THEATER 197: Strange Bedfellows

One night during the early years of the American Revolution, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin are compelled to share a room at a crowded inn. While the men have different temperaments, they are dedicated to the cause for the revolution. 

Bernadette Armstrong directs a cast that includes Daamen Krall as John Adams,  David Trice as Benjamin Franklin, Hessel Evelear as the Innkeeper, and Justice Davis as the Handyman.

Terrence Owen Sherry is the playwright. A former Presbyterian pastor, Hospice counselor, and Seminary instructor, he received his doctorate from the Claremont Graduate University.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hello and welcome to Open Door Playhouse, a theater podcast that celebrates live theater on the podcast stage. I'm Hesel Avelar. At Open Door Playhouse, we strive to bring our listeners thoughtful and surprising 10-minute shorts and one-act place that showcase insightful and new perspectives of the world we share with others. Open Door Playhouse is a 501c3 theater organization. Support for Open Door Playhouse comes from listeners like you. Your tax-deductible donations help keep our place on the podcast stage. Now playing in Theater 196, Strange Bedfellows, written by Teraz Owen Sherry and directed by Bern and Armstrong, starring David Trice as Benjamin Franklin, Damon Kral as John Adams, Hesel Avlar as the Innkeeper, and Justice Davis as Traveler Smith. Good evening, sir. Welcome to the Indian Queen.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

And who might you be? Mr. John Adams of Quincy, Massachusetts, delegate to the excessively self-regarding Continental Congress. And tired as hell. I'm looking forward to a nice room and a comfortable bed. Excellent.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

The Queen has both. Just sign here. The only inconvenience is there's no room at the inn, as they say. You'll be sharing a room with one other gentleman. He's an older fellow, no doubt asleep already, and I'm sure it'll be no bother to you at all. If you head down the hall, final door on your left, I'm sure you find both the room and the company most satisfactory.

SPEAKER_03 1:55

Fine. Uh please have someone see to my horse. Good evening. Oh, Abigail, how I hate travelling so I will be so happy to be home with you. Oh there. John Adams of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

The John Adams, a Quincy Town fame. Oh good Lord. Lord is way too formal, John. Just call me Doctor. Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Esquire Philadelphia, Paris, and parts as yet unknown. Or if you prefer, you may call me Ben.

SPEAKER_03 2:37

I most certainly will not. I can scarcely bring myself to call you Dr. Franklin.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Well, Providence does seem to enjoy seeing us tied at the hip, John. And who am I to disappoint? The Almighty. Do come in. Hmm. Mercy. This room is no larger than a privy. Allowance for small movements, you might say. What's that you say? I said settle in and tuck up. We have a most consequential journey ahead of us. Excuse me. Oh, oh, oh, no. Oh dear. Oh my heavens!

SPEAKER_03 3:21

We almost slept with this damn window open.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

I strongly advise leaving this window open. Very much open.

SPEAKER_03 3:31

Oh, really, Franklin? No telling what horrors are in this New Jersey air. Heaven only knows what that smell is.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Not all odors are emanating from the outside, John. I fear this travel schedule is not uh always agreeable to the digestion.

SPEAKER_03 3:49

Oh, you never cease to amaze, Doctor.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Are you not already acquainted with my theory of codes?

SPEAKER_03 3:58

No, and I certainly have no interest in hearing about it now.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Codes are caused, John, not by cold weather, but by bad air. A fresh, breezy air will replace stale tainted air, the stale air of privies and of bedrooms alike. Out with the old and in with the new, John. Fresh air, a cure for both stagnation and sluggishness. Hm.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

At least with your electricity theories we can see the damn lightning travel. Out with the old. How utterly preposterous! An open window is invitation to disease and illness and consumption, and only heaven knows what else. We have protections against the outside, Franklin. They are called windows. We should use them.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Slavish adherence to tradition is not progress, John. How dare you question the role of the monarch? How dare you refute the traditional medicines? Tradition keeps free men both without liberty and without health.

SPEAKER_03 5:15

Pushing aside what has worked for hundreds, if not thousands of years, is far worse than what little improvement in health or state might be gained.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

What you exhale are bodily processes that are putrefied, excremental, and miasmic. Imagine breathing them back in again. Release them and let the clean vital aromatic humours enter your lungs. Yes, fresh air is what keeps me young and vigorous.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

I wish the Congress had your tenacity, I'll give you that. We will need it in the days ahead.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

So far we've only had skirmishes and small battles. If the war itself drags on, we will no doubt lose the meager support we now enjoy.

