Lodestar Quarterly

Lodestar Quarterly
Figure reaching for a star Issue 13 • Spring 2005 • Featured Writer • Drama

Vessels

Kim Yaged

Pre-War

(ALL stand in a circle, each turning as she speaks.)

12-17

I am birth

AGED

I am death

25-54

I am what happens in-between.

(They stand back to back to back forming a triangle of sorts.)

AGED

Women were not admitted to universities in Germany until 1908.

(Photos of female German intellectuals FLASH.)

12-17
(fantasizing)

A woman is --

25-54

woman

AGED

woman

12-17

woman --

25-54

less than.

AGED

Women were prohibited from political organizing until 1908.

(Photos of protestors FLASH.)

12-17

woman

25-54

woman

AGED

woman

12-17

Less than

25-54

A lesbian is

(Photos of nothingness FLASH.)

12-17

woman

25-54

woman

AGED

woman

25-54

Not a woman

AGED

Vessels

12-17

Just a place to put my --

25-54

Triangles

AGED

Pink --

12-17

homosexual men

AGED

Black --

25-54

asocial behavior

AGED

Red --

12-17

political dissidents

AGED

Green --

25-54

criminal activity

AGED

Triangles

12-17

Lesbians

25-54

Didn't even rate our own

12-17

Triangles

AGED

Unequal status

25-54

Paragraph 175 illegalized homosexual activity between men

12-17

Sickness, crime and sin

25-54

But not women

AGED

Why bother?

12-17

Not a threat

AGED

Lesbians were not hunted and persecuted as much as men

12-17

No legal basis

25-54

Don't take lesbians too seriously

12-17

Temporary

25-54

Curable

AGED

Condition

25-54

Mostly gay men were targeted

12-17

Vessels

AGED

Merely vessels

(12-17 toes the party line.)

12-17

"You should not associate lesbians with the Holocaust."

(25-54 lines up next to 12-17.)

25-54

We were all so surprised

(AGED lines up next to 25-54.)

AGED

-- Not all --

25-54

We shouldn't have been.

(AGED transforms as she breaks out of formation.)

AGED

At first I tell myself, "I am not ashamed. I wear star." Then we hear about the triangles. And this, well, it did not resonate, not so much. I still remember. "What comes next?" I wonder. Patches for woman, mother, bitch, whore -- all the appropriate nomenclature for female lined up on my sleeve like military personnel. My badges of dishonor. This way, don't look at me, don't talk to me. You know my place immediate -- no words, no thought is necessary. Ease, acceptance, passivity -- the tranquilizer of a society so that hell can burn around you -- registrations, interviews, people gone missing -- no explanations, small articles on the bottom left corner of the Saturday evening news, but you do not have to acknowledge -- patriot, loyalist -- support the troops! Your mission is acceptance.

12-17

It was clear from the very beginning

25-54

Financed

AGED

Military finance

12-17

Lobbyists

25-54

Put him in office

AGED

Shrewd

25-54

Propaganda

12-17

Shrewd

AGED

Play off the fear

25-54

Defend ourselves to death

12-17

As long as we win the war

25-54

Terror

AGED

Whose war is it

12-17

Terror

25-54

"Mass power of suggestion"

AGED

And who would go against it?

25-54

"Climate of fear"

AGED

What's a person to do?

25-54

I'm not political.

AGED

Platform --

25-54

Law and order

12-17

Traditional values

AGED

Forced to vote

25-54

I didn't even want to

AGED

"Election" in quotation marks

12-17

Rigged the ballot box

25-54

Avoid confrontation

AGED

"Didn't have the nerve to vote against"

12-17

Others did

AGED

New

25-54

What in the world

12-17

Order

AGED

Is happening?

25-54

"More than three million votes registered against"

ALL

And still they came to power

(ALL turn to face the Führer. 12-17 transforms as she breaks off from the others.)

12-17

To be a man. To fight. I never wanted to be a man. Don't get me wrong. But to be part of something. I know there's the Reich Labor Service for Female Youth. But they're not as important. Don't get me wrong. We're all important. I just want to contribute. Do my part. Play my role.

25-54

Instruments

12-17

of persecution

25-54

Extraordinary authority

AGED

To employ

25-54

Survey

12-17

Suspect

AGED

Seize

25-54

Detain

AGED

Intern

12-17

Confine

AGED

Preventive custody

12-17

Without legal recourse

25-54

Unlimited preventive detention

12-17

Without legal proceedings

(25-54 interrogates 12-17 and AGED.)

