The Seance: An Evening With Madam Ollo

The Séance: Our Evening with Madam Ollo is a drama about a devoted son who hires a medium so that his heartbroken mother can communicate with her deceased husband. A rather heated debate takes place between the characters about life after death, the existence of God, and the legitimacy of Madam Ollo’s supernatural power. As the séance ensues, the guests hear from more than just one spirit and the message may be deadly! Madame’s crystal ball says this play will be your next Halloween or mystery production!

Aaron Sampson is the author of two copyrighted dramatic works, Opal and Hiding.  Born and raised on the South side of Chicago in the Englewood community, he attended Whitney Young High School and attended the University of Oklahoma for several years.  As an avid reader and theater lover, he has taken creative writing classes at various places over the years, and has even taken a class at the Midwest playwriting “Mecca”, the Chicago Dramatist.  He and his wife are the parents of two boys and two girls, and he has worked for the city of Chicago in the Department of Water management for over twenty years.

Excerpt from the play:

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Deloris Bell – The Elderly Matriarch
Donald Bell – The Son
Karen Bell – Donald’s Wife
Minnie Baxter – Deloris’ Best Friend
Madam Ollo – The Psychic/Medium
Alex Larson – Madam Ollo’s male assistant
Nathan Perry – A wealthy Attorney and Business Associate of Donald
Alice Adams – Nathan’s Lady Friend
Clark Brooks – Donald’s Friend and a police officer
Crystal Brooks – Clark’s Wife

SETTING: The living room of the Bell family home. Early evening.

MINNIE BAXTER
Deloris, I ate so much I feel like I’m going to bust. I don’t think I can do anything at this time but sit and try to recuperate. Everything was so delicious; you and Karen did a wonderful job.

DELORIS BELL
Thank you, Minnie, but all the work and effort was really Karen’s. I played second fiddle and only helped.

KAREN BELL
Thank you, Minnie, I’m glad you enjoyed the meal.

MINNIE BAXTER
It’s been such a long time since I’ve had a good home-cooked meal. Ever since Herbert died I don’t do much cooking at home because it’s only me, and it’s so hard cooking for only one. I truly appreciate your invitation; an old woman like me would more than likely have spent this Halloween evening at home watching television.

KAREN BELL
You’re Mother Bell’s best friend; I’m glad you came. You’re like family to all of us, and honestly, I was hoping that since you are also recently widowed, the two of you can strengthen and encourage each other. Since Douglas passed away, my mother-in-law needs people like you in her life more now than ever before.

MINNIE BAXTER
Speaking of people, you have quite a mix of people here tonight. That Mr. Perry…

DELORIS BELL
Yes…that Mr. Perry…his describing how he had to defend himself against an armed home invader, and killing the man, left me shaken and speechless.

MINNIE BAXTER
The good Lord knows I never want to experience anything that terrifying in my life.

KAREN BELL
This was my first time meeting this gentleman too, but with Nathan Perry being such a wealthy and renowned attorney, I’ve read articles in the newspaper about him before. If my memory serves me correctly, he has had quite a bit of tragedy in his life. The woman that he’s here with tonight…

DELORIS BELL
…Alice, her name is Alice.

KAREN BELL
Yes…Alice…they have only recently met, but I remember reading in the paper a few months back that his first wife had run off with another man, and that both of them were found shot to death in a motel room somewhere in Southern California. Cocaine and drug paraphernalia were found scattered about the room, along with their bodies.

(Just as KAREN is finished speaking, DONALD BELL enters the room carrying a large folding table which he opens and sets up. He is followed by CLARK BROOKS, who is carrying two folding chairs, NATHAN PERRY, who has two folding chairs and ALEX LARSON is also lugging two folding chairs into the room. ALEX LARSON is a very tall, muscular and intimidating in appearance.  He is followed into the room by MADAM OLLO, Alice Adams and Crystal Brooks each carrying one chair.  As the conversation continues they each open and set their chairs around the table.)

DELORIS BELL
Excuse me for one moment, Karen. My goodness Donald, what is all this noise and commotion about; and why are you and Clark bringing folding chairs and a table in here?

KAREN BELL
Honestly, darling, your mother and I came in here to get away from the ruckus you men were keeping up in the other room.

MINNIE BAXTER
Are you all getting ready to play cards?  I am up for a game of Bridge.

