Speak Easy
The Spring and Fall of Eve Adams
By Barbara Kahn
The Spring and Fall of Eve Adams is dedicated to Carmen T. Castro and Wind Vogel for their generosity and support and in honor of their marriage on July 11, 2009.
© 2010 Barbara Kahn
7 East 14th Street Apt. 422
New York, NY 10003
212-691-0722 (home)
917-463-8321 (cell)
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The Spring and Fall of Eve Adams was first produced by Theater for the New City, Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director, April 15 – May 2, 2010, with the following cast:
Bobby Moss…………………………..Jon Dalin
Rene Gaudin………………..Marisa Petsakos
Detective Rogan……………...Jimmy Heyworth
Amalia “Mika” Frank………...….Anna Podolak
Alice Hathaway…………………..Micha Lazare
Eve Adams………………..…..Steph Van Vlack
June Miller……………………….Michelle Cohen
Margaret Leonard………………..…Martha Lee
Written and directed by Barbara Kahn
Set Design Mark Marcante
Lighting Design Alexander Bartenieff
Costume Design Deanna R Frieman
Stage Manager Bill Bradford
Graphics Design vg Asman, illuminage studio
The Spring and Fall of Eve Adams
By Barbara Kahn
Inspired by a true story
© 2009 Barbara Kahn
Cast:
Eve Adams.* Polish immigrant. Proprietor of Eve’s Hangout tearoom. Faint or no accent. Steph Van Vlack
Amalia Frank. Called Mika (Meeka). Polish immigrant. Early twenties. Employed by Eve in tearoom. Anna Podolak
Alice Hathaway. Early Twenties. New Jersey native. Micha Lazare
Renee Gaudin. Friend of Eve, possibly former lover. She dresses in masculine attire, but is overly sensitive to slights. Marisa Petsakos
Margaret Leonard.* Irish-American from Lower Manhattan. Has a Lower East Side NY accent with a touch of Irish. Martha Lee
June Miller.* Twenties. Wife of author Henry Miller, she has female lover on the side. Cultivates air of mysterious origin. Michelle Cohen
Bobby Moss.** Poet and columnist/editor of the Greenwich Village Parchment, local magazine. Part time tour guide. Jon Dalin
Detective Rogan. Plainclothes detective. Male. Jimmy Heyworth
* Real life characters.
** Fictionalized composite of real life characters
Place and time: Exterior--facade and front stoop-- and interior –basement tearoom--of
129 Macdougal Street, Greenwich Village, New York City. June 1926.
Prologue
When audience enters, Alice is already seated in the audience. Bobby as the tour guide enters. After opening announcement, lights go down, come up on Bobby. Mika is sitting on the stoop. She has schoolbooks and is making notes in a composition book.
Bobby (Tour guide)
Is everyone together? No strays? Good. I’ve been doing this for two years, and I haven’t lost a tourist yet. Don’t spoil my record. As a son of the Village and editor of the Greenwich Village Parchment, your guide to all the arts and sights of Greenwich Village, I’ve tried to do my best to make this journey exciting, to show you New York City’s Bohemia. We’ve seen some of the places where the Bohemians congregate—La Boheme Gift Shop, Unicorn Books, Macdougal Alley. Their unusual clientele were harmless–artists probably, or even actors or poets like yours truly. Not so in number 129 Macdougal Street, our last stop on the tour. You’ll forgive me in advance if I offend you. Think of it as a warning of the dangers that await the most vulnerable among us. Take a good look. You see a charming Greenwich Village building, like so many others, an innocent looking young woman sitting on the stoop. Don’t be fooled. The cellar of Number 129 is notorious even in Greenwich Village, its clientele sinful by any standards. I will not recite out loud the reasons why. They’re listed in your copy of The Parchment. Husbands and fathers may want to shield your wives and daughters from what’s written on that page, page 32, to protect your daughters from what goes on in that tearoom, called Eve’s Hangout. Eve, the original sinner, now brings new kinds of sin to threaten our way of life. Temperamentals, queers, homosexualists, inverts, all on the lookout for others like themselves or innocent ones, yes, like your daughter or mine if I had one, innocent ones they can seduce.
Rene enters and walks toward the stoop. She is dressed in male attire. She mocks Bobby, climbs the steps, brushing past Mika. She whispers in Mika’s ear and enters building. Mika looks after Rene with an expression of anger and disgust. Bobby shakes his head knowingly, looks to audience and points toward Mika on the stoop.
Bobby
(cont.)
Let’s hope and pray that that young woman has the nerves of steel required to resist the advances of a she-devil in disguise.
Detective Rogan enters. He carries a walking stick that replaces the nightstick he carried as a patrol officer. He has been after Rene for cross-dressing, but missed when she went inside.
Detective Rogan
Mr. Moss.
Bobby
Detective Rogan.
Detective Rogan
I hope you’ve shown these folks some of the sights we’re proud of here in Greenwich Village.
Bobby
I have. (to audience) Detective Rogan watches out for us and we’re the safer for it.
Detective Rogan
We look out for our own, and it’s my job to look out for everyone who visits us as well. We want you to enjoy yourselves here in Greenwich Village, isn’t that right, Mr. Moss?
Bobby
Absolutely, Detective Rogan. What good would it be if people couldn’t enjoy what we have to offer? We appreciate the job you do for all of us.
Detective Rogan
Mr. Moss and I have known each other since I was walking a beat and he was peddling his poetry in the park.
Bobby
Here’s a copy of The Parchment for you with my compliments. I have a few poems and songs in there.
Bobby hands the journal to Detective Rogan who pockets it.
Detective Rogan
I look forward to reading it. I won’t keep you folks any longer. Enjoy yourselves. (exits)
Bobby
Now might be a good time to move along.
. As he exits, Bobby pulls the front curtain open to reveal the tearoom interior as lights go down. Detective Rogan exits after him.
Scene One
The same. Immediately following. Mika is still sitting on the stoop. Alice, trying to be inconspicuous, leaves her seat in the audience to stand at the side near the stoop.
Mika
Do you want something?
Alice
Oh, no.
Mika
Then stop staring.
Alice
(embarrassed) I’m sorry. I don’t know where to look.
Mika
Look at the sky. Or the ground. Or that way. You can see the edge of the park from here.
Alice doesn’t move her position but cranes her neck to see.
Mika
(cont.)
Why don’t you go walk through the park? It has trees and statues you can look at.
Alice
Oh, I did that this morning.
Mika
Then go stand in front of the theater. There are pictures in front.
Alice
I saw the Provincetown Playhouse on the tour. They even took us inside. It looks a lot like our theater back home, You know, the stage and the seats and…That was silly wasn’t it? All theaters have a stage and seats. I once played in Twelfth Night back home. That’s Shakespeare.
Mika
I know.
Alice
I’m sorry. Of course, you do. Everybody knows that.
Mika does not respond.
Alice
(cont.)
I wanted to play Viola, but that’s the main part. It went to the director’s wife, like always. I played one of the ladies in waiting to Olivia. The director keeps promising me that I’ll have a part with lines in the next show, but he only does that so I’ll help with the costumes and paint the scenery. He doesn’t know I would do that anyway. I love the theater. Just being around it.
Mika
You’re staring again.
Alice
(gets idea) I know. If I sit next to you, I won’t be able to stare. How about that?
Alice sits on stoop next to Mika and turns to her.
Mika
Go ahead. The steps don’t belong to me.
Alice
Is it true what they say?
