A NEW ENGLAND WEEKEND

By

Richard A. Steel

 

The following is an excerpt:

 

 

ACT ONE

SCENE ONE

 

THE TIME: September, 1976, evening

THE PLACE:  The interior and front porch of an old, sturdy New England house.

 

 

 

Ben and Jean enter the front yard and climb the stairs to the porch.

 

                                                            BEN

You did real good Jean.  Five years shut up in the house, no one would know.  I’m very proud of you, I am.

 

                                                            JEAN

                                                  (Sighing)

Hmmmm.

 

                                                            BEN

You should get out more.  Not good to stay inside like that.

 

                                                            JEAN

I don’t remember it being this hot in September.

 

                                    BEN

I'm getting tired of summer, I am.  I like it warm, but then I

start to get bored and look forward to winter, I do.  Can you get the lock.  Here, let me take it.  Can you honestly understand looking forward to winter! I must be crazy.

Unlocking the door.

 

                                    BEN

I'm glad we live in the east.  Maybe winter will come early this year.  I read recently that the earth is going through some kind of (beat) disorder…

  

They are in the house.

 

                                    BEN

…winter will be where summer is now and vise versa.

 

                                    JEAN

Hmmmm

 

 

 

                                    BEN

I wonder if that happens, will they change the name around or leave them as they are?  It would be funny, you know, if we suddenly have to think of summer as a time of snow and ice and vice versa.

 

                                    JEAN

Do we have coffee?

 

                                    BEN

They say that caffeine is bad for your health.  We'll make cocoa, that's what will do.

 

                                    JEAN

I don’t want hot chocolate.  I prefer coffee.

                                    BEN

            (Correcting her)

Cocoa.  Hot chocolate is made with water, cocoa is made with milk.  It’s the real thing.  (beat)  Remember hot cocoa on Saturday nights.  I'll get it started.

 

                                    JEAN

Hmmm?  What?

 

                                    BEN

Saturday nights in the winter.  Cocoa, English muffins and Sid Caesar. Would you like an English muffin? 

 

                                    JEAN

No.

 

                                    BEN

I'll get it started.  Saturday nights…

 

                                    JEAN

Saturday nights…

 

                                    BEN

Warm and happy, it was.  Sitting around the Motorola watching Sid Ceasar    I'll never forget it.  Sid Caesar and what's her name.

 

                                    JEAN

Imogine Coca.

 

                                    BEN

No.

 

                                    JEAN

Yes, Imogine Coca.

 

                                    BEN

Not then.  It was later I think.  Yes, I think it was later,

another woman.

 

                                    JEAN

Do you think he's dead?

 

                                    BEN

Sid Caesar?

 

                                    JEAN

Bob.

 

                                    BEN

Jean, you mustn't talk that way.  Of course he's alive.  We just left him, we did.  You've got to stay positive.  I was reading, in the paper, it was.  I was reading just the other day, an article about - vibrations. I think, yes, vibrations. Well apparently we - all of us - send out, transmit, these vibrations all the time, like thinking, I suppose.  Anyway, there are positive vibrations and negative vibrations which they call "bad vibes" and we send out all these bad vibes all the time to each other without realizing it.  And they effect us in a negative way.  So when you ask if Bob is dead, that would be a bad vibe, I think.  But if you send out a positive vibration, like believing he is improving, well he just might pick up and recover.

 

                                    JEAN

Nannett Fabrae!

 

                                    BEN

Of course it was just an article and you can't believe anything you read today, you can't.  There are so many lies.

 

                                    JEAN

Yes, all lies.

 

                                    BEN

I blame the Republicans, I do.  I don't trust Gerald Ford.  He’s too nice to be President.

 

 

 

 

                                    JEAN

Is the doctor really telling me everything?  Do you know something?  He refuses to tell me what's wrong, why he's so weak.  I just know there is something more to it.  The doctor refuses to tell me.

 

                                    BEN

Jean, he told you.

 

                                    JEAN

I don't believe him.

 

                                    BEN

He was looking so much better, he was.  Much better today.  (beat)  He ate his dinner. 

 

JEAN

I ate his dinner.

 

                                     BEN

They feed them good at St. Luke’s, much better than County.

 

                                    JEAN

He's dying

 

                                    BEN

Nannette Fabrae.  That's it!  Sid Caesar and Nannette Fabrae.  You lived on Brayton Avenue then - that old house on Brayton Avenue, or was it Globe Street in the tenement.

 

                                    JEAN

The tenement.

 

                                    BEN

Are you sure?

 

                                    JEAN

The tenement.  You stayed with us in the tenement when Bob and I were having the trouble.  You came to live with us so I could work.

