We’ve posted before about hard-hit Detroit, which by some counts is sporting a 45% unemployment rate. The following excerpts are from The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit, a play by Mercilee Jenkins, which received a staged reading at Detroit’s Matrix Theatre Company last year. The play is intended to be performed by two actors, a black man and a white woman, who play all the characters. To read the entire play in Word, click here.

ACT I: COMING HOME

PRELUDE

(MAN and WOMAN enter downstage center, each addresses the audience in formal manner as narrators. Projections of historic landmarks, factories and buildings in Detroit are shown blowing up around them)

WOMAN
In the 1950’s Detroit was the 5th largest city in the United States with just under 2 million people, equally divided between African American and white.

MAN
Today Detroit has a population of around 900,000 poor, mostly African American people, many of whom live in conditions we associate with war-torn countries.

WOMAN & MAN
What happened?

(Projections of the J. L. Hudson Department store blowing up)

WOMAN
When they blew up J.L. Hudson’s,
the grand department store,
they hadn’t counted on how
the dust and debris would erupt
and roll across the downtown
collecting in the vacant spaces
where other buildings used to be

MAN
and where people had carelessly
left the windows open
filling up cars with the ashes of the city,
the fabulous ruins of Detroit.

MAN & WOMAN
(Separating to stage left and right while pointing to the slide)
Step right up
and see for yourself.

ACT III: TALK AROUND THE CLOCK

(LUCY and ANTHONY listening to the radio. LUCY is parked outside the art gallery and ANTHONY is in the gallery. Both tune into a talk radio show and freeze. LUCY becomes the WHITE MALE HOST and ANTHONY and LUCY play the callers)

HOST
It’s “Talk Around the Clock” with Dr. Jay and today is the 40th anniversary of the start of the 1967 riots, or rebellion depending on your viewpoint. And I just want to say: “Speramus meliora, resurget cineribus,” which is Latin in case you don’t know for, “We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes.” And that, my friends, is the motto of the city of Detroit. Bet you didn’t know that. Are we just kidding ourselves that Detroit will rise again? And how the hell do we do it? You got any ideas? Call me at 414-555-7000 and tell us where you live and what you think but keep it legal. And if anyone can tell me who came up with that motto, call in and have your five minutes of fame. O.K., we got Tyrone from Townsend, I like the sound of that, you’re on the air.

TYRONE (old black man)
I blame the expressways. Carved up the old neighborhoods and took people away from the city to the suburbs and to top it off, we had to pay for the damn things instead of those people in the suburbs …

HOST
(Cuts off TYRONE) So true Tyrone but can we get away from the “us” versus “them” mentality, the city versus the suburbs, Black versus white. Can’t we do better than that? Thanks. Sam from the East side tells us how it is.

SAM (young black man)
(Exaggerated, mocking) She ain’t completely dead yet. Look up – you got your rapid transit, the People Mover –4 stops above downtown, GM headquarters, two new sports stadiums, three mega casinos, and Trapper’s Alley, a sort of Disneyfied trading post, get your souvenirs. You know what I’m saying?

(Radio sound effects of slot machines and bells ringing)

HOST
O.K. we’ve got some high spots amid the rubble and vacant lots, I’ll grant you that but is this the city we want? Maddy from Southfield.

MADDY (LUCY as middle-aged white woman)
I used to be from the West side. Moved out in 86. All the Blacks moved in and drove us out. Then they ruined the place. Crack cocaine. Nobody “hearts” Detroit anymore.

HOST
Thanks for that enlightened viewpoint. I know you’re not alone but, you should be. If we keep talkin’ hate, how are we gonna get anywhere but here? Anybody got anything new to say? Sarah from where’s this?—the border? Are you living on a boat in the Detroit river?

SARAH
Almost. I live on a small canal with a fence running along the road. On one side, tidy brick houses and small green lawns. On the other, broken down garages and stubbly backyards. It’s like a definite and distinct border, you know. So later when border patrol cruised by I thought for just a second that they were patrolling the Grosse Pointe – Detroit border, instead of the U.S.– Canadian. ‘Cause Detroit has become 88% Black and Grosse Pointe is still 97% white and people tend to stay on their own side, you know and

HOST
(Interrupts) So true, Sarah. Thank you for painting such a grim but real picture of how it is. I’m kinda knocked out by that. Anybody else with a new view? How about Johnny from Dearborn?

JOHNNY (middle-aged Arab man)
They call my people (stress on first syllable) Arabs. My brother runs a convenience store behind bulletproof glass with a rack of semiautomatic assault rifles. Wears a bulletproof vest, carries a gun and has body like the Hulk. He got no problems with his customers. It’s about respect.

