lc an Rl The Miracle Worker William Gibson ‘A Doctor Helen Kate Martha Keller Perey ‘Awat Ev James ‘Anagnos (an ag! nds) Blind Gists ‘Annie Sullivan A Servant ‘viney Ottstage Voices ‘Toe, The 1880's Puce. In and around the Keller home- Stead in Tuscumbia, Alabama; also, Drefly, the Perkins Institut for the Blind, in Boston. act te ts night over the Keller homestead. In- side, Uwe adults in the bedroom are grouped around a enb, in tamolight. They have been through a long uigil. and tt shows in thelr tired bearing and disar- ranged clothing. One is a yeung gentle- woman with a sweet girlish fase. uate RL rn; the second is an elderly oocron. stethascope at neck, Uermomrater in fir agers: the third 1s a hearty gentleman in es forties with ohin whiskers, caveav: aoe tues octor. Shell lve. are. Thank God. (The vocroR leaves them togetwer over the ‘ert, packs his bag.) bocron. You're a pate of hicky parents, can tel you now, | thought she wouldn't euen. Nonsense, the child's a Keller. she ‘has the constitution of a goat. She't outlive ts all. octon. JAmiably! Yes, especially if some of you Kellers dom get a nights sleep. | mean you. Ms. Kelle, MeLLER. You hear, Katie? save, { hear exntze. Undulgent! Ive brought up two of them, but this Is my wife's fist. she isn't Dattle-searred yet, kare, Doctor, don't be merely considerate, will my gir be allright? ocros. Oh, by morning she be knocking down Captain Keller's fences again are, And isn't there anything we should a? xuien. (Jovlall Put up stronger fencing, ba? Docrow. Just Jet her get well, she knows ‘how to do it better than we do, He ts packed, ready to leave.) “The Muacle Worker 255Mata thing i the fever’ gone, these things come and go in infants, never know why. Calli acute congestion ofthe stomach ard brain. exten. I see you to your buggy, Doctor. ocror. Ive never seen a baby, more vital ity, thats the truth. He beams a good night at the baby and ave, and weiues leads him downstairs witha lamp. They go down the porch step, land across the yard, where the Decron goes off left: xainen stands with the lamp laf. Kare meanwhile ts bent lovingly over the on, whieh emis a bleat; her finger = playful with the baby's face.| kare: Hush, Don't you ery now, youve been trouble enough, Calli acute congestion, in deed, {don’t see what's so eute about a con gestion, just because i's yours, Well have {Your father run an editorial in his paper. the ‘wonders of modern medicine, they don't know what they're curing even when they cure it Men, men and their battle sears, we ‘women will have to \But she breaks off, puzzled. moves her finger before the baby's eyes.| Wil have to—Helen? Wow she moves her hand, quickly. Helen, [She snaps her fingers at the baby’ eyes fice, and her hand falers: after @ mo ment she cals out, loudly Captain, Captain, wil you come— (But she stares at the baby, and her next call ts directly at her ears. Captain land now, still staring, xare screams, et- tan in the yard hearst, and runs with the lamp back to the house. ware screams 254 Drama again, her look intent on the baby and ter- ble, xeuiex huries in and up. emiizn. Katie? What's wrong? are, Look, (She makes a pass with her hand in the crib, at the baby's eyes.| niin. What, Katie? She's well, she needs only time to— RATE, She can't se, Look at her eyes, [She takes the lamp from him, moves ( be- fore the chil’ face.| ‘She cant see! amen, (Hoarsely| Helen, sare, Or hear, When I screamed she didn't Dlink: Not an eyelash— ‘ELLER. Helen, Helen! xAzE, She can’t hear you! xxuuzn. Helen! its face has something like fury tnt erye {ng the child's name: ware almost fainting presses her knuckles lo her mouth, o sop her own ery ‘The room dims out quickly Tune, in the form of a slow tune of distant belfry chimes which approaches in a cre ‘seendo and then fades, passes: the light comes up again on a day five years later, fon three kneeling children and an old dog outside around the pump. The dog ts a setter named seus, and she 1s sleeping. Two of the children are Ne- ‘groes, marta and rescy. The third child ts uss, ste and a half years old. quite ur emp. in body a vivacious litle person with a fine Read, atractive, but noticeably Dund, one eye larger and protruding: her ‘estures are abrupt, insistent, lacking tnhuman restraint. and her Jace never ‘smiles. She ts flanked by the other two, in @ Wer of paperdolt cutouts, and while they speak wesen’s hands thrust at their aces in turn, feeling baffedly atthe move: ments oftheir lips.) maserua. (Snipping} First !'m gonna cut off this doctors legs, ane, two, now then— PERCY. Why you cuttin’ off that doctor's ger muarraa. Tm gonna give him a operation [Now Tm gonna cat off his arms, one, two. Now Tim gonna fix op— [She pushes usiew's hand away from her mouth} You stop that Pxcy. Cut off his stomach, that's a good operation, MARTHA. No, im gonma cut off his head firs. he got a bad cold vncr. Aln't gonna be much of that doctor left (0 fx up, time you finish all them opera (But ustex ts poking her fingers inside hie mouth, to feel his tongue; he bites at them. ‘annoyed. and she Jerks them away. iss now fingers her own lips, moving them in Litation, but soundlessl| manera. What you do, bite her hand? vencr. That's how Ido, she keep pokta’ her fingers in my mouth, € just bite “em off. MARTHA. What she tryin’ do now? ‘PERCY. She tryin’ talk. She gonna get mad, ook her tryin’ tale Us scowling, the lips under her fin gertips moving in ghostly silence, growing more and more frantie, unil in a blearre rage she bites «at her own fingers. This sends resct off Into laughter, but alarms nase Mana. Hey. you stop now. [she pulls wa.es's Rondl down.) You just sit qutet anc— But at once wesw topples waKrin on her back, knees pinning her shoulders down. land grabs the scissors, axa screams, Fency darts to the bell siring on the porch. yanks tt, and the bell rings. Inside, the Ughts have Been gradually com: {ng up on the main room, where we see the Family informally gatrered, talking, but in ‘pantomime: nave sits daruing socks near a cradle, oeasionally rocking sexta ruse in spectacles ts working over news paper pages at a table: a benign visitor in a hat. ane ey, Is shartvg the sewing basket, putting the finishing touches on a big shapetess doll made cut of towels; an indo Tent young man, saves weston, ts at the window watching the children. With the rtng of the bell. xare ts instantly (on her feet and out the door onto the porch, to take in the scene now we see what these five years have dane to her. the git> {sh playfulness is gone, she ls a woman steeled in grep.) MATE, [For the thousandth time! Helen. [She ts down the stepsat once to them, sete Ing aun’ wrists and lyting her off mse use runs off tn tears and screams for ‘momma, with vencr after her | Let me have those sess, (Meanwhile the famty inside (s alerted ‘AoW? RY Jomung sisies at the window; CAP ‘oi seiten resumes work.) sames. [Blanc She enly dg Martha's eyes tout. Almost dug, H's avays almost, no point ‘worrying til ie happens, is there? The Miracle Worker 255