Sweet Bird of Youth

Sweet Bird of Youth Summary | Act 1, Scene 1 Summary

The play opens in a room at the Royal Palms Hotel in the town of St. Cloud, somewhere on the Gulf Coast. A handsome young man named Chance Wayne is rising from a big bed in which a woman still sleeps, a mask covering her eyes. A knock at the door reveals a waiter with coffee and Bromo. Church bells begin to chime amid the sounds of morning birds. Chance didn't know that it is Sunday, and the waiter clarifies that it is Easter Sunday. As the waiter leaves, George Scudder, an old friend of Chance's, pushes his way into the room telling Chance that the night manager had phoned him to tell him that Chance is back in town.

George is now Chief of Staff at the hospital and is due in surgery in a few minutes. He wanted to tell Chance a few things and then wants him to get out of town as fast as he came. George tells Chance that his mother had died a couple weeks ago; apparently, Chance had not received any of the telegrams about her illness or her funeral services. Chance pauses for a minute or so at the news, but his real interest is in Heavenly, the girlfriend he left in town.

George ignores his question about Heavenly and pushes on to tell Chance that he had also sent him a letter about a certain girl undergoing an awful experience because of him. If her father and brother find out that he is back in town, there is no telling what they will do. Chance still demands to know about Heavenly and George tells him that he is engaged to marry her next month. After he is gone, Chance tries to call Heavenly, but the maid who answers hangs up as soon as she hears his voice.

Chance is brought back to the situation in the room as the woman begins to stir. She wants to know who he is, where she is, and where her oxygen is. Chance brings her an oxygen tank and mask and she calms down a bit after inhaling for a few minutes. The phone rings and it's the hotel manager asking him to depart. Chance mentions that Miss Alexandra del Lago will not like that. The woman demands that he not use her name and forces him to hang up. The actress wants a pill and her vodka, and as he searches the suitcase, he takes a minute to turn on a small tape recorder.

The woman can't remember who Chance is or how she hooked up with him, although she thinks he is a fine specimen. Chance tells her that she employs him to take care of her. They met in her cabana at a hotel in Palm Beach and he gave her papaya cream rubs. It all starts to come back to her now and she comments on the noise the gulls are making outside.

Alexandra orders Chance to find the heroin in her suitcase and he's curious to know how she got it through Customs. She tells him that she didn't; a doctor gave her injections for her neuritis on the ocean liner while some young man brought it back for her on a plane, later trying unsuccessfully to blackmail her. She begins to remember the situation that has put her in her current emotional state; she had ventured an acting comeback and was jeered in the theatre at the movie's premiere. Her humiliation forced her out of the theatre, where she tripped in her haste and ran away. The next thing she remembers is waking up in this room this morning.

Chance tells Alexandra that she had offered him a movie contract when they were in Palm Beach; she even had the papers drawn up with all the right signatures. She lets him down when she says that it was all a fraud and those papers wouldn't hold up to anything. That's when he reveals that he has taped their conversation about her heroin smuggling and he wants money in exchange for the tape. Alexandra is still the consummate actress at heart, however, and tells him he will not win and she will now tell him the terms under which he may remain employed; Chance is never to speak about illness or death and the only way for her to forget the words is to be distracted through lovemaking. She is now ready for her next distraction.