Act One
Act one opens on an April Sunday evening in Jimmy and Alison’s attic room. The room is small and has simple old furniture; a bed, bookshelf, drawers covered with books, neckties, a teddy bear, and a soft woolly squirrel.
There is a gas stove below the wardrobe and a wooden food cupboard beside it on which a portable radio is placed. There is also a dining table and three chairs with two leather armchairs. The room is dim as the light into the room comes from a skylight (a small window in the roof).
Jimmy and Cliff, his friend who stays with him in the apartment, is seen reading Sunday papers while Alison, Jimmy’s wife, is ironing on the ironing board. Jimmy and Cliff drag the papers from themselves and engage in the analysis of the papers.
Jimmy complains that all the book reviews sound the same and the papers provide no intellectual stimulation. Alison half listens to their agitation.
Jimmy and Cliff are of the working class, but Jimmy is more educated than Cliff while Alison is from the upper middle class. Jimmy berates Alison’s family for their disapproval of marrying her; he expresses how he slugged it out with them, especially her mother.
Jimmy’s only family income is from a sweet stall in the local market. This is quite below the educational level of Jimmy and Alison’s social standard in the society considering her family.
Jimmy continues casting aspersions on Alison’s family calling her all sorts of names and belittling her in his discussion with Cliff. Cliff tries to dissuade him from making un-complimentary statements about Alison or her family.
The programme that Jimmy wants to listen to comes on air on the radio and Jimmy complains that the sound from the ironing is disturbing him from hearing the programme on the radio.
Alison then says he behaves like a child. Jimmy also compares Alison to “a dirty old Arab, sticking his fingers into some mess of lamb fat and gristle.”
The agitation between the two friends continues with Cliff trying to maintain peace but it results in a tirade that leads to physical playful combat.
They drag themselves toward Alison who is ironing clothes and the iron board is overturned, and Alison’s arm is burnt in the process. Jimmy feels sorry and goes out to play his trumpet.
While Jimmy is out, Alison confides in Cliff that she is pregnant for Jimmy and has not told him about it.
Cliff urges her to tell Jimmy, but she is afraid of the response from him. When Jimmy comes inside, Alison tells him about her actress friend, Helena Charles who is coming to stay with them. Jimmy instantly shows his hatred for Helena.
Act Two Scene One
This takes place two weeks later, on a Sunday late afternoon. Helena, Alison’s friend is already with her in the apartment. She is the same age as Alison. Helena is preparing food.
She appreciates Helena for her company after placing a bowl of salad on the table. She says everything I always different whenever Helena is around. Jimmy is playing on his jazz trumpet in Cliff’s room, the sound of the trumpet disturbs Alison says that Mrs.
Drury, the landlady will kick them out of the apartment for the disturbance. Sunday papers are on the armchairs.
Helena asks Alison whether she is in love with Cliff because of the way they relate and Alison denies it and says it is only a “relaxed, cheerful sort of thing, like being warm in bed.”
Alison tells Helena about her marriage; the life they lived the first few months of the marriage without any money or jobs. She tells her how they lived with Hugh Tanner, a friend of Jimmy.
She says things were so miserable for her because Hugh was not friendly to the extent that she was cut off from all the people in her life. Her parents asked her to sign over all her money and assets when she married because they felt that Jimmy was ruthless.
While Nigel, her brother didn’t have time for anybody as he was running for Parliament of his constituency then. She reminiscences how they met at a party when her parents just arrived from India.
She says Jimmy did everything he could do to marry her then, because of the distrust of her family towards him. She continues that Hugh later travelled overseas after some months to work on his novel.
Helena urges her to fight him so that he might kill her. Alison tells Helena about the game they play pointing to the stuffed squirrel and the teddy bear in the room.
She explains that those animals represent the two of them, that she is a squirrel and Jimmy is the best.
Cliff enters and calls on Jimmy to come and take his tea. Jimmy enters the room and the atmosphere of the room changes. Helena and Alison agree to go to church together. Jimmy raises eyebrows when Alison tells him that she is going out with Helena.
When Jimmy leaves to receive a call, Helena tells Alison that she has sent a telegram to Alison’s father to come and take her away from her matrimonial home. This surprises Alison but agrees to leave.
