DALE: Yes!
GRACE: Yes!
STEVE: No!
DALE: You must!
GRACE: Go!
STEVE: Where?
DALE: To America!
GRACE: To work!
STEVE: Why?
DALE: Because!
GRACE: We need!
STEVE: No!
DALE: Why?
GRACE: Go.
STEVE: Hard!
DALE: So?
GRACE: Need.
STEVE: Far!
DALE: So?
GRACE: Need!
STEVE: Safe!
DALE: Here?
GRACE: No!
STEVE: Why?
DALE: Them.
(Points offstage)
GRACE: Them.
(Points offstage)
STEVE: Won’t!
DALE: Must!
GRACE: Must!
STEVE: Won’t!
DALE: Go!
GRACE: Go!
STEVE: Won’t!
DALE: Bye!
GRACE: Bye!
STEVE: Won’t!
DALE: Fare!
GRACE: Well!
(Dale and Grace drop the tablecloth over Steve, who sinks to the floor. Grace moves offstage, while Dale goes upstage and stands with his back to the audience. Silence.)
STEVE
(Begins pounding the ground)
: Noooo!
(Steve throws off the tablecloth, standing up full. Lights up full, blindingly.)
I am GWAN GUNG!
DALE
(Turning downstage suddenly)
: What . . . ?
STEVE: I HAVE COME TO THIS LAND TO STUDY!
DALE: Grace...
STEVE: TO STUDY THE ARTS OF WAR, OF LITERATURE, OF RIGHTEOUSNESS!
DALE: A movie’s fine.
STEVE: I FOUGHT THE WARS OF THE THREE KINGDOMS!
DALE: An ordinary movie, let’s go.
STEVE: I FOUGHT WITH THE FIRST PIONEERS, THE FIRST WARRIORS THAT CHOSE TO FOLLOW THE WHITE GHOSTS TO THIS LAND!
DALE: You can pick, okay?
STEVE: I WAS THEIR HERO, THEIR LEADER, THEIR FIRE!
DALE: I’ll even let
him
drive, how’s that?
STEVE: AND THIS LAND IS MINE! IT HAS NO RIGHT TO TREAT ME THIS WAY!
GRACE
(Offstage)
: No. Gwan Gung,
you
have no rights.
STEVE: Who’s speaking?
(Grace enters with a
da dao
and
mao,
two swords.)
GRACE: It is Fa Mu Lan. You are in a new land, Gwan Gung.
STEVE: Not new—I have been here before, many times. This time, I said I will have it easy. I will come as no Chinaman before—on a plane, with money and rank.
GRACE: And?
STEVE: And—there is no change. I am still treated like this! This land... has no right. I AM GWAN GUNG!
GRACE: And I am Fa Mu Lan.
DALE: I’ll be Chiang Kai-shek, how’s that?
STEVE
(To Dale)
: You! How can you—? I came over with your parents.
GRACE
(Turning to Steve)
: We are in America. And we have a battle to fight.
(Grace tosses the
da dao
to Steve. They square off.)
STEVE: I don’t want to fight you.
GRACE: You killed my family.
STEVE: You were revenged—I ate your father’s sins.
GRACE: That’s not revenge!
(They strike swords.)
That was only the tease.
(Strike.)
What’s the point in dying if you don’t know the cause of your death?
(Series of strikes. Steve falls.)
DALE: Okay! That’s it!
(Grace stands over Steve, her sword pointed at his heart. Dale snatches the sword from her hands. She does not move.)
What the hell kinda movie was that?
(Dale turns his back on the couple and heads offstage. Grace uses her now-invisible sword to thrust in and out of Steve’s heart once. Dale reenters.)
That’s it. Game’s over. Now just sit down here. Breathe. One. Two. One. Two. Air. Good stuff. Glad they made it. Right, cousin?
(Dale strokes Grace’s hair. They freeze. Steve rises slowly to his knees and delivers a monologue to the audience:)
STEVE: Ssssh! Please, miss! Please—quiet! I will not hurt you, I promise. All I want is... food... anything. You look full of plenty. I have not eaten almost one week now, but four days past when I found one egg and I ate every piece of it—including shell. Every piece, I ate. Please. Don’t you have anything extra?
(Pause)
I want to. Now. This land does not want us any more than China. But I cannot. All work was done, then the bosses said they could not send us back. And I am running, running from Eureka, running from San Francisco, running from Los Angeles. And I been eating very little. One egg, only.
(Pause)
All America wants Chinamen go home, but no one want it bad enough to pay our way. Now, please, can’t you give even little?
