Description
Read Fences, Introduction and Act 1 Sc 1Choose ONE question to answer. The answer does not need to be long, but it should be a complete answer with evidence from the text (quote or paraphrase and page number). 1) How does Troy communicate with and about women?2) How are we to understand Troy as an honest/dishonest character?3) Examine Rose’s function in the play so far?4) What is Wilson showing the reader regarding many Black people’s expectations of life during this time?
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AUTHOR OF THE PIANO LESSON mO MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOUOM
AUGUST
WILSON
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LLOYD RICHARDS
FBNCeS
‘The strongest, most passionate
American dramatic writing
since Tennessee Williams.”
— THE NEW YORK POST
WINNER OF
THE PULITZER PRIZE
FOR DRAMA
Wilson, August
4
FENCES
Copy 1
DATE DUE
„^-^^m^.
KANSAS
HUMANITIES
COUNCIL
B
112 SW 6th Ave., Suite 210
TopeloKS 66603-3895
(785) 357-0359
www.lonsastiumanities.org
*’What makes FENCES so engrossing, so
embracing, so simply powerful, is Wilson’s
startling ability to tell a story, reveal feeling, paint
emotion/’
Clive Barnes, New York Post
—
*TENCES is an eloquent play … a comedydrama that is well-nigh flawless
.
.
.
bitters weetness, fills the stage .
.
.
pain and anger
Life, in all its
are balanced by humor and common sense, and
both passion and compassion are played on a
muted trumpet that insinuates rather than insists.
FENCES marks a long step forward for Wilson’s
dramaturgy.”
John Simon, New York Magazine
—
*’A moving story line and a hero almost
Shakespearian in contour.”
Sylviane Gold, The Wall Street Journal
—
”A work of tremendous impact that summons up
gratitude for the beauty of its language, the truth of
its character, the
power of its portrayals.”
— Chicago Tribune
AUGUST WILSON was catapulted to the
forefront of American playwrights with the success
of MA RAINETS BLACK BOTTOM (also
available in a Plume edition), voted Best Play of
the Year 1984-85 by the New York Drama Critics’
Circle. August Wilson is also a published poet and
makes his home in St. Paul, Minnesota. His third
play, JOE TURNER’S
COME AND GONE,
received its first production at the Yale Repertory
Theatre in 1986.
LLOYD RICHARDS is Dean of Yale School of
Drama and Artistic Director of Yale Repertory
Theatre.
FENCES
APU^BY
AUGUST WLSON
Introduction by Lloyd Richards
A PLUME BOOK
PLUME
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books USA Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmonds worth, Middlesex, England
Published by Plume, an imprint of Dutton Signet, a division of Penguin Books USA
Inc.
First Printing, June, 1986
50 49 48 47 46 45 44
Copyright © 1986 by August Wilson
© 1985 by Lloyd Richards
Introduction Copyright
All rights whatsoever in this play
in the
— including- stock and amateur rights
USA — are strictly reserved and application for performance,
etcetera, should be made before rehearsal to August Wilson, c/o Paul,
Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison, 345 Park Avenue, New York,
New York 10154, Attention: John BregUo. No performance may be
given unless a license has been obtained.
®
REGISTERED TRADEMARK
— MARCA REGISTRADA
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA:
Wilson, August.
Fences a play in two acts.
:
I.
Title.
PS3573.I45677F4
812’54
1986
ISBN 0-452-26401-4
86-5264
Printed in the United States of America
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above
publisher of this book.
BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE AT QUANTITY DISCOUNTS WHEN USED TO PROMOTE PRODUCTS
OR SERVICES. FOR INFORMATION PLEASE WRITE TO PREMIUM MARKETING DIVISION,
PENGUIN BOOKS USA INC., 375 HUDSON STREET, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10014.
for Lloyd Richards,
who adds to whatever he touches
Introduction
by Lloyd Richards
Fences is the second major play of a poet turned playwright, August Wilson. One of the most compelling storytellers to begin writing for the theater in many years, he has
taken the responsibility of telling the tale of the encounter
of the released black slaves with a vigorous and ruthless
growing America decade by decade. Fences encompasses
the 1950s and a black family trying to put down roots in the
slag slippery hills of a middle American urban industrial
city that one might correctly mistake for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
To call August Wilson a storyteller is to align him at one
and the same time with the ancient aristocrats of dramatic
writing who stood before the tribes and made compelling
oral history into legend, as well as with the
modem play-
wrights who bring an audience to their feet at the end of an
evening of their work because that audience knows that
they have encountered themselves, their concerns, and
their passions, and have been moved and enriched by the
experience. In Fences, August Wilson tells the story of four
generations of black Americans and of how they have
passed on a legacy of morals, mores, attitudes, and patterns
through stories with and without music.
He tells the story of Troy Maxson,bom to a sharecropper
father who was frustrated by the fact that every crop took
him further into debt. The father knew himself as a failure
and took it out on everyone at hand, including his young
son, Troy, and his wives, all of whom ‘ieave him.” Troy
learns violence from him, but he also learns the value of
work and the fact that a man takes responsibility for his
—
viii
INTRODUCTION
family no matter how difficult circumstances may be. He
learns respect for a home, the importance of owning land,
and the value of an education because he doesn’t have one.
An excellent baseball player, Troy learns that in the land
of equal opportunity, chances for a black man are not always equal, and that the same country that deprived him
asked sacrifice of his brother in World War II and got it.
Half his brother’s head was blown away, and he is now a
disoriented and confused beautiful man. He learns that he
must fight and win the little victories that given his life
must assume the proportion of major triumphs. He learns
that day to day and moment to moment he lives close to
death and must wrestle with death to survive. He learns
that to take a chance and grab a moment of beauty can
crumble the delicate fabric of an intricate value system and
leave one desolate and alone. Strength of body and strength
of purpose are not enough. Chance and the color of one’s
skin, chance again, can tip the balance. ”You’ve got to take
the crooked with the straight.”
Troy Maxson spins yarns, raps, tells stories to his family
and friends in that wonderful environment of the pretelevision, pre-airconditioned era when the back porch and the
backyard were the platform for some of the most exciting
tales of that time. From this platform and through his behavior he passes on to his extended family principles for
living, which members of his family accept or refute
through the manner in which they choose to live their own
—
lives.
How is this reformed criminal perceived? What should
be learned from him? What accepted? What passed on? Is
his life to be discarded or honored? That is the story of
Fences, which we build to keep things and people out or
in.
New Haven, Connecticut
March 6, 1986
FENCES
When the sins of our fathers visit us
We do not have to play host.
We can banish them with forgiveness
As God, in His Largeness and Laws.
— August Wilson
Fences opened on April 30, 1985, at the Yale Repertory
Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, with the following
cast:
TROY MAXSON
LYONS
James Earl Jones
Ray Aranha
Mary Alice
Charles Brown
GABRIEL
Russell Costen
CORY
RAYNELL
Courtney B. Vance
Cristal Coleman and
LaJara Henderson at
alternate performances
JIM BONO
ROSE
Lloyd Richards
James D. Sandefur
Costume Design: Candice Donnelly
Light Design: Danianne Mizzy
Music Director: Dwight Andrews
Production Stage Manager: Joel Grynheim
Stage Manager: Terrence J. Witter
Casting:
Meg Simon/Fran Kumin
Director:
Set Design:
Fences was initially presented as a staged reading at the
Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s 1983 National Playwrights Conference.
