S
Scene 7
The library
Note: Ho Chi Minh used the Van Ba when he lived in America.
Ba and Pamela are talking.
BA
And then I went into the hotel foyer. I had never been in there before. I was
not allowed. I found the desk with the reception word on it. And I
told the man there to come quickly to the bakery, but he told me to go
away, to get out of the hotel. Then I said that Mr Malcolm Keely,
from the Mayflower people, has been hit and hurt and is lying on the
floor of the bakery.
Then what happened?
PAMELA
BA
Then many people came to the bakery. They left him on the floor until a
doctor came, in case bones were broken they did not want to move
him. Then he sat up, and he was in big hurt. Tears came out of his
eyes and blood came out of his nose. He kept saying he needed to see
Suzanna. Then one of the men yelled at him and said he was a
‘damned fool’ for walking around with a Nigger. But Mr Keely kept
saying he had to see Suzanna. He kept asking if she was all right but
they said he had to go to the hospital and then they took him away.
And what did you do?
PAMELA
BA
There was nothing I could do. Suzanna came the morning and I told her
what happened. She was upset. If she went to the hospital to see Mr
Keely, she knew they wouldn’t let her in. She cried. And then I knew
Mr Keely would be wanting everything to be ready as usual so I did
very fast baking. Then Rory came in and I told him and he also did
fast baking, for Mr Keely. Then Suzanna started to bake, too, and she
pounded the dough hard. Like this. (He pounds the table hard) (beat)
I feel sick.
PAMELA
Of course you do. You saw something horrible.
Carol Dance©
BA
I have seen worse things. I have seen the men the French have tortured.
Some cannot walk. Some have no ears because they were chopped off.
They tell of most disgusting things the French do to them in the gaols.
Hang them upside down for days. Even worst things I do not want to
tell to you. So I do not want to go back. I only want to see the birds
and trees. I want to eat fresh herbs and frogs. I want to feel the heavy
rain and the hotness of the summer. The birds. The clouds. The birds
are different here. Even the clouds are different. In Vietnam the
clouds are heavy with water and everyday they let the water go. It
comes down in great splashes. It washes everything clean and
beautiful. And everything is green. Very green. Everything grows.
Vines twirl up and grow an inch a day. Leaves hold water until so
heavy the drops fall down. The wind blows the scent of the herbs into
the houses.
It sounds a wonderful place.
PAMELA
Ba cries. Pamela looks around to see if the other
readers are watching. Pamela cries. Ba takes
her hand and she holds it firmly. She squeezes it
emphatically.
BA
In school, they made us read Voltaire, and Victor Hugo. In school we
learned that the French started the Enlightenment. But I do not
understand why the French in my country do not know about this
Enlightenment.
PAMELA
For the same reason Negros can’t vote in the South. For the same reason
women can’t vote. The people who write about equality are talking
about the equality for themselves, not of the others, not of the Negroes,
the women, the people in their colonies, the people who are not
landowners. They write grand speeches to claim their own equality.
They could not foresee the future. They could not imagine that women
would want to vote, or that people in their colonies would demand to
be free. But your time will come. I believe that, Ba. And so must
you. Here are all these history books surrounding us in the library.
Carol Dance©
They tell of the Empires that have collapsed. The French Empire will
collapse, too.
Scene 11
The library the same day
PAMELA is dressed more pleasingly than in the
earlier library scenes (bright dress, jewellery).
Available members of the cast are sitting at tables
reading with their backs to the audience. Pamela
is intently reading a newspaper when BA rushes
in. She circles something with her pen. Ba is
carrying three books that he puts on the table.
Bonjour, Mademoiselle.
Bonjour. You are early today.
BA
PAMELA
BA
Yes. I must find out about Mr Theodore Roosevelt. What he has written.
What he did when he was the President. Everything.
Teddy?
PAMELA
BA
Why does everyone call him Teddy?
PAMELA
Teddy is just a nickname for Theodore.
BA
Why doesn't he change his name completely? In Vietnam, we change our
names many times.
Why?
PAMELA
BA
Tradition. I became Van Ba when I joined the ship. Tradition for when start
to work. I was born Nguy Sinh Cung. When I was ten I got another
name. That is Confucian tradition. When I write poems, I use
pseudonym tradition, like François-Marie Arouet who is
Voltaire.
Carol Dance©
BA + PAMELA
You write poems?
Doesn't everyone?
PAMELA
BA
PAMELA
Oh, Ba. Sometimes you are so funny.
BA
I do not care if I seem funny. Maybe other people seem funny to me. That
is the way it is. But, please, I must know everything about this Teddy.
PAMELA
They say he is going to run for president again.
