Issue 5 • Spring 2003 • Featured Writer • Drama
Avery CrozierBerlin
Act Two.
Berlin
ARJAY isolated in light.
ARJAY
We saw a lot more Americans at the Hiroshima memorial than at Nagasaki. Which is probably a good thing, because the Nagasaki museum is very -- I dunno -- forthright about the bombing. Maybe it's because Hiroshima got all the postwar aid, but in Nagasaki they make it quite clear that Japan was ready to surrender before the U.S. dropped either bomb, and that there was an absolute lack of necessity to bomb Nagasaki. The only reason they didn't hit a purely military target -- like a ship at sea, with no civilians around -- was to terrify the Soviets and let the world know America not only had the bomb, but was willing to use the bomb on civilians. We're still the only country to actually make a nuclear strike -- and we've done it twice. The exhibits were very moving, frightening, and exceptionally well designed.
Lights up on SCHILLER, MILDRED and ROGER riding the subway.
ROGER
I couldn't do it.
SCHILLER
The Hiroshima museum was too graphic -- wax dummies of people with their arms melting off.
ROGER
No, see, I couldn't. Memorials, museums -- I know it's important to pay respects, to remember, but sometimes it just seems like form of entertainment, indulging in emotions, even painful ones -- and vaguely, well, immoral.
SCHILLER
Museums are immoral? Catharsis is self-indulgent?
MILDRED
It's learning, isn't it? Knowledge isn't immoral.
ROGER
But you don't actually need to see violence to feel it. In fact, sometimes seeing it just numbs you so it means nothing. The Greeks never showed violence in their plays -- they'd reveal the bodies afterward and let you imagine how they died. But the characters on stage were clearly responsible, culpable in those deaths. It doesn't work if it's too literal. I heard about a production of Medea where they made lifelike dummies of the children that concealed breakable containers of red liquid. When Medea had her revenge on Jason, she just picked up the kids and slammed them face-first into a wall. The audience rioted and the production had to stop.
ARJAY
Are you gonna be all right in the German -- how do you say it?
SCHILLER
Deutsche Historische Museum.
ARJAY
We can skip the Holocaust part.
MILDRED
No, no. We have to see it. That's why we're here, isn't it?
ROGER
I think we're kind of obligated. I've seen death camp liberation film footage, but it's not the same as actually being here in Berlin. I keep expecting a swastika around every corner.
ARJAY
Talk about effective design -- the swastika's the world's most recognizable political logo. And the Nazis totally owned the colors red and black.
MILDRED
(Looking around.)
They look so sad.
SCHILLER
Who?
MILDRED
All the people on this train. Like they're about to cry.
SCHILLER
Maybe you would, too, if you had World War Two on your conscience.
ROGER
I am a doughnut.
SCHILLER
Dad, we just had breakfast.
ROGER
I don't want a doughnut. I am a doughnut.
SCHILLER
(After a moment.)
Why are you a doughnut, Dad?
ROGER
I'm quoting JFK. When he came here and said, "Ich bin ein Berliner," he was actually saying "I'm a jelly doughnut."
ARJAY
You're kidding.
ROGER
He meant to say, "Ich bin Berliner" -- I am a Berliner. But the article "ein" made it into the local name for a raspberry-filled doughnut.
MILDRED
He did very well for a pastry.
ROGER
I always wonder what the rest of his presidency would have been like, if he'd gotten a chance --
SCHILLER
Mom, you weren't hanging around a grassy knoll in Dallas, were you?
MILDRED
I'm never going to live that down, am I?
ROGER AND SCHILLER
No.
MILDRED
Do you remember that story told by one of the Nazi guards in the Nuremberg trials about the woman slipping and falling on her way into the gas chamber?
SCHILLER AND ARJAY
No.
ROGER
I never heard of that story.
MILDRED
The guard was trying to explain what it felt like to be a part of that horrible machine, how numbed he felt, like he wasn't actually there, only watching, and then he saw that woman fall. Naked, completely vulnerable, no dignity remaining, and she tripped and fell, right at the door to the shower. His instinct was to help her up, but that wasn't his job, and he realized he'd be helping her to her death. In that instant of his hesitation, another woman, just as naked, reached down and helped the fallen woman to her feet. As they stepped through the door together, the Good Samaritan woman turned and looked at the guard. She knew both women were going to die, and that her gift of a moment's dignity to the other woman was noble only for its, well, futility. But she wanted her last act to be a kindness.
ARJAY
He could see all that in her eyes?
MILDRED
He saw it in his heart. At least I like to think he did.
SCHILLER
I think there's a model of Auschwitz in the Deutsche Historische Museum.
(Slowly lights isolate SCHILLER, who stands.)
I hope it's not too crowded there. In Nagasaki there weren't many tourists, so I got to look at the models and the artifacts pretty much by myself. Arjay and I stayed away from each other through some unspoken rule. You kinda want to be alone with something that devastating, with the guilt of something that happened before you were born but you know it's still somehow your fault. It's embarrassing to share with other people. Those are some of my best moments in museums.
Lights up more fully. SCHILLER is looking at an exhibit. A rather scruffy looking STUDENT approaches SCHILLER.
STUDENT
Sprechen-zie Deutsche?
SCHILLER
Nein, English, sorry.
(Steps away a bit.)
