Contemporary One-Act Plays Part 48

[_At the sound of the voices the boys start back. Instinctively_ MRS. BAUER _lays a protecting hand on each. She looks around at her husband with a sudden anxiety which she tries to conceal from the children, who whisper together._ BAUER _rises heavily to his feet and walks staggeringly toward the inner room_.

MRS. BAUER. [_In a worried tone, as the pushes the children out._] Go on to school.

[_At the threshold of the inner room_ BAUER _stops, half turns back with distorted features, and then hurries in. The door slams behind him._ MRS. BAUER _closes the outer door, turns, takes a step as though to follow_ BAUER, _hesitates, then crosses to the kitchen table and starts to clear up the dishes. The report of a revolver sounds from the inner room. Terror-stricken_, MRS. BAUER _rushes in_.

MRS. BAUER'S VOICE. Fritz! Fritz! Speak to me! Look at me, Fritz! You didn't do it, Fritz! I know you didn't do it!

[_Sound of low sobbing.... After a few seconds the telephone bell.... It rings continuously while the Curtain slowly falls._

MANIKIN AND MINIKIN

(A BISQUE-PLAY)

BY

ALFRED KREYMBORG

_Manikin and Minikin_ is reprinted by special permission of Alfred Kreymborg. All rights reserved. For permission to perform, address Norman Lee Swartout, Summit, New Jersey.

ALFRED KREYMBORG

Alfred Kreymborg, one of the foremost advocates of free-verse rhythmical drama, was born in New York City, 1883. He founded and edited _The Globe_ while it was in existence; and under its auspices issued the first anthology of imagist verse (Ezra Pound's Collection, 1914). In July, 1915, he founded _Others, a Magazine of the New Verse_, and _The Other Players_ in March, 1918, an organization devoted exclusively to American plays in poetic form. At present Mr. Kreymborg is in Italy, launching a new international magazine, _The Broom_.

Mr. Kreymborg has been active in both poetry and drama. He has edited several anthologies of free verse, and has published his own free verse as _Mushrooms_ and _The Blood of Things_. His volume of plays, all in free rhythmical verse, is _Plays for Poem--Mimes_. The most popular plays in this volume are _Lima Beans_, and _Manikin and Minikin_.

_Manikin and Minikin_ aptly exemplifies Mr. Kreymborg's idea of rhythmical, pantomimic drama. It is a semi-puppet play in which there are dancing automatons to an accompaniment of rhythmic lines in place of music. Mr. Kreymborg is a skilled musician and he composes his lines with musical rhythm in mind. His lines should be read accordingly.

MANIKIN AND MINIKIN

(A BISQUE-PLAY)

_Seen through an oval frame, one of the walls of a parlor. The wall-paper is a conventionalized pattern. Only the shelf of the mantelpiece shows. At each end, seated on pedestals turned slightly away from one another, two aristocratic bisque figures, a boy in delicate cerise and a girl in cornflower blue. Their shadows join in a grotesque silhouette. In the centre, an ancient clock whose tick acts as the metronome for the sound of their high voices.

Presently the mouths of the figures open and shut, after the mode of ordinary conversation._

SHE. Manikin!

HE. Minikin?

SHE. That fool of a servant has done it again.

HE. I should say, she's more than a fool.

SHE. A meddlesome busybody----

HE. A brittle-fingered noddy!

SHE. Which way are you looking? What do you see?

HE. The everlasting armchair, the everlasting tiger-skin, the everlasting yellow, green, and purple books, the everlasting portrait of milord----

SHE. Oh, these Yankees!--And I see the everlasting rattan rocker, the everlasting samovar, the everlasting noisy piano, the everlasting portrait of milady----

HE. Simpering spectacle!

SHE. What does she want, always dusting?

HE. I should say--that is, I'd consider the thought----

SHE. You'd consider a lie--oh, Manikin--you're trying to defend her!

HE. I'm not defending her----

SHE. You're trying to----

HE. I'm not trying to----

SHE. Then, what are you trying to----

HE. Well, I'd venture to say, if she'd only stay away some morning----

SHE. That's what I say in my dreams!

HE. She and her broom----

SHE. Her everlasting broom----

HE. She wouldn't be sweeping----

SHE. Every corner, every cranny, every crevice----

HE. And the dust wouldn't move----

SHE. Wouldn't crawl, wouldn't rise, wouldn't fly----

HE. And cover us all over----

SHE. Like a spider-web--ugh!