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Sample Scene
George returns to his cards. Steinbeck hands Ceri a pair of girls shoes from the stage edge, and when she has put them on, hands over a section of script. Ceri looks briefly at the script and moves to the door. She speaks tentatively, like someone who has been given a part cold.
Ceri
I'm lookin' for Curley
George
He was in here a minute ago, but he went
Ceri
Oh
Ceri, relaxing into the part, leans against the doorframe with her body thrown forward. Lennie watches intently
Ceri
You're the new fellas that's just come, ain't ya
George
Yeah
Ceri is aware of Lennie's gaze, and looks down at her fingernails
Ceri
Sometimes Curley's in here
George
Well he ain't now
Ceri
Nobody can't blame a person for lookin'
Steinbeck walks up behind her
Ceri
(losing confidence) Bye boys
Ceri steps back out the doorway removes her shoes, and hands the script to Steinbeck
George
Jesus, what a tramp
Lennie
She's purty
George
Yeah, and she's sure hidin' it Curley's got his work ahead of him. Bet she'd clear out for twenty bucks
Lennie
Gosh she was purty
George looks at him, then grabs him by the ear and shakes him
George
Listen to me you crazy bastard. Don't you ever take a look at that bitch. I seen em poison before, but I never seen a piece of jail bait worse than her. You leave her be.
Lennie
I don't like this place, George. This ain't no good place. I wanna get outta here
George
We gotta keep it till we get a stake, Lennie. We'll get out jus' as soon as we can. I don't like it no better than you do. If we can get jus' a few dollars in the poke, we'll shove off and go up the American River and pan gold. We can make maybe a couple of dollars a day there, and we might hit a pocket
Lennie
Let's go, George. Let's get outta here. It's mean here
George
We gotta stay. Shut up now, the guys'll be comin in for dinner
Lennie picks up a card and sudies it. Turns it upside-down and studies it
Lennie
Both ends the same. George, why is it both ends the same?
George
I don't know. that's jus' the way they make them
Ceri
George understands Lennie
Steinbeck
Well as any man
Ceri
But he shoots him
Steinbeck
Can't ya get that shootin' out your head.
Ceri
Well no, I can't
Steinbeck
Why you so beat up? What you see?
Ceri does not answer
Steinbeck
I'll tell you what you see. You see a man with a gun to the back of his head. What else you see?
Ceri still does not answer. She begins to back off
Steinbeck
You see his skull smashed open as he hits the sand. What else?…
Ceri is in full retreat
Steinbeck
You see all kinda disasters same as me, don't ya… Everywhere you look ya see disasters. Ya see airplanes crashing, ya see them babies bombed like Mussolini bombed them Abyssinians… It's jus' how the world is. It ain't your fault. It ain't your fault
Ceri stops retreating, but does not really connect with Steinbeck
Ceri
It's all you ever see on telly…
Steinbeck
Ain't nothin' new in destroying the world. You see them boots? They each gotta story. Ever'one of them walked from someplace. Most of em walked 'cross the mountains from the dustbowl. Millions of tramping feet. You watch one place long enough, and some guy bobs to the surface, a guy with his story, but blink your eye, and he's sunk again and all you see is tramping boots, trampin out the dustbowl.
Ceri
What’s the dustbowl?
Steinbeck
Listen to the story
Ceri
I am listening. I’m not such a thick shit, you know. Tell me about the dustbowl then
George speaks without looking up from his game. Music underscoring
George
Don't want to hear about no dustbowl
Steinbeck
Sure ain't nothin' new in destroying the world. Poor folks don’ even know they’re doin’ it. Settlers, they marched out the East, made their bargain with Uncle Sam and took the land from the Indians. They ploughed it up and planted corn. And the corn swayed across the prarie from one claim shanty to the next. And the new land gave enough to let them shanties grow. The sons became fathers and they took from the land, and the Indians watched. They became grandfathers and their sons took from the land, and the Indians watched. And the old land gotten sick of this take take all the time and it dried up, and the wind blew, and they didn’t know what to do ‘bout it. . And the Indians watched from the reserves, and they knew. The farmers borrowed money to live, and planted more corn to pay it back, and it dried up worse, and the wind blew and the dust rose, and the money grew thin so they morgaged themselves to the banks till the banks owned all the land, and the wind blew and the dust rose and lungs choked. And the banks found makin money off the people too hard, so they got ridda the people. Just like that. You don' own ya house no more, don' own the land - so the banks sell them to the big grain companies. And the wind blow and the dust rise and lungs choke, and the tractors come in and flatten the shanties an' all the little claims are gone. An the people? The people who own the boots are thrown outdoors and they get in their beat up old trucks an' they rattle west. Ain't nowhere's to go but west.. An' the wind blow. An' the tires come off the trucks an' the trucks run on the rims, and then the rims flatten’ an’ the trucks are pushed off the edge of the road and left. Left with three generations of memories thickening in the dust.
Steinbeck starts to put on Slim's boots
Steinbeck
But the boots go on, boots trudging West, an army of boots. Ain't nowheres else for them to go. Behind them the wind blow and the dust rises. In front the mountains and beyond a life trudging from farm to farm, where your possessions can be laid out in an apple box…All them boots, all fulla guys. Armies of guys trampin' facelessly from farm to farm..
George
The only guy's you given us so far are an old cripple with a smelly dog and a coupla punks
Steinbeck
I ain't given you Slim yet. He's the jerkline skinner. Ain't no-one can handle a team like him. He can drive twenty mules with a single line on the leader. He can kill a fly on a wheeler's butt with a bull whip without touchin' the mule. He don't talk, he listens, and he don't jus' listen, he thinks, and he don't jus' think, he understands -- like George… But understan’s beyond thought. Understandin's what a man needs more’n anything.
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