...Leo Rutman Copyright © by yale/theatre 1969 1969 THEY GOT JACK by Leo Rutman They Got Jack was first performed January 17, KELLY: The lousy, cowardly mothers, 1966, at the New Theatre Workshop, Inc., in they got Jack. Gimme a drink. New York...

...Nazli Akhtari [email protected] © 2023 by Nazli Akhtari 2023 Kaveh Golestan, Untitled (Prostitute series), 1975 77, Tehran, Iran. © Kaveh Golestan. Courtesy of Archaeology of the Final Decade 4 Nazli Akhtari We Think t he Cat Got It Reflections on Cats Performing...

..., of course, was the most musically interesting. His experiments with rhythm, though beginning as instinctual, became complicated enough to qualify as hudes, certainly in the cases of "I Got Rhythm" and "Fascinatin' Rhythm." His absorption with jazz modulations brought...

... for the was just as happy as I could be. Now produced at the Huntington Theater numbers all these niggers would be I got me a place to sleep and (Boston), the Seattle Rep, and the Old poor. something to eat.. .and somebody to Globe (San Diego) in different form...

... and you come in here with all this couldn’t figure out who that was. I The first time was just as soon as we got noise. You can’t come like normal folks. thought you was in Sunflower. out of Sunflower. About forty miles out you got to bring all that noise with you. BOY WILLIE: Me...

... . . I ain’t got no time in need of paint. By 1957, the hard-won victories ofthe European for them kind of people. immigrants had solidt]f;Cd the indwtnal might of TROY: Now what lie look like getting mad A relatively recent...

... faces, they arrive dazed andstunned, their heart kick• You around here sprinkling salt all over the ing in their chest with a song worth singing. They place . . . got pennies lined up across the Cast (in order of appearance) arrive carrying bibles...

... of the It’s a heap of good meaning to be Copyright Union, this play is subject to found in a story if you got a mind for royalty. All rights, including professional, it. So there’s the point I’m going to amateur, motion picture...

... him from another part of around this town. the stage. Harley watches, chewing on a matchstick. Carroll: Let’s go out looking for trouble. Come on, Harley. I’ve got a mad-on Carroll flies off and lands...

...? again, sooner or later , . . ! MARTHA: No, that’s true, we don’t. KURT: Well, it’s true. Act I. .%me I: KURT: Sure. MARTHA: When you’re young you still got In the apartment, lat4 in the evening...

... tell 'em, don't we? We let 'em know what they're good for. What do you think? We got this whole thing down to a system! BEN: You gotta have a system. After all, a business is a business. Things gotta go smooth, everything's gotta be kept in place. SAM (drunkenly): Hooray for the system! I...

... in one place if yad rather be still Right convertibleroof The way it purrs But is there like the terror of future time (pause) Whatsthematternow Here cartelephone powerwindows that kills everything that still kills time SAKKO: Ya really think Ive got a car...

...: Milkem. and- future. BIKER: Milkem. Just what machine BIKER: Senator Hamfat Hums? FOSTER: Hey, Harry, I got an are you talking about? HARRY: Him. idea! What if we stick a couple of MILKEM: What I heard...

....” Franklin County Fair - that’s where this guy who just thinks he’s got to pre- The kind of people that cannot accept the carnival came in my hometown. tend to know everything,you know? So mystery are the kind of people that, And that fair would be in town about ten he’s saying stuff like, “Oh...

