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Overview
The Woods is a modern dramatic parable about, as Mamet put it, “why men and women have a hard time trying to get along with each other.” The story features a young man and woman spending a night in his family’s cabin where they experience passion, then disillusionment, but are in the end reconciled by mutual need.
In Lakeboat, an Ivy League college student takes a summer job as a cook aboard a Great Lakes cargo ship where the crewmembers—men of all ages—share their wild fantasies about sex, gambling, and violence. Mamet also wrote the screenplay to the 2000 film starring Peter Falk and Denis Leary.
In Edmond, a white-collar New York City man is set morally adrift after a visit to a fortune-teller. He soon leaves an unfulfilling marriage to find sex, adventure, companionship, and, ultimately, the meaning of his existence. Mamet also wrote the screenplay for the 2005 film starring William H. Macy.
“[A] beautifully conceived love story.” —Chicago Daily News on The Woods
“[Mamet’s] language has never been so precise, pure, and affecting.” —Richard Eder of The New York Times on The Woods
“Richly overheard talk and loopy, funny construction.” —Michael Feingold in The Village Voice on Lakeboat
“A riveting theatrical experience that illuminates the heart of darkness.” —Jack Kroll of Newsweek on Edmond
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780802191458 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Grove/Atlantic, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 11/20/2018 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 300 |
| File size: | 698 KB |
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
THE WOODS
The Woods was first produced by the St. Nicholas Theater Company, Chicago, Illinois, November 11, 1977, with the following cast:
RUTH Patti LuPone NICK Peter Weller
This production was directed by David Mamet; set by Michael Merritt; lighting by Robert Christen; graphic design by Lois Grimm; presented in arrangement with Ken Marsolais.
Scenes:
1. Dusk
2. Night
3. Morning
Characters:
Ruth
Nick
Setting:
The porch of a summer house, early September.
Scene 1
Dusk
Ruth and Nick are sitting on the porch.
Ruth: These seagulls they were up there, one of them was up there by himself. He didn't want the other ones. They came, he'd flap and get them off. He let this one guy stay up there a minute.
Nick: Tell me.
Ruth: They flew off.
(Pause.)
Nick: We have a lot of them. And herons.
Ruth: You have herons?
Nick: Yes. I think. I haven't seen them in a while. We did when I was young.
Ruth: DO they stay in the Winter, too?
Nick: NO.
Ruth (to self): NO. We'll need more blankets soon.
Nick: Were you cold last night?
Ruth: I think you were dreaming. Yes. A little. You took all the blankets. Were you dreaming?
Nick: Yes.
Ruth: I thought so. I hunched over next to you. I held you. Could you feel that?
Nick: Yes.
Ruth: I went down for a walk.
Nick: Where?
Ruth: Down by the Lake. All around. I sat down and I listened, you know? To the laps. Time passed.
(Pause.)
I threw these stones. I picked this stick up and I drew with it.
Nick: What did you draw?
Ruth: All sorts of things.
Nick: What?
Ruth: Patterns.
(Pause.)
The fish jumped. Everything smelled like iodine.
Nick: Mmmm.
Ruth: You could live up here. Why not?
(Pause.)
People could. You could live right out in the country. I slept so good yesterday. All the crickets. You know? With the rhythm. You wait. And you hear it. Chirp. Chirp chirp. Not "chirping."
(Pause.)
Not "chirping," really. Birds chirp. Birds chirp, don't they, Nick? Birds?
Nick: Crickets, too, I think.
Ruth: Yes?
Nick (to self):"I heard crickets chirp." "The crickets chirped." (Aloud.) Yes.
Ruth: I thought so. What do frogs do?
Nick: They croak.
(Pause.)
Ruth: I listened. All night long. They get soft at dawn. Maybe they go to sleep. Maybe the sun makes the air different and they become harder to hear. I don't know.
(Pause.)
Who knows what's happening? Down by the Lake there is a rotten boat. A big green rowboat. It might be from here to here. It's rotten and the back is gone, but I'll bet it was pretty big. I sat in it. Inside the front was pointed up. It smelled real dry. I mooshed around and this is how it sounded on the sand. Swssshh. Chhhrssssh. Swwwssshhhh. Very dry. You know. I think I would of liked to go to sea. Girls couldn't go to sea. As cabin boys or something ...
Nick: They had woman pirates.
Ruth: They were outlaws. Men would not let women go to sea.
Nick: The Vikings.
Ruth: They let women go?
Nick: Sure.
Ruth: No. No. I don't think so.
Nick: No?
Ruth: Uh-uh. I heard of Vikings. Viking Women. They would stay home and make clothes. They used to bash the babies' heads in. All the little girls. They'd kill them. Did you know that, Nicky?
