A View of Harbor. Comedy/Drama by Richard Dresser. The Dramatic Publishing Company

Colorized covers are for web display only. Most covers are printed in black and white. A View of Harbor Comedy/Drama by Richard Dresser The Dramatic Publishing Company

Colorized covers are for web display only. Most covers are printed in black and white. A View of the Harbor Comedy/Drama. By Richard Dresser. Cast: 2m., 2w. Nick is a child of privilege who grew up with every possible advantage. But along the way he came to believe that he could never measure up to the demands of his father, Daniel, a powerful and mercurial man who has run the family businesses with ruthless cunning. So Nick disappears, reinventing himself as a blue-collar worker in a factory owned by his family. For the first time, he takes control of his life. He works hard, makes friends, and falls in love with Paige, a beautiful young woman. He discovers that he s a lot happier getting by on a living wage than wallowing in the limitless wealth of his family. He s free. When Nick hears from his sister, Kathryn, that his father has had a stroke, he realizes that he must face the towering figure in his life, the man who caused him to run away. So Nick and Paige travel to the coast of Maine, where Daniel and Kathryn live in the rambling, mysterious, run-down mansion where Nick grew up. Nick finds himself yanked back into the increasingly twisted orbit of his family. Paige is shocked to see the confident man she fell in love with reverting before her eyes to a small frightened child. Paige becomes the catalyst for long-buried family secrets finally seeing the light of day. In the end, the family is reconfigured in surprising ways as Nick reconnects with his sister and finally finds the strength to face the demons in his life. Unit set. Approximate running time: 90 minutes. Code: V37. Cover photo: Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Lowell, Mass., featuring Anderson Matthews. Photo: Meghan Moore. Cover design: Jeanette Alig-Sergel. ISBN-10 1-58342-569-1 ISBN-13 978-1-58342-569-5 9 781583 425695 02009 Dramatic Publishing 311 Washington St. Woodstock, IL 60098 ph: 800-448-7469 www.dramaticpublishing.com Printed on recycled paper The Dramatic Publishing Company

A VIEW OF THE HAR BOR By RICH ARD DRESSER Dra matic Pub lishing Woodstock, Il li nois Eng land Aus tra lia New Zea land

*** NO TICE *** The am a teur and stock act ing rights to this work are con trolled ex clu - sively by THE DRA MATIC PUB LISHING COM PANY with out whose per mis sion in writ ing no per for mance of it may be given. Roy alty must be paid ev ery time a play is per formed whether or not it is pre sented for profit and whether or not ad mis sion is charged. A play is per formed any time it is acted be fore an au di ence. Cur rent roy alty rates, ap pli ca tions and re stric tions may be found at our Web site: www.dramaticpublishing.com, or we may be con tacted by mail at: DRA MATIC PUB LISHING COM - PANY, 311 Wash ing ton St., Woodstock IL 60098. COPY RIGHT LAW GIVES THE AU THOR OR THE AU THOR S AGENT THE EX CLU SIVE RIGHT TO MAKE COPIES. This law pro - vides au thors with a fair re turn for their cre ative ef forts. Au thors earn their liv ing from the roy al ties they re ceive from book sales and from the per for mance of their work. Con sci en tious ob ser vance of copy right law is not only eth i cal, it en cour ages au thors to con tinue their cre ative work. This work is fully pro tected by copy right. No al ter ations, de le tions or sub sti tu tions may be made in the work with out the prior writ ten con sent of the pub lisher. No part of this work may be re pro duced or trans mit ted in any form or by any means, elec tronic or me chan i cal, in clud ing pho to - copy, re cord ing, vid eo tape, film, or any in for ma tion stor age and re trieval sys tem, with out per mis sion in writ ing from the pub lisher. It may not be per formed ei ther by pro fes sion als or am a teurs with out pay ment of roy - alty. All rights, in clud ing, but not lim ited to, the pro fes sional, mo tion pic - ture, ra dio, tele vi sion, vid eo tape, for eign lan guage, tab loid, rec i ta tion, lec - tur ing, pub li ca tion and read ing, are re served. For per for mance of any songs, mu sic and re cord ings men tioned in this play which are in copy right, the per mis sion of the copy right own ers must be ob tained or other songs and re cord ings in the pub lic do main sub sti tuted. MMIX by RICH ARD DRESSER Printed in the United States of Amer ica All Rights Re served (A VIEW OF THE HAR BOR) For in qui ries con cern ing all other rights, con tact: The Gersh Agency, 41 Mad i son Ave., 33rd floor, New York NY 10010 Phone: (212) 997-1818 ISBN: 978-1-58342-569-5

