Yippie Girl

Borrowed from a True Story

By Bob Sarti

Cast

ANDY, ex-draft dodger. 

JULIE, ex-yippie

CHORUS REBECCA

CHORUS BING

CHORUS EMILY

KEYBOARDIST

GUITAR PLAYER

CHORUS REBECCA, CHORUS BING, CHORUS EMILY each play multiple characters, including:

Daniel, a yippie. (French accent)

Bernadette, a yippie

Corky, a two-year-old.

The Wizard

Reader of the Scrapbook*

Julie’s Mother

Andy’s Mother

Andy’s Father

Bratface

Various Yippies

Various cops

Border Guard

Reporters

Mayor Tom Campbell*

Judge Les Bewley*

Che Guevara*

John Lennon*

* All quotes verbatim from public sources.

When the two main characters are in dialogue with each other, the text is in italics. When they are speaking to the audience, the text is standard. 

There is a big trunk centre-stage, which cast members draw props out of. There is also a screen, for visuals. The musicians are on stage, to one side.

Scenes are punctuated with blackouts and one minute of newsreels and music from the coming scene, presaging the events enacted in the scenes.

Opening Song – Welcome To the Show

 (Hurdy-gurdy carnival type music, shouted out, St. Pepper-style, performed by entire cast?)

Hello folks, and welcome to the show

Hurry, now, and don’t be slow

Please don’t crowd now, step right up now

Guaranteed you’ll soon be in the know, now 

Amazing, astounding, just like in a dream

The sights and sounds are not what they seem

It could be illusion, or total confusion

Laughter, tears, and all in profusion

We’re being straight with you, ladies and gents,

So very, very straight with you.

Yes it’s a show, and the world’s a stage

We all play our parts in every age

When it looks like fact and smells like fiction

It’s up to you to tell the difference

Just one thin dime, a tenth of a dollar

That’s all it costs, don’t make us holler

The curtain’s rising, we’ve nothing to hide

It’s show time now, let’s move inside

We’re being straight with you, ladies and gents,

So very, very straight with you.

There’s plenty of room, so don’t you worry

Welcome to the show, hurry, hurry, hurry.

  ACT I  

~  SCENE    ONE  ~

(One-half  minute of  newsreels)

ANDY

Okay folks, like we just said, welcome to the show. Tonight, we’re going on a magical, mystery tour. Back to the days when life was a performance, and politics was a performance.

You know, the Sixties.

JULIE

Which, in Vancouver, lasted well into the Seventies

JULIE

Here’s the scrapbook that tells the story. (Takes scrapbook out of trunk and puts somewhere in plain sight.)

ANDY

For me, it all started the day I met you, Julie.

JULIE

It was an important date in history, Andy. And not just for you and me.

May 9, 1970. A long time ago. The day the Yippies invaded America.

ANDY

I remember a nice sunny Saturday. The Peace Arch, at the border. I was on the American side.

JULIE

I remember a crowd of 600 people. We were on the Canadian side.

ANDY

I was by myself, hiding behind a big tree. Trying to figure out how to con my way into Canada. Cuz, after I dropped out of college, I got this  personal telegram from the President of the United States. 

CHORUSEMILY

(Reading from scrapbook.)  Greetings. You are hereby ordered for induction into the armed forces. Signed, Richard Nixon.

JULIE

Bummer. I dropped out, too. I was taking science. But no draft to worry about.

We were at the Peace Arch to send a message to the President. You know, the Vietnam War. The President invading a little country. 

Killing a million people. You know, destroy it in order to (makes quotation marks with fingers) save it. 

 ANDY

They let draft dodgers into Canada.  This I knew. They had this swinger prime minister, Trudeau. 

JULIE

Yeah, real swinger. Canada was making a nice profit from the war. Shipping bombs to the States to be used against Vietnam. Canada pretended we didn’t notice. 

ANDY

I was worried. I was just a surfer dude from San Diego. Maybe I would meet a cranky border guard who made up his own rules. Not let me in.

JULIE

This was a few days after the Kent State massacre, in Ohio. Students protesting the war. Shot by the National Guard.

ANDY

I want to make something clear right now.  I was not anti-American. 

JULIE

No, just anti getting shot.

 ANDY

Well, let’s just say I didn’t want to shoot anybody, and I didn’t want anybody shooting me.

No M-16 for me. Get me a Cuda instead.

 You know, a  Plymouth Barracuda, ’64 or ‘65. The fastback with the four-barrel carb. 

Talk about boss! Back home, I was saving up for my wheels.

Song - Cool Cool ‘Cuda

(Surfin’ sound)

Cool cool Cuda, with a 385

Cool cool Cuda, I just want to drive

Cool Cuda

Man in a top hat wants me in a paddy now

Cool cuda, cool cool cuda

Thinks I’m going cuz he’s big daddy now

 Cool cuda, cool cool cuda

But I’m going nowhere except in my cuda

Maintain my cool just like a Buddha… Buddha

Cool cool cuda

With a four on the floor

Cool cool cuda

Vietnam no more

Cool cool cuda

With a three eighty five

Cool, cool cuda,

I just wanna drive

Cool cuda

You know, the draft board keeps getting bolder now

Cool Cuda, cool, cool Cuda

I’m saying no before I get any older now

Cool Cuda, cool cool Cuda

This bummer of a war would steal my youth

The dude in the white house has got no couth.

(Bridge) So surfin’ days must remain just a dream right now

Cuz there’s one fatal flaw in my awesome Cuda scheme right now

Tricky Dick wants to steal my fun

Got no choice, I just gotta run

Musical Interlude

Cruise down town and catch me a wave right now

Cool cuda, cool cool cuda

To dodge the draft, you gotta be brave right now

Cool cuda, cool cool cuda

The bunnies on the strip, they like what they see now

It’s a cool cool Cuda and I’m wheeling free now…free now

Cool cool cuda

With a four on the floor

Cool cool cuda

Vietnam no more

Cool cool cuda

With a three eighty five

Cool, cool cuda,

I’m staying alive

Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive, ooh, ooh, ooh.

ANDY

Now, all around the Peace Arch, I could see a crowd of people on the lawn. They were picnicking and playing guitars among the dandelions.

(Guitar licks.)

JULIE

We were revving up.

ANDY

 I could hear… (CHORUS makes drumming sounds).  

The only thing that looked out-of-place were the banners hanging on the Arch itself.

ALL CHORUS

(Forcefully.) U.S Out Of Vietnam. Draft Beer, Not Boys.

ANDY

 That last one got my vote.  One banner, it looked like a bedsheet, said…

ALL CHORUS 

 Yippie! 

ANDY

You know, I’d heard of the crazy Yippies. The Youth International Party. Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin.

JULIE

Anita Hoffman, Judy Gumbo. You think those boys did it all on their own?

ANDY

Throwing dollar bills down on the stock exchange. 

JULIE

Caused a riot among the stockbrokers.

ANDY

The Chicago…Something trial.

JULIE

Chicago Eight. Yippies and Black Panthers together, charged with fomenting revolution.

ANDY

But I didn’t know there were Yippies in foreign countries, too. You know, like Canada.

JULIE

(Meaningfully, sarcastically.)  We were everywhere. 

ANDY

All of a sudden, the picnickers were on their feet, coming my way. 

JULIE

Nixon had just invaded Cambodia. So we thought we might as well do the same thing to him.

ANDY

Two American border guards in blue uniforms lounging outside their hut, smoking. 

BORDER GUARD (REBECCA)

(Hands out, as if to stop marchers. Rolls up magazine, as if through bullhorn) Halt, you are illegally entering United States territory.

JULIE

We just swept on past them and into the States. No Homeland Security to worry about in those days.

ANDY

Now, the marchers were streaming past the tree where I was lurking. (Crouches) Chanting…

ALL CHORUS

 (Chanting) Ho, ho, Ho Chi Minh,Vietnam is gonna win.One, two, three, four, we don’t want your fuckin’ war!

ANDY

That’s when I saw you, Julie, this boss-looking radical hippie, yippie protestor, marching right out there down the middle of the street.

JULIE

And I saw you, Andy, this woebegone dude with a backpack, trying to be inconspicuous behind a tree.

ANDY

Now, at this point, I don’t really have a plan on how to get across the border. I thought I might claim I was on a long-distance hike to the Rockies.

JULIE

 Pretty weak. 

ANDY

 I know, I know, but I wasn’t coming up with anything better. 

My backpack, I had practically dry-cleaned it to get rid of all the seeds, leaves and roaches. Anything incriminating. I had a change of laundry and my trusty copy of Stranger in a Strange Land. It’s about this man from Mars, he comes down to earth and he’s lonely, so he starts a religion that’s one big free-love orgy. Really! Everybody back home was grokking it.

JULIE

Grokking – you know, digging it. It’s a (sarcastically) Martian word.

ANDY

Anyway, the protestors - yeah, they were all going in the wrong direction, away from Canada. But I thought, what the hell. Remember, I was a young and impulsive surfer dude then. So, I stepped out from behind the tree and joined the party.

JULIE

Now we get to Blaine, Washington. The border town. A one-horse burg with a gas station at one end, a grocery store at the other, and a porn shop in the middle. 

ANDY

 It’s spooky quiet all around us. The locals looking out through their windows.  

JULIE

We started getting rambunctious.

CHORUS EMILY

Look, it’s the Bank of America. 

CHORUS BING 

Hey, let’s get it!

(CHORUS throw rocks.)

JULIE

One less window in Blaine. (CHORUS cheers.) Everybody liked it. Oh, except for a few peaceniks, who are against, you know,  (derisively, making quotation marks with her fingers) violence.

ANDY

Now I’m starting to get worried. No cops yet, but I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t be there when they arrive.

The Blaine war memorial is on the right. An anti-aircraft gun. Marchers climb on. A young guy with a black and red headband …

JULIE

My comrade Daniel.

ANDY

He pulls the flag down.  Tries to tear it apart. 

DANIEL

(Mimics not being able to tear it apart.) 

Tabernac!

(Then throws it on the ground and stomps on it. Smiles.)

CHORUS REBECCA AND CHORUS EMILY

Yay! Right  On!

ANDY

Finally, the crowd does a 180, we wheel back up the way we came.

CHORUS EMILY

Look out, here comes the Blaine Welcome Wagon.

ANDY

A gang of rednecks or greasers or whatever you want to call them is following us back to the border, jumping stragglers, laying some fists on them.

JULIE

 One Blaine cop with a can of mace and a billy-club, he gets involved, too. (CHORUS mimics the action.)

ANDY

I stay well inside the pack, don’t want to get picked off

JULIE

Fists and rocks are flying in both directions. Daniel’s in the middle of it. He pounds one of the rednecks. Pow! ( DANIEL makes punching motion.)

