August: Osage County (15 page)

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Authors: Tracy Letts

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BARBARA: What’d you take?

VIOLET: Hm?

BARBARA: What did you take? What pills did you take?

VIOLET: Lemme alone—

(Charlie drops his head, appears distressed.)

CHARLIE: Uh-oh . . .

MATTIE FAE: What is it?

CHARLIE: UH-OH!

MATTIE FAE: What’s the matter?

(Rising panic . . . )

LITTLE CHARLES: Dad—?

IVY: You okay, Uncle—?

CHARLIE: I just got a big bite of fear!

(Everyone laughs.)

I’m shakin’ in my boots!

(Laughter, ad-libs, etc. Charlie digs into his plate ravenously.)

Fear never tasted so good.

(He winks at Jean.)

STEVE
(Laughing)
: Right, right, it’s pretty good once you get used to the taste.

BARBARA
(Teasing)
: I catch her eating a cheeseburger every now and again.

JEAN: I do not!

BARBARA: Double cheeseburger with bacon, extra fear.

JEAN: Mom, you are such a liar!

(More laughter.)

VIOLET
(Staring intensely at Jean)
: Y’know . . . if I ever called my mom a liar? She would’ve knocked my goddamn head off my shoulders.

(Silence.)

Bill, I see you’ve gone through much of Beverly’s office.

BILL: Not all of it, but—

VIOLET: Find any hidden treasure?

BILL: Not exactly, but it appears he was working on some new poetry.

KAREN: Really?

BILL: I found a couple of notebooks that had—

VIOLET: You girls know there’s a will.

BARBARA: Mom . . .

VIOLET: We took care of that some time back, but—

BARBARA: Mom, really, we don’t want to talk about this now—

VIOLET: I want to talk about it. What about what I want to talk about, that count for anything?

BARBARA: It’s just—

VIOLET: Bev made some good investments if you can believe it, and we had things covered for you girls, but he and I talked it over after some years passed and decided to change things, leave everything to me. We never got around to taking care of it legally, but you should know he meant to leave everything to me. Leave the money to me.

BARBARA: Okay.

VIOLET: Okay?
(Checks in with Ivy, Karen)
Okay?

IVY: Okay.

VIOLET: Karen? Okay?

(Uncertain, Karen looks to Steve, then Barbara.)

BARBARA: Okay.

KAREN: Okay.

VIOLET: Okay. But now some of this furniture, some of this old shit you can just have. I don’t want it, got no use for it. Maybe I should have an auction.

MATTIE FAE: Sure, an auction’s a fine idea—

VIOLET: Some things, though, like the silver, that’s worth a pretty penny. But if you like I’ll sell it to you, cheaper’n I might get in an auction.

BARBARA: Or you might never get around to the auction and then we can just have it for free after you die.

IVY: Barbara . . .

(Pause. Violet coolly studies Barbara.)

VIOLET: You might at that.

LITTLE CHARLES: Excuse me, Bill? I’m wondering, this writing you found, these poems—?

VIOLET: Where are you living now, Bill? You want this old sideboard?

BILL: I beg your pardon.

VIOLET: You and Barbara are separated, right? Or you divorced already?

(Another silence.)

BILL: We’re separated.

VIOLET
(To Barbara)
: Thought you could slip that one by me, didn’t you?

BARBARA: What is the matter with you?

VIOLET: Nobody slips anything by me. I know what’s what. Your father thought he’s slipping one by me, right? No way. I’m sorry you two’re having trouble . . . maybe you can work it out. Bev’n I separated a couple of times, ’course, though we didn’t call it that—

BARBARA: Please, help us to benefit from an illustration of your storybook marriage—

VIOLET: Truth is, sweetheart, you can’t compete with a younger woman, there’s no way to compete. One of those unfair things in life. Is there a younger woman involved?

BARBARA: You’ve already said enough on this subject, I think—

BILL: Yes. There’s a younger woman.

