The Living Room Page 7

  MICHAEL [bitterly]: A little late.

  JAMES [pleading]: I wish you could understand that today it’s only your pain speaking. All right, that’s natural. Let it speak. Let it have its silly way. There’s a man down the road dying of cancer. His pain is speaking too. Of course we are in pain. Do you want to be the only exception in a world of pain?

  MICHAEL: And you believe God made the world like that.

  JAMES: Yes. And I believe He shared its pain. But He didn’t only make the world—He made eternity. Suffering is a problem to us, but it doesn’t seem a big problem to the woman when she has borne her child. Death is our child, we have to go through pain to bear our death. I’m crying out with the pain like you. But Rose—she’s free, she’s borne her child.

  MICHAEL: You talk as if she were alive. [Rounding suddenly on JAMES] Oh yes, your Church teaches she’s alive all right. She teaches she’s damned—damned with my wife’s sleeping pills.

  JAMES: We aren’t as stupid as you think us. Nobody claims we can know what she thought at the end. Only God was with her at the end.

  MICHAEL: You said yourself she almost spat the word ‘prayer’.

  JAMES: It may not have been her last word, and even if it were, you ought to know you can’t tell love from hate sometimes.

  MICHAEL: Oh, she wasn’t complicated. There was no neurosis about her. No middle-aged conflicts. She was young and simple, that’s all. And she cared no more about your Church than I do.

  JAMES: Do you really think you’d have loved her if she’d been as simple as all that? Oh no, you’re a man with a vocation too. You loved the tension in her. Don’t shake your head at me. You loved her just because she was capable of despair. So did I. Some of us are too small to contain that terrible tide—she wasn’t, and we loved her for that.

  MICHAEL [bitterly]: A stone in a pond.

  [The door opens and TERESA enters. The old lady is staggering under a load of bedding that she planks down on the sofa.]

  JAMES: What is it, Teresa?

  TERESA: My room can be the living room. I shall sleep here.

  [HELEN’S voice is heard outside.]

  HELEN [voice outside]: Teresa. Where are you, Teresa?

  [HELEN follows her sister into the room. She is too agitated to pay any attention to MICHAEL.]

  HELEN: Teresa, are you ill again? What are you doing? Whose bedding is that? Everything’s arranged.

  TERESA: I’m sleeping here. [Begins sorting out the bedding.]

  HELEN: Here? James, tell her she can’t. She doesn’t understand what she’s doing. She can’t sleep here. I won’t allow her to sleep here. We all agreed. Please, James, say something to her.

  [TERESA continues unperturbed, and JAMES watches the two women from his chair while MICHAEL turns from the window to watch also.]

  HELEN: [she is in a panic now.] Teresa! Dear Teresa! You can’t! She died in here. In this room, Teresa! [Tries to snatch the clothes off the couch again, kneeling beside it.]

  JAMES: Stop it, Helen. We’ve had enough of this foolishness. God isn’t unmerciful like a woman can be. You’ve been afraid too long. It’s time for you to rest, my darling. It’s time for you to rest.

  [HELEN collapses suddenly across the bed crying like a child back in the nursery, TERESA is the strong one now, she sits beside her, smooths her hair and talks to her in the nursery language of an elder sister.]

  TERESA: Tears, tears, tears—they are only good to water cabbages. It’s all nonsense, my dear. Why shouldn’t I sleep here? We’re not afraid of the child. And there’d be no better room for me to fall asleep in for ever than the room where Rose died.

  [She is still comforting HELEN as the curtain falls.]

  CURTAIN

  PROPERTY PLOT

  Act I

  Settee D.R. with cushions

  Lamp standard and shade

  Sideboard with blue and white vase, white statuette

  Pedestal with large potted palm, above sideboard

  Writing desk: on it china bowl, letters, papers, etc.

  Upright chair in front of desk

  Wardrobe left of desk. In it:

  large piece of cretonne draped to resemble clothes bag

  two slips

  one pair pants

  three pairs of stockings

  one pair of shoes

  Box ottoman, D.L. below stairs and rostrum. On it:

  one pillow in case

  one blanket

  Spanish chair D.R.

  Round table with red chenille cloth, C.

  High-backed chair L. table

  Console table D.L. On it:

  large china vase

  What-not behind settee, with bowls, jugs and vases Dark red curtains in window.

  If the interior of the bathroom is seen, the following should be on view:

  Bath

  Geyser

  Basin

  Towel rail

  Lavatory pedestal

  Bath mat, towels, sponge bag, tumbler, pyjamas hanging hook behind door

  Personal props:

  Wicker work-basket containing wool, several bills

  One book - Poems of St John of the Cross

  One suitcase

  One copy of The Lady magazine

  One pair of scissors

  One copy of The Times newspaper

  Brief-case

  Small pillow in case

  Knitted rug

  Small bottle containing ‘sleeping pills’.

  Wheelchair with dark grey rug, and ashtray on arm.

  Tea tray. On it:

  tea pot with tea

  sugar basin with loaf sugar and tongs

  milk jug with milk

  five cups and saucers and spoons

  Three-tier cake stand. On it:

  plate of bread and butter (top)

  plate of fruit cake (middle)

  Effects:

  Bell

  Door slam

  Property Changes:

  ACT ONE, SCENE ONE:

  Remove: Cake stand, tea tray, bedding

  Set: Suitcase up stage of Wardrobe. The Lady, scissors and The Times on centre table. Spanish chair slightly more up stage

  ACT TWO, SCENE ONE:

  Remove: The Lady, scissors and The Times

  Set: High-backed chair to R. of table. Table move a little L. Book of poems on table. Wheelchair L. of ottoman

  Reset bedding on ottoman plus two sheets

  ACT TWO, SCENE TWO:

  Remove: Sideboard, desk, pedestal and palm, table, settee, lamp standard, curtains, loose cover from ottoman, sleeping pills, vase from console table

  Set: Spanish chair well down R. High-backed chair down R. Piles of bedding.

  About the Author

  Graham Greene (1904–1991) is recognized as one of the most important writers of the twentieth century, achieving both literary acclaim and popular success. His best known works include Brighton Rock, The Heart of the Matter, The Quiet American, and The Power and the Glory. After leaving Oxford, Greene first pursued a career in journalism before dedicating himself full-time to writing with his first big success, Stamboul Train. He became involved in screenwriting and wrote adaptations for the cinema as well as original screenplays, the most successful being The Third Man. Religious, moral, and political themes are at the root of much of his work, and throughout his life he traveled to some of the wildest and most volatile parts of the world, which provided settings for his fiction. Greene was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour.

  All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or l
ocales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 1953 Graham Greene Estate

  Cover design by Ian Koviak

  ISBN: 978-1-5040-5427-0

  This edition published in 2018 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

  180 Maiden Lane

  New York, NY 10038

  www.openroadmedia.com

  GRAHAM GREENE

  FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA

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