REDNECK (REBECCA)

 (Head snaps back likes he’s been punched. Plaintive tone, rubbing her  jaw).

 I didn’t think hippies could fight.

JULIE

He’ll be nursing a shiner by morning.

 (Turns to Andy, takes his arm) Are you trying to get across the border? (Andy reacts in alarm.) Don’t worry. I’m not a cop.

ANDY

  Who are you? What do you want?

JULIE

(Tugs Andy’s arm again.) Look, just come with us. Get lost in the crowd.

ANDY

(Shrugs, moves closer to her.) Now we’re almost back at the border. My time has come. Maybe with all the confusion I can bluff my way past the Canadian border guards. It’s a long-shot, but what choice do I have?

Then some of the protestors start knocking chunks out of the Peace Arch.

CHORUS EMILY

(Takes chunk of rock out of trunk.)

  Spoils of war.

ANDY

And spraypainting it.

ALL CHORUS

America will fall!

Smash capitalism!

Yippie!

JULIE

 Look, a freight train, heading for Canada.

ANDY

Flatbeds carrying new cars, Buicks and Oldsmobiles.

CHORUS REBECCA

 (Yells) American death machines. Get `em! (ALL CHORUS throw rocks.)

JULIE

(To Andy) See that Cutlass? The powder blue? (Picks up rock and throws it).

Bullseye! 

ANDY

Wow, the windshield. Gone! (ALL CHORUS continue throwing rocks, yelling Yay, Right On!)

  Andy picks up rock, looks around, hesitates, throws it.)

Shit!

JULIE

(Hands him another rock.) Here, try again.

ANDY

(Hesitates.) Aw, I better not.

JULIE

You know it’s just property damage, not violence. 

ANDY

(Just holds rock, doesn’t throw it.) Oh, I don’t know. I guess I don’t really want to trash any cars.  Might be, like, you know, bad karma. Could jinx my Cuda.

JULIE

(Disgusted). Oh, brother!

Look out, here comes the cavalry.

ANDY

 Looks like the highway patrol. 

CHORUS

 (Make sound of clubs whacking, marching in place.)

JULIE

 Those white guys with tear gas rifles – they’re feds, Indian Affairs police. 

CHORUS

(Imitate cops marching in formation.)

ANDY

If they catch me, I’m cooked.

JULIE

  Just keep going. They can’t follow you into Canada.

ANDY

Where’s the border?

JULIE

You just crossed it.

ANDY

You mean I’m in Canada now?

JULIE

Yeah, no Uncle Sam here.

ANDY

Oh man, what a relief! I’m free! But what’s that cop car doing up ahead? They’ve got a movie camera.

JULIE

It’s only the Mounties.  They’re filming the crowd. Just keep going. They won’t bother you. We didn’t do anything illegal in Canada – this time.

 SCENE TWO  

(One minute of  newsreels.)

ANDY

When I first got to Vancouver, I crashed on the beach at English Bay ‘til the cops chased us. Then I stayed in a couple of fleabag hotels, the Cobalt, the Brandiz, on Skid Road. They call it the Downtown Eastside now.

Then I tried selling newspapers, the Georgia Straight, on the street. But I knew I had to get settled and a job. That way I could become a permanent resident.

JULIE

Landed immigrant, it’s called.  Makes it harder to be deported.

ANDY

The war resisters group, they got me a room with a bed and a chest of drawers in a big old house near Fourth Avenue in Kitsilano, where the hippies roamed. Shared toilet and kitchen.

And they got me a job, too. Emptying waste paper baskets in a print shop owned by a couple of peaceniks. 

So now I was landed. Legal.  But I was lonely. I really missed my family. Like that Martian in a strange land. I didn’t feel like I belonged.

Song – Stranger in a Strange Land

 (Plaintive bluesy ballad )

Looking all around me

Folks on every hand

Looking all around me

Folks on every hand

But I am just a stranger

Here in this new strange land

Stranger…stranger…stranger

Here in this new strange land

 I left home for exile

Really had no choice

I left home for exile

Really had no choice

Now everyone’s a stranger

Just hear my stranger’s voice 

Stranger…stranger…stranger

 Miss my friends and fam’ly

They know who I am

Miss my friends and fam’ly

They know who I am

Now I’m just a stranger

Here in this new strange land

Stranger…stranger…stranger

No good to cry about it

Got to find my way

No good to cry about it

Got to find my way

Stranger in a strange land

Here I have to stay

Stranger…stranger…stranger

Got to start all over

Find a helping hand

Got to start all over

Find a helping hand

I won’t be a stranger

In this new strange land.

Stranger, stranger, stranger

In a strange, strange land

ANDY

One day, I decide to go to the Be-In in Stanley Park. It was Canada Day. 

A Be-In. It was kind of like a hippie festival, a love-in, a big oversized picnic. People helicopter-dancing on the lawn. (CHORUS demonstrates). The anarchist drummers pounding away on their congas (CHORUS drum rhythmically.)

Some very stoned-out people minutely examining blades of grass and their fingernails. (CHORUS dance, demonstrate.)

JULIE

Daniel and I set up a table to hand out free soup to the longhairs. You know, serve the people.

With every bowl, we gave them a little green card from the Yippie People’s Defense Fund.

 It explained their rights.

CHORUS  EMILY

  (Reading from card) You are not required to show ID. Don’t let them search you unless they have a search warrant or reasonable grounds. Long hair or a hip appearance are not reasonable grounds.

ANDY

They could have used something like that at the G-20. What the cops did there was brutal.

JULIE

And now who should show up in the lineup but Andy, that draft-dodging surfer we smuggled into the country. Cute, but kinda clueless. 

ANDY

Hi. Remember me? Blaine? The border?

JULIE

Well, sure I remember. I’m glad to see you’re still among the living. 

ANDY

You know. I never got a chance to thank you properly. You saved my bacon at the border. Really!  How did you even know I was trying to sneak across?

JULIE

Oh, let’s just say, women’s intuition. The backpack. The lost puppy dog look.

ANDY

Well, I owe you. That was quite a trip. 50,000 dollars damage to the cars. 

JULIE

Yeah, the paper in Blaine went nuts.

CHORUS  EMILY

(Reading from scrapbook) One of the saddest and most degrading incidents suffered by the people of America since the Alamo. 

ANDY

And nobody arrested!

CHORUS EMILY

(Reading.) A mob of anarchists hell-bent on destruction, foul-mouthed scum and self-proclaimed deserters.

JULIE

You know, you can’t buy that kind of publicity. (Laughs.)

ANDY

Looks like the food’s run out.

JULIE

Yeah, why don’t you come over to the Yippie picnic?

(Julie and Andy walk over to BERNADETTE.)

JULIE

This is Bernadette.

ANDY

Hi.

BERNADETTE

Hi.

ANDY

Did I meet you at Blaine? There were so many people.

BERNADETTE

No, I stayed on this side of the border, minding my little guy Corky and the other kids. Somebody has to do child-care.

JULIE

 And how’s my little Angela? (Baby-talk) Did Angel-baby miss mommy-salami? 

ANDY

Is that yours?

JULIE

That?

ANDY

You know, the baby.

JULIE

Of course she’s mine. Does it look like I rented her?

THE WIZARD

(Loudspeaker voice. Wizard hat on.)  You know, folks, if there were only a dozen of us here, we’d all be in jail by now.

ANDY

Who the heck is that?

BERNADETTE

Can’t you tell? It’s the Wizard.

      THE WIZARD

(Loudspeaker voice.) They don’t really want us here. But there’s thousands of us,  so they can’t do anything about it. We’re free.

Now everybody take hold of the person next to you. What you feel in your heart is the love that allowed us to take the park.

(Julie suddenly grabs Andy and hugs him, his face in her hair. He hugs back.)

ANDY

Mmm, you smell familiar. What is it? Wait a minute, I know. It’s Breck Shampoo. Breck, just like Mom uses. You use the same shampoo as Mom! Really!  I can tell. It’s that smell. Squeaky-clean. All the debutantes use it.

JULIE

I wouldn’t know. I got it on sale.

ANDY 

Uh, Julie, do you ever watch Mod Squad? It’s on Tuesday nights, Channel 10. You know, one white, one black, one blonde.

JULIE

Andy, we have different channels here. Anyway, that show is a total drag. Undercover narcs, posing as hippies, to bust hippies. It’s a bad scene.

ANDY

Well, you remind me of that chick on Mod Squad. Really! Except she’s a blonde.

JULIE

First I smell familiar. Now I look familiar.

Anyway, a chick is a baby chicken.

ANDY

  Alright, that girl.

JULIE

A girl is a female child.

ANDY

Well, what do you want me to say?

JULIE

Is the word woman too hard to pronounce?

ANDY

Okay, woman. You remind me of that woman on Mod Squad. 

JULIE

Like I said, an undercover narc.

ANDY

Oh, c’mon. She’s just a mixed-up teenager.

JULIE

Yeah, played by a 25-year-old actress.

ANDY

Wait a minute, wait a minute. I just remembered her name in the show. It’s Julie. What are the chances of that?

JULIE

(JULIE groans, hands him a piece of cake.)

Oh brother. Here, have a brownie. Special ingredient. You’ll feel better.

ANDY

Special ingredient?

CHORUS

Song – Dancin’ Doobies (uptempo rock)

Maui zowie

Really wowie

Bangkok red,

Won’t mess your head

Maryjane – that’s the name

You will never be the same

Gotta do that doobie do

Things go better with a toke

It don’t matter, rich or broke

Maryjane – that’s the name

You will never be the same

Doobie doobie doobie do

All confused, or just plain blue

Homegrown bud is good for you

California and there’s thai

Maryjane, maryjane 

I’ll tell you why

Maui zowie

It’s no owie

Bangkok red

Will fix your head

Maryjane – that’s the name

You will never be the same

Gotta do that doobie do

(Instrumental break)

All confused, or just plain blue

Homegrown bud is good for you

California and there’s thai

Maryjane, maryjane 

I’ll tell you why

Things go better with a toke

It don’t matter, rich or broke

Maryjane – tha’st the name

You will never be the same

Doobie doobie doobie do 

Puff puff puff, cough cough cough

Puff puff puff, cook cough cough

Puff puff puff, cook cough cough 

doobie doobie doobie do-oo-oo

Don’t bogart that joint!

ANDY

Uh, Julie?

JULIE

Now what?

ANDY

What was the first concert you ever went to?

JULIE

(Looks at him askance.) Wow, you’re full of questions. (Asks suspiciously.) What are you, writing a book?

ANDY

I’m conducting a poll.

JULIE

What kind of poll?

ANDY

Well, you know, for sociology. I have to finish my term paper to get credit.

JULIE

I thought you dropped out.

ANDY

Well, it would still be nice to get the credit. You never know.

