The Rock Garden was first performed at Theatre Genesis, St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, New York, on October 10, 1964, with the following cast:
| BOY: | Lee Kissman | |
| WOMAN: | Stephanie Gordon | |
| MAN: | Kevin O’Connor |
It was directed by Ralph Cook.
As lights come up we see a dinner table center stage. Seated at the head of the table facing the audience is a MAN reading a magazine. Seated to the left of the table is a teenage GIRL. A teenage BOY sits opposite her. The GIRL and BOY are drinking milk. They take turns sipping the milk and exchanging glances. The MAN is completely involved in his magazine. For a long period of time nothing is said. The only action is that of the BOY and GIRL drinking milk. The GIRL drops her glass and spills the milk. Blackout.
A bedroom. There is a WOMAN lying in a bed upstage with several blankets over her. To stage left is the teenage BOY seated in a rocking chair. The lighting is a very pale blue. There is a large bay window behind the bed. The silhouettes of trees can be seen through the windows. The BOY is dressed in underwear. As the lights come up there is no sound for a long while except the slow rocking of the BOY.
WOMAN: Angels on horseback. That’s what we called them. They’re easy to make. Just salt crackers and marshmallows.
BOY: You have to toast them.
WOMAN: Yes. They’re best when they’re just barely toasted. Sort of a light brown so the marshmallow just barely starts to melt. (A long pause.) It seems like they’re for summer. We always had them in the summer.
BOY: It’s summer now.
WOMAN: Yes. That’s what I mean. In the summer. Angels on horseback. (A long pause.) Pop liked them burned. You know? Burned to a crisp. Black and crispy. He’d sit there and chew all night on them. He’d sit in front of the fire and burn them all night. He loved them burned like that. It was funny.
BOY: Why?
WOMAN: I don’t know. He just sat there a long time burning marshmal-lows and eating them. That’s why his face was red. Everyone thought he just got out in the sun a lot but actually it was from sitting in front of the fire so long. He hardly ever went in the sun. It was funny. A whole beach and he stayed inside all the time. He’d look at the beach from the attic but he hardly ever went near it. The forest was what he liked. You know? He liked to go walking in the trees. He’d pick mushrooms. He could tell all the different kinds. He knew the poison ones from the edible ones. Once he made a mistake and got very sick. I remember. He picked up a lot of very small red ones that he’d never seen before. He made a big kind of stew out of them. He even mixed them with some of the other kind. He got very sick and threw up for a whole week. Poor Pop. He was a funny man.
BOY: Why?
WOMAN: He just was. I don’t know. I mean he knew all about a lot of things but he still got sick. Like the mushrooms. And once he tried to make a tree house and fell down and broke his leg. Sometimes he just stayed in the attic. He’d stay up there for days and days and never come down. We thought he’d starved to death once because he’d been up there for ten days without food. But he was all right. He came out looking like he just had breakfast. He was never hungry.
BOY: Never?
WOMAN: Hardly ever. He would eat when we weren’t around. He always ate alone.
BOY: Why?
WOMAN: He just liked to, I guess. He didn’t like to eat around people. He ate with the cats in the attic. He had a lot of cats. He had one called Ty Cobb because it played ball so well. (A long pause.) He was a funny man. He knew a lot of people. They’d stop by to see him but he was always in the attic. I always wondered why they kept coming back. He was always in the attic. He loved animals. He had a whole bunch of cats. He kept them in the attic though so nobody could bother them. Mother went up there once and she said the place stank so bad she never went back. I guess he never cleaned up after the cats. They just went all over the place and he never cleaned it up. Ty Cobb was his favorite one. I never saw Ty Cobb, but he told me that was his favorite.
BOY: He never let the cats out?
WOMAN: No, he kept them in the attic. He never let anyone up there. He’d stay up there for days.
BOY: What did he do?
WOMAN: I don’t know. Mother told me he was a painter but I never saw him painting. He’d stay up there for days. I guess he was a painter. I don’t know. Would you get me a glass of water?
(The BOY gets up and goes offstage. He comes back with a glass of water.)
Thank you.
(The BOY sits.)
I’m really thirsty. (A long pause.) Your legs are a lot like Pop’s. Pop had the same kind of legs.
BOY: What do you mean?
