Sleep Deprivation Chamber Read online

  SLEEP DEPRIVATION CHAMBER

  ADAM P. KENNEDY AND

  ADRIENNE KENNEDY

  THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP

  Copyright © 1996 by Adam P. Kennedy and Adrienne Kennedy

  Sleep Deprivation Chamber is published by Theatre Communications Group, Inc., 355 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10017-0217.

  All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio or television reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that this material, being fully protected under the Copyright Laws of the United States of America and all other countries of the Berne and Universal Copyright Conventions, is subject to a royalty. All rights including, but not limited to, professional, amateur, recording, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio and television broadcasting, and the rights of translation into foreign languages are expressly reserved. Particular emphasis is placed on the question of readings and all uses of these plays by educational institutions, permission for which must be secured from the authors' representative: Joyce Ketay, The Joyce Ketay Agency, 1501 Broadway, Suite 1908, New York, NY 10036, (212) 354-6825.

  Kennedy, Adam (Adam P.)

  Sleep deprivation chamber / by Adam and Adrienne Kennedy.

  eISBN 978-1–55936–722–6

  1. Afro-American men—Virginia—Drama. 2. Mothers and sons—

  Virginia—Drama. 3. Police brutality—Virginia—Drama.

  4. Suburban life—Virginia—Drama.

  I. Kennedy, Adrienne. II. Title.

  PS3561. E42518S58 1996

  812'.54—dc20 96–35079

  CIP

  Cover art by Susan Johann

  Cover design by Susan Mitchell

  Book design by Lisa Govan

  First Edition, November 1996

  To all the people who believed in me and supported the Kennedy family—thank you. All the incredible letters on my behalf made me realize how truly blessed I am. They provided me with a great deal of strength and power during a very difficult time.

  Sometimes in the midst of great tragedy one realizes the enormous amount of love and faith that surrounds them. My mom and dad, the greatest parents in the world, guided me with their strength, support, courage, determination and great dignity—I couldn’t have made it without them. To Roger Adelman and Tom Foltz, two great lawyers who outsmarted the police and the district attorney’s office at every turn. To Duane Grier—my brother in spirit who endured with me, to my brother Joe, Aunt Mary, Harriet Jones, Claire Hunkin, Sam Peabody, Marty and Gus Trowbridge, Stephen Trow bridge, Jean Stein and my grandmothers, Etta Hawkins and Jessie Hunkin.

  A very special thanks to Michael Kahn for his brilliant vision and the whole cast, especially Kevin Carroll. To Renee and my daughter Dori—hopefully by the time she reaches adulthood our society will have come to grips with, and defeated, the evils of racism in America.

  And finally, I would like to dedicate this book to all the black American men who shared with me their own horrible experiences with the police—it is a sobering reality that my experience is such a common one.

  —Adam P. Kennedy

  For friends who wrote the letters . . . and those who did more . . . Mary K. Carter, Sam Peabody, Jean Stein, Marty and Gus Trowbridge, Charles Robb’s office staff and my son, Joe, who gave me advice on serenity. . . . And for Michael Kahn and his breathtaking directing.

  —Adrienne Kennedy

  Table of Contents

  Scene I

  Scene II

  Scene III

  SLEEP DEPRIVATION CHAMBER

  The world premiere of Sleep Deprivation Chamber was presented February–March 1996 by Signature Theatre Company in New York City and was performed on the stage of the Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival. The production was directed by Michael Kahn, with sets by E. David Cosier, lights by Jeffrey S. Koger, sound by Jim van Bergen and costumes by Teresa Snider-Stein and Jonathan Green. The cast was as follows:

  SUZANNE

  Trazana Beverley

  TEDDY

  Kevin T. Carroll

  MARCH

  Grafton Trew

  DAVID ALEXANDER

  Willie C. Carpenter

  MR. EDELSTEIN

  Paul Geier

  MS. WAGNER

  Glynis Bell

  OFFICER HOLZER

  Jonathan Fried

  ENSEMBLE

  Mark Gorman, Ben Hersey,

  Leslie Silva, Bo Smith,

  Jacques Henri Taylor

  PLACE

  Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio

  Ohio Theatre, Cleveland, Ohio

  Hotel, Washington, D.C.