IM POR TANT BILLING AND CREDIT RE QUIRE MENTS All pro duc ers of the play must give credit to the au thor of the play in all pro grams dis trib uted in con nec tion with per for mances of the play and in all in stances in which the ti tle of the play ap pears for pur poses of ad ver - tis ing, pub li ciz ing or oth er wise ex ploit ing the play and/or a pro duc tion. The name of the au thor must also ap pear on a sep a rate line, on which no other name ap pears, im me di ately fol low ing the ti tle, and must ap pear in size of type not less than fifty per cent (50%) the size of the ti tle type. Bio graph i cal in for ma tion on the au thor, if in cluded in the playbook, may be used in all pro grams. In all pro grams this no tice must ap pear: Pro duced by spe cial ar range ment with THE DRA MATIC PUB LISHING COM PANY of Woodstock, Il li nois * * * * The Con tem po rary Amer i can The ater Fes ti val, Shepherds - town, W.V., pre sented the world pre miere of A View of the Har bor July 2008, di rected by Charles Towers, with the fol low ing: Nick...Kelsey J. Nash Paige...Anne Ma rie Nest Kathryn...Andrea Cirie Dan iel...an der son Matthews PRO DUC TION STAFF Set De sign...rob ert Klingelheofer Cos tume De sign...devon Painter Lighting De sign.... Colin K. Bills Sound De sign...mat thew M. Nielson Stage Man ager... Lori M. Doyle Asst. Stage Man ager... Laura Wil son 3

Pro duc tion As sis tant...helen Bennett Cast ing....pat McCorkle C.S.A. Un der studies.... Clare Schmidt, Joe Yates Merrimack Rep er tory Thea tre, Lowell, Mass., Charles Towers, ar tis tic di rec tor, Tom Parrish, ex ec u tive di rec tor and hon or ary pro duc ers, Dan iel and Mary Frantz pre sented the re gional pre miere of A View of the Har bor Jan u ary 8, 2009. The pro duc tion was di rected by Charles Towers with the fol low ing: Nick...Kyle Fabel Paige...Steph a nie Fieger Kathryn...Andrea Cirie Dan iel...an der son Matthews PRO DUC TION STAFF Scene De signer...rich ard Wadsworth Cham bers Cos tume De signer....devon Painter Lighting De signer... Brian J. Lilienthal Stage Man ager...em ily F. McMullen Spe cial acknowledgment As sis tant Scene De signer, Bailey Costa 4

A VIEW OF THE HAR BOR CHAR AC TERS NICK, 30s PAIGE, 20s DAN IEL, Nick s fa ther KATHRYN, Nick s sis ter SETTING The play takes place on the porch and in the yard of Dan - iel s house in Maine. It s a rundown house with a ram shackle porch, com pletely open ex cept for a sin gle screen door. The only screens are on this door. TIME Last sum mer. 5

