Transcript

IF anyone else (other than myself) would like a full transcript from Martha's breakdown/confession scene, I have done one. I'm competing with this scene at a theatre festival soon and I couldn't find the script anywhere for free so I sat down and listened and typed as it went along. I know all of the blocking already, so I didn't include stage directions.

Here it is:

Martha: Where’s Joe?
Karen: Gone.
Martha: Patient? Will he be back in time for dinner?
Karen: No.
Martha: Then we’ll wait dinner for him. What’s the matter, Karen?
Karen: He won’t be back anymore.
Martha: You mean he won’t be back anymore tonight.
Karen: He won’t be back at all.
Martha: What happened? Karen, what happened?
Karen: He thought (pause)…it was true.
Martha: I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it! What kind of talk is that, I don’t believe it!
Karen: All right!
Martha: Well didn’t you tell him, for God’s sake; didn’t you tell him it wasn’t true?
Karen: Yes!
Martha: He didn’t believe you?
Karen: I guess he believed me.
Martha: Then what have you done? I don’t understand, what do you mean you “guess” he believed you?
Karen: I don’t want to talk about it, Martha, it’s over.
Martha: Lord, I wanted that for you so much. What’s happened to us? Whatever happened, go back to Joe, Karen; it’s too much for you this way.
Karen: Stop talking about it, Martha. Let’s pack and get out of here, let’s take the train tomorrow!
Martha: The train to where?
Karen: I don’t know, there must be some place we can go!
Martha: I don’t know where it is. They’d know about us. We’ve been famous.
Karen: But this isn’t a new sin they say we’ve done, other people haven’t been destroyed by it!
Martha: They’re the people who believe in it, who’ve chosen it for themselves. We aren’t like that. That must be very different. We don’t love each other. We’ve been close to each other, of course, I-I’ve loved you like a friend. The way thousands of women feel about other women. You were a dear friend who was loved, that’s all. Certainly there can be nothing wrong with that. It’s perfectly natural I should be fond of you, why we’ve known each other since we were seventeen and I always thought that—
Karen: Why are you saying all of this?
Martha: Because I do love you.
Karen: Yes, I love you, too.
Martha: But maybe I love you the way they said I love you, I don’t know. LISTEN TO ME! I have loved you the way they said! There's always been something wrong. Always, just as long as I can remember. But I never knew what it was until all this happened.
Karen: Stop it Martha! Stop this crazy talk!
Martha: You're afraid of hearing it, but I'm more afraid than you!
Karen: I won't listen to you!
Martha: No! You've got to know. I've got to tell you. I can't keep it to myself any longer. I'm guilty!
Karen: You're guilty of nothing!
Martha: I've been telling myself that since the night I heard the child say it. I lie in bed night after night praying that it isn't true. But I know about it now. It's there. I don't know how, I don't know why. But I did love you! I do love you! I resented your plans to marry. Maybe because I wanted you. Maybe I've wanted you all these years. I couldn't call it by name before, but maybe it's been there since I first knew you.
Karen: But it's not the truth, not a word of it is true! We've never thought of each other that way.
Martha: No, of course you didn't. But who's to say I didn't. I'd never felt that way about anybody but you. I've never loved a man. I never knew why before, maybe it's that.
Karen: You're tired and worn out.
Martha: It's funny. It's all mixed up. There's something in you, and you don't know anything about it because you don't know it's there. And then suddenly, one night a little girl gets bored and tells a lie, and there, for the first time, you see it. Then you say to yourself, did she see it? Did she sense it?
Karen: But you know it could have been any lie. She was looking for anything to...
Martha: But why this lie? She found the lie with the ounce of truth. Don't you see? I can't stand to have you touch me! I can't stand to have you look at me! Oh, it's all my fault. I have ruined your life and I have ruined my own. I swear I didn't know it! I didn't mean it! Oh, I feel so damn sick and dirty I can't stand it anymore!




~*~La Vie N'Existe Pas Sans L'Amour~*~

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