The Books: “Awake and Sing” (Clifford Odets)

Next in my Daily Book Excerpt:

Another Clifford Odets play – Awake and Sing

Unlike Waiting for Lefty which is a series of vignettes, culminating in the taxi strike when all the different strands come together … Awake and Sing is a full-length conventional ensemble drama. It has some of the best lines Odets has ever written. It was a huge Broadway hit at the time, and pretty much established The Group Theatre as a player on the map. The original cast list (all members of The Group) reads like a whos-who of American theatre. Art Smith, Stella Adler, Morris Carnovsky, Phoebe Brand, Jules Garfield (who eventually became JOHN Garfield), Roman Bohnen, Luther Adler, J.E. Bromberg, Sanford Meisner. Stella Adler and Sanford Meisner eventually became two of our most important acting teachers. Hugely influential. It also makes me sad and mad to look at that list of names: many of these people were blacklisted during the McCarthy years – and could no longer work. John Garfield was so harassed by the HUAC, so hounded, that he feckin’ DIED at the age of 39. It makes me mad just thinking about it.

So – the excerpt I want to post today is the love scene at the end of Awake and Sing – between Hennie and Moe. Hennie Berger lives with her parents, it is the Great Depression, she feels trapped by life, but she’s pretty fatalistic about it. She has a wry sense of humor about it as well. She’s not a whiner. She’s self-reliant, she knows she can survive. Moe Axelrod is a guy from the neighborhood (which is the Bronx) – he lost a leg in World War I. He’s the kind of guy who will do his damndest to never let you see his vulnerability. He fights against his own feelings. Yet – he’s madly in love with Hennie. She is ALL that he wants. He’s a bitter guy, cynical about most things – and he’s also very proud. (That’s one of the reasons why Odets’ love scenes are so good. He usually gives his characters some sense of pride, and also resistance … so that they’re fighting against the very thing they want the most. Odets writes TOUGH characters. These are tough nuts, hardened, they don’t ever do a willing swandive into love, they’re too tough and cynical… so when it happens, it’s not a gushy surrender. People fight like tooth and nail in Odets’ plays to not fall in love, or at least to not lose control. Like in the middle of the scene I post below, Hennie says, “Don’t make me laugh!” That’s classic Odets – to have a line like that in the middle of a passionate love scene.)

There’s a ton more that goes on in the play – it’s not just a love story between Hennie and Moe – but I just HAVE to post this one scene. It’s got some of my favorite Odets-ian lines ever. For example:

“What do you want? Say the word — I’ll tango on a dime. Don’t gimme ice when your heart’s on fire!”

Nobody writes like that but Odets.

It’s at the end of the play. It’s the culmination of a ton of back and forth, of cagey stuff, not admitting their feelings, teasing each other, lying … the whole tormenting mating game.

EXCERPT FROM Awake and Sing by Clifford Odets.

MOE. Why are you crying?

HENNIE. I never cried in my life. [She is now]

MOE. [starts for door. Stops.] You told Sam you love him …

HENNIE. If I’m sore on life, why take it out on him?

MOE. You won’t forget me to your dyin’ day — I was the first guy. Part of your insides. You won’t forget. I wrote my name on you — indelible ink!

HENNIE. One thing I won’t forget — how you left me crying on the bed like I was two for a cent!

MOE. Listen, do you think —

HENNIE. Sure. Waits till the family goes to the open air movie. He brings me perfume … He grabs my arms —

MOE. You won’t forget me!

HENNIE. How you left the next week?

MOE. So I made a mistake. For Chris’ sake, don’t act like the Queen of Romania!

HENNIE. Don’t make me laugh!

MOE. What the hell do you want, my head on a plate?! Was my life so happy? Chris’, my old man was a bum. I supported the whole damn family — five kids and Mom. When they grew up they beat it the hell away like rabbits. Mom died. I went to the war; got clapped down like a bedbug; woke up in a room without a leg. What the hell do you think, anyone’s got it better than you? I never had a home either. I’m lookin’ too!

HENNIE. So what?!

MOE. So you’re it — you’re home for me, a place to live! That’s the whole parade, sickness, eating out your heart! Sometimes you meet a girl — she stops it — that’s love … So take a chance! Be with me, Paradise. What’s to lose?

HENNIE. My pride!

MOE. [grabbing her] What do you want? Say the word — I’ll tango on a dime. Don’t gimme ice when your heart’s on fire!

HENNIE. Let me go! [He stops her]

MOE. WHERE?!!

HENNIE. What do you want, Moe, what do you want?

MOE. You!

HENNIE. You’ll be sorry you ever started —

MOE. You!

HENNIE. Moe, lemme go — [Trying to leave] I’m getting up early — lemme go.

MOE. No! … I got enough fever to blow the whole damn town to hell. [He suddenly releases her and half stumbles backwards. Forces himself to quiet down.] You wanna go back to him? Say the word. I’ll know what to do …

HENNIE. [helplessly] Moe, I don’t know what to say.

MOE. Listen to me.

HENNIE. What?

MOE. Come away. A certain place where it’s moonlight and roses. We’ll lay down, count stars. Hear the big ocean making noise. You lay under the trees. Champagne flows like — [Phone rings. Moe finally answers the telephone] Hello? … Just a minute. [Looks at Hennie]

HENNIE. Who is it?

MOE. Sam.

HENNIE. [starts for phone, but changes her mind] I’m sleeping …

MOE. [in phone] She’s sleeping … [Hangs up. Watches Hennie who slowly sits] He wants you to know he got home O.K. … What’s on your mind?

HENNIE. Nothing.

MOE. Sam?

HENNIE. They say it’s a palace on those Havana boats.

MOE. What’s on your mind?

HENNIE. [trying to escape] Moe, I don’t care for Sam — I never loved him —

MOE. But your kid –?

HENNIE. All my life I waited for this minute.

MOE. [holding her] Me too. Made believe I was talkin’ just bedroom golf, but you and me forever was what I meant! Christ, baby, there’s one life to live! Live it!

HENNIE. Leave the baby?

MOE. Yeah!

HENNIE. I can’t …

MOE. You can!

HENNIE. No ….

MOE. But you’re not sure!

HENNIE. I don’t know.

MOE. Make a break or spend the rest of your life in a coffin.

HENNIE. Oh God, I don’t know where I stand.

MOE. Don’t look up there. Paradise, you’re on a big boat headed south. No more pins and needles in your heart, no snake juice squirted in your arm. The whole world’s green grass and when you cry it’s because you’re happy.

HENNIE. Moe, I don’t know …

MOE. Nobody knows, but you do it and find out. When you’re scared the answer’s zero.

HENNIE. You’re hurting my arm.

MOE. The doctor said it — cut off your leg to save your life! And they done it — one thing to get another.