The Books: “Home Free!” (Lanford Wilson)

Next on my script shelf:

Next playwright after Tennessee Williams is Lanford Wilson. He was one of the most influential playwrights of the 1960s and 70s helping to create the outburst of experimental theatre in New York. His production of Balm in Gilead was a watershed moment. I wish I had been there the first night it opened. People flipped. There is rarely a straight linear thru-line with him, he has multiple scenes going on at the same time, the audience has to look this way and that – and YET – unlike all the lesser playwrights who imitated him (and imitate him to this day) – he can actually WRITE, and he also creates real breathing characters. He wasn’t being experimental just to be experimental. It was how he heard dialogue, and how he saw the world. Balm in Gilead, Fifth of July and Burn This are probably his most well-known plays. I’ve done a bunch of Lanford Wilson plays: The Rimers of Eldritch, The Gingham Dog, Ludlow Fair, and many of his plays are among my favorites. He’s famous for “overlapping”. He never wants one actor to finish a line completely before the other actor says his next line. That’s not how conversation goes in real life. We interrupt each other all the time. Wilson doesn’t leave that to chance – he puts the “overlapping” into the script.

First play of his that I own is a one-act called Home Free!. I will always always ALWAYS think of the production done at my college of this freaky little one-act – starring my dear friends David and Brooke. It is so vivid in my mind that I can remember their blocking. I look at the lines on the printed page and can hear their voices – I still remember how they said certain things. And I can still remember the bolt of alarm and sadness at the very last moment. The two of them were absolutely PHENOMENAL in their roles.

Home Free! takes place in one room – a cluttered dingy little New York apartment. In the apartment live two people: Lawrence and Joanna. They are adults. They are brother and sister. Lawrence never leaves the apartment. He has a huge stuttering problem out in the world – he is agoraphobic – so Joanna is the one who goes out foraging for food, etc. In the apartment he doesn’t stutter – he’s fine when he’s inside – but he is incapable of survival without her. Joanna is pregnant. Lawrence is the father. They live as man and wife. (All of this is revealed over the whole course of the play – it unfolds slowly). Joanna and Lawrence live in a fantasy world – they have two imaginary friends – Claypone and Edna – who are children, young children, who they reprimand, who they talk to openly, ordering them around. They make Claypone and Edna sit down and listen, they send them out of the room, they tell them to cover their ears at certain moments … Joanna and Lawrence have game rituals that they play, the same ones every day – Joanna pretends to be a queen. They have a “Surprise Box” that they open … they have a little Ferris wheel toy that they play with. They are adults but this is how they live. Obviously, these two are all messed up!

Joanna is having a difficult pregnancy. She gets pains in her heart occasionally – after climbing stairs. You get the sense, eventually, that Joanna is actually aware that they are playing games – that this is not real – she doesn’t really believe in Claypone and Edna (this becomes clear in one DEVASTATING moment at the very end of the play) – but she keeps up the pretense because Lawrence so needs her. Lawrence actually cannot function out in the real world. She can.

Basically the end of the play is this: Lawrence starts to chase Joanna. They are laughing and screaming. She runs, they leap over couches, they scream – she is hugely pregnant – eventually, she gets a pain in her heart – a bad one – and stops – Lawrence can’t stop the game at first, but he realizes that something is wrong with her. She clutches her heart. He tries to joke her out of it. She tells him to go and get a doctor. He can’t. The agoraphobia … for an entire page, they go back and forth – the pain is getting worse for her, she can’t breathe – he refuses to go outside, to even admit that something might be wrong with her – Finally, she knocks over a glass to get his attention – and screams: GET A DOCTOR! Lawrence gets a ‘brilliant’ idea. He says, “I’ll send Claypone and Edna – they’ll go get the doctor!” Joanna then screams: “No, Lawrence, no Lawrence, YOU GO.” (This is the devastating moment. She knows the doctor will never come if the imaginary friends are sent to fetch him. In that moment, you realize that all along, she has been pretending to believe for Lawrence’s sake) But of course, Lawrence cannot go outside – his fear is too great – so he sends Claypone and Edna to get the doctor – and Joanna then basically has a heart attack and dies. Leaving Lawrence to … what? The options are horrible to contemplate. But that’s the end of the play.

