Clybourne Park Read online

  KATHY

  German and Irish.

  STEVE

  Depending how far back you –

  KATHY

  It’s funny, though. Even though my father’s family was German, back when they were living here –

  LINDSEY

  Wait, did I know this?

  KATHY

  I told you that.

  LINDSEY

  In this neighborhood?

  KATHY

  (to KEVIN & LENA)

  They went to church at St. Stan’s! Isn’t that crazy?

  KEVIN

  Is that right?

  KATHY

  (to KEVIN & LENA)

  This is the late fifties. (laugh) My father was a “Rotarian”! But my mother –

  KATHY

  (cont’d to LINDSEY)

  She was deaf? I told you that?

  LINDSEY

  That I knew

  KEVIN

  Awwww, that’s a shame.

  KATHY

  (to KEVIN)

  Thank you. It was congenital. But then she got pregnant with me and they moved out to Rosemont, anyway, her family, they were Swedish.

  STEVE

  (to KEVIN & LENA)

  There was a great article two weeks ago – I don’t know if you saw this – about the history of the changing, uh, ethnic –

  LINDSEY

  Distribution.

  LENA

  Oh, I should read that.

  STEVE

  – of the neighborhood and how in the seventies, eighties, how that was followed by a period of – of – of – of – of rapid –

  KATHY

  Decline.

  LINDSEY

  No–Not–No

  STEVE

  Of growth. Of growing –

  KATHY

  I don’t mean decline –

  KATHY

  – I mean there was trouble.

  LINDSEY

  Not trouble, she didn’t mean –

  KEVIN

  There was trouble.

  LINDSEY

  Economic trouble.

  KEVIN

  Drugs are trouble.

  KATHY

  That’s what I’m saying.

  KEVIN

  Violence is trouble.

  KATHY

  (vindicated)

  Exactly.

  LINDSEY

  And the violence as an outgrowth of the criminalization of those drugs.

  KEVIN .

  (re: himself and LENA)

  ’Cuz ya know, the two of us wuz both crackheads.

  (A frozen moment, then:)

  STEVE

  That’s funny. I know you’re kidding but that was the perception at the –

  LINDSEY

  No, come on. Don’t say that. Really. Even as a joke.

  KATHY

  I know you’re joking, but that is exactly what people thought.

  KEVIN

  (laughs)

  I’m kidding you. I’m just messing with you.

  STEVE

  (to LINDSEY)

  – he’s being funny.

  LINDSEY

  I know he was, and it ways funny but when people are systematically dehumanized – If you’ve been placed in some faceless, institutional –

  KATHY

  (explaining to KEVIN & LENA)

  The projects.

  LINDSEY

  – I mean, like it or not, that kind of environment is not conducive to – to – to – to –

  KEVIN

  That’s true.

  LINDSEY

  — the formation of community.

  KATHY

  Horrible.

  KEVIN

  Tough place to grow up.

  LINDSEY

  With the effect on children?

  KEVIN

  On anyone.

  LINDSEY

  And to take what had been a pros - well, not prosperous, but a solidly middle-class, um – ?

  STEVE

  Enclave.

  LINDSEY

  And then undermine the entire economic –

  STEVE

  Infrastructure.

  LINDSEY

  – by warehousing people inside of these –

  STEVE

  But that’s the thing, right? If you construct some artificial semblance of a community, and then isolate people within that – I mean, what would be the definition of a ghetto, you know? A ghetto is a place, Where – (cont’d.)

  LINDSEY

  (overlapping, to STEVE)

  But who uses that word? I don’t.

  STEVE

  (continuous)

  – where, where, where people are sequestered, right?

  (to LINDSEY, defensively)

  The definition, I’m saying.

  LENA

  Well, my family -

  STEVE

  Like Prague. If you think of - (pedagogically) Okay: Prague had this ghetto, right? A Jewish ghetto?

  LENA

  (thanks for the lecture)

  We’ve been to Prague.

  LINDSEY

  Ohmigod. Prague is beautiful. (KEVIN wiggles his hand) I loved Pr– you didn’t love it?

  KEVIN

  Prague’s crowded.

  KATHY

  And the food sucks. Or is that just me?

  STEVE

  But I’m saying, It’s not like, one day all these Jews were sitting around Prague, looking at the Real Estate section, going, “Hey here’s an idea! Let’s all go live in that ghetto!” Right?

  (A beat where they all avoid STEVE’s comment. Then: )

  LINDSEY

  (to LENA)

  When were you in Prague?

  LENA

  Last April.

  KEVIN

  First Prague, then Zurich.

  LINDSEY

  I want to go back.

  KEVIN

  (to STEVE)

  You ski?

  (A laugh erupts from LINDSEY.)

  LINDSEY

  (re: STEVE)

  Him?

  STEVE

  You mean—like downhill?

  LINDSEY

  That I’d like to see.

  KEVIN

  Ever been to Switzerland?

  STEVE

  (to LINDSEY, defensive)

  I can ski. I have skied.

  LINDSEY

  Get that on video.

  STEVE

  Why is that funny?

  LINDSEY

  (trying not to laugh, to KEVIN)

  Sorry.

  STEVE

  Seriously. What is it about the idea of me skiing that you find so highly, uh – ?

  LINDSEY

  Anyway.

  STEVE

  — risible?

  KEVIN

  (to STEVE)

  I just meant, you like to golf, you go to Scotland And if you like to ski?

