Act III, Scene II
The morning after the harvest moon gathering. The fire is out and most of the participants have gone home. Eron is rolled up in his bag sound asleep and Beary is meditating. The lights go up slowly as the sun starts to rise and in the distance can be heard the faint chop-chop of a helicopter coming closer. Suddenly there is a deafening roar as Off Stage the chopper lands shaking plants and camo netting and voices can be heard disembarking and crashing through the underbrush.
VOICE I This way men! Over here!
VOICE II Where? I can’t see!
VOICE III This way, goddammit!
VOICE I Over here men, be careful, they’re probably armed!
Coming onto the stage we see the Drug Czar, an overweight man in a too-tight suit with the pasty pallor of the nicotine addict, followed by the Chief Enforcer who carries a bullwhip in one hand and a folding director’s chair with DEA lettered on the back in the other and the State Doctor who carries a black attache case and folding stool. Behind them come three men in camo uniforms carrying AK-47’s and machetes, the same actors who played the Professor, Father Innocent and Mohammed.
CZAR There they are! Surround them and be careful men, they’re dangerous!
As one soldier holds his gun on Eron and Beary the other two tie them up with rope. While this is being done the director’s chair has been set up and Czar Benny Williams sits smoking a cigarette and chewing gum. The State Doctor is sitting quietly with his attache case on his lap while the Chief Enforcer walks back and forth surveying the scene.
CAPTAIN KLUSOW Sweet Jesus! Will you look at this set-up. Why they even bring beds up here (Pointing to Eron’s sleeping bag and foam mattress on the ground.) They take our young girls up here in the woods, feed them this evil weed and do unspeakable things to them. We must capture them all and cast them into the bottomless pit so they can no longer defile our young womanhood and our great nation. We must march into the valley of darkness and vanquish this enemy once and for all!
CZAR It is a question of authority. We must reconstitute our authority. The Great Deceiver has come up form below and he must be smashed back down with the heavy fist of the law.
CAPTAIN KLUSOW I’ll bet he’s got bugs in that beard. Vermin. All these people need to be neutralized, the world needs to be cleansed of them.
SOLDIER Shall we cut the beard off, Sir?
DR. SKINNER Better not, you could get infected.
CZAR Even the headman’s axe shouldn’t be ruled out with this scum. Trust me. I used to be an ethics professor. No problem.
DR. SKINNER Let us try the more sophisticated methods first. We are civilized and educated people, are we not? We now have the scientific method at our disposal.
CZAR (To soldiers) Bring me the…the accused (He snickers.)
The soldiers drag Beary to his feet and bring him over to Czar Benny Williams who sits in his chair like a Roman Emperor. The Chief Enforcer stands next to the Czar with arms folded and whip at the ready.
CZAR (To Beary) And where are the others? We were told there would be more. We were hoping that we would catch the whole bunch of you, ran away like the cowards you are, eh? But it looks like we caught the big fish. You’re the one they call king of the growers, I think. Well? What do you have to say for yourself?
BEARY (Silence)
CZAR You know that the cultivation of marijuana is illegal?
BEARY (Silence)
CZAR Many people wonder why but the answer should be very clear to a smart boy like you. You’re a Jewish boy, aren’t you?
BEARY Oh? Why?
CZAR Because it makes you stupid. Why in God’s name would we, your benevolent rulers, want to foster the use of a drug that makes you stupid? That makes you sick. You are a sick man. All of your friends are afflicted with the same sickness and we want to help you to get well.
BEARY If I am sick it is with the sickness of love and truth.
CZAR It is the sickness that comes from too much freedom. You smoke this evil weed and grow up to become sexual perverts and free thinkers. You hide behind the Constitution which is badly outdated and is nothing but trouble for those of us who protect and rule you.
BEARY Hey, man, that’s the problem. One of the greatest documents ever put together by man and you bozos in charge can’t live up to it, you can’t conform your narrow morality to the ideals set forth in the constitution so you twist and subvert by hysterical reaction, confusing interpretations and political packing of the courts. Fuck you, Jack, I’m not sick, you are!
CZAR We must reconstitute our authority and teach you respect. You have an attitude problem and need your mouth washed out with some good Christian soap.
