In 1929, a baby is born in a fishing village as houses are swept out to sea off the coast of Newfoundland. Another baby is born thirty years later in Toronto. They are survivors of the Newfoundland tidal wave that Canada forgot. This story is inspired by true events.
It’s Toronto 1959 and the uptown home of Clare and Martin on the day their baby Michael is born. Clare’s mother Margaret comes to help from Point au Gaul, Newfoundland. While Clare is in the hospital with the baby, Martin has come home for a few hours to find Margaret waiting at the house. As Martin and Margaret talk and the scenes shift to Point au Gaul 1929, Martin learns the circumstances of Clare’s birth thirty years earlier and the significance of the name Michael that Clare has selected for their child.
Keywords: Physical and psychological impact of disasters, abandonment, bearing witness to the past, community, family.
Genre: Drama, Historical
Acts: 3
Run time: 90 minutes
Suitable for students 16+
Cast size: 5 actors
Male roles: 3
Female roles: 2
Casting notes: Margaret Tyler is a dual role with the actor playing both Margaret, mid-thirties, pregnant and giving birth in 1929 in Point au Gaul, Newfoundland, and Margaret thirty years later visiting the Toronto home of her daughter and son-in-law in 1959. In 1929 and 1959, Margaret is a force of nature, a determined and articulate woman as dedicated to the wellbeing of her family as she is to managing her own destiny.
The entrances and exits of MARGARET have been written to allow a single actor to transition from one character to the other with a minimum of difficulty.
Visit the playwright's website, www.rickbutts.ca