Simpatico Read online

  Acclaim for

  SAM SHEPARD

  “Sam Shepard is phenomenal…the best practicing American playwright.”

  —The New Republic

  “The greatest American playwright of his generation…the most inventive in language and revolutionary in craft.”

  —New York magazine

  “His plays are a form of exorcism: magical, sometimes surreal rituals that grapple with demonic forces in the American landscape.”

  —Newsweek

  “His plays are stunning in their originality, defiant and inscrutable.”

  —Esquire

  “With the exception of David Mamet, no American playwright of his generation matches Mr. Shepard in the creation of characters that are immediately so accessible and so mysterious.”

  —The New York Times

  “One of the most original, prolific and gifted dramatists at work today.”

  —The New Yorker

  SAM SHEPARD

  Simpatico

  Sam Shepard was the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of more than fifty-five plays and three story collections. As an actor, he appeared in more than sixty films and received an Oscar nomination in 1984 for The Right Stuff. He was a finalist for the W. H. Smith Literary Award for his story collection Great Dream of Heaven. In 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Trinity College, Dublin. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy, and was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. He died in 2017.

  ALSO BY SAM SHEPARD

  The One Inside

  A Particle of Dread

  Heartless

  Fifteen One-Act Plays

  Day out of Days

  Kicking a Dead Horse

  Buried Child

  Tooth of Crime (Second Dance)

  The God of Hell

  Great Dream of Heaven

  The Late Henry Moss, Eyes for Consuela, When the World Was Green

  Cruising Paradise

  States of Shock, Far North, Silent Tongue

  The Unseen Hand

  A Lie of the Mind

  The Unseen Hand and Other Plays

  Fool for Love and Other Plays

  Paris, Texas

  Seven Plays

  Motel Chronicles

  Rolling Thunder Logbook

  Hawk Moon

  FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, MAY 1996

  Copyright © 1995 by Sam Shepard

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in Great Britain in paperback in the Royal Court Writers series by Methuen Drama, an imprint of Reed Books Ltd., London, in 1995.

  CAUTION: This play is fully protected, in whole, in part, or in any form under the copyright laws of the United States of America, the British Empire including the Dominion of Canada, and all other countries of the copyright union, and are subject to royalty. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, radio, television, recitation, and public reading, are strictly reserved. All inquires for performance rights should be addressed to the author’s agent, Berman, Boals, and Flynn, 225 Lafayette Street, Suite 1207, New York, NY 10012.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Shepard, Sam, 1943–2017

  Simpatico: a play in three acts / Sam Shepard. — 1st Vintage Books ed.

  p. cm.

  I. Title.

  PS3569.H394S56 1996

  812′.54—dc20 95-43451

  CIP

  Vintage Books Trade Paperback ISBN 9780679763178

  Ebook ISBN 9780307559722

  www.vintagebooks.com/

  v3.1_r2

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Author

  Other Books by This Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Act One

  Act Two

  Act Three

  Simpatico was first presented at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in New York, on November 14, 1994. The cast was as follows:

  CARTER: Ed Harris

  VINNIE: Fred Ward

  CECILIA: Marcia Gay Harden

  SIMMS: James Gammon

  KELLY: Welker White

  ROSIE: Beverly D’Angelo

  Directed by Sam Shepard

  Designed by Loy Arcenas

  Lighting by Anne Militello

  Music by Patrick O’Hearn

  Sound by Tom Morse

  ACT 1 Cucamonga, California

  ACT 2 San Dimas, California; Midway, Kentucky; Cucamonga, California

  ACT 3 Lexington, Kentucky; Midway, Kentucky; Cucamonga, California

  Act One

  Scene: Lights come up on—a cheap, ground-floor apartment on the outskirts of Cucamonga. A sign with this single place-name, “CUCAMONGA”, hangs above the set. The apartment is very sparse. A sink piled with dirty dishes against the stage-right wall. A bed with one blanket against the left wall. A pile of dirty clothes at the foot of the bed, on the floor. Rough stucco walls in pale green, absolutely bare with no attempt to decorate. A window in each wall trimmed in pale Mexican orange with sun-bleached plastic curtains. The windows look out into black space. No trees. No buildings. No landscape of any kind. Just black.

