A PRODUCTION OF
MgM‘gfi‘GEORGE BERNARD SHAW’S-
a M “HEARTBR-EAK. HOUSE”
”LR-«2“ ON A SMALL STAG-E AND A
WRITTEN ANALYSIS OF THE DIRECTING
PROBLEMS INVOLVED

Thesis for The Degree of M. A.
MICHIGAN STATE COLLEGE
William Alfred Gregory, Jr.
1950

THESIS

   

 
    
 

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thesis entitled

”A Production of George Bernard Shaw's 'Heart-
break House' on a Small Stage and a written
Analysis of the Directing Problems Involved"

presented by

William A. Gregory

has been accepted towards fulfillment
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A PRODUCTION OF GEORGE BERNARD SHAW'S "HEARTBREAK HOUSE"
ON A SMALL STAGE AND A WRITTEN ANALYSIS OF THE
DIRECTING PROBLEMS INVOLVED.

by

William Alfred.ggggpry, Jr.

A THESIS

Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies of Michigan
State College Of Agriculture and Applied Science
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS
Department of Speech, Dramatic, and Radio Education
1950

THESIS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

TO name individually all those who helped in the
preparation of this thesis would be a tremendous task.
However, I do wish to take this Opportunity to express my
sincere thanks to those who contributed directly to its
completion; to the cast of ”Heartbreak House" for the
many long hours spent in the rehearsal process, to the
stage crew for the attractive and workable set, to
Dr. Wilson B. Paul for making this production possible,
to Mr. Stuart C. Chenoweth, Dr. Donald Hayworth, and
Dr. Evelyn H. Scholl for the help and guidance in the
writing of this thesis, to Mr. Ralph Duckwell for creating
the make up, to the designer and partner in this project,
John Tolch, who was considerate and OOOperative at all
times, to Professor Donald 0. Buell for the many hours he
has found in his busy schedule to devote to this thesis
and for his kind and constructive criticism which proved
to be invaluable, and last of all to my wife, Helen Gregory,
for her patience, her criticisms, and her long hours at

the typewriter.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. CHOOSING THE PLAY ........ ............... . 2
II. THE SCRIPT ................ ...... . ....... . 8
III. PRE-REHEARSAL PREPARATION .... ........... . 119

Finding the Premise .. ................. . 119
Adapting the Script .................... 122
Character Analysis .. ......... .......... 130
Transitions ..... ....... . ............ ... 153
Movement ........................ ....... 158

IV. CASTING AND REHEARSING THE PLAY ..... ..... 162
Casting ..................... ......... .. 164
Pre-Rehearsal Blocking Act I ........... 166
Rehearsal ..... ....... .... ............ 169
Pre-Rehearsal Blocking Act II .......... 171
Rehearsal .................. ..... ..... 176
Pro-Rehearsal Blocking Act III ......... 177
Rehearsal ..... ...... ................. 179
Interpretation ..... ................... . 180
Experimental Rehearsals ................ 185

General Directing Problems ..... ........ 198

Dress Rehearsal ......... ......... ...... 211
Additional Rehearsals ... ............ ... 213

V. PRODUCTION ANALYSIS ..... ....... .......... 218
BIBLIOGRAPHY ....... ......... .......... ..... ...... 231

APPENDIX .0......OOOOOOOOOCOOOOOOO.....OOOOCOOOOOO 234

CHAPTER I

CHOOSING THE PLAY

CHOOSING THE PLAY

The first problem which faced the director in planning
his production was that of choosing the play. In the case
in point, the director posed five major questions, or tests,
for the various scripts under consideration.
1. What type of production would present a worth while
challenge to the abilities of the director and be
Of a type he had not previously attempted?

2. What type Of play would be adaptable to the limit-
ations imposed by the small studio stage?1

5. What type of production would appeal to the average
college audience?

4. What type of production would remain within the
abilities of the available college actor?

5. What type of play would hold the interest of the
cast over the long rehearsal period planned?

The director had already decided to produce a play from
the modern era, Modern, in this case, being taken to mean
the period beginning with the writings of Ibsen. The research
began with the English writers of the late 1880's. Since
George Bernard Shaw had always been a favorite author of the
director, his works had an immediate appeal. The director
believed that any of Mr. Shaw's better known plays should

satisfy the questions posed, providing that the chosen play

 

1 The Studio Theatre at Michigan State College has a
proscenium Opening of seventeen feet and a depth of sixteen
feet from the curtain line to the back wall. The maximum
height of the stage is ten feet, eleven inches. The Off stage
space on stage right is one foot, six inches, and on stage
left is five feet, six inches.

could be adequately produced on the limited stage.

After a period of intensive reading the choice was
narrowed to four Of the director's favorites: "Arms and
the Man,” "Candida,“ "Getting Married," and "Heartbreak
House.“

I'Arms and the Man" offered a very difficult problem
in staging, as the action calls for three sets. "Candida”
was rejected because of possible casting difficulties, because
the play was too familiar to the audience, and because it had
been done too Often as a thesis problem. "Getting Married“
seemed to imply at least a partial understanding of the English
marriage laws. Mr. Shaw’s experiment with the lengthened
one act did not seem to meet the needs of the director's
project.

Before the final decision was made on "Heartbreak
House,' the director considered carefully the possibilities
of the play being accepted as merely another recapitulation
of the political events leading up to World War I. After
making a careful study of the play, the director decided that
with little or no change in the basic idea, "Heartbreak
House' would be as acceptable today as when originally
produced.2 The writer felt that the many parallels found
in the attitudes of the characters and the attitudes commonly

expressed today would be evident to the audience. The basic

 

2L'Heartbreak HouseI was written in 1914 on the eve
of the first World War. It was not produced until 1921.

4
theme of ”Heartbreak House," that the average man and woman
must take an interest in the world around them or suffer the
consequences Of desturction, appeared to the director not to
have been written some thirty-six years ago but rather to have
been taken from yesterday's editorial page of the daily paper.

Manipulating ten actors on the small stage without
the benefit Of the original set Mr. Shaw had in mind and
presenting the sometimes rather vague philosOphy Of the
author and his quick, witty, Shavian humor would certainly
challenge the abilities of the director.

A conference was held with the designer. The director
and designer agreed that the staging could be accomplished
in a simple and effective manner. The change of setting in
'the third act could be accomplished by using a black cyclorama
over the walls Of the main set. The garden could be suggested
through the use of a low brick wall.

The reaction Of the audience was, as always, an
unknown factor. However, the writer was Of the Opinion that
the aforementioned parallels would readily be seen and
appreciated by the college intellect, and that the humor--
sharp, clever, and Often pathetic--would keep alive the
interest of the audience in the play.

The characters in the play, with the exception of
Ellie Dunn, were all middle aged or older. This presented
a difficult problem in casting, but the director felt that

the characters were within the scOpe of the available

college actors.

There was no doubt in the writer's mind that the play
would hold the interest Of the cast. The difficult character-
ization mentioned would present each Of the actors with a
challenge that would assure his continued interest.5

In the final analysis, “Heartbreak House” had met

the tests of play selection. Thus the choice was made.

3 This was put to the test when the performance was
postponed for a three week period.

CHAPTER II

THE SCRIPT

Key to the Abbreviations used in the script:

C......Center Stage
D......Down Stage
L......Left Stage
R......Right Stage
U......Up Stage

X......Cross Stage

The stage directions in parenthesis are those of Mr. Shaw

and appear in the original script.

The stage directions underlined are those Of the director.

'HEARTBREAK HOUSE'
by

George Bernard Shaw

(A young lady, gloved and hatted, sits in the window
seat looking out the window, she holds a volume of Shakespeare.

The clock strikes six.
sits and begins to read.
and she sleeps.

chair L.;

With a sigh she comes down to the
Presently, her eyes close
The woman servant comes in from the hall'

with three unOpened bottles of rum on a tray, she disappears
into the pantry without noticing the young lady, she returns

with the tray full of empty bottles.

The young lady lets her

book dr0p awakening herself and startling the woman servant.)

Guinness:

Ellie:

Guinness:

Ellie:

Guinness:

Ellie:

Guinness:

Ellie:

Guinness:

From etc a. God bless us! Sorry to wake you
miss, I'm sure; but you are a stranger to me.
What might you be waiting here for now? X to C.
Rises.

o? Efiowing that I have been invited here.
gp book and puts on table.

Waiting for somebody to show some signs
Picks

Oh, you're invited, are you?
come? Dear! Dear:

And has nobody
Takes tray to desk.

A wild-locking old gentleman came and looked in
at the window; and I heard him calling out,
“Nurse, there is a young and attractive female
waiting in the poop. GO and see what she wants."
Are you the nurse?

Yes, miss: I'm Nurse Guinness. That was old
Captain Shotovsr, Mrs. Hushabye's father. I
heard him roaring; but I thought it was for
something else. I suppose it was Mrs. Hushabye
that invited you, ducky?

I understood her to do so.
I'd better go.

But really I think
Goes to coat on window seat.

Followin her. Oh, don't think of such a thing,
mIss. I; Hrs. Hushabye has forgotten all about
it, it will be a pleasant surprise for her to see
you, won't it?

It has been a very unpleasant surprise to me to
find that nobody expects me.

You'll get used to it, miss: this house is full

Captain:

Ellie:
Captain:

Guinness:

Captain:

Guinness:

Captain:

Guinness:
Captain:
Ellie:

Captain:

9
of surprises for them that don't know our ways.

(looking in from the hall suddenly) From the
latform. Nurse, there is a hold-all and a
fiandEag on the front steps for everybody to fall
over. Also a tennis racquet. Who the devil
left them there?

They are mine, I'm afraid.

Holds on landing. Nurse, who is this misguided
and unfortunate young lady?

She says Miss Hessy invited her, sir.

And had she no friend, no parents, to warn her
against my daughter's invitations? This is a
pretty sort of house, by heavens: A young and
attractive lady is invited here. x D b window
seat. Her luggage is left on the steps for
Hours; and she herself is deposited in the p00p
and abandoned, tired and starving. This is our
hospitality. These are our manners. No room
ready. No hot water. No welcoming hostess.
Our visitor is to sleep in the toolshed, and to
wash in the duckpond.

Now its all right, Captain: I'll get the lady
some tea; and her room shall be ready before

she has finished it. (To the young lady) Take
off your hat, ducky; and make yourself at home.

Picks up tray, holds on steps;

Ducky! Do you suppose, woman, that because this
young lady has been insulted and neglected you
have the right to address her as you address my
wretched children, whom you have brought up in
ignorance of the commonest decencies of social
intercourse?

 

Never mind him, doty. (she goes into the hall)
Madam, will you favor me with your name?

My name is Ellie Dunn.

Dunn! I had a boatswain whose name was Dunn.
He was originally a pirate in China. He set up

as a ship's chandler with stores which I have
every reason to believe he stole from me.

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:
Captain:

Guinness:

Captain:

Guinness:

10
No doubt he became rich. Are you his daughter?

No, certainly not. I am proud to be able to say
that though my father has not been a successful
man, nobody has ever had one word to say against
him. I think my father is the best man I have
ever known.

X U H. He must be greatly changed. Sits at
chair. Has he attained the seventh degree

3? concentration?

I don't understand.

But how could he, with a daughter? Swings to
Ellie. I, madam, have two daughters. One 0

them Is Hesione Hushabye, who invited you here.

I keep this house: she upsets it. I desire

to attain the seventh degree of concentration:
she invites visitors and leaves me to entertain
them. (Guinness returns) X U Table L-

I have a second daughter who is, thanleod, in

a remote part of the empire with her numskull

of a husband. As a child she thought the figure-
head of my ship, the Dauntless, the most
beautiful thing on earth. He resembled it. He
had the same expression: wooden yet enterprising.
She married him, and will never set foot in this
house again.

Indeed you never were more mistaken. Fixing tea
at table. She is in England this very moment.

You Have been told three times this week that she

is coming home for a year for her health. And
very glad you should be to see your own daughter
again after all these years.

I am not glad. The natural term of the affection
of the human animal for its offspring is six
years. My daughter Ariadne was born when I was
forty-six. I am now eighty-eight. If she comes,
I am not at home. If she wants anything, let her
take it. If she asks for me, let her be informed
that I am extremely old, and have totally
forgotten her.

That's no talk to offer to a young lady. Here,
ducky, (Takes cup to Ellie . have some tea;
and don't listen to him. Goes to table.

/(

Captain:

Ellie:

Guinness:

Captain:

Guinness:

Woman's

Voice:

Guinness:

Lady U:

Ellie:

11

(rising wrathfully) Snatches tea from Ellie
smells it. Now before high heaven they have
given this innocent child Indian tea; the stuff
they tan their own leather insides with. (He
seizes the cup and the tea pot and empties both
into the leathern bucket.) X 0 H, leaves cup
and saucer on desk.

(almost in tears) Oh, please! I am so tired.
I should have been glad of anything. Following
Captain to desk.

Oh, what a thing to do! The poor lamb is ready
to drOp.

You shall have some of my tea. Do not touch
that fly-blown cake: X C toward table. nobody
eats it here except the dogs. (he disappears
into the pantry)

There's a man for you! They say he sold himself
to the devil in Zanzibar before he was a captain;
and the older he grows the more I believe them.

(in the hall) Is anyone at home? Hesione!
Nurse! Papa! Do come, somebody; and take in
my luggage. (thumping heard, as of an umbrella,
on the wainscot)

My gracious! It's Miss Addy, Lady Utterword,
Mrs. Hushabye's sister: the one I told the
Captain about. X to hall with tea things.
(calling) Coming, Miss, coming.

(She is intercepted by Lady Utterword, who
bursts in much flustered)

Passing Guinness on ste s without stopping.

CE, is that you, Nurse to table. How are

you? You don't look a day older. Is nobody

at home? [here is Hesione? X to window and looks
35}. Doesn't she expect me? Where are’the
servants? U of table. Whose luggage is that

on the steps? Where's Papa? Is everybody
asleep? (seeing Ellie) Oh! I beg your pardon.
I suppose you are one of my nieces. Come and
kiss your aunt, darling.

I'- only a visitor. It is my luggage on the

Guinness:

Ellie:

Guinness:

Lady U:
Guinness:
Lady U:
Guinness:

Lady U:

12
steps.

From steps. I'll go get you some fresh tea,
6“ Oky e '

But the old gentleman said he would make some
himself.

Bless you! He's forgotten what he went for
already. His mind wanders from one thing to
another.

Papa, I suppose?

Yes, Miss.

Don't be silly, Nurse. Don't call me Miss.
No, lovey. (goes out with tea tray)

(sitting down with a flounce on the sofa) I
know what you must feel. Oh, this house! I

come back to it after twenty three years; and

it is Just the same: the luggage lying on the
steps, the servants spoilt and impossible, nobody
at home to receive anybody, no regular meals,
nobody ever hungry because they are always
gnawing bread and butter or munching apples, and,
what is worse, the same disorder in ideas, in
talk, in feeling. When I was a child I was used
to it: I had never known anything better, though
I was unhappy and longed all the time--Oh, how

I longed!--to be respectable, to be a lady, to
live as others did, not to have to think of
everything for myself. I married at nineteen to
escape from it. To Ellie. My husband is Sir
Hastings Utterword, who“has been governor of all
the crown colonies in succession. I have always
been the mistress of Government Houses. I have
been so happy: I had forgotten that people

could live like this. I wanted to see my father,
my sister, my nephews and nieces (one ought to,
you know), and I was looking forward to it.

And now the state of the house! the way I'm
received! the casual impudence of that woman
Guinness, our old nurse! really Hesione might
at least have been here: some preparation might
have been made for me. You must excuse my going
on in this way; but I am really very much hurt
and annoyed and disillusioned and if I had

Ellie:

Captain:

Lady U:

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:
Lady U:

Captain:

Lady U:

13

realized it was to be like this, I wouldn't
have come. I have a great mind to go away
without another word. (she is on the point of

weeping)

(also miserable) X to chair R of table, sits.
Nobody has been here to receive me either.
thought I ought to go away too. But how can I,
Lady Utterword? My luggage is on the steps;
and the station fly has gone.

(The Ca tain emerges from the pantry with a
tea cup

Your tea, young lady. Gives it to Ellie. What!
another lady! I must fetch-another cup.‘(makes
for the pantry)

(Rising from the sofa, suffused with emotion)
Papa! Don't you know me? I'm your daughter.

Nonsense! My daughter's upstairs asleep.
(vanishes thru the half door)

Lady Utterword sits on sofa.

(going to her with the cup) Don't be so
distressed. X to sofa. Have this cup of tea.
Sits upstage on sofa. He is very old and very
strange: heIBas been Just like that to me. I
know how dreadful it must be: my own father is
all the world to me. Oh, I'm sure he didn't mean
it.

(Captain returns with another cup)
Now we are complete. (places it on the tray)

Papa, you can't have forgotten me. I am Ariadne.
Goes to Captain. I'm little Paddy Patkins. Won't
you kiss me? (Throws her arms round his neck)

(woodenly enduring her embrace) How can you be
Ariadne? You are a middle aged woman: well
preserved, madam, but no longer young.

But think of all the years and years I have been
away, Papa. I have had to grow old, like other
peOple.

Captain:

Lady U:

Captain:

Lady U:

Captainz,

Lady U:

Captain:
Ellie:

Captain:

Nurse:

Captain:

Lady U:

14

(disengaging himself) Pushes Lady Utterword
away U C. You should grow out of kissing
strange men: they may be striving to attain
the seventh degree of concentration.

But I'm your daughter. You haven't seen me for
years.

So much the worse! When our relatives are at
home, we have to think of all their good points
or it would be impossible to endure them. But
when they are away, we console ourselves for
their absence by dwelling on their vices.

X to desk, site. That is how I have come to
think my absent daughter Ariadne a perfect
fiend; so do not try to ingratiate yourself here
by impersonating her.

Ingratiating myself indeed! (with di nity)
Bits in chair D L. Very well, Papa. (sits down
and pours tea for herself)

Rising. I am neglecting my social duties. You
remem er Dunn? Billy Dunn?

Do you mean that villanous sailor who robbed
you?

(Introducing Ellie) His daughter. ‘gits at desk
(protesting) No---
(Guinness returns with fresh tea)

Rises, steps her at foot of etc s. Take that
Engash away. Do you hear?

You've actually remembered about the tea!
(To Ellie) Oh, miss, he didn't forget you after
all! You have made an impression.

(gloomily) Sits at desk. Youth! beauty!
novelty! They areibadiy wanted in this house.

I am excessively old. Hesione is only moderately
young. Her children are not youthful.

How can children be expected to be youthful in
this house? Almost before we could speak we
were filled with notions that might have been
all very well for pagan philosOphers of fifty,

Guinness:

Lady U:

Guinness:

Lady U:

Ellie:

Lady U:

Captain:

Ellie:

Lady U:

15

but were certainly quite unfit for respectable
peOple of any age.

You were always for respectability, Miss Addy.
Starts to exit.

Nurse, will you please remember that I am Lady
Utterword, and not Miss Addy, nor lovey, nor
darling, nor doty? Do you hear me? .

Yes, ducky: all right. I'll tell them all
they must call you My Lady. (takes tray out
with undisturbed placidity)

What comfort? what sense is there in having
servants with no manners?

Lady Utterword, do you think Mrs. Hushabye
really expects me?

Oh, don't ask me. You can see for yourself
that I've Just arrived; her only sister, after
twenty three years' absence! and it seems that
I am not expected.

Rises, X to ste s. What does it matter whether
the young lady Es expected or not? She is
welcome. Holds on latform. There are beds:
there is food. I'IE find a room for her myself.
(he makes for the door)

Oh, please-~(he goes out) She rises, starts
‘%p to him, pauses, X to desk and puts cup down.

ady Utterword,‘f’don't know what to do. Your
father persists in believing that my father is
some sailor who robbed him. X D to sofa.

 

You had better pretend not to notice it. My
father is a very clever man; but he always
forgot things; and now that he is old, of course
he is worse. And I must warn you that it is
sometimes very hard to feel quite sure that he
really forgets.

(Mrs. Hushabye bursts into the room tempestuously
and embraces Ellie. Unlike her sister she is
uncorseted and dressed anyhow in a rich robe of
black pile that shows off her white skin and
statuesque contour.)

Mrs. H:

Lady U:
Mrs. H:

Lady U:

Mrs. H:
Lady U:

Mrs. H:

Lady U:

IMrs. H:

Ellie:
Mrs. H:

16

Ellie, my darling, my pettikins how long have
you been here? I've been at home all the time:
I was putting flowers and things in your room;
and when I Just sat down for a moment to try
how comfortable the armchair was I went off to
sleep. Papa woke me and told me you were here.
Fancy your finding no one, and being neglected
and abandoned. M poor love! (she deposits
Ellie on the sofa Hesione sits D and of sofa.
Oh! you've brought someone with you. Introduce
nee '

Hesione, is it possible that you don't know me?

(conventionally) Of course I remember your face
quite well. Where have we met?

Didn't Papa tell you I was here? OH! this is
really too much.

Papa!

Yes, Papa. Our papa, Rises, X to table, picks up
loves. you unfeeling wretch! I'll go straight
E0 a hotel.

(seizing her by the shoulders) My goodness
gracious goodness, you don't mean to say that
you're Addy!

I certainly am Addy; and I don't think I can be

so much changed that you would not have recognized
me if you had any real affection for me. And

Papa didn't think me even worth mentioning!

What a lark! Sit down. She pushes her into
chair R of table. You do IEOk a sweliimiYou're
muéh handsomer than you used to be. You've made
the acquaintance of Ellie, of course. She is
going to marry a perfect hog of a millionaire
for the sake of her father, who is as poor as

a church mouse; and you must help me to step
her.

Oh, please, Hesione!

From U of Mrs. Utterword's chair. My pettikins,
the man's coming here today with your father to
begin persecuting you; and everybody will see

the state of the case in ten minutes; so what's

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:
Mrs. H:

Lady U:

Mrs. H:
Lady U:

' Mrl. H:

Lady U:
Captain:

Lady U:
Captain:

Lady U:

17
the use of making a secret of it?

He is not a hog, Hesione. You don't know how
wonderfully good he was to my father, and how
deeply grateful I am to him.

(to Lady U.) X to chair D L. Her father is a
very remarkable man, Addy. EHis name is Mazzini
Dunn. Mazzini was a celebrity of some kind who
knew Ellie's grand parents. They were both poets,
like the Brownings; and when her father came

into the world Mazzini said, 'Another soldier
born for freedom!” So they christened him
Mazzini; and he has been fighting for freedom

in his quiet way ever since. That's why he is

SO poor.

I am proud of his poverty.

X to Ellie. Of course you are, pettikins. Why
not leave him in it, and marry someone you love?

(rising suddenly) Hesione, are you going to kiss
me or are you not?

What do you want to be kissed for?

I don't want to be kissed; but I do want you to
behave properly and decently. We are sisters.
We have been separated for twenty-three years.
You ought to kiss me.

Tomorrow morning, dear, before you make up. I
hate the smell of powder. X to sofa, sits.

Oh! you unfeeling----

(to Ellie) Your room is ready. From platform,

holds. The sheets were damp; but—I have changed
em.

OH! What about my sheets?

X L of C. Take my advice: air them: or take

them of? and sleep in blankets. X to garden
door. You shall sleep in AriadneTb old room.

Indeed I shall do nothing of the sort. That
little hole! I am entitled to the best spare
room 0

Captain:

Lady U:

Ellie:

Captain:

Lady U:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

manner)

18

(continuing unmoved) From door. She married
a numskull. She told me‘Ehe would marry anyone
to get away from home.

 

You are pretending not to know me on purpose.
I will leave the house. Picks up gloves.

(Mazzini Dunn enters from the hall)

At last! Captain Shotover, here is my father.
X to bring Dunn in. '

This! Nonsense! not a bit like him. (he goes
away through the garden, shutting the door
sharply behind him)

I will not be ignored and pretended to be
somebody else. I will have it out with Papa
now, this instant. (to Mazzini) Excuse me.
(She follows the Captain out, making a hasty
bow to Mazzini, who returns it.)

(hospitably shaking hands) How good of you to
come, Mr. Dunn. You don't mind Papa, do you?

He is as mad as a hatter, you know, but quite

harmless and extremely clever. You will have

some delightful talks with him.

I hOpe so. (to Ellie) So here you are, Ellie,
dear. (He draws her arm affectionately through
his) I must thank you, Mrs. Hushabye, for your
kindness to my daughter. I'm afraid she would
have had no holiday if you had not invited her.

Not at all. Very nice of her to come and attract
young people to the house for us.

(smiling) I'm afraid Ellie is not interested in
young men, Mrs. Hushabye. Her taste is on the
graver, solider side.

(with a sudden rather hard brightness in her
Won't you take off your overcoat, Mr.
Dunn? You will find a cupboard for coats and
hats and things in the corner of the hall.

(hastily releasing Ellie) Yes--thank you--I
had better-- (he goes out)

The old brute!

Ellie:
Mrs. R:

Ellis:

Mrs. H:
Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:
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Ellie:
Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

19
Who?

Who! Him. X D L below table. He.It. ”Graver,
solider tastEs,' indeed!

You don't mean that you were speaking like that
of my father!

I was. You know I was.

I will leave your house at once. (she turns to
to the door)

If you attempt it, I'll tell your father why.
Sits D L.

(turning again) Oh! How can you treat a
visitor like this, Mrs. Hushabye?

I thought you were going to call me Hesione.
Certainly not now?

Very well: I'll tell your father.

OH!

X to C. If you turn a hair-—if you take his

part against me and against your own heart for

a moment, I'll give that born soldier of freedom
a piece of my mind that will stand him on his
selfish old head for a week.

Hesione! X D to Hesione. My father selfish!
How little you know--- *(she is interrupted by
Mazzini, who returns, excited)

Ellie, Mangan has come: I thought you'd like
to know. Excuse me, Mrs. Hushabye, the strange
old gentleman----

Papa. Quite so. Turns, X D Lo

Oh, I beg your pardon, of course: Following her
I was a little confused by his manner. He is
making Mangan help him with something in the
garden; and he wants me too -----

(a powerful whistle is heard)

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

MI‘Be H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

20

The Captain's voice is heard: Bosun Ahoy!
(whistle is repeated)

Oh dear! I believe he is whistling for me.
(He hurries out)

Now my father is a wonderful man, if you like.
Moves in to Ellie.

 

Hesione, listen to me. You don't understand.
My father and Mr. Mangan were boys together.
MI. 0 M8--~

I don't care what they were: we must sit down
if you are going to begin as far back as that.
Sits Ellie D on sofa, Hesione sits U on sofa.

Now, pettikins, tell me ail—ahout Mr. Mangan.

They call him Boss Mangan, don't they? He is

a Napoleon of indistry and disgustingly rich,

isn't he? Why isn't your father rich?

My poor father should never have been in business.
His parents were poets; and they gave him the
noblest ideas; but they could not afford to

give him a profession.

Fancy your grandparents, with their eyes in
fine frenzy rolling! And so your poor father
had to go into business. Hasn't he succeeded
in it?

He always used to say he could succeed if he
only had some capital. He fought his way along,
to keep a roof over our heads and bring us up
well; but it was always a struggle: always the
same difficulty of not having capital enough.

I don't know how to describe it to you.

Poor Ellie! I know. Pulling the devil by the
tail.

(hurt) Oh, no. Not like that. It was at
least dignified.

That made it all the harder, didn't it? I
shouldn't have pulled the devil by the tail
with dignity. I should have pulled hard
(between her teeth)-é--hard. Well? Go on.

At last it seemed that all our troubles were

Mrs. H:
Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:
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21

at an end. Mr. Mangan did an extraordinarily
noble thing out of pure friendship for my
father and respect for his character.*

He asked him how much capital he wanted, and
gave it to him. He Just simply made him a
present of it. Wasn't that splendid of him?

On condition that you married him?

Oh, no, no, no! This was when I was a child.

He had never even seen me: he never came to our
house. It was absolutely disinterested. Pure
generosity.

Oh! I beg the gentleman's pardon. Well, what
became of the money?

We all got new clothes and moved into another
house. And I went to another school for two
years.

Only two years?

That was all: for at the end of two years my
father was utterly ruined.

How?

I don't know. I never could understand. But
It was dreadful. When we were poor my father
had never been in debt. But when he launched
out into business on a large scale, he had to
incur liabilities. When the business went into
liquidation he owed more money than Mr. Mangan
had given him.

Bit off more than he could chew, I suppose.

I think you are a little unfeeling about it.
Goes U L to table.

Rises, X D C. My pettikins, you mustn't mind
my way of talking. I was quite sensitive and
particular as you once; but I have picked up so
much slang from the children that I am really
hardly presentable. X to D R, sits D on sofa.
I suppose your father—had no head for business,
and made a mess of it.

 

Oh, that Just shows how entirely you are

Mrs. H:
Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

22

mistaken about him. The business turned out a
great success. It now pays forty-four percent
after deducting the excess profits tax.

Then why aren't you rolling in money?

I don't know. X to sofa. It seems very unfair
to me. Site. ‘You see, my father was made bank—
rupt. It nearly broke his heart, because he had
persuaded several of his friends to put money
into the business. He was sure it would succeed;
and events proved that he was quite right. But
they all lost their money. It was dreadful. I
don't know what we should have done but for Mr.
Mangan.

What! Did the Boss come to the rescue again,
after all his money being thrown away?

He did indeed, and never uttered a reproach to
my father. He bought what was left of the
business-~the buildings and the machinery and
things---. Then Mr. Mangan started a company
to take up the business, and made my fathers
manager in it to save us from starvation; for
I wasn't earning anything then.

Quite a romance. And when did the Boss develop
the tender passion?

Oh, that was years after, quite lately. He
took the chair one night at a sort of people's
concert. I was singing there. As an amateur,
you know: he was so pleased with my singing
that he asked might he walk home with me. I
never saw anyone so taken aback as he was when
I took him home and introduced him to my father,
his own manager. It was then that my father
told me how nobly he had behaved. Of course
it was considered a great chance for me, as he
is so rich. And--and--we drifted into a sort
of understandin --I suppose I should call it
an engagement-- she is distressed and cannot

go on

Rising, X U C. You may have drifted into it;
but you wi ill Bounce out of it, my pettikins, if
I am to have anything to do with it.

No: it's no use. I am bound in honor and

Mrs. H:

Ellie:
Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:
Mrs. H:
Ellie:
Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:
Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:
Ellis:

25
gratitude. I will go through with it.

(behind the sofa, scolding down at her) You
know, of course, that it's not honorable or

grateful to marry a man you don't love. Do

you love this Mangan man?

Yes. At least----

I don't want to know about ”at least:' I want to
know the worst. Girls of your age fall in love
with all sorts of impossible peOple, especially
old peOple.

I like Mr. Mangan very much; and I shall always
be----

X to U of table. ----- grateful to him for his
kindness to dear father. I know. Anybody else?

What do you mean?

Anybody else? Are you in love with anybody else?
Of course not.

Humph! (the book on the table catches her eye.
She picks it up, and evidently finds the title
very unexpected. She looks at Ellie, and asks
quaintly) Quite sure you're not in love with

an actor?

No, no. Why? What put such a thing into your
head?

This is yours, isn't it? Why else should you
be reading Othello?

My father taught me to love Shakespeare.

(flinging the book down on the table) Really!
your father does seem to be about the limit.

(naively) Do you never read Shakespeare,
Hesione? That seems to me so extraordinary. I
like Othello.

Do you indeed? He was Jealous, wasn't he?

Oh, not that. I think all the part about

Mrs. H:
Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:
Ellie:

Mrs. H:

24

Jealousy is horrible. But don't you think it
must have been a wonderful experience for
Desdemona, brought up so quietly at home, to meet
a man who had been out in the world doing all
sorts of brave things and having terrible
adventure, and yet finding something in her that
made him love to sit and talk with her and tell
her about them?

That's your idea of romance, is it?

Not romance exactly. It might really happen.
(Ellie's eyes show that she is not arguing,
but in a day dream. Mrs. H. watching her
inquisitively, goes deliberately back to the
sofa and looks down at her.)

Ellie dear, have you noticed.that some of those
stories that Othello told Desdemona couldn't
have happened?

Oh, no. Shapespeare thought they could have
happened.

Hm! Desdemona thought they could have happened.
But they didn't.

Why do you look so enigmatic about it? You are
such a sphinx: I never know what you mean.

Desdemona would have found him out if she had
lived, you know. I wonder was that why he
strangled her!

Looks up at Hesione. Othello was not telling

E68.

How do you know?

Shakespeare would have said if he was. Hesione,
there are men who have done wonderful things:
men like Othello, only, of course,*white, and
very handsome, and -----

Ah! Site on sofa. Now we're coming to it. Tell
me all about him. I knew there must be somebody,
or you'd never have been so miserable about
Mangan: You'd have thought it quite a lark to
marry him.

Ellie:

Mrs. H:
Ellie:
Mrs. H:

Ellie:
Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

25

(blushing vividly) Hesione, you are dreadful.
But I don't want to make a secret of it, though
of course I don't tell everybody. Besides, I
don't know him.

Don't know him! What does that mean?
Well, of course I know him to speak to.

But you want to know him ever so much more
intimately, eh?

No, no: I know him quite---almost intimately.

You don't know him; and you know him almost
intimately. How lucid!

I mean that he does not call on us. I--I got
into conversation with him by chance at a concert.

You seem to have a rather gay time at your
concerts, Ellie.

Not at all: we talk to everyone in the green
room waiting for our turns. I thought he was
one of the artists: he looked so splendid.

But he was only one of the committee. I
happened to tell him that I was cepying a
picture at the National Gallery. I am able

to make a little money that way. I can't paint
much; but as it's always the same picture I can
do it pretty quickly and get two or three pounds
for it. It happened that he came to the
National Gallery one day.

On students' day. Paid sixpence to stumble about
through a crowd of easels, when he might have
come in next day for nothing and found the floor
clear! Quite by accident?

(triumphantly) No. On purpose. He liked

talking to me. He knows lots of the most splendid
peeple. Fashionable women who are all in love
with him. But he ran away from them to see

me at the National Gallery and persuade me

to come with him for a drive round Richmond

Park in a taxi.

My pettikins, you have been going it. It's
wonderful what you good girls can do without

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:
Mrs. H:

Ellie:
Mrs. H:
Ellie:
Mrs. H:
Ellie:
Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:
Ellie:
Mrs. H:
Ellie:

Mrs. H:
Ellie:

26

I am not in society, Hesione. If I didn't make
acquaintances in that way I shouldn't have any
at all.

Well, no harm if you know how to take care of
yourself. May I ask his name?

(slowly and musically) Marcus Darnley.

(echoing the music) Marcus Darnley! What a
splendid name!

Oh, I'm so glad you think so. I think so too;
but I was afraid it was only a silly fancy of
my own.

Hm! Is he one of the Aberdeen Darnleys?

Nobody knows. Just fancy! He was found in an
antique chest-~-

A what?

An antique chest, one summer morning in a rose
garden, after a night of the most terrible
thunderstorm.

What on earth was he doing in the chest? Did
he get into it because he was afraid of the
lightning?

Oh, no, no: he was a baby. The name Marcus
Darnley was embroidered on his baby clothes.
And five hundred pounds in gold.

(looking hard at her) Ellis!

The garden of the Viscount----

---de Rougemont?

(innocently) No: de LarocheJaquelin. A
French family. A Vicomte. His life has been
one long romance. A tiger--~-

Slain by his own hand?

Oh, no: nothing vulgar like that. He saved

the life of the tiger from a hunting party: one
of King Edward's hunting parties in India.

Mrs. H:

Ellie:
Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:
Mrs. H:

Ellie:

27

The King was furious: that was why he never
had his military services properly recognized.
But he doesn't care. He is a Socialist and
despises rank, and has been in three revolutions
fighting on the barricades.

How can you sit there telling me such lies? You,
Ellie, of all peeple! And I thought you were a
perfectly simple, straightforward, good girl.

Do you mean to say you don't believe me?

Of course I don't believe you. You're inventing
every word of it. Do you take me for a fool?

Ellie x to window seat, picks up coat.
lie stares at her. Her candor is so obvious
that Mrs. H. is puzzled)

Goodbye, Hesione. I'm very sorry. I see now
that it sounds very improbable as I tell it.

But I can't stay if you think that way about me.
Up to Ellie. You shan't go. I couldn't be so
mistaken::Turns,,takes her thin s to window seat
I know too well what liars are like. SomeBody
has really told you all this. ‘

 

(flushing) Hesione, don't say that you don't
believe him. I couldn't bear that.

(soothing her) Of course I believe him dearest.
Takes Ellis to sofa,,Ellie sits U., Hesione sits
D. But you should have broken it to me by

degrees. Now tell me all about him. Are you in
love with him?

Oh, no. I'm not so foolish. I don't fall in
love with people. I'm not so silly as you think.

I see. Only something to think about--to give
some interest and pleasure to life.

Just so. That's all, really.

(caressing her) Pettikins, my pettikins, how I
envy you! and how I pity you!

Pity me! Oh, why?

(A very handsome man of fifty, with mousquetaire

Ellie:

Mrs. H:
Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Hector:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:
Hector:
Mrs. H:
Hector:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

28

moustache, wearing a rather dandified curvy
brimmed hat, and carrying an elaborate walking-
stick, comes into the room from the hall, and
stops short at sight of the women on the sofa.)

(seeing him and rising in glad surprise) Oh!
Hesione: this is Mr. Marcus Darnley.

(rising) What a lark! He is my husband.

But now---(she steps suddenly: then turns pale
and sways)

(catching her and sitting down with her on the
sofa) Steady, my pettikins.

(with a mixture of confusion and effrontery,
depositing his hat and stick on the table)

My real name, Miss Dunn, is Hector Hushabye.

I leave you to Judge whether that is a name any
sensitive man would care to confess so. I

have been away for nearly a month; and I had no
idea you knew my wife, or that you were coming
here. I am none the less delighted to find you
in our Dittle house.

