Clybourne Park Page 11
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