A Feeling of Family

Cast (in sample)

Lawrence Kimball, mid-30's
Dorothy Friedberg, early 40's
Johanna Saunders-Kimball, mid-30's

Act One: The Family Without Boundaries

Dorothy Friedberg sits in chair in consultation room. Johanna Saunders-Kimball is in the living area, taking messages off answering machine. Lawrence straddles both playing areas.

LAWRENCE	(To audience) The mother of the family came to see me first -- a Mrs. Friedberg. She was the shopper of the family, and she'd been elected to do the therapy shopping as well. I tried to explain I seldom if ever did group work or family therapy.
DOROTHY	(DOROTHY is in consultation room.) I won't take no for an answer, doctor.
LAWRENCE	(To DOROTHY) Mrs. Friedberg: I have an MSW in social work. Please call me Mr. Kimball. Or Lawrence, if you like. Anything but doctor.
DOROTHY	If I call you doctor, will that upset you?
LAWRENCE	We're here to talk about you.
DOROTHY	But you've refused to see me.
LAWRENCE	If, individually, you or your husband, or anyone in your family...
DOROTHY	You know that is unacceptable, as I've explained.
LAWRENCE	And I've explained: I don't do group work, or family therapy...
DOROTHY	But you could. You've studied it. You must have studied it. You come highly recommended. I don't want to see a stranger.
LAWRENCE	And how is it I'm not a stranger?
DOROTHY	You come recommended.
LAWRENCE	I can recommend someone, if that will help.
DOROTHY	It wouldn't be the same.
LAWRENCE	It wouldn't.
DOROTHY	It would be one recommendation removed.
JOHANNA	(To LAWRENCE) Your mother called, Lawrence.
LAWRENCE	Something wrong?
JOHANNA	Do we want her to come visit on Sunday? (No answer.) Lawrence.
LAWRENCE	What have you told her?
JOHANNA	I told her I'd speak to you. It is your mother. Lawrence.
LAWRENCE	Sorry. Was thinking -- something. Something at work. (LAWRENCE enters living area.) This woman -- this mother -- wants to see me with her family.
JOHANNA	The Friedbergs?
LAWRENCE	The board recommended me.
JOHANNA	I was there, Lawrence. I attend the staff meetings.
LAWRENCE	Couldn't you stop them?
JOHANNA	I couldn't vote. Not with you involved.
LAWRENCE	The old conflict of interest.
JOHANNA	I told them our conflicts at home were interesting enough.
DOROTHY	You know you'll have to do families at some point, Dr. Lawrence: individuals don't pay enough.
LAWRENCE	And if I agreed to see your family, Mrs. Friedberg?
DOROTHY	What would I tell you? I would tell you we were a very close family, doctor. The more the merrier. There was nothing more important than the whole family getting together.
JOHANNA	Never anything more important.
LAWRENCE	No.
JOHANNA	Now they're separated.
LAWRENCE	Yes.
JOHANNA	What does that tell you?
DOROTHY	I would tell you my husband had an affair with another woman. That he moved out of the house last week. My children won't speak to him. (LAWRENCE enters office area.)
LAWRENCE	They're angry.
DOROTHY	More than angry.
LAWRENCE	They feel betrayed.
DOROTHY	As though they were their mother.
LAWRENCE	It's the reason your daughter is home.
DOROTHY	My son smashed the car into a telephone pole last week. My husband saw the whole thing: he was coming home from a book tour. He needed stitches in his forehead.
LAWRENCE	Your husband?
DOROTHY	My son. He almost broke his skull open.
LAWRENCE	His own skull?
DOROTHY	Whose skull do you imagine, doctor?
LAWRENCE	And all this because of your husband's affair?
DOROTHY	My husband's affairs are our affairs, Dr. Lawrence.
LAWRENCE	Perhaps I'm not making myself clear, Mrs. Friedberg.
DOROTHY	Perhaps I'm not making myself clear, doctor. We're a very tight-knit family.
LAWRENCE	And has he a history of smashing up cars, your son?
DOROTHY	Of smashing them up? Oh, doctor. The questions you ask.
LAWRENCE	But there's something with cars.