(in great distress) I don't know what to do.
Please, may I speak to Papa? Do leave me. I
can't bear it.

Be off, Hector.

I ------

Quick, quick. Get out.

If you think it better--(he goes out garden door)

Sits Ellie on sofa. Now, pettikins, he is

gone. There‘s noboby but me. You can let

yourself go. Don't try to control yourself.
Have a good cry.

Damn!

Splendid! Oh, what a relief! I thought you
were going to be broken-hearted. Never mind me.
Damn him again.

I am not damning him. I am damning myself for

’l.

D
.
‘ e
0
0
. O I.
I
c I
.
I
.
, .
I
e
O
' (
D
e
.
I
..fl i
e
' l
e
.
e O

--.,.,

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:
Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellis:

29

being such a fool. (rising) How could I let
myself be taken in so? (she begins prowling to
and fro, her bloom gone, looking curiously
older and harder)

Why not, pettikins? Very few young women can
resist Hector. I couldn't when I was your age.
He is really rather splendid, you know.

Splendid! Looking out of window. Yes, splendid
locking, of course. But‘how can you love a liar?

I don't know. But you can, fortunately. Other-
wise there wouldn't be much love in the world.

But to lie like that! To be a boaster! a
coward!

(rising) X to Ellie. Pettikins, none of that,
if you please. you hint the lightest doubt

of Hector's courage, he will go straight off and
do the most horribly dangerous things to convince
himself that he isn't a coward. He has a
dreadful trick of getting out of one third-floor
window and coming in at another, Just to test

his nerve. He has a whole drawerfull of Albert
Medals for saving peeple's lives.

He never told me that.

He never boasts of anything he really did:
he can't bear it; and it makes him shy if
anyone else does. All his stories are made-
up stories.

Do you mean that he is really brave, and really
has adventures, and yet tells likes about
things that he never did and that never
happened?

Yes, pettikins, I‘do. PeOple don't have their
virtues and vices in sets: they have them
anyhow: all mixed.

There's something odd about this house, Hesione,
and even about you. I don't know why I'm
talking to you so calmly. X D to table. I
have a horrible fear that my heart is broken,
but that heartbreak is not like what I thought
it must be.

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Hector:

Mazzini:

Ellie:

Hector:

Ellie:

Mazzini:

Captain:

50

(fondling her) It's only life educating you,
pettikins. How do you feel about Boss Mangan
now?

(disenga ing herself with an expression of
distaste? Oh, how can you remind me of him,
Hesione?

Sorry, dear. I think I hear Hector coming
back. You don't mind now, do you, dear?

X to Chair L., sits.
am qfiite cured.

Not in the least. I

Hesione looks at Ellie,_X to sofa.
(Mazzini Dunn and Hector come in ??om garden)

(As he Opens the door and allows Mazzini to
pass in) One more second, and she would have
been a dead woman!

Dear! dear! 'what an escape! Ellie, my love,
Mr. Hushabye has Just been telling me the most
extraordinary---

Yes, I've heard it. (she crosses to the other
side of the room)

(following her) Not this one: I'll tell it

to you after dinner. I think you'll like it.
The truth is I made it up for you, and was
looking forward to the pleasure of telling it
to you. But in a moment of impatience at being
turned out of the room, I threw it away on

your father.

(turning at bay with her back to the desk
scornfully self-possessed) It was not thrown
away. He believes it. I should not have
believed it.

(benevolently) Ellie is very naughty, Mr.
Hushabye. Of course she does not really think
that.

(Boss Mangan comes in from the garden, followed
by the Captain)

(to Mrs. H. introducing the newcomer) Says his
name is Mangan. Not able bodied.

Mrs. H:

Mangan:
Captain:

Mrs. H:
Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

Hector:

Ellie:
Mrs. H:

Captain:

Mangan:
Captain:

Mangan:

51

Rises. (graciously) How do you do, Mr.
Mangan?

Very pleased.

Dunn's lost his muscle, but recovered his
nerve. Men seldom do after three attacks of
delirium tremens. (he goes into the pantry)
I congratulate you, Mr. Dunn.

(dazed) I am a lifelong teetotaler.

You will find it far less trouble to let papa
have his own way than try to explain.

But three attacks of delirium tremens, really!

(to Mangan) Do you know my husband, Mr. Mangan?
(she indicates Hector)

(going to Hector, who meets him with out stretched
hand) Very pleased. (turning to Ellie) I

hOpe, Miss Ellie, you have not found the Journey
down too fatiguing. (they shake hands)

Hector, show Mr. Dunn his room.

Certainly. Come along, Mr. Dunn. (he takes
Mazzini out)

You haven't shown me my room yet, Hesione.

How stupid of me! Come along. Make yourself
quite at home, Mr. Mangan. Papa will entertain
you. From platform. Papa, come and explain
the house to Mr. Mangan.

(she goes out with Ellie. The Captain comes in
from the pantry)

You're going to marry Dunn's daughter. Don't.
You're too old. X U C.

(staggered) Well! That's fairly blunt, Captain.
It's true.

She doesn't think so.

J.-

Captain:
Mangan:
Captain:
Mangan:

Captain:

Mangan:
Captain:

Mangan:

Captain:
Mangan:

Captain:

Mangan:

Captain:

Mangan:

Captain:

Mangan:

Captain:

52
She does. Site at desk.
Older men than I have----
Made fools of themselves. That, also, is true.
I don't see that this is any business of yours.

It is everybody's business. The stars in their
courses are shaken when such things happen.

I'm going to marry her all the same.

How do you know?

I intend to. I mean to. See? I never made up
my mind to do a thing yet that I didn't bring

it off. That's the sort of man I am: and there
will be a better understanding between us when
you make up your mind to that, Captain.

You frequent picture palaces.

Perhaps I do. Who told you?

Talk like a man, not like a movy. You mean that
you make a hundred thousand a year.

I don't boast. But when I meet a man that makes

- a hundred thousand a year, I take off my hat to

that man, stretch out my hand to him and call
him brother.

Then you also make a hundred thousand a year,
hey? Rises.

No. I can't say that. Fifty thousand, perhaps.

X D L to table. His half brother only. (he
turns away from Mangan with his usual abruptness
and collects the empty tea cups)

(irritated) See here, Captain Shotover, I don't
quite understand my position here. I came here
on your daughter's inviation. Am I in her
house or in yours?

You are beneath the dome of heaven, in the house
of God. What is true within these walls is true
outside them. X U C. Go out on the seas;

Mangan:
Captain:
Mangan:
Captain:

Mangan:

Captain:

Mangan:

Captain:

Mangan:

Captain:

Mangan:

Captain:
Mangan:

Captain:

55

climb the mountains; wander through the valleys.
She is still too young.

(weakening) But I'm very little over fifty.

You are still less under sixty. Boss Mangan,
you will not marry the pirate's child. (he
carries the tray away into the pantry)

(following him to the door) What pirate's
child? What are you talking about?

(in the pantry) Ellie Dunn. You will not
marry her.

Who will step me?

(emerging) My daughter. (he makes for the
door leading to the garden)

(following him) Mrs. Hushabye! Do you mean
to say she brought me down here to break it
off?

(stepping and turning on him) I knew nothing
more than I have seen in her eye. She will
break it off. Take my advice: marry a West
Indian negress: they make excellent wives.

I was married to one myself for two years.

Well, I am damned!

I thought so. I was, too, for many years.
The negress redeemed me.

(feebly) This is queer. I ought to walk out
of this house.

Why?

Well, many men would be offended by your style
of talking.

Nonsense! It's the other sort of talking that
makes quarrels. Nobody ever quarrels with me.

Turns.

(A gentleman, whose first-rate tailoring and
frictionless manners proclaim the well bred
West Ender, comes in from the hall. He has

Randall:

Captain:

Randall:

Captain:

Randall:

Captain:

Mangan:
Randall:

Captain:

Randall:

Mangan:
Randall:

Mrs. H:

Randall:

Captain:

34

an engaging air of being young and unmarried,
but on close inspection is found to be at
least over forty.)

Excuse my intruding in this fashion, but there
is no knocker on the door and the bell does
not seem to ring.

Why should there be a knocker? Why should the
bell ring? The door is epen.

Precisely. So I ventured to come in. X D C.

Quite right. I will see about a room for you.
X to steps,

But I'm afraid you don't know who I am.

From platform. Do you suppose that at my age I
make distinctions between one fellow creature
and another? (he goes out. Mangan and Randall
stare at one another)

Strange character, Captain Shotover, sir.
Very.

(shouting outside) Hesione, another person
has arrived and wants a room. Man about town,
well dressed, fifty.

Fancy Hesione's feelings! May I ask are you
a member of the family?

No. X to chair D L.

X L C. I am. At least a connection.
rs. H. comes back)

How do you do? How good of you to come!
X to Randall

I am very lad indeed to make your acquaintance,
Hesione. Instead of taking her hand he kisses
her. At the same moment the Captain appears in
the doorway) You will excuse my kissing your
daughter, Captain, when I tell you that----

Stuff! Everyone kisses my daughter. Kiss her
as much as you like. (he makes for the pantry)

Randall:

Captain:

Mrs. H:
Randall:
Mrs. H:
Randall:

Lady U:

Randall:
Lady U:
Randall:

Lady U:
Mrs. H:
Lady U:

Mrs. H:
Lady U:

35

Thank You. One moment, Captain. (the Captain
halts and turns. The gentleman goes to him
affably.) Do you happen to remember--but
probably you won't, as it occurred many years ago
--that your younger daughter married a numskull?

Yes. She said she'd marry anybody to get away
from this house. I should not have recognized
you: your head is no longer like a walnut.
Your aspect is softened. You have been boiled
in bread and milk for years and years, like
other married men. Peer devil! (he disappears
into the pantry)

I don't believe you are Hastings Utterword.
I am not.
Then what business had you to kiss me?

I thought I would like to. The fact is, I am
Randall Utterword, the unworthy younger brother
of Hastings. I was abroad diplomatizing when
he was married.

(dashing in) Hesione, where is the key of the
wardrobe in my room? My diamonds are in my
dressing bag; I must look it up ----- Randall,
how dare you?

How dare I what? I am not doing anything.
Who told you I was here?

Hastings. You had Just left when I called on
you at Claridge's; so I followed you down here.
X to Lady U. You are looking extremely well.

Don't presume to tell me so.

What is wrong with Mr. Randall, Addy?
(reeollectin herself) Oh nothing. X to window
seat. But e has no right to come betHHFIhg““
you and Papa without being invited.

I think you have not met Mr. Mangan, Addy.

t ruin her head and nodding coldly to Mangan)
l geg y§ur pardon. Randall, you have flustered
me so: I make a perfect fool of myself.

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Lady U:

Mrs. H:

Lady U:
Mrs. H:

Randall:

Mrs. H:
Lady U:

Mrs. H:
Hector:
Lady U:

Hector:

Mrs. H:
Lady U:
Mrs. H:

Hector:

56
Lady Utterword. My sister. My younger sister.

(bowing) Half up in chair. Pleased to meet

you, Lady Utterword.

(with marked interest) Who is that gentleman
walking in the garden with Miss Dunn?

I don't know. She quarreled mortally with my
husband only ten minutes ago; and I didn't know
anyone else had come. It must be a visitor.
(she goes to the window to look) Oh, it is
Hector. They've made it up. They're coming
around the other way.

Your husband! That handsome man?

Well, why shouldn't my husband be a handsome
man?

(Joining them at the window) One's husband
never is, Ariadne. -

One's sister's husband always is, Mr. Randall.

Don't be vulgar, Randall. And you, Hesione, are
Just as bad.

(Ellie and Hector come in from the hall door.
Ellie retires into the chair by desk. Hector
comes forward; and Lady U is looking her best)

Hector, this is Addy.

(apparently surprised) Not this lady.
(smiling) Why not?

(looking at her with a piercing glance) I
theught--- I beg your pardon, Lady Utterword.

I am extremely glad to welcome you at last
under our roof.

She wants to be kissed, Hector.
Hesione! (but she still smiles)

Call her Addy; and kiss her like a good brother-
in-law; and have done with it.

Behave yourself, Hesione. Lady Utterword is

 

0"“

Lady U:
Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:
Randall:

Mrs. H:

Hector:
Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Captain:
Mazzini:
Captain:

Mazzini:

57

entitled not only to hospitality but to
civilization. X to window seat, sits.

(gratefully) Thank you, Hector.

(coming from the pantry addressing Ellie)
Taps Ellie on shoulder, motions her from chair.
Site. Your lather has washed himself.

He often does, Captain Shotover.

A strange conversion! I saw him through the
pantry window. (Mazzini Dunn enters from hall
newly washed and brushed, and steps, smiling
benevolently)

(introducing)! Mr. Mazzini Dunn, Lady Ut---
Oh, I forget; you've met. (indicating Ellie)
Miss Dunn.

(takes Ellie's hand) I have met Miss Dunn also.
She is my daughter. (he draws her arm through
his caressingly)

Of course: how stupid! Mr. Utterword, my
sister's-~er--

(shaking hands agreeably) Her brother-in—law,
Mr. Dunn. How do you do?

This is my husband.

We have met, dear. Don't introduce us any
more.

Sorry. X to sofa site. I hate it: it's
like making peeple show their tickets.

How little it tells us, after all! Site with
Hesione on sofa, Ellie moves U of so a.

e great question is, not who we are, but
what we are,
Ha! What are you?
What am I?
A thief, a pirate, and a murderer.

I assure you, you are mistaken.

Captain:

Dunn:

Mrs. H:

Randall:

Mrs. H:

Randall:
Mrs. H:

Lady U:

Hector:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:
Mrs. H:

58

An adventurous life; but what does it end in?
Respectability. A lady like daughter. The
language and appearance of a city missionary.
Let it be a warning to all of you. (he goes
out through the garden)

I hepe nobody here believes that I am a thief,
a pirate, or a murderer. Mrs. Hushabye, will
you excuse me for a moment? I must really go
and explain. (he follows the captain)

(as he goes) It's no use. You'd really

'better---- (Dunn has vanished) We had better

all go out and look for some tea. We never
have regular tea; but you can always get some
when you want: the servants keep it stewing
all day. The kitchen veranda is the best place
to ask. May I show you? X to Randall.

Thank you, I don't think I'll take any tea this
afternoon. But if you will show me the garden--

There's nothing to see in the garden except
Papa's observatory, and a gravel pit with a
cave where he keeps dynamite and things of
that sort. However, it's pleasanter out of
doors; so come along.

Dynamite! Isn't that rather risky?

Well, we don't sit in the gravel pit when
there's a thunderstorm.

That's something new. What is the dynamite
for?

To blew up the human race if it goes too far.

He is trying to discover a psychic ray that will
explode all the eXplosives at the will of a
Mahatma.

The Captain's tea is delicious, Mr. Utterword.
Do you mean to say that you've had some of

my father's tea? Starts toward garden door.
That you got around him before you were ten
minutes in the house?

I did.

You little devil! (she goes out with Randall)

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Lady U:
Ellie:

Hector:

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

59

Rises. Won't you come, Miss Ellie?

I'm too tired. I'll take a book up to my room
and rest a little. (she goes to bookshelf)

Right. You can't do better. But I'm disappointed.
(he follows Randall and Mrs. H:)

(Ellie, Hector and Lady Utterword are left.

Hector is close to Lady U. They look at Ellie,
waiting for her to go)

(looking at the title of a book) Do you like
stories of adventure, Lady Utterword? X to step,.

(patronizingly) Of course, dear.

From steps. Then I'll leave you to Mr. Hushabye.
(she goes out through the hall)

That girl is mad about tales of adventure.
The lies I have to tell her!

X R C. When you saw me what did you mean by

saying that you thought, and then stepping
short? What did you think?

May I tell you?

Of course.

X to Lady U. It will not sound very civil.
was on t e point of saying, 'I thought you

were a plain woman.‘I

X L C. For shame, Hector! What right had you
to notice whether I am plain or not? Turns to

Hector.

Listen to me, Ariadne. X D to La U Until
today I have seen only photographs 0 you; and
no photograph can give the strange fascination
of the daughters of that super-natural old man.
There is some damnable quality in them that
destroys men's moral sense, and carries them
beyond honor and dishonor. You know that,

don't you?

Perhaps I do, Hector. But let me warn you once
and for all that I am a rigidly conventional
woman. You may think because I'm a Shotover

Hector:

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

Hector:.

40

that I'm Bohemian, because we are all so
horribly Bohemian. But I'm not. I hate and
loathe Bohemianism. No child brought up in a
strict Puritan household ever suffered from
Puritanism as I suffered from our Bohemianism.

Our children are like that. They spend their
holidays in the houses of their respectable
school fellows.

I shall invite them for Christmas.

Their absence leaves us both without our
natural chaperones.

Children are certainly very inconvenient some-
times. But intelligent peeple can always
manage, unless they are Bohemians.

You are no Bohemian; but you are no Puritan
either; your attraction is alive and powerful.
What sort of woman do you count yourself?

Site in chair R of table, deliberatel crosses
le 3. ‘I am a woman of the world, Hec or; and
can assure you that if you will only take the
trouble always to do the perfectly correct thing,
and to say the perfectly correct thing, you can
do Just what you like. An ill-conducted, care-
less man is never allowed within arm's length
ef any woman worth knowing.

I see. You are neither a Bohemian woman or
a Puritan woman. ‘Leans on chair. You are a
dangerous woman. '

On the contrary, I am a safe woman.

You are a most accursedly attractive woman.
Mind, I am not making love to you. I do not
like being attracted. But you had better know
how I feel if you are going to stay here.

You are an exceedingly clever lady-killer,
Hector. And terribly handsome. I am quite a
good player, my self, at that game. Is it
quite understood that we are only playing?

X to bannister leans on it. Quite. I am

deliherately playing the feel, out of sheer

Lady U:

Hector:

Mrs. H:

Lady U:

Mrs. H:

Hector:

Hector:

Mrs. H:

Hector:

Mrs. H:

41
worthlessness.

(rising brightly) Well, you are my brother-
in—law. Hesione asked you to kiss me. (he
seizes her in his arms and kisses her strenuously)
Oh! that was a little more than play, brother-
in-law. (she pushes him suddenly away) You
shall not do that again. X R of Hector.

In effect, you got your claws deeper into me
than I intended.

(coming in from the garden) Don't let me disturb
you; I only want a cap to put on Daddiest.

The sun is setting; and he'll catch cold.

(she makes for the door leading to the pantry)

Your husband is quite charming, darling. He
has actually condescended to kiss me at last.
I shall go into the garden: it's cooler now.
(she goes out garden door)

Take care, dear child. I don't believe any man
can kiss Addy without falling in love with her.
(she goes into pantry)

(striking himself on the chest) Fool! Goat!
(Mrs. H. comes back with the Captain's cap.)

From in front of chair D L. Your sister is an
extremely enterpriiing old-girl. Where's Miss
Dunn?

Mangan says she has gone up to her room for a
nap. Addy won't let you talk to Ellie: she
has marked you for her own. X R C.

She has the diabolical family fascination. I
began making love to her automatically. What
am I to do? I can't fall in love; and I can't
hurt a woman's feelings by telling her so when
she falls in love with me. And as women are
always falling in love with my moustache I get
landed in all sorts of tedious and terrifying
flirtatious in which I'm not a bit in earnest.

Oh, neither is Addy. She has never been in love
in her life, though she has always been trying
to fall in head over ears. She is worse than

Hector:

Mrs. H:

Hector:

Mrs. H:

Hector:

Mrs. H:

Captain:
Mrs. H:

Hector:

Captain:

42

you, because you had one real go at least,
with me.

X to Hesione. That was a confounded madness.
YEu fascinated me; but I loved you; so it was
heaven. This sister of yours fascinates me;

but I hate her; so it is hell. I shall kill her
if she persists. X D R.

Nothing will kill Addy; she is as strong as a
horse. Now I am going off to fascinate some-
body. X to garden door.

The Foreign Office toff? Randall?

Goodness gracious, no! Why should I fascinate
him?

I presume you don't mean the bloated capitalist,
Mangan?

Hm! I think he had better be fascinated by me
than by Ellie. (she is going into the garden
when the Captain comes in from it with some
sticks in his hand) What have you get there,
Daddiest?

Dynamite.

You've been to the gravel pit. Don't drOp it
about the house there's a dear. (she goes
into the garden)

Listen, 0 sage. How long dare you concentrate
on a feeling without risking having it fixed
in your consciousness all the rest of your
life?

Ninety minutes. An hour and a half. (he goes
into the pantry)

(Hector, left alone, contracts his brews, and
falls into a day-dream. He does not move for
some time. Then he folds his arms. Then,
throwing his hands behind him, and gripping one
with the other, he strides tragically once to

and fro. Suddenly he snatches his walking stick
from the table, and draws it; for it is a sword
stick. He fights a desperate duel with an
imaginary antagonist, and after many vicissitudes

Captain:

Hector:
Captain:

Hector:

Captain:
Hector:

Captain:

Hector:

Captain:

Hector:

Captain:

Hector:

Captain:

45

runs him through the body up to the hilt.

He sheathes his sword and throws it on the
sofa, falling into another reverie as he does
so. He looks straight into the eyes of an
imaginary woman; seizes her by the arms; and
says in a deep and thrilling tone, "Do you
love me!" The Captain comes out of the pantry
at this moment; and Hector, caught with his
arms extended out and his fists clenched, has
to account for his attitude by going through
a series of gymnastic exercises.)

That sort of strength is no good. You will
never be as strong as a gorilla.

What is the dynamite for?
To kill fellows like Mangan.

No use. They will always be able to buy more
dynamite than you.

I will make a dynamite that he cannot explode.
And that you can, eh?

Yes: when I have attained the seventh degree
of concentration.

What's the use of that? You never do attain it.

What then is to be done? Are we to be kept
forever in the mud by these hogs to whom the
universe is nothing but a machine for greasing
their bristles and filling their snouts?

Are Mangan's bristles worse than Randall's
lovelocks?

We must win powers of life and death over them.
I refuse to die until I have invented the means.

Who are we that we should Judge them?

What are they that they should Judge us? Yet
they do, unhesitatingly. There is enmity between
our seed and their seed. They know it and act

on it, strangling our souls, they believe in
themselves. When we believe in ourselves, we

shall kill them.

Hector:

Captain:

Hector:

Captain:

Hector:

Captain:

Hector:

Captain:

Hector:

Captain:

44

It is the same seed. You forget that your
pirate has a very nice daughter. Mangan's son
may be a Plate: Randall's a Shelley. What was
my father?

The damndest scoundrel I ever met. Site at desk.

Precisely. Well, dare you kill his innocent
grandchildren?

They are mine also.

Just so. We are members one of another.

We live among the Mangans and Randalls and
Billie Dunne as they, poor devils, live among
the disease germs and the doctors and the
lawyers and the parsons and the restaurant chefs
and the tradesmen and the servants and all the
rest of the parasites and blackmailers. X L C

U of chair. What are our terrors to theirs?

'Give me power to kill them; and I'll spare them

in sheer -------
Fellow feeling?

No. Turns. I should kill myself if I believed
that. I must believe that my spark, small as it
is, is divine, and that the red light over their
door is hell fire. I should spare them in
simple magnanimous pity.

You can't spare them until you have the power

to kill them. At present they have the power

to kill you. There are millions of blacks over
the water for them to train and let loose on us.
They're going to do it. They're doing it already.

They are too stupid to use their power. X D to

table.

Rises, X U C. Do not deceive yourself; they

do use it. We kill the better half of ourselves
every day to prepitiate them. The knowledge
that these people are there to render all our
aspirations barren prevents us having the
aspirations. And when we are tempted to seek
their destruction they bring forth demons to
delude us, disguised as pretty daughters, and
singers and poets and the like, for whose sake
we spare them.

Hector:

Captain:

Hector:

Captain:

Mrs. H:

Hector:

Mrs. H:
Hector:

Mrs. H:

Hector:
Mrs. H:

Captain:

Mrs. H:

Captain:

45

May not Hesione be such a demon, brought
forth by you lest I should slay you?

Site. That is possible. She has used you
up, and left you nothing but dreams, as some
women do. ‘

Vampire women, demon women. Sits D L.

 

Men think the world well lost for them, and lose
it accordingly. Who are the men that do things?
The husbands of the shrew and of the drunkard,
the men with the thorn in the flesh. I must
think these things out. Rises. (turning
suddenly) But I go on with the dynamite none
the less. I will discover a ray mightier than
any X-ray; a mind ray that will explode the
ammunition in the belt of my adversary before
he can-point his gun at me. And I must hurry.

I am old; I have no time to waste in talk. (he
is about to go into the pantry)

Daddiest, you and Hector must come and help me
to entertain all these peeple. What on earth
were you shouting about?

He is madder than usual. Rises, starts X to
hall door.

We all are.

I must change. (starts for hall door)
Step, step. Come back, both of you. Come
back. (they return reluctantly) Money is
running short.

Money! Where are my April dividends?
Where is the snow that fell last year?

Where is all the money you had for that patent
lifeboat I invented?

Five hundred pounds; and I have made it last
since Easter!

Since Easter! Barely four months! Monstrous
extravagance! I could live for seven years on
500 pounds.

Mrs. H:

Captain:

Mrs. H:

Captain:

Hector:

Mrs. H:

Hector:
Mrs. H:
Hector:
Mrs. H:
Captain:

MT.e H:

Hector:

Captain:

Mrs. H:

46
Not keeping open house as we do here, Daddiest.

Only 500 pounds for that lifeboat! I got twelve
thousand for the invention before that.

Yes, dear; but that was for the ship with the
magnetic keel that sucked up submarines. Living
at the rate we do, you cannot afford life-
saving inventions. Can't you think of some-
thing that will murder half EurOpe at one bang?

No, I am ageing fast. My mind does not dwell
on slaughter as it did when I was a boy. Why
doesn't your husband invent something? He does
nothing but tell lies to women.

Well, that is a form of invention, is it not?
However, you are right: I ought to support
my wife.

X to Hector. Indeed you shall do nothing of
the sort: I should never see you from breakfast
to dinner. I want my husband.

(bitterly) I might as well be your lapdog.

Do you want to be my breadwinner, like the other
poor husbands?

No, by thunder! What a damned creature a
husband is anyhow!

(to the Captain) What about that harpoon
cannon?

No use. It kills whales, not men.

X to Captain. Why not? You fire the harpoon
out of a cannon. It sticks in the enemy's
general; you wind him in; and there you are.

You are your father's daughter, Hesione.

There is something in it. Not to wind in
generals: they are not dangerous. But one
could fire a grapnel and wind in a machine gun
or even a tank. I will think it out.

(squeezing the Captain's arm affectionately)
Saved! You are a darling, Daddiest. Now we

Captain:

Hector:

Mrs. H:

Captain:

Mrs. H:
Hector:
Captain:
Hector:

Mrs. H:

Captain:

Hector:

MPEL.}N

Lady U :

Hectsor:
Mrs. H:

47

must go back to these dreadful peeple and
entertain them.

They have had no dinner. Don't forget that.

Neither have I. And it is dark: it must be
all hours.

Oh, Guinness will produce some sort of dinner
for them. The servants always take Jolly good
care that there is food in the house.

(raising a strange wail in the darkness)
What a house! What a daughter!

(raving) What a father! X D to chair R of table
What a husband!

Is there no thunder in heaven?

Is there no beauty, no bravery, on earth?

What do men want: They have their feed, their
firesides, their clothes mended, and our love

at the end of the day. Why are they not satisfied?
Why do they envy us the pain with which we bring
them into the world, and make strange dangers

and torments for themselves to be even with us?

(weirdly chanting)

I builded a house for my daughters, and epened
the doors thereof,

That men might come for their choosing, and
their betters spring from their love;

But one of them married a numskull;

(taking up the rhythm)
The other a liar wed;

(completing the stanza)
And now must she lie beside him, even as she
made her bed.

(calling from the garden) Hesione! Hesione!
Where are you?

The cat is on the tiles.
Coming, darling, coming. (she goes quickly into

48

the garden) (The Captain sits at desk)

 

Hector: From platform. Shall I turn up the lights for
yofil
Captain: No. Give me deeper darkness. Hector exits.

 

Money is not made in the light.

SLOW CURTAIN

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:
Mangan:

Ellie:

49
ACT'TWO
(The same room, with the lights turned up and
the curtains drawn. Ellie comes in, followed

by Mangan. Both are dressed for dinner. She
strolls to the table.)

On platform. What a dinner! X D C. I don't
call it a dinner: I call it a meal.

 

I am accustomed to meals, Mr. Mangan, and very
lucky to get them. Besides, the Captain cooked
some macaroni for me.

X to desk. Too rich: I can't eat such things.
Picks up drawing. I suppose it's because I
have to work so much with my brain. That's the
worst of being a man of business: you are
always thinking, thinking, thinking. By the
way, now that we are alone, may I take the
opportunity to come to a little understanding
with you?

 

 

X, sits in chair L. Certainly. I should like
to.

 

(taken aback) Should you? That surprises me;
for I thought I noticed this afternoon that

you avoided me all you could. Not for the first
time either.

I was very tired and upset. I wasn't used to
the ways of this extraordinary house. Please
forgive me.

X D C. Oh, that's all right: I don't mind.
But Captain Shotover has been talking to me
about you. You and me, you know.

(interested) The Captain! What did he say?

Well, he noticed the difference between our
ages.

He notices everything.
You don't mind, then?

Of course I know quite well that our engage-
ment-----

5O

Mangan: Oh! You call it an engagement.
Ellie: Well, isn't it?
Mangan: Oh, yes, yes: no doubt it is if you hold to it.

This is the first time you've used the word;
and I didn't quite know where we stood; that's
all. (he sits) Chair R of table. You were
saying----?

Ellie: Was I? I forget. Tell me. Do you like this
part of the country? I heard you ask Mr.
Hushabye at dinner whether there are any nice
houses to let down here.

Mangan: I like the place. The air suits me. I shouldn't
be surprised if I settled down here.

Ellie: Nothing would please me better. The air suits
me too. And I want to be near Hesione.

Mangan: (with growing uneasiness) The air may suit
us; but the question is, should we suit one
another? Have you thought about that?

Ellie: Mr. Mangan, we must be sensible, mustn't we?
It's no use pretending that we are Romeo and
Juliet. But we can get on very well together
if we choose to make the best of it. Your
kindness of heart will make it easy for me.

Mangan: (leaning forward, with the beginning of some-
thing like deliberate unpleasantness in his
voice) Kindness of heart, eh? I ruined your
father, didn't I?

Ellie: Oh, not intentionally.

Mangan: Yes I did. Ruined him on purpose.

Ellie: On purpose!

Mangan: Not out of ill-nature, you know. And you'LL

admit that I kept a Job for him when I had
finished with him. But business is business;
and I ruined him as a matter of business.

Ellie: I don't understand how that can be. Are you
trying to make me feel that I need not be
grateful to you, so that I may choose freely?

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

51
(rising aggressively) No. I mean what I say.

But how could it possibly do you any good to
ruin my father? The money he lost was yours.

(with a sour laugh) X D R. Was mine! It is
mine, Miss Ellie, and all the money the other
fellows lost too. Turns to Ellie. I Just
smoked them out like a hive efibees. What do
you say to that? A bit of shock, eh?

 

It would have been, this morning. Now! you
can't think how little it matters. But it's
quite interesting. Only you must explain it
to me. I don't understand it. (she composes
herself to listen with a combination of
conscious contempt which provokes him to more
and more unpleasantness)

X to Ellie, leans on table. Of course you don't
understand: what do you know about business?
You Just listen and learn. Your father's
business was a new business; and I don't start
new businesses. I let other fellows start them.
They put all their money and their friends'
money into starting them. They wear out their
souls and bodies trying to make a success of
them. They're what you call enthusiasts.

But the first dead lift of the thing is too
much for them; and they haven't enough financial
experience. In a year or so they have either to
let the whole show go bust, or sell out to a
new lot of fellows for a few deferred ordinary
shares. And that's where the real business

man comes in: where I come in. But I'm
cleverer than some: X R C. I don't mind
drOpping a little money to start the process.

I took your father's measure. I saw that he
had a sound idea, and that he would work him-
self silly for it if he got the chance. I

saw that he was a child in business, and was
dead certain to outrun his expenses and be in
too great a hurry to wait for his market. I
knew that the surest way to ruin a man who
doesn't know how to handle money is to give him
some. I eXplained my idea to some friends in
the city, and they found the money; for I take
no risks in ideas, even.when they're my own.

D to Ellie. Your father and the friends that
ventured their money with him were no more to

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

52

me than a heap of squeezed lemons. You've

been wasting your gratitude: my kind heart

is all rot. Swings awayjfrom her. I'm sick

of it. When I see your father beaming at me
with his moist, grateful eyes, regularly
wallowing in gratitude, I sometimes feel that'

I must tell him the truth or burst. What steps
me is that I know he wouldn't believe me. He'd
think anything rather than the truth, Turns to
Ellie. which is that he's a blamed fool, and I
am a man that knows how to take care of himself.
(he throws himself back into the chair with large
self-approval) Now what do you think of me,
Miss Ellie?

 

(drOpping her hands) How strange! that my
mother, who knew nothing at all about business,
should have been quite right about you! She
always said--not before Papa, of course, but to
us children--that you were Just that sort of man.

(sitting up, much hurt) Oh! did she? And yet
she'd have let you marry me.

Well, you see, Mr. Mangan, my mother married a
very good man---Leans forward. for whatever
you may think of my father as a man of business,
he is the soul of goodness--and she is not at
all keen on my doing the same.

Anyhow, you don't want to marry me now, do you?

(very calmly) Oh, I think so. Sits back.
Why not?

Why not!

I don't see why we shouldn't get on very well
together.

Leans toward Ellie. Well, but look here, you
know---(he stops, quite at a loss)

(patiently) Well?

Well, I thought you were rather particular
about people's characters.

If we women were particular about men's
characters, we should never get married at all,

Mangan:

Ellie:
Mangan:
Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:
Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

53
Mr. Mangan.

A child like you talking of "we women"! What
next! You're not in earnest?

Yes, I am. Aren't you?
You mean to hold me to it?
Do you wish to back out of it?

X D L corner of desk. Oh, no. Not exactly
back out 6? it.

Well?

(Mangan utters a long whispered whistle. A
cunning look soon comes into his face.) H3
turns and faces Ellie.

Suppose I told you I was in love with another
woman!

(echoing him) Suppose I told you I was in love
with another man!

I'm not Joking.
Who told you I was?

X D C. I tell you I'm serious. You're too young

to he serious; but you'll have to believe me.

I want to be near your friend Mrs. Hushabye.
X to chair R of table. I'm in love with her.
Now the murderis out. Site.

I want to be near your friend Mr. Hushabye.

I'm in love with him. (she rises and adds with
a frank air) X U tovvindow seat. Now we are in
one another's con ence, we shall be real
friends. Thank you for telling me.

(almost beside himself) Do you think I'll
be made a convenience of like this?

Come, Mr. Mangan! you made a business con-
venience of my father. Well, a woman's
business is marriage. Why shouldn't I make
a domestic convenience of you?

Rises, X D R. Because I don't choose, see?

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:
Mangan:
Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

54

Swings and faces Ellie. Because I'm not a
silly gull like your father. That's why.

(with serene contempt) You are not good enough
to clean my father's boots, Mr. Mangan; and I

am paying you a great compliment in condescending
to make a convenience of you, as you call it.
Turns to window. Of course you are free to

 

throw over our engagement if you like; but, if
you do, you'll never enter Hesione's house again:
I will take care of that.

(gasping) You little devil, you've done me.
X to Ellie. Wait a bit, though: you're not so

 

cute as you think. You can't beat Boss Mangan
as easy as that. Suppose I go straight to Mrs.
Hushabye and tell her that you're in love with
her husband.

She knows it. Looks out window.
You told her!
She told me.

(clutching at his bursting temples) Oh, this is
a crazy house. Supporting himself on back of
chair R of table. Or else I'm going cleanidif
my chump. Is she making a stp with you~~she

to have your husband and you to have here?

Well, you don't want us both, do you?

(throwing himself into the chair distractedly)

My brain won't stand it. My head's going to
split. Help! Help me to hold it. Quick:

hold it, squeeze it. Save me.

(Ellie comes behind his chair; clasps his head
hard for a moment; then begins to draw her

hands from his forehead back to his ears.)

Thank you. (drowsily) That's very refreshing.
(waking a little) Don't you hypnotize me,

though. I've seen men made fools of by hypnotism.

(steadily) Draws him back. Be quiet. I've seen
men made fooIs”df‘fiithdfit‘hypnotism.

I
humbl You don't dislike touching me,
hepe. yYou never touched me before, I noticed.

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Guinness:

Mrs. H:

Guinness:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

55

Not since you fell in love naturally with a
grown up nice woman, who will never eXpect

you to make love to her. And I will never

expect him to make love to me.

He may, though.

(making her passes rhythmically) Hush. Go to
sleep. Do you hear? You are to go to sleep,

go to sleep, go to sleep; be quiet, deeply,
deeply quiet; sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep.
(he falls asleep. Ellie steals awa ; turns the
light out; and goes into the garden)

(Nurse Guinness epens the door and is seen in
the light which comes in from the hall.)

(speaking to someone outside) Holds on platform
Mr. Mangan's not here, ducky; there's no end—here.
It's all dark.

(without)
be in my boudoir.

Try the garden. Mr. Dunn and I will
Show him the way.

