The Skin of Our Teeth

The first act opens with a narrated slideshow that includes the name of the theater, and an announcer details the “News Events of the World” (5). First, a citizen reported the sun’s rising, leading The Society Affirming the End of the World to extend the deadline to the apocalypse by 24 hours. A wedding ring was found in the theater, inscribed: “Eva and Adam. Genesis II:18” (6). No one has yet to explain the wall of ice that is advancing across the country. Next, the slideshow shows a man named George Antrobus of Excelsior, New Jersey, who discovered the lever and invented the wheel, was “once a gardener, but left that situation under circumstances that have been variously reported” (7), and has scars from fighting in many different wars. His wife is Mrs. Maggie Antrobus, president of the Excelsior Mothers’ Club, and the final slide shows the couple with their children, Gladys and Henry, and their maid, Sabina. The announcer praises them as the “typical American family” (7), shifting the scene into their living room. Sabina, who is heavily made up, cleans and frets that George is late coming home. It’s August and freezing, getting colder every day, and each day she worries about whether he will make it home. Unexpectedly, a wall of the house “leans precariously over the stage. Sabina looks at it nervously and it slowly rights itself” (8). Throughout, she is interrupted more than once by the surprise of flying scenery.

Sabina praises George as a man, a father, and a member of the community, as well as Maggie Antrobus as a woman and mother, noting that she prioritizes her children above all else and would see everyone dead for their sake. Sabina describes Henry as an all-American boy who can’t quite master the alphabet but is talented in aiming a rock at either an animal or a brother—catching herself for mentioning the brother and calling it an accident, although the police were very persistent. Sabina describes Gladys as a good potential wife for someone someday. The family has survived through many hardships; each time they have a child, they see them as a reasonable purpose for all of existence, while each time they lose a child, they see it as saving the child from the sorrows of living. Sabina concludes that the best plan is to “just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate,” and “don’t forget that a few years ago we came through the depression by the skin of our teeth!” (10). Annoyed, Sabina repeats herself, as the person she has cued has not entered. An offstage voice tells her to improvise and stall; she tries but then exclaims that she can’t because she despises the play, and it makes no sense to her.

Sabina complains that the playwright can’t decide where or when the play is set, wishing that they could go back to simpler types of plays. However, she took the role because her once-prominent career was on a downturn, and she needed the money. Mr. Fitzpatrick, the stage manager, interjects to nudge her back on course, calling the actress by her “real” name, Miss Somerset, and Sabina/Miss Somerset cries, “Oh! Anyway!—nothing matters! It’ll all be the same in a hundred years” (11). She repeats her line, cuing Maggie Antrobus’s entrance. Maggie comes in, complaining that Sabina has allowed the fire to die out. Agitated, Sabina announces that she is quitting and is giving her two weeks’ notice, but Maggie ignores her and continues to chastise, asking if she has milked the mammoth. Sabina restates that the play makes no sense and then affirms that she did milk the mammoth. Maggie orders Sabina to go and borrow some fire from the neighbors, but Sabina pleads that she’ll die in the cold. Maggie concedes that she will go, and Sabina begs her to stay because she will die, and they’ll all die without her. Exasperated, Maggie points out that Sabina is always ready to give up until she gets some ice cream or goes to the movies, and then she’s ready to live forever.

Sabina retorts that Maggie only cares about her children, who are ungrateful and make fun of her, and that she doesn’t appreciate George or his great inventions and discoveries. Unruffled, Maggie replies, “Oh, Sabina, I know you. When Mr. Antrobus raped you home from your Sabine hills, he did it to insult me” (14). (Note that within this context, which references the Rape of the Sabine Women, the word “rape” refers to abduction, not sexual assault.) George kidnapped her because she was beautiful, and for a while, he treated her as his wife, and Sabina lived in leisure while Maggie birthed the children and tended to her every whim. The novelty had worn off, and Sabina had been relegated to the position of maid. Sabina insists that her beauty has inspired George’s innovations, but Maggie ignores her again and complains about the dinosaur who is in the front yard again. A baby dinosaur pokes his head in the window and says, “It’s cold” (15), but disappears when Maggie tells him to go back to the backyard. Sabina comments that the play makes a bit more sense to her, but she still wishes that it were over. A telegraph boy appears, and Sabina cries out that there is a strange man lurking. Serious, Maggie returns, and they pile furniture against the door. The boy explains that he has a telegraph from George, and Maggie, recognizing his voice, lets him in.