Fences opened on March 26, 1987, at the 46th Street
Theatre, with the following cast:
TROY MAXSON
JIM BONO
LYONS
James Earl Jones
Ray Aranha
Mary Alice
Charles Brown
GABRIEL
Frankle R. Faison
CORY
RAYNELL
Courtney B. Vance
ROSE
Karima Miller
Carole Shorenstein Hays in association with
The Yale Repertory Theatre
Director:
Lloyd Richards
Set Design: James D. Sandefur
Costume Design: Candice Donnelly
Danianne Mizzy
Light Design:
Producer:
Music Director:
Dwight Andrews
Production Stage Manager: Martin Gold
General Manager: Robert Kamlot
Stage Manager: Terrence J. Witter
Casting:
Meg Simon/Fran Kumin
Fences was initially presented as a staged reading at the
Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s 1983 National Playwrights Conference.
This new edition, first printed in May 1987, reflects the final
definintive text of FENCES as performed on Broadway.
Characters
TROY MAXSON
JIM BONO
ROSE
LYONS
troy’s friend
TROY*5 wife
TROY ‘5 oldest SOft by
previous marriage
GABRIEL
CORY
RAYNELL
TROY ‘5 brother
TROY and ROSE ‘5 son
TROY ‘5 daughter
Setting
The setting is the yard which fronts the only entrance to
the MAXSON household, an ancient two-story brick house
set back off a small alley in a big-city neighborhood.
The
entrance to the house is gained by two or three steps leading to a wooden porch badly in need of paint.
A relatively recent addition to the house and running its full
width, the porch lacks congruence. It is a sturdy porch with
a flat roof. One or two chairs of dubious value sit at one
end where the kitchen window opens onto the porch. An
old-fashioned icebox stands silent guard at the opposite
end.
The yard is a small dirt yard, partially fenced, except for
the last scene, with a wooden sawhorse, a pile of lumber,
and other fence-building equipment set off to the side. Opposite is a tree from which hangs a ball made of rags. A
baseball bat leans against the tree. Two oil drums serve as
garbage receptacles and sit near the house at right to complete the setting.
The Play
Near the turn of the century, the destitute of Europe sprang
on the city with tenacious claws and an honest and solid
dream. The city devoured them. They swelled its belly until
it burst into a thousand furnaces and sewing machines, a
thousand butcher shops and bakers’ ovens, a thousand
churches and hospitals and funeral parlors and moneylenders. The city grew. It nourished itself and offered each
man a partnership limited only by his talent, his guile, and
his willingness and capacity for hard work. For the immigrants of Europe, a dream dared and won true.
The descendants of African slaves were offered no such
welcome or participation. They came from places called the
Carolinas and the Virginias, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. They came strong, eager, searching.
The city rejected them and they fled and settled along the
riverbanks and under bridges in shallow, ramshackle
houses made of sticks and tar-paper. They collected rags
and wood. They sold the use of their muscles and their
bodies. They cleaned houses and washed clothes, they
shined shoes, and in quiet desperation and vengeful pride,
they stole, and lived in pursuit of their own dream. That
they could breathe free, finally, and stand to meet life with
the force of dignity and whatever eloquence the heart could
call upon.
By 1957, the hard- won victories of the European immigrants had solidified the industrial might of America. War
xviii
THE PLAY
had been confronted and won with new energies that used
loyalty and patriotism as its fuel. Life was rich, full, and
flourishing. The Milwaukee Braves won the World Series,
and the hot winds of change that would make the sixties a
turbulent, racing, dangerous, and provocative decade had
not yet begun to blow full.
Act One
Scene One
// is 1957.
versation.
TROY and bono enter the yard, engaged in conTROY is fifty-three years old, a large man with
thick, heavy hands; it is this largeness that he strives to fill
out and make an accommodation with. Together with his
blackness, his largeness informs his sensibilities and the
choices he has made in his life.
Of the two men, bono is obviously the follower. His commitment to their friendship of thirty-odd years is rooted in
his admiration of troy* s honesty, capacity for hard work,
and his strength, which bono seeks to emulate.
It is Friday night,
payday, and the one night of the week
the two men engage in a ritual of talk and drink,
troy is
usually the most talkative and at times he can be crude and
almost vulgar, though he is capable of rising to profound
heights of expression. The men carry lunch buckets and
wear or carry burlap aprons and are dressed in clothes
suitable to their jobs as garbage collectors.
bono:
troy:
Troy, you ought to stop that lying!
