Episode 13 Transcript

KACEY: Previously in Session Twelve

MARI: I called the Mona Lisa from the police station.

LORI: What? Yay! Did you go out?

MARI: Actually, yeah. We got drinks a couple of days ago and I think she’ll tell me if the police start doing anything on the copy machine guy.

LORI: Your dating life is giving me life.

MARI: Do you maybe need a dating life of your own?

LORI: Not right now! I don’t know how to choose a man I won’t small.

LEILA: And there we have it – the very reason I also remain single.

LORI: So you’re saying the Defense is a NOT ALL MEN situation.

KACEY: Of course it is. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be able to get through a day without smalling someone. The Defense is interested in one thing and that one thing is Defending you. That is all. If there’s nothing to Defend, no need to protect you, the Defense will do nothing. Men who are not a threat will be just fine, perfectly safe. Actual nice guys will go about their business as if there were nothing to fear.

BRIA: I’m just waiting for the nice girls to turn mean.

KACEY: Really?

BRIA: Like, even here – I mean I like you nice girls, don’t get me wrong but I keep waiting for one of you to turn.

KACEY: Like, we’ll drop our friendly façade and suddenly lash out at you?

BRIA: I just think every story runs into conflict eventually and I’m waiting for ours.

KACEY: And whose stories have dominated for the last 5000 years?

LEILA: Uhhhh.

KACEY: Whose stories were published and produced or made into movies and TV? Who wins most of the Oscars and the Nobels and the Pulitzers and the Emmys and the National Book Awards?

LEILA: It’s men. Men win those awards.

KACEY: I’m just saying men have been in charge of our ideas about stories and even the ways our lives can echo stories for a very long time. All our models for stories and by proxy, for life, come from one side of the population. What if we learned connection from our stories instead of conflict? What if we don’t need to fall apart?

Theme music begins

JACKI: Recorded live at Jalopy Theatre in Brooklyn

Messenger Theatre Company presents

The Defense

This is Session 13

 LORI: And where’d you go after that?

MARI: We took a walk by the river.

LORI: That is such a good idea.

MARI: Always.

LORI: Did you kiss by the river? Rivers are very good for kissing.

MARI: We did not, you nosy Nellie.

LORI: Sorry! Sorry! I just love a romance. You know me. I want all the romantic details. I want the moon, the stars, the breezes, the lone buoy clanging. Whatever you got.

MARI: It was cloudy, so no moon or stars.

LORI: Breezes, though?

MARI: Sure we did have a breeze or two.

LORI: And did it bring you closer together?

MARI: It did actually.

LORI: Yes!

MARI: And it turns out she doesn’t live far from the water, so I walked her home.

LORI: I like it. I like it.

MARI: She tried to protest. She said I was putting myself at risk walking home alone from her neighborhood.

LORI: Ha! Not so dangerous for you!

MARI: Yeah but I didn’t know how to tell her that so I just said I had some mace.

LORI: Well – you ARE mace.

MARI: I’m worse than mace.

LORI: You’re better than mace.

MARI: So much better.

LORI: Here come the others.

MARI: Phew! My romantic interrogation is over!

LORI: I’ll get you later, my pretty.

MARI: I’m sure you will.

KACEY: Oh good. You’re here already. We’re all gathered. How’s everyone’s week been?

LORI: Mari had a good week.

KACEY: Did you?

MARI: Lori.

LORI: Sorry. I’m just excited for you.

KACEY: What happened?

MARI: I went out with the Mona Lisa from the police station.

KACEY: Ohhh. Good. That’s great news.

MARI: I don’t know how it’s going to go if it goes anywhere – but it’s fun for the moment.

LEILA: Mari, Mari, getting together with the Mona Lisa. Are you giving out details?

MARI: Lori’s pried a few out of me.

LORI: They walked by the river.

MARI: True.

LORI: But they didn’t kiss there.

LEILA: Wow, Lori, you’re the town message board, aren’t you? Remind me not to tell you any details about my love life.

LORI: Do you have details to share?

LEILA: Nope.

LORI: Really? Or are you just holding back because I’m too nosy.

LEILA: You’ll never know, will you?

LORI: I can wait. I am very patient.

LEILA: Are you?