A VIEW OF THE HAR BOR SCENE ONE (The YARD, early morn ing. NICK and PAIGE are star - ing at the house. They have a back pack and a suit case.) PAIGE. Oh my God. This is it? NICK. Home sweet home. PAIGE. You poor baby. Should we go in? NICK. Let s not. PAIGE. We drive all night and we aren t even go ing in side? NICK. I don t want to sur prise him. He has a gun. PAIGE. You know, I m get ting just a lit tle creeped out. What should we do? I m ex hausted. NICK. Sleep out here till he wakes up? PAIGE. Here? NICK. Have n t you ever slept outside? PAIGE. By ac ci dent. Af ter a long night of very poor decision - making. Please don t make me sleep out here with the an i mals and the trees and the stuff we can t even see. NICK. It s okay, honey. Come here. (He em braces her.) PAIGE. Look at that house. This is n t a crit i cism but even the peo ple who worked for us lived better than that. You re a mir a cle for sur viv ing. NICK. Hey, I just did n t know any better. 7

8 A VIEW OF THE HARBOR PAIGE. I feel guilty. I was given so much. Not that we were rich rich. NICK. But rich. PAIGE. Not like some. In prep school I had the only dad who did n t have a jet and never got kid napped. But frankly, all I had to do was think of some thing and it was mine. It was like hav ing super-pow ers. I can t imag - ine grow ing up here. NICK. The house was al ways cold and there was never any food. One night in the win ter when we were lit tle my sis ter and I woke up shiv er ing. The wind was prac ti cally blow ing right through the house so we got up. And my par ents were gone. PAIGE. They just left you here all alone? NICK. We were scared and hun gry so we walked to the neigh bors. They fed us and gave us a warm bed and we did n t leave for two days. That was the hap pi est time of my life. The third day my sis ter was look ing out the win dow and she said, Dear God, they re com ing. And there were my par ents trudg ing through the snow like ghosts to take us back. PAIGE. And of course you went. What choice does a child have? No food, barely a roof over your head, neg li gent par ents (Then.) What was that sound? Did you hear it? God, I hate na ture. You know what I love? Ho tels. Why aren t we in a ho tel? I would have paid. I have my flaws but I m al ways there for the less for tu nate. NICK. Like me? PAIGE. So how bad was it? NICK. What? PAIGE. The stroke. NICK. Bad enough to get me back here.

A VIEW OF THE HAR BOR 9 PAIGE. Lucky you. I never got a chance to say good bye to my dog Whizz er. I was off at col lege and Whizz er went crazy. He started at tack ing peo ple and my mom called and said they had to do some thing but I was in the mid - dle of fi nals and I screamed at her to let Whizz er live. Then Whizz er killed our cat and then our bird. And then he knocked over a stroller and, well, to make a long le - gal-med i cal-vet er i nary story short, my par ents put Whiz - z er to sleep be fore I came home. At least you re get ting a chance to say good bye to your dad. NICK. Yeah, this is great. PAIGE (look ing at the house). Oh my God! NICK. What? PAIGE. I just saw some thing mov ing in the house. NICK. What was it? PAIGE. I don t know. It did n t even look hu man. NICK. I guess I should have told you about my fam ily. PAIGE. What do you mean? What s wrong with them? NICK. Are you scared? PAIGE. Not re ally. Not yet. Are you? NICK. Why would I be scared? PAIGE. If my fam ily looked like that I d sure be scared. NICK. I guess we can t put this off any lon ger. (Calls, but not loudly.) Hello? PAIGE. You don t want them to hear you? NICK (slightly louder). Hello? PAIGE (much louder). Hello? NICK. Hey! He might be sleep ing. PAIGE. I m sorry. That was thought less. NICK. Come here. PAIGE. What? NICK. I could n t have come back here with out you.

10 A VIEW OF THE HARBOR PAIGE. You re such a tough guy. I ve never seen you like this. NICK. I al ready miss our old life in the city. PAIGE. You mean from yes ter day? That life? NICK. We re so lucky, we ve got it so good. Let s leave. PAIGE. Really? NICK. Come on, while we still can! (The door opens and KATHRYN sticks her head out. She stares at them.) KATHRYN (calls in side house). He s here. And he brought one. (The door slams shut.) PAIGE. Maybe we should leave. Maybe that was a good idea. NICK. We missed our chance. It s too late. (The door opens and KATHRYN co mes out. She has a tray with cups and a tar nished sil ver cof fee urn and a bas ket of rolls.) KATHRYN. What luck! You re just in time for break fast. (DAN IEL co mes out with a cane. DAN IEL and KATH - RYN sit down.) NICK. This is Paige. PAIGE. Hello! Nice to meet you. KATHRYN. There are only two chairs and we got them. NICK. I ll get more chairs.

