Authors: Lorraine Hansberry
Look, Charlie, Thomas has made something. Now the question is … what has Thomas made?
(
He turns the thing about, utterly confounded
,
THOMAS
races out and then back again and, mutely, pours water from a pot into the topmost scoop so that its weight forces the wheel to turn and scoop up more water
)
Yes … yes!
(
Drawing
THOMAS
to him
)
I understand, boy … you have found the wheel as simply as this! Creation, what ignites this flame!
(
Smoothing
THOMAS
’s
hair about his face with adulation
)
I should have christened thee “Leonardo,” Thomas!
(
In a rage of jealousy
CHARLIE
seizes the invention and hurls it out of the lean-to
.
THOMAS
’s
instinctive move to seize him in return is arrested by the realization that
CHARLIE
is stronger. The
HERMIT
shakes his head in distress
)
Ah, Charlie, Charlie! You can’t understand, can you, that it is something for all of you … Thomas saw a problem and invented
something to solve it. It’s all right to be jealous, in fact it’s a fine thing; it means that you have placed value on something, and that is fine. But you must
use
your jealousy, Charlie. You must help Thomas to build another wheel, a bigger wheel, and then you won’t have to waste all that time carrying water and can do something else, sit around and sing if you like, or make up new tunes on your flute—in the time that you used to spend carrying water before Thomas invented the wheel. Of all the things you must learn, this is the most difficult and that from which you most will profit.
(
CHARLIE
’s face continues ugly with resentment
. T
HOMAS
retreats cautiously backwards and turns, when a safe few feet away, to dart toward his invention
)
But the truth is, I don’t think you will learn it. The truth is, children, that I don’t think you will survive at all. I have been indulging myself, no more. Engaging in a timeless vanity of man. Pretending with you that it would be possible. Pretending that
you
wild little things could conceivably raise great Egypt and China again, claim the equations of Copernicus and Newton—ha! the perceptions of Shakespeare and Einstein! Pretending that I could hand to you the residue, badly learned and hardly retained, of—five thousand years of glory!—
(
Turning gruffly away
)
—on which I turned my back with all the petulance of our kind …
(
Turning back and shouting
)
WHY, YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT STEAM WILL DO YET! WE DIDN’T EVEN GET TO STEAM!
(
Crying out to
THOMAS
)
Steam
, Thomas! A force that would make your wheel turn with revolutions undreamed of in your primitive soul! Mere simple heated water … You don’t know it.
(
Outside, the
CHILDREN
,
drawn by the excitement, come one after the other to observe
THOMAS
and his wheel
)
That foolish, foolish woman! That silly sentimental female! Why did she leave you here to torment me in my last absurd hours! It’s all finished with you, the lot of you! Our little adventure among the stars is over!
Finis!
The brief and stupid episode will end now! The universe will have peace now …
(
He falls back, spent
,
CHARLIE
stands and holds out the lily. The old man lifts his head
)
Use
… What
use?
Charlie, the uses of flowers were infinite …
(
He lies still
.
CHARLIE
gently places the flower by his face and after a moment crosses out to join the
CHILDREN
who, unaware that the old man has left them, are now clustered intently about the wreck of the wheel which
THOMAS
,
squatting in the dirt, is patiently reconstructing
)
Curtain
R
OBERT
N
EMIROFF
, Lorraine Hansberry’s literary executor, shared a working relationship with the playwright from the time of their marriage in 1953. Originally an editor, music publisher and award-winning songwriter, he produced her second play,
The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window
. Mr. Nemiroff’s own play,
Postmark Zero
, was presented on Broadway in 1965, in London and on national television. Since then his adaptations of Miss Hansberry’s posthumous works
To Be Young, Gifted and Black
and
Les Blancs
have been hailed by both the critics and the public. In 1974 he won the Tony Award (“Best Musical of the Year”) for
Raisin
, based on Ms. Hansberry’s play, which he produced and co-authored. He died in 1991.
J
EWELL
H
ANDY
G
RESHAM
N
EMIROFF
was married to Robert Nemiroff from 1967 to his death in 1991. A former English professor, she is now a writer and lives in New York State.
M
ARGARET
B. W
ILKERSON
is Professor of Theater in the African American Studies Department at the University of California at Berkeley. She served as chair of the department from 1988 to 1994, and is former Director of the Center for the Study, Education and Advancement of Women at Berkeley. In January 1995 she will be the Director of Berkeley’s new center for Theater Arts and Chair of the Department of Dramatic Art. Her biography of Lorraine Hansberry will be published by Little, Brown, Inc., in 1995–96.