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  Mary Page Marlowe is copyright © 2016 by Tracy Letts

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  Joan Didion, “On Keeping a Notebook,” copyright © 1961, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1961. “Saloon: Mock Ballad,” Lyrics by George Whiting, Music by Roland E Llab, © 1921 M Witmark & Sons. “Tammy,” Words and Music by Jay Livingston and Raymond B. Evans, copyright © 1956 by Jay Livingston Music, Inc. and St. Angelo Music (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.

  The publication of Mary Page Marlowe by Tracy Letts, through TCG’s Book Program, is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

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  Library of Congress Control Numbers:

  2016039122 (print) / 2016045560 (ebook)

  ISBN 978-1-55936-855-1 (ebook)

  A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

  Book design and composition by Lisa Govan

  Cover design by John Gall

  Cover photo by Serge Giotti/Millennium Images

  First Edition, December 2016

  FOR MOM

  I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at four A.M. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends.

  —Joan Didion

  CONTENTS

  Production History

  Characters

  Scene 1

  Scene 2

  Scene 3

  Scene 4

  Scene 5

  Scene 6

  Scene 7

  Scene 8

  Scene 9

  Scene 10

  Scene 11

  PRODUCTION HISTORY

  Mary Page Marlowe received its world premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre Company (Anna D. Shapiro, Artistic Director; David Schmitz, Managing Director) on April 10, 2016. The production was directed by Anna D. Shapiro. The scenic design was by Todd Rosenthal, the costume design was by Linda Roethke, the lighting design was by Marcus Doshi, the sound design was by Richard Woodbury, and the original music was by Diana Lawrence; the production stage manager was Malcolm Ewen. The cast was:

  MARY PAGE MARLOWE

  Ages 59, 63, 69

  Blair Brown

  Ages 27, 36

  Carrie Coon

  Age 50

  Laura T. Fisher

  Age 12

  Caroline Heffernan

  Age 19

  Annie Munch

  Ages 40, 44

  Rebecca Spence

  LOUIS GILBERT

  Jack Edwards

  WENDY GILBERT

  Madeline Weinstein

  LORNA

  Tess Frazer

  CONNIE

  Ariana Venturi

  ANDY

  Alan Wilder

  ED MARLOWE

  Stephen Cefalu, Jr.

  ROBERTA MARLOWE

  Amanda Drinkall

  SHRINK

  Kirsten Fitzgerald

  NURSE

  Sandra Marquez

  RAY

  Ian Barford

  DAN

  Gary Wilmes

  BEN

  Keith D. Gallagher

  CHARACTERS

  MARY PAGE MARLOWE

  Age 10 months

  Age 12

  Age 19

  Ages 27, 36

  Ages 40, 44

  Age 50

  Ages 59, 63, 69

  LOUIS GILBERT

  WENDY GILBERT

  LORNA

  CONNIE

  ANDY

  ED MARLOWE

  ROBERTA MARLOWE

  SHRINK

  NURSE

  RAY

  DAN

  BEN

  NOTE

  Wendy Gilbert, ages 16 and 20, should be played by the same actor. Roberta Marlowe, ages 19 and 32, should be played by the same actor.

  SETTING

  Various locations in Ohio and Kentucky.

  SCENE 1

  1986.

  Mary Page Marlowe is forty.

  Her son, Louis, is twelve.

  Denny’s. Dayton, Ohio.

  LOUIS: I get all these mixed up. (Pause) Can you keep these straight? I can’t remember how they go. (Pause) Mom.

  MARY PAGE: What.

  LOUIS: Tell me how these go.

  MARY PAGE: You don’t know your states.

  LOUIS: I always get these mixed up.

  MARY PAGE: Do you have a geography class?

  LOUIS: We had a unit.

  MARY PAGE: What’s that mean?

  LOUIS: It was part of social studies.

  MARY PAGE: They don’t make you take geography? That should be the first thing you take. That should be Number One. Number Three. Reading, writing, geography.

  LOUIS: Can you fill all these in?

  MARY PAGE: Of course I can.

  LOUIS: I get these four all mixed up.

  MARY PAGE: You know this. ’Cause we’ve been there.

  LOUIS: Nevada?

  MARY PAGE: Have you been to Nevada?

  LOUIS: I dunno.

  MARY PAGE: You don’t know.

  LOUIS: Nope.

  MARY PAGE: You don’t know where you’ve been?

  LOUIS: Nope.

  MARY PAGE: What do you want for your birthday? You’ve got a birthday coming up.

  LOUIS: Yeah.

  MARY PAGE: Gonna be a teenager. God. (Pause) Do you know what you want?

  LOUIS: M.A.S.K.

  MARY PAGE: What’s that? Like a disguise?

  LOUIS: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand.

  (Mary Page’s daughter, Wendy, fifteen, enters, returning from the bathroom.)

  MARY PAGE: You okay?

  WENDY: I’m fine.