It’s really not a happy play.

All I can say is: I’m so sorry that only 100 people or so saw the small production done at my college with David and Brooke. It was one of those moments of live theatre that you never forget.

I’ll excerpt the beginning of the play. Joanna has returned from the market.

From Home Free! – Acting Edition, by Lanford Wilson

[Joanna slips in and shuts the door quickly. She stands just inside the door, her back to the wall. She locks the door quietly]

JOANNA. Shhh! She saw me! [Still whispering] She saw me coming in. She was right behind me. She’s right outside. Shh! Listen!

LAWRENCE. [as soon as she comes in he begins to whine. Over above] Where have you been? They were just awful, they got so upset I hardly could control them.

JOANNA. Shhh! [Now Lawrence listens at the door too]

LAWRENCE. [quickly to Claypone and Edna] Don’t say anything.

JOANNA. She was right behind me. I think she’s outside the door. Listen.

LAWRENCE. Did she see you?

JOANNA. I don’t think so. [stops a moment, listens. In a normal voice, very casual] No, it’s okay, now.

LAWRENCE. [still at the door] Shhh! Listen!

JOANNA. [a little winded] No, it’s okay now. Let me tell you!

LAWRENCE. I thought I heard something.

JOANNA. No, she’s gone now. Sit down and I’ll tell you about the adventure. [still not able to catch her breath, she lays her hand against her pregnant belly] Oh, poor old Tiberius and Coriolanus. They must wonder what I’m doing running upstairs. I’m sorry, Tiberius. I’m sorry, Coriolanus. My heart is just beating away.

LAWRENCE. Shhh! You aren’t listening.

JOANNA. No. It’s okay now. My heart is just pounding like crazy.

LAWRENCE. [over to Claypone and Edna] You two!

JOANNA. Am I turning blue?

LAWRENCE. [still whispering] That isn’t fair!

JOANNA. Feel how it’s pounding. I shouldn’t have run up those stairs but Pruneface was after me.

LAWRENCE. I’ll feel the baby.

JOANNA. [disgusted] No, Claypone, sit down.

LAWRENCE. They were just awful while you were out. They were just terrible. I told Edna I was just gonna spank her good! If she didn’t sit down and behave.

JOANNA. [taking off her head scarf] Well, she’s young yet.

LAWRENCE. I said when my sister gets back here she’s just gonna spank you good and proper.

JOANNA. Oh! [Big announcement] He knows! Mr. Fishface knows. He said, “Where’s your brother, Miss Brown?” And I said, “He isn’t my brother, he’s my husband; we’re going to have a baby.”

LAWRENCE. He said that?

JOANNA. Naturally I lied. He’ll believe anything: I said, “He’s my husband and he’s in Bermuda just now and when he comes back he’ll have a lovely dark tan.” So you have to get a tan.

LAWRENCE. No.

JOANNA. Well, I’ll think of something. Now. Sit down so I can tell you about the adventure.

LAWRENCE. Okay, Claypone sit there, she’s going to tell us about the adventure, Edna, you stand there. And keep quiet!

JOANNA. Edna has to leave the room.

LAWRENCE. Edna, you must leave the room. Yes, you must! Through the kitchen and into the scullery and shut the door. And not a whimper out of you —

JOANNA. [in exactly the same voice] — young miss! Go on this minute. [She looks at Edna a moment] Well, I –!

LAWRENCE. What?

JOANNA. No, I wouldn’t have said that. You can’t say things that I wouldn’t have said when I was a little girl.[She has started out reprovingly but softens now] You might grow up to be different from me. You must wear tall black stockings and a long gray skirt and a wine-colored apron and your hair will be combed straight back and pulled into a bun and clipped with — [She makes a sudden, violent attack.] Yes, it will, I did! [Instantly sweet again.] And clipped with a tortoise-shell bow. And you will sit with both your hands on your knees or folded in your lap and you will not think about what’s between little boys’ legs and you will speak when you’re spoken to. [She watches Edna go to the kitchen]

LAWRENCE. She’s left.

