The title (The Iceman Cometh)
refers to a running gag between Hickey and the dead-enders about coming home
after traveling his sales route to find his wife "rolling in the hay with
the iceman" (akin to the contemporary joke about the "milkman").
In reality, he has murdered her. Confessing his crime, he must confront the consequences,
including the prospect of execution. Therefore, the "iceman" seems a
metaphor for the dissolution of the characters' pipe dreams through death,
perhaps the only way they can relinquish them due to their dependence upon them
to sustain hope.
The central contention of the play is the human need for self-deceptions or
“pipe dreams" in order to carry on with life: to abandon them or to see
them for the lies that they are is to risk death. It is in this context that
the story concludes with Larry Slade calling himself “the only real convert to
death Hickey made here” as a response to witnessing Parritt’s suicidal leap
from the roof. Having stopped lying to himself and come to terms with his real
motivation behind informing on his mother and her west coast anarchist group,
Parritt can no longer live with himself and dies, while Slade continues lying
to himself and thereby lives.
The play contains many allusions to political topics, particularly
anarchism and socialism. Hugo, Larry, and Don are former members of an
anarchist movement. Two other characters are veterans of the Second Boer War. (One
is British, and one is Afrikaans.) They alternately defend and insult each
other, and there are many allusions to events in South Africa. Both wish to
return to their home countries, but their families do not want them there. Joe
is an African American character, and makes several speeches about racial
differences.
Synopsis
The Iceman Cometh is set in New York in 1912 in
Harry Hope's down-market Greenwich Village saloon and rooming house. The
patrons, twelve men and three female prostitutes, are dead-end alcoholics who
spend every possible moment seeking oblivion in each other's company and trying
to con or wheedle free drinks from Harry and the bartenders. They drift without
purpose from day to day, coming fully to life only during the semi-annual
visits of the salesman Theodore Hickman, known to them as Hickey. When Hickey
finishes a tour of his business territory, which is apparently a wide expanse
of the East Coast, he typically turns up at the saloon and starts the party. As
the play opens, the regulars are expecting Hickey to arrive in time for Harry's
birthday party. The first act introduces the various characters and shows their
bickering among themselves, showing just how drunk and delusional they are, all
the while awaiting Hickey.
Joe Mott insists that he will re-open his casino. The English Cecil
"The Captain" Lewis and South African Piet "The General"
Wetjoen, who fought each other during the Boer War, are now good friends, and
both insist that they'll return to their nations of origin. Harry Hope has
not left the bar since his wife Bess's death 20 years ago. He promises that
he'll walk around the block on his birthday, which is the next day. Pat McGloin
says he is hoping to be reinstated into the police force, but is waiting for
the right moment. Ed Mosher prides himself on his ability to give incorrect
change, but he kept too much of his illegitimate profits to himself and was
fired; he says he will get his job back someday. Hugo Kalmar is drunk and
passed out for most of the play; when he is conscious, he pesters the other
patrons to buy him a drink. Chuck Morello says that he will marry Cora tomorrow.
Larry Slade is a former anarchist who looks pityingly on the rest. Don Parritt
is also a former anarchist who shows up later in the play to talk about his
mother (Larry's ex-girlfriend) to Larry and specifically her arrest due to her
involvement in the anarchist movement.
Finally Hickey arrives, and his behavior throws the other characters into
turmoil. He insists, with as much charisma as ever, that he sees life clearly
now as never before because he no longer drinks. Hickey wants the characters to
cast away their delusions and accept that their heavy drinking and inaction
means that their hopes will never be fulfilled. He takes on this task with a
near-maniacal fervor. How he goes about his mission, how the other characters
respond, and their efforts to find out what has wrought this change in Hickey
take over four hours to resolve. During and after Harry's birthday party, most
seem to have been somewhat affected by Hickey's ramblings. Larry pretends to be
unaffected but, when Don reveals he was the informant responsible for the arrest
of his own mother (Larry's former girlfriend), Larry rages at him; Willie
decides McGloin's appeal will be his first case, and Rocky admits he is a pimp.
Most of the men Hickey talked with do go out into the world - dressed up,
hopeful of turning their lives around — but they fail to make any progress.
Eventually, they return and are jolted by a sudden revelation. Hickey, who had
earlier told the other characters first that his wife had died and then that
she was murdered, admits that he is the one who killed her. The police arrive,
apparently called by Hickey himself, to arrest Hickey and Hickey justifies the
murder in a dramatic monologue, saying that he did it out of love for her. He
relates that Hickey's father was a preacher in the backwoods of Indiana.
Evidently he was both charismatic and persuasive, and it was his inheriting
these traits which led Hickey to become a salesman. An angry kid trapped in a
small town, Hickey had no use for anyone but his sweetheart, Evelyn. Evelyn's
family forbade her to associate with Hickey, but she ignored them. After Hickey
left to become a salesman, he promised he would marry Evelyn when he was
able. He became a successful salesman, then sent for her and the two were very
happy until Hickey became increasingly guilty following his wife's constant
forgiveness of his infidelities and drinking. He then recounts how he murdered
her to free her from the pain of his persistent philandering and drinking
because she loved him too much to live apart from him. But, in retelling the
murder, he laughs and tells Evelyn, "well, you know what you can do with
that pipe dream now, don't you?" In realizing he said this, Hickey breaks
down completely. He realizes that he went truly insane and that people need
their empty dreams to keep existing. The others agree and decide to testify to
his insanity during Hickey's trial despite Hickey's begging them to let him get
the death sentence. He no longer wishes to live now that he has no illusions
about life.
They return to their empty promises and pipe dreams except for Parritt, who
runs to his room and jumps off the fire escape, unable to live with the
knowledge of what he has done to his mother after discarding the last of his
lies about his action and motivation for it. He first claims that he did it due
to patriotism and then for money, but finally admits he did it because he hated
his mother, who was so obsessed with her own freedom of action that she became
self-centered and alternately ignored or dominated him. Despite witnessing the
young man's fatal leap, and acknowledging the futility of his own situation
("by God, there's no hope! I'll never be a success...Life is too much for
me!"), Larry fears death as much as life and is consequently left in
limbo.
Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre
Originally called the Royale Theatre, it was
unusual for its eclectic, romantic style that its designers called Spanish
modern. Built in 1927 along with the Majestic Theatre, the Golden Theatre, and
the Hotel Lincoln (now the Milford Plaza), the cluster of venues completed the
blocks on 44th and 45th Streets between Broadway and 7th Avenue, creating the
densest concentration of legitimate theaters in New York City. In 2005, the
Royale was renamed the Bernard B. Jacobs after the longtime president of the
Shubert Organization. The lavish interior was designed by an architect for Czar
Nicholas II in Russia, who came to America. Melzer hired a Hungarian artist to
create a series of murals entitled "Spanish Lovers" for the interior
of the theater.