SPEAKER_03 6:17

Why, it's this wretched warring by committee approach. Washington is the man to pull us together, but he spends as much time begging for money and supplies as he does fighting in the war. Why, it's farcical.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

I have no doubt the general will manage. You see to that, John, I'm sure. A more persistent and vociferous advocate a man could not ask for.

SPEAKER_03 6:43

Me? Why, I beg and plead and argue and implore, and I don't know what good I do. You, on the other hand, throw off some silly aphorisms, and the press thinks you're running the war, the Congress and the universe itself. Well, I'm sure you've read these, or at least seen them. Dr. Franklin smites the ground with his lightning rod, and up springs Washington. Or Franklin saves the nation with the help of General Washington and his horse. Oh, this is my favorite. In the beginning God created Franklin. Oh good lord.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

The press like spectacle, John, and pithy sayings, too. Your style is not quite as remarkable. Interesting. But none of us are in this for the notoriety. To my way of thinking, the less notorious the better.

SPEAKER_03 7:45

Yes, yes, I know. We will all hang together. The people need to know that our revolution is theirs as well. Well, you've read Cicero, I assume. Salus Populi suprema lexesto.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

The welfare of the people must be the highest law. This is why very few people listen to you. You think like a prophet, but you speak like a philosopher. No one has actually met a philosopher. I think like a philosopher, but I speak like a merchant. Everyone knows a merchant. Actually I speak like a lawyer.

SPEAKER_03 8:30

And you think this helps you? Whatever I am, the people need to know that this is their revolution too. Why there are many who are not party to liberty's cause and perhaps never will be.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

We bring along those we can and leave for now those we can't, even if they are blood to us. The more open the window, the greater the opportunity for support.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

Oh my word, Franklin, this may be the most monumental of endeavors, and you seem so infernally nonchalant.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Not after Sullivan's testimony. What do you make of our esteemed General Sullivan?

SPEAKER_03 9:15

A coward of the highest order. He gets his backside swatted by Admiral Howe and pleads with us to surrender. Imagine a colonial military officer standing in front of the Congress and spouting such nonsense. The man said subjects approvingly, and in the Congress. It would have saved us all a lot of trouble.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Admiral Howe buys time while dissension swells within our ranks. I fear we shall appear to be crawling towards Howe and slinking back to the Congress. Crawling?

SPEAKER_03 9:58

Never We restate our demands more forcibly. Independence, liberty, equality. We should have been treated as equals, and instead we're mistreated in the most egregious ways. We must deal with him as equals, lest we act the cowering people he takes us to be.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

You have seen our disorganized and demoralized militias just as I have. Circumspection with hope for stretching out these negotiations may be the best desired and prudent cause.

SPEAKER_03 10:34

Prudent? I drowned those bastards in Boston Harbor, that's the prudent thing. Certainly the most desired thing.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Mr. Franklin. Oh, excuse me, and sir, is everything okay? I heard the window slam as I was walking by. Ah, Mr.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Smith, may I introduce my compatriot, Mr. John Adams of Quincy, Massachusetts, recently at the Continental Congress and currently my dyspeptic bed fellow? John, this is Mr. Traveller Smith, a freed man and an exceptional servant and stableman for this establishment.

SPEAKER_03 11:21

A pleasure, sir. Tell me, Mr. Smith, are you a man that likes an open window or a closed one?

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Uh open, sir. I spent three and a half years in bondage, with the scars to prove it. But to answer your question, I find the more open and freer the better. I've read, Mr. Adams, you've never owned another person. I should take you to be an open window man.

SPEAKER_03 11:48

I am not, and one has nothing to do with the other. There is right and wrong, and a blowing wind isn't going to change that.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

Individual liberty and freedom for all men is a most worthy goal. But those delegates that profit from the buying and selling of people will invariably find that the abolition of slavery is their sticking point for the new colonial nation.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

I'm not naive, dammit. I know how debased men can get. I was, after all, for many years a practicing attorney.

unknown 12:24

No.

SPEAKER_03 12:25

But a true American will love liberty more than profit based on human suffering. Of this I am most certain.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Certain, are you? Maybe a typical New Englander, but not a typical Carolinian or Virginian or Georgian. Or Pennsylvanian. Slavery is a plight upon the human race that not all men see. Or sometimes only see too late.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

If you gentlemen require nothing else, I will find my way out to see two other guests. Good night, Mr. Franklin. And of course, to you, Miss Adams. I'll stop by the stables to see doubly about your horse, sir. Thank you. Good night, Mr. Smith.

