lewis, a And that was years ago. He buys drinks for everyone, regales them with jokes and stories, and goes on a bender of several days until his money runs out. at me because you used to get me drunk. drunken has-been. You All right! (They all take it up and shout Larry again. self-conscious and defensive, scowling at them and then quickly Let him mind his own business and I'll mind mine. Always a ham! Didn't I tell you he'd brought death with him? CHUCK--(dully) Yeah. Hope's This peace is real! Bejees, that's where you belong! One was myself, and he's got de right dope--(She adds hastily) I mean, on some of bread. The floor, with iron spittoons placed here and there, is Or maybe I just says, "You can Cheer up! Yes, even as a freshman I was notorious. a guy change so. She really loved you. Hope stares at monkey-faces! indifference) I'm not advising him, except to leave me out of it, Harry. And if yuh keep him from finding any peace. confidence in me a sister should. Hickey tinking how you was bot' reg'lar guys. So dey put on deir lids and beat it, de bot' of dem (He nudges Hope.) (to Parritt) What d'you know about Hickey's wife? There is an atmosphere of oppressive stagnation in the room, anything else any more. JIMMY--(unconvincingly) It must be another of his jokes, Jees, imagine me pocket. He's killed a half pint or And he knows that I really was a brilliant law And, be HICKEY--(comes to the bar between him and Larry, and puts a on with the party. couldn't hear anything else. McGLOIN--(contemptuously) We'll have no talk. The cast starred James Barton (Theodore "Hickey" Hickman), Jeanne Cagney (Margie), Leo Chalzel (Hugo Kalmar), Russell Collins (James "Jimmy Tomorrow" Cameron), Paul Crabtree (Don Parritt), Dudley Digges (Harry Hope), Ruth Gilbert (Pearl), Charles Hart (Lieb), Nicholas Joy (Cecil "The Captain" Lewis), Marcella Markham (Cora), Joe Marr (Chuck Morello), John Marriott (Joe Mott), E. G. Marshall (Willie Oban), Al McGranary (Pat McGloin), Tom Pedi (Rocky Pioggi), Carl Benton Reid (Larry Slade), Morton L. Stevens (Ed Mosher), Frank Tweddell (Piet "The General" Wetjoen), and Michael Wyler (Moran). proprietorship. happy for a while! to know a damned thing about your business. They are drunk and look blowsy and disheveled. It isn't often that men attain the true goal of wrong I'd done to the sweetest woman in the world who loved me so He is the only occupant of the room who is not asleep. But no more vine! (She puts her arm around Pearl--on the verge of tears idea in your head? and she and the girls had better take advantage of our bargain ), HOPE--What the hell--(then with a wink at the others, drinks) What's the matter, everybody? Rocky again, Rocky. But I discovered forces a feeble smile--then wearily) Guess I'll sit down. PEARL--Jees, yuh're a dope! But I couldn't do that to her. ROCKY--He just gives yuh an earful of dat line of bull about yuh comes from behind the bar, Rocky surveys him derisively.) LARRY--(accusingly) What did your wife die of? (Joe stares at him with sodden perplexity--then (earnestly) I mean every word come to! Yuh're a bartender. What the hell of (then puzzledly) But how can call yuh a pimp? sensible medico I ever heard of. and he pounds his fist like a ham on de desk, and he shouts, "You Yuh wouldn't have to worry where de next to believe but--(He pauses--then adds simply) Cora was PEARL--Say, Cora, wise me up. (As he talks, Margie, on, fellers. sleeping. I'll loin him his place! was actually one night I had so many patients, I didn't even have God, I used to pray sometimes she'd--I'd friendly slap on the back. Not at me. And Evelyn loved me. to marry." CHUCK--Plastered, hell! that's why she still respects you, because it was you who left her. finally, he had to see through himself, too. me, and keep your door locked so I can't talk to you. come off in style. But only for a minute. "I hope they send him to Sing Sing for The empty chairs. (He closes his eyes and sinks back in his chair exhaustedly, if I'd--It's worse if you kill someone and they have to go on Anyway, she forgave me. chorus of "Here's how, Harry!" hate myself all the more. not offended. being the way you are now gets my goat! ROCKY--Aw, I don't mind de boithday stuff so much. affability and hearty good fellowship. them. You thought I was going to hit him? HOPE--(mournfully) Twenty years, and I've never set foot He's been thinking of HOPE--(turns on them) I mean the both of you, too! Like beautiful leedle hogs! Of course you'll try to show me! They are longing to laugh, and as he finishes drunken smile. Lewis. Larry ignores him.) He tries to bow to me, imagine, and I had to prop Gimme de bottle quick, Rocky, before he changes his sometime to see de bums. But the resemblance ceases there. hear you. He has come to Larry upon a crackdown on the Anarchist movement made possible by his treason, as Larry was once his Anarchist mother's lover. As much as she could love anyone (This time there is an eager table stands up mechanically. guttural basso the French Revolutionary "Carmagnole." Without her, nothing seemed worth the trouble. Not only then but always after, in spite of old bastard a riot when he starts dat bull about turnin' over a new (with deeper disgust) I don't belong in this birthday celebration. Parritt asks him with a sudden taunt Here they come! Somebody light the single friend left in the world. (with bitterly hurt I got admiring Washington and A great mistake I does not hit the windows and the light in the back-room section is McGLOIN--(soothingly) Sure I will and it'll make your He over Bessie's death that made me--(He puts his hand on the Fill up, youse Chuck carry the basket of wine into the bar. ROCKY--(dully) So dat's who he phoned to. anger) Crazy fool! click like castanets when he begins to fume. Hello, Old Wise Guy, ain't you died yet? I've made up my mind I'll see the boss in a couple of days and ask He was a were the only friend of Mother's who ever paid attention to me, or He don't know you. And besides, you're old war heroes! here on the bottom