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Candycane Hurricane

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“I enjoyed it. Nice austere but riveting small piece.”

Jon Jory, The Actors Theatre of Louisvilleon HORST AND GRABEN IN THE CONTEXT OF THE UNFINISHED MAN

“Jeff Gold’s work is smart, original, surprising, and satisfying. He knows the theatre well, what it can do and what makes it exciting. He also has a nose for interesting characters in unique situations. His is a wonderful theatrical voice. No question about it.”

Award-Winning Playwright Julie Jensen (Two-Headed, White Money)

“FITCH TODD by Jeffrey Gold shows a playwright very much in command of the form—able to shape rich and dense content into a short play with mystery and humor. The payoff of this play is very strong. You know why you’ve been watching it with attention from its opening moment and feel the curtain pays all that attention off.”

David Kranes, Former Artistic Director, Sundance Playwright’s Lab

“Jeff Gold’s work has a unique and quirky feel about it. His plays get under your skin, get stuck in your teeth until you find yourself compelled to laugh... to cry. A welcome voice in the world of theater.”

Playwright Jeff Metcalf, Founder, Sawtooth Writer’s Conference

Reviews

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“I was truly affected by his well written concise work. In each play, the dialogue flowed naturally, the ending gripped me and the final irony left me entertained with strong emotions.”

Kristin Ettinger, Assistant Editor, Pioneer Drama Serviceon HORST AND GRABEN IN THE CONTEXT OF THE UNFINISHED MAN and FITCH TODD

“HORST AND GRABEN IN THE CONTEXT OF THE UNFINISHED MAN caught our attention as an unusual, interesting and well written piece... we’d like to include it in our annual Short Play Reading Festival.”

Dena Nathanson, Director, Boca Raton Theatre Guild

“HORST AND GRABEN IN THE CONTEXT OF THE UNFINISHED MAN takes the conflicts and hardships of daily life and presents them in the form of a Vaudeville routine, in the spirit of Samuel Beckett.”

Steve Mathews, Director, Just Off Broadway Theater, Kansas City, Missouri

“DEDEKIND by Jeffrey Gold... is sure to hit the mark with a Lab [Theatre] audience. You know, them artsy types.”

Craig Froehlich, Red Magazine

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Plays by Jeffrey Gold

In the Pursuit of Svetla (2001)

Horst and Graben in the Context of the Unfinished Man (2002)

Fitch Todd (2002)

Percolation Theory (2002)

Dedekind (2003)

Horst and Graben at the Chateau Godot (2003)

Candycane Hurricane (2003)

Execution at Paradais Island (2004)

Displacement: A Fish in Water Story (2004)

Grieving at Doors (2006)

Fair Shake (2007)

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Candycane Hurricane

by Jeffrey Gold

Dramatica Press

New York • Los Angeles

2010

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Candycane Hurricane © 2003 Jeffrey Gold

Candycane Hurricane is published by Dramatica PressNew York (347) 788 0037 • Los Angeles (213) 787 6066 • www.dramaticapress.com

All rights reserved. Except for short passages quoted in newspaper, magazines, radio, or television reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, including photocopying or recording (visual or audio), or stored in an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Dramatica Press.

This material is subject to a royalty and is fully protected under the Copyright Laws of the United States and all other countries of the Berne and Universal Copyright Conventions. All rights, including but not limited to professional, amateur, recording, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio and television broadcast, and the rights of translation into foreign languages, are expressly reserved.

Use of this material by educational institutions can be secured from the author’s publisher, Dramatica Press, or the author’s representative, Corpus Polymedia, or the author.

Library of Congress CataLoging-in-PubLiCation Data

Gold, Jeffrey.Candycane hurricane / Jeffrey Gold.—1st ed.

p.cm.ISBN: 1451550790

EAN-13: 9781451550795

Cover photographs: “Heilstatten G.,” © 2009 by Jascha Hoste“Shoes on a Wire,” © 2010 by Jeffrey GoldAuthor photograph (Cover): Jennifer Arnold

Author photograph (Interior): Benjamine Justine Hubert

Cover design: Corpus PolymediaText Design: Dramatica Press/Corpus Polymedia

Text Font: Optima

First Edition, April 2010

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For all those who have picked us upone time or another

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Introduction

Spoiler Alert!

