the play

TRIBUTE
a play by Eliza Calvin

Joe Jackson = JJ
Michael Jackson = MJ
Tito Jackson = TJ
Janet Jackson = JAN
Bubbles = BUB
Lisa Marie Presley = LMP


JJ: [angrily] Michael! Son! Come hither!
MJ: Now, father, what’s the matter?
JJ: Come, come and sit you down. I must to Motown Records. You know that?
MJ: Alack, I had forgot.
JJ: [smacks him] Michael, you have thy father much offended! Now, bid farewell to your brothers and Janet. I return on the morrow. I must away.
MJ: Fare you well, my honored lord.
JJ: [smacks MJ once more, and leaves in a huff.]

Exit JJ. Enter TJ and JAN.

MJ: Tito! Janet! How do you both?
JAN: Happy in that we are not over-happy. A happiness that often madness hits on.
TJ: Heard we the defiant smack of father’s hand upon your brow. Where is he now?
MJ: Away to Motown Records. The dream itself is no longer but a shadow.
JAN: Woe to be a gentlewoman, to never know the joy of thy synchronized dance and song. What sadness, to be a lady.
TJ: Fie! Does Michael not possess the voice, gait, and action of a gentlewoman?
MJ: Fie! I am a lord and nothing but a lord.

Exit MJ, TJ, JAN. Enter JJ.

JJ: [addressing audience] Neighbors and friends, rejoice! My sons five, the Jackson 5, hath received a great overflow of kindness from Motown Records. Upon word of this deal, I broke into tears of great measure. How much better it is to weep at joy than to joy at weeping! For the rest of my days, I am set with fortune and fame. What victory!

Exit JJ.

15 years later...

Enter MJ and JAN.

MJ: Dear sister, we hath both felt joy and grief at this tempestuous creature, Fame, have we not?
JAN: Ay, dear brother.
MJ: O how I fear in the dreams of my day and the terrors of my night I might never again know such joy and grief as the whirlwind Thriller doth brought.
JAN: Rejoice in the moment. What should a man do but be merry? You sound mad.
MJ: My blood as yours doth temperately keep time, and makes as healthful music. It is not madness that I have uttered. Now, how be father?
JAN: Michael, if thou hast any sound or use of voice, speak to him thyself.
MJ: Nay! Five years hath past since we last spoke. It cannot come to good though my heart breaks as I hold my tongue. Now, dear Janet, I must away to the set of the Thriller video. Fare thee well!
[they hug]

Exit MJ, JAN. Enter MJ, BUB.

MJ: O Bubbles, chimp beloved and friend faithful, thou hast advised me well. Thy cautious words were wise in the perils of The Wiz and the merits of Quincy Jones. Pray, speak to me now, because this fame and fortune seems a violet in the youth of primy nature, forward not permanent, sweet not lasting, the perfume and suppliance of a minute, no more. What to do!
BUB: Good Michael, cast thy nightly color off.
MJ: My lord, I am sure I hath misheard thee.
BUB: Good Michael, cast thy nightly color off.
MJ: Fie! Repeat once more!
BUB: Good Michael, cast thy nightly color off!
MJ: Ay. Thou hast yet to lead me astray. Bleach my skin, I must, to maintain the morn and liquid dew of my youth, the sanity and health of my fame.
BUB: My blessing season this in thee.

Exit BUB. MJ paces a few times, then exits.

ENTER TJ, MJ.

MJ: Behold, brother! Neverland Ranch! [gestures to building with various animals and freaky deaky things spread about] And now the entertainment!
[sings Peter Pan song with whoever ... Nick and Laura? ... “I won’t grow up” ...]
TJ: [applauds] Ay! Merry!

EXIT MJ, children. ENTER JAN.

JAN: Something have you heard of Michael’s transformation, so I call it, since the exterior nor the inward man resembles that it was.
TJ: What it should be, more than Neverland, his skin, his nose, his hollowed cheeks, that thus hath put him so much from the understanding of himself I cannot deem of.
JAN: What a pretty thing man is when he goes in his doublet and hose and leaves off his wit!
TJ: He is a giant to an ape, but then is an ape a doctor to such a man.

EXIT Jan, TJ. ENTER BUB, MJ.

MJ: Bubbles, Bubbles, woe is me. Fame, once more, seems fleeting. I wisely accepted thy counsel in escorting Madonna to the Oscar’s, befriending Queen Elizabeth [pause] Taylor. Now what?
BUB: There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave to tell you this, but by death, by a ghost, the answer doth lie.
MJ: Bubbles! These are but wild and whirling words!
BUB: My lord, in the majesty of Memphis lies a king, dead many years, but from his lady’s loins came forth a child. There’s the rub!
MJ: The rub, indeed! Wise, indeed!

EXIT BUB. Enter LMP.

MJ: Dear saintly lady, and newly anointed wife and queen, Lisa Marie, I beseech you one favor. Pray thee, sweet Lisa, deserve well at my hands by helping me to have a child.
LMP: O! Nay!
MJ: Only foul words; and there upon I will kiss thee.
LMP: Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome. Therefore I will depart unkissed.

Exit LMP. Enter BUB.

MJ: Bubbles, dear chimp, thy counsel I crave once more. Lisa Marie refuses me a child.
BUB: Then you have a quarrel to her; she hath much wronged you. You may desire her good company, but every man desires a child. Now, find Debbie Rowe and from her fountain will spring three children, each possessing skin like a blanket of snow. Away!

Years pass...

MJ: Beloved Prince Michael, Paris, Blanket, how I love thee! [hugs them] I never yet saw children so wise, so noble, young, rarely-featured, fair-faced. In fact, if black, why, Nature, drawing of an antic, made a foul blot.
CHILDREN: We love thee, too!
MJ: O, look out there! My audience roars! Come hither, Blanket!
[MJ dangles Blanket from balcony; audience gasps]
MJ: I fear a fateful error hath been made.

Years later...

MJ: Bubbles, Bubbles, I fear death is upon me. I must away soon, one final time. I have reserved some words for thee: give each man thine ear but few thine voice; take each man’s censure but reserve thy judgement; and this above all - to thine own chimp be true, and it must follow as the banana the peel, thou canst then be false to any chimp. [dies]
BUB: Fart thee well.

Enter JJ.

JJ: Never was there a tale of more woe, than this of Michael and his father Joe.

FIN

my friend and me at the mall

these are my friends and me in stratford

we are in stratford

we are the blog
we are the children

we are all at the lake

Vacation at The Lake

I have come home, as I have an eye doc appointment. Unfortunately, I left my camera at the lake this morning, so no pics.

We are having a nice time. It is unusually cool, but I did enjoy, very much, a nice swim. Chiara, Susi, the twins, Chandran, all have had more than just the one. Yesterday they all biked to Browns, the rest of us joined them for a nice lunch. We met our neighbor there and had a good chat catching up on who is going to college, and where.

A macmansion is being built on our lane. Scarry. The lot behind us is for sale. Do we need to buy it to prevent some drastic change from happening? Gosh darn.