The Skin of Our Teeth- Sabina's Lines

Lines for the character 'Sabina' in the play 'The Skin of our Teeth'

One-thing-and-another;don't -know-whether-my-wits-are-upside-or-down; might-as-well-be-dead-as-alive-in-a-house-all-sixes-and-sevens...

Mrs. A: Sabina, you've let the fire go out.

Mrs. Antrobus, I'd like to give my two weeks' notice, Mrs. Antrobus. A girl like I can get a situation in a home where they're rich enough to have a fire in every room, Mrs. Antrobus, and a girl don't have to carry the responsibility of the whole house on her two shoulders. And a home without children, Mrs. Antrobus, because children are a thing only a parent can stand, and a truer word was never said; and a home, Mrs. Antrobus, where the master of the house doesn't pinch decent, self-respecting girls when he meets them in a dark corridor. I mention no names and make no charges. So you have my two weeks notice, Mrs. Antrobus. I hope that's perfectly clear.

Mrs. A: Here it is the coldest day of the year right in the middle of August, and you've let the fire go out.

I don't understand a single word of this play. Yes, I've milked the mammoth.

Mrs. A: Have you milked the mammoth?

Mrs. Antrobus! I can't! I'd die on the way, you know I would. It's worse than January. The dogs are sticking to the sidewalks. I'd die.

Mrs. A: You'd better go over to the neighbors and borrow some fire.

You'd never come back alive; we'd all perish; if you weren't here, we'd just perish. How do we know Mr. Antrobus'll be back? We don't know. If you go out, I'll just kill myself.

Mrs. A: Very well, I'll go.

Every night it's the same thing. Will he come back safe, or won't he? Will we starve to death, or freeze to death, or boil to death, or will we be killed by burglars? I don't know why we go on living. I don't know why we go on living at all. It's easier being dead.

Mrs. A: Get up, Sabina.

You don't care whether we live or die; all you care about is those children. If it would be to any benefit to them you'd be glad to see us all stretched out dead.

Mrs. A: But give you a new hat - or a plate of ice cream - or a ticket to the movies, and you want to live forever.

And what do they care about? Themselves - that's all they care about. They make fun of you behind your back. Don't tell me: they're ashamed of you. Half the time, they pretend like they're someone else's children. Little thanks you get from them.

Mrs. A: Well, maybe I would.

And Mr. Antrobus - you don't understand him. All that work he does - trying to discover the alphabet and the multiplication table. Whenever he tries to learn anything you fight against it.

Mrs. A: I'm not asking for any thanks.

But it was I who encouraged Mr. Antrobus to make the alphabet. I'm sorry to say it, Mrs. Antrobus, but you're not a beautiful woman, and you can never know what a man could do if he tried. It's girls like I who inspire that multiplication table. I'm sorry to say it, but you're not a beautiful woman, Mrs. Antrobus, and that's the God's truth.

Mrs. A: I bore children and between my very groans I stirred the cream that you'd put on your face. But I knew you wouldn't last. You didn't last.

Now that you audience are listening to this, too, I understand it a little better. I wish ten o'clock were here; I don't want to be dragged through this whole play again.

Mrs. A: You go around to the back of the house where you belong. Dinosaur: It's cold.

Mrs. Antrobus! Mrs. Antrobus! Help! There's a strange man coming to the house. He's coming up the walk, help!

Telegraph boy enters

Are you sure, are you sure? Maybe it's a trap!

Telegraph boy: A telegram for Mrs. Antrobus from Mr. Antrobus in the city.

Like I told you, Mrs. Antrobus; two weeks. That's the law. I hope that's perfectly clear.

Mrs. A: Sabina, take this stick and go and light the stove.

I know what that is, that's the alphabet, yes it is. Mr. Antrobus is just the cleverest man. Why, when the alphabet's finished, we'll be able to tell the future and everything.

Telegraph boy: Have made great discoveries today have separated em from en.

Mrs. Antrobus, I want to take back the notice I gave you. Mrs. Antrobus, I don't want to leave a house that gets such interesting telegrams and I'm sorry for anything I said. I really am.

Mrs. A: The earth's getting so silly no wonder the sun turns cold.

We only got two in the house. Mrs. Antrobus, you know we only got two in the house.

Telegraph boy: Do you happen to have an old needle you could spare? My wife just sits home all day thinking about needles.