25-54

State

AGED

your name

12-17

March!

25-54

State

12-17

the truth

AGED

March!

25-54

State

AGED

sponsored tyranny

12-17

March!

25-54

State

12-17

of hypocrisy

(25-54 lifts her legs high, marching in place.)

AGED

March!

(12-17 raises her arm, "Heil Hitler," and joins the marching.)

12-17

Manipulation

AGED

So afraid

ALL

March!

(ALL march in place, arms raised.)

25-54

I wasn't Jewish...

12-17

"We were left in peace."

AGED

As long as we were very careful about what we said.

(ALL fall silent. Stillness.)

AGED (CONT'D)

Germany wasn't always like this.

(MUSIC. A sultry female voice sings. 25-54 transforms as she steps out.)

25-54

We would dress up. I don't mean dresses. Suit and tie always for me. We were all so young we had to sneak into the bars. We would save up all our wages for the week, beg or steal to get there. Saturday night was the night. Not to be missed. We would go and break hearts -- or have our hearts broken. All competing for the same girl. Always older. We wanted her to show us the ropes. She would strip me down --

(12-17 begins undressing.)

25-54 (CONT'D)

-- piece by piece. My own special education. And, I'm naked in ways I've never experienced before.

(AGED and 12-17 dance together closely.)

AGED

There were more gay bars in the Weimar Republic before the war than now -- still

12-17

Golden Ball "Bowling Club," Cloverleaf "Savings Club," the Violetta...

25-54

The most vibrant gay culture in the world in the 1920s

12-17

Poets

25-54

Actors

AGED

Singers

25-54

Artists

12-17

Stars --

AGED

Anita Berber

25-54

Susu Wannowsky

12-17

Zarah Leander

25-54

Celly de Reydt

AGED

Lene Ludwig

25-54

Erika Mann

12-17

Margo Lion

AGED

Claire Waldoff

25-54
(fantasizing)

Oh, Claire Waldoff!

12-17
(singing)

"A sweet and charming little creature;

25-54
(singing)

Her little bobbed head is her cutest feature.

AGED
(singing)

No one can even clarify

ALL
(singing)

If you're a lady or a guy!"

(ALL LAUGH.)

25-54
(remembering)

Claire Waldoff...

AGED

She even taught Marlene Dietrich.

25-54
(insinuating)

How much, I won't say -- if you know what I'm saying.

AGED

But, women's places began to shut down

12-17

...the Mali and Igel Club, the Eldorado, the Taverne, the Dorian Gray...

AGED

Lesbian places began to shut down

12-17

...Zauberflöte, the Geisha Bar, the Monocle...

AGED

There were secrets and hiding and raids.

12-17

...Verona Hall, the Jolly Joker, Monbijou Ladies' Club...

25-54

We were freer during the Weimar Republic

AGED
(disbelieving)

Freedom? There were more bars, more booze, more parties...

12-17

Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin

AGED

But what means bars? What about centers -- signs of civilization? Real means to express ourselves, not forget ourselves?

(12-17 puts on a prisoner uniform.)

25-54

We were freer than even today.

AGED

If you call censorship

12-17

Bernburg Nursing Home

AGED

Avoidance

25-54

Ravensbrück Women's Concentration Camp

AGED

Silence

12-17

Flossenbürg,

AGED

Acceptance --

25-54

Moringen

AGED

Allowing the discrimination --

12-17

Then it was freer.

25-54

More bars,

AGED

perhaps,

12-17

...Charlottenburg Rowing Club, Leibniz Den...

AGED

But freedom?

Next Page:   Outside the Camps   (page 3 of 8 pages)

All Pages:   See the entire play on one page

Table of Contents:   Vessels

Kim Yaged

Kim Yaged is an award-winning playwright whose work has been performed throughout North America. Her chamber opera www.love was showcased by the New York City Opera and subsequently performed in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This production won four Best of 2001 Awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Production, and was runner-up in two other categories. Kim was a recipient of the Kennedy Center's Meritorious Achievement Award for the Diego Rivera Theatre's production of her play America. She was also an ArtServe grant recipient. Kim has written children's books for Disney Publishing. Her short stories and poetry are included in anthologies published by Ballantine Books, Cleis Press, and Arsenal Pulp Press. (Photo credit: Sarah Grace Shierson Dumser)

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