VIOLET: Ah . . . y’see? Odds’re against you there, babe.

IVY: Mom believes women don’t grow more attractive with age.

KAREN: Oh, I disagree, I—

VIOLET: I didn’t say they “don’t grow more attractive,” I said they get ugly. And it’s not really a matter of opinion, Karen dear. You’ve only just started to prove it yourself.

CHARLIE: You’re in rare form today, Vi.

VIOLET: The day calls for it, doesn’t it? What form would you have me in?

CHARLIE: I just don’t understand why you’re so adversarial.

VIOLET: I’m just truth-telling.
(Cutting her eyes to Barbara)
Some people get antagonized by the truth.

CHARLIE: Everyone here loves you, dear.

VIOLET: You think you can
shame
me, Charlie? Blow it out your ass.

BARBARA: Three days ago . . . I had to identify my father’s corpse. And now I sit here and listen to you viciously attack each and every member of this family—

(Violet rises, her voice booming.)

VIOLET: “Attack my family”?! You ever been attacked in your sweet spoiled life?! Tell her ’bout attacks, Mattie Fae, tell her what an attack looks like!

MATTIE FAE: Vi, please—

IVY: Settle down, Mom—

VIOLET: Stop telling me to settle down, goddamn it! I’m not a goddamn invalid! I don’t need to be abided, do I?! Am I already passed over?!

MATTIE FAE: Honey—

VIOLET
(Points to Mattie Fae)
: This woman came to my rescue when one of my dear mother’s many gentlemen friends was attacking me, with a claw hammer! This woman has dents in her skull from hammer blows! You think you been attacked?! What do you know about life on these Plains? What do you know about hard times?

BARBARA: I know you had a rotten childhood, Mom. Who didn’t?

VIOLET: You DON’T know! You do NOT know! None of you know, ’cept this woman right here and that man we buried today! Sweet girl, sweet Barbara, my heart breaks for every time you ever felt pain. I wish I coulda shielded you from it. But if you think for a solitary second you can fathom the pain that man endured in his natural life, you got another thing coming. Do you know where your father lived from age four till about ten? Do you?

(No one responds.)

Do you?!

BARBARA: No.

IVY: No.

VIOLET:
In a Pontiac sedan.
With his mother, his father, in a fucking car! Now what else do you want to say about your rotten childhood? That’s the crux of the biscuit: we lived too hard, then rose too high. We sacrificed everything and we did it all for you. Your father and I were the first in our families to finish high school and he wound up an award-winning poet. You girls, given a college education, taken for granted no doubt, and where’d
you
wind up?
(Jabs a finger at Karen)
Whadda
you
do?
(Jabs a finger at Ivy)
Whadda
you
do?
(Jabs a finger at Barbara)
Who’re
you
? Jesus, you worked as hard as us, you’d all be president. You never had real problems so you got to make all your problems yourselves. BARBARA: Why are you screaming at us?

VIOLET: Just time we had some truth’s told ’round here’s all. Damn fine day, tell the truth.

CHARLIE: Well, the truth is . . . I’m getting full.

STEVE: Amen.

JOHNNA: There’s dessert, too.

KAREN: I saw her making those pies. They looked so good.

(Little Charles suddenly stands.)

LITTLE CHARLES: I have a truth to tell.

VIOLET: It speaks.

(Little Charles looks to Ivy.)

IVY
(Softly pleading)
: Nooo, nooo—

CHARLIE: What is it, son?

LITTLE CHARLES: I have a truth.

(Silence.)

MATTIE FAE: Little Charles . . . ?

LITTLE CHARLES: I . . .

IVY
(Almost to herself)
: Charles, not like this, please . . .

LITTLE CHARLES: The truth is, I . . . I forgot to set the clock. This morning. The power didn’t go out, I just . . . forgot to set the clock. Sorry, Mom. I’m sorry, everyone. Excuse me . . . I . . . I.