A Free Man of Color

A Free Man of Color

Plays by John Guare

Bosoms and Neglect

Chaucer in Rome

Cop-Out

A Few Stout Individuals

Four Baboons Adoring the Sun

A Free Man of Color

General of Hot Desire

His Girl Friday
(
adaptation
)

Home Fires

House of Blue Leaves

Lake Hollywood

Landscape of the Body

Lydie Breeze:

Part One: Women and Water

Part Two: Bulfinch’s Mythology

Part Three: The Sacredness of the Next Task

Marco Polo Sings a Solo

Moon Under Miami

Muzeeka

Rich and Famous

Six Degrees of Separation

JOHN GUARE

A Free Man of Color

Grove Press

New York

Copyright © 2011 by John Guare

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 or to
[email protected]
.

CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that
A Free Man of Color
is subject to royalties. It is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and all British Commonwealth countries, and all countries covered by the International Copyright Union, the Pan-American Copyright Convention, and the Universal Copyright Convention. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound taping, all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction, such as information storage and retrieval systems and photocopying, and rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved.

The stock and amateur live stage performance rights to
A Free Man of Color
are controlled exclusively by Dramatists Play Services, Inc. No professional or nonprofessional performance of the play may be given without obtaining in advance the written permission of Dramatists Play Services, Inc., 440 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016, and paying the requisite fee, whether the play is presented for charity or gain and whether or not admission is charged.

First-class professional applications for permission to perform it, and those other rights stated above, must be made in advance to International Creative Management, Attn: Patrick Herold, 730 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10019.

Published simultaneously in Canada

Printed in the United States of America

FIRST EDITION

ISBN-13: 9780802195005

Grove Press

an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

Distributed by Publishers Group West

www.groveatlantic.com

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For

George C. Wolfe who put it into motion,

André Bishop and Bernard Gersten who made it happen,

and Adele C-T who gave it the spirit

A Free Man of Color
was commissioned and produced by the Lincoln Center Theater at the Vivian Beaumont, New York, New York, under the direction of André Bishop and Bernard Gersten. It opened in December 2010 with the following cast:

JACQUES CORNET
Jeffrey Wright

CUPIDON MURMUR AND TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE
Mos

ZEUS-MARIE PINCEPOUSSE AND TALLYRAND
Reg Rogers

MARGERY JOLICOEUR
Nicole Beharie

DR. TOUBIB
Joseph Marcell

JUAN VENTURA MORALES AND NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
Triney Sandoval

DOÑA SMERALDA AND JOSEPHINE
Justina Machado

ORPHEE
Esau Pritchett

LEDA, MME. DORILANTE, AND MELPOMENE
Teyonah Parris

DOÑA ATHENE AND CALLIOPE
Sara Gettelfinger

REMY DORILANTE AND JAMES MONROE
Arnie Burton

JONATHAN SPARKS AND MAJOR WALTER REED
Brian Reddy

MRS. SPARKS, TERPSICHORE, AND THE INFANTA
Rosal Colón

LORD HARCOURT, LE CLERC’S CAPTAIN, AND GEORGES FEYDEAU
Robert Stanton

LADY HARCOURT AND EUTERPE
Wendy Rich Stetson

ALCIBIADE
David Emerson Toney

PYTHAGORE, GENERAL LE CLERC AND KING CARLOS CUARTO
Nick Mennell

MERCURE AND COUNT ACHILLE CREUX
Peter Bartlett

MME. MANDRAGOLA, DOÑA POLISSENA, AND ROBERT LIVINGSTON
Veanne Cox

THOMAS JEFFERSON
John McMartin

MERIWETHER LEWIS
Paul Dano

Director
George C. Wolfe

Sets
David Rockwell

Costumes
Ann Hould-Ward

Lighting
Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer

Sound
Scott Stauffer

Original Music
Jeanine Tesori

Choreography
Hope Clarke

The play is set in New Orleans, 1801–1806, and other locations in Europe and America.

