The first play we saw as part of our Three Plays in Three Days adventure, was A.C.T.’s Assisted Living, written by playwright/actor Katie Forgette and directed by R. Hamilton Wright, her husband. It had a phenomenal cast, including as the inmates Kurt Beattie as a retired actor Joe Taylor, Jeff Steitzer as argumentative and very loud Wally Carmichael, Marianne Owen as quiet, retiring and retired librarian Beatrice “Judy” Hart, Laura Kenny as still spunky and retired nurse Mitzi Kramer, as well as staff members ward orderly Kevin played by Tim Gouran, and, as the ward’s Head Nurse Claudia (read that as Nurse Ratched), is Julie Briskman.
The Medicare system has been bankrupted and collapsed under the weight of millions of boomers and post-boomers with health issues, yet, thanks to modern medicine, they are living longer anyway. Now the rules have changed. If a patient didn’t listen to medical advice, such as to lose weight to avoid developing diabetes, then he/she has to buy their own insulin. If someone didn’t quit smoking as advised and developed emphysema, they have to buy their own oxygen. Ma Medicare has died and the new health care system is burying her as fast as possible.
As the play opens, callow young orderly Kevin comes into the darkened common room, opens a chute in the floor and yells to his associate downstairs, “Incoming!” as he slides a body off the gurney down the chute. Kevin comes back directly, opens the chute again, yells “Incoming!” again, and slides a dead cat down.
After he leaves, Judy comes in to read in the dingy-grey, and shabby common room the only place with sufficient light. Wally comes in yelling about his hearing aid not working; Claudia shouts that she just changed the batteries. Then he yells that the pee bag on his leg needing changing; Claudia yells that he has to change it himself. Retired nurse Mitzi comes in with a sandwich bag with a few cat salmon treats. Then new patient Joe is wheeled in.
Joe tells his all too common story about being mugged, the resulting fall and hip replacement, followed by being overdosed with the wrong medications; then he had a hard time recovering from the hospital-induced pneumonia. Now he’s chosen this facility for his necessary physical therapy because he has relatives in the area; he’s the only patient that has chosen this particular facility.
As they’re talking, he is astonished as Judy whispers loudly, “Sleep!” and all the inmates feign sleep. They do it so Claudia won’t be irritated and then bully them; and as long as they’re awake, they irritate her. Claudia wants everything quiet and dark. She mandates that the lights be off at 5 p.m. in the common room. She forbids Mitzi to help Kevin record vitals on his rounds and yells at Mitzi to stop taking her sweater, although they are both so dark as to beindistinguishable. Claudia seems to think that her job, and her religious adherence to the “rules”, is to make everyone want to move to the “twilight” ward, where the inmates are in eternal stuporous twilight until they die. She seems to think that the only good patient is a comatose or dead patient. Then they’re less trouble. Claudia is continually overworked and has to deal with funding and staffing cuts that reduce the care standards that she’s responsible for maintaining. She hates trouble and she watches the patients like a hawk swooping down to kill joy and sniff out Twinkies.
When Joe is admitted, things take a turn for the better for the inmates. He encourages the other patients to interact, play games, read, plan performances and stay socially active to keep their spirits up. They encourage Mitzi to keep doing rounds with Kevin. They realize that the bag of “salmon treats” that Mitzi has actually contains hearing aid batteries so Joe replaces Wally’s so he can actually hear. Although when Claudia is around, they encourage him to act as if he can’t hear; this calms Claudia.
As they become friends and allies and begin to enjoy life again, Claudia becomes more frantic and bitter. When they find out that Claudia has put Mitzi on the waiting list for the twilight ward; they tranquilize her, and Kevin wheels her to her just reward. Mitzi takes over nurse duties and the plans for a holiday performance with their families in attendance takes place. Joe finally gets to direct the program and they begin planning for a rendition of Spoon River Anthology.
There are lots of pointed and funny retorts by Claudia, and the patients as they strive to gain and maintain independence. The highlight of the performance was the patient production of the nativity with Wally playing baby Jesus and Kevin playing the three wisemen with the help of two surgical gloves. The only soft spot is the closing scene with a “dramatic” reading from Spoon River. It seemed a sentimental sop to the warm feelings generated by the Christmas program. It stopped the forward movement and closed with a sweet ending.
Assisted Living runs through May 12. Call the box office at ACT Theatre 206-292-7676 for information and tickets.