JOANNA. She’s listening. She has her ear against the door, she always does. [Abruptly] Snoop! [Listens] She’s gone now. You know where she gets that — from that busybody landlady, Pruneface. [She surveys Claypone and Lawrence and finds the situation satisfac tory] Now. Actually, I only asked her to leave because I have an announcement to make. I will stand to — [As she starts to rise she catches her heart — lightly. Her voice is now surprised, serious] Oh, golly! [She sits]

LAWRENCE. [Over a bit] No, no, no announcements. You have to tell us about the adventure.

JOANNA. No, wait, golly – I shouldn’t run. Well, This is.

LAWRENCE. [to Claypone] She’s going to tell us about the adventure.

JOANNA. I will deliver my announcement from a seated position. Claypone, i want you to pay particular attention because you’re involved.

LAWRENCE. I don’t want to hear any old —

JOANNA. On my way outside to the grocery, this afternoon, Miss Pruneface was in the hallway and she made me stop —

LAWRENCE. [Over] What a silly thing to say — I don’t know anybody by that name at all.

JOANNA. [without pause] And she said, “Mrs. Brown, I have told you before, you will have to move. You make too much noise as it is and–”

LAWRENCE. [Over] She didn’t say any such thing.

JOANNA. “And I’m afraid it will be impossible for to live here after your baby is born.”

LAWRENCE. [Over a little] She did not. [Both speak at once]

JOANNA. “And I’m afraid it will be impossible for you to live here with an infant. You know I told you that when you moved in here.” And I told you — and I told her we would — I did — you were not either — I was there. I told her we would be out next week!

LAWRENCE. She didn’t even say one word to you. She didn’t say anything. I went out. I was there. I went out after you did and she said we could stay here like we have been and we could stay on, she said as long as we wanted to!

JOANNA. [Wins] So there!

LAWRENCE. No.

JOANNA. She looks at me in the hall and shakes her finger at me.

LAWRENCE. You told her a hundred times that we were moving and she never says anything more. You say that every week.

JOANNA. No. She looks at me and she says I can’t have the baby here — because they don’t want the noise, Lawrence.

LAWRENCE. It doesn’t matter what they want. [There is a fast exchange between them]

JOANNA. They don’t want the mess.

LAWRENCE. We just won’t talk to her, then.

JOANNA. No, she’ll throw us out in the street — !

LAWRENCE. We won’t answer the door — Claypone, shut up!

JOANNA. [almost panicked] They’re afraid of the baby, don’t you know that?

LAWRENCE. Claypone’s making noise!

JOANNA. They don’t want the pain!

LAWRENCE. We won’t go! We’re not going. If you’re not going to tell me about the adventure, I’m going to call Edna back into the room — Claypone go get Edna.

JOANNA. You sit right back down.

LAWRENCE. Well, then, we’re going to look in the Surprise Box — it’s wonderful.

JOANNA. No. No, you can’t until two o’clock today.

LAWRENCE. No, come on — It’s especially lovely, I bet, today.

JOANNA. Not until after I tell you about the adventure. I have not told you.

LAWRENCE. Very well — first she’s going to tell us about the adventure.

JOANNA. To begin — there was a shadow across the door downstairs.

LAWRENCE. The sun is shining.

JOANNA. [She notices the interruption but goes on] It was all crooked because of the panels in the door, as usual; exactly the same number of squares in the sidewalk from here to the corner.

LAWRENCE. [quickly] Eighteen.

JOANNA. And — [Quietly] I guess you just don’t want to hear about it, do you?

LAWRENCE. [Meaning: “What did I do?”] What?

JOANNA. [continuing to look sharply at him] The same number of parking meters from here to the corner. [Lawrence starts to speak up automatically; her look intensifies; he stops without really knowing why. When she is satisfied he is not going to interrupt she continues] Out of which eight were expired this morning. If you must know, I was thinking about the Ferris wheel most of the time I was out.

LAWRENCE. Do you want to look in the Surprise Box?