Act Two Scene Two
Alison’s father arrives the next evening to take her back home. His name is Colonel Redfem, a retired military officer who served in the army for forty years. He is a handsome man in his late sixties.
Colonel Redfem is a kind and gentle man. He is greatly disturbed by the experience his daughter is going through with Jimmy. He asks Jimmy, she answers that he has gone to visit Mrs. Tanner who is sick in London.
She explains further how Mrs.Tanner sets up a sweet stall for her husband. The Colonel is then surprised how an educated person like Jimmy can be engaged in Sweet Stall. Alison then explains that he tried some other jobs before resorting to the sweet stall.
They discuss her marital life and Alison decries how Jimmy does discredit her family. Her father then blames Alison’s mother that she went too far in dealing with Jimmy then that he treated him as a criminal.
The Colonel says he doesn’t support that single act from Alison’s mother. Alison then responds that she believes their mother was only trying to protect her and the Colonel.
The Colonel also says that he and Alison are to blame for everything that happened and explains that Alison is just like him and doesn’t take things seriously, so far it is comfortable and more peaceful.
He reminds her how he threatened her but eventually married Jimmy.
Alison tells her father about the un-complimentary statements Jimmy uttered about her parents. He called her mother an “overprivileged old bitch” and her father, “a plant left over from the Edwardian Wilderness that can’t understand why the sun isn’t shining anymore.”
The Colonel then agrees with Jimmy’s assertion and narrates to Alison how he left England in 1914 to command the Maharajah’s army in India and didn’t return until 1947.
He then discovered that England had changed from how he left it. Alison then compares Jimmy and his father that the Colonel is hurt because everything has changed and Jimmy is hurt because everything is the same while neither of them can face it.
Alison continues packing her things; she picks the squirrel from the dresser and wants to put it in her suitcase, but drops it back. Some thoughts come to her mind and she goes to her father and weeps.
The Colonel tells her that she is making the right decision to go home with him. As they are about to leave, Helen enters and the Colonel asks whether she will follow them, she answers that she has a job interview in Birmingham the next day and that she can’t go with them.
She says she is staying one more night. Cliff later comes in and Alison introduces him to her father. The Colonel takes her daughter’s bag and goes out.
Cliff asks Alison if she will wait and tell Jimmy about her departure. She instead gives Cliff a letter for Jimmy and leaves.
Cliff and Helena are in the house; Helena tells Cliff that the house is going to be somehow “cock-eyed” now. Helena tries to confirm from Cliff if Jimmy will look up to Madeline, one of his old girlfriends but he doesn’t think so.
Cliff decides to meet Jimmy at the train station and says he might have a drink or pick up a prostitute and bring her back to the apartment. He throws the letter Alison gave him to give Jimmy to Helena and tells her to deliver it to Jimmy.
Helena picks the bear from the dresser and clutches it to herself on the bed. At this instance, Jimmy bursts in furious, shouting that the Colonel almost ran over him with his vehicle and Cliff walked away from him on the street without speaking.
She then throws Alison’s letter at him. Alison writes in the letter that she needs peace and time and also expresses her love for him. Jimmy is annoyed and asks Helena why she is still in the apartment.
The latter informs him about Alison’s pregnancy; he is surprised but says he doesn’t care. He then dares Helena to slap him if she feels offended. He recounts his experience with Hugh’s mother, and how he watched her dying.
He complains that when he goes to the funeral, he will be there alone as Alison will not be there. So, he also doesn’t care if she is going to have a baby. Jimmy tells Helena to leave and she slaps him.
He is surprised and then feels the pain. Jimmy holds his head and Helena takes his hands away and kisses him passionately.
Act Three Scene One
This scene takes place several months later on a Sunday evening; Helena’s personal belongings have replaced Alison’s own on the dressing table. Jimmy and Cliff sit on their armchairs reading the Sunday newspaper, and Helena is ironing clothes.
Jimmy is smoking a pipe and Cliff complains about it which Helena says she likes; Jimmy is pleased with Helena’s response.
Jimmy tells them about the ” Grotesque and evil practices going on in the Midlands he reads in the paper. The cult is drinking the blood of a white cockerel and making midnight invocations to the Coptic Goddess of fertility.
Jimmy then wonders if that is what Mrs. Drury does in her on Sunday evenings and jokingly suggests that Alison’s mother is performing some rituals on him.
