People like you, p.1
People Like You, page 1
ike You
A Stage Play about A Lesbian Alcoholic
by
John A Johnson
Copyright 2011
ISBN# 978-1-4659-3405-5
Play Readings & Performance Rights
Plays are not written to be read but performed. So should you subsequently decide to conduct a read-through of the play, additional copies of the script for each of the play's characters can be copied. If you do read or produce this play please notify the author at the address below.
People Like You is a stage play. Names, characters, places, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author’s personal contact information is:
John A Johnson
1155 Santa Clara Ave Apt A
Alameda, California 94501
510-205-8325 Email: Ptolemy1@aol.com
Bibliography and Biographical information located in the Narration Section at the end of this play.
The Author hopes that you enjoy this presentation about Marty Mann and that you will pass her revolutionary message on to others.
This play takes place between December 1935 and July 1941. The play is in four acts. The end of each scene is demarcated by lights and music although some acts segue into the next without clear definition.
Old songs from the 1920’s and 1930’s are played depending on the mood and abilities of the musician. As the music plays, characters representations are spotlighted. around.
CHARACTERS
Mrs. Marty Mann - Founder National Council on Alcoholism
William Buchler Seabrook - Author of Asylum
Dr. Tiebout - Medical Doctor Patron of Alcoholics Anonymous
Lois Wilson - Bill Wilson’s wife and founder of Alanon.
Bill Wilson - Author and Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous
Act I
Scene I
Northern England Tudor Townhouse, two stories with balconies overlooking courtyard. Courtyard lined with bright colored flowers. It has been raining. Everything is wet. There are benches around the perimeter of the courtyard and four or five street lamps light the surrounding area. Bloomsbury Group Characters are seated around the courtyard circle: Symbols of Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemmingway, and Thornton Wilder Henri Matisse. Marion Carstairs, Karl Jung clearly reveal their identity. These characters have no speaking parts so they can be manikins. If you are creative and have extras then they can dress in character instead of using models.
Suddenly, from the balcony, center stage, a tall wild woman is shouting and screaming at the top of her lungs. She is waving a large bottle and drinking from it on occasion.
M.M.
What do you mean people like you? You mean me . Do you mean drunks? Or is it lesbians? Or is it just women you don’t like! Some doctor you are. People like you!!!! What does that mean? You’ll see how to deal with people like me.
She goes back into the door off the balcony and just as suddenly comes flying out the door and dives over the balcony, landing face down on the cobblestone courtyard.
Lights dim and it is quiet.
Scene II
Same courtyard, a person is lying on cobble stones. There are several people in white uniforms, doctors, nurses, aids, red emergency lights are flashing in background.
Doctor 1
Mrs.. Mann. Can you hear me.
M.M.
Of course I can hear you. Why would you ask a dumb question like that.
Doctor 2
Mrs.. Mann you have serious injuries and you must lie still and cooperate.
He gives her a sedative injection in the buttocks.
M.M.
What does that mean? Serious injuries! I can get up and walk. Watch me.
She tries to move but cannot. She is paralyzed and cannot get up.
She is lifted onto a stretcher and carried in the direction of the emergency lights. Lights dim. Quiet.
Scene III
Ten days later. Hospital Room. Hospital Bed, tables, bedpans, IV Racks, Oxygen Tanks and Tubes. Marty on the bed with her leg bent and elevated. Doctor seated on front side of bed facing audience. Nurse on back side of bed fitzing around facing the audience.
Doctor 2
Mrs. Mann, do you know where you are?
M.M.
Of course I know where I am. I am in a hospital.
Doctor 2
Do you know how long you have been here?
M.M.
Since last night when I came in.
Doctor 2
Mrs.. Mann you have been here for ten days. You were in a comma. you fell from the second floor balcony and landed on your face. You broke your jaw. You knocked all of your lower teeth out of your head. You broke your hip and you bit off bits of your tongue on both sides. You may be impaired for the rest of your life. I am afraid that you will be here for quite some time. Like it or not. Chances are you may have to use crutches or a wheel chair when you leave here .
