Короткие пьесы Ансельм Людмила

AMERICAN DREAM

CAST:

JOSHUA: old, skinny, ascetic emigrant from Russia.

PETER: 20–30 old American man.

Time: Current, night.

Place:

Small one room hut in the woods. No path. The setting could be real, supernatural or a dream but we will never know one way or the other. A dim light shows in the window.

Peter approaches the light. The hut appears. He knocks on the door. No answer. He first tries then, opens the door. Inside the hut are a table and two chairs on a rug. A lamp. An electrical receptacle.

PETER (standing in the doorway): Hello!.. anybody home?… Can I come in?

Peter peers into the dimly lit hut. A person is sitting and writing at a table.

PETER: Can I come in? Are you OK? Why don’t you answer?

JOSH: I’m busy!

PETER: Can I….?

JOSH: You all ready have!

PETER: Damn! I’m tired…(on the table are a pitcher of water and two glasses) Can I have a drink?

JOSH: Please.

(He pours a glass of water, and hands it to Peter)

PETER: Thanks! Why so dark? OK if I turn on the light?

JOSH: It’s fine for me… Everything is clear enough.

PETER: I’m Peter… parked out on the highway. Phone is dead. Lucky I could see your light from the road. Do you have a phone?

JOSH: What do you need a phone?

PETER: I’m out of gas. Need to call AAA.

JOSH: I don’t have one.

PETER: How can you live without a phone? OK if I recharge mine?

JOSH: Go ahead.

(Peter fiddles with his phone and charger and plugs them in)

PETER: What’re you so busy with?

JOSH: I’m writing something. I have to be careful not to be pedantic…. Would you like to help me while you wait?

PETER: OK, but I have to get home. I have to be at work early.

JOSH: Where have you been?

PETER: Tides Beach, windsurfing.

JOSH: Did you have fun?

PETER (starts to unplug his phone): I don’t have time for discussions. I’ll go out and stop somebody for a lift or for a phone.

JOSH: Cars don’t stop here at night!

PETER (plugging the phone back in): How do you know? Have you tried to stop cars?

(Pause)

JOSH: Come here, please glance at what I wrote.

(Pause)

PETER (approaches): Too dark. I can’t make any thing out.

JOSH: Turn on the light.

(Peter obeys. The room fills with light. Joshua tips a page up.)

Can you make it out now?

PETER (studies): Sorry, I can’t understand your writing.

JOSH (sighs): I suppose so….It’s my business…I’m writing a philosophy tract…and toward the end I bump into contradictions. I need to take a different view.

PETER: How can I help? I’m just normal computer programmer. You want me to understand philosophy?

JOSH: You may be just the person I need. Describe “The American Dream”.

(Pause)

PETER: Ah…It does exist, but not exactly.. It’s sort of gut feeling that every body has.

JOSH: Good…. Now, what is the dream for you,…. Peter?

PETER: Why me?

JOSH: I’m just curious.

PETER: I want to be happy.

JOSH: Go on….more concretely?

PETER: I want friends, a family, some children, and a house in a good neighborhood.

JOSH: All the while you feel that you could possibly be a millionaire?

PETER: Earlier maybe, but now I see it will take a long time.

JOSH: Do you have a wife?

PETER: Girl friend…

JOSH: Why aren’t you married?

PETER: Because to be married you need a good income.

JOSH: So, your dream needs money! How do you plan to get money?

PETER: Save…work hard! I might have to take some risks in the future. I like my work. I haven’t had a vacation in five years. When I earn enough money to get married my dream will be half there. I probably will have to take some risks in the future if I want to fulfill my dream.

JOSH: You of course, know money can’t buy happiness?

PETER: Money can buy a house!

JOSH: All know that honest work doesn’t always result in prosperity. There are many poor people who strive and never will improve their fate.

PETER: Except for the lazy or impaired, honest work will improve their lot….somewhat… anyway. “A rising tide raises all ships”. But contacts, taking risks, and hard work are better rewarded.

JOSH: Don’t forget goals, luck, intelligence, education, fathers money…..

PETER: You sit alone in this dark corner and know America? Do you know what Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence?

JOSH: Do you know his words?

PETER: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that are among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

JOSH: A plus!

PETER: Are you a teacher?

JOSH: History… in some way.

PETER: Then you know that in The French Constitution, written at about the same time, “Freedom, Equality, and Brotherhood” side stepped the words “Pursuit of Happiness”.

JOSH: Why do you, Peter, need a family, for your happiness?

PETER: Well, Jefferson wrote that his family was the most beautiful happiness of his life.

JOSH: Why do you harp on “Jefferson”, “Jefferson”?…. his words, his thoughts on family.. Do you know Jefferson was a large plantation owner and a racist?

PETER: Of course he had slaves that was a different time. Over two hundred years so much has changed. You can’t look at his slave holdings with our modern eyes. Besides he changed opinions as he grew older.