JULIE

Okay, my first concert. It was Elvis.

And he smiled and waved at me

ANDY

(Sceptical.) Elvis? Smiled at you? Really?

JULIE

It’s true. I was, what, eleven years old. Went with the big girls to Empire Stadium. We broke through the security and got up close to the stage. Any closer and I could have kissed him.

ANDY

Then you could never wash your face again.

JULIE

Right in the middle of Hound Dog, they thought it was getting dangerous, so Elvis ducks behind the curtain, and they shut down the show. We run to the gate. Out he comes in this big limousine, sitting in the back seat, two big dudes, like bodyguards, around him. We started banging on the trunk of the car. (Bangs on box.) He turned around, and smiled and waved.

ANDY

At you?

JULIE

Yes, at me. Why not? Well, at all of us. We just screamed and screamed, like banshees.

(With CHORUS REBECCA AND CHORUS EMILY, screaming.) Elvis, Elvis, Elvis.

 I started crying. I thought I was going to faint. Then he drove away. 

The newspapers weren’t too impressed.

CHORUS  EMILY

(Reads from scrapbook.) A hard bitter core of teenaged troublemakers. The most disgusting exhibition of mass hysteria and lunacy in the history of Vancouver. 

ANDY

Sounds like a Yippie in training.

JULIE

(Sighs with pleasure). My first riot.

(End of Scene Two)

~ Scene Three ~

(On-half minute of newsreels.)

JULIE

Andy, I have some good news for you.

ANDY

I can’t wait.

JULIE

We have a vacancy in our house, Black Dog Manor on Nanaimo Street.

ANDY

Nanaimo?

JULIE

 We need one more tenant to make the rent - 240 a month, split four ways. 

ANDY

(Inspects room) Far out, a real hippy pad!

Che and Jimi posters on the walls.

CHORUS

 Check.

ANDY

 Tie-dyed bedsheets for window curtains.

CHORUS

 Check.

ANDY

 Funky furniture from the back lane.

CHORUS 

Check.

ANDY

 Book shelves held up with cinder blocks.

CHORUS 

Check.

ANDY 

VW van with the rusted-out side panel. 

CHORUS

 Check.

JULIE

You get the basement room.

ANDY

 Wow, deluxe digs. Plywood partition for a wall. And what’s that beaded curtain? Oh, yeah, the door. 

JULIE

Bernadette and I and the kids, we have the upstairs bedrooms. Daniel, he’s in the room off the kitchen.

Daniel’s from Montreal.

DANIEL

I was an actor. I came out west for a part.

ANDY

Hey, you’re my first (pronounces deliberately) Que-bec-cois.

JULIE

Yeah, you could say he’s a professional show-off. That’s why he fits in so well with the Yippies.

Now, Bernadette, she’s from Nova Scotia. 

BERNADETTE

Seven generations. Mining and fishing.

JULIE

Before her Yippie days, she got herself arrested in Victoria for blocking a freighter. It was shipping bombs to the States to be used against Vietnam. Practically an international incident.

BERNADETTE

I got six weeks in Oakalla. Corky was bounced around from one babysitter to another. It was horrible for him. I’m not putting him through that again. That’s when I decided to stay back at demos and keep the kids safe.

ANDY

Julie, where are you from?

JULIE

I grew up in North Van. Dad works in Burrard Shipyards. They’re old-time commies. But the old left is too rigid. It doesn’t change with the times. You can’t tell Mom that, though.

JULIE’S MOTHER (EMILY)

But Julie honey, pranks and stunts don’t change anything.

JULIE

Mother, the media are the message.  We can’t afford billboards or paid ads. That’s why we use guerrilla theatre. We manipulate the media to reach youth, change consciousness, appeal to their imaginations.

JULIE’S MOTHER

Honey, you have to build a movement with patience. All ages, step by step, ordinary people, working people.

JULIE

I’ve got two words for that, Mom – Archie Bunker. The working class has been bought off with TVs and new cars. Marxism – forget it. It’s boring  

JULIE’S MOTHER

I love your idealism, honey. I just hope you don’t get too disappointed.

  And, you know, you really didn’t have to quit university. The sciences need more people with politics.

 JULIE

I got burned out on the male science establishment, Mom. Talk about rigid.

ANDY

Men? Rigid?

JULIE

After I quit school, I just rattled around, you know, aimlessly, got pregnant, married and split up real fast. I was lonely, just me and Angela. 

Having Angela changed everything for me. I wanted to make the world a better place for her.

Then I met Daniel in a coffee house on Fourth. It was a different scene, acid and revolution. 

 Now, Andy, listen. Black Dog is a communal house, a tribe, a family. Everyone has to pull their weight. That includes you. (Counts off on fingers.)  Paying bills, buying gas for the van, childcare, cleaning the house.

ANDY

Cleaning!? Can’t I just take out the garbage? That’s what I did at home.

JULIE

Don’t try to pull that shit around here, dude. Daniel had the same idea, and we had to straighten him out.

And don’t forget cooking. Your turn to cook tonight. Pay attention to what you’re doing. If one of you boys trashes another pot, I’m gonna commit mayhem.

ANDY

Back home, I ate whatever Mom put on the table. 

JULIE

(Disgusted.) I wouldn’t brag about that if I were you.

ANDY

Well, for my first meal at the Manor, I consulted The Joy of Cooking. But everything seemed so complicated. Then I saw a recipe on the back of a ketchup bottle: Get some franks, split them open, insert Velveeta, wrap in bacon, pour ketchup over everything, and shove it in the oven. Franks and Bacon Surprise! Really!

JULIE

It was a surprise, alright - a big goopy mystery meal. 

CHORUS

(Disgusted.)  Groovy, mmm, yuck. Etc.

ANDY

Well, at least Bernadette’s little guy Corky liked it.

CORKY

 Yay, hotdogs!

ANDY

 (Shrugs.)  Anyway, it was a change from brown rice and sprouts. 

JULIE

So, Andy, what are you doing next Saturday?

ANDY

(Andy leers.) Oh, wow.

JULIE

Don’t get any ideas, boy. What are you doing?

ANDY

(Disappointed.) Uh, I don’t know. Hanging out, I guess.

JULIE

Well, why don’t you come with us to the Oakalla Be-Out?

ANDY

Be-out? What’s that?  I know what a Be-In is, but a Be-Out?

JULIE

Well, it’s at Oakalla Prison. Burnaby. Singing, dancing. A  joint-rolling contest, play Find-the-Narc-in the-Crowd.

ANDY

Might be okay.

JULIE

Shut the prison down, and turn the prisoners loose.

ANDY

There I think there might be a problem.

Anyway, what have you got against Oakalla?

JULIE

How many of our brothers and sisters in there? Busted for a joint. If you’re poor, you go to jail. If you’re rich, they give you a medal or name a street after you.

(To Andy) Now just hold still.

(Julie paints on his face.) 

 ANDY

 War Paint?

JULIE

It’s the party look, or maybe a disguise. Well, why not both?

ANDY

Hey, look, it’s the Wizard!

THE WIZARD

 ( Like giving instructions.) We march around the prison seven times. I blow the trumpet each time. (Blows through toy trumpet).(Sings) Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the fence came tumbling down.

ANDY

Now that I want to see.  Really!

THE WIZARD

(Grabs “fence.”) The fence! Doesn’t seem too solid. (Makes shaking motions)

Out demons, out! (CHORUS  drumming. )

CHORUS EMILY

Tear down the walls! Brothers and sisters of Oakalla, we are with you!

ANDY

I don’t see any prisoners.

JULIE

They’re locked down in the cellblocks. The guards always do that when there’s trouble. 

ANDY

Oh, oh, here come the guards. They’ve got clubs.

CHORUS EMILY

The fence – it’s wobbling. The chain link is coming away from the poles.

ANDY

I`m getting really worked up. I want to be part of this. But I`m nervous. I can’t get busted. I could be deported.

JULIE

Don’t worry. They won’t recognize you with your war paint on. Andy, you can do it.  (Yells).  Just do it!

Song - Do it! (Bouncy Blues.)

 You’ll get a brand new feeling, do it.

You’ll make it happen when you do it

Be done messin’ around 

Just  bust out, and get on down

Gotta be now, gonna be now, just do it. 

Do it, yeah, yeah, do it, yeah

Don’t wanna wait too long – just do it

Be like (shout out) the Vietcong – they do it

Get out and take some action

Dig right in and get your traction

Gotta be now, gonna be now, just do it.

Do it, yeah do it, yeah, do it

Now the Yippies, we just do it

We’re having fun when we do it 

We love to break on loose

Got the knack – don’t need an excuse

Yippies now, we’re yippies – we do it

(Musical interlude)

 See me kick out the jams and do it

I’ll just get out there and do it

I’ll be taking hold 

Show them how to break the mould 

Gotta be me, gonna be me, just do it.

Gotta be me, gonna be me, just do it.

Yippies, yeah, do it, yeah…

(“Fence” crashes down.)

CHORUS

Yay! Right On!

JULIE

C`mon, let’s go. We invaded America. Now we invade Oakalla.

 (She steps over imaginary line. So does Andy.)

(CHORUS hooting and hollering and dancing around, gesticulating.)

ANDY

The guards, so stiff. They look like fence posts.

THE WIZARD

 (Yelling) If you take off your uniforms, I’ll get a brush cut.

ANDY

I don`t think they’re going for it, Wizard.

THE WIZARD

(Yelling) Really, I promise!

ANDY

 (Yelling.) Come over and join us. Free room and board for three months.

 JULIE

Hey, good one, Andy! 

ANDY

Oh, oh, now here come the Mounties. Looks like they mean business.

JULIE

(Yells.) Back across the line.

(They all back up.)

ANDY

Oh, oh. Now what? Looks like a standoff.

JULIE

Now we bugger off.

ANDY

 That’s it? We just run away?

JULIE

It’s not running away, Andy. But you don’t stand and fight when the odds are against you. We’re more into hit-and-run. That’s the Yippie way.

ANDY

Oh, like, live to fight another day?

JULIE

Now you’ve got it.

(Andy and Julie back away.)

Wow, you were very cool today. You’ve got potential.

ANDY

(He smiles broadly.) Well, right on. I’m just doin’ it.

JULIE

C’mon let’s go home and celebrate.

(They walk across the stage. Sit on box.)

ANDY

Wow, Oakalla was some trip. What a rush!

JULIE

Want a toke?

ANDY

Not necessary. I’m still feeling high from today.

(Puts on music, dances by himself, takes hold of Julie and dances with her –Do It music. They start groping, necking, sit back on box.)

JULIE

Hey boy, you’re really feeling your wheaties.

ANDY

I’m revved up from all day.

(Andy gropes her more passionately.)

Oh, Julie.

JULIE

That’s nice honey. Just take your time.

