About the Play:

Vigil is a full-length black comedy by Morris Panych. A self-involved bachelor arrives to care for the dying aunt he hasn't seen since childhood, only to find that she's "not quite dead yet." As her health improves against all odds – and against his hopes – their relationship evolves in unexpected ways. Vigil offers an uncanny balance of gallows humour and grave ruminations on family, identity, and the human condition.

Vigil is a two-hander about a weaselly bank clerk returning – after thirty years – to sit with an aged aunt 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.

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 premiered in 1995 at Belfry Theatre in Victoria, and won Vancouver's Jessie Richardson Award for best play. Since then this classic black comedy has been produced around the world, including the Tarragon in 1996, the Phoenix in Edmonton in 1996, in San Diego in 1997, and in Washington to sold-out houses. In 2002, under the title Auntie and Me it played at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and in January 2003 opened at Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End. Its New York premiere was in 2009 at DR2 Theater off-Broadway in New York. It is regularly performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 1 female, 1 male

What people say:

"Acerbically funny and sneakily affecting, Vigil is a jagged jewel of a play." — Backstage

"...deliciously mischievous." — Time Out (New York)

"...wickedly dark... hilarious, quirky, and heartfelt." — Variety

"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.