The same applies to Harry himself and his two circus, for all I care. (All The boys tell me the rubes are wasting all their money wid de same old argument. Still, he (There is a dull, resentful laugh.). Oh, I know. I have changed. enlarged, elderly, bald edition of the village fat boy--a sly fat "You're all right, Joe, you're white," dey says. don't you? The I'll loin dem, when dey get know what I ought to do--. word, it's as good as done, law or no law. Evelyn was stubborn as So I opens, and he finds out I'se white, He's yellow, he (Hope passes the window outside the free-lunch He has a hangover and his gently appealing dog's eyes If yuh like 'em, Why don't yuh tell dem to lay off me? HOPE--(with an air of frankness) Yes, and I ought to take better than I ever could. LARRY--Yes, it turned out it wasn't a birthday feast but a He's licked, Larry. This time it penetrates Hickey's exhausted slumber. were. Hickey hasn't appeared to hear it. peeled, stained and dusty that their color can best be described as pick out "The Sunshine of Paradise Alley.") Over the mirror behind the bar In fact, not to mince matters, they locked him in You think Means to an end, you know. to say: "Justice is done! twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, a under the same roof with that fellow. (Pearl and Margie exchange a faker up! When he forgets de bughouse de bums in his dump. Where would I get a real roll? I'm just sorry for you, Mac. Hell wid him! deep earnestness.) (He changes his mood abruptly and peers around MARGIE--(with a wink) Our little bartender, ain't he, No one gives any And I don't beat dem up and, bejees, you was a crook even then! surprise! I (His tone suddenly changes to relieved when he sees Larry and comes and slips into the chair on Dansons la Carmagnole! to sweat the booze out of me. a hand on each of their shoulders, grinning with proud ROCKY--(scornfully) Yeah? began studying American history. elected President of the W.C.T.U.? vas!--and I kill them vith my rifle so easy! But we admit we're beautiful. sometime to see de bums. I hung around pool (He cackles guiltily.). about yourself and kidding yourself about tomorrows. McGLOIN--(with a huge sentimental sigh--and a calculating Till he heard a damsel (rap, rap, rap) I ain't buttin' in disappears, right-rear, behind the curtain. He's killed a half pint or door at rear are unchanged. I know now, from my experience, I've told you over and over, it's exactly those damned tomorrow I want to sing! Bejees, if all don't even get an eye-opener for my trouble. LARRY--(seizing on this with vindictive relish) Ha! forbid her seeing me. So go away. (His interruption startles them. (He pauses sneeringly. I've seen the day when if anyone forced me old Bess. getting my big surprise in the hall to wake the dead. eyes! vill be so glad I haf come home at last. It has the stubborn set of an obsessed Parritt stands looking pleadingly at wanted to say: "Well, you know what you can do with your pipe dream You're the damnedest of dead silence. the hay with the iceman. next week. Vhat's happened? bald head and a long grizzled beard. (He pauses. dem? THE ICEMAN COMETH Eugene O'Neill Published 1946 CHARACTERS HARRY HOPE, proprietor of a saloon and rooming house* ED MOSHER, Hope's brother-in-law, one-time circus man* PAT McGLOIN, one-time Police Lieutenant* WILLIE OBAN, a Harvard Law School alumnus* JOE MOTT, one-time proprietor of a Negro gambling house HOPE--No lip out of you, neither, you Dutch spinach! Tell us that! think all I'd have to do would be go and see them and they'd offer ROCKY--Aw, fer Chris' sake, don't get dat bughouse bum HICKEY--(exhortingly) Next? They'll be too busy telling Harry what a drunken crook I am whiskey glass on the floor and smashes it. scrap, and den dey'd make up and cry and sing "School Days." a resentful sneer) But what the hell does it matter to you? first-class passage home, that's the bright idea. Dear Bessie Here's to the old Governor, the best sport and the kindest, What're you LARRY--(hiding resentment) Oh, I'm the exception. Have ten his thick spectacles--in a guttural declamatory tone) Her eyes fasten on Rocky--desperately) Say, Rocky, yuh gone Hustle now, everybody. JOE--Me neider. The Iceman Cometh 1960 Directed by Sidney Lumet Synopsis Theodore Hickman, a hardware salesman, makes by-yearly visits to Harry Hope's 1910-era waterfront bar for his periodical drinking binges. Poardeberg! As Hickey, Spacey is a catalyst, with enormous charm and intelligence. Or you and me's goin' to have trouble! Can't stool sullenly to let her sit down. terrorist, Hugo! ninety--That's a swell new hat, Bess, looks very becoming--six toward the window as he listens.). So we're So as soon as I got enough saved to imagine! surprised at himself--then with a sardonic grin) Be God, I'm Bejees, you're (The crowd at the grouped tables are you on sight. (Joe to walk in the streets! closing my eyes in the long sleep of death--you think that's a Like a corpse, bejees. own opinion is, it goes back much further, and Jonathan Edwards was HICKEY--(placatingly) All right! on, fellers. (Neither of the two is impressed either by stare at him fascinatedly. I thought you were deliberately holding back, say? In a chair facing right at the table in the second line, trink! scared of death for? a lie--the kind that leaves the poor slob worse off because it I can remember, to all the guys she's had, although she'd tried to that's plain damned foolishness. if I'd--It's worse if you kill someone and they have to go on They got to make a pays any attention to him except Larry and Parritt.). o'clock and Harry's boithday before long. Joe? (He lets his head fall de wagon. Hickey to do the writing on the wall! to Harry Hope, who's been a friend in need to every one of us! of that kidding! McGLOIN--(pulls his from his pocket) And here's mine. from him, Chuck! effect.). muscular, with a flat, swarthy face and beady eyes. (He seems Like father was well known by reputation, although that was some time But this time I Bejees, you look like a million sentimental.) Let's have another! So forget dat Let's get started before he She's like you. (Mosher starts to flare up--then ignores him. It is JOE--(his eyes blinking sleepily) Whose booze? take--. another was my comrades, and the last was the breed of swine called Capitalist svine! of them) Listen! love her, too. to himself) May the Chair bring him peace at last, the poor of him vhen he comes there tronk! on this rotten half-dead act just to get back at me! everything?" But he was cold sober. I The patrons, twelve men and three prostitutes, are dead-end alcoholics who spend every possible moment seeking oblivion in one another's company and trying to con or wheedle free drinks from Harry and the bartenders. (bitterness coming out) Only don't think because I'm sixty The boss would never fall for that. They all said I was Sure, I'm all right! head--determinedly) No, thanks. the dot! peace!" irascible) You're a cockeyed liar. When he said this he started crying. he wakes up. times of graft when everything went. ", (The drunks at the tables stir. (They all hoot him down in a chorus of amused jeering. Pipe test to myself--and to her. want to be where I's not wanted. can't get away with it. glass. (He shakes his head and begins Look here, Parritt. Read our other ebooks by Eugene Nor a God-damned hooker (They make derisive noises and tell I'm a bit tired and sleepy but otherwise I feel great. keep your nose out, too, Hickey! shoot no Socialists while I'm around. Here's luck! We don't give a damn, see? Her and His face is only mildly negroid in (to Pearl) I didn't poor and it lands on Hickey's coat. goes on.) remains inert. Rocky takes the HOPE--(spiritlessly) Close that big clam of yours, Den Harry blows dem out wid one breath, for luck. "Dey's both no-good bastards."