Nick: Yes.
Ruth: At birth?
Nick: Yes.
(Pause.)
Ruth: You heard that?
Nick: Yes. I read it.
(Pause.)
Ruth: Not all of them. A lot of them. The Vikings.
(Pause.)
Poor babes. What do you think of that?
Nick: Give me a kiss. (She goes to him. They kiss.)
RUTH: I like it here.
(Pause.)
Can you smell the iodine?
Nick: Yes.
Ruth: Ozone. Can you smell it? Can you smell ozone?
Nick: Now?
Ruth: No. I mean, does ozone smell? The thing itself?
Nick: I think so.
(Pause.)
Ruth: They told us after the storms the ozone came from electricity.
Nick (to self): ... electrical discharges.
Ruth: But now we have Ozone Alerts, they tell you it's no good for you. Who knows what's good for you? The Vikings had these lovely Northern Women and they used to bash their heads in.
(Pause.)
Oh, well. Oh, well. Who knows what's good for them?
(Pause.)
If this was mine, I'd come here all the time. I think it's wild here, Nick. I saw a raccoon.
Nick: When?
Ruth: Last night. On my walk.
Nick: You should have woke me up.
Ruth: You were asleep.
Nick: I would have gone with you.
Ruth: No. You were dreaming. And then when I saw it I was far from here. I heard a noise, I turned around, and there was this raccoon.
Nick: Where?
Ruth: Over there. I saw his eyes. He ran off.
Nick: They get in the garbage.
Ruth: No. I know. They eat it. When I saw it, I did not know what it was. Then it ran off.
(Pause.)
Nick: We had them up here all the time.
Ruth: When you were young.
Nick: We'd catch them in a milk container.
Ruth: Are they vicious?
Nick: Very.
Ruth: Yes. I thought so.
Nick: And you couldn't keep them 'cause they'd gnaw their way out.
Ruth: I was thinking ... wait. Wait! They ate wood? The raccoons?
Nick: No. You know. They'd chew it.
Ruth: To get out.
Nick: Yes.
(Pause.)
Ruth: Yes. I was thinking.
Nick: Tell me.
Ruth: Things that people like.
I thought the things that people like — I should have woke you up 'cause I was thinking on my walk — I thought our appetites are just the body's way to tell us things that we may need.
(Pause.)
Nick (looking at Lake): Fishes.
Ruth: Where are they?
Nick: Down there.
(Pause.)
Ruth: What do you think? Our appetites.
Nick: Say it again.
Ruth: The liking that we have for things — desire — is just our body's way to tell us things.
(Pause.)
When we see someone — some woman on the beach — we say that she is beautiful.
(Pause.)
That's because perhaps of what is in her. Small breasts. (Pause.) Maybe large. The way she holds her back. We see her and we know if we would breed with her, the things that would come out of it improve the race. What do you think about that? Appetites.
Nick: What about food?
(Pause.)
Ruth: What about it?
Nick: Tastes we have for it.
Ruth (pause): Tastes.
Nick: Yes.
Ruth: The tastes we have for it.
Nick: Yes.
Ruth: Food.
(Pause.)
Are you hungry?
Nick: No.
(Pause.)
Ruth: It must be the same. Our body says we need these things. They all come from the ground. The vegetables.
(Pause.)
Minerais. All pills and ointments. Everything comes from the ground, in some way or another. Then we eat it. Medicine ... I've thought about this ... What they give us are just things that come out of the ground. Or that we make. If they are concentrated, or we alter them, so we can swallow them. All things come from the ground.
(Pause.)
And the way that they found out was folks would eat them. We would keep the good and we would pass the bad things off. I saw the fish grab insects right out of the air. It all has properties. It all is only things the way they are.
(Pause.)
That is all there ever was.
(Pause.)
What they are and what they do. And that is beauty.
(Pause.)
Nick: What about cigarettes?
(Pause.)
Ruth: Cigarettes?
Nick: Yes.
Ruth: They are bad for you.
Nick: I know.
Ruth: Why do we smoke them?
Nick: Yes.
Ruth (sigh): We fall away from ourselves. We grow fat. We fall away. The women, too. And men. We pick the people that we know are bad for us. We do that all the time.
Nick: We do. (Pause.) Why?
Ruth: I don't know. Nothing lasts. (Pause.) This is what I thought down on the rowboat. It had rotted. It had gone back to the Earth. We all go. That is why the Earth is good for us. When we look for things that don't go back, we become sick.
(Pause.)
That is when we hurt each other. I thought about you and me.
Nick: You did.
Ruth: Down on the rowboat, yes.