  Note: This set occupies most of the stage in Act One. In Acts Two and Three it takes up only part of the stage, on the stage-right side.

  Actors have entered in the dark. Lights come up on VINNIE, sitting on the edge of the bed, elbows on knees, staring at the floor. He’s dressed in a dark blue long-sleeved shirt, dark slacks with no belt. Everything very rumpled as though he’s been sleeping in his clothes for weeks. Bare feet, CARTER peruses the room, crossing from one window to the next, looking out, then moving to the sink. He’s dressed in a very expensive beige suit, dark tie, brown overcoat slung over one arm and a briefcase containing his cellular phone. His shoes are alligator loafers with little tassels. Both men are well into their forties.

  CARTER: Well, this isn’t bad, Vinnie. Cozy. Close to the mall. Little sparse maybe. Picture I had was that you were much worse off.

  VINNIE: What’s sparse about it?

  CARTER: Well—it could use a lady’s touch. You know—a few throw-rugs or something. What do they call those? You know—throw-rugs.

  VINNIE: All’s I need is a bed.

  CARTER: Sixties style, huh?

  VINNIE: I didn’t have a bed in the sixties.

  Pause.

  CARTER: Right. Well, you got someone looking after you? Someone to do the laundry? Dishes? I can get that arranged for you if you want. Local talent.

  VINNIE: I’m fine.

  CARTER: Okay. (Moves to pile of laundry.) But you shouldn’t ought to let the laundry pile up on you, Vinnie. You let that happen, it starts to go sour. Gives you a bad impression of yourself.

  VINNIE: I don’t need the laundry for that.

  Pause.

  CARTER: You taking care of yourself otherwise? Not too much booze?

  VINNIE: Not too much.

  CARTER: Get out for a uh—stroll now and then? Fresh air. Blood pumping?

  VINNIE: I walk everywhere.

  CARTER: Good! That’s good. Gotta keep your health up. Funny how the mind follows the body. Ever noticed that? You get sick, first thing you know the mind starts going straight to hell.

  VINNIE: I walked clear to Glendora yesterday.

  CARTER: Glendora?

  VINNIE: Yeah. Clear to Glendora and back.

  CARTER: That’s quite a hike—Glendora. Out near where Shoemaker had his big wreck isn’t it?

  VINNIE: You know very well where Glendora is.
r />   CARTER: What happened to that car I bought you?

  VINNIE: Sold it.

  CARTER: Why’d you do that?

  VINNIE: Jap car.

  CARTER: Well, you shoulda told me what you wanted, Vinnie. I could’ve got you an American car easy enough. Little Jeep Cherokee or something. All you gotta do is ask.

  VINNIE: Cherokees flip. They’re unstable.

  CARTER: Well, a Mustang then or—

  VINNIE: I don’t need a car. I walk. Ever since I lost my Buick I walk.

  Pause.

  CARTER: Okay. Just seems like you might need some wheels to get around out here, that’s all. We always used to.

  VINNIE: I don’t.

  CARTER: All right. Good. Fair enough. I’m just trying to look out for you, Vinnie. (Pause.) Everything okay otherwise? Need some more cash? New shirts? You got that TV I sent you, didn’t you?

  VINNIE: Sold that too.

  Small pause.

  CARTER: They don’t make American TVs anymore, Vinnie. They don’t exist. They haven’t made a purebred American TV for over forty years now.

  VINNIE: I know that. “RCA”.

  CARTER: Whatever.

  VINNIE: “His Master’s Voice”.

  CARTER: Yeah—

  VINNIE: Who was his Master anyway?

  CARTER: Look—You wanted to talk to me, right? You called me. You’ve got some kind of a major crisis going on. Something that couldn’t wait.

