People Like You
John A Johnson
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: [email protected]
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 wait
ing 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