Candycane Hurricane was inspired by the true story of Rosemary Kennedy (born Rose Mary), who—first because of her temperament and outbursts and then later because of her limited mental capacity as a result of a lobotomy requested by her father—was spirited away (an apt choice of words, I think) to live out of sight of the family where she would not present an embarassment to the social engineers of Camelot. Joseph Kennedy knew having such an incapacitated person in his family could diminish the family’s social standing—that it would cast a questionable cloud and subsequently damage the family politically. Perhaps he felt that having Rosemary in the public light would cause others to ask if any of the other family members were up to genetic snuff. I don’t know the real reasons behind his decision—and I might be a bit judgmental in this—but then I am also keenly aware of American society, in which unfortunate outliers like Rosemary are not only marginalized, but oftentimes their families are also marginalized. American society does not tolerate aberrations comfortably—unless they are entertaining and can be stuffed away in a box when convenient. Mental retardation is a scarlet letter for an entire family. I have empathy for people who are marginalized. American society marginalizes almost everyone, whether they know it or not, based on a number of arbitrary determinations. That will continue as long as our values are based on meta-abstractions like wealth and not based on ur-human values. We are all doomed with mortality. Let’s embrace that and then let’s embrace.

Jeffrey Gold

SugarhouseApril 7, 2010

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Characters

Emma – A southern girl of twenty-five. An unexpected respite at the psychiatric hospital has truncated her life as she knew it. A daddy’s girl.

Mr. Parry – A tall, bespectacled, disheveled man, about fifty: a very dapper southern gentleman who wears kindness on his face. The kind of guy who would give twenty bucks to some kids who offered to wash his car for five.

Nurse – A rotund, female nurse. A no-nonsense kind of gal, but one who has compassion written all over her face. Her bark is louder than her bite.

Orderly 1 – Non-speaking role, preferably male.

Orderly 2 – Non-speaking role, preferably male.

Setting

A spartan private room in a psychiatric ward.

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Jeffrey Gold

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Candycane Hurricane

A spartan, private room in a psychiatric ward looking more like a hospital room.

A window offers the only refuge, even if it is on the third floor. A framed print of Wyeth’s “Christina” hangs on the wall stage right of the window.

A bed is against the wall at stage left. In front is a dresser against the same wall.

There are a few pennants on the wall over the head of the bed.

EMMA, a girl in her early or middle twenties, retrieves clothes from the dresser and tucks them into an open suitcase lying on the bed.

She slides over to the window and looks out down below. She doesn’t find what she is looking for.

She returns, instead, to her packing. She retrieves a framed photograph and inspects it before stowing it with care in her suitcase.

She returns to the window and waits there, arms akimbo, with her back against the corner of the window.

There is a knock at the door. The door opens and slowly MR. PARRY, a dapper southern gentleman, enters.

EMMA, lost in thought, still staring out the window, turns and recognizes the entering figure. She comes back to life.

EMMA

Mr. Parry.

She approaches him quickly, flinging herself at him. They dissolve into a loving embrace—decades of love concentrated in a few seconds.

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Mr. PARRY pushes her away by the shoulders to look at her.

PARRY

I came as quickly as I could, Emma.

She hugs him again.

EMMA rests her head on his shoulder.

EMMA

Is momma waiting outside?

PARRY

Naw. (pulls away and redirects)

Hey! I tried to fix up your new room... make it look like your old one.

EMMA quickly glides back to the window.

EMMA

Is momma waiting out in the car?

PARRY

I haven’t told her yet.

EMMA

I just hope she’s not waiting in the car by herself.

PARRY

She’s not.

A beat. EMMA busies herself.

EMMA

Tell me about my new room.