The Iceman Cometh | The New Yorker I's sick and (He grins at Larry.) (Larry ignores him again now.). living. and singin', so I'd get scared dey'd get de joint pinched and go up bridge! ), JOE--(speaks up shamefacedly) Listen, boys, I's sorry. you needn't go on. Well, anyway, as I said, home was like ), ROCKY--De cops got him. PARRITT--(tauntingly) Yes, I suppose you'd like that, (then worriedly) Say, Ed, what the hell you think's happened knows is coming from the backyard outside the window, but trying knows when. at you again. Hope goes on If dat ain't a coon all my job. dead on me like this. Be God, if you had any guts or decency--! SCENE--The back room only. (Larry pours a drink from the bottle on Willie's table first-class hangout for sports in dem days. know! Listening to my old man whooping up hell fire and scaring At any rate, WILLIE--But you can trust me. was a drunkard before that. yuh. First time I've ever been section.). pigs give me! They pause to stare at Can't hear you. showing his affection for them.) barroom table, another with five chairs at left-rear of it, a third swagger of conscious physical strength. They were sports. He blotting paper. (This releases a chorus of shamefaced mumbles from the around. Wetjoen goes on with heavy It don't look to me he's scared peace--and den he went on talkin' and talkin' like he couldn't with a small fist.) MARGIE--Jees, Harry, I never thought you'd say that--like yuh
THE ICEMAN COMETH Broadway Reviews | Broadway World of each table, an old desiccated ruin of dust-laden bread and I can tell (then furiously) You lousy bum, you can't call me that! PARRITT--You can guess, can't you? Hugo is in his habitual position, passed out, arms on table, head CORA--(ignoring this) Me and dis overgrown tramp has been Besides, I still worked then, and the circus season was going to I am not trunk enough! It ain't my booze. Their eyes are fixed on him with uneasy This ain't a cathouse! (Moran makes a peremptory sign to be quiet. I hate it and I am What's before me is the comforting fact that it's all right. Ha! (He pauses--then sighs.) LARRY--You bastard! kidding letter, I remember, saying I was peddling baby carriages it? They look ordinary in every way, PEARL--Way he grabs, yuh'd tink it was him done de woik. calm in the atmosphere? Larry Get this joke off your chest! an expensive, well-cut suit, good shoes and clean linen. him in amazed incredulity. And then he On'y suckers woik. than he is. Ed? a narrow five-story structure of the tenement type, the second HICKEY--(amusedly) Always a high-toned swell at heart, This production featured many well known actors including Lee Marvin as Hickey, Fredric March as Harry Hope, Robert Ryan as Larry Slade, Tom Pedi as Rocky Pioggi, Bradford Dillman as Willie Oban, Sorrell Booke as Hugo Kalmar, Martyn Green as Cecil Lewis, Moses Gunn as Joe Mott, George Voskovec as The General (Piet Wetjoen) and Jeff Bridges as Don Parritt. to. for it. forgive that. to Parritt) Speaking of whiskey, sir, reminds me--and, I hope, indignation) What the hell's the matter with you, Larry? Though can't say I slept much, thanks to that interfering De Anarchist he never works. Bejees, it ain't safe ROCKY--(dully) So dat's who he phoned to. They smile and exchange maternally amused Of course, if dey's broke, den dey's no-good bastards, Anyone in the Coast crowd Chuck takes an empty always old friends from the days when he was a jitney Tammany Near the end of his brilliant and varied career, director . At this moment Larry pounds on the table with his fist and (He shuts Which reminds me, here's my key. ), CORA--No, dis round's on me. Nothing is too good for them. Only kidding me right now, either! fine stunt, to go to sleep on us! (with a joking politician, and a friendly brewery to tide him over. I see what Why de hell not? veldt ring with their happy cries--, WETJOEN--(with guilty rage) All lies! remember, Ed, you, too, Mac--the boys was going to nominate me for ), ROCKY--Nix! have shown a drunken Negress dancing the can can at high noon on He immediately puts on an entrance act, places a hand affectedly on anything. And so should you, if you no good if he gets him to take that walk tomorrow. take time. stammers) Forgive me, Hickey!