WIXLIB

FENCESScreenplay byAugust WilsonBased upon his play

24249BLACK SCREENTITLE: AUGUST WILSON’S FENCESThe screen remains black. The sound ofa truck rumbling along a street. Twomen are heard talking:bonotroy(v.o.): Troy, you ought to stop that lying!(v.o.): I ain’t lying! The nigger had a watermelon this big. Talking about . . .  “What watermelon, Mr. Rand?” I like to fell out! “Whatwatermelon, Mr. Rand?” . . .  And it sitting therebig as life.bono(v.o.): What did Mr. Rand say?troy(v.o.): Ain’t said nothing. Figure if the niggertoo dumb to know he carrying a watermelon, hewasn’t gonna get much sense out of him. Trying tohide that great big old watermelon under hiscoat. Afraid to let the white man see him carryit home.9780735217867 Fences.indd 111/15/16 1:50 PM

24249augustwilsonEXT. WYLIE AVENUE, THE HILL, PITTSBURGH— EARLY SEPTEMBER— MORNINGThe rear of the garbage truck, god’spoint of view: Troy Maxson and JimBono hang on to either side of thetruck as it heads toward its nextcollection point.Troy is fifty- three years old, a largeman with thick, heavy hands; it isthis largeness that he strives to fillout and make an accommodation with.Together with his blackness, hislargeness informs his sensibilitiesand the choices he has made in hislife.Of the two men, Bono is obviously thefollower. His commitment to theirfriendship of thirty odd years isrooted in his admiration of Troy’shonesty, capacity for hard work, andhis strength, which Bono seeks toemulate.bono:I’m like you . . .  I ain’t got no time for themkind of people.troy:Now what he look like getting mad ’cause he seethe man from the union talking to Mr. Rand?bono:He come talking to me about . . .  “Troy Maxsongonna get us fired.” I told him to get away from29780735217867 Fences.indd 211/15/16 1:50 PM

24249fencesme with that. He walked away from me calling youa troublemaker. (anxious) What Mr. Rand say?troy:Ain’t said nothing. He told me to go down to thecommissioner’s office next Friday. They called medown there to see them.The truck halts. Troy gets down andheads for heavy garbage cans at thecurb; Bono uses Troy’s shoulder toease himself down.bono:Well, as long as you got your complaint filed,they can’t fire you. That’s what one of them whitefellows tell me.troy:I ain’t worried about them firing me. They gonnafire me ’cause I asked a question? That’s all Idid. I went to Mr. Rand and asked him— “Why? Whyyou got the white mens driving and the coloredlifting?” Told him, “What’s the matter, don’t Icount?”TITLE: THE HILL, PITTSBURGHTITLE: 1957troy:You think only white fellows got sense enoughto drive a truck? That ain’t no paper job. Hell,anybody can drive a truck. How come you got allthe whites driving and the coloreds lifting?The truck’s white driver watches thecollectors in his side mirror.39780735217867 Fences.indd 311/15/16 1:50 PM

24249augusttroy:wilsonHe told me, “Take it to the union.” Well, hell,that’s what I done! Now they wanna come up withthis pack of lies.bono:I told Brownie if the man come and ask him anyquestions . . .  just tell the truth! It ain’tnothing but something they done trumped up on you’cause you filed a complaint on them.Bono returns the last empty can. Troyclimbs up on the truck.troy:Brownie don’t understand nothing. All I wantthem to do is change the job description. Giveeverybody a chance to drive the truck. Browniecan’t see that. He ain’t got that much sense.Bono in place, Troy slaps the truck.As it starts moving, Troy pulls alever and the compactor crushes thetrash.EXT. SANITATION YARD— AFTERNOONMen stream out of the yard, Troy andBono among them.How you figure he be making out with that gal beup at Taylors’ all the time . . .  that Albertagal?troy:Who?bono:Brownie!49780735217867 Fences.indd 411/15/16 1:50 PM

24249fencestroy:Same as you and me. He getting as much as we is.Which is to say nothing.bono:It is, huh? I figure you doing a little betterthan me . . .  and I ain’t saying what I’m doing.troy:Aw, nigger, look here . . .  I know you. If youhad got anywhere near that gal, twenty minuteslater you be looking to tell somebody. And thefirst one you gonna tell . . .  that you gonna wantto brag to . . .  is gonna be me.bono:I ain’t saying that. I see where you be eyeingher.troy:I eye all the women. I don’t miss nothing. Don’tnever let nobody tell you Troy Maxson don’t eyethe women.bono:You been doing more than eyeing her. You donebought her a drink or two.troy:Hell yeah, I bought her a drink! What that mean?I bought you one, too. What that mean ’cause I buyher a drink? I’m just being polite.bono:It’s all right to buy her one drink. That’s whatyou call being polite. But when you wanna be buying two or three . . .  that’s what you call eyeing her.troy:Look here, as long as you known me . . .  youever known me to chase after women?bono:Hell yeah! Long as I done known you. You for-getting I knew you when.59780735217867 Fences.indd 511/15/16 1:50 PM