PARRY

It’s got a window. I tried as good as I might to make it look like your old one. And you can put your pennants on the wall over your bed just the way you like it.

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Jeffrey Gold

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(beatlet)I’m so happy you’re finally comin’ home.

EMMA

I just gotta finish packing, Mr. Parry.

PARRY

You just go ahead an’ finish up there. I’m jus’ gonna sit down over here if you don’t mind.

EMMA(looking out the window)

You got a new car, huh?

PARRY

I got me rid of that old Lincoln with them suicide doors.

EMMA

What happened to it?

PARRY

Nothin’ happened to it. I got rid of it to take care of a few bills. Just wasn’t reliable anymore.

EMMA

That sure is a nice new car, Mr. Parry.

PARRY

Drives real nice too.

EMMA

I always told you you should get a red car.

PARRY

Well, I gots me one now. Mrs. Parry never let me get one before.

EMMA

Julie seen it yet?

PARRY

Yeah, Juliah seen it about a month ago. By the way, she sends her regards she couldn’t be here. It was too short a notice for her to come up.

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EMMA

That’s alright, Mr. Parry. I didn’t want her to come up here anyway.

Mr. PARRY finds a book on the floor and without interest flips through it to occupy his time.

PARRY

Well, I tell ya, I was real surprised to hear about it outta the blue.

EMMA(quickly changing subject)

How’s Suzanne?

EMMA climbs up on the bed.

PARRY

You mean Penelope? She’s good. I haven’t talked to her in a coupla weeks, but I reckon she’s doin’ alright. You know, they woulda all come up to see ya.

EMMA starts pulling the pennants off the wall.

EMMA

And Billy?

PARRY

Now, are we gonna be doin’ all the catchin’ up in here, or did you wanna come home and save some for later?

EMMA

Gee, Mr. Parry, I’m goin’ as fast as I can.(beatlet)

Why didn’t momma come up?

PARRY

She’s not in the car.

EMMA

She stay home?

PARRY

Mrs. Parry is livin’ with another man now.

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JEFFREY GOLD

Educated at Cambridge University, Westminster College, and the University of Utah, Jeffrey Gold was a member of the Playwright’s Group for more than three seasons, through the auspices of the Salt Lake Acting Company (SLAC) under dramaturg Mike Dorrell (BBC’s Soldier, Soldier, Pictures of a Floating World) and playwright-in-residence Julie Jensen (Two-Headed, Last Lists of My Mad Mother, Wait!). His plays IN THE PURSUIT OF SVETLA, HORST AND GRABEN IN THE CONTEXT OF THE UNFINISHED MAN, FITCH TODD, PERCOLATION THEORY, DEDEKIND, HORST AND GRABEN AT THE CHATEAU GODOT, CANDYCANE HURRICANE, EXECUTION AT PARADAIS ISLAND, DISPLACEMENT: A FISH IN WATER STORY, GRIEVING AT DOORS, and FAIR SHAKE have garnered numerous awards, readings, and productions, including the 2002 CrossCurrents Cultural Five and Dime Playwriting Competition, 2003 Boca Raton Theatre Guild Short Play Reading Festival, 2003 Ten by Ten in the Triangle (Finalist), 2003 Shorts in Winter Playwriting Festival, 2003 Experiments In Ink V Playwriting Competition, 2004 Women in Theatre Play Reading Series, 2004 New Voices/New Words Playwriting Contest, 2004 Moondance International Film Festival Stageplay Competition, 2005 Moondance International Film Festival Seahorse Award (Finalist), 2005 Theatre Publicus Prize for Dramatic Literature (Finalist), 2006 Silver Spring One-Act Festival, and more. Jeffrey Gold was the Best of State Medal Winner in Playwriting in 2005 and 2006, and 2007.

Playwright Jeffrey Gold at Cambridge University/Benjamine Justine Hubert

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Dramatica Press

Dramatica Press

New York 347 788 0037Los Angeles 213 787 6066

www.dramaticapress.com

A Corpus Polymedia Company