LORI: No. But I’m working on it.

LEILA: Mari – I have a question for you.

MARI: Is it about my love life?

LEILA: Not at all.

MARI: Thank goodness.

LEILA: No – it’s just – did you ever get the copy machine repaired

MARI: No! It has been such a pain! Was this guy the only copy repair guy in the city? It’s been a nightmare.

LEILA: I had a feeling. I’m sorry.

MARI: Sometimes I wish I’d never ashed that guy. Or at least waited to ash him until he finished the job.

LEILA: I get it.

LORI: But you have to think of those four women from the basement. They’re worth it, right?

MARI: No question. It’s an administrative nightmare at work but if I had a choice, of course I’d choose those girls – no matter how much a good copy repair guy might be worth.

LEILA: And they’re worth a lot. But those girls are worth much more.

MARI: Absolutely.

LEILA: I mean, think of all the predators who got a pass because people thought they were too valuable to lose, or had too much potential to punish. When meanwhile, scores of women and their value and potential were falling by the wayside.

KACEY: It’s infuriating, isn’t it?

LEILA: I find myself getting twisted up about it sometimes.  

KACEY: How so?

LEILA: Well – what if my defense took out a brilliant artist? Like a painter who was the pioneer of a new movement or something. Or a doctor who saved thousands of lives? What if my defense prevented future lives from being saved?

KACEY: I would assume your defense had saved YOUR life – which is just as valuable, if not more so.

LEILA: But thousands of lives!

MARI: But if your defense intervened, it’s very probably he had also harmed thousands of lives. Like – how much harm are we allowing here?

BRIA: There as that story about the doctor who delivered all those babies but was assaulting all these women in his practice.

LORI: I didn’t hear this.

BRIA: It’s awful. He was doing it for decades and he’d been reported to the university where he worked, multiple times, and they did nothing.

LEILA: Nothing?

BRIA: Nothing. He was arrested on a Friday and was back at work on Monday with support from his employers.

LORI: That’s awful.

BRIA: Really bad. But, you know, he didn’t assault EVERYONE and even women he assaulted said he was a good doctor otherwise.

LEILA: I can’t help wishing someone’s defense had taken care of him, though.

BRIA: Me, too.

MARI: Really?

BRIA: Yeah. That story really got under my skin. Mis-use of authority like that? Makes me real mad.

LEILA: Maybe I should make an appointment with that guy.

BRIA: They got him. He’s got twenty years in prison.

LEILA: Good. Best place for him.

MARI: And Leila, what if one of our defenses took out a brilliant painter? Is he worth so much? What about all the brilliant painters that we didn’t get to see because Mr. Predator “Genius” was taking up all the space? I think we have to assume our defense are looking out for us and, I think, the world. Given a choice between you and a famous so-and-so, I choose you, every time.

LEILA: Thank you. I mean, I get it. I am amazing.

KACEY: Yes you are. No question.

LEILA: Thank you.

KACEY: One of the major things we’re up against here is how much people out there value men’s potential. Whatever men do outweighs not just women’s potential but our accomplishments and achievements – even our very lives.

LORI: I might need to go back to the rage room.

LEILA: A man becomes essential, while women are disposable.

MARI: Like the copier guy! Can’t we get a woman to do this job?

KACEY: Speaking of the copier guy - are there any developments in the case that we should know about?

LORI: Only developments in Mari’s love life.

MARI: Lori. You are insufferable.

LORI: Sorry.

MARI: I tease. You’re adorable.

LORI: Thank you.

MARI: And yes, actually. There’s a bit of a development.

KACEY: Tell us.

MARI: Well – my Mona Lisa tells me - when they searched his place, they found a whole other set of keys to a whole other house. They finally tracked his other place down and they went there to see if they could find him.

BRIA: They could not find him.

MARI: No. But they did find -

LORI: Oh my god.

MARI: Yeah.

LORI: There were more women in the basement at his other house. Amazing.

MARI: Yep.

LORI: Yikes.

BRIA: Seriously?

LEILA: Seriously?

KACEY: Wow.

MARI: There were four of them and they were near starved when they finally found them.

BRIA: He wasn’t there to feed them! It’s amazing they survived.