Mika
What who says?
Alice
In the guidebook.
Mika
I don’t know. I don’t have a guidebook.
Alice
You can look at mine. I marked it. Page 32.
Rene opens the door. .
Rene
Hah! The Russian has a girlfriend.
Alice
(wide-eyed) Jeepers! I’m not…
Mika
Idz do diabla[1]
Rene
Whatever you said, same to you. (to Alice) Be careful of her. (to Mika) When is Eve coming to open up?
Mika
When she gets here.
Rene
Tell her I’ll be back later. (exits.)
Alice
(looking after her) She was a woman, wasn’t she?
Mika
So I’ve been told.
Alice
Did she really think that you and I… like it says in the guidebook? Why would she think that?
Mika has a new fascination for the guidebook which is still in her lap. She starts to flip through it.
Alice (cont.)
Page 32.
Mika
(reading)….”Eve’s Hangout…where ladies prefer each other…not very healthy for she-adolescents or comfortable for he-men…”
Alice
(points to spot in guidebook) Was that woman one of the, the queers?
Mika
Queers is not a nice word,
Alice
I’m sorry. I didn’t know that. Is she, whatever, you know, one of them?
Mika
I guess she is.
Alice
Jeepers... (pause) I don’t think she likes you very much.
Mika
She doesn’t like me at all. And the feeling is mutual.
Eve walks toward the stoop on her way to open the tearoom. She carries a package and a note.
Eve
Ladies. (to Alice) I haven’t had the pleasure.
Alice
I’m Alice Hathaway.
Eve
I’m Eve Adams.
Alice
Jeepers! I heard all about you. Pleased to meet you, Miss Adams.
Eve
Call me Eve.
Alice
Thank you, ma’am…Eve.
Eve
You mustn’t believe what you heard, unless it’s good, of course. Are you joining us for poetry night tonight?
Alice
I wish I could, but I can’t tonight. I have to go back home.
Eve
Perhaps you’ll return for poetry and literature night next week?
Mika
Alice loves the theater. She was in Twelfth Night back home.
Alice
In Red Bank. New Jersey.
Eve
Well, you must perform something from Twelfth Night next week.
Alice
Really? You would let me do that?
Eve
Of course.
Mika
She could play Viola.
Alice
Viola? Jeepers!
Eve
It’s settled. Maybe some of the actors from the Playhouse will be here. Mika, look at this. A gift. (hands gift card to Mika)
Mika
(reading) “A gift for you from the actors next door in hopes that it will keep the tourists from bothering you and send them to our box office instead.”
Eve removes “Eve’s Hangout” sign and replaces it with the gift sign that reads, “Eve’s Hangout. Men are admitted, but not welcome.”
Eve
What do you think?
Mika
It’s funny.
Eve
It is. Now, I have to get ready to open.
Mika
I’m coming right in.
Eve
Take your time.
Eve exits inside. Mika starts to follow but notices Alice crying and turns back.
Mika
Why are you crying?
Alice
I have to go home to Red Bank. I want to live here. With you and the queers. I’m sorry, I don’t even know what to call them, what to call myself.
Mika, at a loss for how to handle this, reluctantly tries to comfort Alice.
Lights go down
Interlude
Interior of Eve’s Hangout. The same evening. Eve is at her writing table upstage. She is reviewing and correcting or adding to her latest story.
Eve
“The story of David’s Wife.”
David’s wife remembered that long ago she loved to run. When she was a little girl, she learned to run with her older brothers, until the day her father saw what she was doing. He spoke sternly to his wife who spoke in turn to her daughter when she tucked her into bed. “Darling,” she said, “Your father and I agree that you must not run again. We want you to grow up to be a proper young lady we can be proud of.” She stopped running and eventually she forgot what it felt like to run. She grew up to be a proper young lady, married David Gardener, a proper young man, and gave him a son. When her son was three years old, she sat on a bench in Washington Square and watched him run around a nearby statue.
“It must be fun to feel so free, don’t you think?” David’s wife looked toward the sound of a woman’s voice just in time to see a smile turn to sadness.
“I suppose.” She replied.
“Someday,” the woman continued, ”I’ll run away, really run away. I’ll feel the sun on my face and the wind in my hair, and I may never return.”
That night, as she lay beside her husband, David’s wife remembered the woman in the park – how her hair curled softly around her ears in a fashionable bob, the tilt of her head, the fullness of her lips. She heard again the sweet sound of her voice and saw the sadness in her eyes. She imagined it was the woman lying naked beside her, their bodies fitting easily together. “Take me with you, take me with you, take me with you,” David’s wife silently pleaded, as her husband touched her in places that no longer felt like they belonged to her.
The next day David’s wife went alone to the park. She spotted the sad young woman sitting alone on a bench at the east end of the park, away from the mothers and children. She took a deep breath and sat down very close beside the young woman. She dare not look at her.
“What’s your name?” The voice was as low and soft as she remembered from the day before.
“Mrs. Gardener. Mrs. David Gardener.”
“Not your husband’s name. Yours. I’m Emily Stewart.”
“Oh…my name? My name is Anne. It’s Anne. Anne.” And though she didn’t understand the reason why, she began to cry, repeating her name through her tears.
Emily took her hand, not speaking again until the crying stopped. Then she took a handkerchief from the cuff of her sleeve, wiped the tears from Anne’s face and said, “I’m so happy to meet you, Anne.”
From that day forward, Anne Gardener and Emily Stewart met in Washington Square Park every day. Together, they planned their escape, planned for the day they would run away together, into the wind, with the sun shining on their faces. Run and run and run and never return.
Scene Two
Rene is at one table, June Miller at another. Mika is serving tea. Eve comes center.
Eve
(standing) Welcome to Eve’s Hangout in the heart of Greenwich Village, the soul of New York, where art is our life blood. Mika will serve you tea or other soft drinks. On the table by the door, you’ll find books and poems and local newspapers for sale. Tonight is poetry night at Eve’s. Anyone is invited to share a poem or other writing with us. Is there someone who would like to perform? (sees Rene waving her hand) You have something? Come, come, Rene.
Rene pulls Mika from the kitchen, sits her at a table, hands her sheet music and bells. She whispers instructions. Eve sits with June. Rene goes to center.
Rene
“A blackbird lived in Washington Square” by Rene Gaudin.
The blackbird wore a coat of ebony splendor
Her wings and feathers dark as night.
The blue jays and the cardinals were jealous
So the blackbird left them and took flight.
The blackbird came to live on Garibaldi
She settled on a nest of stone.
But the robins and the sparrows all ignored her
And the children playing left her all alone
From the head of Garibaldi
The blackbird watched the life below
Vendors hawking
Mothers talking
Lovers walking
Tourists gawking
Alone, she watched till sunshine turned to snow.
In Spring returned the robins and the sparrows
Where the fountain gushed and leaves had turned to green.
The cardinals and the blue jays frolicked in the fountain
But the blackbird was nowhere to be seen.
Perhaps she joined the angel on the fountain
Uptown in Central Park
Perhaps she was seduced to go there
By the nighttime singing of the lark.
Rene looks at Mika, who is looking down at the page. She repeats Mika’s cue.
Perhaps she was seduced to go there
By the nighttime singing of the lark!
Now Garibaldi watches o’er the landscape
Below in Washington Square
Mika shakes the bells.
Vendors hawking
Mothers talking
Lovers walking
Tourists gawking
But never again the blackbird living there.
Rene goes to Mika.
