Dirty Laundry, a play by Kate Herbert, details & excerpt

DIRTY LAUNDRY, a play by Kate Herbert
Published by Currency Press 2003

Warwick Yuen, Thanh (Liz) Cao, Fiona Choi

Story

A Vietnamese youth who has served a sentence for drug related offences, is abandoned by his family and is in a job training program based in a laundry in Richmond. His major concern is to re-establish his relationship with is mother. He is assisted in re-hab and parole by a Vietnamese social worker and a cab driver he meets who was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam war.

 

History

The story is based on a real post-prison work laundry-training program organised specifically for Vietnamese Youth who have served sentences for drug related offences.

The story is built around Tran, whose drug offences and prison time have caused his mother to alienate him from the Buddhist Vietnamese family. It is confirmed from research to date that this is common practice in the Vietnamese community if a member of the family shames the family in any way.

The second plot line of the story involves an Anglo-Australian in his late forties who was conscripted during the Vietnam war, did his training at Puckapunyal and then went AWOL for the duration of the war and was active in the Conscientious Objectors' groups and anti-war movement. His family had convinced him that, if he did not do his training that the blossoming career of his older brother, who was an Army intelligence officer at the time, would be ruined if he did not.

 

Characters

Hung (pronounced ‘Hooong’) 28 years old. Vietnamese young man who came to Australia as a refugee when he was 8 years old. He is a heroin user who was gaoled for drug offences. Since being released, he is in a training program in a commercial laundry. He wants to reconcile with his mother who has disowned him since his incarceration.

 

Mai (pronounced ‘My”) 31 year old. HUNG'S sister who is a successful computer programmer. She came to Australia when she was 10. She loves her brother and wants Hung and her mother reconciled. She is unlucky in love and seeks a father figure to replace the dad she lost in Vietnam War.

 

Huong (pronounced ‘ Hoo-ong’) 58 years old Vietnamese mother of HUNG and MAI. She is conservative, a refugee from Vietnam. She left Vietnam to find a better life for her children.  She disowned Hung when he was gaoled for drug offences because he shamed the family. She refuses to reconcile with him.

 

Lenny is 55 years old, Australian ,the trainer in the laundry.  He is dry humoured and an ex-junkie. He was a Conscientious Objector, ex-veteran who went AWOL from Army during conscription in 1970.

 

Dave is 20s Unrepentant criminal and dealer who lives at halfway house. He is seedy, creepy, manipulative but ingratiating.

 

Manipulators

The manipulators work with the laundry sheets that are animated during the laundry and nightmare or memory scenes.

They can either be extra cast or can be double cast with Huong, Mai, Dave and sometimes, Lenny.

 

Location

Commercial laundry, halfway house, Huong’s home, street, cafe

 

Design

Whole action takes place on a series of wooden platforms in a Japanese style, criss-cross a shallow sea of smoke lit to represent water. This is based on Vietnamese water without replicating the traditional form. (involves tiny puppets with off-stage puppeteers immersed in water) There are huge white sheets of fabric strung from washing line over the space. They double as laundry sheets, sails for the boat, as a symbol of heroin, as doorways into the house or laundry, blankets when HUNG sleeps. Images are projected onto fixed sheets. Puppeteers manipulate other sheets. The sheets have a life of their own and take human shapes, move and float, interferer with HUNG’S pathways, create walls, beds etc. Monsters appear when HUNG is most scared or insecure. They remind him of his past and incapacitate him. MONSTERS appear out of the smoke-water: etc. They may be simply the disembodied arms of actors to represent his nightmares. Images are projected on sheets. Actors appear to be part of the projections. Subtitles of song in English and of Vietnamese dialogue may be projected amongst the images.

 

Music

Selection of Vietnamese songs from Song Book of Pham Duy

• Come Back Quickly, "Ahn Hoi Ahn Cu Ve" Jarai Tribe: collected  New words by Pham Duy
• The Rain on the Leaves: "Arirang" text/music- Pham Duy English lyrics-Steve Addiss
• My Poor Village (Que Ngheo) by  Pham Duy
• The Song of Protecting the Rose: "Ly Che Huong" traditional with new words by Pham Duy

Soundscape Musical composition that resonates with Vietnamese pentatonic tones and references.

 

DIRTY LAUNDRY Premiered at Carlton Courthouse for La Mama,  3 – 21 June 2003

Written by Kate Herbert

Directed by John Britton

CAST

HUNG Warwick Yuen

MAI Fiona Choi

HUONG Liz Cao

DAVE John Rogers

LENNY Mike Bishop

PRODUCTION

SOUND DESIGNER Chris Thatcher

LIGHTING DESIGNER John Ford

STAGE MANAGER Brodie Butler-Robie

DRAMATURG Nancy Black

SET DESIGNER Douglas Iain Smith

VISUAL THEATRE DIRECTOR AND DESIGN John Rogers

ANIMATORS Hanna Pyliotis, Jacob Shotade, Cameron Venn, Veronika (V-Ka) Shone-Diaz

 

WRITER’S NOTE

The Vietnamese culture is not my own nor was I close to it when I decided to write this play. The trigger was a forlorn young man on a documentary saying that he wanted only to be reconciled with his mother who had disowned him because of his drug crimes. The thought of being abandoned by one’s mother at any age was the catalyst for the story.