  Courtroom in Virginia

  TIME

  Two years ago

  CHARACTERS

  (Cast of ten to twelve actors)

  SUZANNE ALEXANDER, Teddy’s mother, a writer

  TEDDY, a senior at Antioch College

  MARCH ALEXANDER, Teddy’s uncle

  DAVID ALEXANDER, Teddy’s father, head of Africa/USA

  The police, lawyers, Patrice, David Jr., the cousin, the student cast of a play, etc., are all played interchangeably by the same actors.

  SCENE I

  Winter. Antioch College Theatre Department. Backstage with a view of the rehearsal hall and stage. In the rehearsal hall is a long table. The Student Cast sits with scripts and books, their voices are muted. The rehearsal hall and backstage are almost dark.

  Suzanne sits at a dressing table writing.

  STUDENT CAST: Ophelia, betrayal, disillusionment.

  (Suzanne looks toward doorway at the end of the rehearsal hall, she’s an African-American writer, mid-fifties. She wears winter coat, scarf.)

  STUDENT CAST: Ophelia, betrayal, disillusionment.

  (Through the door at the end of the rehearsal hall comes Teddy, Suzanne’s son. He is a slight young man, twenty-one, sallow skin like his mother’s, black hair already thinning, glasses, wearing rehearsal clothes. He joins Student Cast at table. He is the director.)

  STUDENT CAST: The murder of the sleeping king.

  (Suzanne puts her head down on the dressing table.)

  STUDENT CAST: Asleep at the moment of his murder.

  (Suzanne falls asleep. Her voice narrates dream sequence. All dream sequences have fragments of the dream acted out onstage. These fragments are identified here by DREAM SCENE.)

  SUZANNE: Teddy was accused of murdering a French king again. And while he was in jail in Virginia (after being condemned) Teddy’s right hand was cut off. And his body was drawn in sunder and dismembered by five horses and his carcass and quarters cast into a fire and consumed to ashes and the ashes scattered to the wind while I yelled at the killers.

  DREAM SCENE: (Teddy’s body is drawn in sunder and dismembered, his carcass cast into a fire.)

  SUZANNE: I’ve been to Concord and read Thoreau and Emerson and my grandmother went to church twice a week and our family has worked hard for justice.

  Please believe me, I held up a photograph of my father’s church. (Holds up a photograph of her father’s church)

  (She walks, writes.)

  SUZANNE:

  Dear County Manager:

  Again I write—

  That morning in January Patrice called me crying, explaining how they had been sleeping when the sound of police sirens awakened them. The room appeared aflame with light and then a scream. It was Teddy. In the middle of that same night I dreamed about men living underneath the Westside Highway at 96th Street
.

  (Pause)

  My children, Patrice and Teddy, were visiting their father in Arlington.

  (Light goes to Teddy sitting at the rehearsal table)

  What did I do, he screamed.

  STUDENT ACTOR:

  “I am thy father’s spirit

  Doomed for a certain time to walk the night

  And for the day confined to fast in fires

  Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature

  Are burnt and purged away. . . .”

  (Light on Teddy. He remembers as Suzanne writes.)

  SUZANNE:

  Dear Governor Wilder:

  My name is Suzanne Alexander. I am a black writer. I have written you once before in February. I am writing to you again about the Arlington, Virginia Police Department.

  (Scene of Teddy and Police Officer. Flashing red and white lights and the image of a car. A white Officer moves toward Teddy.)

  TEDDY: Officer, what seems to be the problem? Can I help you?

  OFFICER: Get back in the car.

  TEDDY: Officer, what seems to be the problem? I live here, this is my house. Can I help you? (Fade)

  (Light on Suzanne.)