Lights fade
Scene IV
Same room now populated with student nurses but a party atmospheres. Party glasses, hats, confetti, stringers. Marty has convinced the young nurses that what she needs is her medicine (alcohol) which has been smuggled in the guise of water in a gallon jug. Marty is dressed in a pantsuit ready for travel. A Bon Voyage banner is has been added to backdrop.
Group Singing
So long, it’s been good to know you, So long it’s been good to know you and a long time that you’ll be gone.
Anonymous One
You are lucky to going to America. There is going to be a big war with Germany and with new Airplanes and Balloons and big guns they will be bombing England. They may even invade our Homeland. A lot of people are going to die. I wish we could all go with you.
Anonymous Two
Maybe you can finish your Great American Novel when you get home. I remember that was why you came to England in the first place.
M.M.
I am not going to get away from the Germans or to work on The Great American Novel, I am going to get away from the booze. I simply cannot leave it alone. Even when I do not want it, I still have to drink. There must be something dreadfully wrong with me. I change from wine to beer and beer to vodka, and vodka to bourbon or gin or tequila. I thought that would change if I left American and moved to Europe but nothing changes. Everywhere I go, there I am. And the doctors. All of these Limy Doctors can tell me is that if I can find out why I drink, they can tell me how to fix it. If I knew the answer to that why I could fix it myself. As soon as I get to New York I am looking for Willy Seabrook. He knows why I drink and I won’t need these doctors. I read his book Asylum and the answer is in his book.
Anonymous Three
What about your family, are they waiting for you in New York?
M.M.
Yes, my mother and my sisters are all there and they will meet me at the boat. We will have a grand reunion and then I will look for Mr. Seabrook. Things will be different, I just know that for sure.
Fading lights, group singing so long it’s been good …….
Act II
America
Scene I
Fourteen days later. Older Woman (M.M’s Mother) and her two sisters standing at the dock watching happy passengers emerge from the large doorway of the ship onto the gangplank waving and crying out to waiting friends and relatives.
Sister A
She said she would be wearing a bright red pant suit with light jacket.. We should see her come through the door any second now.
15 minutes pass.
Sister B
Is it possible that she missed the sailing from England? No we would have heard by wireless had she missed the boat. She probably has so many bags and suitcases that she is waiting for other to go ahead of her. If she doesn’t come soon, we will have to ask the ship’s captain. Maybe she fell ill on ship and cannot walk.
Mother Mann
Oh ! No ! No!, she could not be drunk !!!!!! She promised!
Momentarily two figures emerge from the doorway onto the gangplank. Between them is a stretcher. On the stretcher is Marty. She is singing.
M.M.
God Bless America, Land that I love.
Mother Mann
Take her to Doctors Hospital and sober her up.
Scene II
Doctors Hospital, New York six months later. A blustery restless red-haired man standing near the bed facing the audience.
M.M.
So you are the famous Mr. William Buehler Seabrook.
Seabrook
Yes indeed, I am who you say I am. And I who spent a lot of time in and out of the nut houses. That is the reason I can write about it like I did in Asylum, I know the routine.
M.M.
I am much honored to meet you Mr. S .
Seabrook
We already have a mutual admiration society. I am under the illusion that you came all the way from England to see me.
M.M.
I left America in 1930 because I could not get away from booze here. I had planned to write the Great American Novel while in Europe but I found that I could not stay sober long enough to write. After five or six years I ran out of friends and options so I came home to America to get away from booze but I here I still can’t stay away from it. I could not even stay sober on the ship and when I arrived at the dock, I had to be hauled down the gang plank on a stretcher, into an ambulance and to this very hospital.
Silence
M.M.
In the last year I have {PAGEBREA
The doctors cannot help me. They tell me that they do not know what to do with People Like Me. But I read your book Asylum, which I understand you wrote after living at for seven months behind the walls of the mental hospital where you went for acute alcoholism.