In the New World at this time, there was a vocabulary of more than a hundred terms for people of mixed race, extending back seven generations in an individual’s heritage. For example: “pure” white and “pure” black = mulatto; mulatto and black = sambo; mulatto and white = quadroon; a mamelouc was “113 of 120 parts white,” etc.

ACT ONE

JACQUES CORNET
appears, a dazzling piece of work. His coat is made of purple satin and embroidered and laced with gold. His shoes have diamond buckles. His bewigged hair, powdered. His magnificence is overwhelming.
MURMUR
accompanies him.

JACQUES
The year is 1801. Alas. This is the last time men will dress like this.

All men equal? Clothes tell the ranks.

I have taste. For that I give my daily thanks.

If a book can’t be told by its cover, what good’s the book?

The world would be better if it followed my lead.

If I’m a book, I’m a damned good read.

Murmur, introduce me—

MURMUR
His name used to be—

JACQUES CORNET
(
cutting him off
)
My name is Jacques Cornet. New Orleans is my home.

MURMUR
I’m Cupidon Murmur, his administrative assistant.

JACQUES CORNET
Last time I looked, you were my slave.

MURMUR
Which is why I stopped looking. Didn’t you used to be a slave?

JACQUES CORNET
Don’t be fresh, Murmur. Even though born of a slave, I purchased my freedom and became my father’s heir.

MURMUR
‘My father’s heir.’ A very rich, very white father, left my boss everything. Including me. I do all the work. He does nothing.

JACQUES CORNET
I beg your pardon. Each morning I can be found in my atelier, writing my play.

MURMUR
Where’d you get the nerve to write a play?

JACQUES CORNET
Brocade gave me confidence.

MURMUR
Does your masterpiece have a title?

JACQUES CORNET
A Free Man of Color.

MURMUR
What would it be about?

JACQUES CORNET
The sanctity of surfaces. The value of veneer.

Lift the curtain. We begin.

Lift the curtain. Is being deaf your latest claim?

MURMUR
I thought you’d like to know some crates just came.

JACQUES CORNET
Crates? Get them! You slow beast! Freedom’s not for you.

MURMUR
What happened to the show must go on?
Murmur rolls in wooden crates.

JACQUES CORNET
A shipment has arrived! Persia! Asia Minor!

My only prayer some evil moth

hasn’t gnawed his way through sacred cloth.

Open, Murmur!

MURMUR
(
opening crates
)
I’m hurrying! I’m hurrying!

JACQUES CORNET
Look—grosgrain for trimming!

Bolts of cloth never come with regret.

Ahh! To be tickled by the feather of an egret.

What genius hands in Samarkand wove this silk, encasing my legs like a glove in milk.

The legs are so important. Revere their line, especially with a golden calf as shapely as mine.

Poor innocent silks—suppose you were lost!

How many years did your treacherous voyage cost?

MURMUR
Here’s a date! They left Shanghai in 1798!

JACQUES CORNET
Three years for silk to travel? I could have frozen to death. Bring out my maps! Unveil my maps!

Which Murmur does. The maps glow.

MURMUR
He collects these maps—

JACQUES CORNET
Murmur, know your place. I collect these maps. One of them must reveal the magic route to deliver me the treasures that I need like bread and water. The future is always about speed. That’s the true subject of my play. An inland river must cross this vast unknown land. A river from the isle of California that somehow meets the Mississippi— but where? It has to be there. The stakes are too high. (
Jacques starts to undress.
)

The iridescence of this pink moiré

will dazzle the fools who flock to my soirée.

Murmur, undo this cuff. Murmur, remove this shoe.

Take these crates to my chamber. Faster! Faster!

MURMUR
Yes, master master.

(
to us
)

I’m taking up a collection to buy my freedom. Spare change?

JACQUES CORNET
Murmur! Open the curtain or I’ll damn you to perdition.

MURMUR
Don’t the dumbest plays need exposition?

JACQUES CORNET
My play speaks for itself.

MURMUR
I’ll tell them what they need to know.

JACQUES CORNET
I wouldn’t trust you as far as a rat might speed.