(Pause)
I ask you, what you hate most? What work most awful for white woman?
(Pause)
Good. I will do that thing for you—you can give me food.
(Pause)
Think—you relax, you are given those things, clean, dry, press. No scrub, no dry. It is wonderful thing I offer you.
(Pause)
Good. Give me those and please bring food, or I be done before these things.
(Grace picks up the box and steps away from Dale.)
GRACE: Here—I’ve brought you something.
(She hands the box to Steve)
Open it.
(Steve hesitates, then opens the box and takes out a small
chong you bing.
)
Eat it.
(He does, slowly at first, then ravenously
.
)
Good. Eat it all down. It’s just food. Really. Feel better now? Good. Eat the
bing
. Hold it in your hands. Your hands... are beautiful. Lift it to your mouth. Your mouth... is beautiful. Bite it with your teeth. Your teeth... are beautiful. Crush it with your tongue. Your tongue . . . is beautiful. Slide it down your throat. Your throat... is beautiful.
STEVE: Our hands are beautiful.
(Grace holds hers next to his.)
GRACE: What do you see?
STEVE: I see... I see the hands of warriors.
GRACE: Warriors? What of gods, then?
STEVE: There are no gods that travel. Only warriors travel.
(Silence)
Would you like to go dance?
GRACE: Yeah. Okay. Sure.
(They start to leave. Dale speaks softly:)
DALE: Well, if you want to be alone...
GRACE: I think we would, Dale. Is that okay?
(Pause)
Thanks for coming over. I’m sorry things got so screwed up.
DALE: Oh—uh—that’s okay. The evening was real... different, anyway.
GRACE: Yeah. Maybe you can take Frank off the tracks now?
DALE
(Laughing softly)
: Yeah. Maybe I will.
STEVE
(To Dale)
: Very nice meeting you.
(Extends his hand)
DALE
(Does not take it):
Yeah. Same here.
(Steve and Grace start to leave.)
You know... I think you picked up English faster than anyone I’ve ever met.
(Pause.)
STEVE: Thank you.
GRACE: See you.
STEVE: Good-bye.
DALE: ’Bye.
(Grace and Steve exit.)
Coda
Dale is alone in the back room. He examines the swords, the tablecloth, the box. He sits down.
DALE: F-O-B. Fresh Off the Boat, FOB. Clumsy, ugly, greasy FOB. Loud, stupid, four-eyed FOB. Big feet. Horny. Like Lenny in
Of Mice and Men
. F-O-B. Fresh Off the Boat. FOB.
(Slow fade to black.)
END OF PLAY
THE DANCE AND THE RAILROAD
(1981)
For John and Tzi
Production History
The Dance and the Railroad
, commissioned by the New Federal Theatre under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, opened at the New Federal Theatre (Woodie King, Jr., and Steve Tennen, Producers) in New York City on March 25, 1981. Special thanks for this production to Jack Tchen and the New York Chinatown History Project, and Genny Chomori of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. It was directed by John Lone; the set sculpture was by Andrea Zakin, the costume design was by Judy Dearing; the lighting design was by Grant Orenstein; the music and choreography was by John Lone; and the production stage manager was Alice Jankowiak. The cast was as follows:
The Dance and the Railroad
opened at The Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival (Joseph Papp, Producer) in New York City, on July 16, 1981. It was directed by John Lone; the set design was by Karen Schulz; the costume design was by Judy Dearing; the lighting design was by Victor En Yu Tan; the music and choreography was by John Lone; and the production stage manager was Alice Jankowiak. The cast was as follows:
Characters
LONE, twenty years old, Chinaman railroad worker. MA, eighteen years old, Chinaman railroad worker.
Place
A mountaintop near the transcontinental railroad.
Time
June 1867.
Scene One:
afternoon.
Scene Two:
afternoon, a day later.
Scene Three:
late afternoon, four days later.
Scene Four:
late that night.
Scene Five:
just before the following dawn.
Definitions
die siu
is a game of chance.
pi pa
is a Chinese lute.
Scene One
A mountaintop. Afternoon . Lone is practicing Chinese opera steps. He swings his pigtail around like a fan. Ma enters, cautiously, watches from a hidden spot. Ma approaches Lone.
LONE: So, there are insects hiding in the bushes.
MA: Hey, listen, we haven’t met, but—
LONE: I don’t spend time with insects.
(Lone whips his hair into Ma’s face; Ma backs off. Lone pursues him, swiping at Ma with his hair.)