WOMAN: Well I mean they were bony and—and kind of skinny.
BOY: They were?
WOMAN: Yes. And he had knobby knees.
BOY: He did?
WOMAN: And fuzzy brown hair all over them. He was a funny man. Would you get me another glass?
(The BOY goes off. He comes back with the water and wearing a pair of pants.)
Thank you.
(The BOY sits.)
I really don’t know how I caught this cold. It was probably from being out in the rain too much. I used to play in the rain all the time but now I catch colds. I used to listen to the rain when I was sleeping. I mean not when I was sleeping but when I was in bed. Just before I fell asleep I’d listen to the rain. It made me fall asleep. It was like music sort of. It always made me fall asleep. Your feet are almost identical to Pop’s. I mean the way the middle toe is. You see the way your middle toe sticks way out further than the other toes? That’s the way Pop’s toes was. His middle one. The way it sticks out.
BOY: Oh.
WOMAN: Isn’t that funny? Pop would have liked you. I can tell. Would you get me another blanket, please?
(The BOY goes off. He comes back on with a blanket and wearing shoes.)
Oh, thank you. It’s getting a little drafty. Can you feel it?
BOY: (Sitting) No.
WOMAN: It feels a little drafty. It’s probably coming from the windows. It probably is. But you know Bill. He says he’ll put new putty in and he never does. He never gets around to it. All they need is some new putty and there wouldn’t be any more drafts. It’s very simple, you know? Even I could do it. I’ll probably have to if I want to get it done. I don’t think he’s ever done that kind of work. I know he does physical labor but I don’t think he’s ever done any work with putty. Putty is a hard thing to work with. It’s very—very tricky and it takes a lot of know-how. You can’t just expect to pick it up and start working it right off the bat. You have to know what you’re working with. It’s a tricky kind of material. You have to know all about how to prepare it with the right kind of pastes and think like that. You can’t just take it and start puttying. You have to really learn all you can about it before you can start working with it. He’ll never learn. I don’t think he wants to. Can I have another glass of water?
(The BOY gets off and comes back with a glass of water.)
Thank you.
(The BOY sits.)
He can’t learn about putty by working in the orchard and things like that. He needs to practice with it a few times in order to get the feel of it. He could practice on the windows in the shed but I don’t think he wants to. Just a little practice is all he’d need. He doesn’t have to do all that physical labor that he does. He really doesn’t. It doesn’t do anything for him. He gets all sweaty and everything. It would be so much easier just to practice a little and putty the windows. I don’t think he wants to do it though. (A long pause.) It doesn’t do anything for his physique. You know? He works and works all day and look at his physique. You’ve seen him without his shirt. You’ve seen his physique. He does all that labor for nothing. It’s really too bad. You have the same kind of torso as he does. The same build. Only he works and you don’t. That’s the difference. He should just face up to it, that’s all. It won’t get any better. He’s not going to develop any more by doing all that work. Could I have another glass?
(The BOY goes off. He comes back with a glass of water and wearing a shirt.)
Thank you.
(The BOY sits.)
It doesn’t really matter to me except that the draft isn’t good for me when I have these colds. Otherwise the drafts are fine. It’s just when I catch these colds that they bother me. I guess I should gradually become used to the draft but I can’t help it. You’re not supposed to have drafts on you when you have a cold. Aren’t you cold?
BOY: No.
WOMAN: I’m freezing. Would you bring me another blanket?
(The BOY goes off. He comes back with a blanket and wearing an overcoat.)
Thank you.
(The BOY sits.)
It’s really cold. I shouldn’t have walked in the rain. That’s the problem. If I hadn’t walked in the rain I wouldn’t be cold like this. It’s just that I love the rain and whenever I get the chance I walk in it. I like it after the rain stops, too. I mean the way everything smells and looks. Right after a good hard rain. Those are two of my favorite times. When it’s raining and right after it rains. I like it just before it rains too but that’s different. It’s not the same. I get a different feeling just before it rains. I mean it’s a different feeling from the one I get when it’s raining. It’s not the same. It’s like—
(Footsteps are heard offstage. The footsteps get louder. A MAN walks by the window from stage right to stage left dressed in a hat and overcoat. The BOY stands suddenly. The MAN can be heard scraping his feet offstage. The BOY runs offstage right. The MAN enters stage left. He walks across the stage and exits stage right. After a while the MAN comes back on dressed in underwear. He crosses to the rocking chair and sits. For a long while the MAN just sits rocking. The WOMAN stares at the ceiling.)
