Suddenly Last Summer and Other Plays by Tennessee Williams

Author:Tennessee Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141975139
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2013-03-04T05:00:00+00:00

Hmmmm.

[The sound is sceptical and so is the look she gives him.]

CHRIS: It’s true, I have, Mrs Goforth.

MRS GOFORTH: I don’t mean to call you a liar or even a fantasist, but I don’t see how you could afford to arrive at the point of no more pretences, Chris.

CHRIS: I probably couldn’t afford to arrive at this point any more than I could afford to travel this summer.

MRS GOFORTH: Hmmm. I see. But you travelled?

CHRIS: Yes, mostly on foot, Mrs Goforth – since – Genoa.

MRS GOFORTH [rises and crosses near balustrade]: One of the reasons I took this place here is because it’s supposed to be inaccessible except from the sea. Between here and the highway, there’s just a goat-path, hardly possible to get down, and I thought impossible to get up. Hmmm. Yes. Well. But you got yourself up.

CHRIS [pours last of the coffee]: I had to. I had to get up it.

MRS GOFORTH [crossing back to him and sitting]: Let’s play the truth game: do you know the truth game?

CHRIS: Yes, but I don’t like it. I’ve always made excuses to get out of it when it’s played at parties because I think the truth is too delicate and, well, dangerous a thing to be played with at parties, Mrs Goforth. It’s nitro-glycerine, it has to be handled with the – the carefulest care, or somebody hurts somebody and gets hurt back and the party turns to a – devastating explosion, people crying, people screaming, people even fighting and throwing things at each other. I’ve seen it happen, and there’s no truth in it – that’s true.

MRS GOFORTH: But you say you’ve reached the same point that I have this summer, the point of no more pretences, so why can’t we play the truth game together, huh, Chris?

CHRIS: – Why don’t we put it off till – say, after – supper?

MRS GOFORTH: You play it better on a full stomach, do you?

CHRIS: Yes, you have to be physically fortified for it as well as – morally fortified for it.

MRS GOFORTH: And you like to stay for supper? You don’t have any other engagement for supper?

CHRIS: I have no engagements of any kind now, Mrs Goforth.

MRS GOFORTH: Well, I don’t know about supper. Sometimes I don’t want any.

CHRIS: How about after –?

MRS GOFORTH: – What?

CHRIS: After lunch?

MRS GOFORTH: Oh, sometimes I don’t have lunch, either.

CHRIS: You’re not on a healthful régime. You know, the spirit has to live in the body and so you have to keep the body in a state of repair because it’s the home of the – spirit …

MRS GOFORTH: – Hmmm. Are you talking about your spirit and body or mine?

CHRIS: Yours.

MRS GOFORTH: One long ago meeting between us, and you expect me to believe you care more about my spirit and body than your own? Mr Flanders?

CHRIS: Mrs Goforth, some people, some people, most of them, get panicky when they’re not cared for by somebody, but I get panicky when I have no one to care for.

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