Rene
(furious) You came in too late.
Mika
I came in where you marked it.
Rene
You spoiled the whole last verse, stupid Russian.
Mika
I’m Polish and you’re an idiot. A daj ty mi swiety spokuj, sama nie wiesz czego chcesz
Rene
Whatever you said, same to you.
Rene storms back to her table.
June
(to Eve) Which was Rene’s better performance? Her poem or the temper tantrum?
Eve
Those two fight constantly.
June
Rene is jealous of the attention you pay to Mika.
Eve
I give Rene plenty of my time.
June
They need to find lovers. Both of them. You, too, cherie.
Eve
That’s not so easy, even in the Village.
June
Nonsense. One just has to assert herself.
Eve
(teasing) Some people have too many lovers. They don’t leave enough for the rest of us.
June
Touché, Eve. What about Mika? You two can speak romantic sweet nothings to each other in Polish while you make love.
Eve
She’s like my little sister. I could never take her for my lover.
June
Mere details. Look at the Gish sisters. Don’t tell me they are not intimate…
Eve
Really, June. Sometimes I think you live only for sex.
June
That’s not a bad life. You must learn to speak French, so we can have a ménage a trois.
Eve
With you and Jean?
June
Of course not. With me and Henry. You know my husband adores you.
Eve
And I adore his work. Only his work.
June
Very well. I brought you his latest stories to sell. Direct from the mimeograph press. Henry Miller originals. The prices are marked. I’ll put them on the table when I leave. Au revoir, ma belle. Perhaps love will find you. If not love, then a good fuck.
June rises, kisses Eve on both cheeks, goes to table, puts pamphlets. As she exits the tearoom, a stunning woman enters, speaks to June briefly. The woman finds an empty table and sits. The others all turn to stare at her. Mika goes to her to take her order. Seeing the coast is clear, Rene goes to sit with Eve.
Rene
Who is that creature?
Eve
I don’t know. She spoke with June when she came in.
Rene
She sees you looking at her.
Eve
Then I’ll stop.
Rene
She likes it. I can see it in her face. I’m going over to her.
Eve
You’ll do no such thing. She’s entitled to sit here alone as long as she likes without being bothered by you or anyone else.
Rene
Someone should tell her that she should mind her own business.
Eve
Don’t you move from this table. I’ll go to her.
Eve gets up and goes to Margaret’s table.
Margaret
Are you Eve Adams?
Eve
Yes. I’m always happy to see new customers. (to Mika) The cup of the tea is on the house.
Margaret
Do you have something stronger? I’d be happy to pay for it. For two cups, if you’ll join me.
Eve
We serve only soft drinks here. Anything else would be Illegal.
Margaret
Yes, of course. The tea will be fine. I was hoping you would join me.
Eve
Perhaps some other time. Tell June that I appreciate her efforts, but I don’t need or want her assistance.
. Bobby Moss enters.
Eve (cont.)
Excuse me.
Eve goes immediately to Bobby.
Bobby
Eve.
Eve
What brings you across the street? I didn’t think you knew my tearoom existed.
Bobby
You can always pay for an advertisement like everyone else does.
Eve
And you would print it? I don’t think so.
Bobby
If you take down that ridiculous sign, I might consider it.
Eve
You decide what to print in The Parchment, and I decide what signs to hang in my tearoom.
Bobby notices Margaret.
Bobby
Your clientele is more attractive than usual.
Eve
You mean more feminine, don’t you?
Bobby
I don’t mind a little mannish touch. As long as it’s just a touch.
Bobby catches Margaret’s eye. They look away.
Eve
You two know each other?
Bobby
Of course not. Is she one of your set? What a waste.
Eve
My other customers would not agree with you. Now tell me what you want. I have work to do.
Bobby
Don’t get your knickers in a twist. I’m as broadminded as the next fellow, being a son of the Village, but that sign of yours is going too far. It’s drawing the wrong kind of attention to the Village.
Eve
Then don’t look at it.
Bobby
You can hang the sign inside.
Eve
I need to attract customers like everyone else.
Bobby
None of the other tearooms has a sign like yours, and they do perfectly fine. Why do you have to be so stubborn?
Eve
It’s my nature, I guess.
Bobby
I’m trying to be a good neighbor, for Chrissakes!
Eve
Even to a kike socialist like myself?
Bobby
Now, just a minute…
Eve
I read your column in The Parchment.
Bobby
You’ve taken one comment I wrote years ago out of its context and tarred me with it. I’m a son of the Village, quite progressive like everyone else. Many of my friends are socialists and…
Eve
Kikes?
Bobby
I was referring to a particular type of socialist, not all, and not all Jews. You know the type I mean.
Eve
I’m afraid I don’t.
Bobby
You’re determined to bait me, aren’t you? I may change my mind and write about you after all. I’m sure you would prefer that I not write anything else that could be…taken out of context. Think about what I said. Have a good evening.
Bobby exits, tipping his hat to Margaret on the way out. Eve mutters in Polish.
Eve
Idz do diabla[2]
End of scene
Scene Three
Tearoom. A few days later. Mika is working. Eve, Rene and June are at a table. Alice, dressed as teenage boy, taps at entrance to get Mika’s attention. Mika, puzzled, goes to the door.
Mika
Why don’t you just come in?
Mika stares, suddenly recognizes Alice.
Alice
Don’t you remember me? Alice Hathaway. I borrowed, well, stole these clothes from my brother.
Mika
Why?
Alice
Come outside. I’ll tell you all about it.
Mika
You can come in.
Alice
I can’t afford to order anything.
Mika
You can come in without buying anything. Eve won’t say anything.
Alice enters. She and Mika go to a table.
Mika
(cont.)
Have a seat. What happened to you?
Alice
After I met you, I went home to Red Bank, New Jersey, with the rest of the tour group. I thought my life would be the same every day until the day I died. Then something wonderful happened.
Mika
(sits with Alice) What happened?
Alice
My sister-in-law told me about this new club that started called Book of the Month. Have you heard of it?
Mika
No.
Alice
Well, it’s not a club that has meetings, although I wouldn’t have minded if they did. They send you a new book to buy each month. My sister-in-law thought the first book was for children. She didn’t bother to read the advert past the title. She said I could read it to my nephews at bedtime—that’s one of my jobs. I live with my brother and his family, since my parents died. They had the flu one after the other in ’19.
Mika
I’m sorry.
Alice
I help with the housework and the children. Anyway, the book is not a children’s book, not at all.
Alice puts book on the table.
Mika
(reads title) “Lolly-Willowes” By Sylvia Townshend Warner.
Alice
Do you know it?
Mika
No.
Alice
I couldn’t believe it. It’s like the author knew me, the real me, like she wrote the story of my life, only set in England. Well, in the book the heroine leaves her family and goes off alone to another town.
Rene
(calling out to Mika) How about some service? My tea is cold.
June
Leave them alone.
Eve
I’ll get it for you.
Eve waves to Mika to stay where she is. She goes to kitchen for the teakettle.
June
Rene, darling, the course of true love is more important than tea. Don’t let your feelings for Eve make you bitter. Unrequited love is terrible for the complexion.
Rene
Go to hell.
Rene picks up her teacup and moves to another table. Eve brings the teakettle to her and pours hot water. She returns the kettle and sits with June.
Alice
I’m sorry. I’m bothering you.
Mika
You’re not bothering me, but I’m supposed to be working.
Alice
I’d better go.
