Comedy/Drama by Spalding Gray Adapted by Kathleen Russo

Swimming to Cambodia Comedy/Drama by Spalding Gray Adapted by Kathleen Russo

Swimming to Cambodia Mesmerizing, mind-expanding he builds from trivial egocentricity to the enormity of the Cambodian holocaust, singlehandedly with the most ancient of dramatic structures. Washington Post Comedy/Drama. By Spalding Gray. Adapted by Kathleen Russo. Cast: 1 (may be expanded to 30). In this signature piece and his most political work, Gray refers to himself as a poetic reporter. After six months of filming the movie The Killing Fields, Gray found himself compiling a monologue about his personal experience on the film interwoven with the historical events that took place during the Vietnam War. Approximate running time: 90 minutes (optional intermission). Code: SN2. Cover photo of Spalding Gray: Paula Court. Cover design: Jeanette Alig-Sergel ISBN-13 978-1-58342-571-8 ISBN-10 1-58342-571-3 02008 9 781583 425718 www.dramaticpublishing.com Dramatic Publishing 311 Washington St. Woodstock, IL 60098 ph: 800-448-7469 Printed on recycled paper

Swimming to Cam bo dia By SPALDING GRAY Adapted by KATHLEEN RUSSO Dra matic Pub lishing Woodstock, Il li nois Eng land Aus tra lia New Zea land

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Swimming to Cam bo dia This play was de signed for one per son to per form but the di rec tor has per mis sion to make this into mul ti ple roles if he/she so de sires. Stage set-up: a ta ble/wooden desk with a straight-back wooden chair. On the desk sits one glass (pint size) of wa - ter and a ta ble-top mi cro phone stand with a mi cro phone. This is the ba sic set ting that Spalding Gray used but each pro duc tion is not ob li gated to do it this way. The sip of wa ter is where Spalding de cided each break was es sen tial for the flow of the piece. Again, the di rec tor may use them any way he/she deems ap pro pri ate and nec - es sary.

Swimming to Cam bo dia SPALDING: In Feb ru ary of 83 I met this in cred i ble Brit ish doc u - men tary film mak er, Roland Joffe. He was very in tense a com bi na tion of Zorro, Je sus and Rasputin body of Zorro, heart of Je sus and eyes of Rasputin. Roland had come to New York to cast a new film called The Kill ing Fields, pro duces by Da vid Puttnum, and I was called in for an au - di tion. The cast ing agent had seen one of my mono logues. It was un like any au di tion I had ever been to be fore. Roland did n t have me read, he did n t even ask me any ques tions. He did all the talk ing while I lis tened, and he talked and talked. He talked for about forty min utes non - stop. Roland told me the story of The Kill ing Fields. This movie is about the New York Times re porter named Sid ney Schanberg and his side kick Dith Pran, who was a Cam bo dian pho tog ra pher. It was about how they re - ported and cov ered the story of the Amer i cans se cret bomb ing of Cam bo dia, and how Schanberg and Pran stayed be hind in Phnom Pehn af ter the Amer i can em bassy was evac u ated be cause they wanted to cover what hap pened when the Khmer Rouge marched in. They wanted to find out if there was go ing to be a blood bath or not, so they fled to the French em bassy to hide out and when the Khmer 7

8 SWIMMING TO CAM BO DIA Rouge marched into the city they went di rectly to the French em bassy and de manded All Cam bo di ans out or ev - ery one dies. So Dith Pran had to be ex pelled to al most cer tain death be cause the Khmer Rouge were kill ing any Cam bo dian who was con nected to the Amer i cans. Pran was given up for dead by most, but Schanberg never gave up hope and kept search ing un til, af ter three years, he lo cated Pran in a Thai ref u gee camp. He brought him to New York City where Pran now works for the New York Times. Great story! Sounds fan tas tic. Sounds like some one made it up. I want to tell you that I would love to play any role in this film, just to be in it. But I also must con fess that I know noth ing about what you ve told me. I m not very po lit i cal in fact, I ve never even voted in my life. Per fect! said Roland. We re look ing for the Amer i can ambassador s aide. But I m not say ing you got the role. I have a lot of other peo ple to see and I have to see how it all shapes up and fits to gether with cast ing. I m go ing out to the coast to see some peo ple and I ll be back in a cou ple of months. Let s chat again then. I re ally wanted to be in this film more than any pro ject I ve ever been ap proached for. At the same time, I had no idea what I could ac tively do to get the role. That was a large part of why I had stopped try ing to be a pro fes sional ac tor in the first place; I could n t stand all the wait ing while the big ma chine made up its so-called mind. I wanted some in flu ence and power over the events in my life. I could n t stand leav ing it to chance and the first idea that oc curred to me was prayer. But I thought, it s been so long, God would know I was in bad faith.

