FBISE, HSSC 1, English Book - III
The Whole Play Visit to a Small Planet
The Whole Play Visit to a Small Planet
by
Gore Vidal
Characters
Kreton
Roger Spelding
Ellen Spelding
Mrs. Spelding
John Spelding
General Powers
Aide
Scene
Stock Shot: The night sky, stars. Then slowly a luminous object arcs into view. As it is almost upon us, dissolves to the living room of the Spelding house in Maryland.
Superimpose Card: "THE TIME: THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW"
The room is comfortably balanced between the expensively decorated and the homely. ROGER SPELDING is concluding his TV broadcast. He is middle-aged unctuous, resonant. His wife, bored and vague, knits passively while he talks at his desk. Two technicians are on hand, operating the equipment. His daughter, ELLEN, a lively girl of twenty, fidgets as she listens.
Spelding (Into microphone) ... and so, according to General Powers ... who should know if anyone does ... the flying which has given rise to so much irresponsible conjecture is nothing more than a meteor passing through the earth's orbit. It is not, as many believe, a secret weapon of this country. Nor is it a spaceship as certain lunatic elements have suggested. General Powers has assured me that it is highly doubtful there is any form of life in another planets capable of building a spaceship. "If any travelling is to be done in space, we will do it first." And those are his exact words..... Which winds up another week of news. (Crosses to pose with wife and daughter). This is Roger Spelding, saying good night to Mother and Father America, from my old homestead in Silver Glen, Maryland, close to the warm pulsebeat of the nation.
Technician: Good show tonight, Mr. Spelding.
Spelding: Thank you.
Technician: Yes sir, you were right on time
Spelding nods wearily, his mechanical smile and heartiness suddenly gone.
Mrs. Spelding: Very nice dear. Very nice
Technician: See you next week, Mr. Spelding.
Spelding: Thank you, boys.
Technicians go.
Spelding: Did you like the broadcast, Ellen?
Ellen: Of course L did, Daddy.
Spelding: The What did I say?
Ellen: Oh, that's not fair.
Spelding: It's not a very flattering when one's own daughter won't listen to what one says millions of people.
Ellen: I always listen, Daddy, you know that.
Mrs. Spelding: We love your broadcasts, dear. I don't know what we'd do without them.
Spelding: Starve
Ellen: I wonder what's keeping John.
Spelding: Certainly not work.
Ellen: Oh, Daddy, stop it! John works very hard and you know it.
Mrs. Spelding: Yes, he is a perfectly nice boy, Roger. I like him.
Spelding: I know, I know. He has every virtue except the most important one: he has no get-up-and-go.
Ellen: (Precisely) He doesn't want to get up and doesn't want to go because he's already where he wants to be on his own farm which is exactly where I'm going to be when we'r married.
Spelding: More thankless than a serpent's tooth is an ungrateful child.
Ellen: donI't think that's right. Isn't it "more deadly"...
Spelding: Whatever the exact quotation is, I stand by the sentiment.
Mrs. Spelding: Please, don't quarrel. I always gives me a headache.
Spelding: I never quarrel. L merely reason, in my simple way, with Miss Know-all-it here.
Ellen: Oh, Daddy! Next you'll tell me I should marry for money.
Spelding: There is nothing wrong with marrying a wealthy man. The horror of it has always eluded me. However, my only wish is that you marry someone hardworking, ambitious, a man who'll make his mark in the world. Not a boy who plans to sit on a farm all his life, growing peanuts.
Ellen: English walnuts.
Spelding: Will you stop correcting me?
Ellen: But, Daddy, John grows walnuts......
John enters, breathlessly.
John: Come out! Quick! It's coming this way. It's going to land right here.
Spelding: What's going to land?
John: The spaceship. Look!
Spelding: Apparently you didn't hear my broadcast. The flying object in question is a meteor not a spaceship.
John has gone with Ellen. Spelding and Mrs. Spelding follow.
Mrs. Spelding: Oh, my! Look! Something is falling! Roger, you don't think it's going to hit the house, do you?
Spelding: The odds against being hit by a falling object that size are, I should say, roughly ten million to one.
Mrs. Spelding: Ten million to one or not it is going to land right here, and it's not falling.
Spelding: I'm sure it's a meteor.
Mrs. Spelding: Shouldn't we go to the cellar?
Spelding: i
Spelding: I know, I know. He has every virtue except the most important one: he has no get-up-and-go.
Ellen: (Precisely) He doesn't want to get up and doesn't want to go because he's already where he wants to be on his own farm which is exactly where I'm going to be when we'r married.
Spelding: More thankless than a serpent's tooth is an ungrateful child.
Ellen: donI't think that's right. Isn't it "more deadly"...
Spelding: Whatever the exact quotation is, I stand by the sentiment.
Mrs. Spelding: Please, don't quarrel. I always gives me a headache.
Spelding: I never quarrel. L merely reason, in my simple way, with Miss Know-all-it here.
Ellen: Oh, Daddy! Next you'll tell me I should marry for money.
Spelding: There is nothing wrong with marrying a wealthy man. The horror of it has always eluded me. However, my only wish is that you marry someone hardworking, ambitious, a man who'll make his mark in the world. Not a boy who plans to sit on a farm all his life, growing peanuts.
Ellen: English walnuts.
Spelding: Will you stop correcting me?
Ellen: But, Daddy, John grows walnuts......
John enters, breathlessly.
John: Come out! Quick! It's coming this way. It's going to land right here.
Spelding: What's going to land?
John: The spaceship. Look!
Spelding: Apparently you didn't hear my broadcast. The flying object in question is a meteor not a spaceship.
John has gone with Ellen. Spelding and Mrs. Spelding follow.
Mrs. Spelding: Oh, my! Look! Something is falling! Roger, you don't think it's going to hit the house, do you?
Spelding: The odds against being hit by a falling object that size are, I should say, roughly ten million to one.
Mrs. Spelding: Ten million to one or not it is going to land right here, and it's not falling.
Spelding: I'm sure it's a meteor.
Mrs. Spelding: Shouldn't we go to the cellar?
Spelding: i
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