JOSH: Yes somewhat, but he always thought the blacks inferior, that slavery should end but blacks and whites could not live together in the same society. He wrote against mixing blood of blacks and whites but he had one definite and maybe more children with his slave Sally Hemings

PETER: What about his wife?

JOSH: His wife died very young, after two children.

PETER: Maybe Sally is just hearsay.

JOSH: Recent DNA tests of descendants of Sally and Jefferson are statistically conclusive.

PETER: Oh!..was Sally pretty? Figure?.. Face? I suppose that Jefferson didn’t think about her blood lines during sex.

JOSH: We think she had straight black hair. She was only one quarter black so she was “brown”. Their son Madison Hemings was essentially “white” but, one eighth black so he still was treated as a slave. He never forgave Jefferson for this. He would ask his mother something like: “ Why did daddy treat his other children different from me?” She would reply “Quiet, quiet…. when we were in Paris he promised to free all my children. Patience, patience”

PETER: Jefferson did as he promised?

JOSH: No….and yes! Only after his death were they freed.

PETER: When did Sally’s and Jefferson’s relationship start? What about his wife?

JOSH: His wife died very young. In Paris when Sally was fourteen years old!

PETER: Fourteen! Yikes!

JOSH: Then young girls were considered women. Madison said later, “…Jefferson took his mother like a concubine”.

PETER: Why do you think that Madison’s statement is important?

JOSH: There is a difference, a concubine…

PETER: How do you know that Jefferson still treated her as a slave?

JOSH: He looked on her that way…

PETER: Why didn’t he give her freedom?

JOSH: I think if he gave her freedom he couldn’t control her and keep her in his house. Once the relationship with Sally begins, he is living in lie.

PETER: Write a book!

JOSH: Jefferson was also duplicitous. In fact he was a “dirty” politician.

PETER: Such a duplicitous President. It reminds me of FDR. Can we explain this type of person?

JOSH: What do you think?

PETER: I find it hard to think that he was just a hypocrite and liar….so then..

JOSH: Continue. “So then”..what….talk, talk.

PETER: You’re the history teacher! Don’t expect so much from me.

JOSH: What I find strange is that Jefferson’s oldest daughter Martha maintained that there was no relationship between her father and Sally. I don’t see how the relationship could not be known to the white members of his family.

PETER: Family secret!

JOSH: I don’t think so. A grandchild of Jefferson, Helen, wrotethat the relationship was impossible! The door to Sally’s room was very public all entering and exiting were in sight of the family.

PETER (bored): How do you think they could meet?

JOSH: He met with her in a secret corner. a corridor, or a storeroom..

PETER: Risky, less fun.

(Josh starts to straighten the rug under the table and chairs. Then he quickly straightens up while kneading his back, and screwing up his face in pain)

JOSH: Please try to straighten the rug.

(Peter starts to straighten the rug. He bends down. Josh slips in Peter’s back. Peter squeezes away, and straightens up with fear)

PETER (shouts): You gay?… Unbelievable!

JOSH (calmly): I wanted to show you how this could happen. It could be over in three or four minutes.

PETER (voice raised, still upset): Maybe you could explain in words. Like they…

JOSH: An easy visual aid. Despite the dangers the relationship continued. He had several children by Sally. I think he expended great effort to keep Sally near him. Who knows, maybe his secret gave rise for the Declaration’s words: “..all men…pursuit their… Happiness.” It’s self deluding and corrosive to excessively pursue happiness. Jefferson even modified his earlier progressive stand against slavery as he grew older and more jaundiced.

PETER: It’s really not important now why he wrote these words. It’s important that these words inspired millions of immigrants to work hard, live better, and make America NUMBER ONE in the world.

JOSH: Well, think, America is not entirely first. It is 49th in literacy, 37th in universal health care, and 41st in child mortality. So where is the American myth?

PETER: Fuck your statistics! He deceived us, and his ideas worked out well at first. But now, it has been carried too far when more efficiency, overtime, and moving families from place to place have become necessary.

JOSH: Your American dream is now riding on the backs of the poor bringing health, education, and riches to only a few. You all ignore a pervasive stink in America.

PETER: Are you “Green Party”?

JOSH: It’s not the worst of all parties in the world, but Lenin had high ideals too. Do you really still believe that if you pursue happiness you can become happy?

PETER: I believe..

JOSH: You will never get there. To pursue “happiness” is the wrong goal. Pursue work that you love, be kind, helpful, and reliable and unexpectedly happiness arrives.

PETER: You are a philosopher. You have time to sit and think of all possibilities. I don’t have time to think about all your fantasies and nobody else has the time..

JOSH: Yes, I have a lot of time. Now are discussions whether or not the “American Dream” is “erosing”. Already most Americans do not believe in the “American Dream” for the future. So I decided to try to analyze our situation and find something that must change. I started to write this tract…

(Peter with hands up demurring, hands saying stop)

PETER: Wrong, wrong! Why are you doing this?