JOANNA. I don’t think so; not till it’s time. Unless you want to. It wasn’t much of an adventure except for Mr. Fishface at the market. The Skinner was watching me so I couldn’t slip anything. I think he’s catching on. Old Fishface, though, he said: “Oh, how’s your brother, Miss Brown?” I said, “It’s Mrs. Brown, and he’s not my brother as you are mistakenly referring to the gentleman whose compnay you’ve seen me in. That’s Mr. Brown, and he’s away in the Canary Islands trapping finches but we’re expecting him shortly, Mr. Fishface. I’ll give him your best.”

LAWRENCE. Lie.

JOANNA. I said that, I did.

LAWRENCE. You didn’t say, “Mr. Fishface”.

JOANNA. I most certainly did.

LAWRENCE. Claypone, she didn’t. [They are beginning to laugh]

JOANNA. I did. And I said, “How’s Mrs. Fishface?”

LAWRENCE. [Laughing] You did not.

JOANNA. [Laughing] And all the little tadpoles that must be swimming around at home. And all —

LAWRENCE. — And the pollywogs! And — [They degenerate into a giggling mess, falling all over each other and slapping at each other. They fall onto the bed, giggling]

JOANNA. And the little baby perch.

LAWRENCE. And the whole Fishface family. [They try to stop laughing. Joanna tries to sit up on the bed]

JOANNA. Come on. Be serious.

LAWRENCE. [pulling her back down] No.

JOANNA. [sitting up again] Yes — Go away, Claypone — sit down. [To Lawrence] I don’t know why we keep him around, he’s so stupid. [As he tries to pull her back down] Oh, don’t — I get dizzy today.. YOu know I can’t play much at a time.

LAWRENCE. Oh, you’re always dizzy. Now let’s look in the Surprise Box.

JOANNA. No, wait! I forgot the most important part! A cat! [This is used to draw his attention away from the Surprise Box as she slips a fountain pen in it a bit later] A yellow and gray and white and brown and —

LAWRENCE. Not brown. Lie!

JOANNA. Brown! With black ears — all spots — ran across from the market and under a parked car. I called to her but she wouldn’t come. She only looked out from behind a tire and wouldn’t come.

LAWRENCE. How did you know it was a she-cat?

JOANNA. Because she was fat and pregnant like me! No tomcat is going to have kittens.

LAWRENCE. Maybe you’ll have kittens though! Spotted kittens!

JOANNA. Oh, wouldn’t that be rare? Why how rare! But I know I won’t. I just couldn’t. Nothing ever happens like that. Seldom ever.

LAWRENCE. Or pups! You never know what can happen. [Joanna slips the pen into the box] Now let’s look in the Surprise Box. [The lid bumps softly] Did you peek? You peeked!

JOANNA. Lie! I never did! [To Claypone] Tell him! Now see?

LAWRENCE. Okay. Let’s look now. [They walk to either side of the bix]

JOANNA. Okay. [They both close their eyes]

LAWRENCE. Open it. [She does]

JOANNA. It’s open. [They open their eyes]

LAWRENCE. A pen! Where did you find it?

JOANNA. I have no idea where it came from. Maybe you can use it to write your book. [Looking into the box with wonder] Ohhh! I’ll bet someone sure has been busy. Another seat for the Ferris wheel. [She slips it out gently] Oh, it’s lovely. It’s so lovely. This is the best one so far — it’s so fragile!

LAWRENCE. It’s not too fragile, though, I don’t think.

JOANNA. Oh, no. It just looks —

LAWRENCE. Where do you suppose it came from?

JOANNA. I’ll bet I know. I’ll bet Lawrence Brown made it while I was out.

LAWRENCE. Do you suppose …

JOANNA. I certainly do suppose. Can I put it on? You can come over, Claypone, and watch.

LAWRENCE. [Nods] Carefully.

JOANNA. Well, I won’t break it. It’s my surprise, after all. [She sets it gently on the Ferris wheel] There. Is that all? Count them, Claypone.

LAWRENCE. One more to go yet.

JOANNA. Then it’ll be totally finished.

LAWRENCE. I’ll bet no one has anything at all like this Ferris wheel.