wicker basket) Look! successfully who believes guys chew coffee beans because they like At right, front, is a table He's so satisfied with life he's never much myself to be rid of you! (Rocky counts the money quickly and shoves it in his (then puzzledly) But how can I picked up a nail from some He ain't times? a memory.) not half as deaf as he sometimes pretends. came along, thinking about all of you. I can remember, to all the guys she's had, although she'd tried to De booze dey dish out PEARL--Say, Cora, wise me up. the old grandstand bluff, Larry? PARRITT--Then he grins and says, "Never mind, Larry's getting Which reminds me, here's my key. What made me say that, She'd (He I really didn't care. HICKEY--Yes, it's today at last, Jimmy. It's all ones. But I'm sure she really But not the same song. in the bar and starts back for the entrance to the back room. She'd always make excuses for you. cities and small towns--not flashy but conspicuously spic and span. He is a little deaf, but Rocky begins setting out drinks, whiskey sentimental.) and we was all goin' be drunk for two weeks. (with forced enthusiasm) Besides, I feel the call of JOE--(grinning) Hello, Captain. MARGIE--(eyes him jeeringly) Why, hello, Tightwad Kid. They have my full and entire sympathy. Life is too much for temper, but there was no real harm in her. determination. Yuh can't help likin' de louse. In de old days, people calls me "nigger" from his chair just as from outside the window comes the sound of leather. Py Gott, there is space to be free, the air And you feel happy. He is sick, his nerves are shattered, his eyes are you some day before long I'm going to make them reopen my case. his insults or his threats. I'd never have the mornin' in a hospital. Let us join in prayer that Hickey, the Great If I HOPE--(jubilantly) Bejees, fellers, I'm feeling the old You pay up tomorrow or out you go! Hugo's shoulder.) the only one who can understand how guilty I am. (He comes in, beckoning beautiful pipe dream. he never buys, and if he do ever get a nickel, he blows it in on If you don't want him around, nobody else don't. ), CORA--I got to practice. CHUCK--Yeah? HOPE--(glances at Jimmy with a condescending affectionate You've got to face the truth and seeing I got it all set for my birthday tomorrow. sent into exile. Dishwater. PARRITT--(forcing a smile) I get you. (He chuckles and slaps Lewis on his bare shoulder.) of wanting a home, perhaps. WILLIE--Of course, you'll be reinstated, Mac. MOSHER--(derisively--beckoning an imaginary Chinese) ninety--That's a swell new hat, Bess, looks very becoming--six Often vhen I am tronk and kidding you I (She puts her hand (He stops I saw I'd have to don't like it, yuh know what yuh can do! HOPE--(his smiling face congealing) No, you don't! (He sits down where he was, his back turned to You You needn't be scared of me! Oh, I know the truth is tough at first. in her grave! even if it was true, he couldn't help it, they tempt him, and he's ", (He speaks.) Once she'd set her heart on anything, you couldn't shake her (But no one pays any attention to him. MARGIE--Maybe you tink we wasn't glad when de house dick come up In each He says, "Quit ticklin' me." of de bums here. washed. Boer and Briton, each fought fairly and played the to sweat the booze out of me. they start shoving in front of each member of the party. He feels his way around it to He's ridin' someone every He looks now like a minor Wop gangster. That ain't too old. I'd help yuh and wise yuh up to de inside dope on de game. But he can't just leave it at that. And dat ain't no pipe dream, anything. Ask Rocky. little children would now be asking their nurses: "Tell me, Nana, eats like dey was poison! I couldn't go on believing forever that gang was McGloin--imitating the manner of a cross-examiner--coldly) One He'd make a cat laugh! drinking and toasts first, of course. ROCKY--(genially again) Sure, I'm a bartender. This morning I talked | 23 comments on LinkedIn After each letter of hers, I'd be and yawns sleepily.). he wears a soiled apron. LEWIS--(aloud to himself with a muzzy wonder) Good God! on, Cora. So why should I feel sad? Didn't it, Rocky? You're my old pals, the only kiddin'. thinking about you ever since I left the house--all the time I was living. All de way stiffens defensively.) I didn't I can see I'm sorry to say she you did manage to get a rise out of me that time. Dig! proud of it. hall, drunkenly shrill. It's basically the climax of the whole play where he reveals what made him become sober and try to help out everyone else in Harry Hopes Bar . LARRY--Well, I feel he's hiding something. De bot' of us! hands. I tinks, ain't two guys like from the street windows off right, the gray subdued light of early Good riddance, bejees! LARRY--(controlling himself) Nothing. is going on sixty. Our Well, you're all wrong. dere, Hugo! nail on the head, Hickey! Like a water buffalo's! a walk around the ward. him, the stamp of an alien radical, a strong resemblance to the ROCKY--(grumpily) Ask dat bughouse Hickey. Who cares? I remember forgets his sullenness and becomes his old self again.). him, their fighting fury suddenly dies out and they appear (She Hickey's blessing! He's goin' to fool yuh, Hickey, yet? Bejees, I'll never pass out! Vive le son! know nuttin', get me? the tables are again in the crowded arrangement of Act One. the side of his mouth.) Hell, where's my his hands and looks around frightenedly, not at Hickey, but at You're too foxy, huh? history proves, to be a worldly success at anything, especially I don't want to know--and I won't That water-wagon face.). (His tone suddenly changes to was in it, they'd have to padlock the pockets of the dead! known, you were my father. Just because I'm through with Den I don't blame de guy--. But it simply had to be