BA
So he must tell the newspapers what he will do if he is president. Isn't that
what you do in America?
PAMELA
Yes. He will have to have policies and a platform. (secretly, whispering)
And, he is going to start a new party.
He is going to give a party?
No, Ba. A new political party.
How do you do it?
BA
PAMELA
BA
PAMELA
I will explain it as best I can, but first we must have our lessons. It is my
turn to learn French. We have spent too many days just learning
English. And I have helped you with the letter to your friend Suzanna.
So now it is my turn. After my lesson I will tell you about Theodore.
BA
Thank you. First, may I tell you something?
PAMELA
Yes.
You look very pretty today.
Well, thank you, Ba.
BA
PAMELA
BA
Carol Dance©
Please, tell me about this Theodore.
PAMELA
It won’t work telling me I’m pretty to get out of giving me my French
lesson. You promised. Il est temps de parler français.
BA
Bien. Today let us talk about the pleasant things of life. The snow, the
birds, the clouds.
PAMELA
All right. But not the snow. To you, snow is nice but you have not lived
with it for your whole life. I would like to feel the heat you tell me is
in Vietnam. I would like to hear different birds and see the jungle,
even the monsoons. We must talk about places I will never get to see.
BA
OK. We won't talk about la neige.
PAMELA
Oui, parlons des oiseaux et toute les beau choses.
BA
Non. C'est "Toute les belle choses".
Toute les belle choses.
PAMELA
BA
Please please, tell me about this Teddy, called Theodore in Boston. I must
understand how this political party and this democracy works.
PAMELA
We are not speaking French, but I will answer anyway. You can watch how
democracy works tomorrow. Because the suffragettes are marching.
People make protests to make the American laws allow women to
vote. That is how it works. Go to the march and see. The more
people march the more the government will pay attention. Men march,
too. Don’t you think women should vote?
Yes.
BA
PAMELA
And tomorrow is your day off. You can march, or you can just go to watch.
Carol Dance©
Do people get hurt?
Ba begins lining up the books in a neat row,
becoming obsessive. He is afraid of going.
BA
PAMELA
Yes.
BA
How do people know where to go?
PAMELA
It’s in the newspaper. It is my duty to show you how democracy works
since you are a borrower at the Boston Public Library. You can go.
BA (LYING)
No. I can't. I am sorry. This week tomorrow is not my day off. I would
very much like to march with you but too bad that tomorrow is now
not my day off. I am so sorry to be not able to march. I would so
much appreciate to go.
pamela
That is a shame.
You can tell me what happens.
BA
Pamela now embarrassed because she is not
going to go.
PAMELA
Unfortunately, I cannot go either. I must be here.
BA
And Mr Theodore “Teddy Roosevelt, does he listen for all the suffragettes
making the march? You must tell me about him.
Ba bows several times to Pamela.
PAMELA
Ba, please don’t do that. I’ve asked you before not to bow to me. Not to
bow to anyone. You don’t bow to anyone in America, especially not
in Boston.
BA
But how am I to get you to tell me about Mr Roosevelt?
Why him particularly?
PAMELA
BA
Carol Dance©
I am going to meet him.
PAMELA
You are? How? Why?
BA
I am going to the soirée at the Parker.
PAMELA
The Saturday Club? Are you serving the pastries?
BA
No. I have been invited. A famous French actress, Madame Sarah
Bernhardt, she invited me.
PAMELA
She did?
BA
Yes. I found her in the lane beside the bakery.
PAMELA
In the lane?
BA
People who love her chased her there all the way from the theatre and I
heard her scream for help and I found her and pulled her inside to be
safe. She is very famous. And then I showed her how to get into the
hotel lobby.
PAMELA
So that’s how she escaped. Ba, this is wonderful. Now, first thing you must
do is what you must not do. You must not bow.
Not even to a Mr President?
BA
PAMELA
Most definitely not to the former possibly future president. Do you know
who else is going to be there?
BA
Mr Keely say about thirty people but he only tell Theodore Roosevelt,
Madame Bernhardt and Mr Booker T. Washington.
Pamela relishes the opportunity to make her
‘prodigy’ perform well at the Saturday Club.
PAMELA
His book has finally been published. (She goes to a shelf and gets a copy)
“Up From Slavery.” Here it is. You must read it before Saturday.
Carol Dance©
That’s four days from now. I don’t know very much about Sarah
Bernhardt, only that she is probably the most famous person in the
world. I can tell you many things about Booker and Theodore.
Always get a political briefing before you go into a meeting, or in this
case, a soirée. Know who will be there, what they say publically, and
guess what they might think privately. Know who are their backers.
Backers?
