TW: Physical Abuse Mention, Japanese Slur Used, Visible Gun Unused
SYNOPSIS
It’s 1942 and brothers Jay and Arty are being left in their grandmother’s care despite the woman’s adamant protests. Their father, Eddie, went to a loan shark to cover their late mother’s medical expenses and has to travel to collect scrap iron to cover his debts. Grandma is not a kind or loving woman and has endured many hardships before and after immigrating from Germany 30 years prior. She raised her children to survive, not to love her. While they’re there, Jay and Arty grow closer with their aunt and uncle. Bella is described as a child in a woman’s body and it’s unclear if she was born that way or if it’s the result of Grandma’s abuse. She is nice and has her own agency as a character. Uncle Louie is involved with shady business and crashes with Grandma while “his apartment gets repainted.” Bella and Louie help the boys navigate Grandma’s temperament and her tricks and they grow in their own right to understand how to live with her. By the time Eddie returns, the boys have learned a lot about dealing with different kinds of people and standing up for themselves.
CHARACTERS
Jay – 16, at least half German Jew
Arty – 13 and a half, at least half German Jew
Eddie – 41, American German Jew
Bella – Mid 30s, Neat, Sweet, Pretty, Warm, Congenial, American German Jew
Grandma – 70s, German Jew Immigrant, German Accent, Buxom, Strong and Erect Body, Walks with a Dragging of One Foot, Appearance of Authority and Discipline
Louie – 36, American German Jew
Gert – Mid to Late 30s, Speaks on Exhale and Inhale, American German Jew
POSSIBLE MONOLOGUES
There are lots of monologues throughout this play since it has a theme of being honest and confronting people. The first go to Eddie. It’s a bit rambley but it’s him explaining how he paid for their mother’s time in the hospital and the painkillers to make it easier for her until she passed. He tells them about the loan shark and what will happen if he doesn’t pay them back, but because of WWII there’s a chance for him to make enough to pay back his debt. The monologues are broken up by a few interjections from the boys but could easily be constructed into maybe a five minute monologue, while being flexible enough to cut down to a minute monologue, maybe even 30 seconds if you pick just enough to get the highlights across. Eddie’s next monologue is after Grandma finishes chewing him out for not visiting more and still being soft. It’s a monologue where he defends his wife’s memory and says he should’ve known better than to come to Grandma. His next monologues are done in voice over as they’re the postcards he’s writing to his sons to stay in touch, but they’re short and more comical despite not telling much of a story out of context.
Grandma, of course, gets her own monologue. Her first is a shorter monologue plainly saying no and stating her reasons for why the boys shouldn’t live with her and when Eddie tries to interrupt she launches into a much longer monologue about how Eddie abandoned her once he married. The longer monologue also gives us the first bit of insight into why Grandma is the way she is. She rattles off some of the terrible things she’s endured without crying and why she still sees Eddie as a child instead of a father.
Louie has a fun monologue about stealing from the general store downstairs when he and Eddie were kids. It gives us another hint at how Grandma values survivability more than morals or kindness as Louie somewhat earned her respect for never breaking she interrogated them. Louie then has another where he explains why he respects his mother even though he doesn’t like her. He was punished as a child for breaking a plate but as an adult believes there wouldn’t have been a lesson if she’d just bought paper ones. He explains to the boys that as hard as she is on people she’s just as hard on herself. Her foot was crushed by a horse when she was twelve but instead of an operation she used the money she raised to immigrate.
Jay gets his only real monologue defending Arty when they accidentally bring up Louie’s suitcase. The monologue itself if Jay defending his father and calling out Louie for being a no good bully picking on kids while their father is out helping the war effort.
Perhaps the most well known monologue from Lost in Yonkers is Bella’s. She confronts Grandma’s belief that Bella can’t have healthy babies. Bella believes they won’t die because she’ll love them to good health, that she’s tough as steel but longs to be soft and warm to be touched because touching steel is cold and hard. In later a later scene where Grandma tells Bella that the doctor’s say Bella’s not crazy or stupid, but a child and should be treated as such Bella is upset over not being satisfied like a child and wanting babies instead of toys. I think it serves as a good segue into her explaining that she’s sexually active and capable of love in a romantic and erotic sense.
PERSONAL THOUGHTS
Neil Simon is best known for his comedies, so reading this play blind it took a moment to adjust to the dark everyday humor not being played for big laughs. The physical abuse that’s mentioned isn’t meant to be hilarious and characters talk about be afraid of Grandma over and over again because of her cruelty. While many of the adult characters understand why Grandma is the way she is, none of them excuse it. Louie is the closest to being an exception, but he also frequently ran away from her as a child and as an adult while he’s adamant that he doesn’t hate her, he certainly also doesn’t like her.
Bella is an interesting character that is all but outright stated to be an autistic adult. She says that she wasn’t born that way and that it’s because of Grandma which is supported by the boys believing Grandma hit her on the head often as punishment, but they also say that she was punished for doing stupid things which could possibly just be punishments for showing signs of autism. Bella also had scarlet fever as a baby but I haven’t found anything that shows scarlet fever could cause brain damage. Regardless of why Bella is autistic, she’s one of the better known depictions of adults with autism that has their own agency. Bella is an integral supporting character in this play who’s clever gamble is the reason the boys get to stay with Grandma in the first place. Even within the argument that adults with autism are like children she shoots back with the fact that some children are smarter than adults and I’ll argue that she proves her point throughout the play. There are still very few depictions of autistic adults, or autistic people in general, in media but whether Bella is good representation or not can only be determined by an autistic audience and, as an allistic person, my opinion on that matter is irrelevant.
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