The Unicorn is an intimate memory play about Nessa's attempt to understand her late Uncle Brendan, a gentle, complicated man who loomed large in her childhood. To young Nessa, he is almost mythical: the uncle who sits on the floor with the children, fixes broken toys, applauds disastrous gymnastics routines and makes her feel as though nothing in the world matters more than whatever she has placed in his hands.
As an adult, Nessa begins to understand the addiction, disappearances and family silences that existed alongside those memories. Moving between childhood wonder and adult understanding, she wrestles with how to tell the whole truth about someone without allowing their hardest moments to erase their tenderness.
The Unicorn is ultimately about memory, family, grief, and what we owe the people we love after they are gone.
Keywords: Memory play, family, grief, addiction, childhood, Irish-Canadian, intergenerational family, uncle-niece relationship, complicated grief, family secrets, remembrance, love, loss, coming of age, non-linear theatre
Genre: Drama
Acts: 1
Run time: 75 minutes
Content notes: The play contains themes of addiction/substance use, death and grief, family conflict, and the impact of addiction on loved ones, including a child’s experience of an adult family member struggling with addiction. References to substance use are largely indirect and there is no graphic depiction of drug use or death. The play contains emotionally intense discussions of loss, complicated family relationships, and the death of a loved one.
Cast size: 5 actors
Male roles: 2
Female roles: 3
Casting notes: Five performers. NESSA is a woman in her late 30s/early 40s. YOUNG NESSA is approximately 11–12 years old and must be able to carry sophisticated emotional material while believably portraying Nessa at ages 7–8 within memory. BRENDAN is a man, approximately 35–50; the role is non-speaking and relies heavily on physical presence and responsiveness. BIRDIE and ÉAMON are adult siblings of Brendan and may also portray additional members of the extended Fitzgerald family through simple shifts in voice, posture, costume or light. The Fitzgerald family is Irish-Canadian.