I had also seen Vietnamese Water Puppets twice and they influenced the design for me

although the wooden platforms of the Japanese Noh Theatre were in my mind too. We are an eclectic theatre culture now, drawing ideas from all cultures.

Many years ago, I taught a Vietnamese refugee. In a story-telling class he mildly told

about escaping Vietnam by boat and being raided by Thai pirates who raped his young sister. It moved me profoundly.

Live singers on stage always move me so I chose to use Vietnamese folk songs as part of

the emotional and cultural landscape.

Dirty Laundry is not a play just about the Vietnamese community. It is the quest for

redemption and the craving for home and family that became the heart of my play. Although the central characters are Vietnamese, Dirty Laundry is a universal story about a family trying to mend bridges and heal scars. It is a play that attempts to show the universality of human experience and a range of flawed but sympathetic characters. Who knows whether I have done any of that.

Kate Herbert, March 2003

____________________________________________________________________

 

DIRTY LAUNDRY by Kate Herbert

ACT ONE

Scene One

Prison. HUNG stands on wooden platforms over water/smoke. HUONG sings. IMAGE of bamboo projected. HUNG appears to be in bamboo. SOUNDSCAPE begins as traditional and beautiful. It slowly transforms during the song and as the images become darker. SOUNDSCAPE becomes disturbing. HUONG sings Come Back Quickly in Vietnamese unaccompanied over SOUNDSCAPE.

 

HUONG: [singing in Vietnamese] You once lived in the hamlet. Your life was tranquil

You lived with the love of your country, with the children around you

Then one early wretched morning, one tragic evening

As the owl hooted in the forest, they came and induced you to hate

Seduced you to leave your home, to go far from your family,

far from your brothers with love

 

SOUNDSCAPE slightly distorted under song: voices, chimes, ocean, wind. SHEETS form a sail and float across space. HUNG is caught in boat image with SHEETS as though floating. MAI appears in boat too. She sings with HUONG then she is snatched out of boat by shadow actors and HUNG tries to reach her. She is planted side stage and continues to sing.

MAI/HUONG: [singing in English] [Chorus] You must come back quickly, come back to the old bamboo tree

To the flowers of all four seasons, to the jet of wine

To the jokes of your friends, to the family who will welcome you with joy

The misty night will welcome your suspenseful steps in the soft moonlight

On the frozen little road

 

SOUNDSCAPE begins to distort further under the song: voices calling, alarms, waves, wind. Abstract IMAGE of junkie/street deal.  HUNG tries to walk. Shadow creatures and sheets grab at him, interfere with his walking. Arms appear and disappear under water/smoke.

 

HUONG: [singing in Vietnamese] You lived in the forest like a stag at bay

You ran over the land like a tiger eating the food of the villagers

And you are driven away to the forest

Your life is dangerous and your life is solitary

If you stay, you will die in the forest, you will die in the mountains

Without the care of a parent's hand, with no one to bury you

 

 SOUNDSCAPE more distorted. MONSTER appears and disappears under water. SHEETS float by as boat they pick HUNG up and drag him on board. HUNG tries to get off. Shadow creatures hold him. MONSTER leaps out of water at HUNG who flinches.

 

MAI/HUONG: [singing] You must come back quickly, come back to the old bamboo tree

To the flowers of all four seasons, to the jet of wine

To the jokes of your friends, to the family who will welcome you with joy

The misty night will welcome your suspenseful steps in the soft moonlight

On the frozen little road

 

Shadows creatures let HUNG free and SHEETS float off without HUNG. He is left abandoned, alone. IMAGE of prison bars. HUNG appears to be behind bars. LIGHTING CHANGE

 

Continue scene 1

Prison. SOUNDSCAPE continues low under action. IMAGE of prison bars continues. HUNG is upright against a SHEET as if asleep behind bars. HUNG is enveloped by SHEETS that appear to be alive. They breathe and move. HUNG ends upright against the SHEETS, looking stranded or drowned on shore, wrapped and entrapped in a tangle of white SHEETS, caught in bright light.  HUNG is confused, rubbing his head and blinking into the light.

 

HUONG: [singing] [in Vietnamese] You must come back quickly, come back to the old bamboo tree

 

HUNG: Is it time?

