Mrs. Packard

Emily Mann

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781559366281
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

“Emily Mann is one of our most urgently engaging, provocative and significant American playwrights.”—Joyce Carol Oates

“Elizabeth Packard emerges as a vibrant, passionate force of nature.”— The New York Times

Illinois, 1861: Without proof of insanity, Elizabeth Packard is committed by her husband to an asylum. Based on historical events, Emily Mann’s play tells of one woman’s struggle to right a system gone wrong in this winner of the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award.

Emily Mann is a playwright and director, now in her nineteenth season as artistic director of McCarter Theatre. Her award-winning plays have been produced throughout the world.

ACT TWO

Minutes later.

The 8th Ward: bellowing, screaming mayhem; the ward is filled with maniacs. The floor is strewn with mattresses and refuse, the walls are covered in filth. The inmates are very dirty, not having been bathed in years, and they sit in their own excrement.

Elizabeth is pushed on by a jubilant Mrs. Bonner. The matron of the 8th Ward, Mrs. Tenney, approaches. She is a kind, timid, middle-aged woman.

Elizabeth can barely breathe from the stench.

MRS. BONNER (Happily): Welcome to yer new home, darlin’. (Unlocks the shackles) Mrs. Tenney, this is Mrs. Packard. She’s a mad one. Dr. McFarland has removed her from the 7th Ward and wants you to admit her here where she belongs, in the 8th.

MRS. TENNEY: Thank you, Mrs. Bonner. Hello, Mrs. Packard.

(Elizabeth nods.)

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MRS. BONNER: She’s to have nuthin’. Nuthin’ at all. Her belongings have been taken to the trunk room. Doctor’s orders.

MRS. TENNEY: Is she violent?

MRS. BONNER (With a malicious glint): Oh, she can be. Sometimes . . .

(Elizabeth shakes her head. Her eyes meet Mrs. Tenney’s.)

ELIZABETH: How do you do, Mrs. Tenney.

MRS. TENNEY: Leave her with me, Mrs. Bonner. Thank you. I’ll take care of her from here.

(Mrs. Bonner exits. Elizabeth looks around her, tries to compose herself. After a moment:)

Follow me please, Mrs. Packard.

(The women pick up their skirts and step over the filth on the floor as they walk over to a bedstand covered with filthy rags. One of the inmates watches them, curious.)

This will be your bed.

(Elizabeth closes her eyes, almost dizzy.)

ELIZABETH: I see . . . Are there . . . any clean sheets I could have?

MRS. TENNEY: Excuse me? I’m afraid not.

ELIZABETH (Looking around): Is there a place to bathe? That is, if one knew how?

MRS. TENNEY: Oh, not really, no.

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(Pause.)

ELIZABETH: It’s practically impossible to breathe.

MRS. TENNEY: Once or twice a week some men come in and shovel it all out.

(Long pause.)

ELIZABETH: Like a barn.

MRS. TENNEY: Yes, like a barn.

(Pause.)

ELIZABETH: Do the doctors or the superintendent, then, not come here often, Mrs. Tenney?

MRS. TENNEY: Rarely, Mrs. Packard. They rarely come to the 8th Ward, if at all. I have never seen Doctor McFarland here.

ELIZABETH: I see.

(She looks around; her survival instinct starts to kick in.)

What is that bowl over there?

MRS. TENNEY: Oh, yes, that is a bed pan we thought to try on one of the less disturbed patients, but she wouldn’t have it near her. So we are sending it back down.

ELIZABETH: Don’t do that. It will make a splendid wash bowl. And show me where the facilities are located that you use. I should like to use them as well.

MRS. TENNEY: Pardon me?

ELIZABETH: That red ribbon—do you need it? I’m sorry to ask, but perhaps we could . . . tie it around the handle of the bed pan to make it clear to all the attendants that it is mine personally, all right? And they must not handle it. I’ll keep it clean. Just show me where to rinse it. Now let us find me some soap and a towel, even a piece of toweling will do. I must bathe once a day, even if it is only a sponge bath. Is that true for you as well?

MRS. TENNEY: Why, yes, it is. I myself bathe daily . . . too. (Giving her the ribbon)

(Elizabeth looks at her, expectantly.)

Oh, yes. I will try to find you soap and a towel.

ELIZABETH: Don’t try, Mrs. Tenney. Do it. I know you can.

MRS. TENNEY: Yes, yes I-I- will t—(She stops herself)

(As Elizabeth ties the ribbon:)

Have you angered the doctor, Mrs. Packard?

ELIZABETH: I have, Mrs. Tenney.