Yes, ducky. X D C. (she makes for the garden
door in the dark; stumbles over the sleeping
Mangan and screams) Ahoo! O Lord, sir! I

beg your pardon, I'm sure: I didn't see you

in the dark. Who is it? (she goes to the door
and turns on the light) Oh, Mr. Mangan, sir,

I hope I haven't hurt you plumping into your
lap like that. X U of him. I was looking for
you, sir. Mrs. Hushabye says will you please--
(noticing that he remains quite insensible)

Oh, my good Lord, I hope I haven't killed him.
Sir. Mr. Mangan! Sir. (she shakes him; and
he is rolling inertly off the chair when she
holds him up and props him against the cushion)
Miss Hessy! Miss Hessy! Quick, doty, darling.
Miss Hessy! (Mrs. H. comes in from the hall,
followed by Mazzini Dunn) Oh, Miss Hessy,

I've been and killed him.

Mazzini holds on steps.

What tempted you to commit such a crime, woman?
X U L in back of chair.

(trying not to laugh) Do you mean you did it
on purpose?

Guinness:

Mrs. H:

Guinness:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Guinness:
Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Guinness:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

56

Now is it likely I'd kill any man on purpose?
I fell over him in the dar; and I'm a pretty
tidy weight. He never spoke nor moved until I
shook him; and then he would have drOpped dead
on the floor. Isn't it tiresome? X R U C.

 

(going past the nurse to Mangan's side, and
inspecting him less credulously than Mazzini)
Nonsense! he is not dead: he is only asleep.
I can see him breathing.

X D C. But why won't he wake?

(speaking very politely into Mangan's ear)

Mangan! My dear Mangan! (he blows into
Mangan's ear

(she shakes him vigorously)

Mr. Mangan wake up. Do you hear? (he begins
to roll over) Oh! Nurse, nurse: he's falling;
help me. X U of chair.

That's no good

(Guinness rushes to the rescue. With Mazzini's
assistance Mangan is propped safely up again.)

Would he be drunk, do you think, pet?
Had he any of Papa's rum?

It can't be that: he is most abstemious. I

am afraid he drank too much formerly, and has

to drink too little new. You know, Mrs.
Hushabye, I really think he has been hypnotized.

Hip no what, sir?

One evening at home, after we had seen a
hypnotizing performance, the children began
playing at it; and Ellie stroked my head.

I assure you I went off dead asleep; and they
had to send for a professional to wake me up
after I had slept eighteen hours.- They had to
carry me upstairs; and as the poor children

.were-not very strong, they let me slip; and I

rolled right down the whole flight and never
woke up. (Mrs. H. splutters) Oh, you may
laugh, Mrs. Hushabye; but I might have been
killed.

I couldn't have helped laughing even if you

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Guinness:

Mrs H:

Mazzini:
Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Guinness:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

57

had been, Mr. Dunn.
him. What fun!

So Ellie has hypnotized

Oh, no, no, no. It was such a terrible lesson
to her: nothing would induce her to try such a
thing again.
Then who did it? I didn't.

I thought perhaps the Captain might have done it

unintentionally. He is so fearfully magnetic;
I feel vibrations whenever he comes close to me.

The Captain will get him out of it anyhow sir:
I'll back him for that. I'll go fetch him.
Starts for steps.

 

Wait a bit. (to Mazzini)
right for eighteen hours?

You say he is all

Well, I was asleep for eighteen hours.
Were you any the worse for it?

I don't quite remember. They had poured brandy
down my throat you see; and--

Quite. Anyhow, you survived. X to Nurse D R.
Nurse, darling; go and ask Miss Dunn to come to
us here. Say I want to speak to her particularly.
You will find her with Mr. Hushabye probably.

 

X in front of Hesione. I think not, ducky:
Miss Addy is with him. But I'll find her and
send her to you. (she goes out into the garden)

Now, Mr. Dunn, look. Just look. Look hard.
Do you still intend to sacrifice your daughter
to that thing?

(troubled) You have completely upset me, Mrs.
Hushabye, by all you have said to me. That
anyone could imagine that I--I, a consecrated
soldier of freedom, if I may say so--could
sacrifice Ellie to anybody or anyone, or that I
should ever have dreamed of forcing her
inclinations in any way, is a most painful blow
to my--well, I suppose you would say to may good
epinion of myself.

X D R to sofa.

(rather stolidly) Sorry.

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

58

(looking forlornly at the body) What is your
obJection to poor Mangan, Mrs. Hushabye? He
looks all right to me. But then I am so
accustomed to him.

X to C. Have you no heart? Have you no sense?
LOOK at the brute! Think of poor weak innocent
Ellie in the clutches of this slavedriver, who
spends his life making thousands of rough violent
workmen bend to his will and sweat for him;

a man accustomed to have great masses of iron
beaten into shape for him by steam-hammers! to
fight with women and girls over a halfpenny an
hour ruthlessly! a captain of industry, I think
you call him, don't you? Are you going to

fling your delicate, sweet, helpless child into
such a beast's claws Just because he will keep
her in an expensive house and make her wear
diamonds to show how rich he is?

(staring at her in wide-eyed amazement) X to.
Hesione. Bless you, dear Mrs. Hushabye, what

romantic ideas of business you have! Poor dear

Mangan isn't a bit like that.

(scornfully) Poor dear Mangan indeed! X to
sofa, sits.

 

But he doesn't know anything about machinery.

He never goes near the men: he couldn't manage
them: he is afraid of them. I never can get him
to take the least interest in the works: he
hardly knows more about them than you do.

Peeple are cruelly unJust to Mangan: they think
he is all rugged strength Just because his
manners are bad.

Do you mean to tell me he isn't strong enough
to crush poor little Ellie?

X to C. Of course it's very hard to say how

any marriage will turn out; but speaking for

myself, I should say that he won't have a dog's
chance against Ellie. You know, Ellie has
remarkable strength of character. I think it is
because I taught her to like Shakespeare when

she was very young.

Shakespeare! The next thing you will tell me
is that you could have made a great deal more

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:
Mazzini:
Mrs. H:
Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

59
money than Mangan.

No; I'm no good at making money. I don't care
enough for it, somehow. I'm not ambitious! that
must be it. Mangan is wonderful about money:

he thinks of nothing else. He is so dreadfully
afraid of being poor. I am always thinking of
other things: even at the works I think of the
things we are<ioing and not of what they cost.
And the worst of it is, poor Mangan doesn't

know what to do with his money when he gets it.
He is such a baby that he doesn't know even

what to eat and drink: He has ruined his liver
eating and drinking the wrong things; and now he
can hardly eat at all. Ellie will diet him
splendidly. You will be surprised when you come
to know him better: he is really the most
helpless of mortals. You get quite a protective
feeling towards him.

Then who manages his business, pray?

I do. And of course other people like me.
Footling people, you mean.

I suppose you'd think us so.

And pray why don't you do without him if you're
all so much cleverer?

X U R of sofa. Oh, we couldn't: we should

 

ruin the Business in a year. I've tried; and

I know. We should Spend too much on everything.
We should improve the quality of the goods

and make them too dear. We should be sentimental
about the hard cases among the working peeple.

X U of Mangan. But Mangan keeps us in order.

He is down on us about every extra halfpenny.

We could never do without him. You see, he will
sit up all night thinking of how to save six-
pence. X R C. Won't Ellie make him Jump,
though, when she takes his house in hand!

 

Then the creature is a fraud even as a captain
of industry!

X D R C. I am afraid all the captains of
industry are what you call frauds, Mrs.
Hushabye. Sits U R on sofa.

 

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

60

Of course there are some manufacturers who
really do understand their own works; but
they don't make as high a rate of profit

as Mangan does. I assure you Mangan is quite
a good fellow in his way. He means well.

Sitting back. He doesn't look well. He is
not inihis first youth, is he?

 

After all, no husband is in his first youth for
very long, Mrs. Hushabye. And men can't afford
to marry in their first youth nowadays.

Now if I said that, it would sound witty. Why
can't you say it wittily? X U C. What on earth
is the matter with you? Why don't you inspire
everybody with confidence? with respect?

(humbly) I think that what is the matter with
me is that I am poor. You don't know what that
means at home. Mind: I don't say they have
ever complained. They've all been wonderful:
they've been proud of my poverty. They've

even Joked about it quite often. But my wife
has had a very poor time of it. She has been
quite resigned----

(shuddering inveluntarily!) X to desk U R.

 

There! You see, Mrs. Hushabye. Rises, follows
Hesione. I don't want Ellie to live on

 

resignation.

Turns. Do you want her to have to resign her-
self to living with a man she doesn't love?

(wistfully) Turns D R. Are you sure that
would be worse than living with a man she did
love, if he was a footling person?

(relaxing her contemptuous attitude, quite
interested in Mazzini new) You know, I really
think you must love Ellie very much; for you
become quite clever when you talk about her.

I didn't know I was so very stupid on other
subJects.

You are, sometimes.

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

61

(turning his head away; for his eyes are wet)
Sits D R on sofa. I have learnt a good deal
about myself from you, Mrs. Hushabye; and I'm
afraid I shall not be the happier for your plain
speaking. But if you thought I needed it to
make me think of Ellie's happiness you were

very much mistaken.

X D R. Have I been a beast? Sits on sofa.

(pulling himself together) It doesn't matter
about me, Mrs. Hushabye. I think you like Ellie;
and that is enough for me.

I'm beginning to like you a little. I perfectly
loathed you at first. I thought you the most
odious, self-satisfied, boresome elderly prig I
ever met.

(resigned, and now quite cheerful) I daresay

I am all that. I never have been a favorite with
gorgeous women like you. They always frighten
me.

(pleased) Am I a gorgeous woman, Mazzini? I
shall fall in love with you presently.

No, you won't, Hesione. But you would be quite
safe. Would you believe it that quite a lot of
women have flirted with me because I am quite
safe? But they get tired of me for the same
reason.

Take care. You may not be so safe as you think.

Oh yes, quite safe. You see, I have been in
love really: the sort of love that only happens
once. (softly) That's why Ellie is such a
lovely girl.

Well, really, you are coming out. Are you
quite sure you won't let me tempt you into a
second grand passion?

Quite. It wouldn't be natural. The fact is,
you don't strike on my box, Mrs. Hushabye; and
I certainly don't strike on yours.

I see. Your marriage was a safety match.

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Ellie:

Mazzini:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mazzini:

Ellie:

62

What a very witty application of the expression
I used! ‘I should never have thought of it.

(Ellie comes in from the garden, looking anything
but happy)

(rising) Holds. Oh! here is Ellie at last.

(on the threshold of the garden door) Guinness
said you wanted me: you and papa.

You have kept us waiting so long that it almost
came to---well, never mind. Your father is a
very wonderful man (she ruffles his hair
affectionately): §_g the only one I ever met
who could resist me when I made myself really
agreeable. (she comes to the big chair, on
Mangan's left) Come here. I have something to
show you. Look.

(contemplating Mangan without interest) I know.
He is only asleep. We had a talk after dinner;
and he fell asleep in the middle of it.

You did it, Ellie. You put him asleep.

(rising) Holds. Oh, I hope not. Did you,
Ellie?

(wearily) He asked me to.

But it's dangerous. You know what happened
to me.

(utterly indifferent) Oh, I daresay I can wake
him. If not, somebody else can.

It doesn't matter, anyhow, because I have at
last persuaded your father that you don't want
to marry him.

(suddenly coming out of her listlessness, much
vexed) X U Cite Hesione. But why did you do
that, Hesione? I do want to marry him. I
fully intend to marry him.

Are you quite sure, Ellie? Mrs. Hushabye has
made me feel that I may have been thoughtless
and selfish about it.

Papa. X D R. When Mrs. Hushabye takes it on

Mazzini:

Ellie:

Mazzini:

Ellie:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellis:

63

herself to explain to you what I think or don't
think; shut your ears tight; and shut your eyes
too. Hesione knows nothing about me: she hasn't
the least notion of the sort of person I am, and
never will. I promise you I won't do anything I
don't want to do and mean to do for my own sake.

You are quite, quite sure?

Quite, quite sure. Now you must go away and
leave me to talk to Mrs. Hushabye.

But I should like to hear. Shall I be in the
way?

I had rather talk to her alone.

Oh, well, I know what a nusiance parents are,
dear. X U C. I will be good and go. (he goes
to the gahden door) By the way, do you remember
(holds by door) the address of that professional
who woke me up? Don't you think I had better
telegraph to him?

It's too late to telegraph tonight.

I suppose so. I do he e he'll wake up in the
course of the night. he goes out into the
garden)

(turning vigorously on Hesione the moment her
father is out of the room) Hesione, what the
devil do you mean by making mischief with my

father about Mangan?

Don't you dare speak to me like that, you little
minx. Remember that you are in my house.

Stuff! Why don't you mind your own business?
What is it to you whether I choose to marry
Mangan or not?

Q. Do you suppose you can bully me, you
miserable little matrimonial adventurer?

Moves in on her. Every woman who hasn't any
money is a matrimonial adventurer. It's

easy for you to talk: you have never known what
it is to want money; and you can pick up men

as if they were daisies. I am poor and

 

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mr8.H:

64
respectable---

Ho! X to chair R of table. respectable!
How did you pick up Mangan? How did you pick
up my husband? You have the audacity to tell
me that I am a--a--a -----

 

A siren. So you are. You were born to lead
men by the nose: if you weren't, Marcus would
have waited for me, perhaps.

(suddenly melting and half laughing) Oh, my
poor Ellie, my pettikins, my unhappy darling!

I am so sorry about Hector. But what can I do?
It's not my fault: I'd give him to you if I
could.

I don't blame you for that.

What a brute I was to quarrel with you and call
you names! Do kiss me and say you're not angry
with me.

(fiercly) Oh, don't 810p and gush and be
sentimental. X D R to sofa. Don't you see that
unless I can be“hard-~as hard as nails--I shall
go mad? Turns to Hesione. I don't care a damn
about your calling me names: do you think a
woman in my situation can feel a few words?

 

Poor little woman! X D C. Poor little
situation!

I suppose you think you're being sympathetic.
You are Just foolish and stupid and selfish.
You see me getting a smasher right in the

face that kills a whole part of my life: the
best part that can never come again; and you
think you can help me over it by a little
coaxing and kissing. When I want all the
strength I can get to lean on: something iron,
something stony, I don't care how cruel it is,
you go all mushy and want to slobber over me.
I'm not angry; I'm not unfriendly; but for God's
sake do pull yourself together; and don't think
that because you're on velvet and always have
been, women who are in hell can take it as
easily as you.

(shrugging her shoulders) Very well. X D R to

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

65

sofa, site. But I warn you that when I am
neither coaxing and kissing nor laughing, I
am Just wondering how much longer I can stand

‘living in this cruel, damnable world. You obJect

to the siren: well, I drop the siren. You
want to rest your wounded bosom against a
grindstone. Well, here is the grindstone.

(Sitting down beside her, appeased) That's

better: X D R to sofa site. you really have
the trick of falling in with everyone's mood;
but you don't understand, because you are not
the sort of woman for whom there is only one
man and only one chance.

I certainly don't understand how your marrying
that obJect (indicating Mangan) will console
you for not being able to marry Hector.

Perhaps you don't understand why I was quite a
nice girl this morning, and am now neither a
girl nor particularly nice.

Sitting back. Oh, yes, I do. It's because you.
have made up your mind to do something despicable
and wicked.

I don't think so, Hesione. I must make the
best of my ruined house.

Pooh! You'll get over it. Your house isn't
ruined.

Rises walks few ste s U C. Of course I shall
get over it. You don't suppose I'm going to
sit down and die of a broken heart, I hope, or
be an old maid living on a pittance from the
Sick and Indigent Roemkeeper's Association.
But my heart is broken, all the same. What I
mean by that is that I know that what has
happened to me with Marcus will not happen to
me ever again. In the world for me there is
Marcus and a lot of other men of whom one is
Just the same as another. Well, if I can't
have love, that's not reason why I should have
poverty. If Mangan has nothing else, he has
money.

Sits up. And there are no young men with money.

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:
Ellie:

66

Not within my reach. Besides, a young man
would have the right to eXpect love from me
and would perhaps leave me when he found I
could not give it to him. Rich young men can
get rid of their wives, you know, pretty
cheaply. But this obJect, X D L to Mangan

as you call him, can expect nothing more from
me than I am prepared to give him.

 

He will be your owner, remember. If he buys you,
he will make the bargain pay him and not you.
As your father.

X U L of Mangan to D L. You need not trouble

on that score, Hesione. I have more to give
Boss Mangan than he has to give me; it is I

who am buying him, and at a pretty good price,
too, I think. X to R of Mangan. Women are
better at that sort of bargaining than men.

I have taken the Boss's measure; and ten Boss
Mangans shall not prevent me doing far more as

I please as his wife than I have ever been able
to do as a poor irl. (steeping to the
recumbent figure Shall they, Boss? Turns his
head, lets it fall. I think not. X U R to desk
l_§hall notihave to spend most of my time wonder-
ing how long my gloves will last, anyhow.

 

Ellie, X D L. you are a wicked, sordid, little
beast! And to think that I actually condescended
to fascinate that creature there to save you

from him! X U C. Well, let me tell you this:

if you make this disgusting match, you will never
see Hector again if I can help it.

(unmoved) Leans on desk, then sits on it.
I nailed.Mangan by telling him that if he did
not marry me he should never see you again.

(recoiling) Oh!

So you see I am not unprepared for your playing
that trump against me. Well, you Just try it:
that's all. I should have made a man of Marcus,
not a household pet.

(flaming) You dare!

(looking almost dangerous) Set him thinking
about me if you dare.

Mrs. H:

Ellie:
Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:
Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mangan:

67

Well, of all the impudent little fiends I ever
met! Hector says there is a certain point at
which the only answer you can give to a man who
breaks all the rules is to knock him down.

X to Ellie. What would you say if I were to
hex your ears?

 

(calmly) I should pull your hair.

(mischievously) That wouldn't hurt me. Perhaps
it comes off at night.

Rises. Oh, you don't mean to say, Hesione, that
your beautiful black hair is false?

(patting it) Don't tell Hector. He believes
in it.

(groaning) X D R to sofa sits. Oh! Even the
hair that ensnared him false!

 

X D R Pull it and try. Other women can snare
men in their hair; but I can swing a baby in
mine. Aha! you can't do that Goldylocks.

(heartbroken) No. You have stolen my babies.

Site on sofa. Pettikins, don't make me cry.
You know what you said about my making a house-
hold pet of him is a little true. Perhaps he
ought to have waited for you. Would any other
woman on earth forgive you?

 

Oh, what ri ht had you to take him all for
yourself! fpulling herself together) There!
You couldn't help it: neither of us could

help it. He couldn't help it. No, don't say
anything more: X to Mangan. I can't bear it.
Let us wake the ehJect. ‘Tshe begins stroking
Mangan's head, reversing the movement with which
she put him to sleep) Wake up, do you hear?

You are to wake up at once. Wake up, wake up,
wake----

 

(bouncing out of the chair in a fury and turning
on them) Wake up! So you think I've been
asleep, do you? (he kicks the chair violently
back out of his way and gets between them)

You throw me into a trance so that I can't move
hand or foot--I might have been buried alive!

NII‘S e H:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

68

it's a mercy I wasn't--and then you think I was
only asleep. If you'd let me drOp the two times
you rolled me about, my nose would have been
flattened for life against the floor. But I've
found you all out, anyhow. I know the sort of
peeple I'm among now. I've heard every word
you've said you and your precious father, and
(to Hesione) you too. So I'm an obJect, am I?
I'm a thing, am I? I'm a feel that hasn't sense
enough to feed myself preperly, am I? I'm

afraid of the men that would starve if it weren't
for the wages I give them, am I? I'm nothing but
a disgusting old skinflint to be made a convenience
of by designing women and feel managers of my
works, am I? I'm ------

(with the most elegant aplomb) Rises, X U C to
Man an. Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh! Mr. Mangan, you are
hound in honor to obliterate from your mind all
you heard while you were pretending to be
asleep. It was not meant for you to hear.

Pretending to be asleep! Do you think if I

was only pretending that I'd have sprawled there
helpless, and listened to such unfairness, such
lies, such inJustice and plotting and backbiting
and slandering of me, if I could have up and told
you what I thought of you! I wonder I didn't
burst.

(sweetly) You dreamt it all, Mr. Mangan. We

were only saying how beautifully peaceful you
looked in your sleep. That was all, wasn't it,
Ellie? Believe me, Mr. Mangan, all those
unpleasant things came into your mind in the last
half second before you woke. Ellie rubbed your
hair the wrong way; and the disagreeable sensation
suggested a disagreeable dream.

I believe in dreams.

So do I. _X D R to sofa. But they go by contraries,
don't they?

X to Hesione. I shan't forget, to my dying day,
that when you gave me the glad eye that time in
the garden, you were making a fool of me. That
was a dirty low mean thing to do. You had no
right to let me come near you if I sigusted you.
It isn't my fault if I'm old and haven't a

 

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

69

moustache like a bronze candle stick as your
husband has. There are things no decent woman
would do to a man---1ike a man hitting a

woman in the breast.

(Hesione, utterly shamed, sits down on the sofa
and covers her face with her hands. Mangan sits
down also on his chair and begins to cry like a
child. Ellie stares at them. Mrs. H., at the
distressing sound he makes, takes down her hands
and looks at him. She rises and runs to him.)

Don't cry; I can't bear it. Have I broken your
heart? I didn't know you had one. How could I?

I'm a man, ain't I?

(half coaxing, half rallying, altogether tenderly)
Oh no: not what I call a man. Only a Boss:

Just that and nothing else. What business has a
Boss with a heart?

Then you're not a bit sorry for what you did,
nor ashamed?

I was ashamed for the first time in my life when
you said that about hitting a woman in the breast,
and I found out what I'd done. My very bones
blushed red. You've had your revenge, Boss.
Aren't you satisfied?

Serve you right! Do you hear? Serve you right!
You're Just cruel. Cruel!

Yes: cruelty would be delicious if one could
only find some sort of cruelty that didn't really
hurt. By the way (sitting down beside him on

the arm of the chair) what's your name? It's
not really Boss, is it?

If you want to know, my name's Alfred.

(springs up) X R C to Ellie. Alfred! Ellie,
he was christened after Tennyson!!

I was christened after my uncle, and never had a
penny from him, damn him! What of it?

It comes to me suddenly that you are a real

- person: that you had a mother, like anyone else.

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Captain:

Mangan:'

Captain:

70

(puttin her hands on his shoulders and survey-
ing him Little Alf!

Well, you have a nerve.

And you have a heart, Alfy, a whimpering little
heart, but a real one. (releasing him suddenly)
Now run and make it up with Ellie. She has had
time to think what to say to you, which is more
than I had. (she goes out quickly into the
garden)

Rises,,X between table and chair. That woman

 

has a pair of hands that go right through you.

Rises, puts chair in place. Still in love with

 

her, in spite of:all we said about you?

Are all women like you two? Do they never
think of anything about a man except what they
can get out of him? You weren't even thinking
that about me. You were only thinking whether
your gloves would last.

X D R to sofa, sits. I shall not have to think

 

shout that when we are married.

And you think I am going to marry you after what
I heard there!

You heard nothing from me that I did not tell
you before.

Perhaps you think I can't do without you.

I think you would feel lonely without us all,
now after coming to know us so well.

(with something like a yell of despair) X U R
C to desk. Am I never to have the last word?

 

(appearing at the garden door) There is a soul
in torment here. What is the matter?

This girl doesn't want to spend her life wonder-
ing how long her gloves will last.

(passing through) Don't wear any. I never do.
(he goes into the pantry)

Lady U:

Ellie:

Lady U:

Mangan:

Lady U:

Mangan:

Captain:

Mangan:

Captain:

Lady U:

Hector:

Mangan:

Hector:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Captain:

71

(appearing at the garden door, in a handsome
dinner dress) Is anything the matter?

This gentleman wants to know is he never to have
the last word?

X to chair L, site. I should let him have it,
my dear. The important thing is not to have the
last word, but to have your own way.

She wants both.

She won't get them, Mr. Mangan. Providence
always has the last word.

(desperately) Now youere going to come religion
over me. In this house a man's mind might as
well be a football. I'm going. .(he makes for
the hall, but is stopped by a hail from the

_Captain, who has Just emerged from his pantry)

Whither away, Boss Mangan?

From steps. To hell out of this house: let
that be enough for you and all here.

You were welcome to come: you are free to go.
The wide earth, the high seas, the spacious skies
are waiting for you outside.

But your things, Mr. Mangan. Your bag, your
comb and brushes, your pyJamas—----

(who has Just appeared in the port doorway in a
handsome Arab costume) X U L. Why should the
escaping slave take his chains with him?

That's right, Hushabye. Keep the pyJamas, my
lady, and much good may they do you.

Turns to Lady U. Let us all go out into the
night and leave everything behind us.

You stay where you are, the lot of you. I want
no company, especially female company.

Let him go. He is unhappy here. He is angry
'1th “8e

Go, Boss Mangan; and when you have found the land

-» r o
v—‘ .-
o
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“ . ' e A
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v ' '
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I
O
O s
I A. .
O
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.4 -7 w c A
I
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O
O
I. . n
I
I .
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O
D

O
s
e

Lady U:

Ellie:

Hector:

Ellie:

Hector:

Randall:
Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

72

where there is happiness and where there are no
women, send me its latitude and longitude; and I
will Join you there.

You will certainly not be comfortable without
your luggage, Mr. Mangan.

Go, go: why don't you go? It is a heavenly
night: you can sleep on the heath. Take my
waterproof to lie on: it is hanging up in the
hall.

Breakfast at nine, unless you prefer to breakfast
with the Captain at six.

Good night, Alfred.

Alfred! Hesione and Randall enter from arden.
Randall, Mangan's chfistian name is Alfred.

Then Hesione wins her bet.

They wouldn't believe me, Alf. Leads Hector to
window seat,_they sit. -

(they contemplate him)

Is there any more of you coming in to look at
me, as if I was the latest thing in a menagerie?

You are the latest thing in this menagerie.

(before Mangan can retort, a fall of furniture
is heard from upstairs: then a pistol shot, and
a yell of pain. The staring group breaks up in
consternation.)

Mazzini's Voice: Help! A burglar! Help!

Hector:

Mrs. H:

Captain:

Lady U:
Randall:

(his eyes blazing) A burglar!

No, Hector: you'll be shot. (he has dashed out
past Mangan, who hastily moves towards the book-
shelves out of his way)

(blowing his whistle.) All hands aloft! (he
strides after Hector)

My diamonds! (she follows the Captain)

(rushing after her) No, Ariadne. Let me.

Ellie:
Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Mazzini:

Randall:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Burglar:

Hector:

Mazzini:

75
Oh, is Papa shot? (she runs out)
_§ises, holds, X L C. Are you frightened, Alf?

 

X D R, sits on sofa. No. It ain't my house,
thank God.

 

If they catch a burglar, shall we have to go
into court as witnesses, and be asked all sorts
of questions about our private lives?

You won't be believed if you tell the truth.

(Mazzini, terribly upset, with a dueling pistol
in his hand, comes from the hall, and makes his
way to the table) He 1ays_pistol on table, sits
lg Chair Le

 

Oh, my dear Mrs. Hushabye, I might have killed
him. I hepe you won't believe I really intended
t0.

(Hector comes in, marching an old and villainous
looking man before him by the collar. He plants
him in the middle of the room and releases him.
Ellie, follows, and immediatel runs across to
the back of her fathers' chair Site on arm of
Chaire

(entering with a poker) Keep your eye on this
door, Mangan. I'll look after the other. (he

'goes to the garden door and stands on guard there)

Lady U. comes in after Randall) Holds on
platform.

X D R. What has happened?

Your housekeeper told me there was somebody
upstairs, and gave me a pistol that Mr. Hushabye
had been practicing with. I thought it would
frighten him; but it went off at a touch.

Yes, and took the skin off my ear. Precious near
took the top off my head. Why don't you have a
preper revolver instead of a thing like that,
that goes off if you as much as blow on it?

One of my dueling pistols. Sorry.

He put his hands up and said it was a fair cop.

Burglar:

Hector:

Mrs. H:

Burglar:

Lady U:

Burglar:

Mrs. H:

Burglar:

Lady U:

Burglar:

Randall:

Burglar:

Mangan:

74
So it was. Send for the police.

No, by thunder! It was not a fair cop. We
were four to one.

Sits on sofa. What will they do to him?

Ten years. Beginning with solitary. Ten years
off my life. I shan't serve it all: I'm too
old. It will see me out.

Coming down from steps to sofa, sits U of Hesione.
You should—have thoughtof that bafhre you stole
my diamonds.

Well, you've got them back, lady, haven't you?
Can you give me back the years of my life you are
going to take from me?

Oh, we can't bury a man alive for ten years for
a few diamonds.

Ten little shining diamonds! Ten long black years!

Think of what it is for us to be dragged through
the horrors of a criminal court, and have all our
family affairs in the papers! If you were a
native, and Hastings could order you a good
beating and send you away, I shouldn't mind; but
here in England there is no real protection for
any respectable person.

I'm too old to be giv a hiding, lady. Send for
the police and have done with it. It's only
Just and right you should.

(who has relaxed his vigilance on seeing the
burglar so pacifically disposed, and comes
forward swinging the poker between his fingers
like a well-folded umbrella) It is neither Just
nor right that we should be put to a lot of
inconvenience to gratify your moral enthusiasm,
my friend. You had better get out, while you

have the chance.

No. I must work my sin off my conscience. This
has come as a sort of call to me. Let me spend
the rest of my life repenting in a cell. I shall
have my reward above.

 

X to desk. The very burglars can't behave

Hector:

Burglar:

Hector:

Burglar:

Hector:
Randall:

Mrs. H:
Lady U:
Burglar:

Mrs. H:

Burglar:

Mazzini:

Burglar:

Randall:

Burglar:

Lady U:

75
naturally in this house.

My good sir, you must work out your salvation
at somebody else's eXpense. Nobody here is
going to charge you.

Oh, you won't charge me, won't you?

No. I'm sorry to be inhospitable; but will you
kindly leave the house?

Right. I'll go to the police station and give
myself up. (he turns resolutely to the door,
but Hector stops him)

Speaking at once.

on no. You mustn't do that.

No, no. Clear out, man, can't you; and don't
be a fool.

Don't be so silly. Can't you repent at home?

You will have to do as you are told.
It's compounding a felony, you know.

This is utterly ridiculous. Are we to be forced
to prosecute this man when we don't want to?

Am I to be robbed of my salvation to save you the
trouble of spending a day at the sessions? Is
that Justice? Is it right? Is it fair to me?

Come, come! Let me show you how you can turn your
very crimes to account. Why not set up as a
locksmith? You must know more about locks

than most honest men?

That's true, sir. But I couldn't set up as a
locksmith under twenty pounds.

Well, you can easily steal twenty pounds. You
will find it in the nearest bank.

Oh, what a thing for a gentleman to put into the
head of a poor criminal scrambling out of the

it as it were! Oh shame on you sir!
Bfitggglgggg ve you! (He throws himself into’the

big chair and covers his face as if in prayer)

Really, Randall!

Hector:

Lady U:

Burglar:

Lady U:

Burglar:

Hector:

Burglar:

Mrs. H:

Hector:

Burglar:

Lady U:

Burglar:

Captain:

Burglar:

76
X to Burglar. It seems to me that we shall
have to take up a collection for this
inOpportunely contrite sinner.
But twenty pounds is ridiculous.

(looking up quickly) I shall have to buy a
lot of tools, lady.

Nonsense: you have your burgling kit.

What's a Jimmy and a centrebit and an acetylene
welding plant and a bunch of skeleton keys? I
shall have to have a forge and a smithy, and a
ehOp and fittings. I can't hardly do it for
twenty.

My worthy friend, we haven't got twenty pounds.

(now master of the situation) You can raise it
among you, can't you?

Give him a sovereign, Hector, and get rid of
him.

Fumbles for money as he X U L. (giving him a

 

pound) There! Off with—you.

I won't promise nothing. You have more on you
than a quid; all the lot of you, I mean.

Oh, let us prosecute him and have done with it.
I have a conscience too, I hope; and I do not
feel at all sure that we have any right to let
him go, especially if he is going to be greedy
and impertinent.

Rises. All right, lady, all right. I've no wish
to Be anything but agreeable, Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen; and thank you kindly.

X U C. He starts out, but is stOpped by the
Captain's voice from platform.

(fixing the burglar with a piercing regard) What's
this? are there two of you?

(falling on his knees before the Captain in
abJect terror) Oh, my good Lord, what have I
done? Don't tell me it's your house I've broken

into, Captain Shotover.

Captain:

Burglar:

Captain:

Burglar:

Mazzini:

Burglar:

Captain:

Burglar:

Lady U:

Guinness:

Randall:

Burglar:

77

Guinness enters, follows Captain down steps,
holds behind sofa.

(the Captain seizes the burglar by the collar;
drags him to his feet;end leads him to the middle
of the group)

 

 

(turning him towards Ellie) Is that your
daughter? (he releases him)

Well, how do I know, Captain? You know the sort
of life you and me has led. Any young lady of
that age might be my daughter anywhere in the
wide, world, as you might say.

X D L C (to Mazzini) You are not Billy Dunn.
This is Billy Dunn. Why have you imposed on me?

Have you been giving yourself out to be me?
You, that nigh blew my head off! Shooting
yourself, in a manner of speaking!

My dear Captain Shotover, ever since I came into
this house I have done hardly anything else but
assure you that I am not Mr. William Dunn, but
Mazzini Dunn, a very different person.

He don't belong to my branch, Captain. There's
two sets in the family: the thinking Dunns and
the drinking Dunns, each going their own ways.
I'm a drinking Dunn: he's a thinking Dunn.

But that didn't give him any right to shoot

me.

So you've turned burglar, have you?

No, Captain: I wouldn't disgrace our old sea
calling by such a thing. I am no burglar.

What were you doing with my diamonds?

What did you break into the house for if you're
no burglar? \

Mistook the house for your own and came in by the
wrong window, eh?

Well it's no use my telling you a lie: I can
take’in most Captains, but not Captain Shotover,

because he sold himself to the devil in Zanzibar,

'78

and can divine water, spot gold, explode a
cartridge in your pocket with a glance of his
eye, and see the truth hidden in the heart of
man. But I'm no burglar.

Captain: Are you an honest man?

Burglar: I don't set up to be better than my fellow-creatures
and never did, as you well know, Captain. But
what I do is innocent and pious. I inquire about
for houses where the right sort of peOple live.

I work it on them same as I worked it here. I
break into the house; put a few spoons or diamonds
in my pocket; make a noise; get caught; and_take
up a collection. And you wouldn't believe how
hard it is to getcaught when you're actually
trying to. I have knocked over all the chairs

in a room without a soul paying any attention

to me. In the end I have had toxwalk out and
leave the Job.

Randall: When that happens, do you put back the spoons and
diamonds?
Burglar: Well, I don't fly in the face of Providence, if

that's what you want to know.

Captain: Guinness, you remember this man?

 

Guinness: X to Bugglar. I should think I do, seeing I
was married to him, the blackguard.

Hesione: (exclaiming together) Married to him! Guinness!
Lady U:
Burglar: Takes cover behind Captain. It wasn't legal.

 

I've been married to no end of women. No use
coming that over me.

Captain: Take him to the forecastle. (he flings him to
the door with a strength beyond his years)

Guinness: I suppose you mean the kitchen. They won't
have him there. Do you eXpect the servants to
keep company with thieves and all sorts?

Captain: Land—thieves and water-thieves are the same

flesh and blood. I'll have no boatswain on my
quarter-deck. Off with you both.

Burglar: Yes, Captain. (he goes out humbly)

Mazzini:

Guinness:

Mrs. H:

Randall:

Lady U:

Randall:

Mrs. H:

Randall:
Mazzini:

Randall:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

79

Will it be safe to have him in the house like
that?

Holds on steps. Why didn't you shoot him, sir?
If I'd known who he was, I'd have shot him my-
self. (she goes out)

 

(Captain goes into the pantry in deep abstraction.
They all 100k after him)
Hector X to Lady U.

 

So Billy Dunn was poor nurse's little romance.
I knew there had been somebody.

X U L C. They will fight their battles over again
and enjoy themselves immensely.

You are not married; and you know nothing about
it, Randall. Hold your tongue.

Tyrant!

Well, we have had a very exciting evening.
Everything will be an anticlimax after it.
We'd better all go to bed.

Another burglar may turn up.

Oh, impossible! I hOpe not.

Why not? There is more than one burglar in
England.

What do you say, Alf?

I'm forgotten. The burglar

Oh, I don't matter.
Shove me into a

has put my nose out of Joint.
corner and have done with me.

(Jumping up mischievously) (going to him)
Would you like a walk on the heath, Alfred?

With me?

Rises. Go, Mr. Mangan. It will do you good.

Hesione will soothe you.

(slipping her arm under his and pulling him .

upright) Come, Alfred. Thegelislg moopéheit s
the ni ht in Tristan an so e.

taisesses h%s arm and draws him to the garden

door)

Mangan:

Lady U:

Ellie:

Lady U:

Hector:

Randall:

Ellie:

Lady U:

Mazzini:
Lady U:
Ellie:

Captain:

Lady U:

Captain:

Hector:

80

(writhing but yielding) How can you have the
face--the heart--(he breaks down and is heard
sobbing as she takes him out)

Ellie X to window.

 

What an extraordinary way to behave! What is
the matter with the man?

(staring into an imaginary distance) His heart
is breaking; that is all. (the Captain appears
at the pantry door, listening) It is a curious
sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully
beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart

is broken, your boats are burned: nothing
matters any more. It is the end of happiness

and the beginning of peace.

(suddenly rising in a rage, to the astonishment
of the rest) How dare you?

Good heavens! What's the matter?
X D R Q. Tch-tch-tch. Steady.

I was not addressing you particularly, Lady
Utterword. And I am not accustomed to being
asked how dare I.

Of course not. Anyone can see how badly you
have been brought up.

Oh, I hOpe not, Lady Utterword. Really!
I know very well what you meant. The impudence!
What on earth do you mean?

She means that her heart will not break. She
has been longing all her life for someone to
break it. At last she has become afraid she
has none to break.

