Fences

BLACK SCREEN:

TITLE:
AUGUST WILSON’S FENCES

The screen remains black. The sound of

a truck rumbling along a street. Two

men are heard talking:

bono (v.o.):
Troy, you ought to stop that lying!

troy (v.o.):
I ain’t lying! The n*gger had a watermelon

this big. Talking about . . . “What watermelon,

Mr. Rand?” I like to fell out! “What

watermelon, Mr. Rand?” . . . And it sitting there

big as life.

bono (v.o.):
What did Mr. Rand say?

troy (v.o.):
Ain’t said nothing. Figure if the n*gger

too dumb to know he carrying a watermelon, he

wasn’t gonna get much sense out of him. Trying to

hide that great big old watermelon under his

coat. Afraid to let the white man see him carry

it home.

EXT. WYLIE AVENUE, THE HILL, PITTSBURGH—

EARLY SEPTEMBER—MORNING

The rear of the garbage truck, god’s

point of view:
Troy Maxson and Jim

Bono hang on to either side of the

truck as it heads toward its next

collection point.

Troy is fifty-three years old, a large

man with thick, heavy hands; it is

this largeness that he strives to fill

out and make an accommodation with.

Together with his blackness, his

largeness informs his sensibilities

and the choices he has made in his

life.

Of the two men, Bono is obviously the

follower. His commitment to their

friendship of thirty odd years is

rooted in his admiration of Troy’s

honesty, capacity for hard work, and

his strength, which Bono seeks to

emulate.

bono:
I’m like you . . . I ain’t got no time for them

kind of people.

troy:
Now what he look like getting mad ’cause he see

the man from the union talking to Mr. Rand?

bono:
He come talking to me about . . . “Troy Maxson

gonna get us fired.” I told him to get away from

me with that. He walked away from me calling you

a troublemaker. (anxious) What Mr. Rand say?

troy:
Ain’t said nothing. He told me to go down to the

commissioner’s office next Friday. They called me

down there to see them.

The truck halts. Troy gets down and

heads for heavy garbage cans at the

curb; Bono uses Troy’s shoulder to

ease himself down.

bono:
Well, as long as you got your complaint filed,

they can’t fire you. That’s what one of them white

fellows tell me.

troy:
I ain’t worried about them firing me. They gonna

fire me ’cause I asked a question? That’s all I

did. I went to Mr. Rand and asked him—“Why? Why

you got the white mens driving and the colored

lifting?” Told him, “What’s the matter, don’t I

count?”

TITLE:
THE HILL, PITTSBURGH

TITLE:
1957

troy:
You think only white fellows got sense enough

to drive a truck? That ain’t no paper job. Hell,

anybody can drive a truck. How come you got all

the whites driving and the coloreds lifting?

The truck’s white driver watches the

collectors in his side mirror.

troy:
He told me, “Take it to the union.” Well, hell,

that’s what I done! Now they wanna come up with

this pack of lies.

He told me, “Take it to the union.” Well, hell,

that’s what I done! Now they wanna come up with

this pack of lies.

bono:
I told Brownie if the man come and ask him any

questions . . . just tell the truth! It ain’t

nothing but something they done trumped up on you

’cause you filed a complaint on them.

Bono returns the last empty can. Troy

climbs up on the truck.

troy:
Brownie don’t understand nothing. All I want

them to do is change the job description. Give

everybody a chance to drive the truck. Brownie

can’t see that. He ain’t got that much sense.

Bono in place, Troy slaps the truck.

As it starts moving, Troy pulls a

lever and the compactor crushes the

trash.

EXT. SANITATION YARD—AFTERNOON

Rate this script:4.4 / 10 votes