MAN: Kind of drafty.
WOMAN: Yes.
MAN: Must be the windows.
WOMAN: I guess so.
(A long silence while the MAN rocks. The lights dim down slowly.)
The lights come up again on a bare stage except for a couch downstage left and a chair upstage right. The MAN sits on the couch. The BOY sits in the chair facing upstage with his back to the MAN. The BOY never turns to address the MAN but delivers all his lines into the air. They are both dressed in underwear. At different moments the BOY nods out from boredom and falls off his chair. He picks himself back up and sits again. The MAN goes on oblivious. There is a long pause as the two just sit in their places.
(Saturday afternoon—just after lunch, just before the ball game.)
MAN: It’s uh—the lawn doesn’t seem too bad this time of year. (A long pause.) Except around the sprinkler heads. It’s always wet around the sprinkler heads so it grows all the time, I guess. (A long pause.) It’s harder to mow around them too, I guess. It’s hard to get the lawn-mower in there close, I guess. It’s pretty hard to get it in there close so it cuts, I guess. (A long pause.) The other house wasn’t as bad as this one, was it? I mean the lawn wasn’t. I mean the way the lawn was at the other place made it easier, I guess. I mean not the lawn itself but more the way it was. You know? The way it was just there. I mean it was just a square piece of lawn. You know? It wasn’t the lawn so much as the way it was.
(A long pause. The BOY falls off his chair, then sits back down.)
The lawn here is different, you know. This one is different from the other one. It’s the locality of it, I guess. You know? It’s harder to get to. The other one didn’t have as many sprinkler heads as this. The other one didn’t have any, did it? No, the other one was easy. I remember the other one.
(A long pause.)
BOY: The other one was different from this.
MAN: Yes, the other was easier and didn’t have so many sprinkler heads. (A long pause.) If we can get the fence painted by next week it would be nice. You know? It’s not a good fence but if we could get it painted by next week it would be nice, I guess. (A long pause.) It needs to be saturated, you know? That way it will last. I remember the last one didn’t last at all. You remember the last one, the way it fell down all the time? But if it had been saturated it wouldn’t have fallen down at all. You know? (A long pause.) There’s a new kind of preservative you can buy that will be good for it. It only takes a couple of coats.
BOY: Two coats?
MAN: Yes, just a couple will do it.
BOY: Two?
MAN: Yes, two or three.
BOY: Three or two?
MAN: Just a couple.
BOY: Two?
MAN: Yes.
BOY: Good.
MAN: Yes. (A long pause.) That ought to do it.
BOY: Good.
(A long pause.)
MAN: What color?
BOY: For the fence?
BOY: What color is it now?
MAN: White.
BOY: White?
MAN: Yes.
BOY: How about white?
MAN: You mean paint it over white?
BOY: Yes.
MAN: Oh. Well, all right.
BOY: White would be good.
MAN: Sure. Maybe a kind of off-white. You know? What about a kind of off-white? You know what I mean? A kind of different white. You know? Just a little different. Not too much different from the way it is now. What do you think? A different kind of white. You know? So it won’t be too much the same. It could be almost the same but still be a little different. You know?
(A long pause. The BOY falls off his chair.)
It would be fun, I think. Did you notice the rock garden? That’s a new idea. It’s by the driveway. You may have seen it when you pass by there in the mornings. It’s not bad for my never having made one before. It’s one of those new kind. You know? With rocks and stuff in it. It has a lot of rocks and stuff from the trip. We found afterwards that it was really worth carrying all those rocks around. You know? It’s a nice rock garden. It gives me something to do. It keeps me pretty busy. You know? It feels good to get out in it and work and move the rocks around and stuff. You know? It’s a good feeling. I change it every day. It keeps me busy.
(A long pause. The BOY falls off his chair.)
It’s not the garden so much as the work it gives me. It’s good to work in a garden. Remember when we found the rocks? I remember. That was a good trip, wasn’t it? Maybe we can take another one and get some more.
BOY: Rocks?