 

The following action takes place during the following dialogue. HUNG fights to disentangle himself from SHEETS as HUONG sings. His movements become more violent as he cannot get free. During her song, HUONG walks toward HUNG with her arms outstretched to him. HUNG tries to step toward HUONG but cannot move. As HUONG reaches HUNG, she moves past him off-stage. HUNG falls to his knees after HUONG walks past him. He drags himself to his feet. SHEETS are kinder to him, wrapping him as if swaddling a baby.

 

HUONG: [singing in Vietnamese] To the flowers of all seasons, to the jet of wine

 

HUNG: Is my mother here?

 

HUONG: [singing in Vietnamese] To the jokes of your friends, to the family who will welcome you with joy

 

HUNG: Is my sister here?

 

He walks slowly and more determinedly in a long walk across the criss-cross of wooden platforms. SHEETS create alleys and walls as he walks. MONSTER arm grabs at him from water at his feet.

 

HUONG: [singing in Vietnamese] The misty night will welcome your suspenseful steps in the soft moonlight

On the frozen little road

 

HUONG finishes song and exits. LIGHTING FADE.

 

 

Scene Two

 Laundry. LENNY is engaged in the ritual of the laundry work: lugging bags, piling into machines, washing, hanging, drying, pressing, folding, packing bags. His movement is fluid, practised. SHEETS moved by manipulators for LENNY. LENNY calls as if to a workers on different parts of stage.

 

LENNY: Oy! Keep it movin' slack bum… It's all in the rhythm Andy… Oh, stop whinin'. Bunch of babies… Anyone'd think you'd never worked a day in your life. Oops. You haven't… Hey! Huey, Dewey, Louey!  No smokos till smoko.

 

HUNG arrives in laundry. He looks nervous but is trying to be cool and controlled. LENNY stops. SHEETS fall magically into a pile in his arms. He sees HUNG, moves to him. HUNG is quiet and suspicious of LENNY who is powerful, big and unflappable.

 

Look what the cat dragged in. New bloke, boys. Don't make his life a misery, eh? Well, whadya know mate?

 

HUNG is silent.

 

No English, eh? Back to sign lingo.

 

LENNY uses bad mime simultaneously with dialogue.

 

The rules are: no smoking inside [mimes no smoking] or you’ll blow us sky-high. [miming explosion]  Boom! If you’re sick [miming vomiting] phone in. [miming phone] Any stealing [swiping wallet from HUNG'S pocket] or grog [miming drinking] or drugs [miming injection] and you’re out with a swift kick up the arse from Yours Truly. Am I right fellas?

 

HUNG looks fiercely at LENNY.

 

Don’t mess with me and I won’t mess with you, Sunshine. Got all that? Good. The dirty laundry arrives in the truck, through this door. You unload. Fill the washers. At the end of the cycle … Um … Cycle. [miming bicycle] Shite! [calling] Danny. Look after new boy, will ya? [to HUNG] Welcome to my nightmare, [looks at notes] Mr. Hung Nguyen.

 

HUNG stares at LENNY.

 

Well, what're you waitin' for? Christmas?

 

LIGHTING CROSS FADE

 [Continue scene. 2]

Laundry. LENNY and HUNG do the laundry ritual. LENNY is in control and fluid in his movements. HUNG is awkward. It is a "sheet ballet". The SHEETS are swung like flags, folded, piled, opened and hung again. SHEETS move of their own volition. SOUNDSCAPE accompanies the laundry ritual. Reprise the earlier SOUNDSCAPE but less dissonant form. MONSTERS' arms rise suddenly out of the water at HUNG’S feet. HUNG tries to escape MONSTERS as well as manage the laundry ritual. He seems frightened. HUNG, at one stage, gets trapped in a swirl of SHEETS. The action calms down. HUNG is entangled in a SHEET at the end. LENNY looks at him quizzically. SOUNDSCAPE stops. MONSTERS disappear. LIGHTING CROSS FADE

 

Continue scene 2]

Laundry. LENNY stops and looks at HUNG who is recovering from laundry routine.

 

LENNY: Lighten up, mate. It might never happen.

 

 LENNY untangling HUNG from sheets

 

So, you’re in the halfway house?

 

 HUNG is silent.

 

All right? [forming "OK" circle with fingers]

 

 HUNG grunts. They keep working.

 

[pointing] Pass us that, will ya?  

 

 HUNG grunts and passes a SHEET.  They keep working.

 

D'ya smoke? [miming smoking]

 

HUNG shrugs. They keep working.

 

Play cricket? [LENNY miming cricket]

 

 HUNG shakes head.

 

Pity.

 

 HUNG grunts. They keep working.

 

Got something on tonight?

 

 HUNG looks blank. They keep working.

 

Chatty bastard, aren’t ya?

 

HUNG looks annoyed. LENNY sees but ignores it.  They return to laundry ritual. HUNG is a little more adept. LENNY keeps his eyes on HUNG intermittently, checking his progress. LIGHTING FADE.