  SUZANNE (Continues letter to Governor Wilder):

  We are an outstanding black American family. My former husband, David, is head of Africa/USA. My plays and stories are published and taught widely.

  We are now a grieved family. Our son is being persecuted by the Arlington Police Department just as surely as happened in the Deep South in the 1930s or during Emmett Till’s time.

  On Friday night, January 11, my son, a fine citizen who has never been in any trouble whatsoever, was knocked to the ground and beaten in the face, kicked repeatedly in the chest and stomach and dragged in the mud by an Arlington Virginia policeman whose name is Holzer. This occurred in his father’s front yard on Riverdale Street in Arlington. My son was stopped because he had a taillight out on his car. There was no further provocation from him. The Arlington police arrested my son, then concocted a totally false story and charges, and charged him with assault and battery.

  This is the height of persecution of a black male with tactics of the Deep South of the time 1930s and overtones of Emmett Till. My son has never been in any trouble at all. He is a fine citizen and student at Antioch College. Please look into the Arlington Police Department and its racial persecution of our son and our family. We are grieved and shocked. We want these false charges dismissed.

  Suzanne Alexander

  Dr. David Alexander

  Patrice Alexander

  David Alexander, Jr.

  P.S.

  Ever since he’d been a child he has been described by everyone as brilliant. He’s always wanted to be a theatre director-slash-writer and actor. But like David, he has a scholarly side and his essays on culture, race, theatre and literature are already published by a college journal in New York. This is his senior year at Antioch.

  (Teddy thinking. Sees himself standing in a dark driveway in handcuffs, his face swollen, being questioned by “Unseen Questioner.” Student Cast remains on stage silently rehearsing.)

  UNSEEN QUESTIONER: So when he hit you, you didn’t go to the ground?

  TEDDY: I went to the ground when he first hit me and then that’s when he proceeded to drag me across the driveway while he was kicking me and hitting me.

  UNSEEN QUESTIONER: Well, what position were you in when he first started to drag you?

  TEDDY: I was basically crouched down on the ground.

  UNSEEN QUESTIONER: You were in a crouch?

  TEDDY: Well, crouch might—I was bending when he hit me I sort of—I moved to the ground—I was bending at the knees and he put his hand behind me and proceeded to drag me across, all right.

  UNSEEN QUESTIONER: What part of you was dragging on the ground if—

  TEDDY: My legs were dragging on the ground. I mean, you could—from my pants—from the dirt and the scuffle marks on my pants—my—both my jackets were torn. I was being just drug across the driveway.

  UNSEEN QUESTIONER: Well, are you lying on—totally extended on your side or are you—is he dragging you in your crouch?

  TEDDY: He’s dragging—I’m dragging me—I am sort of diagonal. All right. My—I am in sort of a crouch-type position and crunched down because he’s trying to force me to the ground and he’s kicking me and punching me. But yet, he’s also pulling me from the back of the car diagonally across to . . . to the end of the driveway.

  UNSEEN QUESTIONER: Did you say anything to him at this time?

  TEDDY: It’s very difficult to say anything when a guy is kicking you and punching you in your face and your stomach and your back.

  UNSEEN QUESTIONER: How about like, stop it or don’t hit me or you’re hurting me? Did you say anything to him?

  TEDDY: No, I didn’t say anything at that point to Officer Holzer while he was dragging me and kicking me. Because I was in a state—I was so stunned—so surprised that he was doing this. I mean, I was just—I couldn’t believe that . . .

  (Fade. The Student Cast breaks from rehearsal and vanishes through the rear door.)

  (Suzanne walks onto the stage and sits across from Teddy at the table. Behind them is a stage and set of Hamlet resembling a scene from an Orson Welles piece, shadows, dark spaces, little furnishings.)

  TEDDY: Mom, what else can we do to find Uncle March?

