Mental Health
from Pixabay
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Mental Health
from Pixabay
A Ten Minute Play
By John R. Green
Copyright © by John R. Green
Shown with his blessing
(In Order of Their Appearance)
Mid-Afternoon - Mid-Summer 1931
An Apartment on East Side Manhattan
SETTING: The living room in the apartment of Smiley Roundhouse in the throes of the Great Depression of the nineteen thirties. A couch seating two is located in center of room facing forward. Two cushioned chairs are oblong placed a short distance to the right of the couch and another two chairs are oblong situated a short distance to the left of couch. Pictures of relatives and scenery adorn the walls, while scattered rugs cover some areas of the floor. The entrance to the room is through a door to the apartment near the intersection of the rear and right walls of the room.
AT RISE: Smiley Roundhouse is standing, facing forward in center of room merrily pounding his chest while congratulating himself on his self-perceived jury victory.
SMILEY (laughing gaily) The boy wonder they called me! Juries need young blood. Those old fossils were taken in by that insanity plea: He heard voices commanding him to kill. (pause, walks about a little) But that malarkey didn't fool me! If it hadn't been for me that murderer would be on the streets ready to commit another murder! (a knock sounds on apartment door) Oh, I'll bet that is our fledging psychiatrist. (walking toward door) Prepare yourself Smiley Roundhouse for an onslaught of sorts! (He reaches and opens door where Audrey Stonestreet is standing. Motioning widely with arms and bowing) Enter and felicitate New York's celebrated juror!
AUDREY (as she and Smiley walk to center of room) I choose to call you Manhattan's devastating juror! We have been struggling to have the mentally ill accepted with understanding, compassion and integrity, but you have set us back a decade. (pauses upon reaching center of room where she wrings her hands and shakes her head in frustration) When will you learn that it is no disgrace to be mentally ill?
SMILEY Look! I see mentally ill people as sitting or lying around in depression or acting as though they hear or see things that are not there. They are lazy bums who need to snap out of it, go to work, and stop sponging on the toils of other people and us.
AUDREY (walks to a chair left of couch and seats herself) Well then, how do you regard your own mental illness?
SMILEY (walking rapidly toward Audrey) My own mental illness? (throws his arms in air and laughs derisively) Now what in the blazes are you trying to pull off here?
AUDREY (smiling warmly) We are all mentally ill to some degree; it's the human condition.
SMILEY I defy you to show me how I am mentally ill!
AUDREY I don't know you well enough to do that at the present. But some famous people have been mentally ill. Van Gogh, the great artist, was mentally ill - committed suicide.
SMILEY Wasn't he the fellow who painted the Potato Eaters? What is so great about people eating potatoes?
AUDREY Potatoes are nourishing, and those people in the painting were poor folks.
SMILEY Yeah, I guess they were lucky to have potatoes and so are a lot of people right here in Manhattan.
AUDREY Schuman, the great composer, was mentally ill, as was our beloved Abraham Lincoln.
SMILEY (amazed) You mean to tell me that he was mentally ill while he was President, running our country? How did he do it?
AUDREY (smiling, shaking her head) I don't know how he governed the nation so gloriously while he was in melancholy - depression.
SMILEY (triumphantly) Well, see, it's just like I say. Snap out of it!
AUDREY The majority of people who are mentally ill cannot labor as did Lincoln, anymore than can people with cancer ridden bodies. (A knock is sounded on the door.)
SMILEY (hopefully) Maybe that knock has something to do with the jury. (He goes rapidly to door, opens same, and greets his sister, Cindy, with a warm hug and embrace.) Audrey is here; come in and greet her. (Cindy and Audrey exchange warm, smiling and waving greetings as Cindy and Smiley release their embrace and walk to center of room.)
CINDY (tearfully) Oh, Smiley, everything is terrible at home, simply terrible! Mother says we only have enough food in the house for our meal this evening. And if Danny eats this food the doctor says he will go into a diabetic coma. There is no money to buy him the food he needs, and we are going to be evicted because we can't pay the rent on our apartment. (pauses, breaks into sobbing) And worst of all, mother hasn't the money to buy the medicine to fight that infection which the doctor says will kill her if it goes untreated! (Smiley tenderly embraces Cindy, who desperately searches his face.) Have you found any work?