ANDY 

You know, you’re the oldest woman I’ve ever been with. You’re like, what, twenty-five?

JULIE

Yeah, really ancient.

ANDY

Julie, I love you. No one else matters to me.

CHORUS

(Sing.) Imagine me and you, I doI think about you day and night, it's only rightTo think about the girl you love and hold her tightSo happy together

(Fade-out)

(End of Scene Three)

SCENE FOUR

(One-half minute newsreels).

JULIE

Andy, last night was great. But I want to make something clear. We’re not married. Or even going steady. I have my room, and you have yours.  Don’t come in without knocking first.

ANDY

Is there something wrong? Did I do something wrong?

JULIE

You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just that when you’re a couple, you get into these private property trips. Jealousy, secrets, exclusiveness. Believe me, I’ve tried marriage. I’m keeping my freedom.

ANDY

But what happened to free love?

JULIE

Where did you get the idea that anything goes? Let me guess, some hippie expose, Reader’s Digest.

ANDY

I’m not like that. I swear.

JULIE

Look, I’ve been through this already with Daniel. He couldn’t accept the way I felt. I had to break it off with him. It was better that way. Daniel and me, we’re friends and comrades, but nothing more complicated.

ANDY

You know, I’m really gone on you. It’s not just the sex. I’d like to have more. 

DUET SONG -JUST REACH OUT AND TOUCH

 (Plaintive rock)

(ANDY)

You’re staying on your own

And will not be tied down

Just you and you alone

With hardly me around

I wonder if it’s asking too much

Why can’t the two of us

 Just reach out and touch?

(JULIE)

I’ve got to find my way

It feels like two’s a crowd

There are lots of way to play

With feelings still allowed

I wonder if it’s asking too much

Why can’t the two of us

Just reach out and touch?

(ANDY)

We found each other

In this crazy world

Not sister, brother

More like boy and girl

(JULIE)

Oh, times are changing very fast

There’s so many roads ahead

Nothing works that’s from the past

Let’s try something new instead

I wonder if it’s asking too much

Why can’t the two of us

Just reach out and touch?

(ANDY)

There’s mom and dad

They did their thing

It was love they had

Each one wore a ring

(JULIE)

I’m sure if we talk it out

And you’re prepared to grow

I could remove your doubts

We could make it really go

 I wonder if it’s asking too much

Why can’t the two of us

 Just reach out and touch?

(ANDY and JULIE)

Why can’t the two of us

Just reach out and touch

(And touch)

Why can’t the two of us

Just reach out and touch.

(and touch)

Whoo, whoo, whoo

JULIE

Andy, now that you’re full-time in Black Dog Manor, you’re ready for your crash course in Yippie theory and practice.

ANDY

Like, do I get credit for this?

JULIE

Yeah, after the revolution. Now the first thing you have to learn is that, the Youth International Party is not a party.

I mean, we like to party, of course.

ANDY

I would expect nothing less.

JULIE

 But we’re not a political party. No leaders or bureaucracy. You can’t smash the state that way. You have to do it with a change of consciousness.

 The old straight culture is dying. Nothing like this has ever happened before in history.

ANDY

You really believe that?

JULIE

Of course.  Look all around you. It’s busting out all over the world. Europe, America, Canada. The revolution is coming so soon.

 The longhairs, the freaks, the hippies, the heads, the flower children, the love children, the transient youth, whatever you want to call them. We are the people our parents warned us about.

 We’re a new nation. Look, we even have our own flag.  (Takes New Nation flag out of box, unfurls it.)

Black, the color of anarchy. 

ANDY

Like, chaos?

(sfx wrong answer buzzer.)

JULIE

Sorry, wrong answer. Anarchy is organized, just not the way you’re used to. It’s co-ops, collectives communes, federations,  free stores. That’s the way society should run.

ANDY

And that red star. Looks communist.

JULIE

Red is for revolution. Yes, we’re communist, share and share alike. But not like in Russia. We don’t dig dictators.

ANDY

And the marijuana leaf? I’m guessing. That’s for getting stoned.

JULIE

The new consciousness. It’s not just to get high. Marjuana means freedom. We’re free to use our minds any way we want. 

Okay now, lesson two: you have hippies and you have yippies. We’re hippies, but we’re yippies, too.

ANDY

Do I need to know this for the quiz?

JULIE

Pay attention. Hippies, they’re into peace, love and good vibes. That’s a good start. But we gotta take it further.

ANDY

Well, how much further can it go?

JULIE

All the way! Yippies -  direct action, stunts and pranks - and revolution. Marshall McLuhan, Emma Goldman, Groucho Marx and Lenny Bruce.

ANDY

So, it’s all a big joke?

JULIE

No, it’s not a joke. It’s dead serious. Millions are dying in Vietnam. Racism, poisoning our society. Women are second-class citizens. Sometimes I get so angry, I don’t know whether to spit or cry.

ANDY

Sound like you have an army at your command, General.

JULIE

Oh, we do a lot with a little. There’s maybe 60 hard core Yippies in the city. 

 Lots of communal houses. Black Dog Manor, the Charley Mansion, Groucho-Marxist House, you know.

Maybe another thousand young longhairs will answer our calls to action.

We get credit for a lot of stuff we didn’t do. Tom Campbell, the mayor. He loves to bash the longhairs. He says the Yippies started the English Bay riots. 

MAYOR CAMPBELL

They started it by lighting the fires and moving people into the streets, by beating drums and then they faded away when the police arrived. They’re too smart to get picked up. 

JULIE

Well, we weren’t even there. No, wait, we were there. (Dramatically.) We are everywhere.

And, the cops, they said it was the Yippies, too.

CHORUS  EMILY

 (Reading.) They are bent on overthrowing the present political system. But they are offering nothing in its place. They just want to tear things down.

JULIE

It’s the myth of Yippie. Yeah, we’re the people they used to chase with butterfly nets. Now they’re chasing us with cameras. It’s like John Dillinger. Every time there was a bank robbery, he got blamed for it. Bonnie and Clyde, the same thing.

Andy, now that you’re a  landed immigrant, it’s time to quit that rinky-dink job at the print shop and go on welfare, like the rest of us. You’re going to be too busy to work.

ANDY

The summer of ‘70, Vancouver was the protest capital of Canada. It was practically a demo-a-day. I’m not saying we were the only ones out there running amok, but we were busy.

JULIE

There was the Sip-in at the Hudson Bay lunch counter, because they wouldn’t serve longhairs. We got the idea from the sit-ins down south. You know, civil rights. The lunch counters, they wouldn’t serve blacks.

ANDY

We were white kids. It wasn’t as bad as down south. But you know, we liked the tactic.

JULIE

Yeah, and we ran down Georgia Street, blocking traffic, yipping like dogs.  (CHORUS  yips.) What a gas! We immunized the health minister in effigy because he was harmful to the health of the people.

ANDY

 We even published our own newspaper – The Yellow Journal. (Shows newspaper, imitates Mister Rogers.) Do you know how to say scurrilous, boys and girls?

JULIE

The Wizard, he performed an exorcism on the cop shop. 

THE WIZARD

(Waves wand.) Out demons, out!

JULIE

And levitated the building 97 feet in the air, one foot for each youth busted in a drug roundup.

THE WIZARD

(Points up.) Look, there it goes!

ANDY

There goes what?

THE WIZARD

       The copshop. See it?

ANDY

See what?

THE WIZARD

The cop shop. 97 feet in the air.

ANDY

(Squinting, disbelieving.) If you say so.

THE WIZARD

Reality or illusion. You gotta know how to look.

JULIE

Yeah, well, anyway, we invaded the U.S. consulate, and stole the American eagle and the flag. What, you think I’m kidding? Where do you think we got that from? (WIZARD brandishes wand.) Yes, it’s part of the actual flagpole.

ANDY

I also spent a lot of time handing out those little green legal cards to hapless longhairs busted for dope, connecting them to lawyers and arranging bail. It was like getting a law school education without having to read any boring old textbooks.

JULIE

And we even had our own theme song:

(Andy and Julie and the CHORUS sing in a monotone)

Everywhere we go, the pigs want to know

Who we are and what we do

So we tell them, we are the people, the mighty, mighty people.

 (All laugh.)

ANDY

And right in the middle of all this mayhem, who should come to visit but my parents and Bratface. They stayed at the Sylvia.

JULIE

Bratface?

   ANDY

Yeah, that’s my pet name for my little sister.

JULIE

Charming.

Well, anyway, it’s good news. I know you’ve missed them. I just hope they’re not going to try to talk you into going home.

ANDY

Nah, Mom and Dad are school teachers. You know, liberals. They don’t dig what’s happening in ‘Nam. 

(Looks far away) Oh, here they come!

(Hugs Dad) Hi, Dad, .Hi Mom

ANDY’S MOTHER

Andy, you’re looking fit. Looks like Canada agrees with you.

ANDY

Sure, Mom, we have dinners together every night. I’m getting to be a great cook.

ANDY’S FATHER

Andy, the FBI came to the house.

ANDY

Well, that’s no surprise. What did they want? 

ANDY’S FATHER

They wanted you. Two of them, both in suits, with brush cuts. They said there was a fugitive warrant out for you.

ANDY

Well, you don’t have to worry about any warrants, Dad. They can’t touch me in Canada.

ANDY’S MOTHER

Andy, you know, we miss you. When are you coming home?

ANDY

I honestly don’t know, Mom. They‘re putting draft dodgers away for three years now.

ANDY’S FATHER

Well, what about the amnesty?

ANDY

They’re talking about it, but I don’t think it’s gonna  fly while there are still GIs stuck in the rice paddies. I think I’m gonna be in this strange land for a while longer yet.

Anyway, tomorrow night, you’re coming over for dinner. See you then.

 (To Julie) Now, Julie, remember. When they get here, Yippie is a no-no. Play down the radical politics and the weird lifestyles.

JULIE

(Julie salutes him.) Okay, you’re the boss.

ANDY

My parents are old, for god sakes. In their 40s. They don’t understand everything that’s happening now.

JULIE

Okay, we only serve wine. No pot. And for you, Andy, just polite conversation. 

ANDY’S FATHER

Vancouver feels very cool and wet.

ANDY’S MOTHER

Not like San Diego, hot and dry.

ANDY’S FATHER

Ronald Reagan – he’s running for a second term as governor. He has to be stopped before he wrecks California.

ANDY

So Sis, what have you been up to lately? Behaving yourself?

BRATFACE

I saw Jimi Hendrix - live, at the Forum.

ANDY

(Andy shocked.)You went to a Hendrix concert?

BRATFACE

Yeah, I went with Patti. It was mind-blowing.

 (Sings.) Purple haze all in my brain

Lately things just don’t seem the same

ANDY

I can’t believe what I’m hearing. This is a major step up from Annette Funicello. You were so in love with her.