Mika
Back to Red Bank?
Alice
No. I live on Bedford Street now.
Mika
In the Village?
Alice
At first I was terrified of leaving New Jersey, a woman alone in the big city. Then I lit on the idea of borrowing, well stealing my brother’s clothes. I took money I saved, it’s not very much, but if I’m careful, it will last until I find a job. I left a note and took the train this morning to New York. I walked around the Village for hours until I saw a sign in a window, “Room for Rent,” in a house on Bedford Street, it’s called a brownstone, the landlady said. I started to explain to her about my clothes, but she said, “You’re in Greenwich Village, you don’t need to explain anything.” I paid one month’s rent to start, and I came here straightaway to tell you.
Mika
I don’t know what to say.
Alice
Say that you’re happy to see me. You are, aren’t you?
Mika
Sure. Why not?
Alice
Look, I bought you a copy of Twelfth Night. I marked a scene we can do together on Friday night. You’ll do it with me, won’t you?
Margaret enters, looking around. Eve gets up, waving to Margaret to take her seat. Margaret sits with June. Eve goes to center.
Eve
Mika, get the door.
Mika goes to door, closes it. She returns to sit with Alice.
Eve
(cont.)
Tonight is after hours discussion night at Eve’s. Someone be brave enough to start us off with a question or a topic.
Alice signals to Eve. Mika looks at her in surprise.
Eve
(cont.)
What’s your question or topic?
Alice signals to Eve to come to her table, whispers to her.
Eve
(cont.)
“How can you tell who to love?” I’m not sure anyone else can answer that for you unless they know you very well.
Alice shakes her head and beckons again and whispers.
Eve
(cont.)
“How does one know who is a lesbian?”
Rene
Ask her, for heaven’s sake. Next topic.
Eve
Rene, please. I think I understand. (to Alice) You want to know if there is a way of dress or a signal or even a turn of phrase. Is that what you mean?
Alice, still embarrassed, nods.
Eve
(cont.)
That’s a good question, but let’s ask the question a different way. How do we know who is a heterosexual woman?
Alice
(tentatively) If she is married?
Rene
Huh!
June
(to Margaret) I’m shocked. Rene wants to fuck a married woman.
Rene
There’s one I would never bed, and she’s sitting in this room wearing a blue dress.
June
I believe in taking love where you can find it, with anyone who is willing.
Rene
You mean with everyone who is willing.
Eve
Why don’t we avoid the personal and discuss common perceptions, perhaps misconceptions? It just so happens that I have some notes on this very topic.
June
You knew the topic all along. Cheeky.
Eve
(gets pages from piano) A certain Robert Dickinson claims, after conducting studies, that the typical lesbian genitals are larger than those of what he calls normal women, that they are of extraordinary size.
Rene
How did he measure them?
Eve
According to what I read, a woman doctor did the actual measurements.
Rene
With a ruler?
Eve
It doesn’t say in my notes…
June
(to Margaret) The age-old question—how many fingers fit inside of a lesbian?
Eve
Then there’s Freud who claims that all women envy the male private part they are missing.
June
Maybe Dickinson and Freud measured their own private parts and found them wanting.
Rene
Do they honestly believe that lesbians want women because their vaginas are too big for a penis? That’s ridiculous.
June
It’s the men who are jealous.
Rene
It depends on the woman they’re married to, doesn’t it, June?
Eve
Rene.
Rene
Heterosexual women desire lesbians because they wish they had such large vaginas. What do Russian women think, Mika?
Mika
Mysla ze jestes zalosna namiastka kobiety[3]
Rene glares at Mika.
Rene
What did she say about me? Eve?!
Eve
(ignoring Rene’s question, reads again from her notes) Ellis claims that passive normal women can be seduced by masculine women. He says that women who are too often in the company of other women—in factories or other workplaces, even chorus women in backstage dressing rooms—can be sexually aroused, especially in summer when the temperature rises and they are together in confined places.
June
How fortunate. It’s almost summer.
Mika
Eve?
Eve
Just speak up. You don’t need to ask.
Mika
This doesn’t answer Alice’s question.
Eve
Perhaps you can answer it.
Mika
I don’t think there is one simple answer. I think that if you get to know someone, and learn to trust her, then eventually you’ll find out if she’s a lesbian or not.
June
That’s very thoughtful and much too innocent.
Rene
If you wait that long, someone like June will steal her away.
June
You see, Eve, how I am not responding to such slander. I have to leave anyway. I must get back to work, (kisses Eve on both cheeks) Au revoir, mon amie. (waves to the others) Adieu, adieu. (exits)
Rene
Pompous ass.
Eve
We certainly have much to think about, so let’s continue this discussion next time.
Eve gets Mika’s book bag and goes to her and Alice.
Eve
(cont.)
Mika, I can close up tonight.
Alice
Maybe we can read through Twelfth Night.
Eve
There, you see.
Mika
If you’re sure...?
Eve indicates Margaret. Mika gets the message.
Eve
I’m sure.
Mika and Alice exit. Both Rene and Margaret make room for Eve to sit with them. Eve sits at table with Margaret. Rene, jealous, watches and listens while pretending to write in her poetry book.
Eve
(cont.)
I see we didn’t frighten you away with our discussion.
Margaret
I’m still here.
Eve
We’re not usually so proper. If you come back, I promise we’ll be more explicit.
Margaret
I’ll keep that in mind. Tell me—where do you get your information?
Eve
From scientific sources, learned men and women with university degrees who spend their lives thinking they can analyze human behavior--explain what may not be explainable.
Margaret
Who better to try to do that?
Eve
Artists, poets, writers. You look skeptical.
Margaret
I just prefer to use my own imagination, not someone else’s.
Eve
That’s an interesting thought. If we were all our own artists, didn’t rely on others, it would empty the museums and libraries, wouldn’t it?
Margaret
I don’t know. Questions like that make my head ache. Let’s change the subject--talk about you instead. What makes you do what you do? Have your own business, be self-reliant…
Eve
It’s a matter of necessity when there’s no one else to rely on.
Margaret
You’re very nice.
Eve
You sound surprised.
Margaret
I am.
Eve
What did you expect?
Margaret
People talk. It’s a nasty habit some of them have.
Eve
It’s up to you if you listen or not.
Margaret
It’s hard not to sometimes. But that don’t mean I believe everything I hear. I like to find out for myself.
Eve
I’m just a poor woman trying to make her way alone in the world.
Margaret
That sounds like a line from a melodrama.
Eve
(smiling) It does, doesn’t it? I’m exactly what you see.
Margaret
What I see is very nice. Why do you think people spread lies about you?
Eve
You’ll have to ask the liars. I can only tell you why I do what I do, not why anyone else does something.
Margaret
Fair enough. I was told you’re a writer. What do you write?
Eve
Stories.
Margaret
What kind of stories?
Eve
About New York. The Village. People, women who live here.
Margaret
I’d like to read them. Are they for sale? Is there a book I could buy?
Eve
My stories are only for my friends.
Margaret
Maybe sometime you’ll let me read them.
Eve
Maybe.
Margaret
I’m looking forward to that. It’ll mean we’re friends. (noticing Rene glaring at her from the next table) We’re being watched.
Eve
You should be used to that.
Margaret
Not like that. If looks could kill…
Eve
I’m sorry. I’ll tell her to stop.
Margaret
Never mind. I’ll be going now anyway.
Eve
Not because of Rene, I hope.