(flinging herself on her knees and throwing her
arms round him) Papa, don't say you think I've
no heart.

If you had no heart how could you want to have
it broken, child?

(rising with a bound) Lady Utterword, you are

Lady U:
Randall:

Mazzini:

Captain:

Mazzini:
Ellie:

Mazzini:

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:
Captain:
Ellie:
Captain:
Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

81

not to be trusted. You have made a scene. (he
runs out into the garden)

Oh! Hector! Hector! (she runs out after him)
Only nerves, I assure you. (he follows her
waving the poker in his agitation) Ariadne!
Ariadne! For God's sake, be careful. You will-~-
(he is gone)

Rising, X to G. How distressing! Can I do any-
thing, I wonder?

(promptly taking his chair and setting to work
at the drawing board) No. Go to bed. Good
night.

Oh! Perhaps you are right.

Good night, dearest.

From ste 8. Good night love. (he goes out,
leaving Ellie alone with the Captain)

(The Captain is intent on his drawing)

Ellie goes to Captain and looks over his shoulder.
Does nothing ever disturb you, Captain Shotover?
I've stood on the bridge for eighteen hours in
a typhoon. Life here is stormier; but I can
stand it.

Do you think I ought to marry Mr. Mangan?

(never looking up) One rock is as good as
another to be wrecked on.

I am not in love with him.
Who said you were?

You are not surprised?
Surprised! At my age!

It seems to me quite fair. He wants me for one
thing: I want him for another.

Money?

Yes.

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:
Ellie:
Captain:
Ellie:
Captain:
Ellie:

Captain:

82

Well, one turns the cheeck: the other kisses it.
One provides the cash: the other spends it.

Who will have the best of the bargain, I wonder?

You. These fellows live in an office all day.
You will have to put up with him from dinner to
breakfast; but you will both be asleep most of
that time. All day you will be quit of him;
and you will be shOpping with his money. If
that is too much for you, marry a seafaring man:
you will be bothered with him only three weeks
in the year, perhaps.

That would be best of all, I suppose.

It's a dangerous thing to be married right up
to the hilt, like my daughter's husband. The
man is at home all day, like a damned soul in
hell.

I never thought of that before.

If you're marrying for business, you can't be
too business like.

Why do women always want other women's husbands?

Why do horse-thieves prefer a horse that is
broken-in to one that is wild?

(with a short laugh) I suppose so. What a vile
world it is!

It doesn't concern me. I'm nearly out of it.
And I'm only Just beginning.

Yes; so look ahead.

Well, I think I am being very prudent.

I didn't say prudent. I said look ahead.
What's the difference?

It's prudent to gain the whole world and lose
your own soul. But don't forget that your soul

sticks to you if youztick to it; but the world
has a way of slipping through your fingers.

Ellie:

Captain:
Ellie:

Captain:
Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

83

X D to chair R of table. I'm sorry, Captain
Shotover;_but it's no use talking like that
to me. Old fashioned peOple are no use to me.

 

(Old fashioned peOple think you can have a soul

without money. They think the less money you
have the more soul you have. Young peOple nowa-
days know better. A soul is a very expensive
thing to keep: much more so than a motor car.

Is it? How much does your soul eat?

Oh, a lot. It eats music and pictures and books
and mountains and lakes and beautiful things to
wear and nice people to be with. In this country
you can't have them without lots of money: that
is why our souls are so horribly starved.

Mangan's soul lives on pig's food-

Yes: money is thrown away on him. I suppose

his soul was starved when he was young. But it
will not be thrown away on me. It is Just because
I want to save my soul that I am marrying for
money. All the women who are not fools do.

There are other ways of getting money. Why don't
you steal it?

Because I don't want to go to prison.

Is that the only reason? Are you quite sure
honesty has nothing to do with it?

X U to window. Oh, you are very very old
fashioned, Captain. Does any modern girl
believe that the legal and illegal ways of
getting money are the honest and dishonest
ways? Mangan robbed my father and my father's
friends. I should rob all the money back from
Mangan if the police would let me. Ag they
won't, I must get it back by marrying him.

 

I can't argue: I'm too old: my mind is made up
and finished. Rising, X C. All I can tell you is
that, old fashioned or new fashioned, if you sell
yourself, you deal your soul a blow that all the
books and pictures and concerts and scenery in-
the world won't heal. Starts for pantry.

 

(running after him and seizing him by the sleeve)

Captain:
Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

84

Then why did you sell yourself to the devil in
Zanzibar?

(stOpping, startled) What?

You shall not run away before you answer. I
have found out that trick of yours. If you sold
yourself, why shouldn't I?

I had to deal with men so degraded that they
wouldn't obey me unless I swore at them and
kicked them and beat them with my fists. Foolish
peOple took young thieves off the streets; flung
them into a training ship where they were taught
to fear the cane instead of fearing God; and
thought they'd made men and sailors of them by
private subscription. I tricked these thieves
into believing I'd sold myself to the devil. It
saved my soul from kicking and swearing that was
damning me by inches.

(releasing him) I shall pretend to sell myself
to Boss Mangan to save my soul from the poverty
that is damning me by inches.

Riches will damn you ten times deeper. Riches
won't even save your body.

X to window. Old fashioned again. We know now
that the soul is the body, and the body the soul.
They tell us they are different because they want
to persuade us that we can keep our souls if we
let them make slaves of our bodies. I am afraid
you are no use to me, Captain.

 

Moves toward Ellie. What did you expect? A
Savior, eh? Are you old fashioned enough to
believe in that?

 

No. But I thought you were very wise, and
might help me. Now I have found you out.

Turns to Captain. You pretend to be busy, and
think of fine things to say, and run in and out
to surprise people by saying them, and get away
before they can answer you.

It confuses me to be answered. It discourages
me. I cannot bear men and women. I have to run
away. I must run away now. (he tries to

(again seizing his arm) You shall not run away

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

85

from me. I can hypnotize you. You are the
only person in the house I can say what I like
to. I know you are fond of me. Sit down.

She draws him to chair R of table.

 

(yielding) Take care: I am in my dotage. Sits.
Old men are dangerous: it doesn't matter to
them what is going to happen to the world.

Sitting on floor R of chair. (dreamily) I
should have thought nothing else mattered to
old men. They can't be very interested in what
is going to happen to themselves.

 

A man's interest in the world is only the over-
flow from his interest in himself. When you are
a child your vessel is not yet full; so you care
for nothing but your own affairs. When you grow
up, your vessel overflows; and you are a politican,
a phllOSOpher, or an eXplorer and adventurer.
In old age the vessel dries up: there is no
overflow: you are a child again. I can give you
the memories of my ancient wisdom: mere scraps
and leavings; but I no longer really care for
anything but my own little wants and hobbies.
I sit here working out my old ideas as a means
of destroying my fellow-creatures. Rising,px to
arden door. I see my daughters and their men
§Iving foolish lives of romance and sentiment
and snobbery. Turns to Ellie. I see you, the
younger generation, turning from their romance
and sentiment and snobbery to money and comfort
and hard common sense. I was ten times happier
on the bridge in the typhoon, or frozen into
Arctic ice for months in darkness, than you or
they have ever been. Leans on chair R of table
keeping it between them. You are looking for a
richfihusband. At your age I looked for hardship,
danger, horror, and death that I might feel the
life in me more intensely. I did not let the
fear of death govern my life; and my reward was,
I had my life. You are going to let the fear of
poverty govern your life; and your reward will
be that you will eat, but you will not live.

 

X to desk. But what can I do? I am not a sea
captain: I can't stand on bridges in typhoons

or go slaughtering seals and whales in Greenland's
icy mountains. They won't let women be Captains.

Do you want me to be a stewardess?

 

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:
Captain:
Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

86

There are worse lives. The stewardesses could
come ashore if they liked; but they sail and sail
and sail.

What could they do ashore but marry for money?
I don't want to be a stewardess: I am too bad
a sailor. Think of something else for me.

I can't think so long and continuously. I am
too old. I must go in and out. Starts for pantry.

Intercepts him C. You shall not. You are happy

 

hare, aren't you?

I tell you it's dangerous to keep me. I can't
keep awake and alert.

What do you run away for? To sleep?
No. To get a glass of rum.

(frightfully disillusioned) Is that it? X D R.
How disgusting! Do you like being drunk?

 

No: I dread being drunk more than anything in
the world. X to chair R of table, his back half
turned to Ellie. To be drunk means tolhave
dreams; to go soft; to be easily pleased and
deceived; to fall into the clutches of women.
Drink does that for you when you are young. But
when you are old: very, very old, like me, the
dreams come by themselves. You don't know how
terrible that is: Turns to Ellie. you are young:
you sleep at night only, and sleep soundly. But
later on you will sleep in the afternoon. Later
still you will sleep even in the morning; and you
will awake tired, tired of life. Turns away.
You will never be free from dozing and dreams;
the dreams will steal upon your work every ten
minutes unless you can awaken yourself with rum.
I drink now to keep sober; but the dreams are
conquering: rum is not what it was: I have had
ten glasses since you came; and it might be so
much water. Go get me another: Guinness knows
where it is. You had better see for yourself the
horror of an old man drinking.

You shall not drink. X to Captain. Dream. I
like you to dream. Leadin him to sofa. You
must never be in the real world when we talk

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:
Ellie:
Captain:
Ellie:

Captain:

Ellie:

Captain:

Ellis:

87
together.

I am too weary to resist, or too weak. Sits.

I am in my second Childhood. I do not see you

as you really are. I can't remember what I
really am. I feel nothing but the accursed
happiness I have dreaded all my life long: the
happiness that comes as life goes, the happiness
of yielding and dreaming instead of resisting and
doing, the sweetness of the fruit that is going
rotten.

Sits U of Captain. You dread it almost as much
aslllused to dread losing my dreams and having
to fight and do things. But this is all over
for me: my dreams are dashed to pieces. I
should like to marry a very old, very rich man.
I should like to marry you. I had much rather
marry you than marry Mangan. Are you very rich?

 

No. Living from hand to mouth. And I have a
wife somewhere in Jamaica: a black one. My
first wife. Unless she's dead.

What a pity! I feel so happy with you. (she
takes his hand, almost unconsciously, and pats it)
I thought I should never feel happy again.

Why?
Don't you know?
No.

Heartbreak. I fell in love with Hector, and
didn't know he was married.

Heartbreak? Are you one of those who are so
sufficient to themselves that they are only
happy when they are stripped of everything, even
of hOpe?

(gripping the hand) It seems so; for I feel now
as if there was nothing I could not do, because
I want nothing.

That's the only real strength. That's genius.
That's better than rum.

(throwing away his hand) Rum! Why did you spoil

Hector:

Ellie:

Captain:
Ellie:

Hector:

Randall:

Hector:

Randall:

Hector:

Randall:

Hector:

Randall:
Hector:

Randall:

88
it?
(Hector and Randall come in from the garden)

I beg your pardon. We did not know there was
anyone here.

(rising) That means that you want to tell Mr.
Randall the story about the tiger. Come, Captain:
I want to talk to my father; and you had better
come with me.

Nonsense! the man is in bed.

Takes his hand. Aha! I've caught you. My
real father has gone to bed; but the father
you gave me is in the kitchen. You knew quite
well all along. Come. She draws him up the
steps and out.

 

X to Bannister. That's an extraordinary girl.

 

-§he has the Ancient Mariner on a string like a

like a Pekinese dog.

X C. Now that they have gone, shall we have a
friendly chat?

Pulling desk chair D R Cp_sits. You are in what
is supposed to be my’house. I am at your disposal.
Offers Randall a cigarette.

 

I take it that we may be quite frank. Lights
Hector's cigarette. I mean about Lady Utterword.
Lights his own.

You may. I have nothing to be frank about. I
never met her until this afternoon.

What! Pulls chair R of table U, sits on arm.
But you are her sisterTs husband.

Well, if you come to that, you are her husband's
brother.

But you seem to be on intimate terms with her.

So do you.

Yes: but I am on intimate terms with her. I
have known her for years.

Hector:

Randall:

Hector:

Randall:

Hector:

Randall:

Hector:

Randall:

Hector:

Randall:

89

It took her years to get to the same point
with you that she got to with me in five
minutes, it seems.

Rising, X D L to table. Really, Ariadne is the
llmit. Extlnguishes cigarette in ash tray on
table.

 

(coolly) She is, as I remarked to Hesione, a
very enterprising woman.

(much troubled) You see, Hushabye, you are what
women consider a good looking man.

I cultivated that appearance in the days of my
vanity; and Hesione insists on my keeping it

up. She makes me wear these ridiculous things
(indicating his Arab costume) because she thinks
me absurd in evening dress.

Still, you do keep it up, old chap. Now, I
assure you I have not an atom of Jealousy in my
disposition------

Rising,pputs one foot on chair. The question
would seemfito 56 rather whether your brother
has any touch of that sort.

X to the back of chair C. What! Hastings!

Ch, don't trouble about Hastings. He has the
gift of being able to work sixteen hours a day
at the dullest detail, and actually likes it.
That gets him to the tap wherever he goes. As
long as Ariadne takes care that he is fed
regularly, he is only too thankful to anyone who
will keep her in good humor for him.

And as she has all the Shotover fascination,
there is plenty of competition for the Job, eh?

(angrily) She encourages them. Her conduct is
perfectly scandalous. I assure you, my dear
fellow, I haven't an atom of Jealousy in my
composition; but she makes herself the talk of
every place she goes to by her thoughtlessness.
It's nothing more: she doesn't really care for
the men she keeps hanging around her; but how
is the world to know that? It's not fair to
Hasints. It's not fair to me.

Hector:

Randall:

Hector:

Randall:

Hector:

Randall:

Hector:

Randall:

Hector:

Randall:

Hector:

Randall:

90

Puts desk chair back in place, extinguishes
cigarette at desk. Her theory is that her
conduct is so correct -----

 

 

Correct! X D L. She does nothing, but make
scenes from morning till night. You be careful,
old chap. She will get you into trouble: that
is, Site on arm of chair L. she would if she
really cared for you.

 

Doesn't she?

Not a scrap. She may want your scalp to add to
her collection; but her true affection has been
engaged years ago. You had really better be
careful.

X C. Do you suffer much from this Jealousy?

Rising. Jealousy! I Jealous! My dear fellow,
haven t I told you that there is not an atom
of -----

Yes. And Lady Utterword told me she never made
scenes. Well, don't waste your Jealousy on my
moustache. Never waste Jealousy on a real man:

it is the imaginary hero that supplants us all

in the long run. Besides, Jealousy does not belong
to your easy man-of—the-world pose, which you
carry so well in other respects.

Really, Hushabye, X L C. I think a man may be
allowed to be a gentleman without being accused
of posing.

X D to Randall. It is a pose like any other.

In this house we know all the poses: our

game is to find out the man under the pose. The
man under your pose is apparently Ellie's
favorite, Othello.

 

Some of your games in this house are damned
annoying, let me tell you.

Yes: I have been their victim for many years.
I used to writhe under them at first; X, sits on
sofa. but I became accustomed to them. At last

I learned to play them.

X, stands over Hector. If it's all the same to

“'1

I'll

’V

Hector:

Randall:

Hector:

Randall:

Hector:

Lady U:
Randall:

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

Randall:

91

you I had rather you didn't play them on me.
You evidently don't quite understand my character
or my notions of good form.

Is it your notion of good form to give away
Lady Utterword?

(A childishly plaintive note breaking into his
huff) Turning away in confusion to C. I have
not said a word against Lady Utterword. This is
Just the conspiracy over again.

What conspiracy?

You know very well, sir. A conspiracy to make
me out to be pettish and Jealous and childish
and everything I am not. Everyone knows I am
Just the Opposite.

(rising) Something in the air of the house has
upset you. It often does have that effect.

(He goes to the garden door and calls Lady U.
with commanding emphasis) Ariadne! Places chair
in former position.

 

 

(at some distance) Yes.

X R. What are you calling her for? I want to
speak------

(arriving breathless) Yes, you really are a
terribly commanding person. What's the matter?

I do not know how to manage your friend Randall.
No doubt you do.

X D L. Randall: have you been making your-
self ridiculous, as usual? I can see it in your
face. Really, you are the most pettish creature.

 

You know quite well, Ariadne, that I have not an
ounce of pettishness in my disposition. I have
made myself perfectly pleasant here. I have
remained absolutely cool and imperturable in the
face of a burglar. Sits. Imperturbability is
almost too strong a point of mind. But I insist
on being treated with a certain consideration.

I will not allow Hushabye to take liberties with
me. I will not stand your encouraging people as
you do.

Hector:

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

Randall:
Lady U:

Randall:
Lady U:

Randall:
Lady U:

92

The man has a rooted delusion that he is your
husband.

I know. He is Jealous. As if he had any right
to be! He compromises me everywhere. He makes
scenes all over the place. Randall: X to
Randall I will not allow it. I simply will
not allow it. You had no right to discuss me
with Hector. I will not be discussed by men.

X to chair D L, sits. Be reasonable, Ariadne.
Your fatal gift of beauty forces men to discuss
you.

 

Taking_g. Oh indeed! what about your fatal
gift of beauty?

How can I help it?

You could cut off your moustache; I can't cut
off my nose. I get my whole life messed up
with peOple falling in love with me. And then
Randall says I run after men.

I .....

Yes you do: you said it Just now. Standing

over Randall. Why can't you think of something
Else than women? Napoleon was quite right when
he said that women are the occupation of the idle
man. Well, if ever there was an idle man on
earth, his name is Randall Utterword.

 

Ariad -------

Oh yes you are: it's no use denying it. What
have you ever done? What good are you? You
are as much trouble in the house as a child of
three. You couldn't live without your valet.

Starts to rise. This is -------

 

Pushes him back down. Laziness! You are
laziness incarnate. You are selfishness itself.
You are the most uninteresting man on earth.

You can't even gossip about anything but yourself
and your grievances and your ailments and the
peOple who have offended you. Do you know what
they call him, Hector?

 

Hector:
Randall:

Lady U:

Randall:

Lady U:

Randall:

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

Hector:

93
(Speaking together)

Please don't tell me.
I'll not stand it -----

Randall the Rotter: that is his name in good
society.

(shouting) I'll not bear it, I tell you. Will
you listen to me, you infernal ------ (he chokes)

Well: go on. What were you going to call me?
An infernal what? Which unpleasant animal is
it going to be this time? Sits in chair R of table.

From R C. (foaming) There is no animal in the

world so hateful as a woman can be. You are a

maddening devil. Hushabye, you will not believe
me when I tell you that I have loved this demon
all my life: X U to desk. but God knows I have
paid for it. (he sits down in the chair, weeping)

 

Rising, X U to Randall. Cry-baby!

Rising. My friend, the Shotover sisters have two
strange powers over men. They can make them love;
and they can make them cry. Thank your stars
that you are not married to one of them.

§;2_Q° (Haughtily) And pray, Hector--~-

(suddenly catching her round the shoulders:
swinging her right round him and away from
Randall: and gripping her throat with the
other hand) Ariadne, if you attempt to start
on me, I'll choke you: do you hear? Pushes her
on sofa and stands over her. The cat and mouse
game with the other sex is—a good game; but I
can play your head off at it. It is true that
Napoleon said that woman is the occupation of
the idle man. But he added that she is the
relaxation of the warrior. Well, I am the
warrior. So take care.

(not in the least put out, and rather pleased
by his violence) My dear Hector, I have only
done what you asked me to do.

And how do you make that out, pray?

Lady U:

Hector:~

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

Randall:

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

Randall:

Lady U:

Hector:

Randall:

94

You called me in to manage Randall, didn't you?
You said you couldn't manage him yourself.

Well, what if I did? X to chair R of table, sits.
I did not ask you to drive the man mad.

 

He isn't mad. That's the way to manage him. If
you were a mother, you'd understand.

Mother! What are you up to now?

It's quite simple. When the children got nerves
and were naughty, I smacked them Just enough

to give them a good cry and a healthy nervous
shock. They went to sleep and were quite good
afterwards. Well, I can't smack Randall: he

is too big; so when he gets nerves and is
naughty, I Just rag him till he cries. He will
be all right now. Look: he is half asleep
already.

(waking up indignantly) I'm not. You are most
cruel, Ariadne. (sentimentally) But I suppose
I must forgive you, as usual. (he checks him-
self in the act of yawning)

Is the explanation satisfactory, dread warrior?

Some day I shall kill you, if you go too far.
Rises, X D L. I thought you were a fool.

(laughing) Everybody does, at first. But I
am not such a fool as I look. X U to Randall.
Now Randall, go to bed. You willibe a good
boy in the morning.

(only faintly rebellious) I'll go to bed when
I like. It isn't ten yet.

It is long past ten. See that he goes to bed
at once, Hector. (she goes into the garden)

Is there any slavery on earth viler than this
slavery of men to women?

(rising resolutely) I'll not Speak to her
tomorrow. I'll not speak to her for another
week. I'll give her such a lesson. I'll go
straight to bed without bidding her good night.
(he makes for the door leading to the hall)

Hector:

Randall:

Hector:

Randall:

Hector:

95

You are under a spell, man. X U C. Old
Shotover sold himself to the devil in Zanzibar.
The devil gave him a black witch for a wife; and
these two demon daughters are their mystical
progeny. I am tied to Hesione's apron—strings;
but I'm her husband; and if I did go stark staring
mad about her, at least we became man and wife.
But why should you let yourself be dragged about
and beaten by Ariadne as a toy donkey is dragged
about and beaten by a child? What do you get by
it? Are you her lover?

You must not misunderstand me. In a higher
sense----in a platonic sense. -------

Pshs! Platonic sense! She makes you her
servant; and when pay-day comes round, she bilks
you: that is what you mean.

From platform. Well, if I don't mind, I don't
see what business it is of yours. Besides, I
tell you I am going to punish her. You shall
see: I know how to deal with women. I'm really
very sleepy. Say good night to Mrs. Hushabye
for me, will you, like a good chap. Good night.
(he hurries out)

 

Watching Randall go, full back position.

Poor wretchll Oh women! women! women! Turns
full front. (he lifts his fists in invocation
to heaven) Fall. Fall and crush. (he goes
out into the garden)

 

AEDIUM CURTAIN

Lady U:

Hector:

Ellie:

Hector:

Ellie:

Captain:

Hector:

Mangan:

Hector:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

96
ACT THREE

As the curtain Opens, Lagy Upterword is lyipg

on a chaise lounge D R, the Captain is seated

in arm chair on terrace D Lpggnd Ellie is seated
on small stool by his side. The henéh U C, and
the stool next to thetlounge and the deck chaig
L C are vacant. Hector entergfrom the house L.
H: pauses on edge of terrace U oflCaptain and
ggghts a cigarette. As he waves out the match,
Lady U. speaks.

What a lovely night! It seems made for us.

The night takes no interest in us. What are we
to the night? (he sits moodily in the deck
chair)

(dreamily, nestling against the Captain) Its
beauty soaks into my nerves. In the night there
is peace for the old and hope for the young.

Is that remark your own?

No. Only the last thing the Captain said before
he went to sleep.

I'm not asleep.

Randall is. Also Mr. Mazzini Dunn. Mangan, too
prObably e

Entering with Hesione throggh gate U R. No.

Oh, you are there. I thought Hesione would have
sent you to bed by this time.

(coming to the back of the bench) I think I
shall. He keeps telling me he has a presentiment
that he is going to die. I never met a man so
greedy for sympathy.

But I have a presentiment. I really have. And
you wouldn't listen.

I was listening for something else. There was a
sort of splendid drumming in the sky. Did none
of you hear it? It came from a distance and then
died away.

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:
Mrs. H:

Hector:

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

Captain:

Lady U:

Captain:
Lady U:

Captain:

Lady U:
Mrs. H:

97
I tell you it was a train.

And I tell you, Alf, there is no train at this
hour. The last is nine forty-five.

But a goods train.

Not on our little line. They tack a truck on to
the passenger train. What can it have been,
Hector? Sits on R arm of bench.

Heaven's threatening growl of disgust at us
useless futile creatures. (fiercely) I tell you
one of two things must happen. Either out of
that darkness some new creation will come to
supplant us as we have supplanted the animals,

or the heavens will fall in thunder and destroy
us.

We have not supplanted the animals, Hector. Why
do you ask heaven to destroy this house, which
could be made quite comfortable if Hesione had
any notion of how to live? Don't you know what
is wrong with it?

We are wrong with it. There is no_sense in us.
We are useless, dangerous, and ought to be
abolished.

Nonsense! Hastings told me the very first day
he came here, nearly twenty-four years ago,
what is wrong with the house.

What! The nunskull said there was something wrong
with my house!

I said Hastings said it; and he is not in the
least a numskull.

What's wrong with my house?

Just what is wrong with a ship, papa. Wasn't
it clever of Hastings to see that?

The man's a fool. There's nothing wrong with a
ship.

Yes, there is.

But what is it? Don't be aggravating, Addy.

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

Mrs. H:
Lady U:

Captain:
Lady U:
Captain:

Lady U:

98
Guess.

Demons. Daughters of the witch of Zanzibar.
Demons.

Not a bit. I assure you, all this house needs
to make it a sensible, healthy, pleasant house,
with good appetites and sound sleep in it, is
horses.

Horses! What rubbish! Site on bench.

Rises, X to table U L. Yes: horses. Why have
we neverlheen able to let this house? Because
there are no prOper stables. Go anywhere in
England where there are natural, wholesome,
contented, and really nice English peOple:

From terrace. and what do you always find?

Thht the stables are the real centre of the

household; X to R of lounge. and that if any
visitor wants to play the plEno the whole room
has to be upset before it can be epened, there
are so many things piled on it. I never lived
until I learned to ride; and I shall never ride
really well because I didn't begin as a child.
There are only two classes in good society in
England: the equestrian classes and the
neurotic classes. It isn't mere convention:
everybody can see that the peeple who hunt are
the right peeple and the peOple who don't are the
wrong ones. Puts drink on table D R.

There is some truth in this. My ship made a man
of we; and a ship is the horse of the sea.

Sitting. Exactly how Hastings explained your
e ng a gentleman. Lies down.

Not bad for a numskull. Bring the man here with
you next time: I must talk to him.

Why is Randall such an obvious rotter? He is well
bred; he has been at a public school and a university;
he has been in the Foreign Office; he knows the

best peeple and has lived all his life among them.
Why is he so unsatisfactory, so contemptible?

Why can't he get a valet to stay with him longer

than a few months? Just because he is too lazy

and pleasure-loving to hunt and shoot. He strums

the piano, and sketches, and runs after married

Mrs. H:
Mangan:
Lady U:
Mangan:
Mrs. H:
Ellie:

Mangan:

Lady U:

Mangan:
Lady U:

Mangan:
Ellie:
Lady U:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

99

women, and reads literary books and poems. He
actually plays the flute; but I never let him
bring it into my house. If he would only---
(she is interrupted by the melancholy strains
of a flute coming from an cpen window above)
She rises L of lounge. Randall, you have not
gone to bed. ‘Have you been listening? (the
flute replies pertly) How vulgar! Go to bed
instantly, Randall: how dare you? Site.

How can anyone care for such a creature!

Addy: do you think Ellie ought to marry poor
Alfred merely for his money?

What's that? Mrs. Hushabye, are my affairs to
be discussed like this before everybody?

I don't think Randall is listening now. Lies
down.

Everybody is listening. It isn't right. Site on
bench.

But in the dark, what does it matter? Ellie
doesn't mind, do you Ellie?

Not in the least. What is your epinion, Lady
Utterword? You have so much good sense.

But it isn't right. It--~(Mrs. H. puts her
hand on his mouth) Oh, very well.

How much money have you, Mr. Mangan?
Really--No: I can't stand this.

Nonsense, Mr. Mangan! It all turns on your
income, doesn't it?

Well, if you come to that, how much money has she?

None.

You are answered, Mr. Mangan. And now, as you
have made Miss Dunn throw her cards on the
table, you cannot refuse to show your own.
Come, Alf! Out with it! How much?

Rises, X U to wall. Well, if you want to know,

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Lady U:
Mangan:

Captain:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Lady U:

Mangan:

Lady U:

. 100
I have no money and never had any.
Alfred, you mustn't tell naughty stories.

I'm not telling you stories. I'm telling you the
raw truth.

Then what do you live on, Mr. Mangan?
Traveling expenses. And a trifle of commission.

What more have any of us but traveling eXpenses
for our life's Journey?

But you have factories and capital and things?

People think I have. PeOple think I'm an '
industrial NapoleOn. That's why Miss Ellie
wants to marry me. But I tell you I have nothing.

Do you mean that the factories are like Marcus's
tigers? That they don't exist?

They exist all right enough. But they're not

mine. They belong to syndicates and shareholders
and all sorts of lazy good-for-nothing capitalists.
I get money from such peOple to start the factories.
I find peOple like Miss Dunn's father to work

them, and keep a tight hand so as to make them

pay. Of course I make them keep me going pretty
well; but it's a dog's life; and I don't own
anything.

Alfred, Alfred, you are making a poor mouth of it
to get out of marrying Ellie.

I'm telling the truth about my money for the first
time in my life; and it's the first time my
word has ever been doubted.

How sad! Why don't you go in for politics,
Mr. Mangan?

X behind bench D to Lad U. Go in for olitics!
Where have you Been Ilvlng. I am in po itics.

I'm sure I beg your pardon. I never heard of you.

Mangan:

Lady U:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:
Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Hector:

Lady U:

Mangan:

Lady U:

Mangan:

Hector:

Mangan:

101

Let me tell you, Lady Utterword, that the Prime
Minister of this country asked me to Join the
Government without even going through the nonsense
of an election, as the dictator of a great public
department.

As a Conservative or a Liberal?

X back to bench. No such nonsense. As a
practical Business man. (they all burst out
laughing) What are you all laughing at?

Oh, Alfred, Alfred!

You! who have to get my father to do everything
for you!

You! who are afraid of your own workmen!

You! with whom three women have been playing
cat and mouse all the evening!

You must have given an immense sum to the party
funds, Mr. Mangan.

Not a penny out of my own pocket. The syndicate
found the money: they knew how useful I should
be to them in the Government.

This is most interesting and unexpected, Mr.
Mangan. And what have your administrative
achievements been so far?

Achievements? Well I don't know what you call
achievements; but I've Jolly well put a step

to the games of the other fellows in the other
departments. Every man of them thought he was
going to save the country all by himself, and do
me out of the credit and out of my chance of a
title. I took good care that if they wouldn't
let me do it they shouldn't do it themselves
either. I may not know anythi about my own
machinery; but I know how to st ck a ramrod into
the other fellow's. And now they all look the

biggest fools going.

Rises. And in heaven's name, what do you look
e

I look like the fellow that was too clever for

Hector:

Lady U:

Mangan:

Lady U:

Mangan:

Hector:
Mangan:
Hector:

Mangan:

Lady U:

Captain:

Lady U:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

102

all the others, don't I? If that isn't
triumph of practical business, what is?
Sits on bench with Hesione.

 

Is this England, or is it a madhouse? X to table,
ppurs drink.

 

 

Do you expect to save the country, Mr. Mangan?

Well, who else will? Will your Mr. Randall save
it?

Randall the rotter! Certainly not.

Will your brother-in-law save it with his
moustache and his fine talk?

Yes, if they will let me.
(sneering) Ah! Will they let you?
No. They prefer you. X to gate U R.

Very well then, as you're in a world where I'm
appreciated and you're not, you'd best be civil
to me, hadn't you? Who else is there but me?

There is Hastings. Get rid of your ridiculous
sham democracy; and give Hastings the necessary
powers, and a good supply of bamboo to bring
the British native to his senses: he will

save the country with the greatest of ease.

It had better be lost. Any fool can govern with
a stick in his hand. I could govern that way.
It is not God's way. The man is a numskull.

The man is worth all of you rolled into one.,
What do you say, Miss Dunn?

I think my father would do very well if peOple
did not put upon him and cheat him and despise
him because he is so good.

(contemptuously) I think I see Mazzini Dunn
getting into parliament or pushing his way into
the Government. We've not come to that yet,
thank God! What do you say, Mrs. Hushabye!

Oh, I say it matters very little which of you

Hector:

Mrs. H:

Hector:

Ellie:

Captain:
Lady U:

Mangan:

Lady U:

Lady U:
Captain:
Hector:
Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

105
governs the country so long as we govern you.
We? Who is we, pray?

The devil's granddaughters, dear. The lovely
women.

(raising his hands as before) Fall, I say, and
deliver us from the lures of Satan!

There seems to be nothing real in the world except
my father and Shakespeare. Marcus's tigers are
false; Mr. Mangan's millions are false: there is
nothing really strong and true about Hesione

but her beautiful hair; and Lady Utterword's is
too pretty to be real. The one thing that was
left to me was that Captain's seventh degree of
concentration; and that turns out to be------

Rum.

(placidly) A good deal of my hair is quite
genuine. The Duchess of Dithering offered me
fifty guineas for this (touching her forehead)
under the impression that it was a transformation;
but it is.all natural except the color.

Rises. (wildly) Look here: I'm going to take

of? all my clothes. (he begins tearing off his

coat)

Mr. Mangan!

S eakin to ether.

Mr. Mangan! Slts p.

What's that?

Ha! Ha! Do. do. From U of lounge.

Please don't.

Rises. (catching his arm and stepping him)
re , for shame! Are you mad?

Shame! What shame is there in this house? Let's
all strip stark naked. We may as well do the
thing thoroughly when we're about it. We've
stripped ourselves morally naked: well, let us
strip ourselves physically naked as well and see
how we like it. I tell you I can't bear this.

I was brought up to be respectable. I don't
mind the women dyeing their hair and the men

Lady U:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:
Captain:

Hector:

Lady U:

Mangan:

Ellie:

104

drinking: it's human nature. But it's not
human nature to tell everybody about it. Every
time one of you Opens your mouth I 0 like this
(he cowers as if to avoid a missile? afraid

of what will come next. How are we to have any
self respect if we don't keep it up that we're
better than we really are?

I quite sympathize with you, Mr. Mangan. I have
been through it all; and I know by experience that
men and women are delicate plants and must be
cultivated under glass. Our family habit of
throwing stones in all directions and letting

the air in is not only unbearably rude, but
positively dangerous. Still, there is no use
catching physical colds as well as moral ones;

so please keep your clothes on. Lies down.

Starts for house L, holds on terrace. I'll do
as I like: not what you tell me. Am I a child
or a grown man? I won't stand this mothering
tyranny. I'll go back to the city, where I'm
respected and made much of.

Sits on bench. Good bye, Alf. Think of us some-
times in the city. Think of‘Ellie's youth.

Think of Hesione's eyes and hair!

Think of this garden in which you are not a dog
barking to keep the truth out!

x to deck chair, sits. Think of Lady Utterword's
beauty! her good sense! her style!

Flatterer. Think, Mr. Mangan, whether you can
really do any better for yourself elsewhere:
that is the essential point, isn't it?

Coming back to bench. All right: all right.
’ITm done. —Have it your own way. Only let me
alone. I don't know whether I'm on my head or
my heels when you all start on me like this.
I'll stay. Sits. I'll marry her. I'll do any-
thing for a quiet life. Are you satisfied now?

Rises, X to behind the Ca tain's chair. No. I
never really Intended to make you marry me, Mr.
Mangan. Never in the depths of my soul. I only
wanted to feel my strength: to know that you

could not escape if I chose to take you.

 

Mangan:

Lady U:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:
Lady U:

Mangan:
Hector:

Ellie:

Mrs.gH:
Ellie:
Lady U:
Mangan:

Hector:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:

Lady U:

105

(indignantly) What! Docyou mean to say you
are going to throw me over after my acting so
handsome?

I should not be too hasty, Miss Dunn; you can
throw Mr. Mangan over at any time up to the last
moment. Very few men in his position go bank-
rupt. You can live comfortably on his reputation
for immense wealth.

I cannot commit bigamy, Lady Utterword.

Speaking together.

Rises. Bigamy! Whatever on earth are you talking
about, Ellie?

Raising herself on one arm. Bigamy! What do you
mean, Miss fifinn?
Bigamy! Do you mean to say you're married already?
Bigamy! This is some enigma.

(Putting hand on Captain's shoulder) Only half
an hour ago I became Captain’Shotover's white wife.

Ellie! What nonsense! Where?

In heaven, where all true marriages are made.
Really, Miss Dunn! Really, Papa!

He told me I was too old! And him a mummy!

(quoting Shelley)
'Their altar the grassy earth outspread
And their priest the muttering wind.‘

Yes: I, Ellie Dunn, give my broken heart and my
strong sound soul to its natural captain, my
spiritual husband and second father.

Oh, that's very clever of you, pettikins. Very
clever. Sits. Alfred, you could never have lived
up to EllIe. You must be content with a little

share of me.

(sniffing and wiping his eyes) It isn't kind
(his emotion chokes him)

You are well out of it, Mr. Mangan. Miss Dunn
is the most conceited young woman I have met
since I came back to England.

Mrs. H:
Ellie:
Mangan:

Mrs. H:

Captain:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

Hector:

Mrs. H:

106
Oh, Ellie isn't conceited. Are you, pettikins?
I know my strength now, Hesione.
Brazen, I call you. Brazen.

X between bench and deck chair. Tut, tut,

 

'Klfred: don't be rude. fion't you feel how

lovely this marriage night is, made in heaven?
Aren't you happy, you and Hector? Open your
eyes: Addy and Ellis look beautiful enough to
please the most fastidious man: we live and love
and have not a care in the world. We women have
managed all that for you. Why in the name of
common sense do you go on as if you were two
miserable wretches?

I tell you happiness is no good. You can be
happy when you are only half alive. I am happier
now I am half dead than ever I was in my prime.
But there is no blessing on my happiness.

Life with a blessing! that is what I want.

Now I know the real reason why I couldn't marry
Mr. Mangan: there would be no blessing on our
marriage. There is a blessing on my broken heart.
There is a blessing on your beauty, Hesione.