BEARY There are about fifty million of us in this country that use this herb, Mr. Drug Czar, are you going to wash out everyone’s mouth? And most of us are voting age. Tell that to your big Bubba. And we are here to stay and growing bigger everyday. True believers just like you. We have our sacraments, our saints and rituals, liturgy and transformation. We are a religion, a faith as strong and as deep as any other. And tell him that he shall make no law, that we’re going to follow anyway, respecting the establishment to our religion or prohibiting us the free exercise thereof. How does the Big Bro answer that? With more onward Christian soldiers? Or with tolerance, understanding and truth.
CZAR Don’t tell us about truth. We are the law and that alone is the truth.
KLUSOW If your kid uses this stuff just once he is lost forever. That’s the truth.
BEARY You’re absolutely right! Brilliant deduction! Let us hope you lost yours forever.
DR. SKINNER We will change his behavior and make him into a new man. It is the only way to overcome our current crisis, not through an evolution of consciousness, as these fools are always talking about because there is no such thing, but through scientific control of human behavior. Through positive and negative reinforcement we can change their values instantly and cure them of their disease.
BEARY I am not sick and I don’t need to be cured.
DR. SKINNER Only we are qualified in determining what constitutes an illness and to select the appropriate therapy. You must be fixed to behave in a way that is best for yourself and society.
BEARY Fixed? What do you mean, fixed? I’m not a machine.
DR. SKINNER Modified. You need to be modified. An engineered approach is what is needed to construct the new man. Then your activity will be limited only to conditioned responses to environmental stimuli. Then you will not be able or even want to engage in these antisocial activities that are detrimental to the State.
BEARY Hey, man, people aren’t puppets. We don’t dangle on strings, you don’t wind us up at your pleasure, we are heart, mind and soul…
DR. SKINNER That has all been invented to provide spurious explanations. This consciousness, mind, heart idea is all nonsense and lacks the dimensions of physical science. Your underlying disorder which we call a learned maladjusted behavior can be corrected by appropriate conditioning techniques.
CZAR It’s war! Lives ruined! Families destroyed! Children are dying in the streets. This behavior must be stopped. You Woodstock people started it all and now you must pay.
KLUSOW What’s he got, Boss, what’s this guy got? That 4-wheel drive back there under the brush is theirs, has he got a boat? How about this contraband? Let’s add it all up and see what we’ve got.
CZAR Not now, later, let’s get on with the business at hand. (Turning to Beary.) So, are you the king of the growers?
BEARY Are you asking me of your own accord or (Looking at Eron) did someone tell you that?
ERON Hey man, you’re giving the stuff away for free. So, much work we put into it and you’re giving it away!
BEARY I am a grower of an herb called marijuana that is used as the holy sacrament of my faith. This herb grows in God’s garden that I only tend with reverence and humility and love and with the hope that my labor will benefit mankind. I do this work as a mindful meditation and attempt to grow the very best and some people call me the King. I try.
CZAR Then you are the King! One of the big fish we got today, eh?
BEARY Yes, I am a king. I was born and came into the world as a witness (Holds up a large bud.) to this truth. All who partake of this food see the light of truth and all who heed the truth see the face of God.
CZAR And what is your religion, King? What do you call yourself?
BEARY Free man. I have no ideology that binds me, no creed, no dogma, no caste or superstition to chain me to the past or future. I live only in the moment, a student of all your creeds but a follower of none.
CZAR You do not believe in any of our accepted religions?
BEARY I can relate to all of them.
CZAR But you have not chosen one to follow?
BEARY If I choose one then I deny all the others. The Buddha touches my mind, Christ touches my heart, Shiva my guts and Islam my loins. I can relate to all of them but none bind me. I am a free man for the herb has taken me above them all. They are no longer needed. These plants are not an end either but a pathway to something higher and fuller and once the mind of the cells are open and receptive the device can be dropped—it is not needed anymore. Still used but not needed, still to be enjoyed but with no attachment.
DR. SKINNER When the biochemical abnormalities are discovered in these addicts a new era of clinical research will begin. Will these abnormalities appear in all persons using the outlawed drug? Can they be replicated in animals? What treatment can restore them back to normal? Is it a metabolic disorder? A brain disorder? Can it’s progress by followed on a chemical index? (Rubbing his hands gleefully.) Exciting questions. I can’t wait to dissect one of their brains and see the inner workings.