BA
PAMELA
Their supporters. Know who are their enemies. Know how much money
they have and where they got it. Find out everything you can. Find
out what you have that they might want or need. Find out what they
have that you might want or need now or sometime in the future.
Always think of the future. How you might make use of important
people in the future and always always remain as friends with
everyone and if you must disagree with them, disagree in such a way
as they will still want to be friends. If you don’t understand
something, ask. Politely, of course. But always ask. If you’re talking
to Theodore and you want to ask something, just pretend you are
talking to me. You ask me things all the time. And always treat
people as equals.
BA
And how can Mr Roosevelt treat me as an equal to him?
PAMELA
Theodore doesn’t think anyone is equal to him, but he is polite to everyone
as if they are equal.
BA
I don’t even know how to say ‘hello’ to him.
PAMELA
Do not bow. If you do, it tells him immediately that you do not think you
are worth much and so he will treat you as if you are not worth much.
You say “How do you do, Mr Roosevelt. It is a great pleasure to meet
you.”
How does he do what?
BA
PAMELA
What?
Carol Dance©
BA
How does he do what? How does he do a political party? How does he do
making for to be president? What am I expecting him to tell me how
he does?
PAMELA
Oh, I see. No, how-do-you-do it just means, well, ‘hello.’ You thrust out
your hand, say ‘How do you do, Mr Roosevelt. It is a great pleasure to
meet you.’ And then he will say ‘How do you do’.
BA
And I do not have to tell him what I do, even though ‘how do you do’ is a
question?
PAMELA
That’s right. If someone asks you a question, you must answer boldly, from
the heart. They cannot imagine people not wanting to know about
America and they will want to know what you think of America. You
just answer from the heart. Oh, and do not want to embarrass them by
asking about anything you suspect they don’t know, which is the world
outside America. Oh, you will do fine, Ba. I want to know everything
that happens. Everything they say. I want to know what Theodore is
like in real life. And I want to know that Booker is like. I have read
his book. I want to know everything, Ba. (leaning forward to
whisper) I have a secret.
BA
What?
PAMELA
I know what he is going to name his new political party. No one is supposed
to know until he announces it. But I know.
BA
How did you find out? Because you are the Boston Public Library?
PAMELA
Yes. All the important people in America send someone to the Boston
Public Library to do research and read the newspapers from Boston
and New York and other cities. They have to know what the
columnists and editorials are saying. Theodore is in Boston for a week
with his staff. Two of them came to the library just yesterday to read
all the newspapers from around the country. I crept up close to listen,
and heard them laughing. Laughing because they said the new party is
Carol Dance©
going to be called something funny. It is the Progressive party but
Theodore has named it (leans closer and whispers something we can’t
hear).
Why?
BA
PAMELA
Because an insane man once shot Theodore. He simply wrapped up the leg
wound and continued on campaigning. He was quoted as saying a
bullet couldn’t stop him because he was as strong as a…
Oh, I understand.
BA
PAMELA
Here, read this. It will probably come up in the discussions. Everyone in
Europe is talking about it. It’s by Karl Marx. You’d better go now. I
have to close up.
Ba exits with the book. Pamela watches to see he
has left then goes to her desk and picks up the
newspaper. She reads the place she had circled at
the start of the scene. She is deciding to go to the
march herself.
Scene 21
Hanoi 1945
HO CHI MINH (Ba) stands stage centre. He
wears glasses, and is slightly stooped. He is 55.
He delivers the speech (two versions below).
There is a film of Ho delivering of the speech in
Vietnamese with English subtitles.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEvFhMe
ExlY It could be shown as an alternative to the
actor giving the speech.
HO (LONG VERSION)
"All people are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with
certain unalienable rights; among these are life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness." This immortal statement appeared in the Declaration of
Independence of the United States of America in 1776. It means all
peoples of the world are equal from birth, and have a right to life,
Carol Dance©
fortune and freedom. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the
Citizen promulgated at the time of the French Revolution in 1791 also
states 'All people are born free with equal rights, and must always
remain free with equal rights.' The entire Vietnamese people are
determined to mobilise all their strength and to sacrifice their lives to
safeguard their freedom and independence. Vietnam will be laid to
waste before we will surrender. No matter how many millions die in
the struggle, we will win our freedom. The cost will be worth it."
HO (SHORTVERSION)
"All people are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with
certain unalienable rights; among these are life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness." This immortal statement appeared in the Declaration of
Independence of the United States of America in 1776. The entire
Vietnamese people are determined to mobilise all their strength and to
sacrifice their lives to safeguard their freedom and independence.
Vietnam will be laid to waste before we will surrender. No matter how
many millions die in the struggle, we will win our freedom.”
Carol Dance©