  SUZANNE: I’ve hired a detective and every day my friend, Maynard, editor of the Oakland Tribune, writes about March. I don’t know what else to do until your criminal suit is over. I’ll go to California. Patrice has moved into his cottage from her own apartment.

  TEDDY: You do believe Uncle March is alive?

  SUZANNE: Yes. He’s wandered off before.

  Teddy, are you preparing for all your meetings? Backstage I write again to Robb, Warner, Wilder. I’m sending them photographs of you as a child in Ghana. I dreamed about March last night and you too. We were all at Stanford.

  (Teddy thinks. He again is questioned by Unseen Questioner.)

  TEDDY: Yes, I pulled over—I pulled into the driveway which was—there were several cars on my left so I could not pull—I just pulled into the driveway which was about fifty feet, sixty feet away and I was, you know, going down the hill—there’s a hill—going fifteen miles an hour, it took me several seconds.

  UNSEEN QUESTIONER: So you didn’t stop your car when the emergency light—

  TEDDY: Oh, yes I did.

  UNSEEN QUESTIONER: How much time transpired between the time the emergency lights came on and you brought your vehicle to a stop in the driveway?

  TEDDY: About ten seconds.

  UNSEEN QUESTIONER: How fast were you going?

  TEDDY: Fifteen miles an hour.

  UNSEEN QUESTIONER: How far were you from your driveway when you saw those emergency lights?

  TEDDY: I would say approximately fifty feet or so.

  UNSEEN QUESTIONER: Then what happened?

  TEDDY: I pulled the car into the driveway. I parked the car. I got out of the vehicle, closed the door. I saw that there was a police officer who had gotten out of his . . .

  (Fade.)

  SUZANNE (Narrates Dream Scene): My brother-in-law, March, and I are sitting on the small terrace outside the cottage beneath the tree. I stare at the red poison berries. Beyond, men play golf. He writes in the Scarlet Fever List.

  DREAM SCENE: (Suzanne and March sitting on terrace. A white sign on cottage door says: “Do Not Enter.” Yellow tapes: “Crime Scene.”)

  MARCH: Great storms will be. This day there are great storms of wind, overturned trees, barns and houses, even forests. We live near the epicenter.

  SUZANNE (Staring at the red berry tree): We drink cappuccino. It is the day after the 1989 earthquake. Part of the Bay Bridge has fallen. There is another shock, the radio says there will be approximately three hundred aftershocks in the next two months. But if the big one doesn’t come before Christmas, then it probably won’t. All around
us are yellow tapes that say “Crime Scene.” A white sign on the door of the cottage says, “Do Not Enter Property: Will be examined for damage, October 30.”

  (Suzanne stands, enters living room amidst fallen furniture.

  Teddy is being kicked in the stomach by the Virginia police. His clothes are covered with mud, his face swelling from the blows by the policeman’s elbow.)

  SUZANNE: I offer the Policeman poison.

  TEDDY (Crying out as they kick him): Mom, help me.

  (They handcuff Teddy and take him away in a paddy wagon. Silence.)

  TEDDY: Dad talked to a lawyer today in Washington.

  (David Alexander, a handsome man in his mid-sixties, being questioned by an unseen Lawyer for the prosecution.)

  DAVID ALEXANDER: Well, the first thing I saw, when I went out, he was standing there, and then I saw an officer with a gun drawn.

  LAWYER: You saw an officer with a gun drawn?

  DAVID ALEXANDER: Yes, in that stance.

  LAWYER: Would you describe the officer?

  DAVID ALEXANDER: Well, black female.

  LAWYER: Did you ever learn that officer’s name?

  DAVID ALEXANDER: Yes.

  LAWYER: What was her name?

  DAVID ALEXANDER: Officer Summers.

  LAWYER: Could you describe the weapon?

  DAVID ALEXANDER: No.

  LAWYER: Have you ever been in the military?

  DAVID ALEXANDER: Yes.

  LAWYER: What branch of the service?

  DAVID ALEXANDER: I was in the Medical Service Corps, in Korea.