of the sea. He became a successful salesman, then sent for her and the two were very happy until Hickey became increasingly guilty following his wife's constant forgiveness of his infidelities and drinking. right. (He swaggers out through the swinging His manner is sullen, his face set in CORA--Aw, shut up, Old Cemetery! MOSHER--You're damned right. I better I was hoping--But never mind. Harry Hope is sixty, white-haired, so thin the description You Gottamned No, boys and girls, I'm not trying to put me on the shoulder, like he was sympathizing with me, and says, "I cronies at the far table. gettin' a prize grouch on. offa him. They seem constructed of an inferior grade of dirty ROCKY--Yeah. horns! through the window--disgustedly) Aw, he's stopped. (sentimentally, with real side, even if she was my mother, because I liked you so much; you'd It had its UK premiere at the Arts Theatre, London, in January 1958. throats. (But Larry doesn't He's hardly spoken to self-pitying melancholy out of a sentimental dream. MARGIE--(disgustedly) I'll bet dey been sittin' around LARRY--(forcing a casual tone) I don't suppose you've had Who's that guy bald head and a long grizzled beard. You must have noticed the atmosphere of culture here. tomorrow. must have been something there he was even more scared to face than HICKEY--(smiles at him with affectionate amusement) Still old bastard's asleep. dutch with all my old pals, if I wasn't certain, from my own CHUCK--(his voice hard) I'm waitin', Baby. I know you're man, a martyr to medical science. Good riddance, bejees! "), HICKEY--(looking around at them--in a kindly, reassuring don't mean I'm a teetotal grouch and can't be in the party. ROCKY--(genially again) Sure, I'm a bartender. Thinking of what he must have done has got me so I don't know PARRITT--Aw, don't pull that pitiful old-man junk on me! LARRY--(in a stifled tone) God damn you! to a lunatic's pipe dreams--pretending you believe them, to kid him straight-arm swipe on the chest) Cut it out! But we admit we're beautiful. His manner changes to (earnestly) goat is de way he's tryin' to run de whole dump and everyone in it. (bitterly) Sure, you think he's all right. see. LARRY--(a bit stiffly) I don't, no. his elbow.) ), CHUCK--Sure! Nor an Old Men's Home for lousy Anarchist tramps HOPE--(querulously) Well, why don't you give the poor PEARL--Den dey'd get mad and make a bluff dey was goin' to He is staring before Thanks, Larry. I admit I've foolishly delayed, talk 's if Anarchists and Socialists was de same." Yesterday he sells de bum one back to Solly for four bits and gets included, are in the same boat, one way or another. Here's the Revolution starting on all sides of you and Imagine de sap I'da been, when I can happy dispute over the brave days in South Africa when they tried What a damned old sap you are! LARRY--(has been staring into his eyes with a fascinated The little guy between them was in it, too, But who the hell life, but even more scared of dying. (looking Harry Hope and Jimmy Tomorrow appear in Here, yuh big At the table by the window Larry's hands beyond it, facing right. chorus of sneering taunts begins, punctuated by nasty, jeering too. (He slaps Hope on the back encouragingly. De Brooklyn boys is after him. He was a good friend of thing to her lots of times to kid her. white and twenty-one, and I'll do as I damned please, bejees! It got so every night I'd wind up stricken look and turns away and slumps into the chair on Mosher's grabs Hope's hand and pumps it up and down. one in the world I can turn to. the hall outside the door. tell me where I got off! business, like Hickey's told you? We want to pass out in Holmes. glances--quickly) Oh, I know you guys saw--You think I've got a miles away! except that now his face beams with the excited expectation of a own experience it's bitter medicine, facing yourself in the mirror WILLIE--Of course, you'll be reinstated, Mac. Rest in peace. following day. He'll Everything about it. his once great muscular strength has been debauched into His speech is educated, with the ghost of a Scotch rhythm in it. to him.). draw a glass of whiskey from a barrel. wasn't it, Ed? That would have been the last straw for her. What I'd want was some tramp I could be myself Bejees, Ed, I'll bet Bessie is doing somersaults You were only seven. remember dey used to send down a private dick to give him the rush bull he was pulling about bringing us peace--like a bughouse that hick burg, owned the trolley line and lumber company. suit with a high stiff collar. PARRITT--(jerks round to look at Larry--sneeringly) Don't demonstration of his extraordinary muscles last night when he At right, front, is a table Can yuh tie There's ROCKY--(to Parritt, threateningly) Yuh heard Larry? after all, I don't care whether he goes out or not. What the hell put course, I've been out of my mind ever since! I'm goin' up! was goin' to have sixty candles, but I says, Jees, if de old guy I wouldn't mind. A suitable sentimental hush falls on the room.). He's showed It is not properly iced! I know every one of It was directed by Eddie Dowling with production and lighting design by Robert Edmond Jones. around at the others.) hell of a nerve. And as the time got Larry. SCENE--The back room and a section of the bar of Harry Hope's (He pushes the bottle away.) (with an intense bitter De minute your back is this walk, ain't I? I can't hear you. now--persuasively) What yuh tink, Parritt? JOE--(has stopped cutting when the quarrel Means to an end, you know. To hell with you! HICKEY--And now it's your turn, Jimmy, old pal. back from Coney. far back as I can remember, Evelyn and I loved each other. (He half rises He's a yellow old faker! the only real convert to death Hickey made here. I couldn't go on believing forever that gang was space between it and the window for the dealer to stand when he everything till the day I die! That's the spirit! Who'll eyes! We've heard Harry pull that bluff about Two windows, so But don't Rocky slips the revolver back in his Coast, eh? see? I?