  VINNIE: I do. Crisis is my middle name.

  CARTER: I flew all the way out here just to talk to you, Vinnie. Do you wanna talk or do you wanna be cryptic and weird?

  VINNIE: I appreciate that.

  CARTER: What.

  VINNIE: That you came all the way out here. Just to talk. I appreciate that.

  CARTER: No problem. Our friendship always comes first. You know that. Always has.

  VINNIE: If you say so.

  CARTER: I do.

  VINNIE: I haven’t asked you for much special treatment over the years, have I Carter?

  CARTER: No you haven’t. You’ve been very understanding about this whole business.

  VINNIE: Never called you collect in the middle of the night.

  CARTER: Never.

  VINNIE: Never interfered with your private life.

  CARTER: No.

  VINNIE: I’ve been extremely discreet.

  CARTER: You have, Vinnie.

  VINNIE: I’ve been a good boy.

  CARTER: Yes.

  VINNIE: Because I could really hurt you if I wanted to—

  CARTER: All right, look Vinnie—let’s—

  VINNIE: I could demolish you if I really had a mind to. You haven’t forgotten that have you?

  CARTER: No! (Pause.) I haven’t forgotten that.

  VINNIE: Good. (Pause.) I still own all the negatives, you know. I still have them in my possession. All the early correspondence.

  CARTER: Could we just get down to this problem you’re having. This big problem that couldn’t wait.

  VINNIE: I’m not holding you up or anything am I?

  CARTER: I’ve got to catch a return flight in about two hours.

  VINNIE: Returning to the family?

  CARTER: That’s right.

  VINNIE: Little wife? Little lady?

  CARTER: Hey, don’t think you can trot right across my head, pal! Just because you did me a couple a’ crumby favors a long time ago.

  VINNIE: Favors?

  CARTER: A long, long time ago! (Pause.) There’s certain limits—certain parameters. I’m not gonna be blackmailed, Vinnie.

  VINNIE: Farthest thing from my mind.

  CARTER: Good. Now, what’s the problem?

  Pause.

  VINNIE: Uh—I got arrested about a week ago.

  CARTER: Oh great! That’s just wonderful! Arrested! Now you’ve gotten yourself arrested!

  VINNIE: Don’t worry. Nothing showed up on the records. No trace of you anywhere. No trace of Simms. You’ve been very thorough about all that.

  CARTER: What’d you get arrested for?

  VINNIE: It was—kind of multiple charges.

  CARTER: Terrific.

  VINNIE: “Trespassing”. “Invasion of Privacy”. And uh—“Harassment”.

  CARTER: Harassment?

  VINNIE: Yeah. Harassment.

  CARTER: You didn’t assault anyone, did you?

  VINNIE: No. I don’t do that. That’s not my specialty. You know that.

  CARTER: Who’d you harass then?

  VINNIE: No one.

  CARTER: All right—Who charged you with harassment?

  VINNIE: A woman.

  CARTER: Here we go—

  VINNIE: But it won’t stick. Told me to stay away from her house. Hysterical reaction on her part, is all it was. Petty-anti stuff.

  CARTER: Hysterical reaction to what?

  VINNIE: She felt I’d deceived her, I guess.

  CARTER: Deception is not harassment.

  VINNIE: Exactly my point.

  CARTER: What else did you do to her?

  VINNIE: Nothing. I didn’t touch her. We never even kissed. Never hugged even.

  CARTER: So, it’s just a uh—“psychological” thing with her, I suppose. Same old, same old.

  VINNIE: Must be. I can’t figure it out.

  CARTER: What’s the “Trespassing” deal? The “Invasion of Privacy”?

  VINNIE: Uh—See, I had her believing that I was a detective.

  CARTER: Oh, Vinnie—

  VINNIE: A real detective. She was absolutely convinced.

  CARTER: That’s the deception part. I’m talking about the—

  VINNIE: She went right along with it. I showed her my badge, handcuffs, the gun, false ID. She got very excited about the whole thing.