Seabrook
Yes, that is basically true. I am sober now and hope to stay that way. (The following dialogue is adapted from p. 53. Asylum.) So long as any man drinks when he wants to and stops when he wants to, he isn't a drunkard, no matter how much he drinks or how often he falls under the table.
Silence
Seabrook
It is not the drinking that makes the drunkard. I had drunk for years, enthusiastically, and with pleasure, when I wanted to. Then something snapped in me, and I lost control. I had to have it even when I didn't want it. I couldn't stop when I wanted to. Instead of being joyful, it was awful. I went to the nut house because I had lost control when I drink, not because I drink a lot or too much for that matter.
M.M.
But what was wrong with you that you drank like that? Didn’t the doctors pinpoint the problem and fix it so that you would not want to get drunk.
Seabrook
No !! I stopped wanting to get drunk but I still had to drink. That was who I had become. A Drunk. When I went to the nut house in 1934, I was just like the rest of them, nuts. I stayed there for seven months and when I came out sober I wrote the book about it.
M.M.
I would rather die a drunkard than to be locked up in a nut house. Going to my grave would be more acceptable than going to an asylum.
Seabrook
Mrs.. Mann I understand how you feel. I felt that way once myself. Here is what I recommend to you. There are hospitals that admit drunks and help them get sober. These hospitals have charity patients for tax purposes and I suggest that you find one and get yourself admitted, that is if you are serious about getting the monkey off of your back. Are you serious? I hope so !!
M.M.
Yes !! I will do anything, go to any length to find sobriety. Dr. Kennedy says that I have to Stop Drinking Completely Forever. I just want to be normal. He also says I need a job but most of all I need to make a decision to not drink any more, no matter what happens. I think I am crazy but he says no, I have a physical illness and alcohol makes it worse.
Seabrook
That may be true. But the other nutty doctors around here and all over the world all say that if we stop drinking for a period of time, we can return to normal drinking and get on with our lives. I like that idea better than the FOREVER idea.
M.M.
Yea that is what I want. I want to be a normal drinker. I have been here in Doctors for six months and I am dry, will that count? I am going to do whatever I have to do get rid of this drinking too much.
Man in white coat with a stethoscope walks into the room. It is Dr. Kennedy. Marty introduces him to Seabrook
M.M.
Dr Kennedy I want you to meet a man who knows about drinking. I have done my research on alcohol in some of the finest pubs and salons in the world but this man has done even more than me. Willy Seabrook. Willy this is Dr. Foster Kennedy, the doctor I told you about who has told me that I cannot ever drink again.
DR. Kennedy
I am pleased to meet you Mr. Seabrook. I have read your books and Asylum is a powerful argument favoring giving up alcohol once and for all. I have examined Mrs.. Mann and I cannot find any physical maladies.
M.M.
See. I am crazy. What can I do?
DR. Kennedy
I have found an exclusive private psychiatric treatment in Greenwich, Connecticut. They take a few inebriates although there is little hope for them to get over their drinking. Dr Harry Tiebout, MD is a Psychiatrist and he is the Medical Director at Blythewood.
M.M.
I have already met him. He told me that people like me cannot drink at all. I told him that I do not like people who do not drink at all. He does not drink and like all the self-righteous dull, gray do gooder teetotalers are all the same. They have big white teeth. live narrow lives and want everybody to be dull and gloomy like them so they say don’t drink.
DR. Kennedy
Yes I know he is like that but he has been impressed by your intelligence and by your honesty and more than anything else, your earnest desire to stop destructive drinking. Blythewood has an opening for a scholarship for one woman. If you want to go there Marty, you might get some help.
M.M.
I have no other options. I cannot stay here. My family can’t take care of me. My friends have all had it with me. I have no job, no home, no prospects, no money, no self respect, no confidence, no courage, no humanity. I still have pride but no one will know that I am a charity patient. Take me to Brywood Asylum.