  LINDSEY

  (still laughing)

  Just trying to picture it.

  STEVE

  Gratuitous.

  TOM

  (prodding the others)

  Annnnnnyway.

  LENA

  Yes. Maybe we should try to stick to the topic at hand.

  LINDSEY

  Okay. Tom’s right Let’s get it together.

  KATHY

  (to KEVIN)

  I can’t ski because I was born with weak ankles. Anyway.

  LINDSEY

  (to TOM)

  Where were we?

  TOM

  Page three.

  LINDSEY

  Uggh. You’re kidding.

  TOM

  Nope.

  LINDSEY

  How can we still be – ?

  TOM

  I dunno.

  LINDSEY

  How is that possible?

  TOM

  (glancing at watch)

  And it is now … quarter to four.

  LENA

  I’m sorry for taking time.

  LINDSEY
/>
  No. What you said was great.

  LENA

  And I wasn’t trying to romanticize.

  LINDSEY

  You didn’t.

  LENA

  Nothing romantic about being poor.

  LINDSEY

  But, it was your neighborhood.

  KATHY

  (to LENA)

  Wait, what street?

  LENA

  Offa Larabee.

  KATHY

  My parents lived on Claremont!

  KEVIN

  Ya’ll would’ve been neighbors.

  LENA

  But I didn’t mean to make it about my personal connection to the house. It’s more about the principle.

  KEVIN

  But you can’t live in a principle.

  LINDSEY

  You had a personal connection?

  KEVIN

  To the house.

  LINDSEY

  To this house?

  KEVIN

  (to LINDSEY)

  Her aunt.

  LENA

  I don’t want to – let’s not.

  KEVIN

  Lived here.

  STEVE

  Wait. Who?

  LENA

  Sort of beside the point, but yes.

  KEVIN

  Great-aunt.

  LENA

  On my mother’s side.

  LINDSEY

  You don’t mean, here, here?

  LENA

  And this is fifty years ago.

  LINDSEY

  Here in this house.

  LENA

  For quite some time, actually.

  LINDSEY

  (hand to her heart)

  Oh my g— ! So so so wait, so - ?

  STEVE

  Whoa.

  STEVE

  (clarifying)

  This exact house.

  LINDSEY

  (how weird)

  – so, like, you’ve … been in this room?

  LENA

  I used to climb a tree in the backyard.

  LINDSEY

  Oh my god.

  STEVE

  Whoa.

  LENA

  A crepe myrtle tree.

  KATHY

  Well, that is just bizarre.

  KEVIN

  Any rate, her great-aunt – and she had to save a long time to be able to afford a house like this.

  LENA

  She was a domestic worker.

  KEVIN

  And, a house isn’t cheap.

  LENA

  Not here, anyway.

  KEVIN

  Here at that time.

  LENA

  At that time - well, when I was growing up I really don’t remember seeing a single white face in the neighborhood for pretty much my entire –

  KEVIN

  Well, one, you said.

  LENA

  Who?

  KEVIN

  What’s his name?

  LENA

  Mr. Wheeler?

  KEVIN

  Mr. Wheeler.

  LENA

  (to the others)

  I don’t think anybody knew his first name.

  KEVIN

  He was a … what?

  LENA

  (to LINDSEY)

  At the grocery store.

  KEVIN

  Bagged the groceries.

  LENA

  At the Sup’r – Well, back then it was Gelman’s but they tore down Gelman’s.

  KEVIN

  And that became Sup’r Sav’r?

  LENA

  Well, then they tore down Sup’r Sav’r, so —

  KEVIN

  You know where the Whole Foods is?

  STEVE

  And what happened to Mr. Wheeler?

  KEVIN

  Dead, probably.

  LENA

  He was, you know … (taps her temple) … developmentally … ?

  LINDSEY

  Ohhhh. That’s so sad.

  STEVE

  Huh. Wow.

  Depressing.

  KATHY

  Ohhhh … you know why that upsets me? I have a niece with Asperger’s syndrome.

  LENA

  But, given the makeup of the neighborhood at that time and the price of a home like this one, the question naturally arises as to whether it was the thing that happened here in the house – whether that in some way –

  KEVIN

  Played a factor.

  LENA

  In making a place like this affordable. For a person of her income.

  (All stare.)

  STEVE

  The thing.

  LENA

  The sad – you know.

  LINDSEY

  I don’t.

  LENA

  The tragic –

  KEVIN

  Thing that happened.

  LINDSEY

  What thing?

  KEVIN

  (no big deal)

  Well. Long time ago, but –

  STEVE

  In this house?

  LENA

  I’m just saying that, since she was one of the very first people of color –

  LINDSEY

  Wait. Something happened in the house?

  STEVE

  What, somebody died, or – ?

  KEVIN

  S’not important.

  LINDSEY

  That we should be concerned about?

  KEVIN

  No no no no no.

  LENA

  Just that – there’d been a family. Who had a son who’d been in the Army

  KEVIN

  Korea, maybe?

  LENA

  And who, well, a few years after he came back from the war –

  KEVIN

  Killed himself.

  LINDSEY

  (beat)

  Oh my god.

  KEVIN

  Yeah.

  STEVE

  Wow.

  LINDSEY

  Oh my god.

  KEVIN

  Sad.

  STEVE

  Wow

  LINDSEY