Margaret
Of course, not. Have a good night. (exits)
Eve
(furious, to Rene) Nothing gives you the right to behave like a jealous adolescent.
Rene
There’s something wrong with her…
Eve
I won’t have it. Do you hear me?
Rene
You can’t see past her looks. She’s a phony. Like all of June’s friends.
Eve
I don’t need you to judge everyone I look at. I won’t stand for it.
Rene
I’m the only one you can trust. You need me to look out for you.
Eve
If she comes back, I expect you to leave us alone. Is that understood? Is it?
Rene
I’m only…
Eve
I don’t want to hear anything more from you tonight. Go home.
Eve goes to her table and gathers her papers.
Rene
I’m sorry…I said I’m sorry…Eve? How about if I buy you that lamp we saw in Wanamaker’s? You said it was unusual. I’ll buy it for you. It doesn’t matter what it costs. I’ll go to the bank tomorrow. If I don’t have enough in my account, I’ll have them get it from my father. We don’t have to wait until the first of the month. Eve? You’re my only friend. I’d die without you.
Eve
Nobody’s going to die, and you don’t have to buy me the lamp.
Rene
I want to. Let me do it.
Eve
(relenting) You’re a good friend, Rene, but you must not demand all my attention.
Rene
I’ll be better from now on. I promise.
Eve
We’ll see, won’t we?
End of scene
Scene Four
Tearoom. Two hours later. After closing. Eve and Rene are at a table, playing chess. After much hesitation, Rene makes a move and Eve follows.
Eve
Checkmate.
Rene
You can’t make that move.
Eve
Of course, I can.
Rene
You took my queen.
Eve
She was there for the taking.
Rene
I didn’t see that when I moved there.
Eve
And I took advantage.
Rene
That’s not fair.
Eve
Of course, it is.
Rene
But now I have nowhere else to move.
Eve
The game is over. Rene, you don’t know how to play chess. You never remember the rules, but you insist on playing just the same.
Rene
Tell me my mistake. I’ll remember it from now on.
Rene takes flask from her pocket, drinks from it into and puts flask on table.
Eve
Put the flask away.
Rene
No one else is here. It’s after hours.
Eve
Just the same, put it away. One time we will be open, and you’ll forget, and that will be the end of Eve’s.
Rene
(puts flask away) All right. How much do I owe you for both games tonight?
Eve
Two dollars each game, but keep your money.
Rene
You’re too soft. Let’s play again.
Eve
No. It’s late. Go home.
Rene
Come with me.
Eve
Not tonight.
Rene
Will we ever be alone?
Eve
Rene, I just spent hours alone with you.
Rene
Playing chess. There are other games.
There is a knock at the door. Eve looks through peephole.
Eve
(cont.)
It’s June.
Eve opens the door for June, who enters. Eve brings a chair from other table.
June
Eve, mon amie. And Rene, always Rene.
Rene
What does that mean?
June
Nothing, darling. (sits with them). So, Eve, Henry has decided he wants to go to Paris.
Eve
Will you go with him?
June
We don’t have money for two tickets. I’ll have to play chess with Rene to be able to go with my husband.
Rene
That’s not funny.
June
Tell me, darling, have you ever won a game?
Rene
I’m sure I have.
June
But you can’t remember when it was. Am I right?
Eve
June, leave her alone.
June
Rene knows I am very fond of her. Don’t you, darling? But, alas, you pine for Eve, and I am left alone with my unrequited love.
Eve
You’re hardly alone.
June
When Henry leaves for Paris…
Eve
You’ll be left with Jean.
June
Henry will have to entrust me to her care until I can join him. At the moment, he detests her. Rene, you must stop sulking. Life is too short.
Rene
I’m not sulking.
June
What if I play a game of chess with you and let you win? Will that make up for whatever I said that hurt your feelings, mon amie, cherie, ma belle…?
Rene
(angry) You know a few words of French, and you think that impresses everyone. Well, I am not impressed by you. I have never been impressed. You’re a god-damned fake. A fake European, a fake wife, a fake lesbian…
Eve
Rene, June only teases you because you take it so to heart. Tell her, June.
Rene
(to Eve) She teases me because you let her do it.
June
Oo-la-la, what can I say?
Rene
I hope you both have a good laugh on my account.
Rene picks up the chess set and storms out.
Eve
You’ve gone too far this time.
June
Nonsense. She’ll return. She always does. She’s in love with you.
Eve
You must leave her alone. She deserves to have a safe place to be herself.
June
We all do, cherie. Why is Rene special?
Eve
She’s good to me. She is always there when I need her.
June
She hopes that someday you will return her love.
Eve
She puts no conditions on our friendship. She was right. I should not have let you mistreat her. From now on…
June
(interrupting) From now on, I will refrain from bothering Rene, no matter how easy she makes it for me. I will not tease her, I will not speak French to her, I will not speak to her at all. Will that do?
Eve
Why did you come here tonight? Just to tell me about Henry and Paris?
June
I’m meeting Henry at Romany Marie’s. I came to see if you will join us.
Eve
I already told you…
June
Just to talk. If I go without you, Henry will want to tell me all about the work of writers I don’t know, and then he’ll see how bored I am. You love to talk writing with Henry.
Eve
Won’t you be twice as bored with two of us talking?
June
No, my dear. Jean will casually walk in, and I will get up to greet her and join her at another table.
Eve
While I divert Henry’s attention from the two of you.
June
Exactly. Please say yes. If you don’t, Henry and I will have another row at home tonight. He thinks that Jean and I are lovers. I have tried to tell him that she is an artist.
Eve
Artists can be lovers.
June
Of course they can, cherie. Henry does not appreciate Jean’s art, so in his eyes she must not be an artist. We constantly disagree. I can’t bear it when he gets angry. You must come with me. If you don’t, you will be responsible for whatever happens. Do it for me. Please.
Eve
I’ll lock up.
June
I am forever in your debt, cherie.
End of scene
Interlude
Eve is alone at her writing table, working on a new story
Eve
The Story of Julia and the Mole
Every day except Sunday, Julia would leave her room in Mrs. Battaglia’s boarding house on Grand Street and make the long walk to the hat shop on 8th Street. There she spent 12 hours a day, with a half hour for lunch, in the back room sewing ribbons and silk flowers onto ladies’ bonnets. Her path to work took her through Washington Square, past the fountain and through the arch. One day, during the ninth year of daily journeys, she noticed a young woman sitting alone on a bench at the south end of the park. Julia gave her a sidelong glance and hurried on her way. Every day after that, the young woman was sitting on the bench when Julia passed.
Days turned into weeks and months, Spring into Summer. August that year was the hottest New York City had known since the turn of the century.
Julia was embarrassed by the rings of sweat staining her blouse under the arms. She walked slower than usual, trying to prevent the stain from spreading. She wondered how the young woman was coping. There she was, looking as cool as if it were September. The top two buttons of her blouse were undone, discreetly revealing the flesh above her breasts and the deep dark color of a mole resting against the white of her skin. Afraid she would be caught staring, and despite the heat, Julia continued quickly across the park, not slowing until she passed under the arch and onto the sidewalk at the north end.
All day at work Julia thought only of the mole. She could not erase it from her mind’s eye. Three times she had to unravel the thread and re-sew the ribbons on Mrs. Haverstam’s new hat. Julia decided she must avoid the park in August.