MARI: The working theory is that he would leave them for weeks at a time while at his other place, so they had some reserves but they really got there just in time.

KACEY: My god.

MARI: Yep.

LORI: Mari, you saved so many people!

MARI: I mean, those ones would have starved because of me.

LORI: No dude. They were suffering because of him. I bet, even in their hunger, they were glad to be free of him.

MARI: They didn’t know they were free of him, though – and they were prisoners in a house with not enough to eat.

LORI: And now they’re free because of you.

MARI: Because of my Defense.

LORI: Right. But the Defense in you.

MARI: I just feel so responsible for them. So worried. I just keep picturing them starving.

LORI: How do you think they’d feel if they knew that you ashed the man who imprisoned them and did stuff I don’t even want to think about to them? How would they feel if they knew you turned him into ashes?

MARI: They might feel pretty good about that.

LORI: I would think so. You don’t think they would have ashed him if they could have? They would have. Ages ago.

MARI: I guess so.

LORI: For sure so.

KACEY: I agree with Lori, Mari. All of those girls – from both houses would be grateful as hell to learn how they happened to be freed.

BRIA: I mean, the first group was grateful just for the part they knew about – which was that Mari had a feeling about the place.

LEILA: They were even grateful to us just for helping them out.

BRIA: The extra layer would really vindicate them.

LEILA: Man, it’s a shame we can’t tell them.

LORI: I want to, so bad.

MARI: I’m glad we can’t. It would be a lot for them to carry.

LORI: I know. I know. But. Still. It would probably really help them to know he’s really gone and they have nothing more to fear from him.

MARI: Oh. Wow. Yeah. I didn’t even think of that. They’re probably terrified he’s going to pop out behind some bush and get them again. How can I help them?

KACEY: I’m not sure you can. Was there anything left of him?

MARI: I swept it all into the garbage. Those ashes are long gone to the dump.

KACEY: I’m sorry to be crass but was it all fine ash or were there maybe some teeth or something left?

LORI: Ick.

BRIA: So ick.

MARI: There may have been some teeth or bone. I didn’t look too closely, as you might imagine.

KACEY: Well, my thinking is – if there were some teeth, the authorities might be able to identify him by his dental records. Maybe some hot tip would send them looking in the right place.

MARI: But it would still be a needle in a haystack situation.

KACEY: Absolutely. it may be too much needle in too large a haystack – but just in case we have some way around it, maybe look into which dump the office garbage goes to?

MARI: I can do that.

KACEY: I’ll consult the wider community – maybe there’s someone with a really quirky Defense that will help us track him down.

MARI: What kind of Defense might that be?

KACEY: I really have no idea but there are some truly unexpected Defenses among us. I’ve just learned to never assume something is impossible.

MARI: Right. Well in the name of achieving impossible things, I’ll do some research at the office. Thanks everyone.

LORI: We’ve got your back, Mari. However possible.

MARI: Thanks.

KACEY: And even if we can’t help find this guy for the victims, we can at least celebrate that more of them were saved, due to the pancake posse’s instincts.

BRIA: Wooo! Pancake posse!

LEILA: Now I’m hungry for pancakes again.

LORI: Me too. I’m insatiable.

KACEY: I can send you forth for pancakes if there’s no further things to discuss.

BRIA: I’m good.

LORI: Me too.

LEILA: Yeah, pancakes.MARI: Yes.

KACEY: Great. That will give me time to reach out to the wider community on this issue. Shall we affirm and be done?

MARI: Yes.

BRIA: Sure.

LORI: Let’s.

LEILA: Check.

ALL: I am safe but I’m not safe for everyone.

KACEY: Go get those pancakes.

Theme music begins

JACKI:

The Defense is a production of Messenger Theatre Company.

 It is performed by Marcella Adams as Leila, Amber Jessie as Mari, Cosmic Kitty as Bria, Kristen Vaughan as Kacey and Toni Watterson as Lori.

 The writer/director is Emily Rainbow Davis.

Sound Design by Matt Powell

Sound Engineering by Daniel Massey

Sound Assistance by Angela Santillo

Stage Management by Ella Lieberman

The Producer is Melvin Yen.

The Defense theme is by Scott Ethier.

I’m Jacki Jing

I am safe but I’m not safe for everyone.