DOROTHY	He used to like to steal them. Not just my husband's car, but people's. The cars on the street. He could get past the detectors, nothing could stop him. He never took the cars far, and then one time he did, all the way to -- oh, what's the place where they first flew? down to Kitty Hawk, my husband had to go down to get him. He was in a jail in North Carolina overnight. His sister cried all morning when we called her at school to tell her. And we were going to buy him his own car that spring. The only reason we'd never bought him one before was that he'd never asked for one. He never expressed an interest in cars, except for the ones he'd steal. That's why when he took the car this time -- well, it was all so shocking: Danny? Wasn't he past all that? You see, doctor: I remember when my children felt no two people on earth were closer to them than their parents. The things most parents do alone, we'd do with our children. At our dinner parties, they were always there, yawning in their little pajamas.
JOHANNA	Sounds to me like a family with boundary problems...
DOROTHY	We used to say no matter where we were, everyone was always home... (SHE exits.)
JOHANNA	Maybe it's not unusual.
LAWRENCE	What.
JOHANNA	To spend all that time with your children. They are yours.
LAWRENCE	What would we do?
JOHANNA	If we had them?
LAWRENCE	Yes.
JOHANNA	Hired help. 12 hours a day. Grandparents on the weekends.
LAWRENCE	Now I know why I married you, Jo: an exquisite, porcelain-fine sense of humor. Great timing and great...boundaries.
JOHANNA	Whereas you told me on our first date, practically -
LAWRENCE	It was the second...not date...but week...month, maybe not till the second year...
JOHANNA	You wanted children. You said you'd feel incomplete without them.
LAWRENCE	We were courting. I would have said anything.
JOHANNA	You remember what you said when you bought me this?
LAWRENCE	Most likely I was speechless.
JOHANNA	The first time I wore it, you said, "Take it off."
LAWRENCE	I believe I bought it less for wearing, than for taking off. (The phone rings.)
JOHANNA	Let it ring. Lawrence. You've a different call to answer.
LAWRENCE	This always happens at the beginning...
JOHANNA	Let the machine...
LAWRENCE	I want them to hear a voice.
JOHANNA	Who? Who do you want to hear a voice? (SHE picks up phone.) Hello?...Yes, he is. Do you...excuse me...are you aware of what time...?
LAWRENCE	Johanna.
JOHANNA	It's the Friedberg woman.
LAWRENCE	May I have the phone? (SHE hands him phone.) Lawrence Kimball. (HE listens.)
JOHANNA	What's she saying?
LAWRENCE	(To JOHANNA) Her husband's crying into the phone. He keeps calling. She can't get him off.
JOHANNA	Well, she's talking to you.
LAWRENCE	She's got call waiting. (Into phone.) Mrs. Friedberg, the feelings of separation anxiety are strong...
JOHANNA	I'm going to bed.
LAWRENCE	(To JOHANNA) Damn it, Jo. She's a new patient. She's in crisis.
JOHANNA	My body's in crisis, Lawrence. I'm ovulating.
LAWRENCE	Jesus Christ, Jo, this minute?
JOHANNA	I thought you'd be excited.
LAWRENCE	I am. I'm very excited.
JOHANNA	Every time there's a new patient...
LAWRENCE	This is different. You have to admit this is different, Jo.
JOHANNA	Each time is the first for you.
LAWRENCE	The father's begging to come back.
JOHANNA	It's an old family, Lawrence.
LAWRENCE	That's what they do. That's what my father did. They come back and then they leave for good.
JOHANNA	Don't you want a new one, Lawrence? A new family.
LAWRENCE	All these fathers leaving.
JOHANNA	One of your own? Lawrence?
LAWRENCE	Jo, it's 'cause of the new one, I'm so interested in the old ones!
JOHANNA	There is no new one yet. And there won't be, no matter how well we keep doing on our fertility exams...
LAWRENCE	(Into phone.) Yes. Mrs. Friedberg. I'm here. (To JOHANNA) I'm sorry, Jo.

End of sample from A Feeling of Family

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