Lights fade to soulful music.
Act III
Blythewood
Scene I
Four ladies sitting at one four tables in Dining Room of the Middle House at Blythewood Sanitarium – a large 19 Century historical estate (Dialog between four women telling why they are at Blythewood.
Anna
I am Anna. I am a nurse. I work here at Blythewood and I make it my job to sit with new comers to help them become comfortable. Tonight I am welcoming Mrs. Marty Mann, to my right. She is from New York City and she will be working with Doctor Tiebout.
Silence and the ladies all smile at each other.
Anna
Directly in front of me is Martha. She is also from New York City. She also works with Dr. T. And to my left is Nona Wyman who lives nearby in Greenwich. She also works with Dr. T. Martha why don’t you tell us about yourself?
Martha
Well. I live in New York City with my husband and children. I drink a lot and would like to stop but it has been impossible up to now. I was in Doctor’s Hospital last month and they say I escaped but I just walked out the door and got drunk right away. They could not find me and the hospital was scandalized by the New York Times coverage. It was no big deal but my family is embarrassed and wants to disown me. I am here as a last resort. Dr. Tiebout is my doctor. Nothing has been useful for my not wanting to drink.
M.M.
I remember you. I was at Doctor’s Hospital also. Your story in the New York Times was great. Good enough for them. They are puzzled by people like you. I think it’s great.
Martha
When I came here a few weeks ago they put me in the lockup house which is on the back of the campus furtherest from the road. Here it is called the violent house and it has a padded cell. You can hear people there screaming some times. I stayed there about ten days and moved to this house, the middle house. I want to move to the graduate house so I can go home soon. I think I am cured and will be able to drink like normal people.
Anna
Nona. Would you like to tell us about yourself?
Nona
Well, my name is Nona Wyman. I live in Greenwich with my husband who also drinks a lot. We have tried to stop but for me it of no use. I am hopeless and so is my husband. We cannot work because we cannot stay sober. My husband, Walter, and I go to this place in Kent, Connecticut. It is a farm called High Watch Farm . It is run by Sister Francis and while we are there neither of us wants to drink. Maybe when we all get out of here we can go to High Watch.
Anna
Thank you Nona. Now Mrs.. Mann do you feel like telling us about yourself?
M.M.
I was born in Chicago. A distant relative of the renowned educator, Horace Mann. When I was 14 I came down with TB and lived in and out of hospitals for about six years. Even before that I knew I was different from other girls although I am a female. I always wanted to play the male part when we played house or doctor or whatever. I wanted to be the father, the brother, the quarterback, the home run hitter.
You see, I was born a lesbian but I tried to conform to what was expected of girls but I wanted to be a boy. Once I told a pretty girl friend that if I were a boy I would ask her to go stead. She ran away and I never saw her again. Another time I told a girl how I felt and she shrieked and laughed and ran away and I never saw her again either. These experiences really affected me and my homophobia began to fester inside of me.
When I was nine or ten and reached puberty my girl friends began to notice boys and wanted to be with them but I did not. I was heartbroken and felt abandoned. I wanted to play football and baseball and ride bicycles with boys but I did not want boys like my girl friends did. My friends giggled with boys and wanted to be touched by them but I want to compete with them. I rough housed with boys. Since I was with boys I let them look at my body parts and feel them because I wanted to play with them, not for sex. So I became the boy’s guinea pig.
Then in my second decade I reached puberty and I really tried to change. I became sensitive and fearful of my feelings. I tried harder to conform to the female role as I perceived it. I wanted to be like the other girls in my class so I got a boy friend.
We went steady for seven years. We were really buddies. I got a motorcycle and a truck and we worked on cars together. Sex was an obligation that I endured mostly but that is not to say that I did not get aroused and get something out of it but mostly I did not.
That relationship ultimately became physically abusive. I would hit him and he would hit me. That continued through high school and into my third decade.
In my third decade, when I