HOST
I bet he does get respect. What a way to make a living. That’s just depressing. O.K. just for old times sake and because I’m tired of talking about our current mayor. What about Coleman Young? Yes, I know you’re out there dying to talk about him. Why didn’t he solve all our problems. Henry, what say?

HENRY (LUCY as middle-aged white man)
Called him “Coleman Tongue” ‘cause he talked so much, you know. (Laughing) That’s the truth. Mayor 20 years –my whole life back then. You could make a good living on the assembly line but those days are gone. Ah, anyway what could one man do? I mean…

HOST
(Interrupts) Well, like you say, he did have 20 years. He might have done something besides have a foul mouth and a lot of bad ideas for civic projects, like the People Mover and the Big Fist. Yeah, that really helped a lot of people. What do you have to say Justine? Anything halfway sane?

JUSTINE (middle aged Black woman)
I know you don’t wanna hear this but when he was mayor Blacks took over the police force and the city government. This is the first major city in America run by and for Black people who don’t have to cater to whites // to get what they want …

HOST
(Cuts off JUSTINE) So then what’d we get to be? The first Third World City in America? No money, no jobs, no education, no nothing. You scare all the white people away, there goes the money. I hate to say it but it’s true. What’s your take on all this, Sam?

SAM (again)
(Exaggerated, slow) Man, you missing the point. This is the city of the future. No businesses, no factories, no jobs, no services, no citizens except a few high rollers and tourists.

HOST
Hey, didn’t you call before? What kinda freak are you? And who sent you? And I hope to hell you’re wrong. O.K. we got time for one more call before the break and its another first. Sister Mary Aloysius from Sacred Heart. Excuse me Sister for my swearing.

SISTER (older nun)
Hello? Are we on the air? I can’t hear.

HOST
Sister, turn down your radio.

SISTER
What? Oh, yes. That’s better. I’m calling to give you the answer about the motto.

HOST
That would be great, go ahead.

SISTER
Father Gabriel Richard came up with it when the school he built burned down during the great fire that destroyed the city in 1805. I don’t know exactly how it came to be the motto, but “We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes” certainly seems prophetic.

HOST
Yes, it does. Thank you Sister for calling in and enlightening us.

SISTER
Well, that’s my job.

HOST
And we certainly are in need, Sister. God bless

HOST
We’ll be right back after these messages with more “Talk Around the Clock” Holy Cow. What’s next?

LUCY
(LUCY turns off radio) Lord, help us all. (Gets out of the car)

ACT III: WE MEET AGAIN

LUCY
I’m glad you decided to come back for the commemoration and I’m here to see this, all this.

ANTHONY
At first, I didn’t want any part of it. Then I decided I needed to see for myself. Is Detroit really like they say now?

LUCY
I never thought they would abandon downtown like this, all those beautiful old buildings standing empty.

ANTHONY
Yeah, the one’s they didn’t blow up.

LUCY
What’s with that?

ANTHONY
I guess they’re hoping someone will come in and build something new. Too many old buildings haven’t been used in so long, they got problems – flooded basements, feral cats on the ground floor and pigeons roosting on the top ones.

LUCY
Or maybe they just want to drive out the people who are left. Is it true deer have been seen walking down Woodward Avenue?

ANTHONY
Yeah, they swim over from Belle Isle lookin’ for a hand out.

LUCY
That’s crazy.

(Later in the scene)

ANTHONY
I’ll get some more wine. (Gets wine and refills their glasses) So, Professor, what do you think about Detroit and how it is now? Can it be saved?

LUCY
I– I don’t know, maybe there’s a chance. I mean, we saved each other didn’t we?

ANTHONY
(pause) Yeah, we did. Somehow we did.

LUCY
So maybe there’s hope against all the odds. What knocks me out is how much I care about this place. After all this time of being glad to be from here, I want Detroit to be saved. Here I thought I left the city by choice. Couldn’t wait to get out. Now I feel like I’m living in exile.

ANTHONY
I don’t know Lucy, if I could ever care that much about this place. Too many bad memories.

LUCY
Did you know there are kids now called “Urban Explorers” who break into old buildings just to explore them and take pictures, like archeologists studying the past? They do that here in downtown Detroit.

ANTHONY
They must not be Black or they’d be called vandals.

LUCY
I’m sure that’s what some people call them but maybe this new generation will rediscover our past and make sense of it.

ANTHONY
Somebody should.

Posted on January 21, 2010 at 2:15 pm
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