A VIEW OF THE HAR BOR 11 (NICK goes in side. PAIGE goes up the steps and en ters the porch, leav ing the screen door par tially open.) KATHRYN. Please close the screen door. It s black fly sea son. PAIGE. Does it make any dif fer ence? There aren t any other screens KATHRYN. They ll eat us alive! Close the door! (PAIGE closes the screen door. DAN IEL and KATHRYN stare at her.) DAN IEL. Look at you. All tricked-out for a fam ily vis i ta - tion. PAIGE. I was sorry to hear DAN IEL. You were sorry to hear what? PAIGE. About your con di tion. DAN IEL. And what con di tion is that? PAIGE. Your stroke. DAN IEL. What are you say ing? What is she say ing? Have I had a stroke? KATHRYN. That s what the doc tors said. DAN IEL. Dear God, why did n t you tell me? KATHRYN. It would only worry you and that s what caused the stroke in the first place. But now that you ve been told, we re right back on that slip pery slope, headed for an other one. But far far worse. PAIGE. I m so sorry, I had no idea! I m very tired. Nick just said you had a stroke. KATHRYN. Oh? And who is Nick? PAIGE. Your son? KATHRYN. My son?

12 A VIEW OF THE HARBOR DAN IEL. She has no son. Her mar riage ended with out is - sue. PAIGE. I m sorry. DAN IEL. Who is Nick? Not my Nick KATHRYN. She must be talk ing about Ed ward. DAN IEL. Why does she call him Nick? KATHRYN. Nick s my brother. PAIGE. So that per son get ting the chairs is not Nick? KATHRYN. That per son is Ed ward. Nick s brother. PAIGE. Oh. So you must be Nick s sis ter. KATHRYN. And Ed ward s. Who did you think I was? DAN IEL. She thought you were his dear old mum. This one is no body s mum. Her mar riage ended with out is - sue. (NICK co mes out of the house with two rot ting wicker chairs.) NICK. This is the best I could find. KATHRYN. I m afraid the rats have had their way with the chairs. Do you like rats? PAIGE. I can t say that I do. KATHRYN. Then you won t like ours. They re so selfpos s e sse d. DAN IEL. Not like the old days. They used to scurry away when they saw us. There was def er ence, a bit of grudg - ing re spect for a higher spe cies. Now they stare with pure mal ice. (To PAIGE.) Like they want to eat you up, inch by inch, start ing with your ten der lit tle toes. KATHRYN. I thought we d put you in Hyperion, Eddie. NICK. All right. KATHRYN. And we ll put her in the but ler s quar ters.

A VIEW OF THE HAR BOR 13 NICK. That s not nec es sary. We ll stay in the same room. KATHRYN (to PAIGE). It was orig i nally the but ler s quar - ters but we re-dec o rated. I think you ll be very happy. It faces the har bor. NICK. But there s no win dow. KATHRYN. That does n t change what it faces. NICK. We re adults. We d like to stay in the same room. I mean it, Sissy. KATHRYN. Did you want cof fee? PAIGE. Oh, please! (KATHRYN pours cof fee for PAIGE.) Thank you, Sissy. KATHRYN. I m not your sis ter. My name is Kathryn. PAIGE. All right. KATHRYN. Would you say it, please? Kathryn. PAIGE. Kathryn. KATHRYN. Kathryn. PAIGE. Kathryn. KATHRYN. Kathryn. PAIGE. Kathryn. KATHRYN. Good. The cups are chipped. They be longed to Grandmother. I d hate to see you slice those sweet lips to bloody shreds. PAIGE. Oh, I ll be care ful. KATHRYN. Roll? PAIGE. Thank you! They look lovely. KATHRYN. They re even love lier with blue berry jam. PAIGE. That sounds per fect! KATHRYN. I m afraid we don t have any so you ll just have to do with out. (PAIGE and NICK try to bite into the rock-hard rolls with out suc cess.)