The next thing that oc curred to me was con tacts. Well, no, maybe con tacts was first and prayer was sec ond But any way, I did n t have any con tacts in the Brit ish film in - dus try. So, the next voice that came to me was that old log - i cal, cop ing voice we all know so well: If I get it, I get it. If I don t, I don t. I ll do some thing else. Af ter all, I can still see and walk. But my il log i cal, pre con scious voice would have none of this and set up a con di tion I would have to call Mag i cal Thinking, which soon got quite out of con trol. (Takes sip of wa ter.) SWIMMING TO CAM BO DIA 9 I found that I was un able to leave my loft with out turn - ing the ra dio off on a pos i tive word. Do you know how dif - fi cult those words are to find these days? I would just sit there by the ra dio with my hand on the knob so I could turn it off real fast when I heard a pos i tive word. The stock mar ket is ris ing click. Con sider mov ing ma rines to safer click You may go to a doc tor that be longs to the AMA but it does n t nec es sar ily mean you re go ing to the best click And then I could leave my loft. As I went out I found that I had to turn the door knob three times (make mo tion of do ing this). Threes be came very im por tant, as did right shoe in front of left shoe. I led with my right foot as I started up the street, snap ping my fin gers three times, then in sets of threes, then three fin gers in sets of six, as I walked up to the su per mar ket to buy soup, where ev ery third can was fine. The first two had bot u lism.

10 SWIMMING TO CAM BO DIA Then I went to Barnes and No ble, snap ping all the way, in search of books on Cam bo dia. When I got there, I went to piles of books in the an nex and, pull ing out ev ery third book, I whis pered to my self now this has power. I turn and see a man be hind me flee ing from stack to stack with wads of news pa per stuck in his ears and I thought, now this is one of the ther a peu tic joys of liv ing in New York City. It al ways works. Just when you think you re go ing crazy, all you have to do is look over your shoul der. I re al ized it was get ting out of hand and I d better slow down or I ll get put away be fore I even get the role. (Takes sip of wa ter.) The Lord works in strange ways. I was in vited out to Los An geles to per form my mono logues and I run into Roland Joffe, who was there cast ing The Kill ing Fields. He said Let s chat again so I go home and get dressed up and go to Warner Brothers Stu dio. Spalding, lis ten, Roland be gan, let me tell you what an in cred i ble coun try Cam bo dia was be fore it was col o - nized, that it had a strain of Bud dhism so per mis sive and so sen sual that the Cam bo di ans seemed to have done away with un nec es sary guilt. The Cam bo di ans knew how to have fun. They knew how to have a good time be ing born; how to have a good time grow ing up; a good time go ing through pu berty; a good time fall ing in love; a good time get ting mar ried and hav ing chil dren; a good time rais ing chil dren; and a good time grow ing old and dy ing. They even know how to have a good time on New Year s Eve!

