The Books: “The Great Nebula in Orion” (Lanford Wilson)

Next in my Daily Book Excerpt:

Next on the script shelf

Next play in my little unalphabetized pile of Samuel French plays is a one-act by Lanford Wilson – called The Great Nebula in Orion.

Two old college friends – Carrie and Louise – who have not seen each other in 6 years – bump into each other in Bergdorf’s. After exclaiming and carrying on, Louise invites Carrie to come back to her apartment for a cup of coffee – so they can catch up. The play is that “catch up’ conversation in Louise’s incredible apt. overlooking Central Park.

One very funny thing about this play is that the two characters are constantly turning and speaking to the audience – confiding in the audience. It’s supposed to be private – like, what Carrie says to the audience will not be heard by Louise, and vice versa – but there are moments when it is acknowledged by the other what is going on. It’s like they give each other the space to have their moments with the audience. Like Louise starts to say something to Carrie, notices that she is talking to the audience, and says, “Oh. Excuse me” and goes back to what she was doing. It would have to be played just right in order to work – but I think it’s hysterical. It’s also poignant – a way to let the audience know the inner feelings. Because this is a meeting between people who haven’t seen each other in years – not a lot of TRUTH is being told. But they both turn and tell the truth to the audience – how hard it is to see that the friend is growing old, because it means they are growing old, etc. Carrie and Louise are not just carefree old friends – there’s a lot underneath – a lot not being said. But in this particular play, they get to say it to the audience. (In a way it reminds me of one of my favorite JD Salinger short stories Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut. It has the same “plot”. The same tragic undertones.)

Things are not what they seem with these two old friends. Carrie was once an activist – she dated poets, etc. – she then married David, a wealthy guy, and now has 2 kids and lives in a suburb of Boston. She’s kind of adrift but she does all the right things – bridge clubs, golf, etc. But … there’s something missing in her life … meaning, maybe? And Louise is single – a fashion designer – highly successful – no kids, no marriage … their lives are completely different now … but by the end of the play, they’ve both had about 3 brandies and they’re pretty LOOPED and all of the subtext comes flooding out. It’s gorgeous. I’d love to play either one of these characters. They’re beautifully written.

I’ll excerpt from the middle of the play. They’re both already a bit trashed. Notice the to-the-audience comments, and how they are almost casual – as though this whole thing is happening in retrospect, and they are narrating their own lives.

From The Great Nebula in Orion, by Lanford Wilson

LOUISE. We haven’t talked about school.

CARRIE. No.

LOUISE. Thank God. Whatever. [Undecided] Happened to Phyllis Trahaunt?

CARRIE. [But interested] I haven’t a clue.

LOUISE. [At random] She was going with someone I think …

CARRIE. Oh, no. No. You knew.

LOUISE. I’ve wondered. She’s one of the few women I’ve wanted to dress; she carried herself so well.

CARRIE. [in a hush-hush tone, implying scandal] Oh, she was beautiful. For all the good. But she wasn’t going with anyone. Never.

LOUISE. I heard she was.

CARRIE. I don’t much think so from what I heard,

LOUISE. No?

CARRIE. She didn’t much like the boys, I hear.

LOUISE. Oh, really.

CARRIE. I’m surprised you didn’t know. She was in your class.

LOUISE. I guess I never really thought. We had a few classes together.

CARRIE. But she never dated. She was always in Philadelphia.

LOUISE. I just assumed she had family there.

CARRIE. I haven’t heard a word of her.

LOUISE. Huh. Nor I. [Pouring another]

CARRIE. None for me. [Louise looks to the audience as if to say something serious, decides against it, corks the bottle. Carrie is looking away, deep in troubled thought. The tone of her voice, serious and troubled, comes from the blue] Louise …?

LOUISE. [startled, seriously in return] What, darling?

CARRIE. Oh.

LOUISE. I’m sorry, that sounded so odd. I’m hearing oddly today.

CARRIE. Well, I’ve joined practically everything there is to join. I mean I know yhou aren’t interested in politics or anything like that —

LOUISE. Well, more than I was, actually —

CARRIE. Oh, darling, I am glad. But I know I have my children and they are — well, I won’t show you again —

LOUISE. [to the audience] Small favor — no they’re lovely.

CARRIE. And I have a wonderful home and David and the kids —

LOUISE. And you’ve joined everything.

CARRIE. I’ve even taken some night courses — not like your friend —

LOUISE. Berilla, no; I’m sure. I don’t mean —

CARRIE. I know. I really, in spite of that, envy you. You’re like some of the girls and I don’t know how they do it. I know it’s just an attitude, I mean a state of mind, but know that doesn’t help, does it?

LOUISE. It might, if I knew what the hell we were talking about.

CARRIE. Well …

LOUISE. I mean they say the first thing an alkie has to do is admit he’s hooked.

CARRIE. Well, then, what I’ve got to admit is that I’m not. Hooked. Even with all my activities I really envy you — you’re —

LOUISE. Darling, I’ll trade anytime.

CARRIE. Well, see, though, that’s — you wouldn’t really, would you?

LOUISE. Well, no, not really. But then really neither would you.

CARRIE. But I would. When I first saw you I thought you looked all six years older and probably so did I, and I didn’t really want to think about it — and of course I know you’re a wonderful success and that’s probably never easy but you seem — engaged.

LOUISE. Oh, I’m engaged.

CARRIE. Well, I’m not much.

LOUISE. What is it, David?

CARRIE. No, I don’t really think it’s David. I’m afraid it’s more me. David is the happiest married man I know of. [Count six] Well, that’s silly. It’s not really anything. It’s just seeing you again after all this time. You start thinking back about the times we had and those times. It’s silly.