Helena tells Jimmy to perform the rituals on her and Jimmy suggests that Cliff can be used for the rituals. He then explains that there is no big deal in rituals that they only sacrifice the things they don’t want.
It may be their careers, beliefs, or sex. He says those performing the rituals should not be admired but feel sorry for them.
Jimmy then turns to Cliff that they can make a loving cup from Cliff’s blood but condemns it that his blood is common, and says they can use Helena’s blood which is a pale Cambridge blue.
Jimmy relates a story about an American professor from Yale who believes that Shakespeare changed his sex while writing The Tempest. Those other actors asked him to go back to Stratford because they couldn’t take him seriously any longer.
This amuses Helena and she laughs, Jimmy asks her if anything is wrong, and she replies that she is just getting used to Jimmy as she wouldn’t know when he is serious.
Jimmy thinks of what to engage themselves in tonight. He asks Helena if she is going to the church, and she tells him she is not, only if Jimmy wants to go.
There is a sudden coldness in Jimmy’s eyes and he asks Helena whether she feels sinful for staying with him.
He asks Helena again if he saw her talking to the Reverend the other day, she answers in the affirmative and he tells her that she doesn’t have to be on the defensive, Helena replies that she is not.
Jimmy rises and says he thought of the title of a new song and it is called, “My mother in the madhouse – that’s why I am in love with you.” He suggests they drop the name he previously thought of before “Jock and Day” for T. S Eliot and Pam.
He earlier discussed the name with Helena for his act. Jimmy and Cliff start a comedy about “nobody.” Cliff is looking for nobody and Cliff keeps telling him that he hasn’t seen “nobody”.
Helena joins and says she is nobody when Jimmy asks her who she is. Jimmy then throws a cushion at her to represent a case and it hits the ironing board. Jimmy and Cliff then do a “Flanagan and Allen”, moving slowly and singing.
Jimmy and Cliff engage themselves again, pushing each other. They wrestle and Cliff pushes Jimmy off and complains that his only clean shirt is dirty. Helena offers to wash it for him and takes it out.
When she goes out to wash the shirt, Jimmy likens Cliff to Marlon Brando and says Cliff doesn’t like Helena. Cliff replies that Jimmy also didn’t like her before. Jimmy then responds that what he is saying is not the same as what Cliff means.
Cliff intimates Jimmy of his plan to leave, that he wants to try something better than the sweet stall elsewhere.
And that he feels like a burden on Helena that she will be able to take care of the two of them when he leaves without any stress. Says he needs to look for some girls to take care of him. Jimmy then says he wonders if any girl will be stupid to be Cliff’s girl.
He then suggests that maybe Helena can find him one of her “posh girl friends with lots of money, and no brains.” Jimmy tells Cliff that he is a good friend and he is looking up to him to leave and settle down somewhere.
He says further that he is looking for something from Helena that he knows she can’t give and that he is worth half a dozen Helena to him or anyone. He adds that if Cliff is in his place, he will do the same thing.
Jimmy wonders why men of his generation die of women. He asks why they allow the women to bleed them to death. Helena comes in and gives Cliff his shirt.
He crosses to his room to dry it over the fire in his room. Jimmy hurries Cliff that they are going out to drink and tells him to make some tea for him first. Jimmy tells Helena to cheer up as her face looks gloomy.
Jimmy is surprised that Cliff has told Helena about his leaving the apartment; he comments that he is always the last person when it comes to hearing about any information.
He tells her that Cliff is a good friend and that it is difficult for him to take it as he is leaving as they understand each other.
Helena sits on the arm of Jimmy’s chair, running her hand through his hair. Jimmy tells her that from the first night, she has always put out her hand for him first. But he doesn’t make any response as he doesn’t care what she wants. Helena then tells him that she loves him.
They embrace and kiss. Jimmy says if they are together, he will close the Sweet Stall and start from scratch where they go.
Helena goes to change from Jimmy’s old shirt she puts on and Jimmy goes and hurries up Cliff so that they go out.
Before Jimmy reaches the door, Alison enters wearing a raincoat and looks at I’ll. Jimmy then tells Helena that her friend has come to see her and goes out.
