Brick

Margaret
Reverend Tooker
Hicky
Margie
Parrit

The Iceman and the Devil’s Disciple

on Hamlet’s hot tin roof.
Scene: A low down bar some washed up dead-
end of a place. The kind of place where only the
down on their luck go to for a sip of comfort and
company…

Margaret: Well it should come to this.

Brick: What’s that?
Margaret: Here we are, washed up in this place
whilst those no neck monsters are having all the
fun.
Brick: How d ya know?
Margaret : How do I know what?
Brick : They’re having all the fun?
Margaret : Well of course they are. Would n’t you
be with all that money Big Daddy left them?
Brick: Dunno.
Margaret: How d ya mean ‘Dunno’? All the things
you could wish for in life and more.
Brick : So what’s the point of trying then?
Margaret: Trying what?
Brick : Trying to do nothing ,I guess? Can’t be
that hard.
Margaret: Look where it’s got us!
Brick: Here!
Margaret: The end of the road. Living off those no
neck monsters hoping they’ll pick up the tab.
Brick: Still got a dream though!
Margaret: Of getting out o’ here? No way. Once
here, there ain’t no way out except in a box.
Brick: A dream. (Dreamily )A memory at least of
what was once, and what might o’ been, if things
hadn’t worked out the way they did.
Margaret: No perseverance. Gave up at the first
hurdle!
Brick: Tripped.
Margaret: The very first. Dropped the ball before
you began running with it!
Brick: Knew where I was gonna go though. Still
do!
Margaret: Well go then!
Brick: Too late. There’s a time for everything.
Even dreaming. Even doing nothing.
Margaret: Well unconventional you were.
Talented too. And yet…could n’t keep it up.
Pressure drove you to drink ‘n’ drink drove you
here.
Hicky: Oh here aint so bad..once ya get used to it.
People come…’n’ go… Why look at old Larry over
there. He hasn’t been out ‘o here in twenty
years…’n’ he’s as happy as…….Larry. Not a more
contented person in the world. Waitin’ I guess.
But aren’t we all?
Harry : Well I’m waitin’….. ..Waitin’ to be paid for
all the drinks I provide you with. This ain’t charity
you know! (Hands Brick another drink.)
Brick: I know, Harry, I know. Don’t worry. Those
no neck monsters wouldn’t have the nerve to
leave you in the lurch.
Rocky: Just goes to prove…behind every
successful man there’s a powerful woman.
Brick (musingly) Maybe a dream of a woman. A
figment of the imagination. A dispenser of
dreams.
Margaret: An’ you’re my knight in shining armor
who came to save me from my distress but fell
an’ broke yer ankle before the starting shot! Why
you’re not even the ghost of the man you were!
Brick: Ghosts. Phantoms. Dreams. They’re the
forces that inspire us!
Margaret : To end up in the nightmare we’ve
found ourselves today.
Brick: One slip…
Margaret: Led to another….then another…
snowballing down the slippery slope to oblivion in
Harry Hope’s saloon.
Harry: Good job I’m here. What’d yer do if I
were’nt?
Reverend Tooker : The ways of the Lord are
strange indeed. Repent ‘n’ follow the word before
it’s too late.
Margaret: Just like them no neck monsters. Why
they fill up the church every Sunday, the whole
tribe of ‘em… Why they’re so righteous.
Brick : Christ never refused a drink. Spent his
time hanging out with hookers too.
Maggie: Who you callin’ a hooker?
Brick: Love is everything there is!
Parrit. Alleluia!
Margaret: Perseverance! Wine destroys it. Rots
the liver. Fills it with holes like moths destroy yer
clothes. Why you were the handsomest man in
town once. now look at yer!
Brick: Still got my dreams though. What could’ve
been if the dice hadn’t tumbled the way they did.
Margaret: You tumbled! Not the dice!
Brick: Tumbled in the hay with you!
Margaret: And that so-called friend of yours. Why
he made it big on Broadway I’ll never know!
Reverend Tooker: The ways of the Lord are a
mystery to all but He. The way is His.
Brick: Doesn’t leave much scope for individual
will.
Reverend Tooker : We’ll have none of your
Puritanical purity here!
Harry: This is a God-fearing house whose doors
are closed to none. Dreams are what life’s made
of ‘n’ mine are as good as the next man’s….