quarters from three houses by dave malloy

SADIE
in my grandparents’ town
every summer there came a carnival
for the festival of fish.
my sister and i would eat fried cod and french fries with vinegar.
throwing ping pong balls in goldfish bowls,
and flying through the sky on jankity rides—

WOLF
step right up to the house of mirrors!
ride the death-defying matterhorn!

SADIE
and of course, hitting the arcade.

this one time,
when i was 11,
my grandma gave me

SADIE, SUSAN, BECKETT & WOLF
a roll of quarters.

SADIE
she was a little bit crazy ‘bout coins;
grandpa had his woodshed and grandma had her coins!

SADIE, SUSAN & BECKETT
she’d sit at the dining room table with huge plastic cheese puff tubs,

SADIE
spilling out with coins.

SADIE, SUSAN & BECKETT
collecting state quarters,
and checking the years on her pennies.

GRANDFATHER
and don’t go wasting it all on video games sadie!

SADIE
i won’t grandpa!

and i meant it; i wanted to save it for something special.
so when we went to the arcade,
i said, one game of ms. pac-man, and that’s it.

but this time they had a row of those machines
where you put in a quarter
and it rolls down a little slide
and lands in front of a little pushing machine
that pushes everything to the edge.

WOLF
come try your hand at the coin pusher!
fortune and delight await!

SADIE, SUSAN, BECKETT & WOLF
quarters, prizes, treats, dollars.

SADIE
so many quarters!
and they’re all right there
on a razor’s edge,
just about to,
just about to fall.

and if something falls
you win it.

quarter in
roll
clink
push push push push push push
nothing falls
nothing falls

quarter in
roll
clink
push push push push push push
nothing falls
nothing falls

i could see that if i kept pouring quarters in,
i could win.

quarter in
roll
clink
push push push push push push
2 quarters fall!

okay
3 in
2 out
1 down

stick around
one might fall
one might fall

SADIE & SUSAN
quarter in
roll
clink
push push push push push push
nothing falls
nothing falls

quarter in
roll
clink
push push push push push push
2 quarters fall!

SADIE
okay
5 in
3 out
2 down

stick around
one might fall

SADIE, SUSAN & BECKETT
quarter in
roll
clink
push push push push push push
nothing falls

quarter in
roll
clink
push push push push push push
1 quarter falls!

quarter in
roll
clink
push push push push push push
nothing falls

quarter in
roll
clink
push push push push push push
3 quarters fall!

quarter in
roll
clink
push push push push push push
nothing falls

quarter in
roll
clink
push push push push push push
3 quarters fall!

quarter in
roll
clink
push push push push push push
2 quarters fall!

quarter in
roll
clink
push push push push push push
nothing falls

quarter in
roll
clink
push push push push push push
nothing falls

quarter in
roll
clink
push push push push push push
push push

SADIE
until all 40 quarters
were gone.
just…gone.

i held the empty orange wrapper in my hands
torn in a spiral.

what happened?
where did i go?

• Experimental
• theatre
• New York