SPEAKER_03 13:13

Franklin, I refuse to believe that a heart that beats for liberty for some does not beat for liberty for all. What you are suggesting is that we leave it to some future government to determine who is or who is not a true American. We may not have a great deal of choice in the matter. Who is it going to be then? Those from large states only? Those with a certain physical disposition? Those born only on this soil? My God, Washington himself is England born.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

We get what we can now and sort out the rest later. I remind you, sir, perfection is not the goal.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

Independence is And I remind you, sir, a country founded on independence and liberty for all is the only country that is worth founding at all.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

I sense our conversation needs a bit of freshness. Ah, there we go.

SPEAKER_03 14:20

A weak constitution one way or the other will surely prove my undoing. This precarious heir will be the death of me. Unless, of course, that is your intent.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

John, on my word, I would never try to kill you in such a way. What I might do is ask you to assist with an experiment. What? And then electrocute you, leaving no trace of foul play except for a few burn marks here and there. Oh ha ha. How amusing, doctor. I'm sure you'll agree there's been a great deal of atmospheric static this evening. Here, John, hold this. What is this? Just a John Wiles. John, please. I I have to make some adjustments.

SPEAKER_03 15:12

I have no interest in such child's play. Is that a wand? And why are you hanging out the window for God's sake? It's an experiment, John.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

All it takes careful or the right steady conditions and a little luck and Oh there it is. A little light.

SPEAKER_03 15:43

Well, I'll be damned. Amazing doctor. Why look what you've done fleeting, girl.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

A fleeting spark. Child's play. Just little sparks.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

No.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

Doctor Franklin, I You miss your family, don't you, John? You write letters to your dear Abigail, I know.

SPEAKER_03 16:17

Some say too many.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

And your children?

SPEAKER_03 16:21

Oh letters to my son, John Quincy. He's a fine young man. The apple of his father's eye.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

Yes. Domestic life appealed to me at one time years ago. I lost a son, John. Did you know that? I had heard. It was the smallpox. He was so young. My little spark. He didn't get the inoculation, he was ill. I thought waiting would be the more prudent course, me and my goddamn prudence. He'd be here today, I'm sure of it. My little Francis Look what I've done It is it is a terrible thing to be a father.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

A thousand decisions, evils and dangers all about. We're expected to have all the answers and to stand strong and to remain resolute throughout all things. One regrettable decision and a life is forfeit, a farm taken, or a battle lost. A terrible thing. Grief, doctor holds us when our loved ones no longer can.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

I lost one to the pox. I lost another to the British. Oh Tempora, O Mauriz, as your sister writes. Perhaps I am the one who is lost.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Yes. Pardon me, gentlemen. Thought I'd bring you some bread, a little wine for your comfort, not knowing whether you were able to eat properly on your journey and all.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Ah, splendid. Kind sir.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

A veritable feast for the weary and the worried. The only thing worse than not being able to sleep is not being able to sleep whilst hungry. Or in your case, having to share a bed with another man while both hungry.

SPEAKER_03 18:41

Oh, it hasn't been so bothersome. Good bedfellows make strange politics, Ave Ankland. What they do indeed remarkable.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

It's not much, I'm sure, gentlemen. At any rate, please remember there's always a nice room for you here at the Queen. God speed to you both.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

And to you as well. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Good night.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

Well, John, here's to our future. Possibly a new country. More likely our demise by filleting or hanging.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

The future The Future I was like you once, a city man, but only short stays for me now. My satisfaction is found more in nature's rhythms. No one to impress just hard, honest work to be done. My Quincy Cows care not how clever or educated I am, that's for sure. And Abigail. Oh she cares well enough. Well enough indeed.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

I remember that look. Another toast then. To our wives and lovers, may they never meet.

SPEAKER_03 20:06

Oh Lord have mercy, Franklin. You may yet be the friskiest old man in the colonies. Old yes, but not dead. Oh oh the window.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

John, you only closed the window halfway. Well, maybe just this once. The air still gets in, John. Yes, I suppose it does. Well then. Good night, my dear Mr Adams. Good night. Ben.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Our plays are produced by Bernadette Armstrong, recorded at the Oak House Studio in Altadena, California, and mixed by our talented sound engineer, David Peters. Sound effects and music downloaded from Audio Jungle and Karaoke version. If you are interested in submitting a play for production, you can find that information on our website, www.opendorplayhouse.org. Please share this broadcast with friends and do not forget to subscribe so you'll be notified when our next production goes live on the podcast.