Dear Friends (friend?)
Here's the long-awaited update on "Mixed Nuts". Have a taste of the script that gives some idea of the pith.
(Enter Dr. Darcy, whistling or humming “If I only had a Brain” which the musicians pick up.)
Dr. Darcy: For the individual there is always a choice between taking action or not taking action. “Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune . . .” Then there is paralysis. There’s paralysis from fear - say your house has caught fire and you can’t decide between the Queen Anne chairs and the oriental rug. And there’s the paralysis which grows perpetual - which is also from fear - fear of rejection, of inconvenience, of making mistakes . . .
What I love about these guys is that whatever demons are haunting them, whatever fears they may have - paralysis is not a symptom. They are not cowards.
Here‘s what I think. People are dying inside in silence. And due to the lack of engaging the state of things, the memory of the good it could be like fades, and conscience is lessened. It’s part of the death of history.
(Enter Sgt Versagnino, unseen by Dr. Darcy.)
We have lost even the memory of the nostalgic anticipation of the good because we put it in the ether - never in action - which is always for someone else, while we remain paralyzed in the righteousness of our objectivity.
Sgt: Hostages to fortune. So it is our fortune to play in the shadows - “to strut and fret our hour upon the stage.”
Dr. Darcy: Sergeant.
(The Green Mountain Boys enter silently and tuck themselves away in places where they are not noticed by Dr. Darcy. Ratchet enters shortly after in plain clothes and with a shoulder holster.)
Sgt: Dr. Darcy. This is where the performance took place, and you were the emcee, right?
Dr. Darcy: Yes.
Sgt: And you directed the performance.
Dr. Darcy: Yes, though the patients chose the material and did quite a lot to put it together.
Sgt: It wasn’t a play.
Dr. Darcy: No, it was from several plays and several other sources as well.
Sgt: So it was an extensive project.
Dr. Darcy: Yes.
Sgt: Was it experimental? Are other facilities doing this kind of thing?
Dr. Darcy: I don’t think so. This is the only such program of its kind as far as I know . . . or it was.
Sgt: When were you hired?
Dr. Darcy: About a year ago.
Sgt: Was Dr. Carroll supportive of this event?
Dr. Darcy: No, I persuaded her to let me try a creative project and - now that it’s turned out the way it has, I’ll be leaving and I expect the hospital will be closed.
(Enter Drs. Carroll and Gottlieb.)
Sgt: None of these patients is dangerous, right?
Dr. Carroll: Correct.
Sgt: What about the patient who thinks he’s Ethan Allen? He seems to be kind of a special case.
Dr. Carroll: All our patients are special. Dr. Darcy can tell you about the patient known as Ethan Allen. He is . . . was . . . under her care.
(Dr. Darcy hesitates and sees Ethan.)
Dr. Darcy?
(Dr. Darcy continues to hesitate, and then finds the words.)
Dr. Darcy: Yes, the uh . . . General Allen is my . . . is the leader of a group of men that is called The Green Mountain Boys. I understand that there is a certain curiosity and concern for him and for the community, given his arrest here some months ago . . . and his championing the cause of Vermont Independence.
If you want to help him, you have to do something to help others. This is a man who doesn’t need analysis or drugs. He needs his countrymen to join him in his work.
We tried. But the help he needed was not to be found in a hospital. Now he is doing what he needs to do, and God bless him.
(Dr. Carroll, furious and mortified, glares at her.)
Sgt: So what’s his illness . . . what’s his condition?
Dr. Darcy: He has a classic case of what the medical profession calls delusions of grandeur; but what is, in this instance, heroism.