"Ward Nine - Frontal Lobotomy" Improv Play

[Lightning Rod]

tourettes
we have some very good medications for this
of course you won't remember you children's names

I'm holding out for oldtimer's disease

[judih]

my oldtime hers have told me that forgetting is the bliss of the aged

let us not remember lightly but rather walk on into the semi-quaked dark

i feel, i feel my other personalities are begging to come out to play, but i am shy to let them all out at once....nor do i have the key to the upper floors....

do tell me you have the key

[Doreen Peri]

Tic. Tic.
Tock. Tock.
Tourettes reminds me
of a clock.

We are only here for a short time.
It makes little sense to allow imprisonment.
I have been released by the power of a
daughter of a goddess!

Soon I will fly back home.
To my native planet.

[Doreen Peri]

oooooo..... Queen E!

Let them out!
Let them come out and play!
Don't be shy!

I promise, nobody is here but the three of us in this ward. Noone will know but us.

What are their names?

Let them out!
Let them come out and play!

You are not kind to imprison them so!
They will be grateful, as I was grateful
when you released me from my rhyme prison!

[judih]

before you fly away, Delores, paint me a picture please!

[judih]

paint me a picture
make me a picture

paint me
and if you'd like, i'll gather the others round so you can paint them as well

[Doreen Peri]

There is a war raging outside.
Yet they call us the ones who are insane.

We are safe. They are killing each other.
Why do I want to leave this place?

I tied the guard up with duck tape.
I stole his keys. I opened the door
and found dead bodies, blood,
combat, tanks, grenades!

There is a war raging outside.
Yet they call us the ones who are insane.
They are killing each other.
Why do I want to leave this place?

[Doreen Peri]

I will paint a picture of peace.
I will put you in the picture.
I will put those outside these walls
in the picture. I will paint the blood white.
I will use the white paint I have in my room.
I will stop the war by painting the blood white.
I will make the war invisible.
I will make the war disappear.
I will paint the war invisible.

[judih]

paint me, Delores

i'm pleading
paint my brain
my frontal lobe
paint it invisible


paint me

[Lightning Rod]

I'm the only sane one here. I'm not like the rest of you crazies. I've been everyone from Marat to McMurphy. For me, crazy is an artform, not a condition.

They put me here, not because I was crazy, but because I was unmanageable.

Are we gonna let them treat us this way?

Go ahead and give me your medications. I won't be numbed or vacant. I love dope. Do you know why I do dope? For fun. Bring on your dope and your shock treatments. I'd rather be labeled a crazy than have a frontal lobotomy.

Don't give in to the jailers and quacks.

[judih]

they've tried shock and cage
and music and basket weaving
and dance therapy
and cry therapy
and laughter therapy
and psychotherapy
and surgical, no, not surgical therapy

they've tried boring me into a coma therapy
and stimulating me into amusement park hypnosis
and droning me with whitenoise
and alpha waving me with electric toys

i won't take
it won't work

but for now, all of us shall hang from the rafters till for ever

[Doreen Peri]

I have painted you blue. And I have painted Dr. Conn blue, too.
I've run out of white paint. I cannot paint you or the war invisible.
The war will continue but I have painted you blue so you can
show the world how blue you are because of it.

They claim it is us who are insane?
Yet they are outside killing each other.

Here are my paintings, Queen E.

[Doreen Peri]

I must depart to my room.
My room has no windows.
I cannot see the violence there.
I would rather be fearful of the aliens
in my television set than to go outside.
It is ugly out there.
I must depart to my room.

Goodnight, dear friends.

[judih]

how strange...i can see myselves in the portrait

we can see myself

we thank you (all)

and now, i must remove my presence(s) from this room and bow to the beings who have guarded the corners

it's time ...it's time.......

[Doreen Peri]

Curtain.