Act Three Scene Two
A few minutes later, Jimmy is in Cliff’s room playing his jazz trumpet, Helena is standing pouring a cup of tea for Alison, while Alison sits on the armchair. She picks up Jimmy’s pipe and talks about how she hates it but later gets used to it.
Helena asks her if she is alright, and she replies that she feels mad coming there. She says she has severally stopped herself from coming down.
She continues that when she goes to buy the ticket at the booking office in St. Pancras, she doesn’t believe she will make the trip to Jimmy’s place.
Even on the train, she feels like turning back at the other end. But she is here; there is nothing she can do again. She says she has to convince herself that everything she remembers about Jimmy’s place really happened to her.
She adds that she hardly remembers her experiences in that place in the last few months. She continues sipping her tea and comments that Helena makes a good cup of tea. She says it is they who are supposed to find her wherever she is.
Helena responds that Alison has more right to be in the house because she is Jimmy’s wife. Alison then tells her not to bring out any rules as she didn’t even believe in them before she married Jimmy and that such rules are no more in operation.
She says any woman can be thrown out at any time. Helena then asks her whether that is her experience with Jimmy, she replies that she is not there to blackmail anybody and expresses her regrets again for coming there and says that she has not come to stop the relationship between her and Jimmy.
Helena says she believes all Alison says and comments that Alison doesn’t even feel annoyed towards her and that she talks as if Jimmy is a book that she passes around for people who want it for five minutes.
She then says she knows what she has done is wrong because she knows what is written from what is wrong. She says what Alison says about Jimmy is horrified and cannot believe that Alison married someone like him, that it is all over between him and Jimmy.
When she sees Alison tonight, she knows that what she has done is wrong. She says they are strange bedfellows and lying on the same bed cannot solve the problem as they believe in different worlds.
Alison tells her not to leave, but she says she is going, that it is not that she is stepping aside for her to come in and she is free to decide for herself. Alison responds that Jimmy will lose the two of them and will have no one.
Helena replies that he will always find somebody that she even tried to do away with him but doesn’t work. She says when she sees Alison coming in; she knows that it is over for her.
She says Alison’s pregnancy is just like a judgement over them. Alison then tells her that there is no judgement because she lost the child.
Alison urges Helena not to leave Jimmy because he needs her and says maybe neither of them is right for him. Helena complains about Jimmy’s trumpet and calls on him to stop it. She says she wants to see him. Jimmy then asks if her friend “Alison” is still with her.
Alison rises to leave because he doesn’t want to see her. Helena tells her to stay and that she wants to tell him that she is leaving.
Jimmy comes in and Helena asks him what he would like to take and tells him that is sick. Alison just shakes her head and sits. Jimmy responds that without being told he knows what happened that she lost the baby.
Helena then asks whether he feels it. He replies that he doesn’t like people being ill. He doesn’t feel much concern, he only says it is his child too and that is not her first loss.
Jimmy tries to shout at Alison but Helena stops him and says that she doesn’t want a fight and she is leaving. She says that what they are doing is wrong, though she loves him.
She turns to Alison and tells her that she will not be able to go back tonight and that they can fix her up in a hotel before she leaves.
It is Jimmy’s speech that stops Helena from going towards the door. He says they are both trying to escape the pain of being alive and from love. That one cannot love without involving in dirty things.
And if someone tries to avoid tarnishing his image, it’s better to give up life and become a saint. Helena looks at him and quickly goes out. The church bell rings and Alison tells him she is leaving.
He stops her and accuses her that she didn’t send any flowers to the funeral. He says it is an injustice. He continues that the wrong people are going hungry and being loved, and the wrong people dying.
He then reminisces on how they met at a party and what impresses him about her, and he later finds out that he was wrong.
Alison starts crying silently and says that she now wants to be the type of woman Jimmy wants her to be; she doesn’t want to be a saint but to be corrupt.
She tells him that she wishes Jimmy had seen her when she lost the child, that she was in pain and it is only Jimmy and the lost child she could think of.
She tells him that she wants to die and that she is already crawling in the mud. She is ready to share the pains with Jimmy as she now understands what Jimmy meant about life. He kneels with her and comforts her.
He then tells her that they will be together like a bear and a squirrel and be together in love, singing and embracing each other. Jimmy calls her “poor squirrel!” And Alison also calls him “poor bear!” She slides her arms around him.