Dr. Toubib? Tell them what truths they need.

Jacques Cornet goes, trailing clothes, which Murmur picks up.

DR. TOUBIB
enters, of African descent, a man of reason.

MURMUR
This is Dr. Toubib. He ministers to the health of the town. One day I’ll write a play. Act One, Scene One.

Murmur lifts the curtain and wheels off the crates.

Music plays: Haydn trio in G major 3rd movement.

REMY DORILANTE, JONATHAN SPARKS, LORD SIDNEY HARCOURT, and ACHILLE ALCIBIADE,
and
MME.MANDRAGOLA
play Faro, a card game.

DR. T
The home of Jacques Cornet on the Rue de la Levée in New Orleans. Every Tuesday, he opens his home to men who come selling maps that might unmask the unmapped continent and get his clothes here quicker.

Murmur deals cards at the faro table.

DORILANTE
I mase double.

MME MANDRAGOLA
I set that.

SPARKS
Mase double again!

MME MANDRAGOLA
I set that and I win.

DR. T
No one comes to the new world because they want to. This one’s been deported, this one disinherited, this one escaped the police. They spy, steal, smuggle, sometimes even work honestly, until the day their fortune will surely appear. They come to the house of Jacques Cornet to gamble what little they have. Double it. Triple it.

MURMUR
Or lose it to Jacques Cornet. The cards are fixed. My boss leaves nothing to chance.

DR. T
Today is Tuesday, February 24th—the feast of Mardi Gras. The few social barriers that exist in New Orleans are down tonight—white—black—everything in between—

MURMUR
—and there’s a lot of in between.

DR. T
Take off your twenty-first century glasses. See New Orleans as we who live here see it in 1801. The free-est city in the world. Imagine the unimaginable. Race is a celebration! See the lush palette of skin tones in New Orleans.

DORILANTE
Remy Dorilante. I am a shade called
Meamelouc
—white and
metif.

SPARKS
Jonathan Sparks! I’m
Quarteron—
white and
meamelouc.

HARCOURT
Lord Sidney Harcourt. I send furs from Quebec down the Mississippi to New Orleans and out to the world. I’m truly white, which gives me no privilege. Here it’s just another color.

ALCIBIADE
(
heavy Norwegian accent
)
Achille Alcibiade from Norway. I have come to New Orleans to start a new life as a dealer in furniture. I am white.

MURMUR
How come you look like a mahogany table?

ALCIBIADE
All right—not Norway. Barbados. (
back to the accent
) But in New Orleans you can be whatever you declare yourself to be.

JUAN VENTURA MORALES
bangs on the bedroom door. He’s quite chubby, dressed in some sort of gold armor.

MORALES
I command you to open this door for Juan Ventura Morales, appointed by His Royal Majesty Carlos Cuarto, King of Spain, as the Supreme Intendante of New Orleans.

MURMUR
Tax collector.

MORALES
I am Castilian! Pure blood!

MURMUR
His maternal grandmother had a touch of the brush.

MORALES
Among other divinely ordained powers by the kingdom of Spain, I control travel on the Mississippi.

DR. T
The Mississippi being North America’s link to the world.

MME. MANDRAGOLA
(
to us
)
I am Mme Mandragola. From Buenos Aires. Like Joseph in the Bible, I am a coat of many colors. I supply New Orleans with the comfort of the most luscious kaleidoscope of flesh.

From behind the bedroom door we hear:

GIRLS
(
off
)
Ohh! Ohhhhh! Ohhhhhhh! Jacques, Jacques, Jacques!

MORALES
Why do you let Jacques Cornet hoard your girls?

MME. MANDRAGOLA
He has more money than any of you. Are you going to the Mardi Gras ball tonight?

MORALES
I already have on my costume.

MME. MANDRAGOLA
Are you Sancho Panza?

MORALES
I am
El Cid
! The greatest hero Spain has ever known! And I am a direct descendant! (
knocking on Jacques’s door
) Have some consideration. I can’t keep my wife waiting.