I
ain’t lying! The nigger had a watermelon this big.
{He indicates with his hands.)
2
FENCES
Talking about
.
.
.
“What watermelon, Mr. Rand?” I
liked to fell out! ”What watermelon, Mr.
Rand?”
.
.
.
And it sitting there big as life.
bono:
What did Mr. Rand say?
troy:
Ain’t said nothing. Figure if the nigger too dumb to
know he carrying a watermelon, he wasn’t gonna get
much sense out of him. Trying to hide that great big old
watermelon under his coat. Afraid to let the white man
see him carry it home.
I’m like you … I ain’t got no time for them kind
of people.
bono:
troy:
Now what he look like getting mad cause he see
the man from the union talking to Mr. Rand?
bono:
He come to me talking about
.
.
.
”Maxson gonna
get us fired.” I told him to get away from me with that.
He walked away from me calling you a troublemaker.
What Mr. Rand say?
troy: Ain’t said nothing. He told me to go down the
Commissioner’s office next Friday. They called me down
there to see them.
bono:
Well, as long as you got your complaint filed, they
can’t fire you. That’s what one of them white fellows tell
me.
troy:
fire
I
ain’t worried about them firing me.
They gonna
me cause I asked a question? That’s all I did. I went
Rand and asked him, ”Why?” Why you got the
white mens driving and the colored lifting?” Told him,
“what’s the matter, don’t I count? You think only white
fellows got sense enough to drive a truck. That ain’t no
to Mr.
paper job! Hell, anybody can drive a truck. How come
you got all whites driving and the colored lifting? He told
ACT ONE
3
me *’take it to the union/’ Well, hell, that’s what I done!
Now they wanna come up with this pack of lies.
bono:
Brownie if the man come and ask him any
told
I
questions
.
.
.just
tell
the truth!
It
ain’t
nothing but
something they done trumped up on you cause you filed
a complaint on them.
troy: Brownie don’t understand nothing. All I want them
to do is change the job description. Give everybody a
chance to drive the truck. Brownie can’t see that. He
ain’t got that much sense.
bono: How you figure he be making out with that gal be
that Alberta gal?
up at Taylors’ all the time
.
.
.
Same as you and me. Getting just as much as we
Which is to say nothing.
troy:
is.
.
It is, huh? I figure you doing a little better than me
and I ain’t saying what I’m doing.
troy:
Aw, nigger, look here … I know you. If you had
bono:
.
.
got anywhere near that gal, twenty minutes later you be
looking to tell somebody.
tell
.
.
.
And the first one you gonna
that you gonna want to brag to … is gonna be
me.
bono:
I ain’t
saying that. I see where you be eyeing her.
troy: I eye all the women. I don’t miss nothing. Don’t
never let nobody tell you Troy Maxson don’t eye the
women.
bono: You been doing more than eyeing her. You done
bought her a drink or two.
troy: Hell yeah, I bought her a drink! What that mean? I
bought you one, too. What that mean cause I buy her a
drink? I’m just being polite.
4
FENCES
bono:
call
It’s alright to buy her one drink. That’s what you
being polite. But when you wanna be buying two or
three
.
.
.
that’s what you call eyeing her.
Look here, as long as you known me
known me to chase after women?
troy:
bono:
.
,
.
you ever
Hell yeah! Long as I done known you. You forget-
ting I knew you when.
troy: Naw, I’m talking about since I been married to
Rose?
bono:
Oh, not since you been married to Rose. Now,
that’s the truth, there. I can say that.
troy:
Alright then! Case closed.
bono:
I
see you be walking up around Alberta’s house.
