Panych - In Absentia

Contents In Absentia was first produced on January , 2012 , at Montreals Centaur Theatre with the following cast and creative team: COLETTE : Jillian Fargey EVELYN : Susan Glover JASPER : Jade Hassoun TOM : Paul Hopkins BILL : Carlo Mestroni Director : Roy Surette Set and Costume Design: John C. Dinning Lighting Design: Luc Prairie Stage Manager: Melanie St-Jacques Apprentice Stage Manager: Samantha Hogan Assistant Director: Cameron Mackenzie CAST COLETTE McKENNY, an attractive thirty-eight-year-old woman JASPER , a young man TOM McKENNY , Colettes husband EVELYN , Colettes older sister BILL , forty-something, a neighbour SETTING The play takes place in the imagination Colettes imagination, which includes memory, dreams, and hallucinations. In reality, the scenes happen in and around an upscale cottage on a lake, but naturalism should be kept to a minimum, as this will upset the dream-like, constantly drifting tone of the piece and take it out of its own milieu, which is the mind. PRODUCTION NOTE Characters and scenes will appear and disappear as trains of thought, like drifting snow on a lake; the piece is constantly in motion. Changes of tone or shifts in time or location are variously noted by a typographic ornament, a stage direction, or the arrival or departure of a character. In production this is accomplished largely through lighting changes and stage positions.

There is simultaneous action throughout the play. The arrival and departure of characters should surprise us, but at the same time seem perfectly natural, as in a dream. Tom, it should be noted, is visible only to Colette, and she often addresses him in the midst of dialogue with the other characters. Jasper, Evelyn, and Bill often remain onstage during the Colette and Tom sequences, but do not take part in them; instead, they go about their own business. ACT ONE Lights up on COLETTE and JASPER . TOM stands at a distance.

TOM : You didnt come down to the tree today. COLETTE chooses to ignore him. Instead, she speaks to JASPER , who is trying to warm up his hands. COLETTE : People love to swim out to that little island in the summer months. Theres a pergola somebody built I dont know who covered over with trumpet vines. Apparently somebody owns the place, but nobody around here seems to know who it is.

You can walk out there now on the ice. JASPER : Not really an island, then. COLETTE : Not if you can walk to it, no. Beat. JASPER : I missed last winter entirely. COLETTE : Well, Im jealous.

JASPER : Stayed right out of the hemisphere. COLETTE : I hate winter, especially this one. JASPER : Yeah? COLETTE : Its hard to believe anything will ever come alive again. JASPER : Then, suddenly, everything comes back. COLETTE : Not always. JASPER : I like the seasons; I missed them when I was away.

COLETTE : How are your fingers now? JASPER : The bloods mostly come back. COLETTE : I have terrible circulation, even in the summer. When I go swimming, the blood goes right out of my fingers. I look like a dead person. Mind you, Ive never seen a dead person JASPER : No? COLETTE : No. But when I look down at my hands sometimes, coming out of the water, I think, Oh, this is what Ill look like.

My goodness, Im talking a lot. JASPER : Let me see your hands. He takes her hands and turns them over. I knew a girl who read palms for a living. Beat. McKenny. McKenny.

It gives me a weird indigestion. Do you have any blueberry pie at all? COLETTE : Uh no. JASPER : Thats all right, then. When I was travelling, I always had a craving for blueberry pie. Beat. It is funny what you miss the most.

COLETTE : It is. JASPER : Like, you dont know who you are until you step out of your life for a bit. COLETTE : How did you know my last name? Beat. JASPER : Its on the mailbox outside? Beat. Maybe I shouldnt have knocked at your door. This is an imposition.

COLETTE : No, no. Im glad you did. JASPER : Im glad I did, too. COLETTE : I saw you out on the lake, and I thought, My goodness, that poor young man, and I went out looking for you. I grabbed the parka and went out, but then I couldnt see you anywhere. I dont know what you were thinking, walking around in a jean jacket in this weather JASPER : I dont know what I was thinking.

Sometimes you dont think. COLETTE : Definitely the wrong hemisphere for that. JASPER : Its only March; you forget what its like. COLETTE : How long have you been travelling? JASPER : A while now. Quite a while now. COLETTE : And youre on your way home.

JASPER : Yeah, well, home is a relative term. COLETTE : Is it? JASPER : I dont think anybody misses me, where Im from. COLETTE : They must. JASPER : Is this your husbands parka? COLETTE : Did I say I was married? JASPER : No. Beat. But this is not exactly a womans coat.

COLETTE : Its my husbands, yes. JASPER : And where is he? COLETTE : Well, thats a bit of a story. The lights begin to change a little. Her husband, TOM , appears. TOM : Whos the kid? COLETTE : I dont know. He was just standing there, out on the lake.

TOM : Is he crazy? COLETTE : Probably. TOM : Is that why you didnt come down to the tree? I was waiting for you. COLETTE : Just appeared out of nowhere. TOM : So you gave him my coat. COLETTE : He was freezing to death. TOM : Find out who he is.

COLETTE : What are you doing up here? TOM : You dont want me here? COLETTE : Dont tell me youre jealous. TOM : No. A little. COLETTE : Well, you cant be. And, anyway, I couldnt let him die of exposure. TOM : Maybe Im just looking out for you.

COLETTE : Because you think I cant look out for myself. TOM : All right, maybe Im looking out for me. COLETTE : Hes harmless. TOM : Are you giving up on me? COLETTE : How can you say that? TOM : People forget; they move on with their life. COLETTE : Life? JASPER : What? COLETTE : Sorry? JASPER : Were you talking to me, Mrs. McKenny? COLETTE : Yes, I was saying what was I saying? JASPER : You were going to tell me about your husband.

TOM : So tell him. COLETTE : My husband is not here at the moment. He travels. For business. JASPER : Right. COLETTE : So Beat.

TOM : Awkward. JASPER : May I use the facilities, maam? TOM : Facilities? COLETTE : ( to TOM ) Its a word. JASPER : What? COLETTE : Just down the hall. JASPER goes. TOM : Youre lonely. I cant blame you for that.

COLETTE : Its twenty below; he wouldve frozen to death. TOM : I suppose, in my absence COLETTE : You are so manipulative. TOM : Its been a year now. COLETTE : A year. TOM : You cant just walk down to the tree every day and talk to nobody. COLETTE : Yesterday I made a batch of oatmeal muffins and set them out for you.

TOM : You didnt burn them? COLETTE : Maybe if Im the perfect wife, youll come back. TOM : You still think our behaviour affects the outcome of things? COLETTE : Yes, I burnt them. TOM embraces her as she speaks; they rock slowly together, lost in their own world. And yes, I believe our behaviour affects the outcome. TOM : Poor Colette. COLETTE : You remember the old Greek woman, once, on that flight to wherever it was, dressed all in black, crossing herself, repeatedly? TOM : Mrs.

God-Help-the-Lot-of-Us? COLETTE : Did you make that up or did I? TOM : We thought it was so funny. COLETTE : She prayed the whole trip. TOM : And we landed safely, so thank you, Mrs. God-Help-the-Lot-of-Us. COLETTE : We landed safely, exactly; so you couldnt exactly prove that her efforts were in vain. TOM : Obviously they werent.