Nick: What did you think, Ruth?
Ruth: Coming up here. How you asked me. So little counts. Nick. Just the things we do.
(Pause.)
To each other. The right things.
(Pause.)
That's what I think. (Pause.) The frog croaks?
Nick: Come here.
Ruth: Does it?
Nick: Yes. Come here. (She does so. They kiss.)
Ruth: Are you happy now?
Nick: Yes.
Ruth: And she said they had a bear here.
Nick: Who said that?
Ruth: The woman.
Nick: When?
Ruth: Her mother saw one. Long ago.
Nick: Here?
Ruth: Right here.
Nick: When?
Ruth: When she was young.
Nick: A wild bear.
Ruth: Yes. She told me they had built the house upon its cave, and it came back. It used to keep on coming here. And then it went away, and this is when she saw it, it came back — her mother said — when it was going to die. Just like in Russia.
(Pause.)
To get beneath the house.
Nick: When was this?
Ruth: Long ago.
Nick: A wild bear.
Ruth: Yes. A long, long time ago.
Nick: He'd be long dead now.
Ruth: Long dead.
Nick: They still have them up there.
Ruth: Where?
Nick: In Canada.
Ruth: Bears.
Nick: Not around here.
Ruth: No.
Nick: Up where it's wild.
Ruth: They have a lot of land.
Nick: Down, maybe, in the cane brakes.
Ruth: I don't think so. Most of them are gone. But we can think about them.
(Pause.)
Nick: My father saw a bear once.
Ruth: He did. Where?
Nick: In the Black Forest.
Ruth: In the War?
Nick: Yes.
Ruth: Tell me.
Nick: Look. Look. Oh, my God.
Ruth: What?
(Pause.)
Nick (pointing): The beaver.
Ruth: Where?
(Pause.)
Where?
Nick: I 'm pointing at it.
Ruth: I can't see it.
Nick: There. Look. There.
(Pause.)
See?
Ruth: Yes.
Nick: Do you see?
Ruth: Yes.
Nick: No. You don't see where I'm pointing.
Ruth: Yes. I do.
Nick: You do?
Ruth: Yes.
(Pause.)
Nick: What?
Ruth: It's a log.
Nick: What is?
Ruth: The beaver.
(Pause.)
Nick: The beaver is?
Ruth: Yes.
Nick: No. You don't see where I'm pointing.
Ruth: I don't think that we have beavers here.
Nick: You don't see where I'm pointing.
Ruth: Yes. I do.
Nick: There? Near the raft?
Ruth: Yes. It's a log.
(Pause.)
Nick: It's a log?
Ruth: I don't think we have beavers here.
(Pause.)
Nick: But I swear I saw it swimming.
Ruth: Sometimes something floats along it looks just like it's swimming.
(Pause.)
There's forces in the water.
(Pause.)
I know.
I used to fish for things when I was little.
Nick: You did?
Ruth: Yes. I did.
Nick: For what?
Ruth: These fish.
These lovely fish.
Nick: What were they?
Ruth: I don't know. I think that they were perch. They tasted delicate. I used to clean them. I would get the smell upon my hands. When I was little. It smelled like I put my hands inside myself. I used to like to clean the fish. One time I sat down on the dock I lost this bracelet that my Grandmother gave me. It floated down.
NICK: In summer?
RUTH: Yes. In Fall. I had the bracelet. I was on the dock.
(Pause.) I should not have been there.
(Pause.)
It fell. It floated down. I dropped it.
(Pause.)
I can still see it. Floating down. It went so slowly.
(Pause.)
It was a necklace and I wore it as a bracelet. Wrapped around. My Grandmother's.
(Pause.)
Nick: Nothing lasts forever.
Ruth: We could do that.
Nick: What, Ruth?
Ruth: Wear things.
Nick: What?
Ruth: We could wear anything. Rings, bracelets. Long, slim necklaces. Gold necklaces. We'd wear them on our wrists.
(Pause.)
Wrapped around. To show that we are lovers.
(Pause.)
There are so many things that we could do. I'm glad we came here.
(Pause.)
Do you know why I love it here? (Pause.)
Nick: Why?
Ruth: Because it's clean.
Nick: We used to come here all the time.
Ruth: The Winter, too?
Nick: We'd drive up. In the Winter. Summers.
Ruth: You could come up any time you put up insulation.
Nick: Yes.
Ruth: And build the fires.
Nick: We came up here.
(Pause.)
Ruth: Did you?
Nick: Many times.
Ruth: Or maybe just the fireplace, you chinked it up.
Nick: We used to see these men. At stoplights. Way before the Superhighways.
Ruth (to self): That was a long time ago.
