The Books: “Rocket to the Moon” (Clifford Odets)

Next in my Daily Book Excerpt:

Another Clifford Odets play – Rocket to the Moon. First produced in 1938 (with the Group Theatre – all of Odets’ stuff in the beginning was done by the Group Theatre) Rocket to the Moon is a simple drama. I like it a lot. It’s about a dentist (Ben Stark) who hires an office assistant (Cleo) who is young, pretty, and highly distracting. Stark is married (to a great character – her name is Belle) and … this Cleo person causes problems in the Stark’s marriage. Belle knows something is going on, he spends more and more time at work, their marriage becomes very frayed. What’s nice about this play is that there are no villains. Stark isn’t a cad, Belle isn’t an unattractive shrew, and Cleo isn’t an amoral slut. They’re all just flawed human beings, looking for love. That’s what it’s all about for Odets – love. Of course, Odets was a notorious womanizer – but who says that womanizing isn’t just another version of looking for love? Even compulsive womanizing, which Odets’ seems to have been?

Here’s a scene between Belle and Stark. Stark and Cleo have already begun their affair. And Belle shows up at the office … trying to get him to leave and enjoy his weekend with her. (Belle’s a wonderful part. I would love to play this role. Ruth Nelson originally played her – I bet she was marvelous. Morris Carnovsky played Stark.)

EXCERPT FROM Rocket to the Moon, by Clifford Odets.

[Cleo and Belle look at each other briefly, and Cleo exits]

BELLE. She uses a very heavy perfume.

STARK. [over-brightly] Belle, I’m surprised to see you in town!

BELLE. [quizzically] But pleased?

STARK. Very pleased.

BELLE. The beach is boring.

STARK. It must be cool down there. I wish I didn’t have to stick in the office —

BELLE. [wanly] I feel like a poached egg.

STARK. Why don’t you stay down there, dear? It’s cool, you can rest —

BELLE. [wearily] Don’t be funny, Ben. A place is not a place. A place is who you’re with!

STARK. [meekly, wondering what she knows] Unfortunately, I have this lecture tonight, at the Clinic. But I’ll be down early in the afternoon, tomorrow … tomorrow? … Yes, Saturday, and we’ll have the whole weekend together.

BELLE. A weekend starts on Friday in the summer. If you saw the other husbands at the beach today you’d know it. [Suddenly she almost sobs, but immediately catches herself. Stark is immediately at her side, his arm around her shoulder. He is both touched and uneasy, a little sick at heart]

STARK. [gently] Is that why you came to town, dear? You felt alone?

BELLE. [dry-eyed] Yes.

STARK. Why don’t you have Milly Heitner down till I get there? They can use the other room — I’ll move the table out —

BELLE. Milly and Jack are in San Diego, California.

STARK. I forgot that … [After a pause] Would you want to stay in town tonight? …

BELLE. Do you want me to?

STARK. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t. [Seeing her distressed face] What’s the matter, Belle?

BELLE. Your heart is so faint, the way you ask. Am I being a pest?

STARK. You’re not a pest, Belle.

BELLE. For God’s sake, tell me if I am. I’ll go back to the beach and bury myself in the sand up to the chin!

STARK. [meekly] I was only thinking — I have that lecture tonight … [Now Belle begins to flirt with her husband, an activity which does not become her. But she is desperate. The flirting comes out thin, pitiful, dry and nervous. To both of them it is an extremely painful interlude.]

BELLE. Aren’t you afraid I’ll leave you, Ben? Down there at the beach, alone? All day long? Suppose an interesting man came along? Don’t you care?

STARK. [smiling uneasily] You won’t run away, dear …

BELLE. [half smiling] I might … or don’t you think I’m attractive enough for a man —

STARK. You’re as attractive as you ever were, Belle.

BELLE. Confess to your wife — aren’t you ever afraid to leave her alone as much as you do?

STARK. [shaking a finger at her] Send me a wire before you elope. [They both laugh weakly]

BELLE. [fishing for affirmations] You’d like to get rid of me.

STARK. Never, never!

BELLE. Admit it —

STARK. Never, dear, not for a day … And I don’t want you to talk that way, even in a joke.

BELLE. [suddenly] I’ll make you an offer, Ben. Why don’t I take this job?

STARK. This …

BELLE. [quickly] I’d get my typing back in no time. In one week I’d have this office on an efficient working basis …

STARK. You don’t mean it.

BELLE. Yes, I do.

STARK. You wouldn’t want this job.

BELLE. Why not? I’m loyal, honest — you’d get me cheap —

STARK. A wife in her husband’s office? I need a girl here who can take orders. She has to clean instruments, be yelled at, be impersonal —

BELLE. I can be impersonal.

STARK. Why do you bring up a thing like that, after all these years?

BELLE. Why are you so outraged?

STARK. [angrily] Who’s outraged?

BELLE. Isn’t your tone unreasonable?

STARK. Isn’t your request? In all fairness … Well, I see your point, Belle, but I give in to you on many things. Gee, I know it’s no bed of roses for you, but a man’s office is his castle —

BELLE. I can be as impersonal as some snip of a girl with vaseline on her eyelids. I want you to fire her and let me —

STARK. Yes? Well, I won’t do it!

BELLE. Why does she call you Ben, that little papoose?

STARK. What?

BELLE. I heard her call you Ben when I came in. Is that a habit of hers?

STARK. I didn’t noticer that.

BELLE. Ask her to call you Dr. Stark — do me the favor. Or would that be straining relationships too much?

STARK. [quickly] What relationships?

BELLE. [acidly] Any which might exist. Secondly, I intend to go to that lecture tonight.

STARK. That doesn’t frighten me.

BELLE. Will she be there?

STARK. She takes notes.

BELLE. Notes? Will they be printed in a book, “Confessions of a Dentist”?

STARK. Belle, I deplore these suspicions!

BELLE. Let her go or you’ll confirm them!

STARK. [going to her after a pause] Belle, can you stand there and seriously tell me …

BELLE. [eluding him] Off … the scrawny shoulders, my dental friend. Now make up your mind, Ben ….

STARK. [blazing out] Will you stop that stuff for a change! It’s about time you began to realize there are two ends to a rope. I have needs, too! This one-way street has to end! I’m not going to stay under water like an iceberg the rest of my life. You’ve got me licked — I must admit it. All right, I’m sleeping, I don’t love you enough. But what do you give? What do you know about my needs?

BELLE. Don’t you dare speak that way to me!

STARK. You’ve been speaking like that for ten years!

BELLE. You won’t throw me away for that dirty rag of a girl!

STARK. The hell with the girl! I’m talking of us …

BELLE. [wildly] I gave you too much of my life for that. You’ve used me up …

STARK. Belle, for Pete’s sake …!

BELLE. And now you want to throw me off. But you’re a man, not an animal — you can’t do that!

STARK. If you can’t talk facts, keep quiet!

BELLE. [weeping] My mother sat crying by the window for twenty years —

STARK. Every word is nonsense!

BELLE. But you can’t do that to me. I wasn’t born in Europe — I’m a modern woman — I don’t weep, not me … [She trails off into silence. Stark gruffly hands her a handkerchief, which she uses.]

STARK. [bitterly] Sonofagun …

BELLE. Not weep, not weep. [Belle turns scornfully and enters the office, slamming the door in Stark’s following face.]

STARK. [at the door] No, open the door, Belle. Open it. [Rattling and turning the knob] Unlock the door, Belle. [Twisting the knob again] Belle? … Belle? … Let me in …