LOUISE. Is there anything —

CARRIE. [Irritated. Almost uppity] Oh, don’t be ridiculous. That’s ridiculous.

LOUISE. What is?

CARRIE. Well, weren’t you going to ask me if I need help or something? What I need is about two less drinks.

LOUISE. Or two more.

CARRIE. I don’t think. [To the audience] Well, now I am uncomfortable and I thought …

LOUISE. Have another drink then.

CARRIE. No! Thank you.

LOUISE. have you been trying to solve the world’s problems again?

CARRIE. No, I don’t crusade anymore. It would look rather hypocritical. David has so many very rich friends.

LOUISE. And is no pauper himself.

CARRIE. Oh, dear. I really had no idea when we were married. I mean I knew he had money, but I’d no idea. It’s just that being around them you realize that actually the country isn’t run quite the way you thought it — I mean, they’re really very powerful people.

LOUISE. I’m sure they are.

CARRIE. And, well, the country isn’t run quite the way you think it is. The way people are led to believe it is.

LOUISE. I don’t really think people believe it is.

CARRIE. I mean, it’s worse than that.

LOUISE. How?

CARRIE. Well, it’s all a sham. I don’t actually think I should say anything. It’s just things I sense. The way they talk. I only meant that I decided crusading wouldn’t have much effect. I don’t mean I drift and mope. I diet and run about from this to that. You should see my schedule, but I’m just not —

LOUISE. Engaged.

CARRIE. Well, my mind isn’t. Or I’m losing it or something. I’m not all there is all. This brandy is something else.

LOUISE. A present, isn’t it great?

CARRIE. I’m not so sure. [She finishes it off as Louise looks at her]

LOUISE. [Not too obviously] Richard Roth.

CARRIE. Huh?

LOUISE. I don’t know. I think you may have written about him.

CARRIE. I thought I must have. [To the audience] We used to write years ago. But you know, we slacked off and finally just dwindled down to exchanging Christmas cards. [To Louise] Dick never wrote a letter in his life.

LOUISE. Dick Roth. What’s he up to now?

CARRIE. Oh, now, who knows? Removed to Australia the last I heard. That was years ago. I wouldn’t have any idea now.

LOUISE. I don’t know about poets.

CARRIE. Oh, he was great but he was a nut. Everyone reviewed his work, if that means anything. I didn’t really know him when he wrote; I really met him in California. I’ve probably told you: he had these enormous gaps and he knew practically nothing about astronomy or any of that, so I guess it came as a shock to him. He read somewhere that the sun — you know, our sun — would burn up in about a billion years or two. Or whatever it’s supposed to do: burn out or blow up, and he never wrote a word after that. I suppose he reasoned that anything that was written would simply always be around somewhere but if there was going to be an end to it all one day he didn’t see any point. As I said he was a nut. So he left school and came out to California.

LOUISE. Why California?

CARRIE. Astronomy. Mount Palomar. I guess he got very interested in cosmology or something. He was really crazy about it for a while. You know he was one of those types that’s never interested in any one thing for any length of time. I think for about a month he was even interested in me. His sister was ecstatic, apparently he’d never been interested in a person before.

LOUISE. [to the audience] After Carrie left school she went for a year out —

CARRIE. A little less.

LOUISE. Out to California.

CARRIE. We used to sit on the beach at night. It was incredible. You’ve never seen skies like they have. And the nights aren’t really cold but you need a sweater. We used to build up a bonfire. There’s tons of driftwood around on the beach that washes up and we dragged it in from everywhere. You could have seen it for miles out to sea. You aren’t supposed to but no one says anything. There was a group of probably twenty of us. Dick and I used to wander out down the beach — you couldn’t get lost — and you could see the fire wiht little people running off and dragging up more wood all the time. I even learned a few of the constellations. They’re really easy. I mean at first they’re just stars, but once you start getting them placed in your mind the whole sky starts dividing up into patterns like a quilt. And you can’t look up without seeing, recognizing, Andromeda and Orion and the bears and the seven sisters. It’s amazing.

LOUISE. I can’t even find the Big Dipper.

CARRIE. Oh, you could — there’s a way — you just have to find Polaris — well, I mean, I couldn’t either, but you learn. Orion is the one though; you’ve seen him, you just didn’t know what he was.

LOUISE. I don’t imagine.

CARRIE. No, you had to. He’s the one that you say, I’ll bet anything that’s some damn constellation. This is Orion. See, there are three stars — [On the table, with her finger, dot dot dot] big ones across. That’s the belt. And here … [To the audience] Do you know this? [Back to Louise] … perpendicular to the belt there are three more, closer together and fainter. [On the table] And that’s his sword. And this — the center star in the sword is the Great Nebula in Orion.

LOUISE. The Great Nebula in Orion.

CARRIE. Or of Orion, whichever. Which isn’t a star at all.

LOUISE. Of course not.

CARRIE. Do you know this?

LOUISE. No. [To the audience] Crocked, right? Plastered.

CARRIE. Well, it’s very interseting. The Great Nebula is a lot of hydrogen gas that’s lit up by a couple of stars behind it somewhere, and some by its own heat, because it’s condensing. It’s moving, like a whirlpool; all the time and getting tighter and tighter — what was that?

LOUISE. [who has uttered a polite “umm” at “tighter”] Nothing.

CARRIE. And hotter and hotter — and it will keep getting more and more compact and hotter and smaller — I mean it’s vast — and tighter and smaller until it’s so hot and compact — just a ball of fire, burning by itself — that it will be a star. And we could actually see that. I mean the center star, we could see that it was fuzzy; a big fuzzy spot. And Dick said that would be a star someday.

LOUISE. A star is born.

CARRIE. Oh, come on. I thought it was interesting.

LOUISE. I think you had to be there.