Gage Phineas - That Elusive Spark

The professional premiere was produced at the Alberta Theatre Projects Enbridge playRites Festival in 2008, in the Martha Cohen Theatre, Calgary. It featured the following cast and creative team: Helen: Kathleen Duborg Jack: Braden Griffiths Sophie and Wendy: Vanessa Holmes Phineas and Hamlet: Kevin K. James Harlow and Brian: John Kirkpatrick Finlay: Lucas Myers Phyllis and Phyl: Valerie Ann Pearson Sizer: Paul Rainville Director: Linda Moore Set design: Scott Reid Costume design: Jenifer Darbellay Lighting design: David Fraser Composer: Sandy Moore Production dramaturg: Amy Lynn Strilchuk Production stage manager: Dianne Goodman Stage manager: Marcie Januska Assistant stage manager: Karen Fleury Rehearsal assistant stage manager: Rachel Parris Dialect coach: Jane MacFarlane Fight director: Kevin K. James Makeup artist: Whitney Huget-Penner Junior apprentice: Ian Wylie Characters todaya contemporary college town and Harvard Medical School Dr. Helen Harlow Phyl Adams Finlay Wendy Jack Brian Dr. Sizer Hamlet in 1848Cavendish, Vermont, and Harvard Medical School Phineas Gage Jack Kirwin Sophie Kirwin Dr.

John Harlow Dr. Sizer Mrs. Phyllis Adams Doubling Sizer/Sizer Phyl/Phyllis Adams Hamlet/Phineas Wendy/Sophie Brian/Dr. John Harlow Jack/Jack Act 1 Loud music, off. Thumping bass. phyl lights a smoke, switches on a low-watt bare bulb with a chain. phyl lights a smoke, switches on a low-watt bare bulb with a chain.

PHYL Watch your head. HELEN enters, carrying a sports bag. They shout over the volume of the music. Two hundred and eighty, first of the month. No cooking in your room. No loud music after midnight.

Bathrooms down the hall. Baseboard heat. You wont need it. Theres a window up there. Doesnt open. Looks onto a brick wall ever since they built that condo next door.

HELEN Ill be out during the day. PHYL Theyre buying up all these old dumps where the college kids live, tearing em down and building condos. Im holding out for a million. Where you from? HELEN Winnipeg. PHYL Where? HELEN Win-ni-peg. PHYL Jesus! Finlay! Finlay! Keep it down! HELEN Ill take it.

PHYL Ill need references. Real references, not character references. HELEN Okay. PHYL And a months deposit, and first months rent. HELEN Okay. PHYL Its not very quiet, you know.

The boys just come and go all hours. You a student? HELEN Uh, no. PHYL Youre not on the run? Last fellow I had in this one was on the run. Scaped from the mental. Thats why I ask for references. Real references, not character references.

HELEN Im going to be teaching. At the college. Look, heres my faculty ID. HELEN hands her a laminated card. PHYL Dr. Harlow.

You a real doctor? HELEN Ph.D. Neuropsychology. I study consciousness. PHYL Consciousness. HELEN The mind? PHYL Like ESP? Im a bit psychic, you know. HELEN Is that right? Look, I really, really need to find a place.

PHYL Smart young gal like you with a good job could find a real nice rental closer to town. Might suit you better; no offence. My boarders, theyre all good boys, dont get me wrong. But you got to trust your instincts, know what I mean? I know right away in my gut if they belong here, or if theyre going to run into trouble. HELEN I wont be any trouble. I promise.

This is fine for me. PHYL All Im saying is, its hard to make good choices when youre on the run. HELEN Look, Im just not myself right now. Ive been driving for three days. I havent slept; I just have to sleep. Please let me stay here.

Even just for one night, a couple of hours. Then you can size me up and decide. Justplease. Please. PHYL Oh, hon. Okay.

Ill get you the keys. You meet me up in the office, first floor, by the laundry. Take your time. HELEN Thank you. PHYL Phyllis Adams. Boys call me Phyl.

HELEN Helen. PHYL You should get one of em to help bring in your things, Helen. HELEN I dont have much. Thanks. Ill be fine. phyl exits, yelling to her boarders.

PHYL What did I tell you about those pizza boxesget them out of here. Im not your mother. Do I smell pot? Finlay! Keep it down! Finlay! Finlay! HELEN falls onto the bed. Pause. She tosses and turns. Pause.

She opens her bag and pulls out a sweater. She unrolls the sweater and removes a human skull. She refolds the sweater into a pillow. Lying down and pulling her coat over herself, she falls asleep with the skull in her arms. An autumn morning at a railroad construction site in Cavendish, Vermont, 1848. PHINEAS Gage, twenty-five, is preparing a drill hole for a blast.

He holds a heavy iron bar, pointed at one end about an inch and a half in diameter, three and a half feet long. He scratches calculations on the ground with a small rock. PHINEAS Kirwin! Wheres the fuse, Kirwin? JACK jumps in off a rock. Hes sixteen. He has a pack on his back and carries a reel of safety fuse. Watch it, Jack! Go slow and keep your mind on what youre doing and nobody will get hurt.

Take a tumble with a sack of black powder and Ill be docking your pay for the time you spend up in the sky. PHINEAS helps JACK take the pack off. JACK Thing is, I probably cant help it. Sophie says I have a underdeveloped faculty of cautiousness, but a pronounced faculty of destructiveness. PHINEAS A what? JACK Shes been reading up on the New Science before the lecture tonight. You going, Phin? PHINEAS Im not much a one for travelling lectures.