CZAR (To Beary.) And who is Doctor Dog?
BEARY (Silence)
CZAR Is he your leader? The Big Fish?
BEARY He is the Big Dog. Dog spelled backwards is God.
CZAR So he is your God!
BEARY He is the mind behind the herb. His shakti is the spirit inside the herb. Together, as one, they have picked up the gauntlet that Big Brother has thrown. He is Big Brother’s mortal enemy. Defender of our faith. Enemy of the State. He lives forever and comes whenever truth is needed to fight tyrants like you. He comes through me and my friends. He comes through his many children.
CZAR That is all very well and good but this is a war and you too are an enemy of the State (Smiles) and now a prisoner of war. Maybe he will come and save you, your Doctor Dog God.
BEARY Whoever is not at peace with himself will be at war with others. The war that you drug warriors wage is only to hide from yourselves and others your own war within, to hide the truth from yourselves and the world. (After a moment) Yes, he will save me because he is the Truth.
CAPTAIN KLUSOW This weed has bent his mind out of shape, let me straighten him out. In the devilish grip of these drugs the mind and will surrender to a primitive madness, a wicked freedom, and a strong hand is needed.
CZAR Tie the King up to that big plant there. That can be his throne. Give him a crown that’s befitting his station in life.
The soldiers make a crown of marijuana leaves and buds and place it on Beary’s head.
CZAR Hail to the King! He tells us about the truth! What does the truth mean? The State is the truth, Big Brother is the truth, the deficit is the truth, the Pope is the truth. I am the truth! (He is starting to get excited.) do you understand? I am the Czar and that’s all the truth you need to know. (To the soldiers) Tie this dirty little creep up and let the doctor examine him. And get him to piss in the jar for evidence. This war is winnable, men, the scourge is beginning to pass and one day we will get Doctor Dog as well.
DR. SKINNER (Who has been patiently waiting directs the soldiers as they tie Beary to the plant.) One day soon we will isolate this deadly cannabis gene and then we can eliminate these people more systematically before they are even hatched.
CAPTAIN KLUSOW A twisted race like this could overrun the world with their crazy ideas. Elimination of the unfit is the only way to insure a happy future. Merciful death for the sinners. No evil shall happen to the just. (He touches the cross around his neck.)
They nod together in silent agreement as they prepare for the Doctor’s examination. The Czar smokes and furiously chews gum as he watches the proceedings. Eron has been released and slips Off Stage while one soldier, the Professor actor, grinning devilishly, holds the attaché case for the Doctor as he wires Beary up to the electrodes coming out of it.
BEARY What are you doing? Hey! Man! What are you guys doing?! (Struggling and pulling on his ropes.) Hey! Man. What are you guys doing? Come on, let me go, you can’t do this! Hey! This is not fair! Cruel and unusual punishment! Let me go! What are you doing?!
A soldier brings over a glass lab beaker and hands it to the Doctor. The Doctor looks at Captain Klusow who, with his back to the audience, unzips Beary’s fly and attempts to put his penis into it.
BEARY Get out of here! Leave me alone, man, you guys are sick, sick, sick!
With the help of the soldiers who restrain Beary’s wiggling body Captain Klusow finally accomplishes the task.
CAPTAIN KLUSOW (To Beary) Piss.
BEARY Fuck off!
CAPTAIN KLUSOW Piss, I say!
BEARY Let me down, get your hands off of me!
CAPTAIN KLUSOW I order you to piss! Piss, I say!… YOU MUST PISS! Traitor … you are a traitor! (Looking at the Czar.) He won’t piss, Sir.
CZAR (To Doctor) Can’t you get that machine to make him piss?
DR. SKINNER I don’t know, Sir, that will require different software and circuitry.
CZAR Do it. We need the evidence. Give him a shot to quiet him down.
The Doctor sets about adjusting his machine as Klusow fixes a syringe.
DR. SKINNER I think I’ve got it, Sir.
CZAR You sure?
DR. SKINNER Well, no, but we’ll give it a try. The scientific method, you know. Trial and error.
KLUSOW He who loves his son does not spare the rod.