SWIMMING TO CAM BO DIA 11 How ever, they had lost touch with evil. Be cause it was such a beau ti ful, gen tle land they had lost touch with evil. The sit u a tion was like that of the Tantric Col onies on the East Coast of In dia. They were so open down there that the Huns just came and ate them up like choc o late-cov ered cher ries. And the same thing was hap pen ing to the Cam bo - di ans. I can t get a clear vi sion of Cam bo dia in my mind. I have a map in my head, but I can t quite place it among the other coun tries. I know it s the size of Mis souri. Roland con tin ued, In 1965 there were about seven mil - lion peo ple in the en tire coun try of Cam bo dia, six hun dred thou sand in the cap i tal of Phnom Penh. There was a fresh - wa ter lake right in the mid dle for all sorts of rec re ational ac tiv i ties, fish ing along the coast, sea ports along the Gulf of Siam. And in 1966 that happy, sexy Prince Sihanouk per haps be cause of his Bud dhist tol er ance and open mind - ed ness al lowed the Viet nam ese a few sanc tu ar ies along the bor der. The Amer i can Air Force got very up set about this, one gen eral, in par tic u lar, was sure there was a central head - quar ters up there about the size of the Pen ta gon from which the Viet nam ese sent out or ders. If they could bump off that central headquarters by fly - ing in a few B-52s from Bang kok they would n t even have to tell the Amer i can pub lic about it. Who needs to know about it? They could do it in one raid and be done with cen tral head quar ters. So the gen eral called a se cret meet ing at the Pen ta gon, named, of course, Op er a tion

12 SWIMMING TO CAM BO DIA Break fast. At Op er a tion Breakfast they came up with a menu. It was kind of a weird diet, as you can imag ine. The bomb ers came up from Bang kok like big fly ing mo tels, drop ping their bombs ac cord ing to some com puter pro gram on all the sanc tu ar ies, then up to where they thought the head quar ters might be and all along the Ho Chi Minh sup - ply line. But in stead of driv ing the Viet cong back, Op er a tion Break fast had the op po site ef fect. It drove them fur ther into the Cam bo dian jun gles where they hitched up with this weird bunch of rednecks called the Khmer Rouge, run by Pol Pot along with Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary. They had been ed u cated in Paris in the strict Mao ist doc trine, ex - cept some one threw a per verse lit tle bit of Rous seau into the soup. This made for a strange bunch of ban dits, hang ing out in the jun gle liv ing on bark, bugs, leaves and liz ards, be ing trained by the Viet cong. They had a back-to-the-land, rac ist con scious ness be yond any thing Hit ler had ever dreamed of. But they had no scape goat other than the city dwell ers of Phnom Penh. There were one hun dred thou sand of them ready to march in. Now, around the time the VC were up there train ing the Khmer Rouge, Sihanouk who was out of town for the day was de posed, maybe by a CIA plot. No one re ally knows about that. And Lon Nol was put in his place, Gen - eral Lon Nol, for merly Prince Sihanouk s prime min is ter. No one knew any thing about Lon Nol in the United States. As one po lit i cal car toon ist noted at the time, the only thing

SWIMMING TO CAM BO DIA 13 we knew was that Lon Nol spelled back wards was Lon Nol. Well, leave it to a Brit to tell me my own his tory. Roland also told me that Pres i dent Nixon was de vel op ing this mad man the ory on the banks of Key Biscayne. He said to Bob Haldeman, Lis ten, Bob, just let it be known that I ve gone mad, see, and then the Viet cong will think I m go ing to press the but ton you know how trig ger-happy I am and they ll stop all of their bomb ing. In or der to de - velop this mad man the ory he be gins watch ing re runs of Patton in his bed room ev ery night over and over again, and tak ing mil i tary advice from Bebe Rebozo and John Mitch - ell. Roland sug gested I read about the in ci dent at Kent State by Wil liam Shawcross called Side show. Read that and we ll chat again, he said as he got up to leave. I re mem bered Kent State but I had just lumped it in with the Viet nam pro test; I d for got ten that it was a di rect pro - test against the in va sion of Cam bo dia. I also did n t know that most U.S. Na tional Guard troops were not al lowed to have live am mu ni tion in their guns, but in Ohio, they were. Gov er nor James Rhodes had called them out be cause the pro test ers were storm ing Kent s ROTC build ing, and on a lovely May day, fif teen peo ple were shot, four in no cent by - stand ers were killed. The Amer i can pub lic was polled on its re ac tion to the in ci dent and the ma jor ity of peo ple said that the shoot ing was jus ti fied. This caused enor mous dis - sen sion and one hun dred thou sand pro test ers marched on the White House. Ac cord ing to Shawcross, Nixon got no sleep at all; he was up the en tire night mak ing phone calls.