Nick: They'd walk between the cars at stoplights ... selling flowers to the men.
Ruth: Huh!
Nick: Sometimes they had boards with little animals.
Ruth: No.
Nick: Yes.
Ruth: And they would sell them?
Nick: Yes.
Ruth: What happened to those men?
Nick: I don't know. (Pause.) Or paper boys, they used to walk between the rows. They'd cry, "All Late."
Ruth: " All Late."
Nick: Yes.
(Pause.)
Ruth: What did they mean?
Nick: The papers were all late.
Ruth: The papers were late.
Nick: Yes.
Ruth: The papers were late.
Nick: Yes.
(Pause.)
Ruth: They had a late edition.
Nick: Yes. Or sometimes they would have balloons.
Ruth: The paper boys?
Nick: No.
Ruth: No, I didn't think so.
Nick: They would sell balloons.
Then you would go home.
Ruth: I would love it up here in the Winter.
(To self:) Buying toys or flowers for their family.
Nick: Mmm.
Ruth: We could sit and watch the snow and make a fire. We could get a clock. We'd cuddle up inside our quilts and watch the fire.
Nick: We came up here in Winter one time. Many times.
Ruth: You did?
Nick: A few times.
Ruth: Tell me.
Nick: It was cold.
Ruth: I know. I bet it was.
Nick: We used to sit around, we'd make a fire.
Sometimes he'd tell us stories of the Indians, or from the War.
(Pause.)
Ruth: ... sitting in the cold and he told stories from the War.
I bet that you felt safe.
Nick: W e did.
(Pause.)
And content.
Ruth: Because all things had stopped.
Nick: What?
Ruth: They had all stopped. You were up here where you wished to be. (Pause.) Mmm.
Nick: He used to sit out here all afternoon and work.
(Pause.)
In the Summertime.
He'd weight the papers down with rocks.
He'd sit and work all afternoon.
Ruth: You're like that, Nicky.
Nick: I am?
Ruth: I can watch you.
Nick: ... in his shirtsleeves.
Ruth: ... yes.
Because you are serene.
(Pause.)
I know what you are.
(Pause.)
I know.
(Pause.)
Nick: I have to tell you something (Pause.)
Ruth: Yes.
Nick: I thought that was what life was.
(Pause.)
Ruth: What was?
(Pause.)
NICK: To be still.
(Pause.)
Ruth: Not to want a thing. I know.
Nick: To hear what did go on.
And be content.
Ruth: Yes. It is like a brook. Yes.
Nick: Do you know?
Ruth: I do.
Nick: And be content.
Ruth (pause): Tell me one.
Nick: One what?
Ruth: A story.
Nick: No. I don't think that I ever tried to tell one.
Ruth: No?
Nick: Not one my father told.
Ruth: Or any one.
(Pause.)
Try.
Or one he told you. Or about the Indians.
Nick: I don't know ...
Ruth: Please. Please. You can. (Pause.) Please.
I know that you know them.
When you'd listen to them all those times.
(Pause.)
Please.
Nick: Alright.
Ruth: Oh, thank you. Good. This is the best. This is the best thing two people can do. To live through things together. If they share what they have done before. (Nick prepares to tell story.)
Nick: Have you ever fallen from great distances?
Ruth: What?
Nick: Have you ever fallen from great distances?
Ruth: This is the story?
Nick: Yes.
(Pause.)
Ruth: Good. Go on.
(Pause.)
Go on, Nick.
(Pause.)
Nick: I'm not sure I remember.
Ruth: Oh, don't tell me that. You do.
Nick: I want to tell it right.
Ruth: Well, tell it right, then. You can do it.
Nick: Would you think a man's life could be saved by someone's garter belt?
Ruth: A man's or woman's garter belt?
(Pause.)
Nick: Men do not wear garter belts.
Ruth: They didn't then, though?
Nick: No.
Ruth: To hold their socks up?
Nick: At their calves?
Ruth: Yes.
Nick: Those are just called "garters."
(Pause.)
Ruth: I'm sorry. Go on, Nicky. Yes. I would believe it.
Have I ever fallen from great distances and lived. (Sotto, to self:) This is the story.
(Pause.)
Nick: In the War.
In The Black Forest.
Long ago.
My Dad went looking for a man he lost out on Patrol.
In Winter.
Ruth: Yes.
Nick: His name was Herman Waltz.
Ruth (to self): Waltz.
Nick: When the War was over, they would be involved together.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Woods, Lakeboat, Edmond"
by .
Copyright © 1983 David Mamet.
Excerpted by permission of Grove Atlantic, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
The Woods,
Lakeboat,
Edmond,