I think we all perish, that's what I think. Cold like this in August is just the end of the whole world.

Telegraph boy: Thank you, Mrs. Antrobus. Mrs. Antrobus, can I ask you something else? I have two sons of my own; if the cold gets worse, what should I do?

Mrs. Antrobus, it looks to me like all the nice men in the world are already married; I don't know why that is.

Telegraph boy exits

Yes, Mrs. Antrobus!

Mrs. A: Don't you know he couldn't live if he didn't think you were perfect? - Sabina!

Oh, it's a drunken tramp. It's a giant, Mrs. Antrobus. We'll all be killed in our beds, I know it!

Mrs. A: Sabina, what's that noise outside?

Mr. Antrobus, I've given my notice. I'm leaving two weeks from today. I'm sorry, but I'm leaving.

Mr. A: Well, that's good, that's good - I'll bet Sabina let the fire go out.

Two weeks, that's the law.

Mr. A: Well, if you leave now you'll freeze to death, so go and cook the dinner.

Mrs. Antrobus, there are thousands of tramps knocking at the back door.

Mrs. A: Who are these people? Why, they are all over the front yard. What did they come here for?

Mr. Antrobus, what's that?? - that big white thing moving this way? Mr. Antrobus, it's ICE. It's ICE!!

Mrs. A: It'll be all right...while you're waiting, you might each pull up a stake of the fence. We'll need them all for the fireplace. There'll be coffee and sandwiches in a moment.

Mr. An...!! Oh, I see what this part of the play means now! This means refugees. Oh, I don't like it. I don't like it.

Mr. A: And sandwiches...piles of them...like this.

Ladies and Gentlemen! Don't take this play serious. The world's not coming to an end. You know it's not. People exaggerate! Most people really have enough to eat and a roof over their heads. Nobody actually starves - you can always eat grass or something. That ice business - why, it was a long, long time ago.

Mr. A and Fitzpatrick: Miss. Somerset!

All right. I'll say the lines, but I won't think about the play. And I advise you not to think about the play, either.

Mr. A and Fitzpatrick: Miss Somerset!

I thought I was working in a respectable house that had respectable guests. I'm giving my notice, Mr. Antrobus: two weeks, that's the law.

Mr. A: Sabina, pass the sandwiches.

Two weeks, that's the law.

Mr. A: Sabina! Pass the sandwiches.

The Ten Commandments - FAUGH!! - That's the worst line I've ever had to say on any stage.

Mr. A: There's the law. That's Moses.

Mr. Antrobus - that son of yours, that boy Henry Antrobus - I don't stay in this house another moment! - He's not fit to live among respectable folks and that's a fact.

Mr. A: What's that?

Mr. Antrobus, Henry has thrown a stone again and if he hasn't killed the boy that lives next door, I'm very much mistaken. I saw it with my own eyes. And it looked to me like stark murder.

Mrs. A: Don't say another word, Sabina. I'll be right back.

And everything was going along so nicely!

Mrs. A: George, it was just a boyish impulse. Remember how young he is. George, he's only four thousand years old.

Mrs. Antrobus! I'm downright ashamed of you.

Mr. A: There is no mind. We'll try not to live. Give it up. Give up trying.

Will you please start handing up your chairs? We'll need everything for this fire. Save the human race. - Ushers, will you pass the chairs up here? Thank you.

Mrs. A: and the earth was waste and void; and the darkness was upon the face of the deep-

Pass up your chairs, everybody. Save the human race.

Gladys: And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night.

Sssst! Esmeralda! Sssst!

Fortune Teller: Your partner's deceiving you in the Kansas City deal. You'll have six grandchildren. Avoid high places. Cirrhosis of the liver!

Has President Antrobus come along yet?

Fortune Teller: Keck! (first time)

I'm afraid I'll miss him. Oh, Esmeralda, if I fail in this, I'll die; I know I'll die.

Fortune Teller: No, no. You go away and hide yourself.

President Antrobus!!! And I'll be his wife! If it's the last thing I'll do, I'll be Mrs. George Antrobus - Esmeralda, tell me my future.

Fortune Teller: Keck! (Second time)

All right, I'll tell you my future. I've won the Beauty Contest in Atlantic City, - well, I'll win the Beauty Contest of the whole world. I'll take President Antrobus away from that wife of his. Then I'll take every man away from his wife. I'll turn the whole earth upside down! When all those husbands just think about me they'll get dizzy. They'll faint in the streets. They'll have to lean against lampposts. - Esmeralda, who was Helen of Troy?

