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Vigil
Vigil
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Author: Morris Panych Publisher: Talonbooks Format: Softcover # of Pages: 80 Pub. Date: 2012 Edition: 2nd ISBN-10: 088922692X ISBN-13: 9780889226920 Cast Size: 1 woman, 1 man
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About
the Play:
Vigil is a full-length
black comedy by Morris Panych.
Structured around what happens when an extremely self-centred
and shallow person finds himself, through his own errors and
inattentiveness, in a life and death situation with profound and far
reaching consequences. This updated edition incorporates changes to
scenes and dialogue that have been part of the play's evolution over
the past fifteen years, as well as a new playwright's note.
Vigil is about a man returning – after thirty years –
to sit with a female relative on her deathbed. Kemp, the protagonist,
is an extremely self-centred and shallow person who uses acid wit and
seemingly callous indifference to cover up the profound discomfort he
experiences upon finding himself part of a death watch. Kemp's
problem is: she's not dying fast enough. Through Kemp's own errors
and inattentiveness, the visit that he thinks will take a day or two
stretches into a year, and he finds himself caring for his
long-forgotten aunt Grace against his will. Gallows humour and Kemp's
diatribes on humanity and mortality fuel this delightfully dark
narrative, but it is Grace's economical contributions to the dialogue
(she's a woman of few words) that give this play its weight and
profundity. A play of mistaken identity, twisted circumstance and
surprising turns, it is deliciously absurd, incredibly funny and
poignantly tender. This is one Vigil worth keeping.
Vigil premiered in 1995 at Belfry Theatre in Victoria.
Since then this classic black comedy has been produced produced
across Canada and the U.S., as well as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
and a run as Auntie & Me in London's West End,
and is regularly
performed in regional,
college, and community theatre productions.
Cast: 1 woman, 1 man
What people say:
"One of the characters… has
just discovered something so awful, so tragic and yet so terribly,
blackly funny that laughter is the only response." —
Vancouver Sun
"A small masterpiece."
— Globe and Mail
"A devilishly funny play
[that] laughs in death's face." — Maclean's
"This is one of those rare,
liberating plays that actually breaks a taboo. [Panych] gives voice
to the silent thoughts that hover around many death-beds." —
National Post
"...literate,
incisive, edgy and lots of good, naughty fun." — Syracuse
New Times
"It causes us to think about,
and perhaps appreciate in a new light, all the small things in life
that ultimately define the relationships that matter most."
— San Francisco Chronicle
About the Playwright:
Morris Panych is one of Canada's most significant
contemporary playwrights. He has written more than 25 works for the
stage and directed nearly 100. He is the winner of two Governor
General's Literary Awards for Drama, the country's most prestigious
literary honour. He has won 14 Jessie Richardson Awards, three Sidney
Riske Writing Awards and five Dora Mavor Moore Awards.
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