DONALD BELL
No, we’re not going to play cards, we’re going to do something else, and I would like you all to participate. This being Halloween, and keeping in the spirit of the holiday, I thought it would be a fun surprise for my guest, and especially for my mother, to have a special someone join us for dinner; that’s why I invited and paid for, psychic Madam Ollo to join us this evening.

NATHAN PERRY
That woman is a charlatan and you’ve wasted your money!

MADAM OLLO
I am not a charlatan; I am the real thing! The gift of clairvoyance resonates throughout my innermost being!

CLARK BROOKS
While we were in the other room, not only did she claim to be a palm reader who can see inside someone’s future, but she also made the claim that she is a spirit medium and can talk to the dead.

MADAM OLLO
…And I can!

NATHAN PERRY
Woman, you insult my intelligence! I had a hard time sitting next to this fraud at the dinner table… all meal long during the conversation I sat there biting my tongue… trying to be polite…as I listened to her cockamamie stories of her supposed supernatural exploits; but to learn that you paid her to be here…Donald, you’ve been taken.

MADAM OLLO
Mr. Perry, there are a lot of things in this world that can’t be explained using science alone…there are ghostly spirits that surround us every day.

NATHAN PERRY
Madam Ollo, to speak to the dead implicitly assumes that there is life after death, and I do not believe in life after death. I believe that when you are dead, you are done.

DELORIS BELL
If you don’t believe in life after death, Mr. Perry, then what is your view of God?

NATHAN PERRY
What god?

MINNIE BAXTER
Are you saying that you’re an atheist, Mr. Perry?

NATHAN PERRY
By any and all definitions, yes.

KAREN BELL
I don’t think that I’ve ever met an atheist before. Why…why don’t you believe in God? When you look around at all the natural wonders of the heavens and the earth, and the complexity of every living creature under the sun, isn’t it proof enough that everything around us was made by an intelligent entity?

NATHAN PERRY
And who made this intelligent entity?

KAREN BELL
No one, everything has a beginning Mr. Perry; everything has a genesis.

DELORIS BELL
Mr. Perry, I’m sort of shocked that you feel that way about the Lord. I must say that I definitely don’t agree with your views. To declare that there is no God is to imply that the earth and the sky and all the life within it just happened by some cosmic accident without any thought at all…that everything is by chance… when in fact there is order in the universe from the tiniest atoms to the largest galaxies.

MINNIE BAXTER
Speaking scientifically, Mr. Perry, we all know that no two inanimate objects can produce life. No matter how hard you rub two clumps of dirt or rocks, together you can’t make a living organism; only life can produce life.

KAREN BELL
I, sir, teach kindergarten as a profession, and on a shelf in here I have a box of alphabets that I use in my class. If this world that we live in, and everything about it, just happened by accident without the influence of God creating divine order; then I should be able to take my box of alphabets and throw the letters against this wall, and as they fall and hit the floor, they should form an encyclopedia, or at least a dictionary, since doing so is much simpler than creating the earth and all its life forms by accidental, arbitrary chance.

NATHAN PERRY
Evidently, my belief is in the minority here.

CLARK BROOKS
Take it easy on Nathan, ladies. I don’t know if God exists either. When I was growing up, I was never exposed to anything even remotely religious. My parents never went to church when I was a kid, and I never went when I got older. So growing up not knowing anything about God, and never having read the Bible, Torah, or the Quran, I’ve always been agnostic about the subject of whether or not some form of deity exists.

MINNIE BAXTER
Mr. Perry flatly stated that there is no God, not that he didn’t know whether or not God exists, big difference.

CRYSTAL BROOKS
Ever since I have been born again, I’ve been dragging Clark, my “straddling the fence” husband, to church with me, hoping he’ll receive the Holy Spirit as I did; but every Sunday after the service is over, he always tells me that he’s not quite convinced; that he still needs concrete proof.

CLARK BROOKS
From the argument you ladies put forward, I can understand your shared point of view. But as a humanist and a police officer, I see so much cruelty that it makes me wonder, if there is a God, then why does he allow such unkindness to exist?

ALICE ADAMS
Madam Ollo, you said that you can read palms, and look into someone’s future. How do you do that? Does a spirit a talk you, and tell you what it sees?

MADAM OLLO
No, when I read a person’s palm I first have to sense the immediate choices and decisions that man, or woman, is currently wrestling with. I next get a feel for what they are more inclined to decide, and that allows me to see into their future as to where their choices will lead them.