You supposed to be at Taylors’ and you be walking up
around there.
troy: What you watching where I’m walking for? I ain’t
watching after you.
seen you walking around there more than once.
bono:
I
troy:
Hell, you liable to see me walking anywhere! That
don’t mean nothing cause you see me walking around
there.
bono: Where she come from anyway? She just kinda
showed up one day.
troy:
Tallahassee. You can look at her and tell she one
of them Florida gals. They got some big healthy women
down there. Grow them right up out the ground. Got a
little bit
of Indian in her. Most of them niggers down in
Florida got some Indian in them.
bono:
I
don’t know about that Indian part. But she damn
i
ACTONE
5
sure big and healthy. Woman wear some big stockings.
Got them great big old legs and hips as wide as the Mississippi River.
troy:
Legs don’t mean nothing. You don’t do nothing
but push them out of the way. But them hips cushion the
ride!
bono:
Troy, you ain’t got no sense.
troy: It’s the truth! Like you riding on Goodyears!
(rose enters from the house. She is ten years younger
than TROY, her devotion to him stems from her recognition of the possibilities of her life without him: a succession of abusive men and their babies a life of partying
and running the streets, the Church, or aloneness with
its attendant pain and frustration. She recognizes troy’s
spirit as a fine and illuminating one and she either ignores or forgives his faults, only some of which she recognizes. Though she doesn’t drink, her presence is an
integral part of the Friday night rituals. She alternates
between the porch and the kitchen, where supper preparations are under way.)
y
rose:
What you all out here getting into?
What you worried about what we getting into for?
This is men talk, woman.
troy:
What I care what you all talking about? Bono, you
gonna stay for supper?
rose:
bono: No, I thank you, Rose. But Lucille say she cooking up a pot of pigfeet.
troy:
Pigfeet! Hell, I’m going home with you! Might even
stay the night if you got some pigfeet. You got something
in there to top them pigfeet, Rose?
—
6
FENCES
I’m cooking up some chicken. I got some chicken
and collard greens.
rose:
Well, go on back in the house and let me and Bono
troy:
finish what we was talking about. This is men talk. I got
some talk for you later. You know what kind of talk I
mean. You go on and powder it up.
rose:
Troy Maxson, don’t you start that now!
troy:
{Puts
come
arm around her.) Aw, woman
Look here. Bono
when I met this
his
here.
.
.
.
.
.
.
woman … I got out that place, say, ”Hitch up my
pony, saddle up my mare
there’s a woman out there
for me somewhere. I looked here. Looked there. Saw
.
.
.
Rose and latched on to her.” I latched on to her and told
her I’m gonna tell you the truth I told her, ”Baby, I
don’t wanna marry, I just wanna be your man.” Rose
told me
tell him what you told me. Rose.
—
—
.
rose:
I
.
.
told
him if he wasn’t the marrying kind, then
move out the way so the marrying kind could find me.
troy:
That’s what she told me. “Nigger, you in my way.
You blocking the view! Move out the way so I can find
me a husband.” I thought it over two or three days.
Come back
rose:
Ain’t no two or three days nothing. You was back
the same night.
“Okay, baby … but
troy: Come back, told her
I’m gonna buy me a banty rooster and put him out there
and when he see a stranger come,
in the backyard
he’ll flap his wings and crow …” Look here, Bono, I
could watch the front door by myself … it was that
back door I was worried about.
.
.
.
.
.
.
ACT ONE
7
rose: Troy, you ought not talk like that. Troy ain’t doing
nothing but telling a lie.
troy:
Only thing is
.
.
.
when we first got married
.
,
.
forget the rooster … we ain’t had no yard!
you tell it. Me and Lucille was staying down
there on Logan Street. Had two rooms with the outhouse
in the back. I ain’t mind the outhouse none. But when
that goddamn wind blow through there in the winter
that’s what I’m talking about! To this day I wonder why
bono:
I hear
.
in the hell
I
.
.
ever stayed down there for six long years.
But see, I didn’t know I could do no better. I thought
only white folks had inside toilets and things.
rose:
There’s a lot of people don’t know they can do no
better than they doing now. That’s just something you
got to learn.
troy:
A lot of folks still shop at Bella’s.