There is a blessing on your father's spirit.

Even on the lies of Marcus there is a blessing;
but on Mr. Mangan's money there is none.

I don't understand a word of that.

Neither do I. But I know it means something.
sits on stool.

 

Don't say there was any difficulty about the
blessing. I was ready to get a bishOp to marry
“80

Isn't he a fool, pettikins? X U of bench.

(fiercly) Do not scorn the man. We are all fools.

(Mazzini, in pyjamas and a richly colored silk
dressing gown, comes from the house)

Sitting on bench. Oh! here comes the only man
who ever resisted me. What's the matter, Mr.
Dunn? Is the house on fire?

107

Mazzini: From terrace. Oh, no: nothing's the matter:
But really It's impossible to go to sleep with
such an interesting conversation going on under
one's window, and on such a beautiful night too.
I Just had to come down and Join you all. What
has it all been about?

Mrs. H: Oh, wonderful things, soldier of freedom.

Hector: For example, Mangan, as a practical business man,
has tried to undress himself and has failed
ignominiously; whilst you, as an idealist, have
succeeded brilliantly.

 

Mazzini: X to stool b loun e site. I hOpe you don't
mind my_5eing like this, Mrs. Hushabye.

Mrs. H: On the contrary, I could always wish you like
that.

Lady U: Your daughter's match is off, Mr. Dunn. It seems

that Mr. Mangan, whom we all supposed to be a
man of preperty, owns nothing.

Mazzini: Well, of course I knew that, Lady Utterword.
But if peOple believe in him and are always
giving him money, whereas they don't believe in
me and never give me any, how can I ask poor
Ellis to depend on what I can do for her?

Mangan: Don't you run away with this idea that I have
nothing. I-----

Hector: Oh, don't explain. We understand. You have a
couple of thousand pounds in exchequer bills,
50,000 shares worth tenpence a dozen, and half
a dozen tabloids of cyanide of potassium to
poison yourself with when you are found out.
That's the realith of your millions.

Mazzini: Oh no, no, no. He is quite honest: the businesses
are genuine and perfectly legal.

Hector: (disgusted) Yah! Not even a great swindler.

Mangan: So you think. But I've been too many for some

honest men, for all that.

Lady U: There is no pleasing you, Mr. Mangan. You are
determined to be neither rich nor poor, honest

or dishonest.

Mangan:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Mangan:
Mrs. H:
Ellie:

Captain:

Hector:
Captain:

Hector:

Lady U:

Mazzini:

Lady U:

Captain:

108

There you go again. Ever since I came into this
silly house I have been made to look like a fool,
though I'm as good a man in this house as in the
city.

(musically) Yes: this silly house, this
strangely happy house, this agonizing house, this
house without foundations. I shall call it
Heartbreak House.

Step, Ellie; or I shall howl like an animal.
(breaks into a low snivelling)

There! you have set Alfred off.

I like him best when he is howling.

Silence (Mangan subsides into silence) I say,
let the heart break in silence.

Do you accept that name for your house?
It is not my house: it is only my kennel.

Taking glass to table U 1 We have been too long
ere. e do not live in this house: we haunt it.

Rises, X around D end of lounge It is dreadful
to think how you have‘been here all these years
while I have gone round the world. I escaped
young; but it has drawn me back. It wants to
break my heart too. But it shan't. I have left
you and it behind. It was silly of me to come
back. I felt sentimental about papa and.Hesione
and the old place. I felt them calling to me.

But what a very natural and kindly and charming
human feeling, Ladwatterword!

So I thought, Mr. Dunn. But I know now that it
was only the last of my influenza. I found that
I was not remembered and not wanted.

You left because you did not want us. Was there
no heartbreak in that for your father? You tore
yourself up by the roots; and the ground healed
up and brought forth fresh plants and forgot
you. What right had you to come back and probe
old wounds?

Mrs. H:

Lady U:

Hector:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

Mangan:

Lady U:

Hector:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Mazzini:

109

You were a complete stranger to me at first,
Addy; but now I feel as if you had never been
away.

Thank you, Hesione; but the influenza is quite
cured. The place may be Heartbreak House to
you, Miss Dunn, and to this gentleman from the
city who seems to have so little selfcontrol;
but to me it is only a very ill-regulated and
rather untidy villa without any stables. Sits.

Inhablted by---?

A crazy old sea captain and a young singer who
adores him.

A sluttish female, trying to stave off a double
chin and an elderly spread, vainly wooing a born
soldier of freedom. Leaning forward.

Oh, really, Mrs. Hushabye----

A member of His Majesty's Government that every-
body sets down as a nincompoop; don't forget
him, Lady Utterword.

Lies back. And a very fascinating gentleman

 

Whose chief occupation is to be married to my
sister.

All heartbroken imbeciles.

Oh no. Surely if I may say so, rather a favorable
speciman of what is best in our English culture.
You are very charming people, most advanced,
unpreJudiced, frank, humane, unconventional,
democratic, free-thinking, and everything that

is delightful to thoughtful people.

You do us proud, Mazzini.

I am not flattering, really. Where else could I
feel perfectly at ease in my pyjamas? I some-
times dream that I am in very distinguished
society, and suddenly I have nothing on but my
pyjamas! Sometimes I haven't even pyJamas.

And I always feel overwhelmed with confusion.
But here, I don't mind in the least: it seems
quite natural.

Lady U:

Mazzini:

Lady U:

Ellie:

Hector:

Lady U:

Captain:
Lady U:

Mangan:
Lady U:
Mangan:

Lady U:

Mangan:

Mrs. H:

110

An infallible sign that you are now not in
really distinguished society, Mr. Dunn. If
you were in my house, you would feel embarrassed.

I shall take particular care to keep out of your
house, Lady Utterword.

You will be quite wrong, Mr. Dunn. I should

make you very comfortable; and you would not have
the trouble and anxiety of wondering whether

you should wear your purple and gold or your
green and crimson dressing gown at dinner. You
complicate life instead of simplifying it by
doing these ridiculous things.

Your house is not Heartbreak.House; is it Lady
Utterword?

.X to deck chair, sits. Yet she breaks hearts,

easy as—her'house is. That poor devil upstairs
with his flute howls when she twists his heart,
Just as Mangan howls when my wife twists his.

That is because Randall has nothing to do but
have his heart broken. It is a change from
having his head shampooed. Catch anyone breaking
Hasting's heart!

The numskull wins, after all.

I shall go back to my numskull with the greatest
satisfaction when I am tired of you all, clever

.as you are.

(huffily) I never set up to be clever.
I forgot you, Mr. Mangan.
Well, I don't see that quite, either.

You may not be clever, Mr. Mangan; but you are
successful.

But I don't want to be regarded merely as a
successful man. I have an imagination like
anyone else. I have a presentiment-----

Oh, you are impossible, Alfred. Here I am
devoting myself to you; and you think of nothing
but your ridiculous presentiment. Rises. You
bore me. Come and talk poetry to me under the

Mangan:

Hector:

Mazzini:

Ellie:

Lady U:

Hector:

Lady U:

Hector:

Mazzini:

Hector:

Mazzini:

111

stars. (she drags him away into the darkness)
They exit U R.

(tearfully, as he disappears) Yes: it's all very
well to make fun of me; but if you only knew----

(impatiently) How is all this going to end?

It won't end Mr. Hushabye. Life doesn't end:
it goes on.

Oh, it can't go on forever. I'm always expecting
something. I don't know what it is; but life
must come to a point sometime.

The point for a young woman of your age is a
baby.

Yes, but, damn it, I have the same feeling; and
I can't have a baby.

By deputy, Hector.

But I have children. All that is over and done
with for me: and yet I too feel that this can't
last. We sit here talking, and leave everything
to Mangan and to chance and to the devil. Think
of the powers of destruction that Mangan and his
mutual admiration gang wield! It's madness:
it's like giving a torpedo to a badly brought

up child to play at earthquakes with.

I know. I used often to think about that when
I was young.

Think! What's the good of thinking about it?
Why didn't you do something?

Rises, X to C. But I did. I Joined societies
and made speeches and wrote pamphlets. That was

all I could do. But, you know though the peeple
in the societies thought they knew more than

Mangan, most of them wouldn't have Joined if
they had known as much. You see they had never
had any money to handle or any men to manage.
Every year I expected a revolution, or some
frightful smash-up: it seemed impossible that
we could blunder and muddle on any longer. But
nothing happened, except, of course, the usual
poverty and crime and drink that we are used to.

 

-.

Lady U:

Mazzini:

Lady U:
Mazzini:
Captain:

Mazzini:

Captain:

Ellie:
Captain:

Ellie:
Captain:

112

Nothing ever does happen. It's amazing how
well we get along, all things considered.

Perhaps somebody cleverer than you and Mr.
Mangan was at work all the time.

X to Lady U. Perhaps so. Though I was brought
up not to elieve in anything, I often feel that
there is a great deal to be said for the theory
of an over-ruling Providence, after all.
Providence! I meant Hastings.

Oh, I beg your pardon, Lady Utterword.

Every drunken skipper trusts to Providence.

But one of the ways of Providence with drunken
skippers is to run them on the rocks.

X L 0. Very true, no doubt, at sea. But in

politics, I assure you, they only run into

Jellyfish. Nothing happens. Sits ongbench.

 

At sea nothing happens to the sea. Nothing happens
to the sky. The sun comes up from the east and
goes down to the west. The moon grows from a
sickle to an arc lamp, and comes later and later
until she is lost in the light as other things are
lost in the darkness. After the typhoon, the
flying fish glitter in the sunshine like birds.
It's amazing how they get along, all things
considered. Nothing happens, except something
Rising not worth mentioning.

What is that, 0 Captain, 0 my Captain?

(savagely) Turning_to Mazziniml Nothing but the
smash of the drunken skipperTE ship on the rocks,
the splintering of her rotten timbers, the tearing
of her rusty plates, the drowning of the crew like
rats in a trap.

 

Moral: don't take rum.

(vehemently) That is a lie, child. Let a man
drink ten barrels of rum a day, he is not a
drunken skipper until he is a drifting skipper.
Whilst he can lay his course and stand on his
bridge and steer it, he is no drunkard. It is
the man who lies drinking in his bunk and trusts

Ellie:

Captain:

Hector:

Captain:

Hector:

Captain:

Hector:

Captain:

Ellie:

Mazzini:

Hector:

Captain:

Hector:

Guinness:

115

to Providence that I call the drunken skipper,
though he drank nothing but the waters of the
River Jordan.

Splendid! And you haven't had a dr0p for an hour.
You see you don't need it: your own spirit is
not dead.

Echoes: nothing but echoes. The last shot was
fired years ago.

And this ship that we are all in? This soul's
prison we call England?

The Captain is in his bunk, drinking bottled
ditch-water; and the crew is gambling in the
forecastle. She will strike and sink and split.
Do you think the laws of God will be suspended
in favor of England because you were born in it?

Well, I don't mean to be drowned like a rat in
a trap. I still have the will to live. What am
I to do?

Do? Nothing simpler. Learn your business as an
Englishman.

And what may my business as an Englishman be,
pray?

Navigation. Learn it and live; or leave it and
be damned. Sits.

Quiet; quiet: you'll tire yourself.

I thought all that once, Captain; but I assure
you nothing will happen.

(a dull distant explosion is heard)

(starting up) What was that?

Risin . Something happened. (he blows his
wEIst§e) Breakers ahead! (the lights go out)

(furiously) Risin . Who put that light out?
Who dared put t at light out?

Entering, X to Hector. I did, sir. The police
ave e ephoned to say we'll be summoned if we

don't put that light out: it can be seen for

Hector:

Guinness:

Captain:

Guinness:

Captain:

Guinness:

Burglar:

Guinness:

Ellie:
Captain:

Burglar:

Mrs. H:

Ellie:

114
miles.

It shall be seen for a hundred miles. (he dashes
into the house) ‘

The rectory is nothing but a heap of bricks,
they say. Unless we can give the rector a bed
he has nowhere to lay his head this night.

X to C. The church is on the rocks, breaking up.
I told him it would unless it headed for God's
Open 808..

And you are all to gociown to the cellars.

Go there yourself, you and all the crew. Batten
down the hatches.

And hide beside the coward I married! I'll go on
the roof first. (lights in the house go on)
There! Mr. Hushabye's turned it on again.

(hurrying in and appealing to Guinness) Here:
where's the way to the gravel pit? The boot-
boy says there's a cave in the gravel pit. Them
cellars is no use. Where's the gravel pit,
Captain?

Go straight on past the flagstaff until you fall
into it and break your dirty neck. Pushes him
toward gate U R, fellows him.

(Another and louder explosion is heard. The
Burglar steps and stands trembling.)

(rising) That was nearer.

The next one will get us. (he rises) Stand by,
all hands, for Judgement.

Oh, my Lordy God! (he rushes away frantically)

(emerging panting from the darkness) X to behind
bench. Who was that running away? Did‘yeu’hear
tfie explosions? And the sound in the sky: it's
splendid: it's like an orchestra: it's like
Beethoven.

By thunder, Hesione: it is Beethoven.
(the light increases)

Guinness:

Randall:

Lady U:

Randall:
Lady U:

Guinness:

Randall:

Mazzini:
Mrs. H:

Captain:

Hector:

Ellie:

Mrs. H:

Hector:

Captain:

Mrs. H:

115

(looking at the house) It's Mr. Hushabye
turning on all the lights in the house and
tearing down the curtains.

(rushin in in his pyJamas, distractedly waving
a flute X to Lady U. Ariadne, my soul, my
precious, go down to the cellars: I beg and
implore you, go down to the cellars!

 

(quite composed) The governor's wife in the
cellar with the servants! Really, Randall!

But what shall I do if you are killed?

You will probably be killed, toe, Randall.
New play your flute to show that you are not
afraid, and be good. Play us "Keep the home
fires burning.II (Randall sits on steel)

From the gate. (grimly) They'll keep the home
firesburnifig for us: them up there.

 

(having tried to play) My lips are trembling.
I can't get a sound.

I hope peer Mangan is safe.
He is hiding in the cave in the gravel pit.

My dynamite drew him there. It is the hand of
God.

(returning from the house and striding across
to his former place) There is not half light
enough. We should be blazing to the skies.

(tense with excitement) Set fire to the house,
Marcus.

My house! No.

I thought of that; but it would not be ready
in time.

The Judgement has come. Courage will not save
you; but it will show that your souls are still
alive.

flh-sh! Listen: do you hear it now? It's
magnificent. (they all turn away from the house

HBG‘COI‘!

Ellie:

Mazzini:

Ellie:

Mazzini:

Guinness:

Mazzini:
Hector:

Guinness:

Hector:
Captain:

Mazzini:

116
and look up, listening)

From behind desk chair. (gravely) Miss Dunn,
you can do no good here. We of this house are
only moths flying into the candle. You had
better go down to the cellar.

(scornfully) I don't think.

Risigg. Ellie, dear, there is no disgrace in
going to the cellar. An officer would order

his soldiers to take cover. Mr. Hushabye is
behaving like an amateur. Mangan and the
burglar are acting very sensibly; and it is they
who will survive.

Let them. sthall behave like an amateur. But
why should you run any risk?

Think of the risk those poor fellows up there
are running!

Think of them, indeed, the murdering blackguards!
What next?

(a terrific explosion shakes the earth. They
reel back in their seats, or clutch the nearest
support. They hear the falling of the shattered
glass from the windows)

 

Hesione falls against Hector. Randall su orts
Himself with one hand'en Tltor. Eagg U. supports
azz n a s o

Herself entfiandall's shoulder. M

 

‘Eench. :Guinness reéls against loun e. Ellle
EH Captaln, who stands

rows herself ainst the
pgrtectly firm.

Straightening up. Is anyone hurt?

Where did it fall?

From head of lounge. (in hideous triumph)
Right in the gravel“ it: I seen it. Serve un
right! I seen it. {she runs away towards the
gravel pit, laughing harshly) Exits U. R.

One husband gone.

Thirty pounds of good dynamite wasted.

0h, poor Mangan! X to gate U R.

Hector:

Mrs. H:

Lady U:

Captain:

Ellie:

.Hector:

Mazzini:

Hector:
Lady U:

Mazzini:

Mrs. H:

Ellis:

11?

Are you immortal that you need pity him? Our
turn next. (they wait in silence and intense
expectation. A distant eXplosion is heard)

on! They have passed us. All relax.

 

Site on lounge.

The danger is over, Randall.
'Et'to bed.

Turn in, all hands. The ship is safe. (he sits
down and goes to sleep)
Safe! (disappointedly) Sits on steel by Cgptain.
(disgustedly) Yes, safe. And how damnably dull
the world has become again suddenly! (he sits
down)

(sitting down) On bench. I was quite wrong,
after all. It is we who have survived; and Mangan
and the burglar----

--the two burglars-------

---—the two practical men of business----

---beth gone. And the peer clergyman will have
to get a new house.

But what a glorious experience! I hope they'll
come again tomorrow night.

(radiant at the prospect) Oh, I hepe so.

(Randall at last succeeds in keeping the heme
fires burning on his flute.)

SLOW CURTAIN

CHAPTER III

PRE-REHEARSAL PREPARATION

PRE-REHEARSAL PREPARATION

Once the play has been chosen the director faces the
problem of analyzing thoroughly both the plot and the various
characters before he is in a position to cast the production
with any degree of intelligence. It is the epinion of the
director that this analysis, this pro-casting work, should be
done as much as is possible from the author's point of view.
In accordance with this idea the following analysis is from

the structural, rather than the directorial, point of view.
Finding the Premise

Mr. Lajos Egri, in his book The Art 2; Dramatic
Writing, points out that Just as everything else in life must
have its purpose so the playwright must have his goal, his

1 No doubt

motive for writing the play in the first place.
the motives of many of the lighter plays are simply entertain~
ment for the audience and financial gain for the writer.
However, the motive of George Bernard Shaw seems rather to be
to make the audience conscious of some of the weightier problems
of life. Egri calls this motive thg premis .

Every good play must have a well-formulated premise.

There may be more than one way to phrase the premise, but
however it is phrased, the thought must be the same.

0 O O O O O O O C O O O O O O O O O I O O I O O 0

You must have a premise, a premise which will lead

 

1 Lajos Egri, The Art of Dramatic Writing. (New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1946), p.-l

 

120
you unmistakably to the goal your play hopes to reach.2

The problem of finding the premise which the author
had in mind at the time of writing is not always an easy one.
Still, if the meaning of the play is to be clearly presented
the premise must be found.

It is quite evident, even at the first reading of
"Heartbreak House," that Mr. Shaw intends to speak, for the
most part, through the character of Captain Shotover. Also,
the self-centered attitude of the inhabitants of Heartbreak K
House is clearly seen almost from the opening of the curtain.
It is not until late in the second act, however, that the
writer sees fit to state the premise in unmistakable terms.
As is to be expected, it is the Captain who first hints at
this premise. In the scene between the Captain and Ellie
(p.86), near the end of Act Two, Ellie says, ”Do you like
being drunk?" The Captain answers, "No: I dread being drunk
more than anything in the world. To be drunk means to have
dreams; to go soft; to be easily pleased and deceived; to
fall into the clutches of women.“ Two speeches later he is
made to say,

I feel nothing but the accursed happiness I have
dreaded all my life long; the happiness that comes as
life goes, the happiness of yielding and dreaming instead
of resisting and doing, the sweetness of the fruit that
is going rotten.

These lines prepare us for the third act. In the quiet of

2 Ibid., p. 6

121
the garden, in answer to Mazzini's explanation that trust in
providence may very well be the answer to life's riddle, the
Captain says (p. 112), "Every drunken skipper trusts to
Providence. But one of the ways of Providence with drunken
skippers is to run them on the rocks.“ When Mazzini assures
him that it may be true at sea but that in politics they
only “run into Jelly fish, nothing happens," the Captain
answers,

At sea nothing happens.... Nothing but the smash of
the drunken skipper's ship on the rock, the splintering
of her rotten timbers, the tearing of her rusty plates,
the drowning of the crew like rats in a trap.

Then, in answer to Hector's question (p. 115), ”And this ship
that we are all in, this soul's prison called England?",
Captain Shotover prephesies,

The Captain is in his bunk, drinking bottled ditch-
water; and the crew is gambling in the forecastle. She
will strike and sink and split. Do you think the laws
of God will be suspended in favor of England because
you were born in it?

The only solution, according to the Captain, is for them all
to "Learn your business as an Englishman, navigation. Learn
it and live; or leave it and be damned.“

It was from the above speeches, as well as the general
tone of the entire play, that the director took as the premise,
“Drifting Leads to Destruction."

Egri states that ”Every good premise is composed of

three parts, each of which is essential to the good play.'5

3 Ibid., p. 8

122
The first part of the well formulated premise suggests
character, the second suggests conflict or action, and the
third suggests the end of the play. "Drifting” suggests
the type of characters found in "Heartbreak House." "Leads
to” suggests the action and "Destruction" certainly suggests
a possible ending. As the analysis proceeds the reader must
constantly bear in mind the chosen premise, "Drifting leads
to Destruction.” It was to this premise that the cast was

constantly referred regarding line interpretation.
Adapting the Script

As the director became more familiar with the script
it became increasingly apparent that the play as a whole was
too lengthy and that some of the speeches seemed much too
long to hold the attention of the audience. Now that the
premise had been decided upon the director felt safe in
omitting certain parts of the dialogue. Some of the more
obvious speeches were eliminated before the scripts were
prepared. This was done in order that the cast would not
become confused by a cutting process during the rehearsal
period. During this process the premise was always the
important consideration: could the speech be omitted or
shortened without interfering with the basic idea?

The first deletion was that of stage directions.

Mr. Shaw had given meticulous directions for movement and

eXpression in his script. The cutting was not done with the

126
idea that the designated movements were "wrong,” nor was it
a question of the director wanting to have a complete freedom
in bringing the script to life. As the thesis title indicates,
one of the major problems in staging "Heartbreak House“ was
the fact that the production was to be performed on a small
stage. The dimensions of the bare stage are seventeen feet
at the epened curtain line and fifteen feet from the curtain
line to the back wall. It was completely out of the question
to use the set described by Shaw. Therefore, his directions
for movement were not applicable. The director was of the
epinion that the cast would be less confused if the unusable
directions were omitted.

The aim in the cutting process was to delete short
speeches or sentences from the longer speeches and at the
same time to preserve all the scenes in the play. The thought
was that, if ten or fifteen minutes could be eliminated in
this manner, the play would be more effective. Not all the
possible cuts were made. Rather, the director attempted to
preserve as much as possible. Any dialogue which was found
to be in question was left in the script in order to be
tested during the rehearsal period. The unrealistic chanting
scene which ends the first act was originally omitted but
was reinserted during the first week of rehearsal.

During the cutting process, the director was guided
by principles laid down in.Thg‘Azt 2: Dramatic Writing’by

the aforementioned LaJos Egri. These rules, or principles,

124
which are listed appear in the section entitled, "Dialogue.“

1. Dialogue must reveal character.

2. Dialogue must reveal background.

5. Dialogue must foreshadow coming events.

4. Dialogue must grow from the character and

the conflict.4

The director was of the epinion that, for the most
part, Mr. Shaw was using his characters not to produce an
exciting or humorous play but rather to eXpress his own
epinions. A paragraph found in The Art 2; Dramatic Writing
expresses the director's main critisism of the dialogue of
"Heartbreak House.“

On the other hand, we have the shallow dialogue which
results from static conflict. Neither of the Opponents
is going to win this motionless battle, and their dialogue
has no place to go. One witty thrust immediately capped
by another throws neither of the combatants over, and the
characters-~although it is a rare 'witty' play that has
living characters--freeze into standard types that never
grow. The character and dialogue in high comedy are often
of this nature5 which is why so few society dramas are
lasting plays.

The dialOgue in ”Heartbreak House" seems to result
from the static conflict of the play. Many of the long
speeches--for example, Mangan's speech in the beginning of
Act Two--are much longer than is necessary to make the
audience conscious of the type of man he represents. The
same is true of the scene between Ellie and.Hesione in Act
One.

The few changes in the dialogue are listed. The

 

4fIbid., p. 258

5 Loc. cit.

125

deleted portion appears in parenthesis.
Act I

EllieéHesione scene. (p. 20)
Hesione: I should have pulled hard--hard. Well? Go on.

Ellie: At last it seemed that all our troubles were
at an end. Mr. Mangan did an extraordinarily
noble thing out of pure friendship for my father
and respect for his character. He asked him
how much capital he wanted, and gave it to him.
(I don't mean that he lent it to him, or that
he invested it in his business.) He Just

simply made him a present of it. Wasn't that
Splendid of him?

The above sentence was omitted because it seemed unnecessary
to the director. The meaning of the speech was perfectly

clear without the additional information.

Ellie-Hesione scene. (p. 22)

Hesione: What! did the Boss come to the rescue again,
after all his money being thrown away?

Ellie: He did indeed, and never uttered a reproach
to my father. He bought what was left of the
business--the buildings and the machinery and
things-~(from the official trustee for enough
money to enable my father to pay six and eight
pence in the pound and get his discharge.
Everyone pittied papa so much, and saw so
plainly that he was an honorable man, that they
let him off at six and eight pence instead of
ten shillings) Then Mr. Mangan started a
company to take up the business, and made my
father a manager in it to save us from starvation;
for I wasn't earning anything then.

This portion of the speech was out in the belief that it
would confuse the audience more than it would enlighten them.

The idea that Ellie eXpresses in the line, "and saw so plainly

126

that he was an honorable man,” appears so often in her lines

that the director decided the deletion of it in this case

would not detract from the play. The audience would not be

expected to possess a knowledge of the English monetary

system, hence the lines dealing with "six and eight pence in

the pound" and "ten shillings" would mean nothing to the vast

maJority of the audience. The same reasoning holds true for

the deletion cited below.

Hesione:

Ellie:

Quite a romance. And when did the Boss develop
the tender passion?

Oh, that was years after, quite lately. He
took the chair one night at a sort of peeple's
concert. I was singing there. As an amateur,
you know: (half a guinea for eXpenses and three
songs with three encores.) He was so pleased
with my singing that he asked might he walk
home with me. I never saw anyone so taken
aback as he was when I took him home and intro-
duced him to my father, his own manager. It
was then that my father told me how nobly he
had behaved. Of course it was considered a
great chance for me, as he is so rich. And--
and--we drifted into a sort of understanding--
I suppose I should call it an engagement ----- .

Ellie-Hesione scene. (p. 2?)

Ellis:

Hesione:

Just so. That's all really.

(It makes the hours go fast, doesn't it? No
tedious waiting to go to sleep at nights and
wondering whether you will have a bad night.
How delightful it makes waking up in the
morning! How much better than the happiest
dream! All life transfigured! No more wishing
one had an interesting book to read, because
life is so much happier than any book! No
desire but to be alone and not to have to
talk to anyone: to be alone and Just think
about it.)

127

Ellie: (Hesione, you are a witch. How do you know?
Oh, you are the most symphathetic woman in
the world!) '

Hesione: Pettikins, my pettikins, how I envy you! and
how I pity you!

The two speeches were out because, in the epinion of the
director, they were unnecessary and because the scene had
already lasted for approximately eighteen minutes. It is
true that the speech by Hesione does help to deveIOp her
character and to show her understanding but this same quality
is shown earlier in the scene, and, in fact, all through the
play. The speech was not necessary as far as the premise was
concerned nor did its deletion seem to affect either the

mood of the play or of that particular scene.

HectoréHesione scene. (p. 42)

Hesione: She is worse than you, because you had one real
go at least, with me.

Hector: That was confounded madness. (I can't believe
that such an amazing experience is common. It
has left its mark on me. I believe that is
why I have never been able to repeat it.)

Hesione: (We were frightfully in love with one another,
Hector. It was such an enchanting dream that
I have never been able to grudge it to you or
anyone else since. I have invited all sorts
of pretty women to the house on the chance of
giving you another turn. But it has never
come off.)

Hector: (I don't know that I want it to come off. It
was damned dangerous.) You fascinated me; but
I loved you; so it was heaven. This sister
of yours fascinates me; but I hate her; so it
is hell. I shall kill her if she persists.

It is true that some of the above dialogue does reveal character.

128

However, it seemed to the director that the speeches were

merely repeating that which had, and would again, be expressed

throughout the play. The director was of the epinion that

no integral part of the characters had been destroyed. The

speech as cut read:

Hector:

That was confounded madness. You fascinated

me; but I loved you; so it was heaven. This
sister of yours fascinates me; but I hate her;

so it is hell. I shall kill her if she persists.

Hector-Captain scene. (p. 44)

Captain:

Hector:

Captain:

They are mine also.

Just so. We are members one of another. (I
tell you I have often thought of this killing
of human vermin. Many men have thought of it.
Decent men are like Daniel in the lion's den:
their survival is a miracle; and they do not
always survive.) We live among the Mangans and
Randalls and Billie Dunns, as they, poor devils,
live among the disease germs and the doctors
and the lawyers and the parsons and the
restaurant chefs and the tradesmen and the
servants and all the rest of the parasites and
blackmailers. What are our terrors to theirs?
Give me the power to kill them; and I'll spare
them in sheer ------

Fellow feeling?

The speech was cut because it seemed an over elaboration of

an idea which remained perfectly clear without it.

Act II

Ellie-Mangan scene. (p. 51)

Ellie:

Mangan:

Only you must eXplain it to me. I don't under—
stand it.

Of course you don't understand: what do you

129

know about business? You Just listen and
learn. Your father's business was a new
business; and I don't start new businesses:

I let other fellows start them. They put all
their money and their friends' money into
starting them. They wear out their souls and
bodies trying to make a success of them.
They're what you call enthusiasts. But the
first dead lift of the thing is too much for
them; and they haven't enough financial eXperience.
In a year or so they have either to let the whole
show go bust, or sell out to a new lot of fellows
for a few deferred ordinary shares: (that is,
if they're lucky enough to get anything at all.
As likely as not the very same thing happens

to the new lot. If it's really a big thing the
third lot will have to sell out too, and leave
their work and their money behind them.) And
that's where the real business man comes in;
where I come in. But I'm cleverer than some:

I don't mind drOpping a little money to start
the process. I took your father's measure. I
saw that he had a sound idea, and that he would
work himself silly for it if he got the chance.
I saw that he was a child in business, and was
dead certain to outrun his eXpenses and be in
too great a hurry to wait for his market. I
knew that the surest way to ruin a man who
doesn't know how to handle money is to give him
some. I eXplained my idea to some friends in
the city, and they found the money; for I take
no risks in ideas even when they're my own.
Your father and the friends that ventured their
money with him were no more to me than a heap
of squeezed lemons. You've been wasting your
gratitude: my kind heart is all rot. I'm sick
of it. When I see your father beaming at me
with his moist, grateful eyes, regularly wallow-
ing in gratitude, I sometimes feel I must tell
him the truth or burst. What steps me is that
I know he wouldn't believe me. He'd think it
was my modesty, as you did Just now. He'd
think anything rather than the truth, which is
that' he's a blamed fool, and I am a man that
knows how to take care of himself. Now what

do you think of me, Miss Ellie?

This speech has been mentioned before in regards to its

length. The director did not feel that much of it could

150
be eliminated if the audience was to receive a clear
impression of the character of Mangan. The deleted portion
was cut with the idea that any shortening of the speech which
did not detract from its thought content would be an improve-
ment. It seemed to the director that the eXplanation given in

the omitted lines was understood from the rest of the Speech.
Character Analysis

The next step was to analyze the characters from the
view point of the author. This is no easy matter when the
author is not close at hand for consultation. Again the
director turned to Egri in an attempt to find the key to
the various characters. Egri suggests a ”tri-dimensional"
analysis of each character; the Physiology factor, the
Sociology factor, and the Psychology factor. Egri terms
this the ”bone structure of a character."6 Each of the
characters in "Heartbreak House” was analyzed following the
Egri system. Each character was broken down into the

three fundamental factors.

 

6 Ibid., p. 36

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

181
Physiology

Sex

Age

Height and weight

Color of hair, eyes, skin

Posture

Appearance: good looking, over or underweight, clean
Defects: deformities, abnormalities

Heredity

Sociology

Class: working, ruling, middle
Occupation: type of work, hours of work, income
Education: amount, kind of schools, marks, aptitudes

‘Home life: parents living, earning power, orphan,

character's martial status
Religion
Race, nationality
Place in community: leader among friends, clubs, sports
Political affiliations
Amusements, hobbies: books, newspapers, magazines.

Psychology

Sex life, moral standards

Personal premise, ambition

Frustrations, chief disappointments

Temperament: choleric, easygoing, pessimistic
Attitude toward life: resigned, militant, defeatist.
Complexes: obsessions, inhibitions

Extroveffi introvert, ambivert

Abilities: languages, talents

Qualities: imagination, Judgment, taste, poise

I. Q.

6.
7.

152

Ellis
Physiology
Sex:
Female
Age:
19
Height: Weight:
5'5' 110 lbs.
Color of hair: Eyes: Skin:
brown blue fair
Posture
straight
Appearance:
Fresh, good looking, neat and pleasant
Defects:
None
Heredity:
Has inherited from her father a love and belief in
romance and unreality. Has the innocent beliefs of the
typical melodramatic heroine. Loves adventure stories.
Has been brought up to believe that idealism is enough
in itself.
Sociology
Class:
Lower middle
Occupation:
Earns some money as an artist and has ideas about
becoming a singer. She is not tied down to any Job.
Education:

The English board school. Also, a background in good
literature from her father.

Home life:

Her life revolves around her father, in whom she believes
implicitly. She has suffered the pangs of hunger when
her father was out of work and has had to keep him
cheered up when the going get tough.

Religion:
Church of England

Nationality:
English

Place in community:
She is not a leader even among her own friends. She is
looked upon as “that nice little Dunn girl next door."

135

Political affiliations:

Would like to be a Socialist because it seems the
most romantic to her.
Amusements:

Painting, singing, reading; favorite is Shakespeare.

Psychology

Sex life:
Has had no experience outside of the usual childhood
love affairs. Gets her sexual experience vicariously
from books. Is capable of great love.
Morality:
Very conventional
Temperament:
Optimistic
Attitude toward life:
Romantic
Type:
Ambivert
Personal premise:
To find “life with a blessing."
Qualities:
Imagination, has good tastes, her Judgment is none too
good as she is apt to trust anyone.
I. Q.:
120

154

Nurse Guinness
Physiology

Sex:
Female
Age:
65
Height: Weight:
5'4' 150 lbs.
Color of hair: Eyes: Skin:
gray blue sallow
Posture:
Bent
Defects:
None
Appearance:
Pleasant, but rather untidy
Heredity: .
Simple straight forwardness of the lower class.

Sociology

Class:
Working class
Occupation:
Permanent housekeeper, now that her nursing days are over.
Education:
Later elementary
Home life:
Has been at Heartbreak House so long that her original
home life has left no traces.
Religion:
Methodist
Nationality:
English
Place in community:
She is not interested in the happenings beyond the effects
they have on her brood.
Political affiliations:
Amusements:
An occasional movie, cheap magazines

135

Psychology
Sex life:
Has been married, but sex is no longer one of her interests.
Personal premise:

To serve the Shotovers
Temperament:

Easygoing
Attitude toward life:

Militant when ruffled, otherwise easy and matter of fact.
Complexes:

None.

Type:

Ambivert

Qualities:

Steady, unimaginative, common
Is Qs:

lOO

156

Captain Shotover
Physiology

Sex:
Male
Age:
88
Height: Weight:
5'10" 160 lbs.
Color of hair: Eyes: Skin:
White blue weather beaten
Posture:
Straight
Appearance:
A trifle untidy, features are clean cut and strong.
Defects: .
None that are noticeable except the tendency to forget
or to be confused on unimportant matters.
Heredity:
What he has is the gift of the years at sea, not that
of his parents.

Sociology

Class:
The upper middle class but, because of his many years
at sea, he appears in his manner to be of the ruling class.
Occupation:
Retired sea captain, now an inventor.
Education:
The public school education of the 1880's. Most of his
education is from his sea experience.
Home life:
Until he retired he never had much real home life. He
thought of his ship as his home, his house he refers to
as a ”kennel.”
Religion:
Has his own conception of God, quite different from the
conventional, thinks of God as the ”life force.“
Nationality:
English
Place in community:
A leader because he is feared by all the neighborhood.
Loved by all, yet feared by all outside of his own family.
Political affiliations:
Not a member of any party, but would be the Shavian idea

157

of a socialist.

Amusements:
Working out ideas of destruction, drinking to stay
sober, and reading scientific and philos0phical works.

Psychology

Sex life:

Married a black woman on a south sea island in his youth.
Married a middle class woman in his late thirties. His
first child was born when he was 44.

Personal premise:

None, unless it is to achieve the seventh degree of
concentration.

Temperament:

Impatient, fiery, abrupt.
Attitude toward life:

Militant

Type:

Extrovert
Abilities:

A quick scholar, a very analytical mind with deep under-
standing.

Qualities:

Great imagination, excellent Judgement.
I. 0.:

Bordering on genius.

oo \1 O) 01 I-F 01 N H
O O

158

Lady Utterword

Physiology
Sex:
Female
Age:
42
Height: Weight:
5'8“ 140 lbs.
Color of hair: Eyes: Skin:
auburn blue fair
Posture:
Very correct, but not stiff.
Appearance:
Strikingly good looking, excellent features.
Defects:
None.
Heredity:
A sound mind but a lack of desire to use it. Her
father's outspokenness has turned her from her rather
mildly Bohemian background to reSpectability.
Sociology
Class:
Ruling class. Her husband is a British Governor.
Occupation:
Being a ”Lady.“
Education:
Same as Hesione's
Home life:
Same as her sister's, only the result has been very
different. She hates Bohemianism because she was
exposed to it when young. She lived a life outside of
her sister and her father. Left home as soon as she
could in order to ”get away from it all."
Religion:

Goes to the Church of England but never bothers about
her beliefs in God.
Nationality:
English
Place in community:
At her home she is used to being the absolute leader.
Takes her position as the Governor's wife very seriously
when others are near.

