The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds Summary | Act 1 Summary

The play opens in a dark room of wood, which formerly served as a vegetable store. The room is run down, messy, and depressing with the windows covered in newspaper. There is a staircase and two rooms are upstairs, as well as a bedroom downstairs.

As the lights go down, music begins to play, and Tillie's voice begins to speak through the darkness. She gives a monologue on the atom and her relation to it, as the lights begin to come up on the stage. Her speech ends with the words, "And he called this bit of me an atom. And when he wrote the word, I fell I love with it. Atom. Atom. What a beautiful word."

As Tillie's monologue ends, a phone rings. From off stage, Beatrice calls for Tillie to answer the phone. Frustrated and angry, she enters the stage in search of the phone, while mumbling about how she never gets help. The phone call is from Mr. Goodman, a teacher at Tillie and Ruth's school. He is calling to inquire as to why Tillie has been absent from school so often recently.

After hanging up the phone, Beatrice becomes extremely upset with Tillie for what she interprets as tattling on her. Despite Tillie's defense, Beatrice continues to refuse to believe her and prevents her from going to school that day as well. However, Ruth is allowed to go.

Before leaving for school, Ruth informs her mother that Tillie is being made fun of at school for the funny way she dresses and the weird things she is interested in, such as science class. Ruth goes on to tell her about seeing her file at school, which included many personal details of their life as a family, which seems further upsets Beatrice.

Another monologue by Tillie begins this scene. She discusses the white cloud Mr. Goodman creates in the clod chamber. Tillie explains the way the atoms work to create the cloud, saying "Atoms exploding, flinging off tiny bullets that caused the fountain, atom after atom breaking down into something new." By the end of the speech, the lights are up, and Beatrice is reading the newspaper and discovering all the things she believes are missing in their lives.

Tillie brings in her marigold seeds while her mother continues to peruse the newspaper. Beatrice asks what Tillie is bringing into her house, and Tillie replies that these are special marigolds because they have been exposed to cobalt-60.

Beatrice dismisses what to Tillie is exciting news and continues her planning and plotting. She says she wants to turn the store/house into a teashop so that they can become rich and move to the country. As they talk, Nanny, the woman Beatrice cares for, enters the room. Nanny is very deaf and Beatrice talks badly about her, primarily out of frustration that she must care for such a person to provide for her daughters and herself. As the scene ends, Beatrice talks about half-life, a concept explained to her by Tillie. She says "Half-life! If you want to know what a half-life is, just ask me. You're looking at the original half-life!"

As the scene opens, we hear someone dialing a telephone; the lights come up and we see Beatrice on the phone to Mr. Goodman. She is calling out of her concern about the seeds he sent home with Tillie. She has heard that the radioactivity can cause sterility, and as the seeds were exposed to radioactivity, she is afraid that on top of everything else Tillie will become sterile. As Mr. Goodman tries to explain the concept to her and tell her what a mutation is, she gets extremely upset and accuses him of thinking she is stupid. Finally, she is appeased, the phone call ends, and the stage goes black.

Music in a minor key blends with increasingly loud pulses turning into crashes of thunder. Suddenly a scream is heard from upstairs. Tillie rushes into Beatrice's room telling her that Ruth is having an episode. She is hysterical and going into seizures. They get her down the stairs and begin trying to calm her down. We learn that her episodes

began when she heard the man with a brain tumor who used to live downstairs die.

In order to distract Ruth and avoid being upset, Beatrice begins to tell her the story of when she stole a wagon from her father. Her father was a wonderful man, but when he became sick, he wanted her to get married so she would be cared for. However, she says he would roll over in his grave if you knew how she felt now. Ruth becomes concerned that Nanny might die in their house as well, but Beatrice answers that that will not happen.

Beatrice tells Tillie that she must get rid of her rabbit as soon as possible or she is going to kill it. Tillie then goes on to tell her mother that she has been asked to do something at school, but is ignored as Beatrice begins to yell at Nanny. Ruth ends up being the one to tell Beatrice the news that Tillie is a finalist in the school science fair.

Dr. Berg, the principal, calls the house and tries to convince Beatrice to allow Tillie to come to school and participate in the science fair. She tries to convince him to choose someone else, and ends the conversation by screaming at him and hanging up. She becomes extremely agitated and angry because she believes that Tillie is trying to embarrass her by getting her to go out when she does not have the appropriate clothes. Tillie breaks into tears, saying "But…nobody laughed at me." The scene closes with Beatrice saying "Oh, my God…" as she realizes how she is hurting her daughter.