...<gdown thefloor wilh a bucket of water Wesley Fata atid a rag, is IVillie. Also blmk and about the same a,qe as Sam. He ha3 his sleeves and Directed by trousers rolled up. Athol Fugard The year: 19.50.) WILLIE: (singing as he works “She was a First Performance: March 12, 1982 scandalisin my name The play subsequently opened at the Lyceum Theater Called it love but was playin a game . . .” up in New York, on May 5th with Lonny Price replacing (He gets and moves the bucket. Stands thinking for a moment, then raising hzs anns to Zeljko Ivanek. In November, 1982, Zakes Mokae hold an imaginary partne?, h.e hunches into an was replaced by James Earl Jones intricafe ballroom dance step. Although a mildly cotnic.fi&re he reuvals a reasonable degree of CAST accomplishment.) Hey Sam. (Sam, absorbed SAM Zakes Mokae in thP comicbook does not respond.) He Boet Sam! (Sam looks- up) I’m getting The WILLIE Danny Glover it. Quickstep. Look now and tell me. (He HALLY Zeljko Ivanek repeats the Jtep.) Well? The entire action takes place in the St. Georges Park Tea SAM: (He wasn’t concentrating.) Show me, Room on a wet and windy afternoon in Port Elizabeth South again. WILLIE: Okay, count 4for:me. Africa. The year: 1950. SAM: Ready? - WILLIE: Ready 6 SAM: A-n-d one two three four . . . . who are dancing their way to a happy cn- W1LLIE:’So what you say? and one two three four. . . . Relax ding. What I saw was you holding her SAM: About Hilda? WiIlie! likc you were frightened she was going to WILLIE: Ja. WILLIE: (desperate but still dancing) I- am run away. SAM: When did you last give her a relax. WILLIE: Ja! Because that is what she hiding? SAM: No you’re not. wants to do! I got no romance left for WILLIE: (reluctantly) Sunday night. WILLIE: (he.fal&.r) Ag no man Sam! Hilda anymore Roet Sam. SAM:.And today is Thursday. Mustn’t talk. You make me mr&c SAM: Then pretend. When you put your WILLIE: (hknows what’s conring.) Okay. mistakes . arms around her imagine she is Ginger SAM: Hiding on Sunday night, then SAM: Rut you’re too stiff. Rogers. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday she WILLIE: Yesterday I’m not straight WILLIE: With no teeth? You try. doesn’t come to practice . . . and you are . . . . today I’m too stiff! SAM: Well just remember, there’s only asking me why? SAM: Well you are. You asked me and two weeks left. WILLIE: I said okay Boet Sam! I’m telling you. WILLIE: I know, I know! (to thejuke-box} SAM: You hit her too much. One day WILLIE: Where? 1 do it better with music. You got SIX- shca‘s going to leave you ibr guvci. SAM: Everywhere. Try to glide through pence for Lena Horne? WILLIE: So? She makes rrie the hell-in it. SAM: That’s a slow foxtrot. You’re prac- too much. WILLIE: Glidc? ticing the quickstep. SAM: (emphasizing hzs point) Too much SAM: ,la, make it sniooth. And give it WILLIE: I’ll practice slow foxtrot. and loo hard. You had the same troublc more style, it must look like you’re SAM: (shaking his had) It’s your turn to with Eunice. enjoying yourself. put in money. WILLIE: Recause she also make the hell- WILLIE: (emphatzcal~)I wasn’t. WILLIE: I only got busfare to go home. in Boet Sam. She never got the steps SAM: Exactly. (He returns disconsolakly to his work.) Love right. Even the waltz. WILLIE: How can I enjoy myself? Not story and happy ending! She’s doing it SAM: Hiding ever time you rriakc a straight, too stiff and now it’s atso glide. alright Boer Sam but is not me she’s giv- mistakc in the waltz? (shaki~~qhis head) No give it more style, make it smooth . . . . ing happy endings. Fokin Hoar! Three Willie! That takes the pleasurt. out of’ Haai! It’s hard to rememhtxr all those nights now she doesn’t come practice. I ballroom dancing. things Boet Sam. wind-up grmaphone, 1 get rccord ready WILLIE: Hilda is not too bad with the SAM: Tliat’s your trouble. You’re trying and I set and wait. What happens? W’altz Hoet Sam. Is the quick-step where too hard. Nothing. Ten o’clock I start dancing with the trouble starts. .WILLIE: I try hard because it is hard. my pillow. k’ou try arid practice romance SAM: (tcmin,phim y~ntly)How’s your SAM: But don’t let me see it. The secret by yourself Boet Sam. Struesgod, she pillow with the quickstep? is to makc it look easy. Hal1 room must doesn’t c01rit‘ tonight I take hack my chss WILLIE: (igtzon‘ng th~PUP) Chnd! And look happy h’iilie, not likc hard work. It and haiiroum shoes and I tind nie a new why? Rcc:aase it got no Icgs. That’s her rnust. . . . Ja! . . . it must look like partner. Size tkventy-six. Shoes six trouble. She can’t xnoL*c‘them cluick romance. seven. Anti now she’s also making t~*ouble cnough Boer Sam. I start the rccord and WILLIE: Now another one! What’s for rrie Lvith the baby again. Reports me txfore halfway Count Hasey is already romance? to child Lt’ellfed, that I’m not gi\iirig her winnirig. Only time we catch-111, tvith hirn SAM: 1,ove story with happy ending. A money. Stir lies! Evrry\i.eek I am giving is whvn the gi-aniaphone runs down. (Swz hmcisome man in tails, and in his arms, her nioney for milk. And how do I know Inughs) Haaikona Boet Sam, is not funnv. smiling at him, a beautiful lad>-in is my baby? Only his hair looks like nit:. SAM (snappin,a hl‘rjz‘ngm) I got it! Give elmi n g dress ! She’s fucking-around all the tirrie I turn her a handicap. WILLIE: Fred Ast;-tire Ginget. Rogers. my back. Hilda Sarnucls is a bitch! WILLIE: What’s that? SAM...

... regular. He wouldnt come MOLLY Once there was uh me named Mona who through thuh window he would use thuh door. I wondered what she’d be like if no one was would let him in. He would walk in n walk watchin. You got the Help Wanteds? uhround. Then he would point tuh stuff. I’d say “help yourself...

... kinda scary here! Fuck, I should’ve just stuck Scene I around. It was all stupid — score, shoot up, climb to the top. I mean, if it was Moscow Pitch black. Sound of a heart monitor comes then, yeah, at least they’ve got...

... . . . the bus. He got right behind me and started to rub himself up and down on me. Got a hard-on straightaway. I took a-hold of him 2 and pulled his hair. The things...

.... (STEAK comes trotting in. He is wear- MARY BETH: Really! ing his football uniform. He bangs his shoulder pads and helmet a few times STEAK: Yeah. You got a nice build, real against the goal post, and then gets...