(Sings sarcastically.) Who’s the leader of the band that plays for you and me? M-i-c-k-e-y, M-o-u-s-e.

BRATFACE

Andy, you’re cruisin’ for a bruisin.’ In case you hadn’t noticed, Mr. Know-It-All, Annette’s grown up now. She’s not a Mouseketeer any more. You must have missed Beach Blanket Bingo.

ANDY

 Oh yeah, really mature.

BRATFACE

And, anyway, what about you and Davy Crockett? Your hero. You wouldn’t go anywhere without that coonskin cap. Even to bed.

(Sings sarcastically). Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier.

ANDY’S FATHER

Okay kids, calm down. Uh, Julie what did you study in college?

JULIE

Science, physics.

ANDY’S MOTHER

Not many women in that field.

JULIE

Yeah, well they need a lot more. It’s just so pure, so basic.

ANDY’S FATHER

Good for you, Julie. And Andy, what about your career plans? Shouldn’t you be finishing your education?

ANDY

I’ve been checking out the schools, Dad, but nothing has jumped out at me yet.

ANDY’S FATHER

Here. (Hands him check.) Use this for what you need.

ANDY

Two hundred bucks! I can’t take this. You and Mom have done so much already.

ANDY’S MOTHER

No, take it. You don’t have to spend it right away. Keep it for an emergency.

ANDY

Mom, Dad, you’re the most!  (Pockets cheque).

ANDY’S FATHER

I love you, son. (Mother, Father and Andy embrace.)

JULIE

(Takes Andy aside).  Smart move, Andy. Object, but not too much. The van needs a valve job. And the two back tires are going bald.

ANDY

Guess that Cuda is ancient history now.

JULIE

 And if there’s any of the money left over, there’s gonna be other kinds of emergencies to spend it on.

ANDY

Yeah, like what?

JULIE

Just stick around. You’ll see.

                  (End of Scene Four)

Scene Five

(One-half minute of audio-visuals.)

ANDY

You know, Julie, the Yippies are such a crazy mixture. Half the time having fun, the other half, so serious. Bernadette, she’s always quoting Che.

BERNADETTE

(Speech-talk) At the risk of sounding ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by feelings of love.

ANDY

And Daniel, sometimes the way his eyes are blazing, he looks like he’s possessed. 

DANIEL

(Possessed.) We won’t be here when the revolution arrives. If the pigs don’t get us, the Stalinists will. They always put people like us up against the wall.

ANDY

I never know whether he’s serious, or just putting on an act.

JULIE

You might not believe this about Daniel. You know he’s always so intense, always has to be right?  But he has a gentle side to him. He can even be whimsical.

ANDY

(Disbelieving) Daniel?

JULIE

He has this thing with magic tricks. 

DANIEL

Now Mesdames et messieurs. I’m going to be straight with you, so very very straight with you. Maybe you think I’m trying to fool you, but believe me, this is la verite,  for real.

(Pulls a two-foot-long length of rope out of his pocket. Tying it into a loop, he cuts the rope in half with as pocket knife, then does some mumbo-jumbo and quick hand movements, and presto, the rope is in one piece again. )

Et voila! Here, check it out.

(Hands CHORUS  XXX  the rope.)

CHORUS EMILY

(Examining rope, mystified.) How did you do that?

DANIEL

Reality or illusion. Quelle est la difference? 

JULIE

   Well, it didn’t take long to find out he wasn’t kidding. The whimsy ended one day, real fast.

ANDY

It was after the Sip-in at The Bay. We were marching down Granville Street.Some longhair chucked a paving block through a bank window. Smashed it right out.

JULIE

 This undercover cop threw a headlock on him, and started wrestling him down. Daniel got in the middle of it.  Bodies piling on from all directions.

ANDY

And somehow, the longhair who started it all, luckily he squirmed his way loose and beat it down Smithe Street.  Got clean away.

REPORTER (BING)

(Peering intently, speaking quickly, like a TV reporter with a microphone and a fedora.)

We’re down at the scene of the protest, folks. I can’t make out what’s happening. Oh, there’s a young man with a red and black bandana on. He’s down on the ground. A cop is putting the boots to him.

Now they’re dragging him off by the hair to the paddy wagon, pounding him all the time as he tries to break free. They’re throwing him into the wagon head-first. Ow! That must have hurt.

JULIE

And then they really threw the book at him.

Four charges. (Counts on her fingers.) Aiding a prisoner to escape custody – that was the longhair who started it all. Assaulting a police officer, obstructing a police officer and possessing a dangerous weapon. The weapon – a slingshot. 

They beat the hell out of him, and he got charged.

ANDY

And the judge was that ultra right-wing geezer, Les Bewley.  I’m sure he was nice to his wife and dog, but he was poison to longhairs. 

(CHORUS EMILY  puts on judge’s robes, assumes role of judge Bewley)

BEWLEY

Order in the court.

JULIE

First off, the cop testified. He said Daniel tried to pull the prisoner away from him, knocked him down and shouted Kill the Pigs.

BERNADETTE

What a liar!

BEWLEY

Order, order!

JULIE

(To Bernadette) Don’t worry, you can set the record straight when you testify.

BERNADETTE

Judge, the brother had nothing to do with it. He was pushed aside by the crowd. He told them to cool it, don’t mess with the cops.

JULIE

But Judge Bewley, he said he believed the police and he didn’t believe the defence witnesses.

BEWLEY

Especially anyone who was part of the demonstration, or who calls each other brother or sister.

I find the defendant guilty on all charges.

JULIE

What a pig! It’s a railroad job! 

BERNADETTE

(Gives Hitler salute and clicks heels.)

BEWLEY

Order, order!

(To Bernadette.) You raised your right arm in what I clearly recognize as a fascist salute, although you are too young to know it as such. 

Sheriff, take her into custody.

JULIE

Pig! Shame! 

BERNADETTE

Cool it, people. I’ll deal with this. Julie, take care of Corky, okay? 

JULIE

Of course. He’s safe with me.

ANDY

That night, we went to see Bernadette in the city bucket. She wasn’t in the least sorry for what she had done.

BERNADETTE

But I’m worried about Corky. What’s going to happen to him?

My lawyer, he says I have to apologize to Bewley or he’ll send me to jail for contempt of court.

JULIE

Apologize to that pig? He should be apologizing to us for all the shit he’s pulled.

BERNADETTE

I’ve been through this before, Julie. I’m not leaving Corky again.

JULIE

 The next day, she was brought back to court by the sheriffs. 

BERNADETTE

(Just above a whisper) I’m sorry for yesterday. I didn’t mean disrespect.

BEWLEY

(Sternly.) You ought to be spanked.

(Gasps, Oh, Oh, What a pig!)

  The courts are precious to our society. They protect all society, including you. I will not tolerate contemptuous behavior.

(Bernadette just looks at the ground. Bewley makes a gesture with his hand, like swatting away a fly.)

Alright, you’re discharged.

JULIE

Whew, what a relief! But then, there was more bad news. When Daniel returned for his sentencing, Bewley really tore into him. 

BEWLEY

(Sternly, reading from a paper.) There are a lot of decent, hard-working law-abiding citizens in this town and they are getting fed-up to the teeth with the hooligan howlings of this mob and the manner in which their peace and security is being interrupted by these modern savages.

DANIEL

Yeah, well there are a lot of peace-loving, righteous brothers and sisters who are getting fed up with the fascist brutality of the pigs running this country. You call it howling. We call it demanding our rights. 

BEWLEY

Order, order.

Your offenses, in light of other similar disturbances, pose a grave threat to the whole community. The time has come when exemplary sentences must be imposed. 

I sentence you to 2 ½ years in the penitentiary.

DANIEL

You think that’s going to shut us up? The people united will never be defeated!

JULIE

 (Crying.) Oh, this is so heavy .I thought he would get maybe months, but not years. I don’t know if I can take it. Poor Daniel.

BERNADETTE

Julie, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We’re in this for the long haul.

Look at Daniel, he’s not crying.

DANIEL

(Guard leading him away). Hey brothers and sisters, give ‘em hell while I’m away. (Winks and smiles, clenched fist upraised.) Ca va etre correct. It’s going to be okay.

JULIE

What an actor! It doesn’t feel like a game anymore. What if it was me who got sent up? What would happen to Angela?

Song – It’s So Hard (plaintive folky guitar sound).

It’s you and me

I want you near

I’ve got a choice

But it’s so hard

Your tiny fingers

grabbing hold

Wrinkled face and tiny nose

You’re an angel to me

But it’s so hard

Angel honey, my little one

my responsibility

my precious one

it’s so hard

To nurture and protect,

or protest and object

So much at stake it’s for your sake

I want to change the world

But it’s so hard.

If I don’t come home

you’ll be all alone

Many dangers

Many strangers

You depend on me

And it’s so hard.

 Angel honey, my little one

my responsibility

my precious one

it’s so hard

Cant take the chance

You need me so

Your trusting eyes

I cant say no

Please don’t make me choose

But it’s so hard

Yes it’s so hard

- END of ACT I  ~

 ACT II 

Scene Six ~

(One minute of audio-visuals)

ANDY

Believe it or not, Bernadette, our shy, retiring Bernadette, our sweet child-minding Bernadette, our criminally-convicted Bernadette, was running for mayor of Vancouver. Against Tom Terrific. Tom Campbell! The hippie-bashing incumbent. Really!

BERNADETTE

You talked me into it one day when I was stoned, Andy.

JULIE

You know, I’m kinda worried about this, Andy. Anarchists don’t believe in elections. It might give the impression we support the system, when elections are just a big fraud. If voting could change anything, it would be illegal.

ANDY

I agree with you a hundred per cent. But think about it. It’s not who wins or loses. It‘s all part of the show. We can rip off lots of media. Really sock it to ol’ Tom.

The Yippies in the States, they ran a pig for president in ’68.  Name of Pigasus.

JULIE

Too bad, a snake got elected instead.  His name was Nixon. Actually, if the Yippies down there had their choice, they would have run Nobody as a candidate.

Song -Vote for Nobody

 (Calypso beat)

An election that’s mayoral

Has got to have a moral

If the vote were more than straw

It would be against the law

Nobody is the one who cares

Nobody is the one who shares

Not talking ‘bout just anybody

The one to vote for is Nobody

Hey, Nobody has all the answers.

We have tweedle dum and dee

The candidates for you and me

They tell us that we must choose

No matter who wins, it’s us who lose

Nobody is the one who cares

Nobody is the one who shares

Not talking ‘bout just anybody

The one to vote for is Nobody

Hey, let’s get Nobody to lead us

Off we troop to the polling place

To cast our votes in a loaded race 

Maybe we can pick a winner

Yeah, like wolf and sheep, they vote on dinner

Nobody is the one who cares

Nobody is the one who shares

Not talking ‘bout just anybody

The one to vote for is Nobody

Hey, we can trust Nobody.