STUDENT
(Following. German accent.)
What do you think of this?
SCHILLER
I can't imagine anything worse.
STUDENT
Do you think it could happen again?
SCHILLER
Not exactly this way, but yes, I'm afraid it could.
STUDENT
Why is that?
SCHILLER
I'm sorry, I wanted to --
STUDENT
I don't mean to disturb you, but I'm curious. Why do you think it could happen again?
SCHILLER
People haven't changed. Not enough, anyway. That's why we should never forget.
STUDENT
So it is human nature?
SCHILLER
I guess.
STUDENT
Could it be something else?
SCHILLER
(Trying to concentrate on the exhibit.)
I suppose.
STUDENT
Could it be money?
SCHILLER
Money?
STUDENT
Economic exploitation.
SCHILLER
I think this was ethnic hatred, racism --
STUDENT
The Jews had the money. Hitler wanted it.
SCHILLER
It's more complicated than that --
STUDENT
Capitalism is complicated, but if you can see through it --
SCHILLER
Excuse me.
(Leaves.)
STUDENT
(Calling after SCHILLER.)
You're American, aren't you?
Lights fade on the STUDENT and come up on ARJAY and ROGER.
ROGER
I don't know why she'd want to see that.
ARJAY
Morbid curiosity?
ROGER
But...right now? It's strange to me.
ARJAY
But if she wants to --
ROGER
I want her to do whatever she wants to do --
SCHILLER
(Entering.)
What does she want to do?
ROGER
Where were you? Buying Nazi souvenirs in the gift shop?
SCHILLER
I got accosted by a Communist.
ARJAY
There are still Communists?
SCHILLER
It was like talking to someone from another time. A complete anachronism. What's she want to do?
ROGER
Your mother's been seeing ads for an exhibition --
ARJAY
You've seen them, on buses --
ROGER
Corpenwelten. It means Body Worlds.
SCHILLER
She doesn't want to see that, does she?
ARJAY
Evidently.
SCHILLER
Does she know what it is?
Lights up slowly on MILDRED gazing at a NUDE. At first it seems like merely a sculpture, but as the lights rise, it is revealed to be an actual person in a strong pose, with one portion of the body opened up so that the muscles or organs are on view.
ROGER
I think so.
ARJAY
Is it really dead bodies?
SCHILLER
Didn't you read the brochure in the hotel? This doctor talked a bunch of people into willing him their bodies, then he plastinated 'em and put 'em on display.
ROGER
Plastinated?
SCHILLER
It's some chemical process that infuses the bodies with enough plastic to completely prevent deterioration. He says it's educational, like medical students studying cadavers, but I think it's pure exploitation. He's even got a pregnant woman and her fetus.
ROGER
He got her permission?
SCHILLER
Only a German would think of something like that.
ARJAY
They could never show it in the U.S.
SCHILLER
No kidding. At Natural History we've got a policy against the display of human remains. And Mom wants to see it?
ROGER
That's what she said.
ARJAY
I wouldn't mind. From an anatomical point of view.
SCHILLER
She's not going to like it.
ROGER
Are you going to tell her no?
Lights out on ARJAY and SCHILLER as ROGER joins MILDRED, who is looking at the NUDE. ROGER avoids looking at it.
ROGER
Mildred, I think I'll wait for you outside. I'm a little -- you know how I am with blood -- and this is much --
MILDRED
I won't be long.
ROGER
They're not even in cases. Right out where you could touch 'em if you wanted to --
MILDRED
You go. I understand.
ROGER
There must be fifty of them. I don't get why people would let someone do this to them, put them on display -- it's funny, but the horse bothers me the most.
MILDRED
You should get some air.
ROGER
I will. But are you all right?
MILDRED
I'm fine.
ROGER
How can you even stand to look -- ?
MILDRED
They're talking to me, Roger.
ROGER
What?
MILDRED
Even dead, frozen like this, they have something to say.
ROGER
"Bury me"?
MILDRED
Oh, Roger, be serious.
ROGER
You be serious. After all this time your sense of humor still brings me up short.
MILDRED
They talk. If you watch closely, they talk.
ROGER finally brings himself to look at the NUDE. He forces himself to scrutinize it. While he is staring, MILDRED leaves. After a moment, the NUDE moves.
NUDE
(German accent.)
You want to know what it's like, don't you?
ROGER
What...what's like?
NUDE
I hear you're going to Buchenwald.
ROGER
Did Mildred tell you that?
NUDE
I went there as a child. They make us.
ROGER
I don't want to go, but I feel it's my responsibility.
NUDE
As an American?
ROGER
As a human being.
NUDE
You are frightened.
ROGER
Some things you just have to do. You can't shrink.
NUDE
Mildred doesn't seem frightened.
ROGER
She's resigned.
NUDE
But still frightened, in secret. Hold her hand.
ROGER
I will.
NUDE
And she'll hold yours.
ROGER
What did you...die of?
NUDE
Cancer. Can't you see? That's why they opened me up.
(Points.)
ROGER
(Peering.)
Oh, that's awful. Did it hurt much?
NUDE
Ja. But they gave me morphine at the end. Which was nice.
(ROGER just stares.)
You want to touch it, don't you?
ROGER
No!
NUDE
You want to touch.
The NUDE reaches for ROGER, who faints.
***
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