The Hairy Ape

Dramatis Personae

• Robert Smith “Yank”

• Paddy

• Long

• Mildred Douglas

• Her Aunt

• Second Engineer

• A Guard

• A Secretary of an Organization, Stokers, Ladies, Gentleman, etc.

Scenes

• Scene I: The firemen’s forecastle of an ocean liner—an hour after sailing from New York.

• Scene II: Section of promenade deck, two days out—morning.

• Scene III: The stokehole. A few minutes later.

• Scene IV: Same as Scene I. Half an hour later.

• Scene V: Fifth Avenue, New York. Three weeks later.

• Scene VI: An island near the city. The next night.

• Scene VII: In the city. About a month later.

• Scene VIII: In the city. Twilight of the next day.

Time—The Modern.

Scene I

The firemen’s forecastle of a transatlantic liner an hour after sailing from New York for the voyage across. Tiers of narrow, steel bunks, three deep, on all sides. An entrance in rear. Benches on the floor before the bunks. The room is crowded with men, shouting, cursing, laughing, singing—a confused, inchoate uproar swelling into a sort of unity, a meaning—the bewildered, furious, baffled defiance of a beast in a cage. Nearly all the men are drunk. Many bottles are passed from hand to hand. All are dressed in dungaree pants, heavy ugly shoes. Some wear singlets, but the majority are stripped to the waist.

The treatment of this scene, or of any other scene in the play, should by no means be naturalistic. The effect sought after is a cramped space in the bowels of a ship, imprisoned by white steel. The lines of bunks, the uprights supporting them, cross each other like the steel framework of a cage. The ceiling crushes down upon the men’s heads. They cannot stand upright. This accentuates the natural stooping posture which shovelling coal and the resultant over-development of back and shoulder muscles have given them. The men themselves should resemble those pictures in which the appearance of Neanderthal Man is guessed at. All are hairy-chested, with long arms of tremendous power, and low, receding brows above their small, fierce, resentful eyes. All the civilized white races are represented, but except for the slight differentiation in color of hair, skin, eyes, all these men are alike.