Buttercup
Full length. Large, flexible cast (minimum 12 actors, with most playing multiple roles)
Buttercup is based on several celebrated child abuse investigations from around the United States and explores the toxic mixture of fear, hysteria, and media sensationalism that fueled them. The material is realiztic, but presented in the form of a cinematic extravaganza, juxtaposing intimate scenes with crowds, commotion, and media commentary. In the center of it all are a preschool teacher accused of unspeakable acts, two child psychologists charged with getting the truth from the presumed victims, and two parents whose marriage is threatened by the snowballing disaster instigated by a chance remark from their daughter.
Characters:
JASMINE 1
JASMINE 2
MIRIAM
CONNIE
JEFF
TRISH
TEDESCO
DOCTOR
TEACHERS
PUBLIC DEFENDER
PROSECUTOR
JUDGE
BAILIFF
APPELLATE JUDGE
MEDIA
POLICE
PARENTS
CHILDREN
With the exception of JASMINE 1, all children's roles are to be played by adult actors. JASMINE 2 grows during the play from age four to sixteen.
This is an ensemble piece. Most roles, with a few obvious exceptions, should be multiply-cast, and actors may change roles abruptly, mid-scene if need be. Elaborate costume and makeup changes should not be necessary, as many of the characters are meant to be simple and defined by their public functions. In these cases, gender is also unimportant.
SAMPLE SCENE(from Act Two):
JEFF
I don't think anything happened to her, Connie.
CONNIE
We have to believe her.
JEFF
You believe her when they make her say she was molested. But you don't believe her when she says she wasn't.
CONNIE
They make her say the truth.
JEFF
She told me they made her lie.
CONNIE
Why would they do that?
JEFF
I don't know.
CONNIE
Why would they examine all those other children? Why would they spend two years preparing a court case?
JEFF
Maybe it's too late for them to admit they were wrong.
CONNIE
I'm sorry, Jeff. I just don't buy it.
JEFF
Everybody's so willing to buy what they say. Without question. It's as if everybody wants to believe it.
CONNIE
I don't want to believe it. I have to.
JEFF
Why.
CONNIE
Because what if it's true?
JEFF
What if it's not?
CHILDREN
Buttercup!
I wanna be Miriam!
No, I wanna be Miriam!
That's not fair!
You were Miriam last time!
Okay, you be Miriam.
Okay, I'm Miriam. If I catch you, you have to...PULL DOWN YOUR UNDERPANTS!
(The CHILDREN run around screaming
as "MISS WORTH" chases them. Just as
one of the CHILDREN is about to be tagged...
LIGHTS UP on JUDGE.)
JUDGE
The case of the State versus Miriam Worth will come to order.
(The actors all suddenly revert to adulthood
and take on adult roles.)
Bailiff will read the indictment.
BAILIFF
The Grand Jury hereby sustains against Miriam Worth the following charges: 140 counts of sexual abuse of minors, 65 counts of lewd and indecent behavior, and 44 counts of public nudity.
MIRIAM
This has nothing to do with me.
MEDIA 1
Opening arguments were heard today...
MEDIA 2
...in the trial of Miriam Worth, the preschool teacher...
MEDIA 3
...accused of 140 counts of sexual abuse of children.
MIRIAM
I'm a painter.
PROSECUTOR
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Some of the things you will hear will defy belief. But we must be willing to face the unthinkable. There is no other way to protect our children.
PUBLIC DEFENDER
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Childhood sexual abuse exists. It does happen. But not like this. It involves acts which, while unthinkable, are at least plausible. It leaves physical evidence on its victims. The perpetrator is more than likely a parent or family acquaintance. Not a woman like Miriam Worth, whose love and concern for children is without equal.
PROSECUTOR
You will hear how she performed oral, anal and vaginal sex with several partners in front of the children, forcing them to watch.
PUBLIC DEFENDER
Prosecution has yet to name any of these several partners.
PROSECUTOR
She dismembered a baby in front of the children and threatened to do the same to them if they ever told anybody.
PUBLIC DEFENDER
No dismembered baby was found. No baby was ever reported missing.
PROSECUTOR
She smeared peanut butter, grape jelly and butterscotch onto the genitals of the children and licked it off. She fed them her own urine, frozen on popsicle sticks. She penetrated the boys anally, and the girls vaginally and anally, with wooden spoons, Barbie dolls, baseball bats...
PUBLIC DEFENDER
Impossible without visible injury, none of which has been found by the prosecution's own medical experts.
PROSECUTOR
...flashlights, bananas and dead hamsters, among other objects.
PUBLIC DEFENDER
Police found the hamster in Miriam Worth's classroom, alive and well.
PROSECUTOR
She forced children to urinate and defecate into a saxophone while she played, naked and covered with chocolate syrup.
JEFF
One thing I just can't get around. Who the hell would want to do that?
PUBLIC DEFENDER
There were other personnel in the building at all times. None have testified to having ever heard a saxophone or seen Miriam Worth with any trace of chocolate syrup on her person. Nor has any trace of any of these alleged acts been found in Miss Worth's classroom or in any other part of the Buttercup Preschool.