The door to the bedroom opens. Mme. Mandragolas girls appear,
en dishabille. TERPSICHORE (
Terp-sikor
)
,
CALLIOPE (
Kal-ee-Ope
) EUTERPE (
You terp
) MELPOMENE (
mel-pom-eeen
)
. They run to the table and eat hungrily.

MORALES
Finally! Murmur, find me a
chambre d’amour
. Presto!

EUTERPE
No! This is just a break to catch my breath. I am Euterpe—

CALLIOPE
Calliope—

TERPSICHORE
Terpsichore—

MELPOMENE
Melpomene—

MME. MANDRAGOLA
(
to us
)
We locals name ourselves after Greek gods and demi-gods and muses but give it a French twist.

MORALES
(
to Terpsichore
)
I have decided to honor you with my body.

TERPSICHORE
Sorry! I’ve just experienced the greatest happiness of my life and don’t want to ruin it.

MORALES
Common whores refuse the Supreme Intendante of New Orleans?

TERPSICHORE
Put me in jail. Jacques Cornet has a key that unlocks the world. Dr. T, what’s the Latin word for key?

DR. T
Clavis
!

TERPSICHORE
I am the portal. Jacques Cornet is the
clavis
.

CALLIOPE
Imagine the arm of a needy five year old reaching out to you, holding a bright red juicy apple—

MELPOMENE
—the neck of a flamingo flying home—and you’re the
nest.

EUTERPE
—the trunk of a mandingo tree that goes up, up, up and at the top, there’s a gorgeous red blossom flowering.

They sigh.

MORALES
I could show you a thing or two.

THE WHORES
You have!

MORALES
Like the present size of the United States, I’m perfectly happy with what I’ve got. (
beats on Jacques’ door
) Cornet, you will pay for your disrespect!

ZEUS-MARIE PINCEPOUSSE
appears, ignored by all.

PINCEPOUSSE
(
to us
)
I am Zeus-Marie Pincepousse.

MURMUR
Who the hell invited you?

PINCEPOUSSE
(
pushing Murmur aside
)
I am extremely white and my blood extremely blue. I hate being in this house, which is rightfully mine.

MURMUR
He is half-brother to Jacques Cornet. They share the same white father.

PINCEPOUSSE
But my mother was a
Duchesse.
His mother a mere possession. I am also the plot. I’ll be back.

Pincepousse goes. Murmur fills everyone’s wine glass.

HARCOURT
Murmur, I heard news of a rebellion upriver on your master’s sugar farm.

MURMUR
Yes, we caught wind of that rumor. Peace was restored.

SPARKS
How did you deal with it?

MURMUR
I shot the instigator.

DORILANTE
You shot a slave?

MURMUR
Not my first.

HARCOURT
But you’re a slave.

MURMUR
What does that have to do with it?

DORILANTE
Suppose you ran away?

MURMUR
But I wouldn’t.

HARCOURT
Do you want to be free?

MURMUR
You bet.

SPARKS
And what would you do if you could be free?

MURMUR
Work for Jacques Cornet.

Jacques appears in the doorway of his bedroom in a silken robe. He tosses gold to Mme. Mandragola.

JACQUES CORNET
Ladies! Round Two!

SPARKS
Jacques, see the treasures I’ve brought!

DORILANTE
I’ve painted your portrait! Jacques!

HARCOURT
Jacques! See my map!

Jacques shuts the door.
PYTHAGORE,
wearing a black mask, a bone in his nose, leaps at Morales.

PYTHAGORE
I am Toussaint Louverture and I want freedom!

MORALES
(
screams
)
Take everything I have! Don’t hurt me!

PYTHAGORE
(
unmasking himself
)
It’s Pythagore. I thought my Mardi Gras costume amusing.

SPARKS
You wouldn’t joke if you’d just returned from (
whispers
) Santo Domingo.

MORALES
Not so loud—The very mention of that bloody island will cause chaos here in New Orleans. We must keep the news from the slaves. I’d suggest you find a less provocative costume for tonight.