Fortune Teller: Keck! (Third time)

Go away, boys, go away. I'm bigger fry than you are. - Why, Mr. Simpson!! How dare you?! You forget yourself. It does not impress me that you are commissioner of sanitation from Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Fortune Teller: Shut your foolish mouth. When Mr. Antrobus comes along you can see what you can do. Until then, - go away.

What's he doing?

Fortune Teller: Heh! Here she comes!

I'm nervous. My whole future depends on this. I'm nervous.

Fortune Teller: Oh, he's ready for you. Bite your lips, dear, take a long breath and come on up.

I don't know why it is, but every time I start one of these I'm nervous. Oh, Mr Antrobus… dare I speak to you for a moment?

Fortune Teller: He's never known any other woman than his wife. Whenever he looks at her he realizes that she knows every foolish thing he's ever done.

Mr. Antrobus...I've been so unhappy. I've wanted...I've wanted to make sure that you don't think that I'm the kind of girl who goes out for beauty contest.

Mr. A: What? - Oh, certainly, certainly, Miss Fairweather.

I knew you would. My mother said to me this morning. Lily, she said, that fine Mr. Antrobus gave you that prize because he saw at once that you weren't the kind of girl who'd go in for a thing like that. But, honestly, Mr. Antrobus, in this world, honestly, a good girl doesn't know where to turn.

Fortune Teller: Give it a little more. Lean on it.

You wouldn't know how hard it is. With that lovely wife and daughter you have. Oh, I think Mrs. Antrobus is the finest woman I ever saw. I wish I were like her.

Mr. A: My dear Miss Fairweather!

How wonderful of you to say that. How generous! Mr. Antrobus, have you a moment free?...I'm afraid I may be a little conspicuous here...could you come down, for just a moment, to my beach cabana...?

Mr. A: There, there. There's...uh...room for all kinds of people in the world, Miss Fairweather.

There's a nice, comfortable deck chair there. Because: you know you do look tired. Just this morning my mother said to me: Lily, she said, I hope Mr. Antrobus is getting a good rest. His fine strong face has deep lines in it. Now isn't it true, Mr. Antrobus: you work too hard?

Mr. A: Why - uh...yes, certainly...for a moment...just for a moment.

Now you come along and just stretch out in my cabana. No, I shan't say a word, not a word. I shall just sit there, - privileged. That's what I am.

Fortune Teller: Bingo!

Just a moment. I have something I wish to say to the audience. - Ladies and gentlemen. I'm not going to play this particular scene tonight. It's just a short scene and we're going to skip it. But I'll tell you what takes place and then we can continue with the play from there on. Now in this scene-

Mr. A: Miss Fairweather - you'll - spoil me.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But I have to skip it. In this scene, I talk to Mr. Antrobus, and at the end of it he decides to leave his wife, get a divorce and marry me. That's all.

Mr. A: But, Miss Somerset!

So now that I've told you we can jump to the end of it. Where you say: where is he?

Mr. A: Fitz! - Fitz!

I'm sorry, Mr. Fitzpatrick, but I can't and I won't. I've told the audience all they need to know and now we can go on.

Fitzpatrick: Miss Somerset, we insist on your playing this scene.

Because there are some lines in that scene that would hurt some people's feelings and I don't think the theatre is a place where people's feelings ought to be hurt.

Fitzpatrick: And why can't you play it?

I sent the understudy up to the corner for a cup of coffee and if Equity tries to penalize me I'll drag the case right up to the Supreme Court.

Fitzpatrick: Miss Somerset, you can pack up your things and go home. I shall call the understudy and I shall report you to Equity.

Well, if you must know, I have a personal guest in the audience tonight. Her life hasn't been exactly a happy one. I wouldn't have my friend hear some of these lines for the whole world. I don't suppose it occurred to the author that some other women might have gone through the experience of losing their husbands like this. Wild horses wouldn't drag me from the details of my friend's life, but - well, they'd been married twenty years, and before he got rich, why, she'd done the washing and everything. As for the other harrowing details, well -

Mr. A: What's the matter with the scene?

