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    Generous
    Generous
    Generous
    Ebook113 pages58 minutes

    Generous

    By Michael Healey

    ()

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    About this ebook

    What happens when someone is overwhelmed by a desire to help? Does it matter if people only do good in order to feel good? One of Canada's finest playwrights tackles tricky questions in Generous--four short interconnected plays that explore the complications and moral ambiguity created by the altruistic impulse. By turns hilarious, shocking, moving, and politically-charged, Healey's intertwined plots and characters create a theatrical piece that is both thought-provoking and powerfully entertaining. Act One of each of the plays happens before intermission--the resolutions--and revelations--take place afterward. In PMO, a minority government teeters on the brink of falling when an MP appears, soaked in blood. In The Death of the Alberta Report, a cut-throat oil executive tells the truth to a reporter, and then seduces him. One-Party Rule begins with an excruciating post-coital chat between an aging judge and a loquacious young law clerk. And Lily kicks off with a spectacular battle over a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Each play contains a generous deed. And in the second half, the surprising consequences of those four seemingly unrelated acts of generosity will take your breath away.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherScirocco Drama
    Release dateJul 21, 2022
    ISBN9781990737237
    Generous
    Author

    Michael Healey

    Michael Healey trained as an actor at Toronto’s Ryerson Theatre School in the mid-eighties. He began writing for the stage in the early nineties and his first play, a solo one-act called Kicked, was produced at the Fringe of Toronto Festival in 1996. He subsequently toured the play across Canada and internationally, winning the Dora Mavor Moore Award for best new play. The Drawer Boy, his first full-length play, premiered in Toronto in 1999, winning the Dora Award for best new play, the Chalmers Canadian Playwriting Award, and the Governor General’s Literary Award (Canada’s highest literary honour). It has been translated into multiple languages and continues to be produced regularly across North America and internationally. Healey’s other works include The Road to Hell (co-authored with Kate Lynch), Plan B, Rune Arlidge, The Innocent Eye Test, The Nuttalls, Are You Okay, and 1979. His trilogy focusing on Canadian values and politics—Generous, Courageous, and Proud—met with great critical success and have had multiple productions. In all, his plays have won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for best new play five times. He has also adapted works by Chekhov, Molnar, Hecht and MacArthur, Dürrenmatt, and Shaw for the Stratford Festival, the Shaw Festival, and Soulpepper. He continues to find work as an actor occasionally.

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      Book preview

      Generous - Michael Healey

      Michael Healey

      Michael Healey trained as an actor at Toronto’s Ryerson Theatre School in the mid-eighties. He began writing for the stage in the early nineties and his first play, a solo one-act called Kicked, was produced at the Fringe of Toronto Festival in 1996. He subsequently toured the play across Canada and internationally, and in 1998 it won a Dora Mavor Moore Award as Best New Play. The Drawer Boy, his first full-length play, premiered in Toronto in 1999 and won the Dora Award for Best New Play, a Chalmers Canadian Playwriting Award, and the Governor General’s Literary Award. It has been produced across North America and internationally, and has been translated into German, French and Japanese.

      His other plays include The Road to Hell (co-authored with Kate Lynch), Plan B (which won the Dora in 2002 for Best New Play), Rune Arlidge (which was nominated for the Governor General’s award in 2004), and The Innocent Eye Test, which opened at The Manitoba Theatre Centre and then transferred to Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre in March 2006. Generous premiered at the Tarragon in September 2006, and won the Dora for Best New Play.

      Production Notes

      Generous opened at Tarragon Theatre, Toronto, September 26, 2006, with the following cast and crew:

      ERIC Poole/LILY ................................... Michelle Monteith

      TOMMY Langavoolin/

      JULIA/SCOTTY Nguyen ....................... Yanna MacIntosh

      PETER Tucker/RICHARD ................................. Ari Cohen

      LEN Bencaster/DAVID Paul .......................... Tom Barnett

      MARC Brancois/MARIA ...................................Fiona Reid

      CATHY Freeman/ALEX Flemming .............Jordan Pettle

      Directed by Daryl Cloran

      Set and Costumes designed by Yannik Larivee

      Fight directed and choreographed by Simon Fon and Kate Alton

      Note: This play is made up of four 2-act plays, individually titled PMO, One-Party Rule, Lily, and The Death of the Alberta Report. The audience sees all four first acts, then intermission, and then the second acts. PMO and One-Party Rule share the same second act.The first acts of PMO and The Death of the Alberta Report take place in 1991; everything else occurs in the present.

      The house lights go down, and the following is projected somewhere:

      Although much of our life is rooted in the anxiety of time, in other words the fear of death, the continuity of knowledge and wisdom that has brought us here together is rooted in love, a love that is not only as strong as death, but able to cast out its fear

      —Northrop Frye

      The above fades, and is replaced by the following:

      Slit her throat

      —Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney,

      Prime Minister of Canada,

      of one of his cabinet ministers

      PMO

      Act One

      In the dark, the words Act One. Fifteen years ago are projected somewhere. Lights come up on the Prime Minister’s office. Silence, then hubbub in the hall. The door bursts open, and these men enter: ERIC Poole, Chief of Staff; TOMMY Langavoolin, Defense Minister; PETER Tucker, Minister of Regional Development; LEN Bencaster, Finance Minister, and MARC Brancois, the P.M. The first 5 lines are spoken at once, more or less:

      ERIC: OK, OK. Where’s the list? What did I…? What the fuck did I do with—

      ERIC goes through the pile of things on the desk.

      TOMMY: The count was wrong. Marc? I think they had the count wrong? Is that possible? Because I, —Hey, Marc, know what?

      TOMMY loops around to get beside the P.M., tries to walk beside him.

      LEN: OK. OK. OK OK OK. Jesus fucking Christ. OK. Ohh boy. Ohhh boy.

      LEN walks in circles.

      PETER: Nice going. Nice fucking— I gotta call my riding.

      PETER goes to a secondary office phone, and dials. He’s jostled by the others.

      MARC: Eric, have you got the list? Hey? What the fuck— What just happened? Hey Hey? Mother of God… WHAT WAS THE COUNT?

      TOMMY: That count was wrong.

      MARC: Shut up, Tommy.

      TOMMY: No, I think the Speaker— I think if we get Hansard and look at it, the numbers don’t add up.

      MARC: It doesn’t matter now, you fuckwit.

      TOMMY: No, but—

      PETER: Hello? Steve?

      MARC: Shut up, Tommy.

      TOMMY: OK, but…

      PETER: Is that, is that Steve? Where’s Steve.

      MARC: You’re fucking fired. No more Whip for you.

      TOMMY: Aw, c’mon, Marc.

      PETER: Who is this? This is Peter. Who is this?

      LEN: Marc? It’s not my fault. Right? Marc? It’s not the budget’s fault, though, right? Marc? Marc?

      MARC: (To LEN.) Can you just, shut up? Eric?

      ERIC: Working on it.

      MARC: I swear to God. Bunch of friggin’ jackasses. We deserve to lose the vote, you know that? We deserve to lose the confidence of the House, you know? We do.

      TOMMY: That’s what I’m saying Marc, we don’t because the count—

      MARC: We do, you fuckwit, because APPARENTLY WE CAN’T COUNT.

      PETER: Who is this?

      LEN: OK.

      LEN sits, takes off his shoes. ERIC sees this.

      ERIC: What are you doing?

      LEN: These things are killing me.

      PETER: I’m looking for Steve?

      MARC: (To DAVID.) Just, don’t, OK?

      LEN: They’re

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