PROSECUTOR
You will hear from the children how they were taken into dark tunnels under the school...
PUBLIC DEFENDER
Six months of excavation revealed nothing more than a few shards of Indian pottery, now on display at the Historical Society.
PROSECUTOR
She has left these children with psychic wounds which will never heal.
PUBLIC DEFENDER
She has been slandered, her life and reputation destroyed, her dreams of a happy future thrown onto a bonfire of rumor and hysteria.
JUDGE
Call the first witness.
PUBLIC DEFENDER
Your Honor, I move that the witnesses be made to testify here, in the presence of the court, and that defense be allowed to cross examine, as in any standard legal proceeding.
PROSECUTOR
Your Honor, these children have suffered enough.
PUBLIC DEFENDER
My client is being denied her constitutional right to face her accusers.
PROSECUTOR
Your Honor, Prosecution need only to refer to its expert witness, Dr. Hagan...
TRISH
Given the trauma these children have suffered, to force them once again into the same room with their assailant would be unthinkable and I have to say sadistic.
PUBLIC DEFENDER
Your Honor, I must insist. In our legal system, a person accused of a crime has certain inalienable rights. It is not within the jurisdiction of this court to decide whether or not to grant these rights. These rights are sacred.
JUDGE
Defense is reminded that we're talking about children.
PUBLIC DEFENDER
Your Honor, these children are now six and seven years old. By now, whatever alleged trauma they may have suffered has surely been alleviated under Dr. Hagan's supervision.
TRISH
It is true that some progress has been made toward recovery. But this progress would be at risk if my patients were confronted again with their worst nightmare.
JUDGE
Court rules that the children be allowed to testify from my chambers via closed circuit video.
PUBLIC DEFENDER
And that cross-examination be carried out under the same conditions?
JUDGE
Dr. Hagan?
TRISH
These children are too young to fully understand the legal process. To make them suffer the trauma of recounting the story twice...
PUBLIC DEFENDER
I get it. I should just give up.
TRISH
...particularly as Defense would quite understandably present a less than sympathetic ear...
PUBLIC DEFENDER
Should I bother saying anything?
JUDGE
Defense will submit its questions to Prosecution, which will pose such questions to the juvenile witnesses.
PUBLIC DEFENDER
Suppose I wish to spontaneously develop a line of questioning.
JUDGE
In such an extraordinary case as this, we all have to make sacrifices.
(LIGHTS UP on JASMINE 2, JEFF, CONNIE.)
TRISH
Hello, Jasmine.
JASMINE 2
Hi.
TRISH
How's first grade?
JASMINE 2
It's boring.
TRISH
Jasmine, did you know that you are a very special kind of person?
JASMINE 2
What kind of person am I?
TRISH
You're a victim.
JASMINE 2
What's a victim?
TRISH
A victim is a person who has had something bad happen to them.
JASMINE 2
What happened to me that was bad?
TRISH
Do you remember what happened to you when you were a little girl?
(JASMINE 2 shakes her head.)
Well, something terrible happened to you. You're all better now, and it will never happen again. But I'm going to tell you about it, because your mommy and daddy want you to know.
(JEFF walks away. CONNIE follows.)
CONNIE
What is it now?
JEFF
She's doing just fine. She's got friends. She's in the Brownies. She's growing up like a normal girl, and along comes Dr. Hagan to tell her she was tortured and raped and...
CONNIE
Well, she was!
JEFF
Even if she was, why remind her of it now?
CONNIE
So she can testify in court.
JEFF
With someone else's words. She doesn't remember any of it herself. They might as well tell her she was kidnapped by a flying saucer.
JASMINE 2 (to TRISH)
That's gross!
TRISH
Well, it really happened.
(Pause.)
JASMINE 2
But I don't remember it.
TRISH
Sometimes, when something bad happens to us, we don't want to remember it. We make ourselves forget. But it really happened.
JASMINE 2
I don't believe you.
TRISH
It's all true, Jasmine.
(Pause.)
JASMINE 2
Why did she do it?
TRISH
Because she was a very bad lady.
JASMINE 2
Like a witch?
TRISH
Yes, Jasmine. Exactly like a witch.
(JEFF goes back to TRISH and JASMINE 2.)
JEFF
Jasmine, go out and play, okay?
CONNIE
Jeff...
JEFF
Now!
(JASMINE 2 exits.)
You can say what you want, but Jasmine's not going to have any part in this.
CONNIE
That's not exactly for you to decide.
TRISH
Is there a problem?
JEFF
I want this whole business to be over, once and for all, now.
TRISH
We all do. But it won't be over until...
JEFF
It's been over for Jasmine. She's forgotten all about it. I say we leave it that way.
TRISH
Someday she may remember on her own.
JEFF
If that happens, we'll call you.
TRISH
We happen to have a court case. We need Jasmine's testimony.
JEFF
Leave her out of it.
(He exits.)
CONNIE
I'm sorry, Dr. Hagan.
TRISH
It's okay. I think Jasmine's doing fine. Frankly, it's your husband I'm worried about.