Nothing, nothing will make me say some of those lines - about "a man outgrows a wife every seven years" and - and that one about "the Mohommedans being the only people who looked the subject square in the face."

Fitzpatrick: Miss Somerset, your friend will forgive you. We must play this scene.

Now everybody's nerves are on edge.

Fitzpatrick: Miss Somerset! Go to your dressing room. I'll read your lines myself!

Thank you. I knew you'd understand. We'll do just what I said. So Mr. Antrobus is going to divorce his wife and marry me. Mr. Antrobus, you say: "It's won't be easy to lay all this before my wife."

Mr. A: Skip the scene!

Listen, George: other people haven't got feelings. Not in the same way that we have, - we who are presidents like you and prize-winners like me. Listen, other people haven't got feelings; they just imagine they have. Within two weeks they go back to playing bridge and going to the movies. Listen, dear: everybody in the world except a few people like you and me are just people of straw. Most people have no insides at all. Now that you're president you'll see that. Listen, darling, there's a kind of secret society at the top of the world, - like you and me, - that know this. The world was made for us. What's life anyway? Except for two things, pleasure and power, what is life? Boredom! Foolishness! You know it is. Except for those two things, life's nau-se-ating. So, - come here! Now when you're wife comes, it's really very simple. Just tell her.

Mr. A: Miss Fairweather, I mean Lily, it won't be easy to lay all this before my wife. It'll hurt her feelings a little.

Of course I am.

Mr. A: Lily, Lily; you're a wonderful woman.

Don't let her argue. Remember arguments have nothing to do with it.

Broadcast Official: Mr. Antrobus! This is the most important broadcast of the year.

Splendid!

Mr. A: I think there's nothing to talk about. I've said what I have to say.

Tell her the conversation would only hurt her feelings. It's-kinder-in-the-long-run-to-do-it-short-and-quick.

Mrs. A: After being married to you for 5,000 years, I suppose I have the right to a word or two.

I never said a word to her.

Mr. A: Gladys!! Have you gone crazy? Has everyone gone crazy? You did this. You gave them to her.

Such goings-on. Don't give it a minute's thought.

Mrs. A: And if any man harm any of us, his soul - the only soul he's got - had better be at the bottom of that ocean, - and that's the only way to put it. Gladys, come here. We're going back to the hotel.

You stay right here. Don't you go now while you're excited. Gracious sakes, all these things will be forgotten in a hundred years. Come, now, you're on the air.

Mr. A: I - I have to go and see what I can do about this.

Just say anything, - it doesn't matter what. Just a lot of birds and fishes and things.

Broadcast Official: Thank you, Miss Fairweather.

Yes, George. Those are the animals.

Mr. A: And look on the beach! You didn't tell me these would be here!

George, what's the matter with you? This is just a storm like any other storm.

Fortune Teller: They'll come. - Antrobus! Take these animals into that boat with you. All of them, - two of each kind.

Stay with me, we'll go - This is just another thunderstorm, - isn't it? Isn't it?

Mr. A: Maggie!

I don't believe it. I don't believe it's anything at all. I've seen hundreds of storms like this.

Mr. A: I know we are. But I haven't found Henry.

Esmeralda! George! Tell me, - is it really serious?

Fortune Teller: There's not a moment to be lost. Go push the animals along before you. Start a new world. Begin again.

Mr. Antrobus - take me with you. Don't leave me here. I'll work. I'll help. I'll do anything.

Gladys: Papa, - look.

Mrs. Antrobus, take me. Don't you remember me? I'll work. I'll help. Don't leave me here!

Mrs. A: Now, come quick!

I don't know why my life's always being interrupted - just when everything's going fine!!

Fortune Teller: Yes, go - Back to the kitchen with you.

Mrs. Antrobus! Gladys! Where are you? The war's over. The war's over. You can come out. The peace treaty's been signed. Where are they? - Hmpf! Are they dead, too? Mrs. Annnntrobus! Glaaadus! Mr. Antrobus'll be here this afternoon. I just saw him downtown. Huuuurry and put things in order. He says that now that the war's over we'll all have to settle down and be perfect.

Opening of Act III

They may be hiding out in the back.

Fitzpatrick: Miss Somerset, we have to stop a moment.

What's the matter?

Fitzpatrick: Miss Somerset! We have to stop a moment.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Mr. A: Ladies and gentlemen, an unfortunate accident has taken place back stage. Perhaps I should say another unfortunate accident.