The important thing to learn today

You don’t really have to pray

Do not have to give up hope now

Just go out and eat your vote now

Nobody is the one who cares

Nobody is the one who shares

Not talking ‘bout just anybody

The one to vote for is Nobody.

What if they gave a war, and Nobody came?

Hey, man, Nobody’s perfect

ANDY

You know, Bernadette, she has some great qualifications to run for office.

CHORUS EMILY

(Ticks them off on her fingers.) Yeah, she’s a person…

BERNADETTE

…a woman, a single mother, a hippie, a yippie, a freak. And I’m on welfare.

ANDY

And don’t forget ex-con. 

JULIE

And her election platform is going to get her a lot of votes.

BERNADETTE

All stores will be free stores. Give Hudson’s Bay Co. back to the native people. Tear up the parking lots and put in parks. Pay people to take care of stray animals.

ANDY

Anything else?

BERNADETTE

Yeah, repeal the law of gravity, so everybody can get high.

CHORUS. 

Yippie!

ANDY

Well, we decided to take the fight right to Tom Terrific’s playpen. So up we go to City Hall -  me, Julie,  the Wizard, a couple other Yippies. Corky and Angel with us.

(Bernadette puts on boxing gloves). Bernadette had a message for the mayor. 

BERNADETTE

 (Reads from note). There has been too much mudslinging and publicity-seeking in this campaign and not enough dealing with the facts. If you want a fight, let’s get it over with.

JULIE

(She’s holding imaginary Angela). Well, what are you going to do, Tom?

CAMPBELL

I don’t know. She might win.

CHORUS EMILY

Oh, come on now. You’re not chicken, are you?

CAMPBELL

You know, I stopped beating my wife. Why should I start beating strangers? 

JULIE

A real comedian.

(Campbell heads toward Bernadette. She tries to hand the gloves to Campbell, but he ignores her and goes for imaginary Angela.)

CAMPBELL

Now who`s this little one? Hello Dear.

ANDY

(Holding toy machine gun.) That’s Angela. Kiss her. It might get you a vote.

CAMPBELL

(Glowering) Look, you ain’t cute. How old are you? 

ANDY

I’m 20, and you have liquor on your breath.

CAMPBELL

What are you on, marijuana?

ANDY

It’s not addictive, like alcohol.

CAMPBELL

You are a 20-year-old kid and you’ve got a toy gun and you use marijuana and you’re up here at city hall.

BERNADETTE

And you’re 50 years old or whatever and you use real guns, real police and real jails where you put real  people who try to live a decent life in this city.

CAMPBELL

You mean there’s not a crook in town? Everybody in jail is innocent, I suppose?

CHORUS EMILY

Yeah, except for guys like you. Your friends who pollute the air. You should be in jail.

CAMPBELL

(Mayor,  fed-up).  Okay, off you go, kids. You’ve had your interview. You’re the types if you had real guns, you would use them. 

 (BERNADETTE goes into a boxing crouch, but Campbell ignores her, leaves.)

JULIE

The next day The Vancouver Sun came out with all the juicy details under a big headline. 

CHORUS EMILY

(Reading.) High Noon Challenge – Mayor refuses to tangle with yippie

ANDY

That’s the kind of publicity you can’t buy.  (Laughs.) 

JULIE

     Yeah.Bernadette ended up getting 800 votes. She came in fifth out of 12. 

ANDY

Campbell was re-elected, though. Then he got busy revving up the cops again. This time, it was the drug scene in Gastown. Operation Dustpan. Undercover narcs grew their hair long and put on bell-bottoms, busted 33 longhairs. 

JULIE

Yeah, like Mod Squad. Remember?

THE WIZARD

(Shouts) It’s a declaration of war against the counter-culture. We got to do something about it.

ANDY

 What about a Smoke-In? You know, a giant marijuana festival right in the middle of Gastown. Demand the legalization of pot and an end to the hassling of long-hairs.

JULIE

I don’t know, Andy. The women, we have a bad feeling about doing a smoke-in.

BERNADETTE

(Like making a speech.) The cops will be waiting for us with their new clubs, just itching to use them.

THE WIZARD

(Like making a speech) If we don’t do something, the cops will think they can walk all over us.

CHORUS EMILY

(Arguing.) We should stick to what we do best. Hit-and-run, not be stuck in one spot, sitting ducks.

ANDY

You know, Julie, this is the first time we’ve ever disagreed on anything.

JULIE

 Except of course, whether you have to knock when you come into my room.

ANDY

So, do you have a better idea for a protest?

JULIE

I’m not coming up with anything right now.

ANDY

Well, then, help me write this article for the Straight. Get some publicity.

How does this sound?  (Reading). The Smoke-In is an act of civil disobedience. We can’t predict what insane theatre the police will try. It’s a calculated risk, like everything else we do to be free.

JULIE

Okay, but add this. (Dictates to Andy, he writes.) The Smoke-In will be peaceful, joyous and high energy. People should come in tribes. This cuts down on paranoia and makes police infiltration more difficult. 

ANDY

The Black Dog household, we spent much of the last day rolling joints, hundreds of them to hand out to the crowd. Combination of Colombian and Jamaican. 

BERNADETTE

I’m setting up the daycare at Groucho-Marxist House. Corky and Angela. Booker, Terry and Skeeter, too. I got a good deal on finger paints.

JULIE

Bernadette, you’re the yippie fairy godmother!

ANDY

On the night of the Smoke-In, there were maybe a couple thousand people in Maple Tree Square. It was kind of like a Be-In.

CHORUS.

(Snake dancing, beating drum.) 

 Free Dope! Power to the People!

REPORTER

(Microphone in his hand, wearing press hat.) Hello, folks, I’m coming to you live from Maple Tree Square. Looks like a fun evening, everybody having fun. Tourists, people coming out of restaurants, they’re  joining in. Families, children.

There’s a smell in the air. What is it like? Sweet? Skunky? Well, it isn’t banana peels.

 Oh, and here comes a group of Yippies from Vancouver City College. They’re winding their way through the crowd with a giant, ten-foot joint hoisted on their shoulders. Is it real? That would be one heckuva a lot of marijuana.

ANDY

At 9 pm, I made my career debut as a public speaker. I was pumped. 

(Climbs on box, speech- type talk). They’re trying to drive us out of Gastown. Well, we’ve got a message for them. Gestapo tactics won’t work. This is our turf. The streets belong to the people, the mighty, mighty people.

CHORUS.

Yay, Right on. Power to the people, etc.

ANDY

(Holds up paper) You see this? It’s the Criminal Code of Canada.

(Andy tears up paper.)  If the police don't follow their own laws, why should we? 

CHORUS.

Yay, Right on. Power to the people, etc.

ANDY

Down with authority – the cops, the boss, the politicians, religion!

Song –Question Authority

(bouncy  rock)

Question authority

Defy authority

Refuse authority

It’s got to go!

We’re gonna clean up on the cops

Use our pails and mops

We are mad right to the core

And won’t take it anymore

Oh baby, our priority

Ban inferiority

In a free society

Get rid of authority

Now we’ve had it with the boss

He don’t give a toss

He is acting like a jerk

Self-rule, that is how we work

Sweep away propriety

In every nationality

Engender notoriety    

And stifle all authority

(Spoken)     Question all authority

Right across this land

We are no minority

It will be so grand.

You can cure anxiety

And defer senility

Make it your priority

To question all authority

And what about the pope?

He can go piss up a rope

And he wears that funny hat

Why don’t we just squash it flat?

With sincere sobriety

And utmost in alacrity

We are making history

In questioning authority

Oh, those crazy politicians 

Making all those jive decisions

Booted out by you and me

Now that is real… democracy

From boondock right to town

We are gonna get on down

Increase our piety

And elude all  authority

Question authority

Defy authority

Refuse authority

It’s got to go!

REPORTER

  Folks, traffic has been rerouted around the square. Looks like the party is going on for awhile.

 Wait a minute, wait a minute. The police, on horseback, they’re galloping into the crowd, no warning. Swinging their clubs.

The crowd, the crowd, it’s being forced back onto the sidewalks. But the police are chasing them into doorways on Water Street, clubbing them as they try to get away, standing up in their stirrups so they can get more leverage on the downswings. Wham, wham, wham. 

Oh, now here comes the riot squad, helmets and clubs and shields.Wham, wham, wham. They’ve taken their ID badges off. Can’t tell who they are.

ANDY

(Shouts). Look out, that cop, he’s coming right for us. 

 (Picks up a rock and throws it).

 JULIE

God, that was close. You almost hit him in the head.

ANDY

Well, it scared him off. He’s splitting.

JULIE

(Julie in shock.) You could have killed him.

ANDY

It was either him or us. He would have cracked our skulls if he had the chance.

JULIE

You could have killed him, Andy.

ANDY

I’ve seen you throw lots of rocks.

JULIE

Yes, at bank windows, property. But not at people.

REPORTER

There’s so much happening, folks. I don’t know where to look.

A young woman being dragged by her hair across broken glass by two cops.

Diners coming out of restaurants, knocked down. 

There’s a woman beaten to the ground and shoved into the wagon. All she was doing was helping a man in a wheelchair.

Police smashing car windshields and store windows, looks like at random.

I’ve covered a lot of disturbances, folks. But I’ve never seen anything like this. It looks like payback time from the police. For all the time the Yippies ran wild in the streets and they couldn’t do anything about

(End of Scene Six)

SCENE SEVEN

(One-half minute of newsreel.)

ANDY

Well,after the police riot, we did our best to help the victims. Get them medical, get them bail. There were 79 arrested that night, tons injured. None of our friends, though. That was a miracle.

JULIE

I think you’ll have to agree, Andy, the Smoke-In idea had a few kinks in it.

ANDY

You know, they’re still doing Smoke-Ins every year. 

JULIE

Not Yippies, though. It’s the potheads. The cops leave them alone.

ANDY

 See, what did I tell you? You can’t keep a good idea down.

 JULIE

Anyway, turns out, we weren’t finished with the Gastown Follies. We still had act two, the official inquiry.

 ANDY

 The cops had gotten a real black eye. Bashing tourists.  Destroying property. The politicians had to pretend they were investigating it. 

I thought this would be a good chance to score some points off them.

JULIE

I wasn’t sure. Could be a witch-hunt against the organizers – us. 

ANDY

You know what, Julie was right to worry. At the Inquiry, the cop witnesses, they portrayed Gastown as a wild and lawless place. 

COP WITNESS #1

The radicals are violent and hostile to authority.  

COP WITNESS #2

The drumming incited people to lawlessness.