  MARY PAGE: You didn’t eat much.

  WENDY: It’s okay.

  MARY PAGE: I know it’s hard, honey. I’m sorry.

  WENDY: Please stop looking at me.

  MARY PAGE: I never wanted it to get like this. But you both have to know—Louis?—you both have to know that your father and I love you very much. This doesn’t change the way we feel about you. This doesn’t have any
thing to do with you. We tried everything we knew to make it work, and we worked for so long at it, ’cause we love you guys so much and we wanted you to have a house that was, you know, a loving house.

  WENDY: So where do we go? Who’s moving out?

  MARY PAGE: Well, that’s complicated. The house belongs to Sonny, to your father, you know it belonged to your grandma, so the house is his. And I got a job offer down in Lexington, a new job—

  WENDY: So you’re leaving.

  MARY PAGE: Hold on, honey, it’s complicated—

  WENDY: Why can’t you just say?

  MARY PAGE: I am, I am saying. It’s complicated, so just listen and let me explain it. I have to go down there and start my job. But we don’t want to pull you guys out of school in the middle of a school year, so you’ll stay here with your father and I’ll come back and see you on the weekends. Then after—

  WENDY: Where will you be on the weekends?

  MARY PAGE: With you, here in Dayton, I’ll be at the house with you. Your father will go to your Aunt Leigh’s house.

  WENDY: Just on the weekends.

  MARY PAGE: Listen. Then sometime this summer you’ll move down with me.

  WENDY: Just for the summer.

  MARY PAGE: No, to live with me. Permanently.

  WENDY: In Kentucky?! Mom!

  MARY PAGE: Wait, don’t—

  WENDY: Mom, I’m not living in fucking Kentucky!

  MARY PAGE: Hey, watch your language, Wendy—

  WENDY: Well, I’m not living in fucking Kentucky! I have two more years of high school! I’m not going to a new school my junior year! Not with all those fucking Kentucky hicks!

  MARY PAGE: First of all, lower your voice—

  WENDY: But it’s not fucking fair!

  MARY PAGE: —and second of all—

  WENDY: Don’t we get any say in what happens?!

  MARY PAGE: —watch your—no, you don’t get any say in what happens, because the adults are making the decisions—

  WENDY: That’s stupid, because the adults are making decisions about what they want, and we should get to say what we want!

  MARY PAGE: You can say what you want, but that doesn’t mean—you can say what you want. Let me hear what you want.

  WENDY: I want to finish high school! Here!

  MARY PAGE: Well, that’s not possible, because I’m not going to be here. I’m going to be in Kentucky.

  WENDY: Why don’t you get a job here?

  MARY PAGE: Because that’s not the way it works. I looked for a job here but I couldn’t find one. Where I found a job is in Lexington. We can all say what we want but we don’t always get what we want. Louis, what do you want?

  WENDY: Then I want to stay with Daddy, just while I’m in school, and then I’ll come down and spend the summers with you.

  MARY PAGE: That’s not possible.

  WENDY: Why?

  MARY PAGE: Because that’s not what your father wants.

  WENDY: What does he want?

  MARY PAGE: He wants something else.

  WENDY: What?

  MARY PAGE: He wants . . . he wants to keep you guys for the rest of the school year while I go down to Kentucky. He wants me to come up and stay with you on the weekends while he goes to stay at your Aunt Leigh’s. He wants you to come down to Lexington to live with me starting this summer.

  WENDY: So he gets exactly what he wants.

  MARY PAGE: Yes.

  WENDY: What do you want?

  MARY PAGE: Your father and I talked about this and we agree about the way to do this. Wendy, please, I know this is hard—

  WENDY: I wish you’d stop saying that.

  MARY PAGE: I know this is hard, but it’s the best solution to a bad problem.

  WENDY: Why can’t you just say what you want?

  MARY PAGE: We’ll get through this. We’re just moving. We’re just going to move.

  WENDY: To Kentucky.

  MARY PAGE: Do you really think Lexington is that much worse than Dayton?

  WENDY: Yes!

  MARY PAGE: Really?

  WENDY: Mom, they’re a bunch of hicks! They’re coal miners!

  MARY PAGE: What do you know about coal miners—?

  WENDY: You know what I mean! I don’t want to spend my last two years in high school with a bunch of hillbillies!

  MARY PAGE: This isn’t Paris. This isn’t, y’know . . . Tokyo—

  WENDY: No, Mom, God, don’t make me finish high school in Kentucky.

  MARY PAGE: Do you really think a couple of hundred miles makes that much difference? Every place is the same. And I have to say this, it’s hard for you to see it now, this is sad, and it’s not the way we wanted it, but this is not a tragedy. Two people . . . your dad and I fell out of love with each other, it’s not like somebody died, or somebody got sick—

  WENDY: Is that what happened, you and Daddy fell out of love?

  MARY PAGE: Yes.

  WENDY: That’s what he says?