159

Political affiliations:

Definitely Conservative, although she doesn't really
know what is going on in political circles; her interest
is merely for show.
Amusements:

Riding, reading (the latest best seller), the arts.

Psychology

Sex life:
Was a virgin at marriage but since that time has never
let conventional ideas bother her.
Morality:
That of the upper class that puts up a great front of
morality but in reality is very little concerned with it.
The only sin is to be found out and a careful woman has
no need to worry about that.
Personal premise:
Is quite satisfied with her lot now that she is a Lady.
Attitude toward life:
Militant
Complexes:
Is afraid that she can never really fall in love, therefore
spends too much time trying to.
Type:
Extrovert
I. Q.:
115

mummwsoamw

140

Hesione

Physiology

Sex:
Female
Age:
44
Height: Weight:
5'7" 150 lbs.
Color of hair: Eyes: Skin:
black blue light
Posture:
Straight but careless
Appearance:
Good looking, much younger than her years.
Defects:
None
Heredity:
Love of life and Bohemian attitude--both from her father.

Sociology
Class:
Upper middle. Lives in comfort.
Occupation:
Mistress of the house
Education:

Finishing school, most of education from father.
Home life:
Has never left home even though she is married. She'
was a late child, her father being 44 at the time of
her birth. Her mother died young and she was put under
the care of the Nurse. Her home life might be described
as moderately Bohemian. ,
Religion:
Church of England, but not much interested.
Nationality:
English
Place in community:
One of the leaders in the things she is interested in.
Her house is always open for any and all who care to
drOp in for a visit. Her personality makes her liked
by all.
Political affiliations:
Conservative, but not much interested.

141

Amusements:
Sports, concerts, entertaining, reading.

Psychology

Sex life:

She was considered quite a ”fast" girl in her youth and
was not a virgin at her marriage. She is in love with
her husband and now confines her activities to flirtations.
She gives the impression of having led a rather
promiscuous life but it is only because of her rather
frank way of expressing herself.

Personal permise:

To have her life go along smoothly with a touch of
excitement now and then. She has no driving ambition for
either herself or for her husband.

Temperament:

Easygoing, but very capable of violent action if she is
aroused.

Complexes:

No serious complexes.

Type:

Slightly extrovert

Attitude:

Bored and rather resigned.

I. Q.:

About 120

 

 

 

-_.- M‘29?_ I

ire-

 

l.
2.

5.

142

Mazzini
Physiology
Sex:
Male
Age:
58
Height: Weight:
5'6" 150 lbs.
Color of hair: Eyes: Skin:
gray brown light
Posture:
Bent with age
Appearance:
Kindly and scholarly. Older than his years would lead
one to believe.
Defects:
No physical defects.
Heredity:
Gained his ideas of politics from his parents, was
christened Mazzini after the great Italian patriot,
Mazzini Giuseppe, and thinks of himself as a soldier
of freedom. He was brought up on the great philOSOphers
and writers but never prepared for anything of a
practical nature. When he is introduced he is still in
the same predicament, has a lot of ideals but no idea
of what to do about them.
Sociology
Class:
Middle manufacturing
Occupation:
Manager of a plant
Education:
The English public school, received most of his education
in the classics from his parents.
Home life:

Born into the home of poets and not very good ones, he
has an idealistic view of home life. His own home life
since his marriage has not been all that he wanted it
to be. As he phrased it,"I think the trouble with me is
that I am poor.‘ He feels that he has not sufficiently
provided for his wife and children.
Religion:
Brought up not to believe in anything but has a belief

145

deep within him that maybe there is a God of some sort.
Nationality:

English

Place in community:

Most of his neighbors look on him as a "nice," but
thoroughly impractical man. He is a welcome guest but
is not the sort of man whose advice they ask.
Political affiliations:

Socialistic without attempting to work out a practical
approach.
Amusements:

Reading.

Psychology

Sex life:

Has very high moral standards and is actually quite
conventional in his beliefs, although he attempts to
give the impression that conventionality does not
concern him. He most certainly has been true to his
wife, both before and after marriage.
Personal premise:

To see that Ellie has, if not a happy marriage, at
least an adequate one.

Frustrations:

Inability to handle money or business.

Temperament:

Optimistic
Attitude toward life:

PhilosOphical

Type:

Introvert.
Abilities:

No special abilities.
Qualities:

Has good taste in his reading. His imagination is
somewhat stinted, especially for a post.
I. Q.:

150

2.
5.
4.
5.
6.
7.

9.

144

Hector
Physiology

Sex:
Male

Age:
46

Height: Weight:
6. 165 lble '
Color of hair: Eyes: Skin:
black blue tanned
Posture:
Straight
Appearance:
Very good looking in a romantic swashbuckling sort of way.
Defects:
None.
Heredity:
Good looks from his mother, romantic notions from his
fathers

Sociology

Class:
Upper middle
Occupation:
None
Education:
Private school and Oxford.
Home life:
Spends most of his time at home and, for the most part,
enJoys it although he gets very bored with the life he
leads.
Relgion:
Church of England, but takes no interest in it at all.
Nationality:
English
Place in community:
Looked up to by all as perfect type of man. The women
all take a great interest in him and the men can't help
liking him.
Political affiliations:
Is a Socialist but does not have a very deep understanding
of what his party stands for.
Amusements:
Sports, golf, hunting, and women.

2.

145

Psychology

Sex life:

Has had many eXperiences with many different women.
Because of his good looks and easy manner he always
found it rather easy to gain conquests. He is faithful
to his wife in his own way but that does not mean the
conventional sort of way. Is not at all averse to having
affairs with other women.

Personal premise:

TO be a hero in the eyes of all.

Frustrations:

The fact that so little Opportunity is given him to be
a hero and his inability to break away from his wife's
apron strings.

Temperament:

Easygoing and, for the most part, Optimistic.

Attitude toward life:

Resigned, except when he is forced to think about his
position. Then he becomes quite militant.

Type:

Extrovert

Abilities:

The ease with which he makes new conquests and his way
of getting along with almost any type of person.

Qualities:

Very fine imagination which he allows full play. The
only real use he makes of his talent to gain friends
is that of impressing women with his wild adventure
stories.

I. Q.:

155

5.
6.
7.

146

Mangan
Physiology

Sex:

Male

Age:
58

Height: Weight:
5'8" 200 lbs.

Color of hair: Eyes: Skin:

grayish blue light

Posture:
Straight

Appearance:

Much too fat to be classified as good looking, he has
a certain air about him which makes the Observer think
of the cartoon politician. He is, on closer examination,
really quite ridiculous to look at.

Defects:

Overweight.

Heredity: '
Came from the slums and worked his way up the ladder.
Thinks Of himself as a ”self made man.”

Sociology

Class:
Now of the ruling class--that is, the new ruling class
in England; the labor leaders, not the land aristocracy.
Occupation:
The front man for the corporations
Education: _
The education of the lower class in Britan, probably
corresponding to an eighth grade education over here.
His school has been the school of eXperience.
Home life:
Neglected by his parents when he was a child, forced to
earn his own living at an early age. Money was never
plentiful and Mangan lives in deadly fear of returning
to his former status of being poor.
Religion:
Methodist, but not in the least interested.
Nationality:
English.
Place in community:
He is looked up to because he is feared. His neighbors

9.

2.
5.

5.

7.
8.

147

know that he wields a great deal Of power and they
repect him for this reason and this reason alone.
Political affiliations:

Tries to stay on the band wagon. Is a Conservative at
heart.
Amusements:

Mangan is too busy keeping up the pretences to have any
real amusements.

Psychology

Sex life:

He has never married and the sexual experience he has
had has not been satisfactory to him. He wants Ellie
primarily because she appeals to his physical hunger.
Personal premise:

To be recognized as a great leader and receive a title.
Temperament:

Cholerio
Attitude toward life:

Militant, wants to get what he has coming from life
although he is not at all sure Just what that is.
Complexes:

Feels out of place with the higher society and tries
desperately to overcome the feeling. He is very conscious
of his physical appearance and his businesslike manner is
more of a cover up process than the true attitude.
Type:

In reality an introvert but tries to act like an
extrovert.
Abilities:

Hard works
Qualities:

He has very few. His imagination is nonexisting. His
Judgment is poor, except in the manner of saving money.
His poise leaves him Just when he needs it most.
Io Q0:

115

C) 01 I45 (13 N I"
e

148

Randall
Physiology

Sex:
Male

Age:
47

Height: Weight:
5'8" 140 lbs.

Color of hair: Eyes: Skin:
brown blue light

Posture:
Slightly steeped, from lack of exercise.

Appearance:
Good looking, looks much younger than his years would
suggest. However, on closer examination, the age can
be seen.

Defects:
NO physical defects.

Heredity:
The idle life which he has been used to from his
childhood.

Sociology

Class:
Ruling.
Occupation:
With the State department, but is primarily a man of
leisure.
Education:
The best that money can buy. The schooling of the
English gentleman. Has traveled a great deal with
the Government.
Home life:
His childhood was spent in rich surroundings with
servants to look after every detail. From this back-
ground he has learned to be very egocentric and dependent
on the help of other people, even to his own dressing.
Religion:
The high Church of England. The church is merely one
Of his many social functions.
Nationality:
English
Place in community:
Is recognized as one of the rulers but is not looked

149

up to. He is treated with contemptable reSpect.
Political affiliations:

Conservative.
Amusements:
Painting, poetry, music, the flute.
Psychology
Sex life:
He has had a few passing affiars but thinks himself
madly in love with Lady Utterword, his brother's wife.
He has been carrying on an affair with Lady Utterword
for several years although it is pretty much one sided.
She makes use of him only when there is no one more
interesting near.
Personal premise:

To gain the love Of Lady Utterword and to be regarded
as a man of the world.
Temperament:
Easygoing as long as things go his way. When he can't
get his own way he is extremely childish.
Attitude toward life: '
Resigned and a trifle pessimistic.
Complexes:
Obsessed with keeping his pose and receiving the love
of Lady Utterword.
Type:
Extrovert
Abilities:
All his abilities are on the social side. He is an
easy conversationalist and a good man to have at a
dinner party. Beyond that he has no abilities.
Qualities:
Excellent tast in clothes and manners. Lacks originality
and imagination. His poetry is not good. His style is
that of whatever he reads last.
I. Q.:
120

1.

5.
4.
5.
6.

6.
7.

150

Billy Dunn
Physiology

Sex:
Male
Age:
70
Height: Weight:
5'10" 150 lbs.
Color of hair: Eyes: Skin:
gray brown dark and weather beaten
Posture:
stooped.
Appearance:
Shifty eyes, Old fashioned side burns, looks quite
powerful for his age.
Defects:
Light limp in right leg.
Heredity:
He is a product of his heredity, born and raised in the
slums, went to sea when still a young boy. As he robbed
in his youth, so he robbed in his manhood.

Sociology

Class:
Lowest.
Occupations:
Formerly a boatswain but now a sneak thief.
Education:
NO formal education. But he has a shrewd mind when he
has a chance to gain something.
Home life:
He had none in his childhood and has "been married to
no end of women" in his time but has always left them as
he grew tired of them or they grew tired of his ways.
Religion:
Catholic
Nationality:
Irish.
Amusement:
Drinking, gambling.

151

Psychology
Sex life:
His standards are not those of the so called average
person. As he tells the Captain,"Any young gal that
age might be my daughter, anywhere in the wide world
as you might say."
Personal Ambition:

It has never exceeded that of getting enough money to
get drunk on. He once started a ships store but would
not pay attention to business long enough to make it pay.
Temperament:
Easygoing and, on the whole, Optimistic.
Attitude toward life:
Easygoing but wants his own way.
Type:
Extrovert.
Abilities:
Can tell the most outlandish lies with a perfectly
straight face.
Qualities:
Great imagination but used in the wrong way.
I. Q.:
90

152

The description Of characters on the preceding pages
points to the fact that Mr. Shaw has accomplished, for the
most part, the orchestration of his characters.7 The Captain-
blunt, hard, domineering, and old--is well orchestrated with
Ellie, who is polite, soft, obedient and young. Hesione,
as a careless, mildly Bohemian woman is contrasted with her
sister, Lady Utterword, who is proper and extremely respect—
able. Hector is orchestrated with Mangan and Randall, even
as they are contrasted with each other. Mazzini, drawn as
the idle thinker who can never act, points up the former active
life of the Captain while his inability to act throws him into
sharp contrast with Mangan, the "go-getter." The Burglar
is shown to be a sneak thief and completely untrustworthy,
while Nurse Guinness is outspoken and straight-forward in
her manner.

Throughout the play there is very little character
growth. Ellie grows under the influence of the Captain and
Hector shows some growth in the second and third acts but
the remainder of the characters show little, if any, growth.

Ellie's growth may be described as progressing from
the romantic girl, who finds her interest and excitement in

books, to the hard headed, practical girl.

 

7 The‘term Orchestration is taken from LaJos Egri's
book, Th2 Art 23 Dramatic Writing. p. 115. "Orchestration
demands well:defined and uncompromising characters in
Opposition, moving from one pole towards another through
conflict.‘

 

 

155

Transitions

One of the director's chief criticisms of the play was

the lack of well written transitions.8 For example, Ellie,

 

who is introduced as a "perfectly nice little girl," changes
to a hard headed practical woman Of the world in the Space
of a few seconds.

In Act One, Just after Hector has made his first
entrance, Ellie makes her transition Speech (p. 28):
"I don't know what to do. Please, may I speak to papa. Do
leave me, I can't bear it." Her next line makes her into the
new woman. "Damn," and again,"I am not damning him. I am
damning myself for being such a fool. How could I let myself
be taken in so.“ Mr. Shaw's stage directions following this
last Speech, read: "She begins prowling to and fro, her
bloom gone, looking curiously Older and harder." It appeared
to the director that this transition is much too rapid to
be wholly effective.

Hesione faces the same problem in the second act when
Ellie has been arguing with her (p. 64).

Ellie: I am poor and reapectable ------

 

8 Egri, O . cit., p. 195: ”There are two main poles
in every life; irth and death. In between there is transition:

birth ----- childhood
childhood ----- adolesence
adolesence ----- youth
youth ----- manhood
manhood ----- middle age
middle age ----- old age

old age ----- death."

Hesione:

Ellie:

Hesione:

154

HO, reapectable, how did you pick up Mangan?
How did you pick up my husband? You have the
audacity to tell me that I am a ------

A siren. So you are. You were born to lead
men by the nose; if you weren't Marcus would
have waited for me perhaps.

(suddenly melting, and half laughing) Oh,
my poor Ellie, my pettikins, my unhappy
darling. I am so sorry about Hector. But
what can I do? It's not my fault; I'd give
him to you if I could.

Just two pages later Hesione has swung back to the other

side of her emotion:

And some three

Ellie:

Hesione:

Ellie, you are a wicked, sordid, little
beast. And to think that I actually
condescended to fascinate that creature there
to save you from him.

speeches later (p. 67):

Well, of all the impudent little fiends I ever
met. Hector says there is a certain point at
which the only answer you can give to a man
who breaks all the rules is to knock him down.
What would you say if I were to box your ears?

(calmly) I should pull your hair.

(mischievously) That wouldn't hurt me, perhaps
it comes Off at night.

Two Speeches later Hesione goads Ellie with the words:

Ellie:

Pull it and try, other women can snare men in
their hair; but I can swing a baby in mine.
Aha, you can't do that Goldylocks.

No, you have stolen my babies.

At this point Hesione has to completely reverse herself

from goading her young friend to a sympathetic answer:

Pettikins, don't make me cry. You know what
you said about my making a household pet of
him is a little true. Perhaps he ought to have

155

waited for you. Would any other woman on
earth forgive you?

Lady Utterword has the same problem in the second act, when

she suddenly breaks out at Ellie (p. 80):

Lady U:

Ellie:

Lady U:
Hector:
Randall:
Ellie:

Lady U:

Mazzini:
Lady U:
Ellie:

Captain:

Lady U:

Captain:

(commenting on Mangan's exit) What an
extraordinary way to behave! What is the
matter with the man?

His heart is breaking: that is all. (the
Captain appears at the pantry door, listening)
It is a curious sensation: the sort of pain
that goes mercifully beyond our powers of
feeling. When your heart is broken, your
boats are burned: nothing matters any more.
It is the end of happiness and the beginning
of peace.

(suddenly rising in a rage) How dare you?
Good Heavens, what's the matter.
Tch-tch-tch--steady.

I was not addressing you particularly, Lady
Utterword. And I am not accustomed to being
asked how dare I.

Of course not. Anyone can see how badly you
have been brought up.

Oh, I hope not Lady Utterword. Really!
I know very well what you meant. The impudence!
What on earth do you mean!

She means that her heart will not break. She
has been longing all her life for someone to
break it. At last she has become afraid she
has none to break.

(flinging herself on her knees and throwing her
arms around him) Papa, don't say you think
I've no heart.

If you had no heart how could you want to have
it broken, child.

155
Hector: (rising with a bound) Lady Utterword, you are
not to be trusted. You have made a scene.
(He runs out into the garden)
Lady U: Oh! Hector, Hector! (She runs out after him)
In the preceding scene Lady Utterword passes from commenting
on Mangan's crying to the same state herself in Just three
speeches. The sudden exclamation, aimed at Ellis, the weeping
at her father's knee, and then her heartbroken exit covers
only a sixty second interval.

Mangan faces an almost impossible task, for an amateur
at least, of making five crying scenes seem realistic. Three
exits in a row call for cying. It is true that he goes from
anger to tears in the first scene (Act Two) in which he
cries but in the next four he cries as a result of some one
else's Speech. For example, his exit in Act Two, Just after
the Burglar scene (p. 79):

Hesione: (Jumping up mischievously and going to him)
Would you like a walk on the heath, Alfred?
With me?

Ellie: Go Mr. Mangan. It will do you good. Hesione
will soothe you.

Hesione: (slipping her arm under his and pulling him
upright) Come, Alfred. There is a moon:
it's like the night in Tristan and Isolde.
(she caresses his arm and draws him to the
garden door)

Mangan: (writhing but yielding) How can you have the
face-~the heart--(he breaks down and is heard
sobbing as she takes him out)

In the third act, he has much the same problem (p. 108):

Mangan: There you go again. Ever since I came into

157
this silly house I have been made to look like
a fool, though I'm as good a man in this house
as in the city.

Ellie: (musically) Yes: this silly house, this
strangely happy house, this agonizing house,
this house without foundations. I shall call
it Heartbreak House.

Hesione: Stop Ellie; or I shall howl like an animal.

Mangan: (breaks into a low snivelling)

Mr. Shaw's purpose appeared quite clear to the director. He
evidently was presenting the big capitalists in as ridiculous
a manner as was possible. Nevertheless, the transitions from
inactivity to sobbing seemed an extremely quick one.

Randall's crying scene at the end of Act Two followed
the then familiar pattern of anger to tears. This did not
present as much of a problem as did the repeated sobbing of
Mangan.

Hector, who is first presented as the "man about town"
who does nothing except "invent stories for women" shows, in
the third act, that he does have an interest in the fate of
the world.

The few examples sighted above present a clear picture
Of one of the most involved problems in the production of
"Heartbreak House," namely, the problem of finding a cast that

would be capable of carrying out the too rapid transitions

and still keep them within the realm of plausibility.

158

Movement

The pro-casting analysis of the movement problems
found in the script makes use of the terms suggested by

Alexander Dean in his book, Fundamentals 2: Play Directing.

 

 

The story movement, which Dean defines as that which
"covers such action as entrances and exits of characters,
hiding of obJectS, going to a window to look out, serving
meals, fighting, and dancing,"9 proved to be a difficult
problem from the very beginning. The difficulty for the
most part stemmed from the limitations imposed by the small
stage. In the set which Mr. Shaw describes, two deer are
placed along the up stage wall leading into the garden.

Due to the lack of back stage Space10

it was found impossible
to place the garden door in that desired position. Hence,
the two garden doors were changed to one and were moved from
the up stage wall to the down left wall. This change in
setting created numerous story movement problems. Entrances
and exits which seemed to be quite simple and normal suddenly
became very complex. The many moves to and from the garden

through the down left door would completely cover the important

up left area and make it unusable for a great deal of the

 

9 Alexander Dean, Fundamentals 2f Pla Directing.
(New York: Rinehart and COmpany, Inc., 194 , p. 250.

10 A distance of one foot and six inches separated
the set from the back wall of the stage.

159
production. This necessitated adding much more technical
movement than Mr. Shaw had written into thescript. The
technical movement, which Dean describes as "That movement
made for the aesthetic reasons of good composition or out
of sheer necessity dependent upon clearing the stage for

the entrances and exits,'11

consisted of clearing the up
left area in order to avoid covering of characters by the
entrances and exits of other characters.

The character movement, which Dean defines as the
movement which "portrays the type of character with which we
are dealing or the character's state of mind,"12 was found
by consulting the bone structure of the characters in the
preceding pages. For example, the Captain would have to Show
age while at the same time achieving the quick, violent, and
abrupt movement that the lines seemed to call for. Ellie, on
the other hand, would, in the first act, move with a certain
uneasiness. In the second and third acts, after discovering
that Hector is Hesione's husband, she would move in a more
determined and adult manner. Hesione would need to move
quickly, easily, and gracefully. Lady Utterword would
have a quick, but rather stiff, formal pattern. Hector would

need the romantic, swashbuckling movement. Randall would have

to Show through his movement the careless but studied grace

 

ll Dean, 9p. cit., p. 251
12 Ibid., p. 250

180
of the man about town. Mangan would need to appear clumsy
and awkward, completely out of his element. Mazzini would
use a slower movement, one that would Show lack of self
confidence. Nurse Guinness's movement would be self assured,
slow, and easygoing. Billy Dunn would use a stealthy, sly
movement which would change to one of complete self assurance
and then, after the Captain's entrance, return to his original
movement.

Another anticipated problem of movement in the
production of "Heartbreak House," was that of holding the
attention of the audience during some of the more static
scenes. The obvious solution was the use of arbitrary
movement, which Dean defines as that "superimposed by
director or actor on a script that is inherently static or
talky."15 However, the director felt there would be a
great possibility of distracting from the thought content
of the lines if too much movement was interJected. Becasue
of the importance of this problem the director decided to
look, in the casting process, for people who could move
easily and who could also take the director's suggestions
and incorporate them into their individual conception of the

character.

l5 I5l5., p. 252

CHAPTER IV

CASTING AND REHEARSING THE PLAY

CASTING AND REHEARSING THE PLAY

Before the actual rehearsal process is considered in
detail it seems pertinent to give a brief explanation of
what the director was attempting to achieve.

The director had three years of eXperience in directing
dramatics in Michigan secondary schools and one season of
summer theatre directing prior to undertaking the production
now under consideration. The directing problems which faced
him in the present production were of a different nature than
any previously met. First of all, the play itself was quite
unlike any other play which he had directed. The time element
was not such a pressing factor as it had always been before.
In past productions, both in educational theatre and in the
summer theatre, the main problem had been that of staging the
play in a comparatively short space of time. Hence, the seven
week rehearsal period scheduled for ”Heartbreak House" seemed
to be a considerable amount of time to spend on any one
production. The director had worked with college actors
before but only on the summer theatre and only with a group
of exceptional actors.

The main purpose in choosing the production type
thesis was to give the director an Opportunity to put into
practice some of the many theories he had studied and also
to test a few of his own theories. The rehearsal procedure

employed did not follow any given text book form. The

165
procedure followed was, rather, a combination of many
procedures dominated by those principles which the director
had found to be successful in the past. The delayed discussion
rehearsal, the creating of scenes not written in the script,
the walking through of scenes without dialogue, and the
listening rehearsal, as are described in this chapter were,
for the writer, eXperiments in untried forms of eXpression
in the field of direction.

For purposes of comparison the writer has divided the
theories of play direction into two wide groupings. The
first catagory is the absolute theory of direction in which
the director interprets every line and gives the actor each
movement. The second is that system in which the actor finds
his own way and the director acts merely as an advisor.
Analyzing previous productions the writer came to the conclusion
that his own system was approximately between the two extremes
but tending toward allowing the actor to find his own way.
Because of the long rehearsal period available for the
production of "Heartbreak House,“ the director decided
definitely to favor the second method.

The director had found in the past that his work was
truer to life if very little pre-blocking was done. As will
be noticed in the discussion which follows, only the difficult
group scenes were blocked away from rehearsal. The director
did decide the areas in which the important scenes should be

played but the more detailed movement was worked out with

164

the cast at rehearsal.
Casting

Try cuts were scheduled for three successive nights
and were held in the auditorium Of the Home Economics
building.

Each person who wished to try out was first handed a
short synOpsis of the play and a short character sketch Of
each of the characters. The material used appears in the
Appendix. After sufficient time had been allowed to read
through the material the candidates were called tO the front
Of the room by twos. The director eXplained the nature Of
the production and the time which the rehearsal period would
cover. The students were then given the Opportunity to
ask any questions concerning the production.

Scenes which were used during the casting procedure
were: the Guinness-Ellie scene which Opens the first act;
the Captain4Hector scene near the end Of Act One; the Captain-
Ellie scene in Act Two; the Hector—Lady Utterword scene in
Act Two; the Mangan-Ellie scene in Act Two; the Hector-
Randall scene which ends Act Two; the Hesione-Mazzini scene
in Act Two; the Burglar scene in Act Two. These scenes were
chosen because they are key scenes in the play. They also
gave the director the Opportunity to read two persons at a
time.

Each person was given an Opportunity to read each

165
scene through twice. If the student showed aptitude for the
role he was asked to reread the scene and to incorporate
certain suggestions Of the director.

The director rated each of the students on a chart
which was prepared for each character. Items listed on each
of the charts were: voice, reading interpretation, ability
to incorporate suggestions, accent, and physical appearance.
Ratings were from one to five, one being considered excellent
and five completely unsuitable for the role. Fifty seven
women and forty two men read the various roles. The system
described was used because the director was not acquainted with
the vast majority Of the students who tried out. The charts
proved very valuable in recalling the students to mind. Persons
who had demonstrated their suitability for the roles were
recalled and given a more detailed reading plus a movement
exercise.

As had been anticipated, the Captain proved to be the
most difficult role to cast. Few Of the men could begin to
achieve the age mixed with vitality that the director thought
necessary for the character. Hesione, Ellie and Mangan also
proved beyond the abilities Of the vast majority Of those who
read these roles. More students tried out for Ellie than any
other role but even so it was, next to the Captain, the most
difficult role tO cast. The students seemed to have trouble
making the necessary transition from the naive, romantic

girl to the Ellie of Acts Two and Three. Physical appearance

166

and ability to incorporate the director's suggestions were
the stumbling blocks in the part of Hesione. Mangan's role
at first seemed entirely beyond the reach Of the students.

The director felt very fortunate in finding an actor
for the role of the Captain who could not only achieve the
age and vitality for the role but also evidenced a great under—
standing of Shavian drama in general.

The final decision was made on the cast and all were
notified that the first rehearsal would be held on the
evening of Tuesday, February 17, 1950. The director prepared
for the first rehearsal, confident that the cast was one which

would work diligently.
Pre-Rehearsal Blocking Act I

As has been intimated in the preceding chapter,1 Mr.
Shaw directs as he writes the play, i. e., movements are
written in the script. However, with the small stage Shaw's
directions were impractical and necessitated complete changing.

The set had been planned by the director and the
designer. The garden door which originally appeared on the
back wall was moved to the up left wall. It soon became
apparent, however, that the door*would not be practical in
that position because, on the limited stage, it was Often

necessary to use the entire stage. The door when in the up

 

1 Chapter III, Pre-Rehearsal Preparation. p. 122

167
left area was hidden if the down left area was in use. By
moving the door from the up left area to the down left area
and placing the garden window where the door had formerly
been the problem Of entrances and exits was simplified to a
great degree, though not entirely solved.

For example, in the first act the dialogue calls for

Lady Utterword, Hesione, and Randall to see Hector and Ellie
through the window (p. 56). Mangan is sitting down left.

This would leave the entire right stage vacant. Hector and
Ellie enter through the garden door, cross'below the group at
the window and above Mangan, without noticing anyone. The
director tried many variations on the entrance but none looked
to be natural or even believable. The final solution was to
add a line. Hesione's speech read:

I don't know. She quarreled mortally with my husband
only ten minutes ago; and I didn't know anyone else had
come. It must be a visitor. Oh, it is Hector; they've
made it up.

The speech, as originally written, ends here. The added line
was, I'Oh, they're coming around the other way.“ This enabled
Hector and Ellie to enter from the door up right and to
balance the stage while the entrance looked perfectly natural.
The line then read:

I don't know. She quarreled mortally with my husband
only ten minutes ago; and I didn't know anyone else had
come. It must be a visitor. Oh, it is Hector, they've
made it up. Oh, they're coming around the other way.

The areas which were chosen for the important scenes

in the first act were selected before the first rehearsal was

168
held. The selected areas were as follows:

The Ellie-Hesione scene: (p. 20) This scene was
played in the down right area on the sofa. The scene is
important to the main plot and it was thought necessary to
play it close to the audience.

The Mangan-Captain scene: (p. 51) This scene was
played in the up center area as it was necessary to enable
the Captain to make his quick exit into the pantry. The conflict
expressed in the scene seemed to demand the center area
treatment.

The Introduction scene: (p. 57) Because of the number
of persons involved-~eight in a11-—this scene utilized the
entire stage. Ellie and Hector entered at the up right
entrance. Hector was introduced to Lady Utterword, who was
seated at the window. He then crossed to her, leaving Ellie
up stage right. Mangan was down left, Hector and Lady Utter-
word up left, and Hesione and Randall up left center. Ellie
sat in the desk chair and was motioned out by the Captain
when he entered. Mazzini entered from up right and took
his place beside his daughter. This allowed Hesione to move
into stage center for her introductions. After the introductions
were completed, she moved down right to the sofa and was
Joined by Mazzini. This completed the picture and fore—
shadowed the relationships which were tO develop later in

the play. 'Ellie was between the Captain and her father.

Lady Utterword was between Hector and Randall. Mazzini

169
was seated on the sofa with Hesione. Mangan was alone in the
down left corner.

The Hector~Lady Utterword scene: (p. 59) This scene
started in the up left area, moved to the center stage area,
and from there to the down left center area. ‘The actual kiss
was moved father up stage because Of the proximity of the
audience to the down stage area.2

The Hector—Captain scene: (p. 45) This scene was
played for the most part, with Hector on the sofa and the
Captain standing center. This gave the Captain the desired
position for his strong, violent speeches, directing them
almost straight down stage to Hector and also straight to
the audience.

The Captain—HectoreHesione scene: (p. 45) This
scene was played in an Off center triangle with the Captain
as the apex up center, Hector right, and Hesione up left.

The effectiveness Of the scene depended a great deal on the

correct lighting. A nonrealistic effect was sought.
Rehearsal

"Heartbreak House“ went into rehearsal Tuesday,
January 17, at seven thirty O'clock in the evening. After
the cast had become acquainted, the following procedure was

employed. First, the script was read in its entirety. In

 

2 The first row Of seats in the auditorium Of Studio
Theatre is approximately five feet from the curtain line.

170
this initial reading no attempt was made to eXplain the
various characters or to use any sort of an English accent.
Upon the completion of the reading, the play was discussed
from the view Of the premise. Because the director desired
that the cast should find the premise themselves, he made a
point Of not stating it at this time, and the discussion ended
without having put the premise into words.

On Wednesday, the 18th, rehearsal was called on stage
and the first act was blocked. The blocking was done only
in outline, that is, entrances and exits were marked and the
general movement sketched. On the third night the first act
was rehearsed and the general blocking set. During the first
week Of rehearsal no attempt was made to motivate the move»
ment. The major problem had shown itself tO be that Of
covering and clearing for the important entrances. In the
group scenes the actors were placed in position tO make the
desired picture. The picture was explained, then the action
was picked up at some spot Just prior to the picture and the
actors were told to get into their positions in the way which
would be most natural for them. Some Of the scenes worked
themselves out in this manner but in many cases it was found
necessary tO give each actor a definite movement. The cast
was instructed that the blocking was not final, although they
could consider that the general pattern had been set. NO
stage business was given during this first week nor was any

attempt made to build character. The director wanted the

171

cast to find the character, if possible, by themselves.

Summing up the first week of rehearsal, the director
felt that the cast was satisfactory. He was particularly
impressed with the cooperation shown and the Spirit with which
problems were met. It was evident that many of the actors
had the incorrect impression of the role they were playing.
Hector, for example, was playing the role much too lightly,
thereby Offering no contrast with Randall. Ellie was finding
the<quick transition extremely difficult. Mangan had not
yet found his character. Lady Utterword was playing much tOO
sharply. The Captain had made the first inroads of his
character and the director felt confident that this important

role was in capable hands.
Pre-Rehearsal Blocking Act II

The same preparation was made for Act Two as had been
made for Act One. The setting was found to be adequate for
the action necessary in the second act and no changes were
made.

The various areas tO be used were chosen. Detailed
diagrams were made Of the Burglar scene in anticipation Of
difficulty. The areas chosen were as follows:

The Ellie-Mangan scene: (p. 49) Because the

 

director wanted to show the difference between Ellie and
Mangan during their scene which.Opened the second act, he

thought it wise to play the scene around the down left

172
furniture grouping. The hypnotism scene was played in the
left center area in order that Mangan would be in a prominent
position for the forthcoming scene between Hesione and Mazzini.
With Mangan sleeping in the chair right Of the table it was
easier tO shift the emphasis from the Speaking figures, Mazzini
and Hesione, to the obJect Of the conversation, Mangan.

The Mazzini-Hesione scene: (p. 56) This scene

 

started around Mangan left center and worked over to the sofa.
The Object Of the picture formed was to express graphically
the distance between the intellectual minds Of Hesione and
Mazzini and the practical business mind Of Mangan. The
limited stage did not allow much room between the two groups,
however, the Space seaparating them was completely empty,
which helped to accentuate the separation and suggest the
idea the director had in mind.

The Hesione-Ellie scene: (p. 65) This scene began
right Of center with Ellie turning in anger on Hesione. The
action worked up to the desk with Ellie, sitting full front
onthe desk, defying Hesione. Ellie then moved away from
Hesione, showing her shock and distaste for the way Hesione
had tricked Hector into "believing” in her hair. This enabled
the reconciliation to take place on the sofa. This scene
worked directly into the Mangan-Hesione-Ellie scene (p. 67).
The conflict was made more vivid by placing Mangan in the

center area between the two women. The Ellie-Mangan scene

which followed was played in the down left area but worked

173
up left to the window. (p. 70) In order to clear the left
entrance, it was found necessary to work Ellie over to the
sofa again. Mangan began his exit but was stOpped on the
stairs by the Captain's entrance. Thus Mangan, on the raised
level, was given the emphasis in the ensuing scene.

The group scene before the Burglar's scene: (p. 71)
Mangan was standing on the stairs; Hector was at the window
seat with Hesione; Randall was hovering over Lady Utterword
down left; Ellie sat on the sofa with her back to Mangan;
the Captain was standing at the desk looking directly into
Mangan's face. The group, with the exception of Ellie, was
told to focus on Mangan. The director's purpose was to
have the audience focus on Mangan, thus easily placing the
call for help which came from directly above him. When
Mazzini called for help, Mangan sprang away from the sound
and took shelter behind the sofa. Thus, the stairway was
cleared for the parade of characters which followed.

Th3 Burglar scene: (p. 75) This was one of the most
difficult scenes in the entire production to block. The
trouble stemmed from the fact that the entire cast was on
stage and it was necessary that all be seen. The Burglar
was pushed into the room by Hector who shoved him down center;
Mazzini had taken the chair in the extreme down left; Hesione
had moved to her husband's side and drifted from there to the
sofa. Ellie held her entrance until the way was clear for

her to cross to her father's chair. Lady Utterword did not

174
make her entrance until Just before her line. She then
Joined Hesione on the sofa. Randall had placed Mangan as a
guard at the foot Of the stairs while he crossed to the
garden door. Nurse Guinness did not make her entrance until
the beginning of the next scene. She then followed the Captain.
into the room. Mangan went to the desk and sat on the edge
of it. The Burglar was told to hold until he had uttered his
good-bye speech, then to start for the landing. After the
Burglar had taken two steps, the Captain appeared on the
landing and the Burglar fell to his knees looking up at the
Captain. The Captain swung the Burglar around facing Ellie
and the remainder of the scene was played from that position.

It was not practical to place the characters in this
scene in a manner that would show their relationships. The
director's thought was to achieve the feeling of the scene by
use Of the correct compositional form.5 The form chosen
was a combination Of the diffused and the shallow. Dean-
maintains that the shallow form expresses shallowness and
excitement, while the diffused form eXpresses indifference.4
The interpretation eXplained to the cast was that the scene
was not to be played melodramatically nor was it to be given
serious treatment. It seemed to the director that the scene

5 Alexander Dean, Fundamentals 2f Play Directing.
(New York: Rinehart & Company, Inc. 19467 p. 200

 

4 LOO. cit.

175
was broad comedy and certainly the inhabitants Of Heartbreak
House were quite indifferent to the rather unusual event.

The Captain-Ellie scene: (p. 81) The scene began
with Ellie working to and from the Captain who was seated
at his work desk. As the emphasis shifted from Ellie to the
Captain the scene worked down to the chair right Of the
table with Ellie kneeling beside the Captain. This area had
not been overly used and the placement gave the Captain a
chance to work around the table and back to Ellie. As a
great deal Of the philosOphy is presented in this scene it
was thought wise to play it down stage where it could complete—
ly command the attention of the audience. The scene was
ended on the sofa in order to clear left stage for the
entrance Of Hector and Randall.

