Plays
boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes--and before I could get
there--(_covers her face an instant_) If they hadn't held me back I
would have--(_catches herself, looks upstairs where steps are heard,
falters weakly_)--hurt him.
MRS HALE: (_with a slow look around her_) I wonder how it would seem
never to have had any children around, (_pause_) No, Wright wouldn't
like the bird--a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too.
MRS PETERS: (_moving uneasily_) We don't know who killed the bird.
MRS HALE: I knew John Wright.
MRS PETERS: It was an awful thing was done in this house that night, Mrs
Hale. Killing a man while he slept, slipping a rope around his neck that
choked the life out of him.
MRS HALE: His neck. Choked the life out of him.
(_Her hand goes out and rests on the bird-cage_.)
MRS PETERS: (_with rising voice_) We don't know who killed him. We don't
_know_.
MRS HALE: (_her own feeling not interrupted_) If there'd been years and
years of nothing, then a bird to sing to you, it would be awful--still,
after the bird was still.
MRS PETERS: (_something within her speaking_) I know what stillness is.
When we homesteaded in Dakota, and my first baby died--after he was two
years old, and me with no other then--
MRS HALE: (_moving_) How soon do you suppose they'll be through, looking
for the evidence?
MRS PETERS: I know what stillness is. (_pulling herself back_) The law
has got to punish crime, Mrs Hale.
MRS HALE: (_not as if answering that_) I wish you'd seen Minnie Foster
when she wore a white dress with blue ribbons and stood up there in the
choir and sang. (_a look around the room_) Oh, I _wish_ I'd come over
here once in a while! That was a crime! That was a crime! Who's going to
punish that?
MRS PETERS: (_looking upstairs_) We mustn't--take on.
MRS HALE: I might have known she needed help! I know how things can
be--for women. I tell you, it's queer, Mrs Peters. We live close
together and we live far apart. We all go through the same things--it's
all just a different kind of the same thing, (_brushes her eyes,
noticing the bottle of fruit, reaches out for it_) If I was you, I
wouldn't tell her her fruit was gone. Tell her it _ain't_. Tell her it's
all right. Take this in to prove it to her. She--she may never know
whether it was broke or not.
MRS PETERS: (_takes the bottle, looks about for something to wrap it in;
takes petticoat from the clothes brought from the other room, very
nervously begins winding this around the bottle. In a false voice_) My,
it's a good thing the men couldn't hear us. Wouldn't they just laugh!
Getting all stirred up over a little thing like a--dead canary. As if
that could have anything to do with--with--wouldn't they _laugh_!
(_The men are heard coming down stairs_.)
MRS HALE: (_under her breath_) Maybe they would--maybe they wouldn't.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: No, Peters, it's all perfectly clear except a reason
for doing it. But you know juries when it comes to women. If there was
some definite thing. Something to show--something to make a story
about--a thing that would connect up with this strange way of doing it--
(_The women's eyes meet for an instant. Enter HALE from outer door_.)
HALE: Well, I've got the team around. Pretty cold out there.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: I'm going to stay here a while by myself, (_to the_
SHERIFF) You can send Frank out for me, can't you? I want to go over
everything. I'm not satisfied that we can't do better.
SHERIFF: Do you want to see what Mrs Peters is going to take in?
(_The_ LAWYER _goes to the table, picks up the apron, laughs_.)
COUNTY ATTORNEY: Oh, I guess they're not very dangerous things the
ladies have picked out. (_Moves a few things about, disturbing the quilt
pieces which cover the box. Steps back_) No, Mrs Peters doesn't need
supervising. For that matter, a sheriff's wife is married to the law.
Ever think of it that way, Mrs Peters?
MRS PETERS: Not--just that way.
SHERIFF: (_chuckling_) Married to the law. (_moves toward the other
room_) I just want you to come in here a minute, George. We ought to
take a look at these windows.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: (_scoffingly_) Oh, windows!
SHERIFF: We'll be right out, Mr Hale.
(HALE _goes outside. The_ SHERIFF _follows the_ COUNTY ATTORNEY _into
the other room. Then_ MRS HALE _rises, hands tight together, looking
intensely at_ MRS PETERS, _whose eyes make a slow turn, finally meeting_
MRS HALE_'s. A moment_ MRS HALE _holds her, then her own eyes point the
way to where the box is concealed. Suddenly_ MRS PETERS _throws back
quilt pieces and tries to put the box in the bag she is wearing. It is
too big. She opens box, starts to take bird out, cannot touch it, goes
to pieces, stands there helpless. Sound of a knob turning in the other
room_. MRS HALE _snatches the box and puts it in the pocket of her big
coat. Enter_ COUNTY ATTORNEY _and_ SHERIFF.)
COUNTY ATTORNEY: (_facetiously_) Well, Henry, at least we found out that
she was not going to quilt it. She was going to--what is it you call it,
ladies?
MRS HALE: (_her hand against her pocket_) We call it--knot it, Mr
Henderson.
(CURTAIN)
THE OUTSIDE
First performed by the Provincetown Players at the Playwrights' Theatre,
December 28, 1917.