Ain’t nothing wrong with shopping at Bella’s. She
got fresh food.
rose:
I
ain’t said nothing about if she got fresh food. I’m
talking about what she charge. She charge ten cents more
than the A&P.
troy:
The A&P ain’t never done nothing for me. I spends
my money where I’m treated right. I go down to Bella,
say,
”I
need a loaf of bread, I’ll pay you Friday.” She
give it to me. What sense that make when I got money to
go and spend it somewhere else and ignore the person
who done right by me? That ain’t in the Bible.
We ain’t talking about what’s in the Bible.
sense it make to shop there when she overcharge?
rose:
What
troy: You shop where you want to. I’ll do my shopping
where the people been good to me.
8
FENCES
rose: Well, I don’t think it’s right for her to overcharge.
That’s all I was saying,
Look here … I got to get on. Lucille going be
bono:
raising all kind of hell.
Where you going, nigger? We ain’t finished this
troy:
pint.
Come here, finish this pint.
bono:
Well, hell,
I
am … if you ever turn the bottle
loose.
troy:
{Hands him the
about the
there.
things.
bottle.)
The only
thing
I
say
A&P is I’m glad Cory got that job down
Help him take care of his school clothes and
Gabe done moved out and things getting tight
around here. He got that job. … He can start to look
out for himself.
rose:
Cory done went and got recruited by a college foot-
ball team.
troy:
I
told that boy about that football stuff. The white
man ain’t gonna let him get nowhere with that football. I
told him when he first come to me with it. Now you come
telling me he done went and got more tied up in it. He
ought to go and get recruited in how to fix cars or something where he can make a living.
rose:
He ain’t talking about making no living playing
football. It’s just something the boys in school do. They
gonna send a recruiter by to talk to you. He’ll tell you he
ain’t talking about making no living playing football. It’s
a honor to be recruited.
troy:
It ain’t
gonna get him nowhere. Bono’ll tell you
that.
bono:
If he
be like you in the sports
.
.
.
he’s gonna be
ACT ONE
9
alright. Ain’t but two men ever played baseball as good
as you. That’s Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson. Them’s the
only two men ever hit more home runs than you.
What it ever get me? Ain’t got a pot to piss in or a
window to throw it out of.
troy:
Times have changed since you was playing baseball, Troy. That was before the war. Times have changed
rose:
a lot since then.
troy:
How in hell they done changed?
rose:
They got lots of colored boys playing ball now.
Baseball and football.
bono:
You right about that. Rose. Times have changed,
Troy. You just come along too early.
There ought not never have been no time called
what’s that feltoo early! Now you take that fellow
low they had playing right field for the Yankees back
then? You know who I’m talking about, Bono. Used to
play right field for the Yankees.
troy:
.
rose:
Selkirk?
troy:
Selkirk! That’s
it!
.
.
Man batting .269, understand?
What kind of sense that make? I was hitting .432
with thirty-seven home runs! Man batting .269 and play.269.
ing right field for the Yankees! I saw Josh Gibson’s
daughter yesterday. She walking around with raggedy
shoes on her feet. Now I bet you Selkirk’s daughter ain’t
walking around with raggedy shoes on her feet! I bet you
that!
rose:
They got a lot of colored baseball players now.
Jackie Robinson was the
Jackie Robinson.
first.
Folks had to wait for
10
FENCES
I done seen a hundred niggers play baseball better
than Jackie Robinson. Hell, I know some teams Jackie
Robinson couldn’t even make! What you talking about
Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson wasn’t nobody. I’m
troy:
talking about if you could play ball then they ought to
have let you play. Don’t care what color you were. Come
me I come along too early. If you could play
then they ought to have let you play.
(troy takes a long drink from the bottle.)
telling
rose:
.
.
.
You gonna drink yourself to death. You don’t need
to be drinking like that.
Death ain’t nothing. I done seen him. Done wras-
troy:
sled with him.
You can’t tell me nothing about death.