The Hector-Randall scene: (p. 88) In order to gain

 

variety in the playing area, the chair at the desk was moved
down stage a little and the chair right of the table was
pulled around and up center. The effect desired was that Of
a club room scene with Hector straddling the chair and
Randall draped on the arm Of the arm chair. As the end Of
the scene drew near Hector, as the host, re-arranged the
furniture in its former position. Randall crossed down right
and the stage was set for the following scene.

The Lady Utterword—Randall-Hector scene: (p. 91)
This scene was played almost on the curtain line with Lady

Utterword playing most of the scene between the two men.

176
During the course of the two scenes, the preceding scene
and this scene, each Of the three found himself on the sofa
with one Of the others standing over him either chastizing or
brow beating. Randall, first Of all, tried to bully Hector on
the sofa. He himself was pushed back on the sofa by Lady
‘Utterword and, finally, Lady Utterword was hurled there by the

angry Hector.
Rehearsal

On Monday Of the second week, Act Two was read and
blocked. The Burglar scene in the middle of Act Two was
found to be very troublesome. The problem was to enable
the audience to see everyone on stage during the scene.

The procedure followed was the same as in Act One. The
picture was set, then the actors were asked to try to reach
the position as naturally as possible. By slowing down the
entrances and Spacing them it was found that the desired
picture could be achieved.

The scene following the Burglar's exit also proved
troublesome. After the exit Of Guinness and the Burglar
to the kitchen--in this case through the door up right--
the Captain, who was standing right center, had to exit up
center. There were no lines spoken and, as far as the audience
would know at this point, there was no motivation whatsoever.
The exit was solved through the skill Of the actor. He held

his position for a few seconds. Then, shaking his head in

177
disgust, he turned abruptly and walked out. The picture,
after the Captain's exit, which the director desired, proved
hard to achieve. Hector, standing left of center, was to
cross to Lady Utterword, who was sitting on the sofa. The
solution was found by having Hector focus, along with the
rest of the peOple on stage, on the exiting of the Captain
and then walk slowly across to the platform up right and gaze
after the departing Burglar. He then turned on Hesione's
speech and took three steps down stage to the arm Of the
sofa.

Three nights were spent on Act Two and the movement

was fairly well set.
Pre-Rehearsal Blocking Act III

Because all areas of the stage were in use throughout
the entire third act the maJor problems with which to
contend were those Of manipulating the actors and dialogue
so as to Obtain the desired audience focus and finding
acceptable motivation for the movement that seemed necessary
to the script. The latter problem was troublesome all
through the play but was particularly SO in the last act.

It seemed evident that Shaw wanted very little move-

ment but the director felt that, in order to make the script

interesting, some movement would have to be added. The
question was how to add this needed movement without

destroying the thought content Of the dialogue? The small

178
stage and the amount Of furniture necessary made it difficult
to move any of the actors without blocking the view Of the
audience. The Situation was eased considerably by re-arranging
the furniture. The lounge down right, which had been set on
an angle corresponding with the garden wall, was placed at a
thirty degree angle to the wall, thus forming a pocket area
which Lady Utterword could effectively use. A small table
was added up left center against the wall and another in the
pocket area down right. By placing a decanter of wine on the
up left center table motivation for movement was provided.
Because the down right area had been used considerably in
the first two acts it seemed necessary to de-emphsize this
area as much as possible. For this reason, the Captain
and Ellis were placed down left on a six inch platform.
Mangan and Hesione were seated on a garden bench up center
while Hector was seated in a deck chair left center. A small
stool was placed near the head of the lounge in the right center
area between the bench and the lounge for Mazzini and
later, for Randall. The discussion which dominates most of
the third act necessitates the change Of emphasis from one
group to another. The burden of shifting the emphasis rested
with the actors in the center area. Hesione, Mangan, and
Hector, by their change Of focus, could emphasize either the
right Or left area. The Captain and Ellie in the down left

area and Lady Utterword in the down right area were too far

down stage to help much with the change of focus.

179

In the original script Shaw has called for only the
necessary entrances and exits. According tO his script the
Captain does not rise from his bench until the second bomb
is drOpped. Lady Utterword spends the entire act lying in a
hammock. Ellie doesn't move until the bombs fall. Hector has
only one rise, that being his exit to the house. Apparently
Hesione and Mangan stand throughout the act as no seat is
mentioned in the script. In the Opinion Of the director,
there were many lines in the third act during which movement
would be acceptable and would also add to the meaning Of the
lines rather than distract from them. The wine on the table
up left center was used twice, once by Lady Utterword and once
by Hector. Both actors could naturally drink wine as a part
of the character. The pocket area between the lounge and the
wall was used as a barrier between Lady Utterword and the rest
Of the group on her speech describing her Joy in breaking away
from the house. The Captain's violent speeches describing
the condition of England seemed to demand movement. The same
is true of Hector's Speech in which he shows his disgust
for Mangan. The primary movement pattern had previously been

set. The change in setting had solved the movement problems.
Rehearsal

On Thursday Of the second week Act Three was blocked
and, because Of its brevity, it was found possible to run

the scene twice. The problems to be met in the third act

180
proved to be, again, lack Of space and the adding of
arbitrary movement to keep the scene interesting. It was
soon seen that the tempo, 1. e., the building to the climax,
was the important consideration.
After seven rehearsals, the play was completely blocked,
although in rough form. The areas had been chosen and tried

and the production seemed to be shaping according to plan.
Interpretation

The next step was to return to Act One to work on
the interpretation Of the lines and to add more detail to
the movement pattern already established. The problem Of
interpretation had shown itself, even in the first week Of
rehearsal, to be one which would demand a great deal of
attention. The director's purpose in this phase of rehearsal
was to acquaint the cast with some Of the Shavian philOSOphy
in order that the lines would take on the correct meaning.

Ellie showed rapid advancement and demonstrated her
ability to take suggestion. The principal transition was
explained in detail and, while she did not understand the
role completely, she was at least beginning to think along
the correct lines.

Lady Utterword was still much too sharp in her attack.

The director explained that it was necessary that the audience

be made to see why men were attracted to her. She was told

to be more flighty and to remove the hard, cross quality from

181
her voice.

Mazzini had deveIOped a monotonous voice pattern.

This was pointed out to him.

The first disagreement develOped during this second
week Of rehearsal. Mazzini had an entirely different concept
Of the role than did the director. He explained to the
director that he saw Mazzini as a much more practical man
than had been presented in the character sketch. The director
explained his interpretation in the light Of his study Of
Shaw, namely, that Mazzini was that factor of the Fabian
society with which Shaw had been in such violent disagreement.
That is to say that Mazzini was the socialist who "writes
pamphlets, makes speeches“ and does nothing else; the wholly
impractical man who looked on himself as a great revolutionist
but who was, in reality, much too timid to attempt to change
anything. The actor took the suggestions in good Spirit and
attempted to redraw the character in his own mind.

It was evident that most Of the actors did not have
a very thorough understanding of the lines theyvere reading.
The director thought that more would be accomplished if a
discussion rehearsal was held in the next week. The
discussion rehearsal had not been used sooner, with the
exception Of the first rehearsal, because the director
wanted the cast to be thoroughly familiar with the play

before any such rehearsal was scheduled. He was particularly

182

anxious that the cast become interested enough to ask for
this type Of discussion.

The director decided to let the Captain work out his
own problems, with suggestions only when he worked contrary
to the designs of the director. When difficulties arose in
his movement it was thought wise to let him try his own
solution. In almost every case the director agreed entirely
with the actor.

It was discovered that Mangan had a tendency to shift
his position continuously and this weakness was pointed out
to him. Each time that he began to move from the desired
position the director called his attention to it. Eventually
he was able to detect this himself and thereby to check it.

Both Hector and Mazzini evidenced a tendency to drift
toward center and to turn full front, thus losing the
effectiveness of ensemble playing. This was pointed out
numberous times and at laSt it began to have an effect on
Mazzini. Hector never completely overcame this undesired
movement.

Summarizing the second full week Of rehearsal, the
director felt that the play was progressing according to
schedule. The entire production had been given its pre-
liminary blocking and interpretation and lines were well
under way for the first act.

The third week of rehearsal began with a session

Spent on interpretation of the second act. The Monday

183
night rehearsal was used in an attempt to bring Ellie,
Mangan, and Mazzini further along in their character develOp-
ment.

Mangan's problem was one Of voice. The actor's natural
voice was too smooth and cultured for the character Of Mangan.
The lines of the script were explained tO him in the light
Of the director's interpretation. For example, in the scene
that Opens the second act, Mangan and Ellie enter (p. 49).

His first line reads, "What a dinner! I don't call it a
dinner, I call it a meal.“ Mangan had been interpreting the
line as if he had enjoyed the meal. The director pointed out
to him that he was attempting to break into the correct social
circles and would be averse to "meals." The "What a dinner“
was read in a tone which left no doubt in the mind of the
audience that the dinner had been anything but enjoyable for
him. The line in reSponse to Ellie's question, "DO you like
this part of the country?" was pointed out to him. Mangan
had been reading the line with complete sincerity. It was
eXplained to him that Mangan was not thinking SO much about
the "air suiting" him as he was thinking of the social
possibilities and the nearness to Hesione. The line was
reinterpreted but was then read with so much insincerity that
it was no longer part Of the character. The director then
asked him merely to think Of Hesione and the chance to gain
in social prominence, then tO read the line as naturally as

possible. The results that evening were not very gratifying.

184
However, it was noticed that during the rest Of the rehearsal
period Mangan had no difficulty with those particular Speeches.

The director found it necessary to read a few key
lines for Ellie, his reasoning being that, if She could
realize the character for a few lines, the rest would follow
naturally.

Both Mazzini and Lady Utterword had as yet failed to
find their character. Mazzini's trouble, outside Of the
Obvious voice pattern, seemed to be a failure to see Mazzini
as the ridiculous character Shaw had drawn. Lady Utterword
was playing the part with a great deal Of sincerity, which
was completely out of place in the role.

The director decided that the time for a discussion
on the play as a whole had come. However, it was thought
wise to continue on the pre-arranged schedule until
interpretation had been started on all three acts.

Tuesday night Of the third week was Spent on the
interpretation of Act Three. The majority Of the time
was spent on Ellie and Lady Utterword. Mazzini was becoming
more conscious Of his voice pattern and was taking steps
to correct it. Ellie's main difficulty lay in the fact that

she could not conceive the character as being as philOSOphical
as the lines would show. Instead Of working for the entire
evening on the third act the director rehearsed it only once,
then dismissed the cast. The Wednesday night rehearsal was

called in a class room rather than on stage and the cast was

185
told that it would be solely a discussion of the play.

Experimental Rehearsals

It seems timely here to explain why the discussions
were not held before the blocking began. AS was stated, part
Of the first night was spent in discussion. However, most
Of the discussion consisted Of the director explaining to the
cast just what was expected of them and the setting of rehearsal
times. The director has long been Of the belief that, to be
Of value, discussion rehearsals must be postponed until the
entire cast is thoroughly acquainted with the entire script.
Three weeks had been spent on blocking and interpretation,
the play had been read and reread, and the actors were
thoroughly familiar with the plot and with a good share of
the lines. Therefore, a discussion rehearsal would now be
Of value to all concerned. Each of the cast had by this time
formulated his conception of the play and the director thought
that all would have something Of value to add to the discussion.

The rehearsal was begun with a discussion Of the
premise. The director's desire was that the premise should
be found by the cast. Each of the cast had formulated his
own idea Of what goal the playwright had in mind and, after
a thorough discussion of the various ideas, it was found that
all had fundamentally the same idea Of the purpose. However,
it was discovered that no one could put the premise into

precise wording. The talk then Shifted to the characters

186
themselves.

Mangan was the first character tO be discussed. His
background was filled in and his personal premise was agreed
upon. The cast was in complete agreement on the ”bone
structure" of the character. At this point the Captain put
forth the theory that Mangan and, in fact, that all the
characters were in reality symbols used by Shaw to eXpress
his point Of view. This was the interpretation which the
director had desired would be brought out. Some Of the more
inexperienced members Of the cast took issue with this idea.
The difficulty lay in their failure to grasp the theory behind
the use Of symbols. When the Captain pointed out that the
symbol did not merely represent the thing but was the thing,
the less eXperienced members failed to see his meaning.
”How," he was asked, "could Mangan be the symbol of the
machine, or of the corporation?"

In order that the session would not end in complete
confusion the director attempted to clarify the matter in
terms Of the background reading he had done on Shaw's
philOSOphy. The cast was told that from the reading the
director had discovered that most Of the writers either agreed
with the Shavian ideas, almost in toto, or took violent
exception to his point Of view. Because the director wanted
to give the play and the playwright a sympathetic treatment
his interpretation was guided by those who agreed with Mr.

Shaw. Mangan was explained in terms of Shaw's statements in

18?

his book, The Intelligent Woman's Guide 22 Socialism and

 

 

 

Capitalism, in which he speaks of the manager, who merely
runs the work for a disinterested owner, as the "parasite's
parasite.”
She may not have earned the money she pays with;
but it will buy as good bread and clothes for her employee
as the most honestly earned money in the kingdom. The
idler is a parasite: and the idler's employee, however
industrious, is therefore a parasite on a parasite; but
if you leave the parasite destitute you leave the parasite's
parasite destitute.5
The Opinion expressed by Gassner, in his Masters 2; the Drama,
is that Mangan "represents the predatory forces Of Mammon."6
This symbolic point Of view was taken with all the
characters involved. Hesione was interpreted as representing

Love, thus agreeing with Eric Bentley whose theory is eXpreSsed

in his book, Bernard Shaw.7 Captain Shotover represented

 

vitality, Randall-~the decayed ruling class, Ellie—-demoralized
youth, Hectoru-romance, Lady Utterword-—the flighty upper
class, and Mazzini-~the theoretical politician. Heartbreak

House itself was taken as England. It is interesting toe

that Frank Harris, in his biography, Bernard Shaw, implies
that Heartbreak House is really America while England "is only

 

5 George Bernard Shaw, Th2 Intelligent flgman'a
to Socialism and Capitalism. '(New York: Brentano's Publishers,

19267. p. 278.

6 John Gassner, Masters 93 the Drama. (New York: Dover
Publications, 1940) p;'EIbl '

7 Eric Bentley, Bernard Shaw. (Norfolk, Conn: New
Directions Books, 1947) p. I58

188
Horseback Hall."8
The director recommended that the cast read Gassner's
short eXplanation of ”Heartbreak House" in Masters 9: Eh;
Qggmg, a portion Of which follows:

In 1916, however, he began to apply himself to the
problem Of describing the vacillations and rapactities
that brought the world to the brink of ruin, a subject
he had presciently started three years before. The
result was the weighty extravaganza ”Heartbreak House,”
a verbose play no doubt but also a magnificent comedy
Of humors and a powerful symbol wrapped in whimsy.

Captain Shotover's house is a Noah's ark where the
characters gather before the flood. They and the classes
they represent have been making a hopeless muddle of
both society and themselves. The only half-rational
Hector Hushabye and his wife diSplay the futility of
the upper classes; a British capitalist Mangan represents
the predatory force Of Mammon. All are equally blind
to the wrath of God and to the storm they have been
raising unknowingly. The innocents are helpless or
they must compromise like the hard-headed poor girl who
is willing tO marry the capitalist for his money, and
the one knowing persome among them, Captain Shotover,
has taken refuge in eccentricity. Then the storm breaks
loose and death comes raining from the skies in an air
raid. The despair in the play is manifest, for Shaw's
pity and moral earnestness did not decrease with age;
the harlequinade Of "Heartbreak House” is a Dance of
Death.

Still, Shaw, the Fabian and one—time agitator was
loath tO renounce all eXpectation of salvation through
a new order. HOpe was implicit in the death of the
thieves of the play who are blown to pieces by the
bombardment; did not many socialists believe that
predatory capitalism was finished by the war Just as
the capitalist Mangan was finished by a bomb! Amid the
wreckage Shaw's remaining characters try to pull them—
selves together. The call for courage is sounded resonantly
with Shaw's customary eloquence, as is the call for action
when the antagonists of society's malefactors declare

 

8 Frank Harris, Bernard Shaw. (New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1951) p. 585.

189

"We must win powers Of life and death over them...They
believe in themselves. When we believe in ourselves, we
shall kill them." "Heartbreak House" is, therefore, as
high-hearted as it is depressed.9

The above seemed to the director tO give a clear, concise

view of "Heartbreak House.“

In the preface to "Heartbreak House," Shaw has eXplained

to a certain degree the symbolism he employed:

Heartbreak House is not merely the name Of the play
which follows this preface. It is cultured, leisured
Europe before the war. When the play was begun not a
shot had been fired; and only the professional diplomatists
and the very few amateurs whose hobby is foreign policy
even knew that the guns were loaded. 0

During the discussion the director pointed out to the

cast the feeling Of boredom and uselessness that the inhabit-

ants Of Heartbreak House must have. The point Of view which

Shaw brings out in his preface was eXplained to them and parts

Of the preface were read. In the Opinion Of the director, the

playwright had summed up the characters and their attitudes

toward life in the preface.

The same nice peOple, the same utter futility. The
nice peOple could read; some of them could write; and
they were the sole repositories Of culture who had
social Opportunities Of contact with our politicians,
administrators, and newspaper prOprieters, or any chance
of sharing or influencing their activities. But they
shrank from that contact. They hated politics. They
did not wish to realize UtOpia for the common peOple;

 

9 Gassner, 22. cit., pp. 610-611

10 Bernard Shaw, Heartbreak House, Great Catherine,

and Playlets 23 the War. (New York: Brenatano's, 1919)

 

p.

ix

190

they wished to realize their favorite fictions and poems
in their own lives; and, when they could, they lived
without scruple on incomes which they did not earn....
They took the only part of our society in which there
was leisure for high culture, and made it an economic,
political, and, as far as practicable, a moral vacuum;
and as Nature, abhorring the vacuum, immediately filled
it up with sex and with all sorts Of refined pleasure,
it was a very delightful place at its best for moments
of relaxation. In other moments it was disatrous.1

The director drew the attention of the cast to portions
of Mr. Shaw's preface tO “Heartbreak House” in the belief
that certain passages could be applied to the various
characters. Lady Utterword and Randall are the two brought
to mind in the following quote:

The alternative to Heartbreak House was Horseback
Hall, consisting of a prison for horses with an annex
for the ladies and gentlemen who rode them, hunted them,
talked about them, bought them and sold them, and gave
nine-tenths of their lives to them, dividing the other
tenth between charity, churchgoing (as a substitute for
religion), and conservigive electioneering (as a sub-
stitute for politics).

The explanation for the various types of characters
being found in the same social gathering is also found in
the preface:

It is true that the two establishments got mixed at
the edges. Exiles from the library, the music room,
and the picture gallery would be found languishing among
the stables, miserably discontented; and hardy horsewomen
who slept at the first chord of Schumann were born,
horribly misplaced, into the garden Of Lingsor; but
sometimes one came upon the horsebreakers and heartbreakes
who could make the best of both worlds.15

 

11 Ibid., pp. x-xi
12 Ibid., p.xi

15 Egg. cit.

191
The attitudes Of Mazzini Dunn are to be found in the
passage below:

Heartbreak House was quite familiar with revolutionary
ideas on paper. It aimed at being advanced and free
thinking, and hardly ever went to church or kept the
Sabbath except by a little extra fun at weekends.14

The important phrase in the above, as far as the director was
concerned, was the first sentence with particular emphsis
on the 'revolutionary ideas on paper.” This seemed to be the
key to Mazzini.

Mangan was classed with the barbarians:

In short, power and culture were in separate compart-
ments. The barbarians were not only literally in the
saddle, but on the front bench in the House Of Commons,
with nobody to correct their incredible ignorance of
modern thought and political science but upstarts from
the counting-house, who had Spent their lives furnishing
their pockets instead Of their minds. Both, however,
were practiced in dealing with money ad with men, as
far as acquiring the one and exploiting the other went.15

In the Opinion of the director, an insight into the
characters of’Hesione and.Hector can be gained from the
following lines:

Heartbreak House was far too lazy and shallow to

extricate itself from this palace of evil enchantment.

It rhapsodized about love; but it believed in cruelty.

It was afraid of the cruel people; and it saw that

cruelty was at least effective. Cruelty did things

that made money, whereas Love did nothing but prove

the soundness of Larochefaucauld's saying that very few
people would fall in love if they had never read abou it.16

Mr. Shaw seemed to sum up the house and its characters

I; 1513., p. xii
15 Ibid., pp. xii-xiii
16 Ibid., p. xix

192
in the statement following:

Heartbreak.House, in short, did not know how to live,
at which point all that was left to it was the boast that
at least it knew how to die: a melancholy accomplish-
ment whcih the outbreak of war presently gave it practically
unlimited Opportunities of displaying.

When the discussion rehearsal was finally brought to

an end both the cast and director felt that the decision to
wait until the play was thoroughly familiar to all concerned
had proven Justifiable. The cast now had a much better under-
standing of the play than they had had previously, and both
the cast and the director were now completely united in the
playwright's purpose. After the discussion had been completed,
the director again asked for the premise. The exact wording
was not used but when the director put it into the phrase,
“Drifting leads to Destruction," there was complete agreement
from all.

The discussion rehearsal had proved to be SO successful
that the director felt that the cast would also be receptive
to other experiments. The technique of creating scenes which
do not appear in the script was briefly explained to the cast
by the director. He also pointed out the value of the
application of this ”unbroken line" theory as is stated by
Stankslavski:

The playwright gives us only a few minutes out of the

whole life of his characters. He omits much of what

happens Off the stage. He often says nothing at all
about what has happened to his characters while they

17 Ibid., p. xix

--——-‘-*-‘

195

have been in the wings, and what makes them act as they
do when they return to the stage. We have to fill out
what he leaves unsaid. Otherwise, we would have only
scraps and bits to offer out of the life of the persons
we portray. You cannot live that way so we must create
for our parts comparatively unbroken lines.

Most of the cast was at least slightly acquainted with
the so-called Stanislavski method and all were enthusiastic
when the director announced that the following rehearsal
period would be devoted to this type of rehearsal. The
director designated some of the off stage scenes which might
make the play seem more alive and suggested that the cast
spend some time during the following day thinking of the
proposed scenes. The scenes chosen were as follows:

1. Mangan and Ellie: The first meeting at the
concert and Mangan's meeting with Mazzini upon
taking Ellie home, which Ellie describes to
Hesione in Act One.

2. Ellie-Hector scene: The meeting at the concert,
the meeting at the art gallery, and the drive in
the park.

5. The Captain's return: The Captain returns to his
home after a two years absence. The girls in this
scene were to be 16 and 14 years of age. Nurse
Guinness was to be played some 26 years younger,
as was the Captain.

4. Ellie and Hector garden scene: Hector and Ellie
making up in the garden after Ellie has discovered
that he is married. .

The rehearsal on the following night proved extremely
interesting to all concerned. The director stressed the

necessity for seriousness and eXplained to the cast that,

 

18 Eonstantin Stankslavski, Ag Actor Prepares.
(New York: Theatre Arts Books, Robert M. Macgregor, 1948)
p. 242.

194
if they were to act with any illusion of truth in telling of
these events during a performance they must recreate the
events which are merely told about in the script.

The director set the stage for the first scene. The
concert had Just ended. Ellie was the last singer to appear
on the program. Mangan was acting as chairman of the meeting.
The stage was then taken by Ellie and Mangan. Ellie took
her seat and Mangan came forward and dismissed the crowd
after inviting them back for next week's performance. He
then turned to Ellis and complimented her on her singing,
and asked if he might see her home. Ellie was properly
thrilled over the offer and accepted graciously. During the
walk home Mangan did most of the talking, as was prOper. He
explained how he happened to be acting as chairman that
night. His friend, the regular chairman, had beenczalled
away on important business and had asked him to take over the
chair. Upon the reaching the home of the Dunns he was
introduced to Mazzini and both showed the natural surprise
at meeting again. Mangan refused tea and took a rather
hurried leave. Mazzini then explained his former relation-
ship with Mangan and told Ellie what a suitable husband he
would make for her. The scene was played through twice and
ran very smoothly the second time.

The next scene was the Ellie-Hector scene. Hector
showed great powers of improvising in his story telling and

made the scene very vivid. He threw off the retraint which

195
had been holding him back in the regular rehearsals and
became the dashing man of Ellie's dreams. The director was
very pleased with the handling of the scene.

The third scene proved to be the most interesting of
the evening and also showed the most thought and imagination.
This was the Captain's return after a long absence. The
scene opened with Hesione completely relaxed on a chair and
Addy sitting primly on the window seat, waiting for their
father's return. Nurse Guinness left no doubt in the mind
of the audience that it was she who ran the household. The
most striking bit of invention of the evening was the Captain's
gift which he had brought to his daughters from the "South
Sea Islands.“ The gift proved to be quite apprOpriate to the
Captain's character--two shrunken human heads. The reaction
of interest on the part of Hesione and the horror on the
part of Addy seemed to be completely in character. In answer
to the girls' questions to tell them about their mother, the
Captain gave an abrupt reply that he did not wish to talk
of the matter. After the scene was completed and the cast
was discussing the evenings work, the Captain eXplained that,
because there is no mention of the mother in the script, he
surmised that the marriage had not been a very happy one. This
conception was in accordance with the director's theory.
Shaw's women, with the exception of Candida, Lady Cicely
(in ”Captain Brassbounds Conversion"), and, possibly,

Hesione, are far from the lovable type.

196

The director explained the early part of Shaw's life

to the cast and attempted to show them the rather unnatural
relationship that existed between his own mother and himself.
Shaw speaks of his mother as being born without the "comedic
impulses.’ She came from a wealthy family and had been
taught to live a life of leisure as a member of the upper
class. It is not extraordinary, then, that when, at the age
of thirty, she found herself married to a drunkard and the
mother of three children with little or nothing of that to
which she had been accustomed, that this ”comedic impulse,"
if indeed she ever possessed one, had long ago disappeared.
In so far as she was able, she completely ignored both her
husband and her children. In his later years, Shaw was
to wonder how she ever became the mother of three children.
Shaw's late marriage left him without the experience
of young love which is generally accepted as the natural
course of events. He himself speaks of his lack of under-
standing of love in his Sixteen §213 Sketches.19 Harris
seems to be almost brutal in his comment on the Shavian
women,

I do not think that Shaw himself 'believes' in his
women. At least there is no evidence of it in his own
life. He married a woman who could disagree with him
about his friends, a woman so old fashioned that she

never seems to have baen even photographed with her
prince of publicity.2

I9 Bernard Shaw, Sixteen Self Sketches. (New York:
Dodd, Mead & Company, 1949) p. 8

20 Frank Harris, Bernard Shaw. (New York: Simon
and Schuster, 1931) p. IBS“‘"' '"”"‘

"\

(-

197
Of Shaw's love life Harris says,

Shaw's relations with women have always been gallant,
coy, even. The number he has surrendered to physically
have been few--perhaps not half a dozen in all--the
first man to have cut a path through the theatre and left
it strewn with virgins. If the virgins were anything
like most of the women Shaw has portrayed in his plays,
I can well understand why they remained so.

While the director does not go all the way with Mr.
Harris's ideas on Shaw's women, it cannot be denied that
they are far from the conventional stage heroine. In
I'Heartbreak House“ itself, as has already been pointed out,
of four women, only one is under forty.

The fourth scene of the evening was the scene between
Ellis and Hector in the garden. It was explained to the
cast that this scene was taking place during Randall's
entrance scene on stage. In the scene, Hector attempted to
use his charm on Ellie in order that she would forgive him
for having deceived her. At first, Ellis was cold and distant.
However, as Hector forced her to listen to his eXplanation
she became more friendly toward him. The scene was carried
through to their entrance into the house. In order that
Ellie's exit speech to Lady Utterword would be true to life,
Hector was not allowed to complete his explanation. At the
moment of their entrance, Ellie was listening but had not

completely forgiven him. The value of this improvised scene

was apparent in subsequent rehearsals. Hector and Ellis, who

§l Ibid., p. 190

198
had been having trouble making the entrance seem real, now
walked in very naturally, merely continuing the garden
conversation until interrupted by Hesione.

On Friday of the third week the various scenes were
rehearsed again with the action following much the same
pattern. Also, those portions of the script pertaining to
these created scenes were rehearsed. The added interest and
truthfulness evidenced by the interpretation of lines seemed
to prove that the creating of scenes had been extremely
beneficial to the entire cast. This was particularly notice-
able in those scenes in which Ellie described the events to
Hesione. She obviously was remembering the events as actual
experiences rather than as lines which had no life.

The experiment was, in the writer's Opinion, a very

successful one and well worth the time spent on it.
General Directing Problems

The general interpretation of the play and the
characters was now completed. Next, the director began
work on the smaller details in the blocking and dialogue.
These general directing problems followed no set pattern and
are dealt with here as they arose during the fourth and fifth
weeks of rehearsal.

In the Opening scene of Act One, Ellie leaves her
coat on the window seat thus giving her motivation to start

to cross left, as if to get the coat prior to leaving. (p.8)

199

The problem was to have Ellie start to leave but still keep
right stage clear for the Captain's entrance. Nurse Guinness
followed Ellie and at the same time cleared for the Captain.

Guinness' cross in the middle of the Captain's speech
(p. 10), when she returns with the tea, caused an awkward
situation because it was necessary that she pass directly in
front of both the Captain and Ellie. The technique used
was that of having Guinness make a noisy entrance. The
Captain, stopped in the middle of his speech, glared at her
until she had made the cross to the table, and then proceded
with the rest of the line.

Nurse Guinness' line (p. 11), "There's a man for you,"
was not being given the meaning the director wanted.
Guinness was reading the line with disgust in her voice,
while the director wanted the audience to know immediately
that although the Captain was certainly eccentric, he was
still loved and reapected by the members of the family. The
line was explained and was thereafter read with a note of
pride in her voice.

Lady Utterword was having trouble with her long speech
(p. 12). The aim of the director was to have her read the
lines as rapidly as she was capable and still project the
meaning. The thought was that the impression created should
be one of flightiness and pseudos0phistication.

Lady Utterword's cross toward the up right door on the

line (p. 16), ”I'll go straight to a hotel“ needed to be

200
checked by Hesione before Lady Utterword was in center stage.
In order to slow down the fast movement, Lady Utterword
started the cross, then stOpped to pick up her gloves from
the table. This enabled Hesione to express the proper surprise
and also to place herself in her sister's path, thus checking
the exit.

From previous experience, the director had learned
that in order to be effective on the small stage, movement
must be held until the last possible moment. The general
movement must be restricted. For example, often merely
indicating the direction of the movement is more effective than
a cross which may cover other actors or throw the stage out
of balance. The cast had difficulty in recognizing this fact
and adjusting to it.

Hesione's line (p. 20), "I shouldn't have pulled the
devil by the tail with dignity. I should have pulled hard
(between her teeth)----hard. Well? Go on" was her most
troublesome speech in the first act. After working on the
line for several rehearsals, the director suggested she merely
drop her voice on the second “hard,” then use a long pause
before she finished the speech. After following the suggestion
she found that the line gave her no more difficulty. Hesione's
principal problem throughout the play was to realize that
she was playing comedy. In fact, the entire cast was think-
ing in terms of serious drama more than they were in terms

of comedy. The director soon discovered that Hesione was

201
afraid of "mugging.” From that time on he used the term
asking her to do Just that. For example, on her line to
Ellie (p. 20), "Fancy your grandparents with their eyes in
fine frenzy rolling!“ she was told to "mug" it. She then
turned full front and exaggerated the line, as the director
wanted. In the scene where Ellie is explaining about her
secret romance and retelling the stories which Hector had
told her, Hesione was told to make fun of Ellie's naiveness.
This accomplished the director's aim in the scene.

Ellis was having great difficulty with her transition
scene, particularly on the speech (p 29),
There's something odd about this house, Hesione, and
about you. I don't know why I'm talking to you so calmly.
I have a horrible fear that my heart is broken, but that
heartbreak is not what I thought it must be.
A special rehearsal was held with Hesione and Ellie and the
entire scene was eXplained in detail. Ellie was told that
in that speech she must grow up all at once. That she was
thinking out loud, and that the speech could not be read in
a school girl manner. Ellie first accomplished the transition
by purely technical means. She lowered her voice and made it
almost expressionless. She was then told to think about the
speech in the light of the director's interpretation. By
the end of the week the director was satisfied that the
transition had been made mentally as well as physically.

Randall's problem was one of movement. Vocally, he

fulfilled the part, but was unable to control his body

202
movements sufficiently. This fault was pointed out to him
and he tried hard to overcome it. Although he made great
improvement, he never completely lost the nervous mannerism
in the use of his arms and hands.

Hector's characterization was not moving as fast as
the director wished. The basic trouble lay in his conception
of the role, in that he failed to see the contrast between
Hector and Randall. It was surprising to the director that
the actor had been so successful in creating Hector in the
improvised scenes, but that when rehearsing the script he
returned to his rather stiff interpretation.

The characterization and interpretation of both
Mangan and Mazzini were proceding satisfactorily.

The Captain was working for shortness and abruptness
in both his movement and his reading, which the director
desired. The underlying philosOphy of the Captain's lines
in his scene with Hector had been explained at the discussion
rehearsal and gave no trouble after that.

Hector, Captain, and Hesione were having difficulty
with the closing scene of Act One (p. 47). The director
desired that the Captain set the rhythm of the scene with
the line, "What a house, what a daughter.“ Although there
is a definite interrelation of the lines the director
thought it wise to play the scene as if the characters were

thinking out loud to themselves. This technique, when

explained to the cast, produced the desired effect.

203

The troublesome scenes in the second act proved to
be the Mangan-Ellie scene which cpens the act (p. 49), the
entrance of Hesione and Mazzini after the hypnotism scene
(p. 55), the Mangan-Hesione-Ellie scene Just after Mangan
is aroused (p. 68), the Burglar scene (p. 73), and the
Captain-Ellie scene Just prior to the last scene of the
act (p. 81).

Mangan was having difficulty in making himself un-
pleasant enough in his scene with Ellie. Also, the move-
ment in his long speech was awkward. The speech was eventually
broken with four movements, each movement coinciding with a
change of thought. The director was striving for contrast
in attitudes of the two characters. Ellie's problem was that
of being calm and collected as she played the "cat and mouse
game" with Mangan. Mangan needed to start the scene very
much the master of himself and finally work up to a frenzy over
Ellie's remarks. His attempt to extricate himself from the
engagement was pictured by his movement on the line (p. 53),
"No, not exactly back out of it." The mechanism employed
was to have him rise before he started the line, then use a
diagonal up right cross away from Ellie. The actor handled
the transition very well without further suggestions from
the director.

The Mazzini-Hesione entrance after the hypnotism

scene was accomplished by having Hesione enter first and

cross Mangan. Mazzini held his entrance until Hesione had

204
cleared the right stage area and then held on the top step
for his first line. The grouping around the chair placed
Hesione up stage of the chair, Mazzini left, and Guinness
right, thus forming a triangle with Mangan in the center.

The ad libbing in the scene was rehearsed until the actors
came to think of it as part of the original script.

Mangan's waking up scene proved difficult to block
because it was necessary to place Ellie behind his chair
as she rubbed his temples. The director decided that, upon
waking, Mangan would Jump to his feet and kick the chair back
up stage. The intention was to rearrange the picture for
the crying scene which followed. In order to allow Mangan.
to kick the chair up center Ellis was forced to stand up left
of the chair. When Mangan rose, Ellie moved quickly two
steps left. The force of the kick carried Mangan up center
and placed him as the apex of the triangle, between the two
women. This action put him in a position to sit in the chair
for the crying scene and also established a new playing area.
The chair was replaced by Ellie after Hesione had made her
exit.

The picturization used in the Burglar scene has already
been described. The director had difficulty in keeping the
tempo of this scene at a rapid rate. The slower tempo was
traceable to the time required for the entrance of the
characters. In order to keep the scene moving, each of the

characters was given a line to ad lib. The director was

205
desirous of creating the impression of great confusion.
The entrance was handled satisfactorily, but the cast never
achieved the state of confusion desired. The director wanted
the ad lib to carry on under the script lines and then fade
out completely. Each time, however, the ad lib came to an
abrupt end, there was a slight pause,:1nd then the scene
recommenced. Many hours were spent on this entrance yet it
did not achieve the smoothness diesired because the cast did
not feel the emotion of the scene. After repeating the scene
numerous times, the director saw that it was becoming
mechanical. Therefore, it was drOpped and the cast given a
rest from it.

The Captain-Ellie scene near the end of the second act
was originally blocked primarily around the sofa. However,
the director was of the Opinion that the down right area had
been overworked and that the scene would prove more effective
if it was played in another area. The up left area was tried,
but in that position too much of the scene was covered by
the table and chair down left. Because of the importance of
the thought presented in the dialogue, the director thought it
advisable to play the scene in down stage area. The solution
was found to be the center area. Ellie led the Captain to
the chair right of the table, then knelt on the floor at his
knee. The Captain rose on the line," and I see my daughters

and their men living foolish lives of romance and sentiment

and snobbery,” and crossed to the garden door, pointing the

206
lines at the group in the garden (p. 85). This placed him
on the far side of the table from Ellie and helped to picture
the barrier between their different lines of thought. As has
already been discussed, the scene ended on the sofa in order
that the left stage area would be clear for Hector and Randall's
entrance. Ellie eXpressed concern over her lack of understand-
ing of the idea expressed in the scene. Because an under-
standing of the IhilosOphy expressed in the scene is necessary
to Ellie's lines in the third act, the director thought it
wise to eXplain the thought thoroughly.