For the rest of the month, Julia left for work earlier than usual to allow the extra time to walk around of the park. But still she thought of the mole. She even dreamt of at night. In her dream, she had this overwhelming urge to keep unbuttoning the woman’s blouse to look for more, while moving her other hand inside, like an explorer searching the larger elevations that rise majestically, with peaks that harden to the touch, while she explored farther, entering the forest in the valley between her thighs...Julia awoke in a state of ecstasy and despair, wishing she could fall asleep again to finish the dream.
Finally, September arrived, bringing the first cool day to warn of autumn’s nearness. Julia put a sweater over her blouse and decided it was safe to walk through Washington Square once again.
She entered the park and saw the young woman sitting on a bench near the arch. Though she was covered to her neck, Julia imagined the mole resting on the woman’s bosom where she herself had dreamt of resting. The woman looked up at Julia. This time, Julia looked into those deep dark eyes. The woman smiled and nodded. Julia smiled in return, and her life changed forever.
End of scene
Scene Five
The tearoom. The following day. Mika is working. Rene is at a table with Eve. Alice enters. She is dressed in a new set of men’s clothing.
Alice
Mika!
Eve
Look at you.
Alice
I have a job, Eve. A real job.
Eve
That’s wonderful.
Alice
Mrs. Kalogerakis said I should talk to the boarder in Room 33.
Mika
Who?
Alice
Mr. Lambert. In Room 33.
Mika
No, the other one.
Alice
Mrs. Kalogerakis? That’s my landlady’s name. I went to see Mr. Lambert right away, and I have a job. I get paid to read. Can you imagine that? I love to read, I read all the time, but now I get paid to do it.
Rene
Who pays someone to read?
Alice
Mr. Lambert will give me books, and I’ll read them and write a report like in school, only they have guidelines on what I should report. They have forms to fill out for each book. I came here right away to tell you, but it was early and no one was here. So I went back to Bedford Street.
Eve
Mika is sorry she missed you. (to Mika ) Aren’t you?
Mika
(reluctantly) Yes.
Alice
I decided to explore before I came back here. My skirt and blouse were terribly wrinkled, so I kept on my brother’s clothes, and I walked all the way down Broadway. Do you know what happened?
Eve
Tell us…
Alice
Nothing happened. I was free. I could go anywhere alone, no one to bother me. If I wanted to turn right, I could turn right. If I wanted to turn left, I could turn left. If I wanted to keep going straight, I could do that, too. I was so happy, I had to fight to keep from grinning like a fool. Down where they’re constructing a courthouse, it looked like a courthouse, one of the workmen looked up when I passed and called out, “Hey, buddy.” I said, “Hey to you, too.” Just like that. On my way back to the Village, I turned onto a street of shops with clothes on racks outside of each one. Racks and racks of clothes. (to Mika) Do you know it?
Mika
Orchard Street.
Alice
That’s it. That’s the street. It was like traveling to another country without leaving New York. People were speaking a language I didn’t know. I saw a store with men’s pants and jackets out front. I was just going to look at them, that’s all. Then a clerk came outside and asked, “So, nu? What can I do for you, young man?” I heard myself say, “A new pair of pants and maybe a jacket, I don’t have much money.” He said, “Did I ask if you were a rich man? Come inside.” To make a long story short, I got a new pair of pants and this jacket and they threw in the suspenders for free.
Alice models her new outfit, strutting around.
Eve
Very handsome. Mika?
Mika nods
.
Rene
He’s a real Valentino. (exits)
Eve
(to Alice) You had quite an adventure.
Alice
There’s more.
Mika
What else did you do?
Alice
I passed a tavern on Bond Street. It has a sign. “Men Only.” I walked in and right up to the bar. “A seltzer, please.” The bartender poured the seltzer, “Two cents plain. Kitchen opens at four.” I couldn’t wait to come here and tell you. I’m never wearing my old clothes again. I’m free and I’m staying free. I have my freedom, and I’m never giving it back. Not to anyone.
Mika
It’s against the law to dress against your sex.
Alice
I don’t care. You could take my arm, Mika, and we could go anywhere. Nobody would bother us.
Eve
Mika enjoys long walks. She tells me that all the time. Now, you must excuse me.
Eve goes back to table where she writes in her manuscript.
Alice
Will you come walking with me?
Mika
I’m working. I can’t just leave.
Alice
I don’t mean right this very minute. I mean sometimes we could take walks, even at night. People would look at us and think, “What a lucky young man to have such a beautiful woman on his arm.”
Mika
I have my job here and school in the daytime. You have your new job. We don’t have time to walk all over town.
Alice
Don’t you want to be with me?
Mika
I didn’t say I didn’t.
Alice
You don’t seem to want to.
Mika
I’m the first person you met in New York. There will be others. Nicer than me. Give yourself time.
Alice
What about Twelfth Night?
Mika
Twelfth Night?
Alice
You’ll still do it with me, won’t you? Please say yes. Please, Mika.
Mika
We’re getting ready to close. I have to get back to work. (goes to kitchen)
Alice
(calling out to Mika) Is it all right if I come back here tomorrow?
Mika
(calling from kitchen) Of course, it is. We’re open every day.
Alice, upset at the rejection, exits. Mika begins to clear tables.
Eve
Mika, that can wait.
Mika
I want to finish quickly. I have to study for my class tomorrow.
Eve
I’ll finish for you. Come talk to me.
Mika
Co sie stalo? o czym chcesz rozmawiac?[4]
Eve
In English.
Mika
Why don’t you ever want to speak Polish with me?
Eve
Would you speak French in China? Or Chinese in Spain?
Mika
That’s not the same thing. The language is all I have left of my homeland. I left so young that my memories have all gone.
Eve
Be grateful for that. I want to know why you were so rude to Alice. You can see she likes you.
Mika
I wasn’t rude.
Eve
Don’t you like her? It’s all right if you don’t, but you should tell her.
Mika
I like her. There, are you satisfied?
Eve
Now you’re being rude to me.
Mika
Why don’t you mind your own business?
Eve
Where is this coming from?
Mika
I’m a terrible person.
Eve
You’re a wonderful person. Look what you’re doing with your life, all by yourself--an immigrant, an orphan, a Jew.
Mika
Please stop.
Eve
Tell me what’s wrong….Mika….
Mika
I’m a terrible person.
Eve
You said that before, but you didn’t say why. I know life isn’t easy for you, for either of us, but we help each other. You make me so proud that you’re my friend. Now, why are you crying?
Mika
I don’t want you to hate me.
Eve
Why would I hate you?
Mika
Oh, Eve, I lied to you.
Eve
(teasing) You lied to me? Don’t tell me you’re not Polish? Are you Greek or Indian or maybe even Armenian….Is that it? Are you Armenian? That’s fine with me. I happen to like Armenians…
Mika
I am Polish, that part is true.
Eve
Then I don’t understand.
Mika
I’m not Jewish.
Eve
(stunned) Why did you pretend such a thing?
Mika
I was afraid that you would turn me away.
Eve
Because you’re not Jewish? You know me better than that.
Mika
I’m sorry.
Eve
Why are you telling me this now?
Mika
Alice asks me all kinds of questions. I can’t lie to her. It’s too hard. And you, Eve, all these months. You trusted me. I don’t deserve your trust or Alice’s. You think I’m a good person, but I’m a liar.
Eve
One silly lie. We won’t speak of it again.
Mika
I’m not an orphan.
Eve
You’re full of surprises tonight.
Mika
My mother lives on East 85th Street. I think she still does.
Eve
You don’t know?
