Brothers

by Lewis Beach

Genre: Drama
Setting: America
Format of Original Source: Play
Recommended Adaptation Length:

Candidate for Adaptation? Not Reviewed

EXCERPT:

“I, Nathaniel Polland, o’ Sandy Point in the County o’ Rhodes an’ State o’ Michigan, bein’ o’ sound mind an’ memory, do make, publish, an’ declare this t’ be my last Will an’ Testament in manner followin’, viz–.” What does “viz” mean?

[Unable to bear the suspense longer, Seth seizes the paper. He scans it until his eyes catch the all-important paragraph.]

SETH. “–Bequeath all my earthly possessions to my wife, Jennie Polland.”

[Their thunderbolt has descended. They stand like two men suddenly deprived of thought and motion. Medusa’s victims could not have been more pitiable. They have been hurled from their El Dorado, which, at the worst, was to have been their common property.

Then Seth’s voice comes to him, and sufficient strength to drop into a chair.]

SETH. The damned old critter.

LON. I’ll be swaned.

SETH [blazing out]. That’s gratitude.

LON. After all we done fur him.

SETH [pathetically]. An’ me a plannin’ these last five years on gettin’ that house an’ ground.

LON. My kids are packin’ our furniture this afternoon, gettin’ ready t’ move in.

SETH [with supreme disgust]. Leavin’ it t’ Ma.

LON. Her who he ain’t hardly spoke t’ in twenty years.

SETH. Jest as though yuh an’ me wasn’t alive.

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