Linda Rosenkrantz - Talk

EMILY: For a growing Ischia.

VINCENT: Avec Edouard. Con Ed.

MARSHA: I just realized this isn’t even the right story I’m telling.

VINCENT: I know it. What was the original one?

MARSHA: On the beach.

VINCENT: Walking you home is a horrible story, please don’t tell it.

MARSHA: Can’t I tell it?

VINCENT: Sure, tell it.

MARSHA: It’s halfway finished anyway. He was walking me home and some guy, some trick catches his eye. He’s looking at Vinnie and Vinnie’s looking at him. It’s dead of night, late, no moon, and suddenly Vince says to me, Marshie, you can get home alone, can’t you? I’ve got to follow that man, I have to go with him. I said all right, darling, if you must, you must. Dig. So he leaves me there in the middle of nowhere, I didn’t even know how to say “help” in Italian in those days.

VINCENT: That’s all right, there was no one on the street to say it to.

MARSHA: And off he went.

VINCENT: She told me to, Em. Actually I didn’t go off, I ran off.

MARSHA: Ran off, clopped off on his cloppy clodhoppers. And I just stood there, watching his white shirt disappear into the night. But all of a sudden, as I’m watching it, the shirt, instead of receding, seems to be coming towards me. It’s Vinnie, racing back, I think he was crying.

VINCENT: I was.

MARSHA: He grabbed me in his arms and said darling, how could I have done that to you? It’ll never happen again, I promise, and he escorted me home as a proper escort should. But that wasn’t the story I wanted to tell.

EMILY: It’s beautiful though.

VINCENT: It was the beast overtaking the civilized man, and then the civilized man taking over the beast.

MARSHA: Of course the guy rejected him, but he won’t go into that. The story of Suddenly Last Summer was on the same island, on the beach. We were sitting there, Vince and I, and there was this awful-looking boy with broken gold teeth.

VINCENT: But he had a fantastic torso.

MARSHA: Who was interested in me.

VINCENT: I didn’t know it though.

MARSHA: Vince kept saying lure him over, lure him over, he’s queer, he’s queer, he’s queer. So together we lure him over and he starts flirting with me, he’s in love with me and everything else, and Vince says to him let’s take a walk.

EMILY: With the gold teeth and the broken teeth?

VINCENT: Yeah, but gorgeous. A fantastic crotch and a beautiful light torso.

MARSHA: Vinnie tells him he’s my half-brother and our mother has been married eight times. Tells it to this simple Italian fisherboy who’s horrified, thinks it’s the most awful story he’s ever heard.

EMILY: And Vinnie’s trying to prime him for himself?

VINCENT: What does prime mean? Putting white gesso on?

MARSHA: Somehow we made a date with him for the next day.

VINCENT: He was going to take us on his boat, remember?

MARSHA: But he stood us up and we stood him up. Vinnie and I have had adventures through hell and high water.

VINCENT: Marsha was so good to me in the hospital. She wouldn’t do it again though, she told me.

EMILY: You’re still talking about that hospital. I never got to tell you the Strindberg-Bergman dream I once had about my father. We were riding a bicycle and I was holding on to him, my head up against the back of his shoulders. We were going down this dirt path beautifully, there was a soft wind blowing, and there were different turn-offs which I kept thinking we were going to take, but he kept going straight down the hill. The next thing I know we’re riding through high grasses in the field, and in the distance I can see my mother and my sister coming toward us. They had long white gowns, flowing gently through these tall leaves. They looked at me and I waved, but I said to my father let’s ignore them. That’s the dream, my favorite dream that I ever had.

MARSHA: My favorite dream was having a conversation with a fish in a beautiful bubbling brook.

VINCENT: My favorite dream was the first dream I had in analysis. When I was growing up, you see, I didn’t believe that I was the intelligent kid I am, and this dream showed number one that I was intelligent and number two my decision to be a homosexual. I went to Riis Park….

MARSHA: That’s where Tim Cullen goes every day to the beach.

EMILY: Tim Cullen isn’t at all queer, is he?

VINCENT: I don’t know, only Marsha can answer that. Is he sexual, Tim?

MARSHA: No.

EMILY: He’s not, he’s all closed up.

MARSHA: But he thinks he’s the most sexual person alive.

VINCENT: Marshie, do I have to get up at 8:15 to go to the laundry?

MARSHA: Before.

VINCENT: Oh that’s horrible.

MARSHA: Why? It’s only eleven. You better get home.

VINCENT: Who me? I know it. Have you learned a lot about me this weekend?

MARSHA: Yeah. When did the weekend begin?

VINCENT: Last night.

MARSHA: Can I come over and hug you, Vincie?

VINCENT: No.

EMILY: If this person were a color, what color would he be?

MARSHA: Sort of yellow on the outside and some darker one inside that you can’t see. Not too obvious, am I?

EMILY: A person who on the outside seems bright, but is really serious. Okay, what time of day is he?

MARSHA: Ten-thirty at night.

EMILY: What kind of food?

MARSHA: Canned chop suey. Are you getting anything?

EMILY: I’m getting a sort of phony person.

MARSHA: That’s not what you should be getting.

EMILY: What kind of plant?

MARSHA: Rubber plant.

EMILY: Sturdy and healthy. It’s a healthy kind of person, more serious than he appears, who likes good food but won’t go out of his way for it.

MARSHA: What’s good food about canned chow mein?

EMILY: What kind of drink would this person be?

MARSHA: Colka-colka.

EMILY: Jesus Christ, one of those young health ones. What character in literature?

MARSHA: I can never think of anything when that question’s asked, I go completely blank.

EMILY: Any character, it can be in movies.

MARSHA: In a very crazy way which you’ll say I’m wrong about, the guy in l’Avventura .

EMILY: What was his name?

MARSHA: I don’t know. What’s the difference?

EMILY: I think I’m giving up. I don’t know this guy. What kind of music?

MARSHA: Rock-n’-roll.

EMILY: What kind of a party?

MARSHA: A loft party that doesn’t quite make it.

EMILY: Zeke Sutherland.

MARSHA: No.

EMILY: Don’t tell me it’s Timothy Cullen.

MARSHA: Why not?

EMILY: Okay, I have one. Ask.

MARSHA: If this person were a country in Europe.

EMILY: Germany.

MARSHA: It’s someone I hate immediately.

EMILY: Here’s a good question for you to ask — would this person take tranquilizers or pep-ups?

MARSHA: No, that’s not allowed — you have to ask what kind of tranquilizer he would be. What kind?

EMILY: Bufferin.

MARSHA: If he were a dessert?

EMILY: Doesn’t that man over there in the green trunks look like a desexualized Picasso?

MARSHA: A cross between Stravinsky and Picasso. You didn’t answer my dessert question.

EMILY: A sliced apple.

MARSHA: Just one slice of apple without any trimmings?

EMILY: A peeled, sliced apple.

MARSHA: I have a feeling it might not even be a man. If this person were an object like to make love on, what would it be?

EMILY: Very good question — okay, gynecologist’s table.

MARSHA: I hate this person.

EMILY: That may be the best answer I’ve ever given.

MARSHA: If this person were a shoe.

EMILY: If this person were a shoe, a fur boot with a heel.