 

                                    BEN

It was a good time, it was.

 

                                    JEAN

It was a miserable time.

 

 

                                    BEN

On Saturday nights we were happy.  In front of the Motorola…

 

                                    JEAN

There was no love in that house.

 

                                    BEN

How can you say…

 

                                    JEAN

It was so…unnatural.

 

                                    BEN

Jean!

 

                                    JEAN

Do you know, I can hardly remember ever having smiled.

 

                                    BEN

I moved in and helped you.  I brought love into that house, I did.

 

                                    JEAN

What's the use thinking of those times - hateful time .  I shouldn't think about them.

                                    BEN

Bad vibes Jean.  Like the article said - negative thoughts.

 

                                    JEAN

Yes.

 

                                    BEN

Are you hungry?  I'm famished, I am.

 

                                    JEAN

Not very.  I ate Bob's dinner.

 

                                    BEN

I'm always hungry.  Starved all the time, I am.  But I'm not allowed to eat anything.  Eggs have cholesterol, steak is too heavy, I can't use salt, sugar or butter and everything else causes cancer.  I'm tired of the food I can eat.  I'm never satisfied.  I can remember how I used to look forward to dinner.  All day at work I would think about dinner. We had big dinners, we did. Fresh food, right from the earth. (beat) Remember Sundays?

 

 

 

                                    JEAN

                        (Weary)

Pasta.

 

                                    BEN

Macaroni.  I haven't had macaroni in ages, I haven't.  (Beat)  Sundays.

 

                                    JEAN

Bob hated macaroni.

 

                                    BEN
You never encouraged him.  Look at Ann.  She married French but he eats Italian, he does.  You never coaxed him.

 

                                    JEAN

He didn't like macaroni!  He liked baked beans and brown bread.

 

                                    BEN

Remember how Mama made ravioli.

 

                                    JEAN

Mama never made ravioli.  She made flat noodles.  They were terrible.  Mrs. Rizzo made ravioli.  Mrs. Rizzo down the street.

 

 

 

                                    BEN

Wrong.  You're wrong, Jean.  Mama made ravioli.  They were delicious.  Mrs. Rizzo made breads and pastry..  Mrs. Lonzio made the noodles.

 

                                    DONALD (OS)

Goddamn it!  Will you shut up down there.

 

                                    JEAN

Heavenly sounds.

 

                                    BEN

                        (Yelling upstairs)

Donald!  Donald!

 

                                    DONALD (OS)

God damn it!

 

                                    JEAN

Let the monster rest.

 

                                    BEN

Donald you're home.  When did you get home?  Are you sleeping?

 

                                    DONALD (OS)

Jesus Christ!  I'd have to be in a coma to sleep through that racket.

 

                                    JEAN

                        (Almost to herself)

Just like his father.

 

                                    BEN

Donald, would you like some hot cocoa?

 

No answer.

It will help you sleep.

 

No answer.

 

Donald?

 

                                    DONALD (OS)

Jesus Christ!  Will you shut up!

 

                                    JEAN

Let him sleep.

      

 

                                    BEN

                        (To Jean)

You sure you don't want some hot cocoa?

 

                                    JEAN

                        (Overlapping)

No!  I told you!!

 

Ben starts to exit.        

                                    BEN

I'm getting into my pj's.

 

                                    JEAN

                        (Not listening)

Good.

 

                                    BEN

Are you all right?

 

                                    JEAN

I'm fine.  Adjusting.

 

                                    BEN (OS)

Who's on Johnnie

 

                                    JEAN

I don’t know.  I don't care.

 

Raymond and Winston enter the porch area carrying back packs.  Raymond is in his mid-twenties and a bit effeminate.  Winston is a somewhat older handsome, rugged black man wearing a cowboy hat.

 

                                    BEN (OS)

A little Johnnie will do you good.  Give it a try, why don't you.

 

Raymond rings the doorbell.

 

                                    BEN (OS)
Was that…

 

                                    JEAN

Sshhh…

 

The door bell rings again.

 

 

                                                            DONALD (OS)

Goddamnit!

 

                                    JEAN

Who's there?

 

                                    RAYMOND

La La!

 

                                    JEAN

Who's there?

 

                                    BEN (OS)

Who's there?

 

                                    DONALD (OS)

Open the damn door!

 

 

                                    RAYMOND

La! La!

 

                                    JEAN

                        (Unlocking the door)

Raymond!  It's Raymond!

 

                                    BEN  (OS)

Donald, it's Raymond.  Raymond is home.

 

                                    DONALD (OS)

Goddamnit!

 

 

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