The Woods, Lakeboat, Edmond

Three Plays

David Mamet

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780802191458
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

Three plays from the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award–winning author of Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo. 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

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...