Mika
She threw me out of the house. I was too ashamed to tell you.
Eve
It’s your mother who should be ashamed, not you. Why did she do this terrible thing to you?
Mika
When I was fourteen, I went to my mother for help. I had feelings I didn’t understand. I wanted her to tell me that she loved me however I am. But she took the strap from the wall and beat me over and over. When she was too tired to continue, she told me to pray for release from my demon. She warned me not to speak of it to anyone, not even in confession. Every day after that, when I came home from school, she took the strap and beat me. I cried out, “I can’t help how I feel. I tried.” At the end of the week, I came home and found my clothes in a paper sack in front of the door, with a note that said to visit my sins somewhere else. I no longer had a mother.
Eve
I’m so sorry. What did you do?
Mika
Mrs. Bernstein lived next door and heard all the beatings. She called me into her apartment and gave me a piece of paper. She said, “Go to this place and tell them you’re Jewish, use my maiden name, Frank. Tell them your mother died from the flu, and you have no one else in the world.” I did what she told me.
Eve
Where did you go?
Mika
I went to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum on Amsterdam Avenue. Whenever they asked me for papers or my old address, I would cry, and eventually they stopped asking. I lived there until I turned eighteen. Then I came to the Village, and last year I met you. Everything after that is true.
Eve
Mika. My little sister. Some of us have to make our own families. They can be better because we choose them. I think we are both very lucky to have each other.
Mika
I love you, Eve.
Eve
I love you, too. And now, you have Alice in your life.
Mika
I don’t know.
Eve
You like her, don’t you?
Mika
I think I could love her.
Eve
Have you told her?
Mika
I’m afraid.
Eve
Don’t be afraid to love. Tell her. Trust yourself. Trust her.
Mika
I want to.
Eve
Tell her soon. Now, go home. Spij dobrze.[5]
Mika
Good night, Eve. Thank you.
Eve
There’s no need to thank me. Just go home. Dobranoc.[6]
End of scene
Scene Six
The tearoom. A short time later (after closing). Eve is alone. Margaret enters.
Eve
I’m sorry. We’re closed. I should have locked the door.
Margaret
I couldn’t get here sooner. I ran all the way. Could I sit for a minute?
Eve
Of course.
Eve goes to a table, pulls a chair out for Margaret to sit and joins her at the table.
Margaret
Can I ask you a question?
Eve
Go ahead.
Margaret
It’s a little personal. I hope you don’t mind.
Eve
I won’t know until you ask.
Margaret
All right, here it is. Why do you run a business that you know will lose money?
Eve
I don’t know that. Why do you ask? Why do you care?
Margaret
My Pop had a tavern downtown. One week of prohibition and he closed up shop. Selling soft drinks and pretzels don’t pay the rent. Two weeks later he left us. He went as far away as he could get—all the way to Alaska.
Eve
I’m sorry.
Margaret
Me, too. You remind me of my Pop a little.
Eve
How is that?
Margaret
Even before the country went dry, he gave away too many drinks, let people run up tabs he knew they would never pay. It didn’t matter that his wife and kids went without.
Eve
I have no wife and kids.
Margaret
(smiles) Neither do I. I wouldn’t mind, though, coming home to a hot meal and a warm bed. What I said about you and my Pop, I didn’t mean that you’re not a caring person. I left out the part that his smile could make everything right with the world.
Eve
I don’t have that power.
Margaret
You underestimate yourself. (pause) I told you my story. I want to know about you.
Eve
I’m nothing special.
Margaret
I’ll decide that for myself. How did you get from where you were born to America, to the Village?
Eve
The usual way. By boat.
Margaret
Seriously, where did you come from?
Eve
From Europe.
Margaret
You’re gonna keep giving me a hard time, aren’t you? I deserve it, asking so many questions. I want to know you better, is all. I heard you speaking a language that I didn’t know. I can recognize Italian or German from the neighborhood.
Eve
I was speaking Polish.
Margaret
You’re from Poland.
Eve
It depends on what year you ask me. This year it’s Poland. Next year, who knows? You stand still, and the country changes.
Margaret
I was never much for geography. I know where New York is, but north of 14th Street and I’m lost. Oh, I can find Ireland on a map, of course. What’s it like where you’re from?
Eve
That depends on who’s in power--Poles, Ukrainians, Germans. But if you’re Jewish, nothing changes.
Margaret
You’re a Jew. I never talked this long to a Jew, a Jewish person. In the neighborhood, we have Jews, Jewish people, but everybody sticks to their own kind. Me, I’m Irish, in case you couldn’t tell from the face and hair. Jeez, you know something? I just realized that I was born here, and you talk English better than me, you being a writer and all. If I talked like you in the neighborhood, they’d have beat me up.
Eve
Why would they do that?
Margaret
They would say I was putting on airs. Now I wished I learned better anyway, so I wouldn’t feel embarrassed talking to you.
Eve
There’s no need for that.
Margaret
Just the same…
Eve
You say what you think, and I understand what you say.
Margaret
That’s a compliment, coming from you.
Eve
Not everyone speaks their mind. I admire your honesty.
Margaret
There’s nothing to admire.
Eve
Everyone has good and bad points.
Margaret
So far, I don’t see any of your bad points.
Eve
And you don’t seem to see your own good ones.
Margaret
I guess I don’t. I’ve been that way all my life, running myself down about one thing or another.
Eve
You should look in the mirror more often.
Margaret
Now you’ve got me blushing. I’m probably red as a beet, aren’t I?
Eve
Maybe a little. I do see some, what are they called? Spots. Right across the top of your nose.
Margaret
Freckles. That’s the Irish in me. No amount of makeup can cover them all.
Eve
Why would you want to cover them?
Margaret
I was always teased about them when I was a kid. Joey Falconelli used to say, ‘Let’s connect the dots on Margaret’s face.’
Eve
That’s terrible. Very cruel.
Margaret
They didn’t dare to actually do it, I got four older brothers, but it hurt just the same when the kids laughed. Jeez, I haven’t thought about that in years. Here I wanted to know all about you, and instead I’m talking about myself again. You’re a good listener.
Eve
You have to be, in the business I’m in.
Margaret
So, you’re only doing your job. Here I thought maybe it was my fascinating personality.
Eve
It is. It definitely is.
Margaret
I’ll pretend you mean that. Tell me about Poland.
Eve
I’m not in Poland anymore.
Margaret
I guess Jews are nothing like the Irish. We talk about the potato famine in the old country all the time, like it was yesterday, not almost a hundred years ago. It must have been hard for you in Poland if you came here.
Eve
That’s a good guess.
Margaret
Don’t tell me you don’t think about it sometimes. Jew or Irish, your roots are always back home... I really want to know. …I’m sorry. You hardly know me, and I’m asking personal questions. Maybe it’s because I felt from the beginning like there was something between us, like I knew you my whole life. I never felt like that with any woman. I got only brothers. Maybe you didn’t feel the same. I shouldn’t assume that you did. I’m sorry.
Margaret turns away.. When Eve starts to talk, she sits down again.
Eve
In Poland in 1880, a boy of five lived in a small village. He was hidden in the stove by his father, who told him to stay there. His mother said not to make a sound or the babayka will get you.
Margaret
What is that?
Eve
It’s like the bogeyman. They closed the door, leaving him alone. When the fear got too much, he didn’t cry, he remembered the promise he made his mother. When he was hungry, he felt in the darkness for crumbs left from the morning’s baking. It was the loneliness that finally made him open the door and step to the floor. In the kitchen were the bodies of his mother and father. In the next room were the bodies of his two sisters, naked from the waist down.