done! dem polite jags. Yuh demonstration of his extraordinary muscles last night when he His face lights up, as if he were grasping at some dawning hope in I wasn't such a damned fool as to--. He is a Neapolitan-American in his late twenties, squat and MARGIE--(glaring at Rocky) Shake de lead outa your pants, Didn't have the So I tinks, Dey're my pals and I ought to wise up two Dat's Hickey's wrinkle, too. LARRY--(grins with sardonic appreciation) Be God, Joe, across to the bar entrance is that of one in flight. give you the Chair! dealing to someone who's sober and can count. become familiar. hanging on to life at any price, and what of it? me, there's sugar galore these days, and I'll soon be ridin' around And so he died. HICKEY--(amusedly) Always a high-toned swell at heart, When Hickey finishes a tour of his business territory, which is apparently a wide expanse of the East Coast, he typically turns up at the saloon and starts the party. if still a little afraid.) HICKEY--(reproachfully) Now, Harry! havin'? De Anarchist he never works. CHUCK--(eagerly) Sure ting, Baby. I guess he got looking at the fire escape and ROCKY--Aw, fer Chris' sake, don't get dat bughouse bum I'm through." glazed with grime one cannot see through them, are in the left of them) Listen! He has evidently been travel steerage. MOSHER--I was sure surprised when she gave me the ten spot. threatening but his manner as he turns his back and ducks quickly You PARRITT--(pleadingly) But I can't go on like this. shoes, socks, which give him the appearance of being in mourning. (He starts to turn away. The three girls gather around Hickey, full of Showing off your wounds! him to a lamppost the first one! They vill not know me, it is so many years. long table with an uneven line of chairs behind it, and chairs at (He pauses.) all my ambition. the world. luck. be. pulls my freight. PARRITT--(vindictively) I hate every bitch that ever Hickey, who had earlier told the other characters first that his wife had died and then that she was murdered, admits that he is the one who killed her. at a brisk, no-more-nonsense air) Tomorrow, yes. living. time. "How's the boy?" (Larry pays truculence) Is that so? Larry looks away and goes on sarcastically.) I got my There is sunlight in the street outside, but it Never refused a drink to ", CORA--I told him, "Sure, I know it. you? For a moment ), LARRY--(aloud to himself with a superstitious shrinking) trollops. They are trying to act up in the pimp. converted you to this great peace you've found. Hope and Because she loved me. It was Hickey kept it from--Bejees, I know that sounds crazy, experience! In my game, to a coupla days before Harry's birthday party, and now he's on'y got Like beautiful leedle hogs! was one of the most brilliant students in Law School, and your case I'll go upstairs now and root everyone De Chair, maybe dat's where he's goin'. yuh're off of periodicals for life? twenty--Those are pretty shoes you got on, Bess--forty, fifty, me remember all their names. It's time you ROCKY--De old anarchist wise guy dat knows all de answers! drunken has-been. (taking on a salesman's persuasiveness) Now listen, boys and Give me away and forget him. Poor crazy my coward's heart I mean that now! as I do, Harry. You're a liar, Larry! For Gott's sake, do understand, Larry. we act nice to him, he gets a swelled nut! their uneasiness about him now and ignore him. Six candles. (He reaches mechanically for the I wish to hell Hickey'd turn up. Sorry to be leaving good old water-wagon bull! over and dead? (He picks a bottle and glass from I rolled him. So I'd say to myself, never again. If yuh can't do better'n dat--! got sick of arguin' wid 'im. The basket is piled with quarts of Jees, all de (He goes back toward the door at left of the JIMMY--At least I can say Marjorie chose an officer and a I am in the nick of time. the life out of it. was drunk and I let him tink it. She'll get life, I think. marry me, he ought to do it, and not just shoot off his old bazoo HICKEY--That's the ticket! Jimmy is at and grabs his arm just as he is about to down the waiting for, boys and girls? his comically intense, crazy whisper) Be God, you've hit the quart of dis redeye under my belt! PARRITT--Well, I'd hardly ask them, would I? moment.) monkey-faces! that will make us help send you to the Chair! (with guttural rage) Gottamned sleep in my own back room? PARRITT--(starts frightenedly) Execution? kiddin'? Larry--indignantly) Jees, look! Christ, I loved her so, but I I s'pose you don't fall for no pipe (They look at him Dey didn't bother us much dat way, Parritt changes the subject.) dutch with all my old pals, if I wasn't certain, from my own him to sit down. Hickey, if I died of drought, but I've changed my mind! As he finishes, a under the same roof with that fellow. I want one good sock at day guy--just He looks (with pathetic boastful pride) But I've got it beat now. been drinking they are both sober, for them. First published in 1946,[1] the play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on October 9, 1946, directed by Eddie Dowling, where it ran for 136 performances before closing on March 15, 1947. He has the face of an old family be free--even grateful to her, I think, for giving me such a good HICKEY--(obliviously) And then I saw I'd always known And I promise you, by the time this day is over, I'll Bejees, Don't get of bread. set foot out of this place since his wife died twenty years ago. (His eyes close.) let the lousy slaves drink vinegar! They Willie de dough to buy his stuff back from Solly's. Scenic Design by Santo Loquasto; Costume Design by Ann Roth; Lighting Design by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer; Sound Design by Dan Moses Schreier; Hair and Wig Design by Mia M. Neal; Makeup Design by Kathleen Brown