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Selected Scene from THE TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS
Terrell Gerard, mid to late 40’s, is a good looking African-American man, casually but beautifully dressed – jeans, white button down shirt, blazer, expensive loafers. He carries a bottle of wine. Dakin is mid-sixties. He stares at Gerard in surprise.
TERRELL GERARD
Hello, neighbor.
(Gesturing behind him)
The door was open.
(a beat)
Gerard?
DAKIN
What?
TERRELL GERARD
Terrell Gerard. I bought the place down there. Dr. Brewer didn’t tell you?
DAKIN
No, I – I mean, I – I’m Dakin Adams. How do you?
TERRELL GERARD
I couldn’t be better. How do you do?
DAKIN
I’m… fine. Thank you.
TERRELL GERARD
May I come in?
DAKIN
What? Oh. Yes. Please. I was just — working, but — of course, please, come in.
Gerard enters further, looking around.
TERRELL GERARD
I like your house.
DAKIN
I hope you’re not planning on buying it.
TERRELL GERARD
Why, is it for sale?
DAKIN
No. I was… joking.
TERRELL GERARD
What I meant is I like what you’ve done with it. Beautiful gardens and this…
(the decor)
All this is wonderful.
DAKIN
Yes, well, my wife has a certain flare.
TERRELL GERARD
No, no, not flare. Flare suggests flash. This is understated elegance. Is your wife home?
DAKIN
No, she’s walking the dogs.
TERRELL GERARD
I love dogs. I have two. We’ll have to arrange a play date.
DAKIN
I’m afraid my dogs don’t play, they just collect fines.
TERRELL GERARD
I think my dogs could get’m on the straight and narrow. Oh – I brought you this. Dr. Brewer says you like wine. As long as the wine is under 12 dollars a bottle.
DAKIN
He said that?
TERRELL GERARD
Joking. Personally I find winophiles pretentious.
DAKIN
I find them less than forthcoming. What else did Dr. Brewer say about me.
TERRELL GERARD
Oh… just that you might be trouble.
DAKIN
Trouble. In what way?
Smiling, Terrell looks out at –
TERRELL GERARD
Hey, what a great view. You look right down into my bedroom.
DAKIN
(the wine)
You know, I really can’t accept this.
TERRELL GERARD
You don’t like Montrachet?
DAKIN
This is far too generous.
TERRELL GERARD
It was a gift from a business associate and now I’m passing it on to you. Put it in the fridge. We’ll drink it together sometime. With your wife.
DAKIN
Are you married, Mr. Gerard?
TERRELL GERARD
Please – Terrell.
DAKIN
Are you married… Terrell?
TERRELL GERARD
No, I’m not. Dakin.
DAKIN
Single then.
TERRELL GERARD
Now why would you assume that?
DAKIN
Well, you just said that –
TERRELL GERARD
I’m not married and I’m not single. I’m gay, Dakin.
DAKIN
Really? You don’t look it.
TERRELL GERARD
Is that a compliment or a stereotype?
DAKIN
I’m sorry, that was… parochial of me.
TERRELL GERARD
Thank you, yes, it was. What else would you like to know?
DAKIN
… obviously no children.
TERRELL GERARD
Parochial again. Two. A boy and girl.
DAKIN
Oh. Do they live with you?
TERRELL GERARD
They visit.
DAKIN
Well, I think you’ll find that this is a good neighborhood for children.
TERRELL GERARD
Tell me about it.
DAKIN
Tell you about what?
TERRELL GERARD
The neighborhood, Dakin, my son is twenty-six and my daughter is twenty-two but still, tell me about it. For example, from what Dr. Brewer – Carl – tells me, has implied, very few minorities live in this area.
DAKIN
That would be happenstance, nothing more.
GERARD
You’re sure?
DAKIN
I think you’ll find people here are more concerned with a person’s values than they are with his ethnicity or sexual orientation
TERRELL GERARD
So… if a black man has a degree from Harvard and is a member of a country club, they’re okay but if they’re some uneducated, hip-hop-homo street nigger, they’re not.
DAKIN
Excuse me, I don’t use that word in my house.
TERRELL GERARD
What word – hip, hop or homo?
DAKIN
I’m going to have to ask you to leave.
TERRELL GERARD
What about Jews, Dakin? I happen to be one quarter Jewish – I know, I don’t “look it” – and a lot of people are not crazy about Jews. They think we own everything. Personally I’m not crazy about people who own nothing but that’s beside the point. What do you think?
DAKIN
I think I’ve had enough of this conversation – and you.
TERRELL GERARD
Why? Because I’m prejudiced? Because I don’t like people who don’t share my values? I don’t. Mind if I sit?
DAKIN
Yes, I do.
Terrell sits, makes himself comfortable.
DAKIN
Do I have to call the police?
TERRELL GERARD
Go right ahead.
(a beat)
Oh, come on, I’m messing with you, Dakin. I’m messing with your head. See, what I like to do is ask impertinent questions. Make bald statements. How people react to these questions and statements tells me a lot about them.
DAKIN
Really. What have you learned about me.
TERRELL GERARD
Let’s see. Classic, middle class, white liberal. Well educated but entrenched. You don’t really know any black people, or gay people or Latino people. You’re nice to them, you respect the idea of them, but it’s good manners, all conjecture, never really been forged in the fire. You actually have no idea what their values are, but you’re nervous they’re not your own. You’re afraid because we are growing stronger. You believed in the American dream. Everything was always supposed to get better for people like you. So much for that.
DAKIN
All right, Terrell, as long as you’re here and can’t be persuaded to leave, let me tell you the real scoop on this neighborhood. In October, 1923, a map was filed that outlined a series of one acre hillside lots, not even a mile from here. The lots sold for two thousand dollars – about two hundred and twenty-five thousand in today’s currency.
TERRELL GERARD
What a steal.
DAKIN
Nice you should think so. However. The new owners had to comply with a number of restrictions. There would be only one house per lot, they had to face the street, had to remain unoccupied until completed and there could be no farm animals, non-Caucasians, non-Christians, and certainly no homosexuals on the property unless they were trades people, servants or employees. To everyone’s annoyance, cows and chickens refused to wash windows, design interiors or keep books. And finally, walls, fences and hedges couldn’t exceed five feet in height so that the views of other owners would not be impeded. Even then good fences made good neighbors. High fences do not.
TERRELL GERARD
Is this your way of asking if I’m rebuilding my fence, Dakin?
DAKIN
No, it’s my way of asking if you’re rebuilding the house –
TERRELL GERARD
– my house –
DAKIN
– yes, yours — up.
TERRELL GERARD
You know, I haven’t decided?
DAKIN
But it’s a possibility.
TERRELL GERARD
Anything’s a possibility.
DAKIN
So you are.
TERRELL GERARD
Am I?
DAKIN
Are you?
TERRELL GERARD
Am I what?
DAKIN
Are you going to tear down the house and build up, yes or no?
TERRELL GERARD
It’s my house and property and I’ll do anything I want with it. But I’ll tell you one thing I’m going to do. I’m going to get rid of that oleander.
Stephen Metcalfe 