Norman Mailer
SCENES FROM THE DEER PARK
The Deer Park is an experimental commercial play, written
with the emotional shorthand of the Broadway theater in mind. I call
it experimental because my desire was to see how far one could engage
and then exacerbate the conventional emotions of an average audience.
The portion extracted here includes those scenes which would be most
unbearable for such an audience, and so gives a false impression of the
play which has twelve scenes and could not be staged in less than three
and a half hours. The piece in its entirety, done properly, would have,
I hope, the promiscuous stimulations of a good cocktail party; it was
put together as a sort of revue: comedy, drama, melodrama, satire, even
conversation
revolving through the scenes like the turns of the evening.
SCENE SEVEN
EITEL'S
living-room, after
DOROTHEA'S
party. It
is
almost d{])Wn.
EITEL
and
ELENA
enter silently. She is in a state of private ani–
mation, not exactly drunk but very high. She takes out a thin
cigarette which could conceivably be a stick of marijuana, lights
it, inhales deeply with a hissing sound, muttering
"It's been a
long long time."
Then she begins to whistle the operatic air
BEDA
was humming at the end of the previous scene.
EITEL
ig–
nores her.
ELENA
comes up behind him and laughs-he still
ignores her. She starts to take another puff from the marijuana,
and instead presents it to
EITEL
who puts it out carefully in an
ash-tray.
ELENA,
weaving just imperceptibly, then tries to kiss
him. He pushes her away.
ELENA:
Love, Charley-I love you.
EITEL:
Don't touch me.
ELENA:
I was just getting something out of me.
EITEL:
Which will still be there tomorrow.
ELENA:
Charley ... I love you. I'm the only one who does.
EITEL:
Love me?
ELENA:
Yes, I love you. But I don't love you completely. You're too