(Elizabeth finishes tying the bow. She is exhausted, but discovers a kind of clarity.)

You know, I am almost relieved to be here?

MRS. TENNEY: Excuse me?

ELIZABETH: At least it’s clear now. Since I cannot tend my children—what the Lord would have me do.

(She looks around. Silence. Then, she picks up the rags from off the “bed.”)

Can you find some buckets and soap . . . Let’s boil these. (Hands the rags to Mrs. Tenney) In fact, let’s strip all the beds, and then we must take all the rotted straw, throw it out and restuff these mattresses. (Mrs. Tenney: “Wh—?”) They stink. Are there more attendants? (She throws her mattress to the ground and opens it up) Perhaps you and I can scrub and delouse the patients as well. (She laughs) Think of me as a colleague, why don’t you? And by the way, I need someone to go to the trunk room and retrieve my mirror for me. It . . . means a great deal to me.

(Mrs. Tenney, bewildered, watches Elizabeth work.)

MRS. TENNEY: . . . Oh, oh . . . Why, yes . . . yes . . . of course . . . I—I—

(Mrs. Tenney exits. Elizabeth continues to gut the mattresses and tend to the patients.

Time passes. Dr. McFarland enters. She sees him but continues cleaning. He watches her, amazed she is cleaning the ward. After a while:)

DR. MCFARLAND: Good day, Mrs. Packard.

(After a long time, with contained fury:)

ELIZABETH: Doctor, there is always something that can be done for the benefit of others, and since I hadn’t the opportunity to do missionary work at home, I thank you for assigning me quite a large missionary field here to cultivate.

DR. MCFARLAND: Yes. Our good works are never enough, Mrs. Packard. We require grace. Did you learn nothing from your husband? . . . Or your father?

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ELIZABETH: I should like some paper and a pen.

DR. MCFARLAND: You did forfeit that right.

(She works.)

ELIZABETH: Why are you here, Doctor? You never visit the 8th Ward, I understand.

DR. MCFARLAND: I wanted to . . . observe today . . . And see how you are . . . getting on.

ELIZABETH: Now you see.

DR. MCFARLAND: Yes.

(She works.)

ELIZABETH: Why are you still here?

(No answer.)

Would you like to talk now—(With irony ) in depth? Or help me with the work?

DR. MCFARLAND: I am on my rounds. I have other duties and patients in need besides you, Mrs. Packard.

ELIZABETH: Indeed you have, Doctor . . . And yet you cannot stay away.

DR. MCFARLAND: Pardon me?

ELIZABETH: Tell me, Doctor, have you slept?

DR. MCFARLAND: No, I have not slept . . . I am too much awake.

ELIZABETH: I’m sorry. Perhaps your soul is not quiet.

(Pause. He turns abruptly to go.)

I will not see you again—at least not soon—will I?

DR. MCFARLAND: No. Perhaps not.

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(An inmate at the other end of the ward attacks another inmate. Bedlam ensues. Elizabeth calls for Mrs. Tenney. A male Attendant and Mrs. Bonner enter and separate the women, then the Attendant slugs the instigator in the mouth. She crumples to the floor, unconscious. The Attendant picks up the woman and carries her off like a sack.)

(Shaken, but covering) . . . You see, Mrs. Packard—discipline is utterly necessary for the well-being of the patients.

ELIZABETH: Doctor! Surely you see this is an immense disgrace?

DR. MCFARLAND (Heatedly, defending himself): Mrs. Packard! I do see the world for what it is . . . and I choose to live in it . . . Just as you should.

ELIZABETH: Ah. Yes. Well . . . I had thought better of you.

(Pause.

Dr. McFarland exits. The door clangs shut behind him.

The lights change. Miss Sarah Rumsey is on the stand.)

MR. HASLET: State your name please for the record.

SARAH RUMSEY: Miss Sarah Rumsey.

MR. HASLET: How do you know Mrs. Packard?

SARAH RUMSEY: I worked for one week in Mrs. Packard’s house as a favor to Mr. Packard. When Mrs. Packard found I was going to stay in the house and that the French servant had been discharged, she ordered me into the kitchen! Before that she had treated me kindly as a visitor. I thought it an evidence of insanity for her to order me into the kitchen. She ought to have known I was not an ordinary servant.

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(The lights change. In the 8th Ward, Mrs. Tenney gives Elizabeth paper from a hidden pocket in her apron. From a hiding place in the ward, Elizabeth retrieves p...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• BOOKS BY EMILY MANN PUBLISHED BY TCG
• Production History
• Characters
• ACT ONE
• ACT TWO
• Copyright Page