Detroit '67

Dominique Morisseau

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781783194995
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

It's 1967 in Detroit. Motown music is getting the party started, and Chelle and her brother Lank are making ends meet by turning their basement into an after-hours joint. But when a mysterious woman finds her way into their lives, the siblings clash over more much more than the family business. As their pent-up feelings erupt, so does their city, and they find themselves caught in the middle of the '67 riots.
Detroit '67 is presented in association with Classical Theatre of Harlem and the National Black Theatre. Detroit '67 was awardedthe2014 Edward M. Kennedy Prize for DramaInspired by American History

Act One

SCENE ONE

Lights up on the basement of a two-story home. It is an unfinished basement, but efforts have been made to make it look inviting. A little balcony with stairs spills from upstage right. A board, some cabinets and a couple of stools makeshift a bar.

Pictures of Motown artists adorn the walls. Proud posters of Joe Louis and Muhammed Ali. Somewhere else – a photo of Malcolm X. Big tack through Malcolm’s forehead.

A big old freezer leans against the upstage left wall. Somewhere – a washer and dryer and sink. A few clothes hang on a line.

A string of Christmas lights lay on an old shabby couch, which sits in the middle of the floor. Next to it, an old recliner. Crates covered by cloth make a coffee table. A couple of pipe poles stand as pillars on both sides of the space. Height markings are somewhere on the wall. A name in cursive. A drawing of a huge four-pointed star. A huge Black fist. A very bad and lumpy portrait of a Brown girl.

Behind the couch against the wall is an old record player. It plays the Temptations, “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg”.

CHELLE sings along as she works to untangle the Christmas lights. Suddenly the record skips.

CHELLE: Dang it!

She hurries to the record player and moves the needle past the skip. Goes back to singing. It skips again.

CHELLE: Not this part…come on!

She goes to fix it again.

CHELLE: (To the record player.) You gonna behave now?

Waits. Watches it. It seems cool. She goes back to untangling the lights. The record player skips again.

CHELLE: Dang it! So you lyin’ to me now? I thought you was gonna behave. I need you to behave for me now. (She plays with the needle.) You got something against David Ruffin? Hunh? What’s the matter? (She waits for an answer from the player.) Ohh…you wanted to see him in concert? Honey, me too. I was mad he didn’t show up. He can sing you outta your drawls, you let’im. But that’s no reason to mess David all up right now. He ain’t a bad man. Just a little troubled, maybe. But troubled don’t make you bad. Hell, can’t nobody sang like him…can’t nobody sang like none of the Temptations. They all got voices of honey you ask me. So don’t go scratchin’ up on David just cuz you mad. David ain’t never did nothin’ to you, personally. You let David play.

She puts the needle back on the record. It behaves.

CHELLE: That’s better. Got us a party happenin’ this weekend, and I need you to act right. Alright now?

Somehow, the player agrees. Be imaginative.

CHELLE continues untangling the lights. It’s creating much displeasure.

CHELLE: Lawd…come on thangs! (She tangles them more.) Dang it!

A colorful knock at the top of the stairs.

BUNNY: (Offstage.) Hey hey hey! You want some comp-naay?

CHELLE: I’m down here Bunny! Come on in…

A firecracker of a woman, BUNNY, comes on down the steps. It is an art for her. She wears a one-piece jumpsuit, bangles everywhere, and the highest of high-heeled shoes. Face fully beat with fake lashes n’ all. Middle of the day? No matter.

BUNNY: What’s happenin’ mama? Heard ya’ll was fixin’ up for a party this weekend. Movin’ the party to ya folks’ place, hunh?

CHELLE: Tryin’ to.

BUNNY: Ya’ll been quiet for a few weeks since ya’ll took the party outta Lank’s old crib.

CHELLE: Took us a minute to get him settled back over here, that’s all. Now that Daddy done joined Mama up that stairway to heaven, we figure it make more since for him to move back in. Wouldn’t be nobody but me here by myself now that Julius done left and went to Alabama. And I can’t be stayin’ here by myself. Just don’t feel right.

BUNNY: Well the folks been askin’ me where to go. I been sendin’ ’em over to the Dukes – hate to say.

CHELLE: You ain’t!

BUNNY: I had to Chelle! Now you know I love you like potato salad, but folks pay me to send ’em to the happenin’ places. They want an after-hours joint, I gotta send ’em somewhere. With ya’ll off the scene, Dukes done tightened it up. Even got that new hi-five record player.

CHELLE: You mean hi-fi?

BUNNY: Whatever.

CHELLE: We just had to finish squarin’ up this business with Mama and Daddy’s money. Took a lil’ minute. Them lawyers’ll try to trick you out of your own inheritance, I swear.

BUNNY: I told ya’ll to talk to my man Stubby. He woulda gave ya’ll a good price.

CHELLE: I told you I didn’t want no lawyer named Stubby. Sounds short and fat and unprofessional.

BUNNY: Fine then. You go’on over to Hamtramack and get you one of them Steinbergs or them Zielinskis – or how you say it. See if they don’t charge you both your arms and your legs. And probably your mama’s legs too.

CHELLE: Not Mr. Furman. We got us a deal. I told him to work with me on these legal fees and come time for him to need a car, I got Sly on the job. Get him somethin’ for a real good deal. He seem to like them odds. So he took care of us just fine.

BUNNY: You say so. (Beat.) You having Christmas in July?

CHELLE: Naw, girl. Help me with this string, will you? I’m trying to untangle this mess so we have some kinda decorations. Lank supposed to be out getting us some more bulbs for ’em, cuz half of ’em done burned out. Had these since we was little ones. Everytime I leave Lank in charge of wrapping ’em, this is what I end up with. Tangled mess.

BUNNY helps CHELLE untangle the lights.

BUNNY: That brother of yours shoul’ got his own way of doing things, don’t he?

CHELLE: You can say that again.

BUNNY: What ya’ll gonna spend your folk’s money on? A new car? Some baad threads?

CHELLE: Julius’ colleg...