MAN: Yes, We could start another garden. A bigger one.
BOY: Bigger than the one you have now?
MAN: Sure. We could start a whole lot of them. They’re not hard to start, you know. All you need is some rocks. They have to be good rocks, though. I mean they can’t be any kind of rocks. You know what I mean? I mean they have to be the right size and shape and color and everything. They can’t just be ordinary rocks, otherwise there wouldn’t be any point in making a garden at all. You know? That’s why we’d have to go somewhere else to find them. Somewhere like Arizona or something. Like we did before. Do you remember? We went to Arizona before and we found a lot of rocks. We could really have some nice gardens like the one I have now. Only bigger and more fancy. I saw one with a fountain in it. We could put a fountain in ours. You know? And some of those Oriental statues and things like that. We could work on it together. You know? It wouldn’t be hard. We could do it in our spare time.
BOY: Together?
MAN: Sure. And we could have bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches afterwards.
BOY: After we work?
MAN: Sure.
BOY: With mayonnaise?
MAN: Yeah. And we both would have big appetites probably, from working so hard in the garden.
BOY: Hard?
MAN: I mean just working we would have appetites. Just from plain working.
BOY: We would?
MAN: Sure. (A long pause.) It wouldn’t be hard work at all. Just plain good steady work in the outdoors. It would be good for us. Don’t you think? (A long pause.) The orchard is the thing that really needs work. You know? It needs more work than the garden probably. It needs to be taken care of. It needs more water than it’s been getting. You know what I mean. The new trees especially. They get brown pretty easily in this warm weather. I guess we should really take care of the orchard first. You know? Then maybe we can go to Arizona and pick up the rocks. We should disc the orchard first and then spray the new trees. It won’t be hard once we get into it. It doesn’t take a lot of work, really. You know? The irrigation needs to be worked on too. That will be the hardest. It’s those damn pipes, you know? Whoever put them in when they were put in didn’t put them in right. You know? They weren’t put in right originally. That’s the whole thing. They were put in wrong when they were first put in. You know what I mean? So I thought we’d take them all out and then put in some new ones. Some of those aluminum ones they have now. Have you seen the ones? They’re lightweight. I thought we’d put some of those in.
BOY: We take all the ones that are in now out and then we put in some aluminum ones?
MAN: Yes.
BOY: And then we spray the new trees?
MAN: Yes, they need spraying. We could do all that and then go to Arizona. It wouldn’t be bad at all once we got into it. This whole place will be looking like a new place. A new place. One of those new places with rocks gardens all over and fountains. You know? You come up the street and there’d be a nice green lawn with a lot of rock gardens and the irrigation running and the new trees all—all sort of green. You know? And the fence all painted with a different kind of white paint and the grass cut around the sprinkler heads and all that. You know?
(A long pause.)
BOY: When I come it’s like a river. It’s all over the bed and the sheets and everything. You know? I mean a short vagina gives me security. I can’t help it. I like to feel like I’m really turning a girl on. It’s a much better screw is what it amounts to. I mean if a girl has a really small vagina it’s really better to go in from behind. You know? I mean she can sit with her legs together and you can sit facing her. You know? But that’s different. It’s a different kind of thing. You can do it standing, you know? Just by backing her up, you know? You just stand and she goes down and down until she’s almost sitting on your dick. You know what I mean? She’ll come a hundred times and you just stand there holding on to it. That way you don’t even have to undress. You know? I mean she may not want to undress is all. I like to undress myself but some girls just don’t want to. I like going down on girls, too. You know what I mean? She gives me some head and then I give her some. Just sort of a give-and-take thing. You know? The thing with a big vagina is that there isn’t as much contact. There isn’t as much friction. I mean you can move around inside her. There’s different ways of ejaculation. I mean the leading up to it can be different. You can rotate motions. Actually girls really like fingers almost as well as a penis. You know? If you move your fingers fast enough they’d rather have it that way almost. I learned to use my thumb, you know? You can get your thumb in much farther, actually. I mean the thumb can go almost eight inches whereas a finger goes only five or six. You know? I don’t know. I really like to come almost out and then go all the way into the womb. You know, very slowly. Just come down to the end and all the way back in and hold it. You know what I mean?
(The MAN falls off the couch. The lights black out.)