JOSH: I confess that I was trying to raise a few doubts.

PETER: Doubts…?

(Pause)

JOSH: So I’ve seen the seeds of doubt!

PETER: You’re crazy! I was too shy to say at earlier. You were so insistent.

JOSH: So you don’t understand anything!

PETER: Why it’s so important to raise doubts

JOSH: From doubts we think…learn…and act. Columbus doubted that the world was flat.

PETER: Doubts then are your main problem.

(Suddenly Peter’s, now fully charged cell, bursts into the tinkling tones of a summer “Good Humor” ice cream truck (Steven Foster’s “Old Folks at Home”…way down upon the Swanee river…. Or “Home on the Range”.))

PETER: Finally! Thank God! Excuse me I have to go.

JOSH: One last request!…….We will not talk about the future, but now, current day, are you happy?

(Pause)

PETER: But truthfully I’m too busy to ponder whether I’m happy or not happy!

JOSH: I thought so. You should go now.

(Peter collects his phone and charger and walks to the door where he stops and returns to Josh)

PETER: Maybe I didn’t understand, but before leaving my advice to you is don’t try to change things. Don’t shut your light, get phone… Live and enjoy America!

JOSH (waffling his hand) Good byе! Be happy, if you… Could..

THE END

INNER VOICE

CAST:

DOCTOR – psychiatrist. Doctor male. Wearing an expensive suit, and wrist watch very proper, polite, confident, pleasant, and always composed.

ANNA – Woman. Dressed in red dress with red bag. Foreign accent.

PLACE:

Psychiatrist’s office.Sparse Psychiatrist’s office. Ever present small clock standing on a table. The doctor is talking on the telephone eating a sandwich and thumbing thru a magazine. Suddenly a door opens and Anna rushes in.

ANNA: Doctor, I’m Anne Miller. I made an appointment last week..

DOCTOR (looking at а small clocks): You’re unusually early… (to telephone.) No, it’s not to you…

ANNA: Doctor, you must listen to me… now… My inner voice…

DOCTOR: Just a minute, I’m talking on the phone…

ANNA: Doctor, I can’t stand it…

DOCTOR: Wait, wait…(to telephone.) Sorry, Gladys I have to hang up… Yes! I’ll call you later… Bye!

ANNA: Doctor, you must listen to me…

(Doctor puts down the telephone unwillingly.)

DOCTOR: What is it Anna, that brings you in so early? Have you taken your medicine?

ANNA (ignoring Doctor): The TV just said that the scientists have identified the gene that makes people lonely.

Anna comes in, throws her purse on the table so as to obscure the small tablet clock from the doctor’s view and flops down in a chair opposite the doctor.

DOCTOR: Yes.

ANNA: I want the gene therapy medicine.

Doctor smiles pleasantly and turns to Anna.

DOCTOR: Yes, try to relax, what’s the problem?

ANNA: I can’t go out side my house. I’m hurting deep down in my soul, – ‘I feel a desperation. I’m lonely.

DOCTOR: Are you are living alone? Have you called your mother lately?

ANNA (ignore Doctor): Since I came here to the US. I feel so lonely. You can hardly imagine how hard it is to be lonely.

Doctor moves her purse so he can see the small tablet clock.

ANNA: Take that clock away!

DOCTOR: That’s not very polite… Take your purse away…

Anna takes away her purse in such a way that the tablet clock falls on the floor.

ANNA: Doctor… I…, I…

DOCTOR: Very well, go on.

Doctor glances at his wrist watch.

ANNA: My loneliness is special. I’m like the Liberty Statue: I’m standing alone, and life is boiling around me: people fall in love, go to theaters, restaurants, and I have nobody to go out with. Because no one needs me, I feel desperate and very frightened. I think about doing something drastic actions that could end badly for me.

DOCTOR: Now, now,what do you mean?

ANNA: When I see a couple, a man and a woman, walking along the street, holding hands and showing how good they feel together, I hate them, and I don’t know what to do in order not to see them… I even stopped visiting the Zoo.

Doctor: The Zoo…

ANNA: I don’t want to see almost all animals, even the most thorough predators, sharing a cage together… Especially on holidays and Sundays I literally climb up the wall… When I get up, I immediately remember how lonely I am, and all my thoughts are oriented on how to find somebody… Sometimes I can behave unexpectedly, crazy.

DOCTOR: For example? (glancing at his magazine again).

Anna jumps up and throws the magazine away.

ANNA: Enough of your “Playboy”…

DOCTOR: (Defensively) It isn’t “Playboy”. It was…

ANNA: Especially…

Doctor smiles pleasantly and puts his magazine on the floor.

ANNA: For example, when I go out into the street, I find, it easiest to start conversations with men, and then I talk on and on…