Death ain’t nothing but a fastball on the outside corner.
And you know what I’ll do to that! Lookee here, Bono
… am I lying? You get one of them fastballs, about
waist high, over the outside corner of the plate where
and good god!
you can get the meat of the bat on it
You can kiss it goodbye. Now, am I lying?
.
.
.
bono:
Naw, you telling the truth there. I seen you do it.
troy:
If I’m lying
.
.
.
that 450 feet worth of lying!
(Pause.)
That’s all death is to me. A fastball on the outside corner.
rose:
I
don’t know why you want to get on talking about
death.
|
wrong with talking about death.
That’s part of life. Everybody gonna die. You gonna die,
I’m gonna die. Bono’s gonna die. Hell, we all gonna die.
troy:
Ain’t nothing
rose:
But you ain’t got to talk about it. I don’t like to talk
about it.
troy:
You the one brought it up. Me and Bono was talkyou tell me I’m gonna drink my-
ing about baseball
.
.
.
ACT ONE
11
Bono? You know I don’t
out
of
the week. That’s Friday
drink this but one night
self to death. Ain’t that right,
night. I’m gonna drink just enough to where I can handle
Then I cuts it loose. I leave it alone. So don’t you
worry about me drinking myself to death. ‘Cause I ain’t
worried about Death. I done seen him. I done wrestled
it.
with him.
Look here, Bono … I looked up one day and Death
was marching straight at me. Like Soldiers on Parade!
The Army of Death was marching straight at me. The
middle of July, 1941. It got real cold just like it be winter. It seem like Death himself reached out and touched
me on the shoulder. He touch me just like I touch you.
I
got cold as ice and Death standing there grinning at
me.
rose:
Troy, why don’t you hush that talk.
What you want, Mr. Death? You be
troy: I say
wanting me? You done brought your army to be getting
me? I looked him dead in the eye. I wasn’t fearing nothing. I was ready to tangle. Just like I’m ready to tangle
now. The Bible say be ever vigilant. That’s why I don’t
get but so drunk. I got to keep watch.
.
.
.
Troy was right down there in Mercy Hospital. You
remember he had pneumonia? Laying there with a fever
talking plumb out of his head.
rose:
troy:
Death standing there staring at me
.
.
carrying
.
that sickle in his hand. Finally he say, *’You want bound
over for another year?” See, just like that
”You
want bound over for another year?” I told him, “Bound
over hell! Let’s settle this now!”
It seem like he kinda fell back when I said that, and all
the cold went out of me. I reached down and grabbed
.
.
.
12
FENCES
that sickle and threw it just as far as I could throw it
.
.
.
and me and him commenced to wrestling.
We wrestled for three days and three nights. I can’t say^
where I found the strength from. Every time it seemed
like he was gonna get the best of me, Fd reach way down
deep inside myself and find the strength to do him one
better.
Every time Troy tell that story he find different
ways to tell it. Different things to make up about it.
rose:
troy:
I
making up nothing.
ain’t
Tm telling you the
facts of what happened. I wrestled with Death for three
days and three nights and Fm standing here to tell you
about it.
(Pause.)
Alright. At the end of the third night we done weakened
each other to where we can’t hardly move. Death stood
had him a white robe with
up, throwed on his robe
a hood on it. He throwed on that robe and went off to
look for his sickle. Say, ^Tll be back.” Just like that,
‘^ril be back.” I told him, say, ^’Yeah, but
you
gonna have to find me!” I wasn’t no fool. I wasn’t going
looking for him. Death ain’t nothing to play with. And I
know he’s gonna get me. I know I got to join his army
… his camp followers. But as long as I keep my
strength and see him coming … as long as I keep up my
vigilance
he’s gonna have to fight to get me. I ain’t
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
going easy.
bono:
Well, look here, since you got to keep up your
vigilance … let me have the bottle.