  MARY PAGE: We agree that this is the way to do this.

  WENDY: God, listen to you. It’s like you’re in the Kremlin.

  MARY PAGE: Louis?

  LOUIS: Yeah?

  MARY PAGE: Do you have any questions, sweetie?

  LOUIS: No.

  MARY PAGE: Okay.

  WENDY: What’s your job?

  MARY PAGE: The same job. Different firm.

  WENDY: What happened to your old job?

  MARY PAGE: I lost it.

  WENDY: How’d you lose it?

  MARY PAGE: They let me go.

  WENDY: Why?

  MARY PAGE: They no longer needed me.

  WENDY: Why?

  MARY PAGE: Wendy.

  WENDY: Well, why?

  LOUIS: What happens to Spooky?

  MARY PAGE: Spooky will stay with you, in the house, in your dad’s house. Then when you guys come live with me, Spooky will come with you. You can keep Spooky.

  WENDY: Great. He can keep pissing on my choir robe down in Kentucky.

  MARY PAGE: Maybe you’ll hang up your choir robe in Kentucky.

  WENDY: It’s my fault the cat pisses on my stuff? (Pause) Like they even have choir in Kentucky.

  MARY PAGE: Yes, they have choir in Kentucky. People don’t stop singing just because they cross the state line.

  WENDY: Daddy should be here for this conversation.

  MARY PAGE: He thought I should be the one to tell you.

  WENDY: He thought?

  MARY PAGE: We thought.

  WENDY: Are we still Gilberts?

  MARY PAGE: What?

  WENDY: Our name. Am I still Wendy Gilbert?

  MARY PAGE: Yes. You’re still Wendy Gilbert. You’re still Louis Gilbert.

  WENDY: Daddy’s still Sonny Gilbert. What about you, are you still Mary Page Gilbert, or do you go back to your old name?

  MARY PAGE: I haven’t, I don’t know. No, I’ll go back to Marlowe.

  WENDY: Who set that book on fire? (Pause) I came down for breakfast the other day and that book Elephants Can Remember was on the coffee table and a bunch of pages were burned in the back of it.

  MARY PAGE: Dad and me . . . we’ve had some . . . we, uh . . . we’ve had a lot of . . . (Pause) This is really hard . . .

  LOUIS: “Kentucky.”

  MARY PAGE (Smiles, nods at Louis, long pause): Sometimes we do things we shouldn’t do.

  SCENE 2

  1965.

  Mary Page Marlowe is nineteen.

  Lorna and Connie are her college girlfriends.

  A dorm room. Dayton, Ohio.

  MARY PAGE: Let’s keep going.

  LORNA: Okay, Mary Page, this represents how you see yourself: good one, the Moon. Any time you get one of the Major Arcana, you’ve got to pay attention ’cause it has more impact. Connie, don’t touch the cards.

  MARY PAGE: It’s more accurate? Than the others?

  LORNA: No, just means pay attention.

  CONNIE: Can I change the record?

  LORNA: Kind of like i
t’s underlined. It underlines it for you. So the moon, right, it’s all about rhythm and nature, the rhythm of nature—

  MARY PAGE: —uh-huh—

  LORNA: —and how that’s part of us, it’s elemental. ’Cause it affects the tides and your time of the month and everything, so it’s kind of about your ESP.

  CONNIE: Oooh, like mind control?

  LORNA: More like just your intuition. I mean, the way you know your way around in your room even when the lights are off? With the moon, it’s dark, but because of your ESP, you can see anyway. The moon means you see it all by moonlight, right?

  CONNIE: What the hell. That’s how she sees herself?

  MARY PAGE: I don’t get it.

  CONNIE: I love this song—

  LORNA: No, but remember, it’s in context of the question you asked yourself before the reading.

  CONNIE: What was the question you asked yourself?

  LORNA: She can’t say.

  CONNIE: That’s so stupid. When you make a wish, you can’t say or it won’t come true. Guess what, it’s not coming true anyway, so you might as well say it out loud and stop boring us all to death.

  MARY PAGE: Wait, Lorna, just tell me what the Moon card means here.

  LORNA: “Things are not what they appear to be.”

  MARY PAGE: Okay. That makes sense.

  LORNA: So that speaks to your question.

  MARY PAGE: Yes, ’cause . . . nope, got it.

  CONNIE: C’mon, like we don’t know your question isn’t about Robert Bedwell.

  LORNA: She can’t say!

  CONNIE: You read my cards after and I’ll tell you exactly what my question is and it’s about boys, I can tell you that much.

  MARY PAGE: My question is not about Robert. It’s about me. And Robert. Come on, Lorna, what’s next?

  LORNA: Okay, so this card is about how others see you.

  CONNIE: There’s a Big Slut card?

  LORNA: Connie, stop it, you need to pay attention.

  CONNIE: All right.

  LORNA: It makes a difference to the reading.

  CONNIE: The cards are already dealt. You already dealt the cards.