14 SWIMMING TO CAM BO DIA He made fifty phone calls eight to Kissinger, seven to Haldeman and one to Billy Gra ham. Af ter one hour of sleep, he got up and put on Rachmaninoff s Con certo No. 1 and, with his Cu ban va let Manolo Sanchez, he went down to Lin coln Me mo rial to talk to the pro test ers about surf ing, foot ball, how travel broad ens the mind. One stu - dent said, I hope it was be cause our pres i dent was tired, but when he asked me what col lege I was from and I told him, he said, How s your team do ing this year? The only thing that the pro test ac com plished was to frighten Nixon enough that he de clared, No more close ground sup port troops more than twenty-one miles over the bor der into Cam bo dia. How they con trolled that, I don t know, whether the troops had odom e ters strapped to their legs or what. Dur ing this time they sent Al ex an der Haig over to speak to Lon Nol be cause Nol had been told that Amer i can troops were n t go ing to be in Cam bo dia any more. Nol, of course, saw this as the down fall of his coun try. He turned to the win dow and wept. Haig went back and re ported to the Amer i can gov ern ment that Nol had cried in front of him. The Amer i can gov ern ment was so up set that they sent over a psy chi a trist to ex am ine Nol for cry ing in pub lic. The psy chi a trist said that Nol was an un struc tured, vague in di - vid ual. Not only that, but he made as tro log i cal, oc cult ist and folk loric ref er ences in his ad dresses to the na tion. Can you imag ine? My fel low Amer i cans, I am not go ing out for two weeks be cause my moon is in Gem ini. While this was all go ing on, ac cord ing to Roland, the un sung hero, Don ald Dawson, reared his ugly head. He

was a Chris tian Sci en tist fly ing B-52 raids out of Bang kok, but he was on home leave. He was watch ing West Side Story on TV but all he could see were bombs fall ing. Peo - ple scream ing, dy ing he was hal lu ci nat ing. When he got back to fly ing his mis sions he found out that a Cam bo dian wed ding party had been wiped out by ac ci dent. He held his own wed ding to be the most sa cred event in his life and he re fused to fly any more, so he was court-martialed. Now, col leagues and friends ac tu ally, I don t know if he had any friends but col leagues of Kissinger wanted him to re sign. And Kissinger said, What if I re sign and the pres i dent has a heart at tack? We ll be left with Agnew. That s the only rea son I m stay ing on. For na tional se cu - rity. Five years of bomb ing along with the tra di tional diet of liz ards, bugs, leaves and bark, ed u ca tion in the Mao ist doc trine in clud ing a touch of Rous seau, and other things that we will never know about in our life times in clud ing, per haps, an in vis i ble cloud of evil that cir cles the world and lands at ran dom in Ger many, Cam bo dia, pos si bly Iran and Bei rut, maybe even Amer ica set the Khmer Rouge up to carry out the worst auto-homeo-geno cide in mod ern his - tory. (Takes sip of wa ter.) SWIMMING TO CAM BO DIA 15 When ever I travel, if I have the time, I like to go by train. I like to hang out in the lounge car. I hear such great sto ries there fan tas tic! Per haps it s be cause they think they ll never see me again. It s like a big, roll ing con fes - sional.

16 SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA I was on my way to Chi cago from New York City when this guy came up to me and said (use a dif fer ent voice for Jim s lines), Hi, I m Jim Bean, mind if I sit down? No, I m Spalding Gray, have a seat. What s up, Jim? Oh, nothing much. I m in the Navy. Oh really, where are you stationed? Guantanamo Bay. Where s that? Cuba. Really? What s it like? Oh, we don t get into Cuba, man. It s totally illegal. We go down to the Vir gin Is lands when ever we want R&R. We get free flights down there. What do you do there? Get laid. Go to whores? No. I never paid for sex in my whole life. I get picked up by cou ples. I like to swing, I mean, I m into that, you know? Three somes, tri an gles, pyr a mids there s power in that.