Margaret
Jeez.
Eve
He found the lace tablecloth that his mother saved for special occasions below the ransacked drawers of the cupboard. He used it to cover his sisters’ privacy. Then he left the house and wandered into the street. A kind neighbor took him in his wagon all the way to the boy’s aunt and uncle in Lodz. It was only when the neighbor lifted him into the arms of his uncle, that the boy noticed that the man was wearing his father’s jacket—the one with the wooden buttons that looked like tiny barrels.
Margaret
I hope he told his uncle.
Eve
Why?
Margaret
To do something.
Eve
Do what? Call the police?
Margaret
I don’t know. Maybe.
Eve
Police were for goyim, not for Jews.
Margaret
So what happened to him?
Eve
Living with his aunt and uncle and cousin, there was not much food to go around. Still, with every bite, the boy willed himself to grow, to be a big man, bigger than his father had been, bigger than all the men in Lodz. And it happened. People in Lodz called him the gentle giant. The three little daughters of his cousin could sit on his lap at one time and be gathered in his loving arms. When the terror came in 1905, he sent everyone else to the hiding place. He stood in the doorway, his large frame blotting out the sun. After the attack, they found him bleeding from gunshots and stab wounds, but alive. When his wounds healed, he gathered the little girls in his arms and together with his aunt and uncle and cousin, they left Poland and came to America.
Margaret
Was that you? One of the little girls?
Eve
It’s a story. I write stories.
Margaret
Is it a true story? Tell me it isn’t true. Jeez, I hope it isn’t true.
Eve
Of course, it’s true. If you don’t like it, write your own story. (pause) I’m sorry.
Margaret
Thank you for telling me. It means a lot to me that you told me. I didn’t know it was like that for Jews. I just figured that you all came here because it was so poor over there. Now I’m sorry.
Eve
For what?
Margaret
For how we treated all of you. I don’t mean you personally. When we were kids, it was easy to go after the Jewish kids. They weren’t much good at fighting back. We Irish, fighting’s s port for us, like hopscotch or stickball. I know you’re closed, but I’d like to buy you a drink.
Eve
The kettle is put away, and there’s no hot water.
Margaret
I’m just trying to keep you here longer. I should mind my own business, but that’s never been one of my good qualities. I keep pushing you, and you’re too polite to tell me to go.
Eve
It’s not you. I haven’t talked about Poland in a long time. It gives me bad dreams.
Margaret
I’m sorry. I won’t ask again.
Eve
It’s late.
Margaret
Yeah, it is.
Eve
We can talk more some other day.
Margaret
I’d like that. Where do you live?
Eve
Washington Square.
Margaret
Would you let me walk you home?
Eve
If you walk me home, who will walk you home? It’s safe enough in the Village, but a few blocks south it can be dangerous at night.
Margaret
Like I said, I got four older brothers. Growing up with them, I can take on any man that tries any funny business. So, can I walk you home? I won’t say another word. I’ll just walk with you, that’s all. What do you say?
Eve
I have to lock up. We need to go out through the kitchen.
Margaret
Can I help?
Eve
Wait by the kitchen. I’ll just get the door.
Eve locks the door. Lights begin to fade. Light shines from the kitchen doorway where Margaret waits. Eve goes to her. They are silhouetted against the light from the doorway. Margaret turns around and kisses Eve in the darkness. Eve responds as lights begin to go down.
Margaret
I’m real good at chasing away bad dreams. You’ll see.
They kiss again as lights go out.
End of scene
End of Act One
The Spring and Fall of Eve Adams.
Representative research sources
Correspondence:
• Correspondence between Eve Adams and Ben Reitman. 1912-1941. University of Illinois at Chicago library. Special collections. (following lead from Martha Reis)
Books:
• An American Obsession: science, medicine, and homosexuality in modern society. Jennifer Terry.
• Lights and Shadows of New York Life. James D. McCabe, Jr.
• To Believe in Women: what lesbians have done for America—a history. Lillian Faderman.
• Stepping Out: nine tours through New York City’s gay and lesbian past. Daniel Hurewitz.
• Gay New York. George Chauncey.
• The Gay Metropolis: the landmark history of gay life in America. Charles Kaiser.
• American Moderns: bohemian New York and the creation of a new century. Christine Stansell.
• An Autobiographical Novel. Kenneth Rexroth.
• The Damndest Radical: the life and world of Ben Reitman. Roger A, Bruns.
• No Regrets: Dr. Ben Reitman and the women who loved him: a biographical memoir. Mecca Reitman Carpenter.
• Sister of the Road: the autobiography of Box-Car Bertha as told to Dr. Ben L. Reitman.
• Emma Goldman: a documentary history of the American years. Candace Falk, editor.
• Hobohemia: Emma Goldman, Lucy Parsons. Ben Reitman & Other Agitators & Outsiders in 1920s/30s Chicago. Frank Orman Beck.
• The Paris Years. Henry Miller.
• A Paris Year. Edgar Branch.
• Henry Miller: A life. Robert Ferguson.
• My Friend Henry Miller. Alfred Perles.
• Nearer the Moon. Anais Nin.
Periodicals.
• Greenwich Village Weekly News. October 1931. New York Public Library.
• Greenwich Village Quill. Vols 1-20. 1919-1931. New York Public Library.
• The New York Times. July 3, 1926.
• Variety. June 23, July 7 and July 28, 1926; December 7, 1927. Free Library of Philadelphia. (details of the arrest and court hearing)
Websites.
Numerous websites, including:
• Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.
• New York Public Library picture collection.
• NYsonglines
• ForgottenNewYork.
• MemorialoftheShoah.
• EllisIsland
• YadVashem
• HenryMillerinParis. (KregWallace)
The generous assistance of historian Martha Reis in Minneapolis; Will Straw, PhD., McGill University; Kreg Wallace; and genealogist/researcher Steven Siegel in New York City.
Eve Adams in Paris, after deportation…
Alfred Perles
Eve Adams was very fond of Henry [Miller] who treated her with great gentleness… She was an aging lesbian, a Russian I believe, who was deported for being an anarchist, based on the fact that she was a friend of Emma Goldman. Eve was always good for a touch and Henry liked her for that. Alfred Perles. Paris 1932.
Henry Miller
At present everything is dull in the book trade—frightfully dull. Kahane asked me to have confidence in him…Alors, wait a bit, he said. No use bringing out another book until this gets properly launched. It would spoil the sales of Tropic of Cancer. Eve Adams is still selling a few now and then. Henry Miller. Paris 1934.
Anais Nin
Eve Adams saw me bicycling by. I showed her the book Winter of Artifice. We talked about Miller. We arranged to meet at the café. I was dressed in my Spanish cotton dress, with a flower in my hair. [Eve’s] friend came to sit with us, a sad little singer. At the table in front of us sat three people. One of the women looked intently at me. She asked Eve Adams: “Is this Anais Nin?” As she asked, I recognized her: Mary, the girl of my orgy with Donald Friede…That was the end of peace. I could never sit in a café again. Anais Nin. Paris 1939.
-----------------------
[1] Go to hell [Polish]
[2] Go to hell [Polish]
[3] They think you’re a poor excuse for a woman [Polish]
[4] What do you want to talk about? [Polish]
[5] Sleep well[Polish]
[6] Goodnight [Polish]
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