When she opens the door, the dinosaur and mammoth, who are named Frederick and Dolly, sneak in with the boy, curling up in the living room. Maggie asks the animals if they’ll be quiet, if they’ve eaten, and if they’re ready to come inside. They nod after each question. Maggie asks if the 12-year-old telegraph boy has any fire, and he lights the fireplace. She questions what information he has about the cold, and he only knows that certain areas have become unreachable and impassible, and that people are burning everything to keep warm. In the telegram, transmitted by smoke signals and flashing lights, George informs his wife that he will be an hour late, and that she can burn everything but the Shakespeare. He has made important advancements in the alphabet today, which Sabina praises and Maggie finds silly as the world is freezing. The telegraph boy sings “Happy Anniversary” to Maggie, calling her Eva. The animals howl along, and Maggie shushes them. Sabina decides to apologize and rescind her two-weeks’ notice, as she wants to stay in a house that gets fascinating telegrams. Maggie doesn’t have any food or money to offer the telegraph boy, but he asks hesitantly for a needle, as his wife can’t think about anything but needles. Despite Sabina’s protest that they only have two, Maggie gives him one.

The boy asks Maggie advice as to what to do for his wife and children, and she tells him to try to stay warm and to keep a brave face. Before exiting, the telegraph boy remembers that the telegram also announced that George has invented the wheel. Tearing up, Sabina laments that the good men are all married. Maggie asks the mammoth and dinosaur if they or any of their ancestors have ever known August to be so cold, and they both shake their heads. She calls Henry and Gladys to come inside, suddenly shrieking at Henry to put the stone down, and for Gladys to put her dress down and “be a lady” (23). They come inside, and Maggie tells them to behave extra well for their father, who sometimes has a temper. She reminds Henry to hide the C-shaped scar on his forehead that makes his father suicidal when he sees it. She rubs the scar, complaining that it never seems to fade; it only gets redder. Henry tells his mother that she needs to send another letter to his school because the teachers have been calling him by his old name, Cain, again. The sound of the name sparks horror in Maggie, who tells him that if he behaves and doesn’t hit anyone, they’ll forget about it.

Maggie notices suddenly that Gladys has make-up on; Maggie slaps and insults Gladys, disgusted by both of her children. She orders Sabina to wash Glady’s face because if her father notices that his daughter isn’t a perfect angel, he will wish he were dead. George enters loudly, slinging cheerful insults and greetings. The animals and humans embrace him with tearful joy. Sabina repeats her two-weeks’ notice, but George points out that she’d die in the cold. Henry plays with the wheel, and George and Maggie have a hushed discussion about the freezing weather. Suddenly, George slaps Henry, exclaiming to his confused son that it’s to help him remember the day he finished the alphabet. Maggie sends the children out of the room and asks her husband what they can do to avoid dying in the cold, wondering if they can travel somewhere. He explains that the roads are crowded with people who can barely move in the cold. He doesn’t know if the ice will crush them like it has crushed other people. They can only keep burning the fire as long as possible or else they will die.

Refugees are outside calling for George. Maggie is alarmed, but George admits that he invited them to the house. Maggie refuses to allow them in, but George insists that there are useful people among them, including a doctor, a judge, and the person whom he credits with giving him the idea for the alphabet, and they’ll need them if they end up surviving. Unhappily, Maggie relents but gives the condition that the mammoth and dinosaur must go; George sadly agrees.

The refugees come inside, and George introduces Maggie to the doctor, Judge Moses, Homer, and the nine Greek muses, among the crowd. Maggie asks about the conditions on the road, and they confirm that they are full of people. She suggests that the freeze might be caused by sunspots, and they murmur agreeably. George insists that it doesn’t make sense for humanity to die out after all of the progress they’ve made, and he thinks they’ll survive. One of the muses asks about their children, and Maggie says that they have a boy and a girl. Quietly, Moses says, “I understood you had two sons, Mrs. Antrobus” (41), leading Maggie to wail, struck with grief, about her lost son, Abel.

In a rage, Sabina enters the house and declares that Henry isn’t fit to be around other people, and that she just saw him kill a neighbor boy with a rock. Maggie fetches Henry, protecting him as they enter. The scar on his forehead burns bright red. Henry protests that the boy was trying to take the wheel and was about to hit him with a rock first. Maggie defends him, but George is infuriated and attempts to put out the fire, shouting that they all deserve to freeze. Frantically, Maggie tries to placate him, calling to Gladys and asking the muses to sing. They start singing “Jingle Bells,” as Maggie reminds him how they’ve survived so much together, and that Henry has made him proud so many times. Henry starts to recite the multiplication table that George invented, and Gladys brings his slippers, telling him how well she behaved at school. Finally, George decides to build up the fire and makes sure that the children ate dinner. Henry starts to get sleepy, but George forces him awake to keep reciting. He tells Maggie to teach Gladys something in case they survive. At his insistence, Maggie starts to teach her to recite the beginning of the Bible. As this continues, Sabina asks the audience to give up their chairs for the fire to “save the human race” (48).