Barefoot In The Park

Act One opens to an empty apartment in the process of being painted. Corie enters holding flowers. She is excited and energetic. A telephone repairman, Harry Pepper, buzzes to be let up and enters shortly after, gasping for air after climbing five flights, six with the front stoop. He wryly notes the apartment’s limitations—including the many flights and lack of heat—but realizes from Corie’s romanticizing that she is a newlywed. He sets up her phone and leaves, wishing her well and steeling himself for the long trip down the stairs.

Paul buzzes just as the phone rings. Corie had hoped he would arrive after the furniture was delivered. Flustered, she answers the phone. It is Paul’s office. She tells them to wait a moment as he is on his way up. Paul arrives out of breath, and Corie kisses and hugs him. They reminisce about their six-day honeymoon at the Plaza Hotel. Paul does not realize his office is on the phone until he mentions that he is waiting for what he hopes will be good news, which triggers Corie to remember the waiting caller. Paul takes the phone and learns he will be in court in the morning. His mind turns immediately to work. No matter what Corie says, he responds with a work-related comment. Paul notices the lack of furniture, heat, and bathtub, as well as the hole in the skylight. Corie mentions snow is expected overnight. His criticism and complaining upset her, and they bicker. She tells him, “I can light the stove and you can sit over the fire with your law books and shawl like Abraham Lincoln” (17). When he asks her if that is “supposed to be funny,” she responds, “No. It was supposed to be nasty. It just came out funny” (17). Eventually, she sooths him by promising to keep him warm.

Corie’s mother, Ethel Banks, buzzes. Corie frets that her mother will dislike and disapprove of the apartment and tells Paul to say they are spending far less than they are. Her mother enters gasping and panting. She explains she was at a luncheon in Westchester and decided to “drop in” (22) on her way home to New Jersey. Ethel backhandedly praises the apartment, calling the tiny kitchen “cozy” adding: “I suppose you’ll eat out a lot the first year” (24). She notes the absence of bathtub, kitchen, and heat. Corie encourages her to have a drink and then sends a reluctant Paul out to fetch scotch. After he leaves, the two women discuss Ethel’s loneliness now that Corie has moved out and married. Corie encourages her mother to enjoy her life. She wants Ethel to find love, but she demurs, saying: “I’m very happy the way I am” (29).

As Ethel leaves, saying that she will see Corie on Friday for dinner, Paul returns with the scotch. He tells Corie about meeting the “crazy” (30) neighbors—“a lovely young couple who just happen to be of the same sex and no one knows which one that is” (31)in one apartment; in another, two couples and a single man living together; in a third, Victor Velasco, who is called “The Bluebeard of 48th St.” (31). Paul retreats to the alcove bedroom to work. A knock at the door brings Victor, who wants to use the Bratters’ widow to crawl across the ledge to his widow. He is “four months behind in the rent” (32) and needs to sneak into his apartment. Victor tells Corie that she is “unbearably pretty” (33) and asks if her husband works during the day. She explains that she is a very much in love newlywed. He subtly asks for a dinner invitation, and she invites him for Friday. He shows her how to turn on the radiator and invites her to a cocktail party at his apartment at 10, adding: “Bring liquor” (34). He goes out the window, and Corie rushes to call her mother. The prospect of setting up Ethel and Victor on a blind date excites Corie, and she ignores Paul’s question asking why the “nut” (36), meaning Victor, is out on their ledge.