Next on my script shelf:
A Tennessee Williams one-act called Talk To Me Like the Rain … And Let Me Listen, included in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton And Other One-Act Plays
A favorite with actors. There are two unnamed characters. They live in a cold-water flat on the Lower East Side. He is a drunk. She is wasting away to nothing. There is intimacy between them – the intimacy of desperation. He woke up that morning in some random hotel in a bathtub full of ice cubes. No idea how he got there. He found his way home. Meanwhile, she has drank nothing but water for 3 days.
Actors love this play because both characters have long juicy monologues. It’s a very rich piece of writing. He keeps begging her to talk: “talk to me like the rain … and let me listen …”
From Talk To Me Like the Rain … And Let Me Listen, by Tennessee Williams
MAN. Can you talk to me, honey? Can you talk to me, now?
WOMAN. Yes!
MAN. Well, talk to me like the rain and — let me listen, let me lie here and — listen … [He falls back across the bed, rolls on his belly, one arm hanging over the side of the bed and occasionally drumming the floor with his knuckles. The mandolin continues] It’s been too long a time since — we levelled with each other. Now tell me things: What have you been thinking in the silence? — While I’ve been passed around like a dirty postcard in the city … Tell me, talk to me! Talk to me like the rain and I will lie here and listen.
WOMAN. I —
MAN. You’ve got to, it’s necessary! I’ve got to know, so talk to me like the rain and I will lie here and listen, I will lie here and —
WOMAN. I want to go away.
MAN. You do?
WOMAN. I want to go away!
MAN. How?
WOMAN. Alone! [She returns to window] I’ll register under a made-up name at a little hotel on the coast …
MAN. What name?
WOMAN. Anna — Jones … The chambermaid will be a little old lady who has a grandson that she talks about … I’ll sit in the chair while the old lady makes the bed, my arms will hang over the — sides, and — her voice will be — peaceful … She’ll tell me what her grandson had for supper! — tapioca and — cream … [The Woman sits by the window and sips the water] — The room will be shadowy, cool, and filled with the murmur of —
MAN. Rain?
WOMAN. Yes. Rain.
MAN. And?
WOMAN. Anxiety will — pass — over!
MAN. Yes …
WOMAN. After a while the little old woman will say, Your bed is made up, Miss, and I’ll say — Thank you … Take a dollar out of my pocketbook. The door will close. And I’ll be alone again. The windows will be tall with long blue shutters and it will be a season of rain — rain — rain … My life will be like the room, cool — shadowy cool and — filled with the murmur of —
MAN. Rain….
I remember reading this in high school! It sounded like a really intense piece.
Wow – the memories you do dredge up in me! LOL
I am an aspiring actor in Chicago. I’m currently taking my final acting course with “The Second City” theatre. I will be performing a passage from T.W. “Talk to me like the rain…” for my final. Any additional insight would be appreciated.
Thank You,
Watson Swift
Hi, Love! Could you send to me an e-mail with the beginning of the play? I would be very grateful…
León
Do you know where I can download the play today? Thanks!
I’d like to download this play as well. Do you know where I can download it? Thank you!
Hey~do you have the script in its entire form or know where I can get it?
Please!!
Download the play? Are you kidding? Go to the library, if you want it for free. Or buy a copy, go to a bookstore. Go on Amazon.
Wow… Things have really changed, now we can download it for free.
I’m on my final year of drama school, in Spain, and my acting teacher sent us this scene yesterday to have it ready for tomorrow. I’m amazed by it. I also have been analyzing it for almost 12 hours straight and still feel like I am missing a piece… I don’t want to go to sleep before making sense of the text. It’s 2.09 am hahaha.
Thank you Sheila for creating this space. It’s beautiful to find people devoted for drama.
Nayna – wow!! Look at the date on this original post. My gosh.
I love to hear you’ve been sitting with the script for 12 hours – that’s fantastic!!
I’d love to hear your thoughts and what you came up with in your analysis – it’s been a long time since I read the play but it is burned into my mind. It’s beautiful as a piece of poetry but it’s a whole other thing to actually ACT it.
Best of luck to you at drama school and whatever you decide to do with your acting art!
I did this for my drama class in high school, 1973, at 16 years old! It was in Seattle, Wash., at our school district’s theater with paying audience of community, students, parents and friends from the school district. I had to sell it to the principal because, most of all, I would be wearing nothing but boxer shorts. They made sure I wore something under my boxers and that the fly was sewn shut. I’m sure we thought we were Tony-worthy; I’ll bet we were atrocious but I was hooked on Tennessee Williams and anything from the South. Also did a scene from, This Property is Condemned, which also surprises me we got away with. Wish we’d had technology that I could see it now. LOL!