Aw hell, I shouldn’t have told you that part.
should have left out that part.
troy:
I
Troy be talking that stuff and half the time don’t
even know what he be talking about.
rose:
ACT ONE
troy:
13
Bono know me better than that.
bono: That’s right. I know you. I know you got some
Uncle Remus in your blood. You got more stories than
the devil got sinners.
troy:
Aw hell,
I
done seen him too! Done talked with the
devil.
Troy, don’t nobody wanna be hearing all that stuff.
{LYONS enters the yard from the street. Thirty-four years
old, troy’s son by a previous marriage, he sports a
neatly trimmed goatee, sport coat, white shirt, tieless
and buttoned at the collar. Though he fancies himself a
musician, he is more caught up in the rituals and “idea”
of being a musician than in the actual practice of the
music. He has come to borrow money from troy, and
while he knows he will be successful, he is uncertain as
to what extent his lifestyle will be held up to scrutiny and
rose:
ridicule.)
LYONS:
Hey, Pop.
troy:
What you come *’Hey, Popping*’ me for?
How you doing, Rose?
{He kisses her.)
Mr. Bono. How you doing?
LYONS:
bono:
Hey, Lyons
.
.
.
how you been?
troy: He must have been doing alright. I ain’t seen him
around here last week.
Troy, leave your boy alone. He come by to see you
and you wanna start all that nonsense.
rose:
14
FENCES
troy:
I
ain’t bothering Lyons.
{Offers him the bottle.)
Here … get you a drink. We got an understanding. I
know why he come by to see me and he know I know.
LYONS:
Come on. Pop
.
.
.
I just
stopped by to say hi
.
.
.
see how you was doing.
troy:
You ain’t stopped by yesterday.
rose: You gonna stay for supper, Lyons?
chicken cooking in the oven.
I
got
some
thanks. I was just in the neighborLYONS: No, Rose
hood and thought I’d stop by for a minute.
.
troy:
.
.
You was in the neighborhood alright, nigger. You
You was in the neighborhood
telling the truth there.
cause it’s my payday.
LYONS: Well, hell, since you mentioned
have ten dollars.
troy:
I’ll
be damned!
I’ll
die
it
.
.
.
let
me
and go to hell and play
blackjack with the devil before I give you ten dollars.
bono: That’s what I wanna know about
you done seen.
LYONS: What
much. Pops.
.
.
.
Pop done seen
.
that devil
the devil?
You too
.
.
troy:
Yeah, I done seen him. Talked to him too!
rose:
You ain’t seen no devil. I done told you that man
ain’t had nothing to do with the devil. Anything you can’t
understand, you want to call it the devil.
Look here, Bono … I went down to see Hertzberger about some furniture. Got three rooms for two-
troy:
ACT ONE
ninety-eight.
That what
it
15
say on the radio. ‘Three
Even made up a little
man tell me I can’t get
song about it. Go down there
no credit. I’m working every day and can’t get no credit.
What to do? I got an empty house with some raggedy
furniture in it. Cory ain’t got no bed. He’s sleeping on a
pile of rags on the floor. Working every day and can’t get
no credit. Come back here Rose’ll tell you madder
than hell. Sit down … try to figure what I’m gonna do.
Come a knock on the door. Ain’t been living here but
three days. Who know I’m here? Open the door
devil standing there bigger than life. White fellow
got on good clothes and everything. Standing there with
a clipboard in his hand. I ain’t had to say nothing. First
words come out of his mouth was … ”I understand you
need some furniture and can’t get no credit.” I liked to
fell over. He say ‘Til give you all the credit you want,
but you got to pay the interest on it.” I told him, ”Give
me three rooms worth and charge whatever you want.”
Next day a truck pulled up here and two men unloaded
them three rooms. Man what drove the truck give me a
book. Say send ten dollars, first of every month to the
address in the book and everything will be alright. Say if
I miss a payment the devil was coming back and it’ll be
hell to pay. That was fifteen years ago. To this day
the first of the month I send my ten dollars, Rose’ll tell
rooms
.
.
.
two-ninety-eight.