14 A VIEW OF THE HARBOR NICK. Kath? In what quarry did you find these rolls? KATHRYN. We buy in bulk. These are the last of the win - ter col lec tion. (NICK and PAIGE give up on the rolls.) NICK. Is this it for break fast? KATHRYN. Fa ther some times has a ci gar on spe cial oc ca - sions. DAN IEL. I don t be lieve I ll be hav ing one this morn ing. KATHRYN. Oh, I do love the ocean. You could dis ap pear into those wa ters and never be found. There s a ledge out there, a per fectly in vit ing lit tle rock is land at low tide. A man once took his wife there for a pic nic. He rowed her out and they put down a ta ble cloth in the sun - shine and they had crab meat sand wiches and a bot tle of red wine. Then they lay on the ta ble cloth and she started to fall asleep as the tide came in. And he very qui etly got in the row boat and rowed away as the wa ter cov ered the ledge and swal lowed her up. And she was never found. PAIGE. Why did he do that? KATHRYN. What a glo ri ous morn ing, we are truly blessed! Eddie, your slut seems like a bit of a sim ple ton. PAIGE. Ex cuse me? KATHRYN. I was n t talk ing to you. NICK. Stop it, Sissy. Paige is very smart. DAN IEL. But you ll grant she s a slut? NICK. She is n t a slut or a sim ple ton. DAN IEL. Well, this is some thing new for you, my boy. But let me say there was noth ing wrong with the tainted

fruit you brought home in the past. We re de lighted to see you, Eddie. It warms my heart. NICK. I want you to treat Paige like a mem ber of the fam - ily. DAN IEL. Oh, I don t imag ine she d sur vive that. NICK. How are you, honey? Are you all right? PAIGE. To tell you the truth, I m a lit tle cold. KATHRYN. Such a del i cate lit tle flower. PAIGE. Can we go in side? DAN IEL. You won t find it much warmer in there. The damn pi lot light s gone out. PAIGE. Can t you light it? KATHRYN. Light it our selves? Look at us, we d blow up the house. If you want a job done right, get some one else to do it. DAN IEL. Jo s the only one who could prop erly light it. Jo was a mar vel. Jo would crawl un der the house through a moon scape of rat drop pings and fix the plumb ing. Jo could climb up on the roof and bang in new shin gles. Jo al ways had pro jects, a moat around the grave stones, a maze for the rab bits. But Jo is gone. The mar riage was with out is sue. (KATHRYN goes in side.) A VIEW OF THE HAR BOR 15 NICK. You ve up set Kath. DAN IEL. Facts are facts, she was n t fe cund. NICK. We don t know that. DAN IEL. We know the mar riage was with out is sue. NICK. That should n t have been a big sur prise. DAN IEL. It was a bril liant un ion. They cooked to gether, they read to gether, they sang to gether, they built a quilt.

16 A VIEW OF THE HARBOR They walked down to the wa ter ev ery day at sun set, hand in hand. But there was no is sue. NICK. There was no is sue be cause Jo was a woman. DAN IEL. My feck less son al ways has the last word. My feck less son and my less than fecund daughter. Is that it for cof fee? NICK. We re going in. DAN IEL. Yes, show your friend her room. It s a bit small, but it s dark. NICK. We ll be in the same room. We re not children. DAN IEL. You re in my house and I have the run of it. Don t for get that while you re rolling around in sweaty congress. (NICK and PAIGE go in side. DAN IEL is alone on the porch as LIGHTS FADE.)