24249augusttroy:wilsonNaw, I’m talking about since I been married toRose?bono:Oh, not since you been married to Rose. Now,that’s the truth, there. I can say that.troy:All right then! Case closed.EXT. THE HILL DISTRICT— TROY AND ROSE’SSTREET— AFTERNOONTroy and Bono make their way down thestreet to a narrow house. A pair oflawn chairs sit on the small frontporch. They take the short cut throughthe side alley into the back yard. Itis Friday, payday, and the one nightof the week the two men engage in aritual of talk and drink.bono:I see you be walking up around Alberta’s house.You supposed to be at Taylors’ and you be walkingup around there.troy:What you watching where I’m walking for? I ain’twatching after you.bono:I seen you walking around there more than once.troy:Hell, you liable to see me walking anywhere!That don’t mean nothing because you seen me walking around there.bono:Where she come from anyway? She just kindashowed up one day.69780735217867 Fences.indd 611/15/16 1:50 PM

24249fencestroy:Tallahassee. You can look at her and tell she oneof them Florida gals. They got some big healthywomen down there. Grow them right up out the ground.Got a little bit of Indian in her. Most of themniggers down in Florida got some Indian in them.bono:I don’t know about that Indian part. But shedamn sure big and healthy. Woman wears some bigstockings. Got them great big old legs and hipsas wide as the Mississippi river.troy:Legs don’t mean nothing. You don’t do nothingbut push them out of the way. But them hips cushion the ride!bono:Troy, you ain’t got no sense.troy:It’s the truth! Like you riding on Goodyears!Troy cracks the seal of the bottle ofgin, pours some out on the ground . . .  for the folks that are long gone.EXT. TROY’S AND ROSE’S BACKYARD— AFTERNOONIn the center of the yard, a largetree, two chairs beneath it. Abattered baseball hangs from a ropetied to a tree limb; a big weatheredbat leans against the trunk.The yard is bordered on either side byfences and houses. At the rear,79780735217867 Fences.indd 711/15/16 1:50 PM

24249augustwilsonthere’s a derelict wooden house withboarded windows. The remnants of afence are strewn between the wild lotbehind the abandoned house and theMaxsons’ yard.Materials for a new fence . . .  acouple of wooden sawhorses waiting forthe lumber stacked under a tarp. Oneor two chairs of dubious value sit atone end where the kitchen window opensonto the porch. An old- fashioned icebox stands silent guard at the otherend.Rose maxson comes out onto the porch,holding a bowl of snap peas. She isten years younger than troy. Herdevotion to him stems from therecognition of the possibilities ofher life without him: a succession ofabusive men and their babies, a lifeof partying and running the streets,the church, or aloneness with itsattendant pain and frustration. Sherecognizes troy’s spirit as a fine andilluminating one and she eitherignores or forgives his faults, onlysome of which she recognizes. Thoughshe doesn’t drink, her presence is anintegral part of the friday nightrituals.89780735217867 Fences.indd 811/15/16 1:50 PM

24249fencesrose:What you all out here getting into?troy:What you worried about what we getting into for?This is men talk, woman.rose:What I care what you talking about? Bono, yougonna stay for supper?bono:No, I thank you, Rose. But Lucille say she cook-ing up a pot of pigfeet.troy:Pigfeet! Hell, I’m going home with you! Mighteven stay the night if you got some pigfeet. Yougot something in there to top them pigfeet, Rose?rose:I’m cooking up some chicken. I got some chickenand collard greens.troy:Well, go on back in the house and let me andBono finish what we was talking about. This is mentalk. I got some talk for you later. You know whatkind of talk I mean. Go on and powder it up.rose:troyTroy Maxson, don’t you start that now!(putshis arm around her):Aw, woman . . .  come here.Look here, Bono . . .  When I met this woman . . .  I got out that place, say, “Hitch up my pony,saddle up my mare . . .  there’s a woman out therefor me somewhere. I looked here. Looked there.Saw Rose and latched on to her.” I latched on toher and told her— I’m gonna tell you the truth— Itold her, “Baby, I don’t wanna marry, I justwanna be your man.” Rose told me . . .  tell himwhat you told me, Rose.99780735217867 Fences.indd 911/15/16 1:50 PM

24249augustrose:wilsonI told him if he wasn’t the marrying kind, thenmove out the way so the marrying kind could find me.troy:That’s what she told me. “Nigger, you in my way.You blocking the view! Move out the way so I canfind me a husband.” I thought it over two or threedays. Come back— rose:Ain’t no two or three days nothing. You was backthe same night.troy:Come back, told her . . .  “Okay, baby . . .  butI’m gonna buy me a banty rooster and put him outthere in the backyard . . .  and when he see astranger come, he’ll flap his wings and crow . . .”Look here, Bono, I could watch the front door bymyself . . .  it was that back door I was worriedabout.rose:Troy, you ought not talk like that. Troy ain’tdoing nothing but telling a lie.troy:Onlythingis . . .  whenwefirstgotmar-ried . . .  forget the rooster . . .  we ain’t hadno yard!bono:I hear you tell it. Me and Lucille was stayingdown there on Logan Street. Had two rooms with theouthouse in the back. I ain’t mind the outhousenone. But when that goddamn wind blow throughthere in the winter . . .  that’s what I’m talkingabout! To this day I wonder why in the hell I everstayed down there for six long years. But see, Ididn’t know I could do no better. I thought onlywhite folks had inside toilets and things.109780735217867 Fences.indd 1011/15/16 1:50 PM