COP WITNESS #3

The Smoke-In was an unlawful assembly. A disaster waiting to happen.

COP WITNESS #1

 An unholy conspiracy of radicals. 

JULIE

Some conspiracy. We published it in the newspaper and invited everybody to join.

JULIE

Of course, none of the cops saw any police brutality.  

ANDY

Then, oh man, to my shock, you and I were subpoenaed to testify before the Inquiry.

JULIE

Probably because we wrote that article for the Straight.

ANDY

Julie, you were so cool on the stand. They couldn’t rattle you.

JULIE

(Testifying, hand raised.) Judge, smoking dope in public is not a violent act. It’s a form of peaceful civil disobedience. The real violence was the police misconduct, and this was caused by hysterical statements from the mayor.

ANDY

The lawyer for the cops, he wanted to know who had organized the Smoke-In. 

JULIE

I’m not going to answer. I was working for the Straight. I can’t name names. They’re my sources.

ANDY

I knew you would never incriminate anyone, so I could see you going to jail. What would happen to your angel baby?

The Judge hemmed and hawed, but finally, he made his ruling.

INQUIRY JUDGE (EMILY)

Press privilege is not absolute. However, in this case, the witness needn’t answer the question. Carry on.

ANDY

Whew, that was a close one.

When my time came to testify, I was really nervous.

 But you were such an inspiration to me, Julie.

JULIE

Yeah, you really maintained your cool, too. Except when they accused you of handing out Lone Ranger masks, so people could disguise themselves.

ANDY

(Indignantly, hand raised, like testifying.) Absolutely not. Whoever said that, they should get glasses. The only thing I handed out was ice cream bars, paid for at my own expense.

Of course, I didn’t bother mentioning all the joints we distributed,

We were feeling pretty good. But two days later, what the hell! Look at this! Front page.

 CHORUS EMILY

(Reads from newspaper) Police charge yippie plot. 

ANDY

Yes, we made the big time. It was the police lawyer at the Inquiry, putting his twist on the evidence. 

CHORUS EMILY

 (Reading) This affair was the result of a conspiracy between certain subversive elements in this community who are bound and determined to overthrow all recognized authority. 

ANDY

He singled out Julie and me – by name!

CHORUS  EMILY

(Reading.) Unmitigated dangerous liars.

JULIE

And when the judge came out with his final report - yeah, he criticized the police. But we got trashed, too. 

CHORUS XXX

(Reading.) Professional agitators, dangerous and intelligent.

ANDY

There was that dangerous again.

CHORUS  EMILY

(Reading.) Their motives were bad. Their evasive attitudes persuade me that they hoped that the crowd gathered would have a violent confrontation with the police.

JULIE

 That night, about 20 of us met at Mutant House to assess the damage.  The consensus was…

THE WIZARD

(Disgustedly.) The report’s a whitewash. Nothing concrete is going to come of it.

ANDY

Yeah, but there’s some positive stuff, too. At least we raised marijuana consciousness.

CHORUS EMILY

Probably, the cops will think twice about attacking any more peaceful gatherings. For a while, anyway.

ANDY

 And that’s what gave me the chance to try something completely different.

As the Wizard liked to say…  

THE WIZARD

We can’t change the world if we don’t change ourselves first. 

JULIE

Meaning, inside our heads.

ANDY

I want to change fast. I figure that means acid. You know, like, LSD. 

JULIE

It’ll blow your mind.

ANDY

That’s what I’m afraid of. I don’t want to fly off a rooftop, like that guy in the West End.  But I feel stuck in a box, like in a tunnel, you know. The old consciousness.  I want to break on through to the other side. 

Song - Tunnel Visionary

 Such a narrow way in the tunnel

There’s no light today in the tunnel

Can’t tell what it hides

What’s on the other side

What’s outside the walls of the tunnel

Ah huh, uh, huh,  the tunnel, oh yeah  

     Ah huh, uh, huh,  the tunnel, oh yeah  

Things just don’t look real in this tunnel

ah huh

Cannot heal in the tunnel

Oh yeah

I will be so brave, 

Won’t ever  be no slave

Gonna break the walls of the tunnel

Ah huh, ah, huh, the tunnel, oh yeah

Ah huh, ah, huh, the tunnel, oh yeah

Tunnel vision puts you in a rut

This decision is from the gut

Starting from today

See in a whole new way

Busting right out of the tunnel

Uh huh, the tunnel oh yeah

Seeing things in a whole new way

Be like going right from night to day

So, check your dictionary

Tunnel visionary

Climbing out of the hole in the tunnel

 Yes the tunnel, Oh yeah, the tunnel….

 Oh, oh, tunnel visionary

 Oh, tunnel visionary

Ah, huh, ah huh, the tunnel

 ANDY

You know, Julie, I trust you. I know you won’t let anything bad happen to me.

JULIE

I’ll be right here. Anything you need, just ask. Everything will be calm and cool.

  Oh, and by the way. You may think everybody’s looking at you because you’re stoned. But don’t worry about it. No one will even know. The only way they’ll know is if you tell them.

(Takes out little piece of paper, hands it to him.)

Blotter acid. From the Wizard. 

ANDY

(Andy takes it in his hand, looks at it quizzically.)

Kinda small.

JULIE

Just a little dab’ll do ya.

ANDY

Well, bottom’s up.

 (He puts it on his tongue, washes it down with a cup of tea.)

JULIE

(Motions like putting on record.  Psychedelic-type music starts playing in background, continues during LSD scene.)

You know, I think we’re going to have to get a new fridge. You practically need a jackhammer to get the ice off the walls. That new album by the Dead is so cool. Next cheque, I’m gonna get it.

ANDY

When do I start feeling it? (Paces up and down.)

JULIE

Oh, soon enough. Just relax. (She lights some incense.)

ANDY

I’m not feeling anything. (Looks at his watch.) It’s been, like, what, half an hour now?

JULIE

Tomorrow’s my turn to visit Daniel.  I’ve got a list of books to bring in. Dickens, Kerouac. You know, he works in the prison library. He’s teaching some of the old guys how to read. Amazing!

ANDY

(Looks out “window.”)

Wow! Look at that guy out there. Walking his dog, by the curb. What is that, a daschund? Short little legs moving so fast to keep up with him.

JULIE

(Looks out “window.”)

Hey, what a hoot.

ANDY

Yeah, that’s so funny. (Sits down on box). Wow, I’ve never noticed how soft this couch is. It’s just opening up and inviting me in. 

JULIE

Sally Ann special.

ANDY

Hey, the wall and ceiling has these patterns. Squares and diamonds. And those things that are triangles on all sides?

JULIE

Tetrahedrons. They’re made of fire. According to Plato, anyway.

ANDY

Wow! The carpet in the living room is rotating. A giant egg popping out of the floor, like a woman having a baby. The egg breaking up into flowers.

JULIE

Better than the movies.

ANDY

Energy is pouring through my body like a great rush, I’m riding the wave, riding on top of the crest, tumbling, then straightening out. Like gravity has no hold on me.

JULIE

You know, Newton measured gravity, but he didn’t known what it actually was. Einstein figured it out. It’s the bending of space/time.

ANDY

Wow. That blows my mind.

JULIE

Exactly.

ANDY

Julie, reality, the layers, are peeling away. Oh wow.

There’s the  layer of the senses, the colours and and the shapes. Then, deeper than that, the molecules and the atoms, and then the electrons. The electron opens up and there’s the basis of everything there is.

 Reality, not illusion.  (Pause). It’s (meaningfully) an intense white light. Wow.

JULIE

I wouldn’t take that that too literally, Andy.

ANDY

Oh Julie, wow…wow…wow!

CHORUS

(Sing) Picture yourself in a boat on a river,With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.

Fadeout

End of Scene Seven

  Scene Eight  

(One-half minute of newsreels)

JULIE 

Hey, what a beautiful day. Spring is here. Perfect for a trip to the park.  Let’s take the kids to Oppenheimer for a picnic. 

ANDY

(Julie and Andy walking arm-in-arm.)

Look at that house with the apartment-for-rent sign. Big old thing. Looks like Black Dog Manor.

JULIE

Except it’s all divided into suites.

ANDY

Let’s go have a look.

JULIE

What for? 

ANDY

Oh, I don’t know. Just for fun.

JULIE

(Looking around). It’s kinda rundown.

ANDY

Yeah, but the plumbing and the electrical still work.

(Enthusiastic) Look, you can see clear over to the mountains. Snow still on Grouse.

JULIE

The landlord obviously takes us for a family.

LANDLORD

(Perhaps with accent?) You can have it for $240 a month. Includes utilities. Two bedrooms. Kids have one room, you have the other. 

JULIE

(JULIE and ANDY walk to other side of stage.)Andy, you knew that suite was for rent before we even got there, didn’t you?

ANDY

Well, I had noticed it before, yes.

JULIE

What, do you want to leave the collective?

ANDY

Well if it was with you, yes, I would do it. We could swing the rent. Welfare pay your half, I could get a job.

JULIE

Andy, are you serious?

ANDY

We could be like a family. Angela would dig it.

JULIE

Andy, you’re so young. You don’t know what you want.

ANDY

Here we go again with that young stuff. You sound like my mother.

JULIE

There’s your education to consider. You have to complete your degree. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you.

ANDY

Thanks, mom.

JULIE

I know it sounds like a cliché. But even clichés can have truth in them.

ANDY

Well, what’s wrong with being a family?

JULIE

You know how I feel about that. Believe me, Andy, you’re very special to me. You’re special to Angela.  Why can’t we just go on as we are, enjoying each other’s company?

ANDY

You just want me when you feel like it. You’re just using me for, for… for free sex!

JULIE

Hey, I’m not going to talk to you when you’re being so ridiculous. 

Look, c’mere. (She pulls him closer to her on the bench, gives him a hug, then kisses his eyes, forehead, ears, nose.) You’re a sweetheart, you know that, Andy. You’re my sweetie. I really do love you.

ANDY 

I guess we just have different definitions of love.

SONG – Let’s Make It Last

JULIE

I do love you

You know it’s true

We can agree

To make it last

ANDY

Two points of view

‘Tween me and you

We’ve come this far

Let’s hold it fast   

JULIE

We’ll work it through

Each day start new

I really think

The worst is past

ANDY

I can’t construe

What will ensue 

Stick close by me

That’s all I ask

That’s all I ask

Let’s make it last

Let’s make it last

JULIE

You’ve got to trust me that this is for the best.

ANDY

 I want to trust you. I do trust you. (Sighs) As long as you’re happy, I guess I’m happy.

JULIE

Well, I guess this is as good a time as any to tell you.

ANDY

Tell me what?

JULIE

I’m moving out of Black Dog Manor.

ANDY

What?  Is this a joke?

