Frankie and Johnny

Frankie and Johnny

A PLAY

Cast

JOHNNY

FRANKIE

SHERIFF

NELLY BLY

LILA

THE MADAM, Johnny’s Mother

BARTENDER

PIANO PLAYER

PRIZEFIGHTER

The girls in red, and the ten macks

Prologue

The curtains part to the sustained beats of a funeral march. The scene is at the scaffold, where Frankie stands with a noose around her throat. Below her are the Sheriff, the Madam, the Bartender, and a throng of harlots and loose gentle-men. They stand in various postures of grief, with averted faces and downcast eyes.

SHERIFF

HAS the condemned anythin’ to say afore we take in the slack?

FRANKIE

I know I’m bound for a better land.

SHERIFF

Aye, that ye are, Frankie,—an’ we all wish ye God speed.

FRANKIE

An’ I ain’t afeard, not even if damnation is my lot.

I know I done wrong. Ye can hoist when ye’ve a mind to.

SHERIFF

An’ ye won’t hold it agin us, Frankie? Not me, nowise,—it ain’t my doin’.

FRANKIE

I’ll breathe out a blessin’ on ye, Sheriff, with my last livin’ breath.

SHERIFF

Have ye no partin’ wish,—no last request? What should we do with the remains?

FRANKIE

Put ’em aside his.

SHERIFF

Johnny’s?

FRANKIE

Aye, Johnny’s.

SHERIFF

There’s where ye’ll rest, I swear it, Frankie.

FRANKIE

God bless ye, Sheriff. There, six foot down aside him, I may find peace.

SHERIFF

An’ he can’t be askin’ nothin’ of ye.

FRANKIE

But if he did, Sheriff, he could have what he wanted.

SHERIFF

Aye, I know. Ye’d give him all he’d take…..But have ye no bequest, no testament to make?

FRANKIE

If it’s worldly goods ye mean, I have naught. I gave him all I had.

SHERIFF

Johnny?

FRANKIE

Aye, Johnny. But I have a testament, leastwise a testamonial. An’ I do bequeathe it to them as might need it.

SHERIFF

An’ what might it be, Frankie? Ye’d best hasten as the time is gettin’ shorter.

FRANKIE

I will the memory a me to them as it’ll stand in hand.

SHERIFF

An’ who are they?

FRANKIE

Whoever shall be born to love. Let them hear my tale,—how I loved an’ done wrong.

CROWD

Aye, Frankie, that we will. Ye can bank on it, Frankie, we’ll tell your story.

FRANKIE

Tell oney what happened,—what you yourselves saw. Keep it straight. Mind ye don’t add nothing.’

SHERIFF

It can stand as it is. It don’t need no trimmin’.

FRANKIE

I bequeathes my story to them as may need it, to maidens an’ youths who will love an’ know heartache. Let them hear my tale how I loved an’ done wrong. So— When the Sheriff cuts the slender cord, An’ my soul goes up to meet the Lord, Say not I died in vain.

The dismal cadence of the funeral march is distorted into the Frankie and Johnny tune. The volume of the music increases as the lights dim out.

Scene One

A barroom. Lila, a drunken chippy, and the Prizefighter are dancing. Johnny, the Madam, Nelly Bly, and the Piano Player look on. The Bartender is stacking glasses.

LILA

DANCE me easy, Prizefighter. Don’t wrassle me so, or I may slop over on ye.

MADAM

Now, Lila, do like the gent wants. Be merry, dearie.

to Prizefighter

Her tongue’s a mite sharp, but she don’t mean ye no harm.