SMILEY (doefully, shaking his head) I had hoped that my jury stint would bring me some offers of jobs but no such luck. (points toward shoes) The leather is fading, and I may soon be pounding the pavement barefooted looking for employment.
CINDY (shaking her head) Everywhere I go seeking a typist job the lines of girls are sixteen deep. (hopefully) Do you have some money? You were paid something for jury duty weren't you?
SMILEY (moaning) Yes, but I owed it all to Stan Meadows, and he had to have it right away to keep his mother and grandmother in medicine and food. It looks as though I won't be eating tonight, and neither can I pay the rent on this apartment which is due Saturday. (sound of knock on door) I am almost afraid to open that door - more bad news may come in. (Released embrace with Cindy and walks slowly to the door, whereupon opening same he greets with a handshake and motions in Langdon Littlejohn, who smiles and waves cheerfully towards Cindy and Audrey, who in return wave soberly to him.)
LANGDON (upon reaching center of room) Such gloomy faces. Well, I shouldn't wonder.
SMILEY Let's all sit down. (He sits on couch with Cindy while Langdon occupies a chair to the right of couch.) Audrey here says that everyone is mentally ill to some extent.
LANGDON Well, she is an authority on mental illness which I am not. But I do know that a minor mental illness is sometimes as incapacitating as a major mental sickness. But (beaming, clapping his hands) I am here to inform of something else. I have finally landed a job for you, Smiley Roundhouse, ole chum!
SMILEY (leaping to his feet) No kidding! (waving his arms in air) Great! Absolutely great!
CINDY (waving hands in exhilaration) Food! Shelter! Food!
AUDREY Now your mother can fight that deadly infection!
LANGDON (enthusiastically) You are to report for work tomorrow.
SMILEY Doing what?
LANGDON You shall he cleaning windows on a skyscraper.
SMILEY (gasping, choking, then walking about, wringing his hands) Oh, No! No! No! (Those in room display perplexity as they glance at each other.)
LANGDON What in the name of God is the matter, Smiley?
SMILEY (slumping on couch) I can't take that job. I am frightened of heights. I couldn't work away up there! Can't you find me some other work?
LANGDON You can't imagine how many strings I had to pull to get you this job. Over a thousand men applied for window cleaning. You can't find a job in your bakery line.
CINDY (tearfully, falling upon the shoulder of Smiley) Please, Smiley dear, please, please, please! Just snap out of it and go to work!
SMILEY (lowering his head) I can't! I simply can't go up there! (Cindy rushes into embrace of Audrey.)
LANGDON Well, this fear of Smiley's is entirely new to me.
AUDREY Now is the first I have heard of it.
CINDY (sorrowfully) It has been with him all of his life. He couldn't join the Boy Scouts because he couldn't do mountain hiking. It nearly broke his heart. You may have noticed that our apartments are always on the ground floor - no majestic views from above. And Uncle Earnie was crushed when he couldn't take Smiley to fly with him to the Kentucky Derby. Uncle Earnie was so generous, but we don't hear from him anymore.
AUDREY (pointedly to Smiley) Now I know your mental illness.
SMILELY (wailing) This is not mental illness! I am not the only one who is scared of high places.
AUDREY Oh yes, it is mental illness. There is no rationale for being fearful of heights. We know of many who have been killed on pavements and streets, but have you heard anyone being harmed upon a skyscraper? (beaming brightly) Why not go to work tomorrow? I will be happy to accompany you and help you to overcome this unhealthy fear. After all, you have a minor, not a major mental illness.
CINDY (beaming) What a splendid suggestion and generous offer for good psychiatric treatment!
SMILEY (rising to his feet and glaring at Audrey) I am not mentally ill, and I am not going to work up there in the morning! (Audrey lovingly kisses Cindy as she and Langdon arise and go to door)
LANGDON (to Smiley) When I tell your former colleagues at the bakery about this, I'll bet they will shout that Smiley Roundhouse is as crazy as Hell! (exit Audrey and Langdon)
CURTAIN