JULIE

It’s no joke. I’m moving into a new house with Bernadette and some other women, an all-women’s house. In Burnaby.

ANDY

You’re leaving the collective?

JULIE

I’m leaving this collective, yes. But I’ll still be in a collective.

 ANDY

But why?

JULIE

Well, guaranteed childcare when I’m out partying.

ANDY

You can’t be serious.

JULIE

 No, I’m kidding about that. I just think it will be more peaceful. Practical, too. More comfortable for me. All women. No more male politics.

ANDY

You won’t move in with me. But you’ll move out with a bunch of women. What have they got that I don’t?

JULIE

Andy, I haven’t changed. I just need to be in the company of women, that’s all. I want to start a garden.

ANDY

But what about us?

JULIE

We’ll still be friends, comrades. Still have our thing together.  I’ll come over and visit you. That is, if you want me to.

  ANDY

Well, of course I do. But you’ve  got to give me time to absorb this. It’s a lot, all at once.

I guess I should have seen the signs. You’ve been spending more and more time away from the Yippies. Women’s stuff, that abortion counselling.

JULIE

So, what’s wrong with that?

ANDY

Nothing. Nothing. It’s just that it takes you away from the Yippies, that’s all.

JULIE

Oh, it’s not just the Yippies. You can’t sit still. A lot of new stuff is happening.

That Amchitka demonstration. Ten thousand school kids, marching down Georgia Street against the bomb tests.

That was mind-blowing.  Bigger than anything we ever pulled off. Maybe we’re missing the boat on this environmental stuff?

ANDY

Yes, but, but, what’s happened to, you know, the movement? Everybody together, fighting against the war, and, you know, for pot, long hair and rock’n’roll?

JULIE

I don’t know. It’s starting to look like there’s more than one movement now. People doing their own thing, separately. Red Power, Black Power, the FLQ,  all kinds of power, Gay Rights, the Rainbow Coalition.

The Greenpeace boat – sailing out to stop the bomb tests. Now that was theatre. You know, some of them say they were inspired by the Yippies?

ANDY

Well, we could do stuff like that.

JULIE

Yeah, we could. The Wizard is talking about it already. There’s these condos and this fancy hotel, Four Seasons Hotel, they want to build on Georgia Street, right next to Stanley Park. Block off views of the trees. Nobody wants it. Campbell is for it, of course. He never saw a development or a freeway he didn’t like.

The Wizard, he wants action. 

THE WIZARD

(Like making a speech.)Direct action. We take over the site. We turn it into a park, and that’s that. Like the People’s Park in Berkeley.

JULIE

Early one morning, there were about 60 of us. We tore down the wooden fence on Georgia and moved in.

Within a few hours, we had turned the empty lot into green space, our own All-Seasons Park.

ANDY

We had a vegetable patch. Radish, beet, kale seeds, all in neat rows. And a children’s playground, with a teeter totter and a sand box.

JULIE

Marigolds and daisies, bought from a garden centre.

ANDY

Chrysanthemums.

JULIE

Yeah, that you dug up from a neighbour’s garden in the middle of the night.

ANDY

I didn’t think they’d miss them.

JULIE

It didn’t take long for the cops to arrive. Right away, they started busting people for trespass. But after seven arrests, they realized the rest of us weren’t going to move. They knew they couldn’t attack in force - remember Gastown? So we settled down to a stalemate.

ANDY

Thirty delegates from the NDP convention in Vancouver showed up. They had voted unanimous support for the occupation – the first time ever that the NDP got in bed with the Yippies.

JULIE

The next day, Tom Terrific came down. Same old hippie-basher. 

ANDY

Right away, he got into an argument with the gardeners.

CAMPBELL

(Pontificating) This is a breakdown in society. It’s a sad weekend in Vancouver’s history. If you want to be creative, I’ll give you lots of bush land you can go out and be creative with.

(Jeers from the CHORUS. Shove it up your ass etc.)

JULIE

 After that, the longhairs brought their tents to the park and settled in for the summer. The park is still there on Georgia Street. It’s the off-leash area where people walk their dogs now.

ANDY

There’s a statue looks like venetian blinds, and one of a woman, she’s feeding the pigeons. It doesn’t say anything about the Yippies, though.

JULIE

Funny, isn’t it? We always got blamed for stuff we didn’t do. But no credit for something we did do.

ANDY

And Tom Terrific, he decided he’d had enough and wouldn’t run for another term. Of course, we took the credit for that.

JULIE

 I wish we could say we got our groove back after that. But, really, it was the end of an era, our last hurrah. Two years since Blaine. Two intense years. There was no way we could keep it up. 

ANDY

The Movement was riding off in all different directions. And the Yippies, too.

We had one last dinner at Black Dog Manor.  Bratface was there to join us.

ANDY

It was like commencement day for the children of America, everybody announcing their plans for adulthood, summing up the lessons we had learned as Yippies.

Bratface, you remember they accused me of handing out Lone Ranger masks at Gastown so people could hide their identities?

BRATFACE

I remember.

ANDY

And I denied it? 

BRATFACE

Of course.

ANDY

Indignantly? 

BRATFACE

You were mad.

ANDY

Under oath?

BRATFACE

Absolutely.

ANDY

They should get glasses?

BRATFACE

Uh, Where are we going with this, Andy?

ANDY

(Takes mask out of box. Puts it on.)

Fact, or fiction? Reality or illusion? (Laughs exuberantly)

JULIE

We were so young. We were so certain about everything. But, you know, what? We were right and the bad guys, the ones with the guns and the money, were wrong. The war was wrong, the rat-race was wrong, racism was wrong, drug paranoia was wrong, how they treated women was wrong.

And we did stop the war.

ANDY

Yeah, us and the whole rest of the world. Too late to prevent58,000 dead GIs, though.

 JULIE

You could have been one of them.(Hugs him).

ANDY

And how many dead Vietnamese? Three million? Too many to count.

 JULIE

I like what John Lennon said...

JOHN LENNON

The thing the ‘60s did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. But it showed us the possibilities.

ANDY

Yeah, it seemed like there were possibilities then. But times have sure changed.  I don’t know what’s possible anymore.

JULIE

Hey, don’t give up hope. The younger generation is doing some great things. There’s the Black Bloc and Food Not Bombs.

CHORUS BING

The Carnegie Action Project.

CHORUS EMILY

Olympic Resistance Network

CHORUS REBECCA

The Anti-Poverty Committee

JULIE

And right here in East Van, the Purple Thistle Centre. They set up their own schools, guerilla gardening, art for the people.

Radical change from below. That’s their way. They do it themselves, don’t let anybody tell them what to do.

ANDY

Sound almost like Yippies.

JULIE

Yeah, but they thought it up themselves. Looks like it’s something that comes naturally to each generation.

ANDY

So it’s not really over.

CHORUS EMILY

We’re like viruses. Moving out into other hosts and infecting them with revolution and jokes.

CHORUS REBECCA

We’re  like Viva Zapata, or Tom Joad. Up in the hills, ready to come back when we were needed.

THE WIZARD

We’re like Superman, on call for truth, justice and the Yippie way.

Song duet– Love or Rage?

 (Anthemic gospel)

To play your part

Laugh and sing right from the heart, 

Yes, you can make a difference in this world

Step up on the stage,

 Revolutionary love,  or is it rage?

Just make sure your flag, it gets unfurled

The Vietnamese, they stand up to the man

The lesson is, I act therefore I am

We’ve made some things better than before

Had some fun and evened up the score

Vote for Nobody and things will change

The mind, the streets – that is where we range

Our movement, it’s all living history

Telling jokes in the new society

To play your part

Laugh and sing right from the heart, 

Yes, you can make a difference in this world

Step up on the stage,

 Revolutionary love,  or is it rage?

Just make sure your flag, it gets unfurled

To play your part

Laugh and sing right from the heart, 

Yes, you can make a difference in this world

Step up on the stage,

 Revolutionary love, or is it rage?

Just make sure your flag, it gets unfurled

 Yes, you can make a difference in this world.

(Audio-Visual of what happened to the protagonists later:)

Bernadette went to work in the Post Office, driving a fork-lift truck, burrowing into the proletariat.

The Wizard set up the Whole Persons Centre, a rubber-walled refuge for people to find their inner Yippie.

Bratface started a punk rock band, helping subvert a whole new generation of impressionable youth.

Daniel became an organic farmer, raising prize-winning turnips.

Julie  got a full-time job in abortion counseling. Sort of science, serving the people.

Andy became a lawyer. Taking theatre from the streets into the courtroom. His first car was a Honda Civic.

Encore

(Song FROM BELOW – hip-hop style.)

Do it, do it, do it – from below 

Yeah, do it, do it, do it   – from below

Do it, do it, do it   – from below

Oh, do it, do it, do it   – from below

Radical change from below!

That is the way we gotta go.

It’s the way ahead, now don’t you know

It’s what they dread in the status quo

The battle of seattle

The riot at the hyatt

They  say we are done

But I just don’t buy it

So many things to do

So many ways to do it

My hands in the dirt, 

Digging right through it 

It’s cheap, inclusive and oh so awesome!

Resistance is fertile, no playin’ possum

Yeah!

yeah. do it, do it, do it   – from below

Do it, do it, do it   – from below

Yeah, do it, do it, do it – from below 

Oh, Do it, do it, do it   – from below

Cmon, do it, do it, do it   – from below

yeah, do it, do it, do it   – from below

Do it, do it, do it   – from below

Do it, do it, do it   – from below

free school, we school, thee school, de-school

out of the classroom, so we can retool

take to our feet and into the streets 

beat the heat and never retreat

best when we learn all together

teach each other, it’s way better

change horizontal, so elemental

change by design, not accidental

mutual aid, made in the shade

works every day, won’t ever fade

cheap, inclusive and so awesome

come alive, not playing possum

yeah

Do it, do it, do it – from below 

Do it, do it, do it   – from below

Yeah Do it, do it, do it   – from below

Do it, do it, do it – from below 

Yeah, do it, do it, do it   – from below

Do it, do it, do it   – from below

Yeah Do it, do it, do it   – from below

Oh, do it, do it, do it   – from below

(musical interlude- hip-hop dancing)

Do it, do it, do it – from below 

Oh, do it, do it, do it   – from below

Yeah, do it, do it, do it – from below 

Oooh, do it, do it, do it – from below

Do it, do it, do it   – from below

Yeah Do it, do it, do it   – from below

Oh Do it, do it, do it   – from below

Yeah, Do it, do it, do it   – from below

A tent city is a place called home

build it now, and they will come

Pull down the fence and put up the tents

free for all, don’t pay no rents.

Olympic flame just too lame

2010 it aint my game

Yeah Do it, do it, do it – from below

Do it, do it, do it – from below 

Do it, do it, do it – from below

Do it, do it, do it – from below