Disagreed with them!!! They have ptomaine poisoning. They're in Bellevue Hospital this very minute in agony. They're having their stomachs pumped out this very minute, in perfect agony.

Fitzpatrick: Why, it's perfectly clear. These seven actors had dinner together, and they ate something that disagreed with them.

It'll be a miracle if they do, a downright miracle. It was the lemon meringue pie.

Mr. A: Fortunately, we've just heard they'll all recover.

It was the lemon meringue pie. I saw it with my own eyes; it had blue mold all over the bottom of it.

Tremayne: It was the fish.

Not mean anything! Why, it certainly does. Twelve o'clock goes by saying those wonderful things. I think it means that when people are asleep they have all those lovely thoughts, much better than when they're awake.

Fitzpatrick: Eleven o'clock, for instance, is Aristotle. And nine o'clock is Spinoza. Like that. I don't suppose it means anything. It's just a kind of poetic effect.

What were you going to say, Ivy?

Ivy: Excuse me, I think it means, - excuse me, Mr. Fitzpatrick -

O my God! The planets! Are they sick too?

Fitzpatrick: The planets!! We forgot all about the planets.

Mrs. Antrobus! Gladys! Where are you? The war's over - You've heard all this - Where - are - they? Are- they - dead, too etcetera. I - just - saw - Mr. - Antrobus - downtown, etcetera. He says that now that the war's over we'll all have to settle down and be perfect. They may be hiding out in the back somewhere. Mrs An-tro-bus.

Fitzpatrick: Lower the curtain. House lights. Act Three of The Skin of Our Teeth. You volunteers, just wear what you have on. Don't try to put on the costumes today.

Mrs. An-tro-bus!

Mrs. A: Everybody's movement's sort of different. I see some women walking right out in the middle of the street.

Glaaaadys! Mrs. An-tro-bus!

Mrs. A and Gladys: What's that?!

Of course I'm alive. How've you girls been? - Don't try and kiss me. I never want to kiss another human being as long as I live. Sh-sh, there's nothing to get emotional about. Pull yourself together, the war's over. Take a deep breath. - the war's over.

Mrs. A: Gladys, that's Sabina's voice as sure as I live. - Sabina! Sabina! - Are you alive?!

Who's that?

Gladys: Mama!

Goodness! Are there any babies left in the world! Can it see? And can it cry and everything?

Mrs. A: That's Gladys's baby. I don't believe you. Gladys, Sabina says the war's over. Oh, Sabina.

Where on earth did you get it? Oh, I won't ask. - Lord, I've lived all these seven years around camp and I've forgotten how to behave. - Now we've got to think about the men coming home. - Mrs. Antrobus, go and wash your face, I'm ashamed of you. Put your best clothes on. Mr. Antrobus'll be here this afternoon. I just saw him downtown.

Gladys: Yes, he can. He notices everything very well.

Yes, Henry's alive, too, that's what they say. Now don't stop to talk. Get yourselves fixed up. Gladys, you look terrible. Have you any decent clothes?

Mrs. A: And Henry?

Don't stop now, - just wash your face. Oh, my God, what's that silly little noise?

Mrs. A: Yes, I've been saving something to wear just for this very day. But, Sabina, - who won the war?

That's what it is. Seems to me like peacetime's coming along pretty fast - shoe polish.

Mrs. A: Why, it sounds like - it sounds like what used to be the noon whistle at the shoe-polish factory.

As soon as he catches a cow. Give him time to catch a cow, dear. Shoe polish! My, I'd forgotten what peacetime was like. Mrs. Antrobus, guess what I saw Mr. Antrobus doing this morning at dawn. He was tacking up a piece of paper on the door of the Town Hall. You'll die when you hear: it was a recipe for grass soup, for a grass soup that doesn't give you the diarrhea. Mr. Antrobus is thinking up new things. - He told me to give you his love. He's got all sorts of ideas for peacetime, he says. No more laziness and idiocy, he says. And oh, yes! Where are his books? What? Well, pass the up. The first thing he wants to see are his books, or if the rats have eaten them, he says, it isn't worthwhile starting over again. Everybody's going to be beautiful, he says, and diligent, and very intelligent.

Gladys: Sabina, how soon after peacetime begins does milk man start coming to the door?