MIT 14E-303
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
e-mail: mkb4@Cornell.edu
telephone: 617/253-6668
FAX: 617/253-6910
for Henry S. Wright, who suffered with me
I like to describe No Problems as 'the democratic myth meets the existential crisis'. In America, we'd like to believe, anybody can be or do anything they want, as long as they work hard enough for it. Everybody's equal, so anything is possible. But if we have such power over our own destinies, it only gives us more headaches: if we no longer have unfair social institutions to pin the blame on, we ourselves must assume responsibility for our shortcomings.
Abbie Hoffmann said that 'to be a Yippie, you have to want to kill your parents'. If that's true then there's some Yippie in all of us, for we all resent the control that our parents impose on us. A fear of death, of being smothered and negated, drives us to separate ourselves from our mothers and fathers. And a fear of life, of being responsible for ourselves in an indifferent world, brings us back to seek out the protection and comfort of our parents.
The central character in this play is a young man named PERCY. If he's a hero, he doesn't know it yet. His great great grandfather fought against the Hapsburgs in the unsuccessful Hungarian uprising of 1848. One hundred twenty years later, his father was lost in another war, on the other side of the world. Both of these were waged in the name of democracy. Raised by an overprotective mother, PERCY sees his life as a series of decisions over which he has no control. To escape from this he's left his mother's house in Madison, Wisconsin and set off across Europe with some muddled idea of discovering his roots and getting a better idea of who he is. Though he doesn't realise it, in setting forth on this quest for control of his own destiny he's taken up the mantle of his ancestors.
Like most heroes, PERCY receives encouragement from the forces of good and is tempted by the forces of evil. In his case it's ELVIS, the King of Rock-'n'-Roll and leader of a new American revolution, who shows up to tell him that the call to adventure is one that he can't refuse. And, conversely, Richard NIXON, the man who sent PERCY's father to die in a Vietnamese jungle, cannot be anything but evil incarnate. So we are served with a duality, good and evil, hip and square.
Dualities are the intellectual equivalent of our parents. They allow us to make some sense of the chaotic world in which we find ourselves. Like our parents, they protect us. But, like our parents, they limit us. PERCY's ancestors have given themselves to various struggles in the name of liberty, but if absolute liberty is what he's after then he'll have to travel beyond duality, beyond good and evil, or in the end the Excluded Middle is bound to take Its revenge.
Matthew Belmonte
America
February 1993
Cast:
Act I, Scene I: LANCE walks in on PERCY, who is alone in a railway compartment in a train bound for Paris. They introduce themselves. LANCE is a recent retiree on a trip through Europe. PERCY is a recent graduate whose eventual goal is to reach Budapest, where he hopes to find his family's roots. LANCE's focal concern is securing the memory of a life already lived; PERCY wants to experience life as he has not been able to do through study. A FRENCHMAN intrudes, but they manage, by intention or not, to scare him off and so to secure the compartment for themselves.
Act I, Scene II: PERCY's memory of an ELVIS song that his mother used as a lullaby calls up an image of the rock'n'roll singer, who tells PERCY of the heroism of PERCY's ancestors and advises him that the call to adventure is one that he cannot refuse.
Act II, Scene I: LANCE admonishes PERCY for not having taken enough time to see the sights of Paris. PERCY responds that he found the city an anticlimax; what he's looking for must be elsewhere. LANCE shows some of his photographs, and they talk of memory, and the representation of life and experience of life that seem mutually exclusive. PERCY feels hobbled by LANCE in his quest for this experience, and threatens to leave.
Act II, Scene II: NIXON speaks to PERCY about politics. They argue about individual initiative, and about NIXON's role in prolonging the war that killed PERCY's father. NIXON leaves PERCY unsure about the dualities that he has taken for granted, and PERCY relents and decides to stay with LANCE, at least for a while.
Act III, Scene I: LANCE reveals his fetishistic interest in the woman whom he has left behind in New York. Two WOMEN enter the compartment. In appearance they match the profile that LANCE has given, and he becomes interested. Attempts to communicate fail, until finally the WOMEN admit that they understand English. They are on their way to the site of the Mauthausen concentration camp. They relate the history of a Jew who left Hungary after 1848, who matches all the details that ELVIS has given about PERCY's great great grandfather. PERCY, though intrigued, fears the WOMEN as sirens, and refuses to accompany them to Mauthausen.
Act III, Scene II: ELVIS and NIXON visit again, and turn out to be more similar than PERCY had suspected. They fall into useless paranoia and can no longer exemplify for him the duality of hip and square, good and evil. PERCY expresses his displeasure with their guidance, and they promise to stop interfering.
Act IV: LANCE tries to tell PERCY of the emptiness and anticlimax of his goal, but PERCY will have none of it. They speak of idols and father-figures. LANCE tells PERCY that he must let go of his anger toward his father, but PERCY only turns that anger against LANCE. Many MAGYARS invade the compartment, carrying merchandise that they are importing from the West. It is a showcase of capitalist decadence. LANCE pleads with PERCY to return with him to America, his true home, but PERCY abandons LANCE.