Captain Klusow stabs Beary with the needle before he can protest and he falls asleep immediately. The Doctor, with his back to the audience, proceeds to wire Beary to his black box. A few minutes later he steps back to admire his work and we see electrodes and wires attached to Beary’s head and coming out of the fly of his trousers. The glass beaker has been taped to his penis and hangs there dangling alongside the wires. The Doctor sits down on a folding stool and with his console on his lap taps a few keys and pushes a few buttons as he prepares to administer therapy. He looks up at Czar Williams.
DR. SKINNER Ready, Sir.
CAPTAIN KLUSOW Ready on the right…
CZAR Ready on the left… (He puts his right hand out with thumb pointed down and nods to Doctor Skinner.)
DR. SKINNER Treatment! Treatment! (With twisted intensity the Doctor punches his keyboard with one hand and fondles himself with the other.) Yes! Look, he’s pissing, he’s pissing! It’s coming! Coming…, coming…oh, yes, yes, yes…
Beary suddenly awakes and arching his back lets out a bloodcurdling scream.
BEARY Aahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
(Limbs stiffening and eyes and veins bulging he lets out several more screams and then slumps forward in a whimper.)
CZAR What happened?
DR. SKINNER I don’t know, Sir, everything was going OK, his drugged brain must have shorted out a fuse or something.
CZAR Let’s get out of here men, the job is done. Don’t forget the evidence…
CAPTAIN KLUSOW … or the keys to that 4-wheel drive Jap truck.
SOLDIER We haven’t identified that as being their property, Sir.
CZAR Take it anyway. Don’t quibble about details. It’s called forfeiture. If it’s not theirs it belongs to one of their kind. Let’s go, wrap it up. Another job well done men, the Great Deceiver has been conquered once again.
CAPTAIN KLUSOW We have God on our side and DARE.
CZAR And the Partnership For A Drug Free America, don’t forget. Let’s go, men, the plane is waiting. Big Bro is waiting.
Quickly the soldiers run around the stage plucking choice bugs off the plants and stuffing them into their pockets. Then they gather their things, folding chairs, computer, guns, Beary’s specimen and as the stage shakes with the roar of the helicopter the DEA files off and we hear them making their exit into the wild blue yonder, bursting with the pride of being made of the right stuff, strong and brave and divinely chosen for the duties they perform. The stage is quiet and dark save for a key light on Beary who hangs like Christ crucified, tied to a large marijuana plant. Then lightening and thunder and the sound of rain and wind as the stage slowly goes to black.
There is a long pause. When the lights come up Beary’s sitting in a wheelchair, head bobbing slightly, a vacant look in his eyes and hair and beard white. Mary and her young son Jesse are there. The next season has begun. Spring planting. Mary wears gardening clothes and has her hair tied up in a scarf. Jesse wears a T-shirt with SON’S OF THE SOIL stenciled on the chest and the words THE FUTURE IS IN OUR HANDS, on the back. For a few minutes they work silently gathering together equipment and tools, filling their backpacks with fertilizer, rolling up hose, etc., in preparation for a trip into the brush. When they are ready they go over to Beary and kneel down before him.
MARY We’re going now Beary, we’ll be back in a couple of hours.
BEARY (He looks at her with empty eyes.) Praise the Lord.
MARY We’ll just be down at the lower patch getting the seedlings started.
BEARY Praise the Lord.
MARY Anything you want? Anything you need before we go?
BEARY Praise the Lord.
JESSE We’ll be back soon, Beary.
BEARY Praise the Lord.
Mary and Jesse look at each other with sadness and tears are in their eyes. They pick up backpacks, hose and tools and prepare to leave.
JESSE We’ll see ya Bear. (He doesn’t want to go.)
BEARY Praise the Lord.
MARY (After a few moments.) Come on little Jesse, we’ve got work to do.
JESSE (Reluctantly starts to move offstage with Mary.) See ya, Bear. Bom Shiva.
BEARY Praise the Lor…praise the ..B..B..Bom the Sh...va, Bom Shiv (A glimmer of light appears in his eyes.) Bom Shiva, Bom Shiva, Bom.. Bom Shiva, Bom Shiva, Bom Shiva.. (Softly at first, then faster and louder as the curtain slowly descends.) Bom Shiva, Bom Shiva, Bom Shiva, Bom Shiva…
And a low, sweet saxophone plays
GOD BLESS AMERICA
CURTAIN