CAPTAIN (of 'The Bars' Life-Saving Station)
BRADFORD (a Life-Saver)
TONY (a Portuguese Life-Saver)
MRS PATRICK (who lives in the abandoned Station)
ALLIE MAYO (who works for her)
SCENE: _A room in a house which was once a life-saving station. Since
ceasing to be that it has taken on no other character, except that of a
place which no one cares either to preserve or change. It is painted the
life-saving grey, but has not the life-saving freshness. This is one end
of what was the big boat room, and at the ceiling is seen a part of the
frame work from which the boat once swung. About two thirds of the back
wall is open, because of the big sliding door, of the type of barn door,
and through this open door are seen the sand dunes, and beyond them the
woods. At one point the line where woods and dunes meet stands out
clearly and there are indicated the rude things, vines, bushes, which
form the outer uneven rim of the woods--the only things that grow in the
sand. At another point a sand-hill is menacing the woods. This old
life-saving station is at a point where the sea curves, so through the
open door the sea also is seen. (The station is located on the outside
shore of Cape Cod, at the point, near the tip of the Cape, where it
makes that final curve which forms the Provincetown Harbor.) The dunes
are hills and strange forms of sand on which, in places, grows the stiff
beach grass--struggle; dogged growing against odds. At right of the big
sliding door is a drift of sand and the top of buried beach grass is
seen on this. There is a door left, and at right of big sliding door is
a slanting wall. Door in this is ajar at rise of curtain, and through
this door_ BRADFORD _and_ TONY, _life-savers, are seen bending over a
man's body, attempting to restore respiration. The captain of the
life-savers comes into view outside the big open door, at left; he
appears to have been hurrying, peers in, sees the men, goes quickly to
them._
CAPTAIN: I'll take this now, boys.
BRADFORD: No need for anybody to take it, Capt'n. He was dead when we
picked him up.
CAPTAIN: Dannie Sears was dead when we picked him up. But we brought him
back. I'll go on awhile.
(_The two men who have been bending over the body rise, stretch to
relax, and come into the room._)
BRADFORD: (_pushing back his arms and putting his hands on his chest_)
Work,--tryin to put life in the dead.
CAPTAIN: Where'd you find him, Joe?
BRADFORD: In front of this house. Not forty feet out.
CAPTAIN: What'd you bring him up here for?
(_He speaks in an abstracted way, as if the working part of his mind is
on something else, and in the muffled voice of one bending over._)
BRADFORD: (_with a sheepish little laugh_) Force of habit, I guess. We
brought so many of 'em back up here, (_looks around the room_) And then
it was kind of unfriendly down where he was--the wind spittin' the sea
onto you till he'd have no way of knowin' he was ashore.
TONY: Lucky I was not sooner or later as I walk by from my watch.
BRADFORD: You have accommodating ways, Tony. No sooner or later. I
wouldn't say it of many Portagees. But the sea (_calling it in to the_
CAPTAIN) is friendly as a kitten alongside the women that live _here_.
Allie Mayo--they're _both_ crazy--had that door open (_moving his head
toward the big sliding door_) sweepin' out, and when we come along she
backs off and stands lookin' at us, _lookin_'--Lord, I just wanted to
get him somewhere else. So I kicked this door open with my foot
(_jerking his hand toward the room where the_ CAPTAIN _is seen bending
over the man_) and got him _away. (under his voice_) If he did have any
notion of comin' back to life, he wouldn't a come if he'd seen her.
(_more genially_) I wouldn't.
CAPTAIN: You know who he is, Joe?
BRADFORD: I never saw him before.
CAPTAIN: Mitchell telephoned from High Head that a dory came ashore
there.
BRADFORD: Last night wasn't the _best_ night for a dory. (_to_ TONY,
_boastfully_) Not that I couldn't 'a' stayed in one. Some men can stay
in a dory and some can't. (_going to the inner door_) That boy's dead,
Capt'n.
CAPTAIN: Then I'm not doing him any harm.
BRADFORD: (_going over and shaking the frame where the boat once swung_)
This the first time you ever been in this place, ain't it, Tony?
TONY: I never was here before.
BRADFORD: Well, _I_ was here before. (_a laugh_) And the old
man--(_nodding toward the_ CAPTAIN) he lived here for twenty-seven
years. Lord, the things that happened _here_. There've been dead ones
carried through _that_ door. (_pointing to the outside door_) Lord--the
ones _I've_ carried. I carried in Bill Collins, and Lou Harvey and--huh!
'sall over now. You ain't seen no _wrecks_. Don't ever think you have. I
was here the night the Jennie Snow was out there. (_pointing to the
sea_) There was a _wreck_. We got the boat that stood here (_again
shaking the frame_) down that bank. (_goes to the door and looks out_)
Lord, how'd we ever do it? The sand has put his place on the blink all
right. And then when it gets too God-for-saken for a life-savin'
station, a lady takes it for a summer residence--and then spends the
winter. She's a cheerful one.
TONY: A woman--she makes things pretty. This not like a place where a
woman live. On the floor there is nothing--on the wall there is nothing.
Things--(_trying to express it with his hands_) do not hang on other
things.
BRADFORD: (_imitating_ TONY_'s gesture_) No--things do not hang on other
things. In my opinion the woman's crazy--sittin' over there on the
sand--(_a gesture towards the dunes_) what's she _lookin'_ at? There
ain't nothin' to _see_. And I know the woman that works for her's
crazy--Allie Mayo. She's a Provincetown girl. She was all right once,
but--
(MRS PATRICK _comes in from the hall at the right. She is a 'city
woman', a sophisticated person who has been caught into something as
unlike the old life as the dunes are unlike a meadow. At the moment she
is excited and angry_.)
MRS PATRICK: You have no right here. This isn't the life-saving station
any more. Just because it used to be--I don't see why you should
think--This is my house! And--I want my house to myself!
CAPTAIN: (_putting his head through the door. One arm of the man he is
working with is raised, and the hand reaches through the doorway_) Well
I must say, lady, I would think that any house could be a life-saving
station when the sea had sent a man to it.
MRS PATRICK: (_who has turned away so she cannot see the hand_) I don't