  CARTER: You’re not carrying a weapon again are you?

  VINNIE: Only on dates.

  CARTER: You can’t take chances like that, Vinnie. Walking around here with a weapon. Did they find it on you?

  VINNIE: No. I ditched it. I’m very good at that. You know that. Went back two days later and picked it up, right where I’d left it.

  CARTER: You can’t take those kind of risks! I’ve told you that.

  VINNIE: Not now anyway.

  CARTER: That’s right.

  VINNIE: There was a time and place for risks and that time has passed.

  CARTER: That’s what I’ve said!

  VINNIE: I was just repeating it. Just to reassure you that I’ve absorbed your instructions.

  Pause.

  CARTER (with patience): Where did you trespass and whose privacy did you invade?

  VINNIE: I met this woman—

  CARTER: We’re going backwards, Vinnie.

  VINNIE: You’ll have to bear with me. You’ve got no choice.

  Pause.

  CARTER: All right.

  VINNIE: I met this woman—like I said. Watched her walk into the bar.

  CARTER: I thought you weren’t drinking these days.

  VINNIE (sudden violent explosion): NOT TOO MUCH, I SAID!! NOT TOO MUCH!! (Pause into sudden calm.) You’re not listening.

  CARTER: I am.

  VINNIE (calm): You’re interrupting. You’ve got to pay close attention to this. Try to grasp all the details.

  CARTER: I am. Take it easy. I’m just asking.

  VINNIE: I watched her. She had a movement to her. A kind of life. Like a dog caught in the headlights.

  CARTER: A dog caught in the headlights?

  VINNIE: Similar to that.

  CARTER: You were attracted to her. In so many words.

  VINNIE: I was. I admit that. I’m not ashamed to admit that. I had a thought. A thought came into my head as soon as I saw her and I’d never had this kind of thought before. I said to myself: “If I could have this woman—I would never ever ask for anything else again in my whole life.” I said to myself: “Please, dear God in Heaven, deliver this woman to me and I will never pester you again for anything whatsoever. For all Eternity I will leave you alone.�
� (Pause.) And a miraculous thing occurred.

  CARTER: What was that?

  VINNIE: She came straight over to me. As though I’d called her. As though I’d conjured her up. Sat down right next to me and smiled. Just like she was answering my little prayer.

  CARTER: Congratulations. So, then what? You started the scam on her? The “detective” scam? I can’t believe you’re still doing this, Vinnie.

  VINNIE: She asked me what I do for a living. Right off the bat. Very sincere eyes. Well, you know, that’s the one question that always throws me.

  CARTER: What’s that?

  VINNIE: The question of “occupation”. What I do for a living.

  CARTER: I’ve offered you all kinds of jobs over the years, Vinnie. All kinds of opportunities.

  VINNIE: I worked for you once. Once was enough.

  CARTER: That was a partnership! We were absolutely equal.

  VINNIE: Could I continue my story? Please.

  Pause.

  CARTER: I thought you’d given all this up, Vinnie. You told me you’d stopped doing this.

  VINNIE: What.

  CARTER: All this business with women. Pretending.

  VINNIE: It’s not a business!

  CARTER: How many times have you gotten yourself into a jam like this over a woman?

  VINNIE: Never. Not like this.

  CARTER: Oh, this one’s different. I see.

  VINNIE: Are you listening to me or scolding me!

  CARTER: I’m telling you! This is exactly what I’ve been warning you about all these years. One little slip-up like this and the whole thing can come unraveled.

  VINNIE: There’s no way they can connect you to me.

  CARTER: When you apply for a State Racing License what is the main prerequisite? Fingerprints! Right? Fingerprints, Vinnie! You’ve got no concept of how things are hooked up these days. How international files are kept. Information stored. Microchips. Fibre optics. Floppy discs. It’s an art form now, Vinnie! An industry!

  VINNIE (sudden explosion again): I AM TALKING ABOUT A WOMAN!!