The similarity of the thought eXpressed in the later
scene and that eXpressed in the third act of "Candida" was
brought to the attention of the cast. In both plays Shaw
seems to present "heartbreak" as that state which lifts the
individual above the wants of the average person. In
WHeartbreak House“ the idea is expressed in Ellie's line
(p. 87), ”It seems so; for I feel now as if there was nothing
I could not do, because I want nothing." The Captain
eXpresses it in his reply, "That's the only real strength.
That's genius. That's better than rum." The same thought
that conventional happiness in reality is empty, is eXpressed
again in the Captain's line in the third act (p. 106):

I tell you happiness is no good. You can be happy

when you are only half alive. I am happier now I am
half dead than ever I was in my prime. But there is no
blessing on my happiness.

This same idea ends the third act of "Candida.” Marchbanks,

207
the young poet, is heartbroken by Candida's refusal to go
away with him. Candida says that Marchbanks will not do
anything rash because ”He has learned to live without happiness.”
The poet replies, "I no longer desire happiness: life is
nobler than that.'22 The director eXplained to the cast that
Mr. Shaw believes whole-heartedly in the idea that everyone
must work for his share of the world's wealth.2:5 If man was
content merely to be happy, then the world would not advance.
The lines were interpreted by the director to mean that to
be comfortably happy leads to lazyiness and slothfulness. Man
needs the satisfaction of struggle. The Captain states this
thought in the second act (p. 87):

I feel nothing but the accursed happiness I have
dreaded all my life long; the happiness that comes as
life goes, the happiness of yielding and dreaming instead
of resisting and doing, the sweetness of the fruit that is
going rotten.

This theory was, in the Opinion of the director, one of the
main themes Of the entire play. It offered the alternative
to the premise that "drifting leads to destruction.”

The third act was treated for the most part as a

single continuing scene. Once the problem of motivating the

movement had been solved, the principal remaining problems

 

22 George Bernard Shaw, Pla 3 Pleasant and Unpleasant,
Vol. II, (New York: Brentano's, l905) p. 158

23 George Bernard Shaw, The Intelligent Woman's Guide
to Socialism and Capitalism. (New York: Brentano's Publishers,
1928) p. 98.

 

 

208
in this final act were those of rhythm and tempo. The scene
Opened on the quiet, peaceful garden and the conversation
flowed easily until the Captain's line (p. 112), "Every drunken
skipper trusts to Providence.” From this point on, the tempo
increased in Speed and intensity until the falling of the
last bomb. It was the responsibility of the Captain to set
the tempo at the correct speed. The actor handled the scene
extremely well, building gradually until he took the rise on
the line, ”except something not worth mentioning.“ The cast
had difficulty in realizing the tenseness that was necessary
to the meaning of the scene. The analogy to events of the
present was pointed out to them and the interpretation
suggested by Eric Bentley, in his book Bernard S233, was cited.
Mr. Bentley suggests that the ending is almost a prOphecy of
the atomic bomb.

The first act ends with a request for 'deeper darkness,'
the last with the threat that if we do not learn naviagation
the saip will flounder. It is the threat of the atom
bomb.

The closing lines of the third act also needed a

great deal of explanation. Hesione's line reads (p. 117),
"But what a glorious eXperlencel I hOpe they'll come again
tomorrow night." To this Ellie replies, "Oh, I hOpe so."
The director again found himself in agreement with Bentley's

interpretation. Bentley states that Ellie has now completed

 

248Eric Bentley Bernard Shaw. (Norfolk, Conn: New
Directions Books, 1947) p. 141.

 

209
the cycle of her education and is at the end of the play
at approximately the same point as she was at the beginning.
She has been thrice disillusioned--once in each act,
by Hector, by Mangan, by Shotover-~and is, in a sense,
back at the beginning again, in love with romance. Only
the romance which now brings color into her life is
that of a kind of warfare that threatens civilization.25
This interpretation was accepted by the cast and made clear
the meaning of the lines.

Before the discussion of the last week of rehearsal
is begun it seems eXpedient to summarize the progress thus
far. During the first two weeks of rehearsal the director
had concentrated on the problem of blocking the fundamental
movements, while familiarizing the cast with the script.

The work then turned to interpretation of lines and the three
acts were rehearsed with this problem being given the fore-
most consideration. The last half of the third week was
spent in discussion and eXperimental rehearsals in an

attempt to bring out the meaning of the play and the
characters to the cast. The fourth and fifth week of
rehearsal were devoted to the small details of movement,
business, and minor problems of interpretations. The final
step in the rehearsal schedule was that of achieving
continuity by playing the performance through in its entirety
and smoothing out the awkward minor details.

During the last full week of rehearsal the director

attempted to disassociate himself from the production and to

 

25 Ibid., p. 157

210
view the rehearsals from an obJective point of view. In the
past, one of the director's outstanding weaknesses had been
the preoccupation with the interpretation of the play at the
eXpense of the movement. In order to compensate for this
recognized weakness the director intended to view the rehearsal
only for the movement pattern. As it was found that the mis-
interpretation Of lines detracted from the consideration on
the movement pattern the director decided to rehearse the
more difficult scenes without dialogue. The Introduction
scene in the first act, the awaking scene, and the Captain-
Ellie scene in Act Two were rehearsed in this manner. This
made it possible to find the weak portions of the scenes and
to rework them until they were satisfactory. The actors
were instructed to think the dialogue without speaking
it in order that the rhythm would not be totally destroyed.
Both the cast and the director were pleased with the results
of this experiment.

The listening rehearsal took place the following night.
During this session the director sat in the rear of the
auditorium with his back to the stage and concentrated solely
on the lines. The entire third act was rehearsed in this
manner. The director took notes and then called the attention
of the cast to the weak scenes. The inner tension was not
great enough during the bombing scene and the voices lacked

excitement. The director attempted to draw a realistic word

picture of the horror of a night bombing. Newsreel film of

211
the London bombing were recalled and discussed. The
director attempted to impress upon the younger members of
the cast the frightfulness and ugliness of war. This
technique seemed to achieve the desired results and again
the cast and director were well satisfied with the outcome
of the experiment.

The last two days of the week were spent in un~
interrupted running of each act. The cast was instructed
to keep the play moving at all costs. They were to ad lib
lines if they could not recall them and to improvise in any

emergency which might arise.
Dress Rehearsal

The first performance was scheduled for the evening
of Wednesday, March let. A technical rehearsal was scheduled
for Monday night and a full dress rehearsal for Tuesday
night. On Monday night, the director was informed that,
because of the coal strike then in progress, the college
administration had ordered all evening activities cancelled.
However, the department had been granted the privilege of
presenting the performance for an invited audience on
Tuesday night. This meant that only one dress rehearsal
was possible. The cast was considerably upset by the new
developments and the rehearsal that night showed obvious

signs of nervousness. The greatest obstacle to be overcome

was that the cast had only one night to become familiar with

212
the completed set and the use of the sound effects. After
the rehearsal had ended, the director thought it expedient
to build the confidence in the cast rather than critize
the rehearsal. The attempt was to calm the cast and belittle
the importance of the cancelled full dress rehearsal.

Since the director had been pointing his rehearsal
schedule toward a Wednesday night Opening and had attempted
to have the show at its peak for that evening, he was some-
what concerned about the effect the change in plans would
have. However, he felt confident that the cast was ready
for a public performance. No changes were suggested in the
interpretation, the movement, or the stage business after
this final dress rehearsal. The cast was warned that, because
of the pre-scheduled showing, they must be prepared for
back stage difficulties. The sound crew had not had sufficient
time to insure prOper timing nor had the light crew had the
necessary time to rehearse the light ones. The importance
of not being taken by surprise by the lack of sound on cue
or slowness in light cues was stressed. It should be
stated that the technical problems mentioned were in no
way the result of inefficiency on the part of the technical
director but were a direct result of unforseen change in
plans. '

The scheduled final dress rehearsal took place before
an audience of some sixty faculty representatives and

interested students. The performance was marked by a nervous

(A

L

213
tension in the cast during the first act. This took the
form of the lowering of voices in most of the female roles.
Otherwise, the actors played the show as it had been
rehearsed and all concerned seemed satisfied with the pro-
duction. The lighting of the third act seemed to be too
dim. The bomb explosions were not loud enough, and the
reaction of the characters to the bombs not quite vivid
enough for the impact that the scene required. The audience
was extremely responsive to the Shavian humor and the cast
had difficulty in timing the laugh lines. The second and
third acts ran more smoothly but, in the director's Opinion,

the second act was marked by a definite slowing down.
Additional Rehearsals

The public performances of "Heartbreak House" were
scheduled for the following term, some four weeks hence.

The tentative dates set, depending on the settlement of the
coal strike were, March 50th, 31st and April 1st.

The director now was faced with the problem of
keeping the production fresh and alive over a four week
period. The greatest danger lay in the play going "stale."
In order to combat this only three rehearsals were scheduled,
one on the 9th of March, one on the 14th and one on the 15th.
Final term examinations and spring vacation filled up the

week of the 20th. Consequently, no more rehearsals were

practical until the week of the production. The director

214
reasoned that the surest way to keep the play on a high
level was to discover a method which would assure the
continued interest of the cast. At the last rehearsal
before spring vacation the director pointed out to the cast
that the public performance must be better than the dress
rehearsal had been. There was no doubt that the audience
had helped considerably in making the cast conscious that
they were playing a very humorous comedy. They were warned
that one of the greatest dangers was the possibility of bad
timing the comedy lines. The director had prepared a list of
criticisms and suggestions from the dress rehearsal. The
cast was told that the pace must be established by the
laugh lines and that the production would not be effective
if they either hurried over the humorous lines or if
they waited too long for the laughs. The timing of the
play had not been what it should have been. The entire
production had lagged, cues were slow, and the whole play
needed to be speeded up.

Each character was given suggestion as to how his
characterization might be improved. The Captain needed
more charm in his characterization, he needed to smile
more, and to mix more humor in with the abruptness. Hector
needed to convince the audience that women would fall in
love with him. There was still not enough contrast between

Hector and Randall. The director pointed out to Hector

that perhaps he needed to see through the character to a

 

215
greater extent. He needed to realize that Hector was
really humorous. Mazzini was working too hard to achieve
age and thereby was losing the character he had established.
He was asked to think in terms of being older and to let the
gestures take care of themselves. Mangan needed to sympathize
more with himself in order that he might look as ridiculous
as the playwright had intended. The Burglar needed more
character movement and more age in the body as well as in
the voice. Randall still had not overcome the mannerism
mentioned earlier. He needed more poise and more of the
drawing room charm. He did not show enough contrast in
his breakdown scene at the end of the second act. Lady
Utterword had not realized the absurdity of the character.
The character was explained to her as having a great deal
of charm and beauty. She must give the impression of being
altogether delightful, otherwise she would not be "getting
her whole life messed up with peOple falling in love with
me.“ Hesione needed more sensuality. She too needed to show
the audience why men like Mangan would fall in love with
her. Ellis was told that she must "believe" more in the
character. Technically she was playing the character but
the fact she did not fully believe such a character possible
evidenced itself in her performance.

At the three rehearsals prior to the performance,

the complete play was run through. Monday night the

director merely tried to get the cast reacquainted with the

216
roles. Tuesday night was a complete technical rehearsal.
Wednesday night was a full dress rehearsal. The cast felt
fully confident of bettering the original dress rehearsal
and the morale seemed to be high. The anticipated let down
had been overcome through the hard work of the cast. They
were now ready for public performance.

In summarizing the rehearsal period the director
felt that the aim had been achieved. Various experiments
had been attempted and the results in all cases were considered
satisfactory. The cast had been extremely cocperative and
had worked hard and long on the play. The director was
confident of a good performance and felt that the benefits
gained from the rehearsal techniques employed were worthy

of the effort expended.

CHAPTER V

PRODUCTION ANALYSIS

PRODUCTION ANALYSIS

The first performance of 'Heartbreak.House' at Michigan
State College was presented on the evening of Thursday,
March 50, 1950. The performance was well attended and the
small auditorium was filled.1

At each performance the Opening of the first act,
Nurse Guinness' entrance with the full rum bottles and exit
with the four empty bottles, was greeted with laughter. From
this time on, the laughs and chuckles came, for the most
part, on lines which had been anticipated as laugh lines.
The actor portraying the Captain seemed to be accepted
immediately by the audience and his humorous lines and abrupt
manner were met with the desired laughter. Because the cast
had had the advantage of an audience at the first dress
rehearsal they were prepared for the reaction of an audience
and time the laughter very well. The director was gratified
to see that the cast did not overplay the various roles as
a result of the reaction of the audience. The integrity of
the performance was preserved as rehearsed.

The review which appeared in the Michigan gtgtg,§ggg
on the following morning is quoted here:

Typical George Bernard Shaw humor was displayed last

night in Studio Theatre and the cast of ten MSC students
portrayed 'Heartbreak.House' with such zest and reality

that the small audience was kept in constant humor despite
the great length of the play.

‘1THe seating capacity of the auditorium of the Studio
Theatre at Michigan State College is 125.

y.

219

The two actors who displayed an exceptional amount of
theatrical talent were Gloria Gluski, who played Hesione,
and Robert Henderson, who took the part of the old
retired sea captain.

The acting of the former, as the captain's Oldest
daughter, was extremely good. She put across the Shavian
humor with perfectness. Her manner and speech were
perfectly cast by Director William Gregory.

Henderson, as the old captain, was the mouthpiece of
the author himself. The dialogue was loaded with humorous
dynamite and Henderson portrayed it with great aptness.

The story concerns a captain's daughter, Hesione, who
invites her friend, Ellie Dunn, to visit at the captain's
home. She wants to show Ellie the bad points about her
future marriage to Boss Mangan.

Last night's presentation started out on a very high
plane and faltered a little in the second act but the
final act was lifted above the highly entertaining initial
act.

One reason for the second act faltering was a scene
between Miss Gluski and Sherwood Bader, as Boss Mangan.
Up to this point, the play was kept on an entertaining
level, with touches of flaring tempers, but at this point
Hesione drives Mangan to tears and Bader's attempt at a
crying scene was sheer corn. It was not at all realistic
and he received anything but sympathy from the audience.

Bader's second attempt at emotion in the final act was
greeted with loud laughter from the audience as he left
the stage in a flood of tears.

"Heartbreak House' was a very good play selection

for the college stage as it combined humor, philosOphy,
and a social standard which delight a college audience.

2
The director agreed with the reviewer in his statement that
the play faltered in the second act. However, the reason for
the faltering was not, in the director's Opinion, the reason

stated in the review. The second act gives the impression

 

2 Theatre review, Michigan State News, (East Lansing)
March 51, 1950.

220
of slowing down primarily because it does not follow the form
used by the majority of the contemporary playwrights. In
many modern plays the acts shorten as the play progresses.
This is not the case in THeartbreak House.“ The first act
lasts for approximately fifty minutes while the second act
requires over sixty minutes to perform. The third act is
approximately thirty minutes in length. This added length
of the second act, combined with the overall structure of
the act, tends to slow down the pace of the last half of the
act. The director was of the Opinion that a greater portion
of the play could have been omitted and that the best place
for further cutting was the long second act. The Randall-
Hector scene and the RandalléHsctor-Lady Utterword scene
which ends the act could have been deleted. It seemed to
the writer that the two scenes are not vital to the plot of
the play and, while they do further develOp the character
of Randall, no extensive use is made of this develOpment in
the remainder of the play. The suggested change would have
shortened the play approximately twelve minutes, and would
have closed the curtain after the Captain-Ellie scene (p. 88).
The Opinion regarding the length of the play is shared by
the reviewer for the N2! York zines.

In a review of ”Heartbreak House' presented by the
On Stage Productions at the Bleecker Street Playhouse in
New York City, on March 22, 1950, much the same thought is

expressed:

221

It is no reflection upon the production to remark that
the excitement was not sustained. Shaw must bear the
blame for the torpid passages. For, even though there
is a school of thought holding that the sage of Ayot St.
Lawrence can do no wrong, there would seem to be one
Obvious fault with “Heartbreak House.” There is too much
of it. Not just a little too much, but considerably too
too much and the sparkling wit and incisive wisdom that
is contained within its three extended acts are not enough
to justify the extraordinary length of the play. . . . .

O O 0

On Stage is entitled to be proud of its "Heartbreak
House.“ If there are complaints from patrons, they will
probably be the result of too much of a thing that, for
the most part, is exceptionally good.3

The director differed from the review printed in the
Michigan S5332 N213 in the matter of the reference to Mangans'
crying scenes. The director believed that Mangan was intended
to represent the faction of society, the non-productive
manager, which Shaw has fought against throughout his literary
life. For this reason, the director and the cast were of the
Opinion that the crying scenes were written as ridiculing the
Mangan type of person. The director was Of the Opinion that
the very incongruity of the “captain of industry“ being
reduced to tears, because he could not OOpe with the situation
at hand, was comedy in itself. The repeated crying scenes of
Mangan had been directed with the intention of making the
character appear as ridiculous as possible. The director
felt that Mr. Shaw did not desire the character to arouse
sympathy in the audience. As has been discussed in the

previous chapter, Mangan was representative of the

3 Theatre review, The New York Times, March 25, 1950.

222
”parasite's parasite.“ (p. 187)

The performance held the attention Of the audience
to a greater degree than the director had anticipated.

Because of the many long speeches and the relatively small
amount of action the director had expected a certain amount
of uneasiness to be evidenced by the audience. But, judging
from the reaction of the audience, interest was maintained
at a high level throughout the performance.

In the final evaluation of the production, the director
returned to the five questions originally used in choosing
the play. (p. 2)

The first question posed was, what type of production
would present a worth while challenge to the abilities of
the director and be of a type he had not previously attempted?
THeartbreak House" was the director's first attempt at a
problem play and proved a challenge from several different
considerations. The two outstanding problems were (1) inter-
preting the lines and (2) imposing arbitrary movement on
the static script without distracting from the thought content.

The difficulties in interpretation resulted, for the
most part, from the actors' lack of understanding of the
Shavian philosOphy. This necessitated a thorough explanation
of Shavian philosOphy as expressed in 'Heartbreak.House.'

The director was Of the Opinion that if the audience was to

grasp the ideas expressed in "Heartbreak House,“ the cast

225
must have complete understanding of thos ideas. This
eXplanation was difficult to present because of the variety
of subjects mentioned and the briefness of the treatment
accorded them. Eric Bentley expresses the same thought in
his book, Bernard Shgg:

”Heartbreak House“ might be called the Nightmare of

a Fabian. All Shaw's themes are in it. You might learn
from it his teachings on love, religion, education,
politics. But you are unlikely to do so, not only because
the treatment is so brief and illusive but because the

play is not an argument in their favor. It is a demxnstrat-
ion that they are all being disregarded or defeated.

The discussion rehearsal and the experimental rehearsals
proved invaluable in helping to clarify the philosOphy
presented. The director explained the philosOphy in the
light of other writings by, and concerning, Shaw. If the
actor failed to achieve the desired interpretation after
extensive explanation the director resorted to the mechanical
method of reading the line to the actor with exaggerated
expression.

The arbitrary movement was added only after careful
examination of the thought expressed in the line. It was
the director's desire that movement should be added only when
it would not detract the attention of the audience from the

thought content of the line. In many instances added move-

ment was limited to a change in body position, as with Lady

 

4 Eric Bentley, Bernard Shaw. (Norfolk, Conn: New
Directions Books, 1947) p. 130.

224

Utterword in the third act. Her long speeches were broken
up by body movements which were used to indicate restlessness,
renewed interest in the conversation, or relationship to the
rest of the group. In order to compensate for the static
script and the limits imposed by the small stage, the
director attempted to achieve the feeling of movement through I
emphasizing vOcal action, 1. e., the rate, pitch, quality,
and intensity, rather than through body movement.5 '

The second question was, what type of play would be
adaptable to the limitations imposed by the small studio
stage? The performance of "Heartbreak House" proved that the
play could be successfully adapted to the acting areas of a
small stage. As the director watched the performances he was
conscious of the limited acting space in only one scene, the
Burglar scene in Act Two (p. 73). In this scene the hurried
exits and entrances and the presence of the entire cast on
stage tended to make the stage appear overcrowded. The six
specific acting areas used in the production of “Heartbreak
House,“ the sofa, the furniture group down left, the window
seat, the platform, the desk, and the stage center area,,
proved to be satisfactory for the requirements of the various
-—_—_—-5-§EEEEI Selden, First Ste s'in Actin . (New York:
F. S. Crofts and Co., 1947TP'p7-2g7'-1V0ca action serves
as a substitute for the pantomimic.... When the actor pantomines,
the audience demands to feel speech, when he speaks, it

wants to sense movement-~for both are parts of the selfsame
expression.

225

scenes. The space most often utilized for scenes was the
sofa area. The director was of the Opinion that perhaps the
play would have been more interesting to the audience if
this area had been used less frequently. Adapting to the
limited off stage facilities, however, had proved awkward.
The pantry door up center could Open only twenty three
inches. This small Opening made the quick entrances and exits
of the Captain very inconvenient. The space of one foot, six
inches which separated the right wall from the permanent stage
wall complicated the hurried exits and entrances on the
Burglar scene.

The lack of height limited the use of levels.6
Because the flats used in constructing the set were only
eight feet, three inches high, the designer and director
thought it inadvisable to use levels more than one foot high.
The platform used in the first two acts was one foot high
while that used in the third act was six inches in height.
The platform used in acts one and two proved satisfactory.
However, the six inch rise used in the third act did not Offer
the desired contrast in levels. The proximity of the
audience, mentioned earlier in regard to the kissing scene in
Act One (p. 169), affected the entire production. The fact
-———_—'6—TEE—Ezlght Of the stage in Studio Theatre at Michigan
State College is ten feet, eleven inches directly behind the
first border. The height at the back of the stage is nine

feet, four inches. The first border hangs eight feet, two
inches from the floor.

 

226
that the actors could see the first rows of the audience
quite distinctly bothered some of them. The advantage of
having an audience at the first dress rehearsal, however,
prepared them for this difficulty and during the public
performances the cast did not seem to be troubled. The
lack of off stage space between the set and the back wall
necessitated the moving of the garden door to the down left
wall. The complications which arose as a result of this
change in the setting have been discussed in the previous
chapter (p. 166).

The third question was, what type of production would
appeal to the average college audience? The review printed

in the Michigan State News had been, for the most part,

 

favorable and the choice of 'Heartbreak House“ as a college
production was given special mention. From the comments

which the director heard from both students and faculty the
reception of the play had been most favorable. The response
to the humorous lines was greater than had been anticipated.
The director had instructed his assistant to note the line

on which the laugh was received. The reaction of the audience
was rated one, two, three, or four. One was used to designate
chuckling and four to designate loud, hearty laughter. The
average number of lines which received laughts were; Act One--
105, Act Two-~77, Act Three-~41. This does not indicate

that the audience became less interested but, rather, that

the script becomes less humorous and more philosOphical.

227
The totals deviated only slightly for the three performances.
The director was interested to note that the most laughs
were received on the Opening night while the loudest laughs
came during the second performance. During the serious scenes
the audience was very quiet and seemed to be intent on
following the thought expressed. This interest was especially
apparent during the climactic scene in the third act. The
tension increased noticeably with the Captain's rise (p. 112),
and held through the final curtain. All three audiences
showed a keen appreciation Of the Shavian brand of humor.

The fourth question was, what type of production

would remain within the abilities of the available college
actors? Each of the actors held the attention of the
audience and each created, to a varying degree, the illusion
of age in his role. The director was particularly pleased
with the performances of the actors portraying the roles of
the Captain, Hesone, and Mangan. The Captain maintained his
character throughout the performance and showed an excellent
understanding of the Shavian humor. Hesione portrayed her robe
with such a degree of warmth and charm that the audience
seemed completely captivated by the character created.
Mangan achieved the maturity and the understanding necessary
to the role and also presented the impression of the un-
educated man attempting to associate on equal terms with the

upper class.

Ellie, for the most part, appeared to gain the

228
sympathy of the audience. However, the director was never.
completely satisfied with her handling of the difficult
transition from the naive girl to the woman of the world in
the first act. Hector worked diligently to achieve the desired
character but could not seem to portray the role with the
dash and romantic flair which the director thought was required.
The Burglar did not achieve a well defined characterization.
For this reason, he appeared out of harmony with the rest of
the cast and, consequently, the second act scene (p. 73)
never reached the degree of smoothness necessary. Nurse
Guinness was very satisfactory and amused the audience with
her cockney dialect and off hand manner. The director was
of the Opinion that Randall was the least effective and
least accepted by the audience. This was apparently due to
his lack of experience and inability to overcome the nervous
mannerism which he had evidenced from the beginning rehearsal.
Mazzini captured the character admirably and seemed to create
the illusion of truth in his portrayal of the role. The
creating of middle aged characters by young college students
had been a most difficult task--one which the director did
not feel had been accomplished as fully as might have been
hOped. It is the director's Opinion that the average college
actor has not had the experience necessary to portray middle
aged characters realistically. The reaction of the audience,

as noted by the director, seemed to indicate that the various

roles had been, taking into consideration the aforementioned

229
youth of the actors involved, within the abilities of the
actors chosen.

The final question was, what type of play would hold
the interest of the cast over the long rehearsal period
planned? The postponement of the scheduled performance
necessitated many changes in the plans of the cast. Two
of the cast were leaving school at the end of the winter term.
The fact that both of these actors chose to return to the
campus for the extra rehearsals and the public performances
proved their continued interest in the production. The director
did not detect any slackening of interest on the part of the
cast as a result of the elongated rehearsal period. The
fact that 'Heartbreak House“ did hold the interest well over
the scheduled rehearsal time proved that the final question
had been answered in the affirmative.

In retrospect, the production of "Heartbreak.House'
had met the questions posed. It had admirably served the
director's purpose by presenting an Opportunity for applying
untried methods and theories of direction. The reception
accorded "Heartbreak House“ reaffirmed the director's
agreement with the statement inscribed in the cOpy of
FHeartbreak.House' owned by Mr. Frank Harris; 'Rightly
spotted by the infallible eye of Frank Harris as My Best
Play. G. Bernard Shaw.'7

7 Frank Harris, Bernard Shaw. (New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1931) p. 170.

BIBLI OGRAPHY

251
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bentley, Eric, Bernard Shaw. Norfolk, Connecticut: New
Directions Rocks, 1937. 232 pp.

Braybrooke, Patrick, Genius 23 Bernard Shaw. Philadelphia:
J. B. Lippincott Company, 1925. 168 pp.

Burton, Richard, Bernard Shaw the Man and the Mask.
New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1916. 393-pp.

 

Chesterton, Gilbert, Geor e Bernard Shaw. New York:
1999

 

 

John Lane Company, . 949 pp.
Dean, Alexander, Fundamentals 23 Pla Directing. New York:
Rinehart and Company, 1946. pp.

Egri Lajos The Art 2; Dramatic Writi . New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1946. 308 pp.

Gassner, John, Masters of the Drama. New York:
Dover Publications,-19497 398 pp.

Harris, Frank, Bernard Shaw. New York: Simon and Schuster,
1931, 207 pp.

Pearson, Hesketh, Q. B. §.,§ Full Length Portrait.
New York: Harper and Brothers, Pu ishers, 1942. 327 pp.

Selden Samuel First Ste s in Actin . New York:
F.’S. Crofts and Co., 947. 344 pp.

Shaw, George Bernard, Heartbreak House, Great Catherine and
Playlets g; the War. New York: Brentano's, . 327 pp.

Shaw, George Bernard, Sixteen Self Sketches. New York:
Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919. 29” pp.

Shaw, George Bernard, editor, Fabian Essa s In Socialism.
London: Walter Scott, 24 T‘Tarw ok‘F‘Lane, Tsar—33“. 2 pp.

Shaw, George Bernard, Three Plays for Puritans. New York:
Brentano's, 1900. 391 pp.

Shaw George Bernard, The Doctor's Dilemma Getting Married,
end The Shewing-Up o? B1anco Posnet. New or :

BFEnfEEO s, 433 pp.

232

Shaw, George Bernard, Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant. Vol. I.
New York: Brentano s, 1898. 245 pp. .

Shaw, George Bernard, Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant. Vol. II.
New York: Brentano s, 1912. 349 pp.

Shaw, George Bernard, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to
Socialism and Capitalism. New York: Bre n tano's, 1928.
495 pp.

 

Shaw, George Bernard, Misalliance, The Dark Lady of the

Sonnets and Fanny's irs wi 7h afTreatis_ on Parents
and Cfiildren. New York: Ere ntano s, 1914. 245“ pp.

Sobel, Bernard, editor, The Theatre Handbook and Digest_ of
Plays. New York: Crown PuEIi ishers, 1948.

Winsten, S., editor, G. B. S. 90. New York: Dodd, Mead and
Company, 1946. 271 pp.

Winsten, Stephen,D sWith9 Bernard Shaw. New York: The
Vanguard Press, nc., W7 pp.

Young, Stark, Immortal Shadows. New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1948. 299 pp.

Michigan State News (East Lansing), March 31, 1950.
New York Times, March 23, 1950.

APPENDIX

2:54
'HEARTBREAK HOUSE"
by

George Bernard Shaw

Heartbreak House is the home of 88 year old Captain
Shotover, a retired sea captain. He has two daughters,
Hesione Hushabye and Lady Utterword. Hesione and her husband
live with the Captain in Heartbreak House. The other
daughter, Addy, or Lady Utterword, has left home some twenty-
three years earlier to marry a governor of one of the crown
colonies. She married to escape from the house.

Hesione invites Ellie Dunn to the house in order to
break up her forthcoming marriage with Boss Mangan, a big
business man. Hesione thinks the marriage would be a great
mistake. Ellie has fallen in love with Hector, Hesione's
husband, without knowing who he is. Boss Mangan falls in
love with Hesione, who has set out to make him forget about
Ellie. Randall has followed Addy to the house in order to
be near her even though she can't abide him. A burglar
is introduced, who always makes a lot of noise in order that
he may be caught; he then tells a sad story and passes the
hat around.

Captain Shotover passes in and out, making his remarks
and giving no time for an answer; for, as he says, "Answers
confuse me.‘ Finally, Ellie decides to stay in Heartbreak

House in order to be near the Captain. The bombs fall from

235
the sky, announcing the beginning of the war. Mangan and
the burglar are killed while the others escape.

The house is, then, as Gassner has said, in his
Masters 2; 332 Drama, “a Noah's ark where the characters
gather before the flood. They and the classes they represent
have been making a hopless muddle of both society and themselves."

HOpe for the world is held out when the two thieves of
the play, the burglar and Mangan, are killed by the bomb and
the rest of the characters try to pull themselves together
to take up the fight.

Heartbreak House was, to Shaw, the EurOpe before the
first World War and, with few modifications, it is the EurOpe,

or perhaps the world, of today.
Captain Shotover

The Captain represents, with certain qualifications,
Shaw's ideas. It is through him, with comedy tossed in, that
the author seems to speak. He is the person who sees through
the muddle and turmoil the world is in and he believes, as
Shaw must have, that war will sweep away the sins of a capital-
istic world. He, then, is the voice crying in the wilderness,
the unheeded prOphet.

He is an Old man of around eighty-eight years, a long
beard, dressed as a sea captain of the early ninteen hundreds.

He is a very active man and in his prime was a man of great

strength and cunning. The strength has all but left him, but

236
the cunning and insight is still there. He drinks rum
continually, although it never has any effect on him; as he
says, 'It might as well be so much water.“ He drinks not
to escape reality but rather to find it. His memory is not
reliable yet the things he remembers, or at least seems to
remember, are often closer to the truth than the things that
really happened. His time now is spent in inventing weapons
of desturction because, as is pointed out, there is more
money in weapons than in life-saving inventions. His one
dread is that of finding complete happiness, the happiness
that turns into contentment and lethargy. He wants to be
doing things as well as thinking about them. His ambition
is to find a method to destroy the parasites of the human race,
the politicians and the war mongers. The Captain knows the
wastefulness of the life the members of Heartbreak House
live, he knows its waste but is helpless in trying to over-

come it, so he finds his escape in his eccentricity.
Lady Utterword

She represents that class of English society that
has no use for the lower classes and lives for her stables
and parties; the class that believes that they alone are
capable Of ruling and are justified in ruling with a club if
necessary.

She is the social light of Heartbreak House. At first

237
she should strike the audience as being nothing but the
light-headed society lady. Later we find that she is really
quite an intelligent woman who is looking for love and is
afraid that some day she may find it. She is married to a
politician, the governor of various crown colonies. She is
a flirt and a real heartbreaker. She is very good looking and
has that something that men cannot resist. Her hobby seems
to be making men fall in love with her and then watching them
suffer. Her philosOphy is that you can get away with any-
thing providing you "always do the perfectly correct thing and
say the perfectly correct thing."

She does not love her husband, yet she is satisfied
with her marriage because it lets her do what she wants to do
and gives her the protection of a husband to fall back on

if the water gets too deep.
Mrs. Hushabye

Hesione represents the futility Of the upper classes;
their uselessness both to themselves and to society.

She is Lady Utterword's sister and daughter of the
Captain. She is a beautiful woman of middle age, although
she looks much younger. She has the same power over men
that her sister has. In reality they are quite a bit alike.
Hesione, however, seems to be the Opposite. She does not
try, nor care to try, to do the "correct” thing. She enjoys

being 'different.‘ She loves her husband, or at least, has

238
loved him. She pretends to enjoy life, while actually she
is bored to tears whenever she lets down her front. She has
made a "household pet' of her husband. At first we think
that she is a completely rational being but, as the play
progresses, we find that she, too, is lost in the muddle that

was and (for our purpose) is EurOpe.
Mazzini Dunn

He represents the highly educated class; he has no
knowledge of how to use his education for his own good or
anyone elses.

He is Ellie's father. The impractical, idealistic
man who has struggled in vain so long that his ideals are
all but gone, yet he has nothing to put in their place. He
thinks of himself as a "fighter for freedom“ but he never
learned to fight for anything, not even his own or his
family's happiness. He is a kind man and vitally interested
in his daughter's happiness, but again he has no real idea of
how to help her find that happiness. He is the kind of man
that peOple take advantage of; they use him for their own

ends and he never finds it out. He is very cultured.
Mangan

He represents the typical big business man; out for
what he can get, in any way that he can get it. He is
engaged to Ellie and wants to back out if he can do it

239
gracefully. He is a politician in the derogatory sense of
the word. He is all bluff, he has really no money, he owns
nothing except a reputation for being a rich man. He is the
kind of man that capitalizes on the misfortunes of others.
He has not the education that the others have and is at a
disadvantage most of the time. He is the type that runs the
world without knowing or caring how or why. He has an
exaggerated idea of his own importance and can't stand to

look below the surface of himself or anyone else.
Mr. Hushabye

Hector, along with his wife, represents the upper class.
Hector, however, shows us more of the boredom and uselessness
Of the class which, as Shaw says in his preface, "took the
only part of our society in which there was leisure for
high culture, and made it an economic, political, and, as
far as practicable, a moral vacuum; and as Nature, abhorring
the vacuum, immediately filled it up with sex.‘

He is Hesione's husband, close to middle age although
he, like his wife, will pass for much younger. He is only
half rational and is bored with himself and with life. He
is a good looking man and has no difficulty in making women
like him. He seems to see into the meaning of life but, like
all the rest, it is only a pose. He is cultured and in his

day must have been quite a man about town. He doesn't work

and doesn't want to. He gives nothing to society, only takes

240
from it. He is misplaced and reminds us of Miniver Cheevy.
He should have been born in the days of Arthur, when knights
were bold. He should not seem artificial to the audience.
He is a brave and dashing man. The war will be a welcome

relief to him.
Randall

He represents the typical young Englishman of noble
birth; he is good for nothing.

Randall is Lady Utterword's brother-in-law. He is in
love with her and follows her everywhere. His manners are
perfect and he seems to be at ease at all times, except when
Lady Utterword makes him suffer and he doesn't have the strength
to leave her. In fact he doesn't want to leav her, he enjoys
having her break his heart. As Lady Utterword says, "It is
a change from having his head shampoosd." He has plenty of
money to live an idle life and that is Just what he does.

He is lazy and selfish, still there is a hint that he may
turn into something. He represents the young, thoughtless

rich class.
Billy Dunn

Billy represents the lowest class, the class which has
never had a chance and very probably wouldn't know how to take
advantage Of a chance if it occurred.

He is the burglar and will be played with an Irish

241
dialect. He has never been any good and never will be. He
is clever in the way that the sneak thief is clever. He
whines when he doesn't get what he wants. He is deathly
afraid Of the Captain, from whom he once stole. He is a
seafaring man and sailed with the Captain. He believes the
Captain sold his soul to the devil and for that reason is
afraid to lie to him. Lying to anyone else is more natural

than telling the truth for Billy.
Ellie Dunn

Ellie is Shaw's idea of the young generation, hunting
desperately for they know not what.

She is a young girl of nineteen. Her background is
that of a poor but well-educated family. She is pretty,
youthful and quite charming when she wants to be yet quite
cruel when the mood is on her. She dresses well and is'a
lover of the classics, a love which she inherited from her
father. In the first part of the show she is very naive and
romantic. However, after a few hours at Heartbreak House, she
loses her young idealistic ideas and becomes a hard headed
young woman of the world, out to get what can be had to make
her own life easier. She represents the modern approach to
life; that is, a hard, practical front. However, she finds
that she can't live up to that type either. She claims to
want only peace and quiet, yet ends hOping wildly for

820113013011‘5.

242

Nurse Guinness

She represents the good hearted, strong, easygoing
English common person; the working class whose life on the
surface seem dull and uncomplicated.

. Guinness would have been a fine typical servant if she
had not lived so long in Heartbreak House. When we find her
she is the one who really keeps the house running. She is
more like a member of the family than a servant. She goes
her own way without much thought of others, yet she really loves
them deeply. Guinness, too, has suffered the sickness of
Heartbreak House and is sadistically happy when her long lost
husband is blown to bits at the end of the play.

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