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    Willow Quartet
    Willow Quartet
    Willow Quartet
    Ebook138 pages1 hour

    Willow Quartet

    By Joan Burrows

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    About this ebook

    In the aftermath of a tragedy that ends Kim and Ben's marriage, Kim finds herself back in her childhood home, a quiet farm away from the city. Here, she invites Jim, a visiting musician, to stay with her in a bed-and-breakfast arrangement. It's not long before Kim becomes infatuated with Jim's sophistication and charm, and with his ability to make her forget her grief temporarily—until it inevitably boils to the surface. With Jim at her side, Kim struggles to navigate through her unresolved grief and begins to explore her buried feelings.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPlaywrights Canada Press
    Release dateOct 23, 2013
    ISBN9781770911833
    Willow Quartet
    Author

    Joan Burrows

    Joan Burrows won several awards for her first play, Staff Room, upon its first production in 2004. Her writing credits since then include The Photograph, (ACT-CO Award for Best New Canadian Play), Gloria's Guy, and Willow Quartet, which was transformed into a musical version, Willow Quartet Musical, and nominated for the Tom Hendry Award in 2018. 

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      Book preview

      Willow Quartet - Joan Burrows

      9781770911833.jpg2451.jpg

      Willow Quartet © Copyright 2013 by Joan Burrows

      Playwrights Canada Press

      202-269 Richmond Street West, Toronto, ON, Canada M5V 1X1

      phone 416.703.0013 • [email protected] • www.playwrightscanada.com

      No part of this book may be reproduced, downloaded, or used in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except for excerpts in a review or by a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca.

      For professional or amateur production rights, please contact Playwrights Guild of Canada:

      350-401 Richmond St. W., Toronto, ON M5V 3A8

      416.703.0201, [email protected]

      Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      Burrows, Joan, Author

         Willow Quartet / Joan Burrows.

      A play.

      Electronic monograph.

      Issued in print and electronic formats.

      ISBN 978-1-77091-183-3

      I. Title.

      PS8553.U6946W56 2013   C812’.6   C2013-904413-2

         C2013-904414-0

      cip

      We acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council (OAC)—an agency of the Government of Ontario, which last year funded 1,681 individual artists and 1,125 organizations in 216 communities across Ontario for a total of $52.8 million—the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.

      To Lisa, Linda, and Lori—Hold fast to dreams.

      Willow Quartet was first workshopped as part of Theatre Aurora’s Playwrights of Spring Festival, March–April 2009, with the following company:

      Ben: Joe Mottola

      Marjorie: Jillian Rees-Brown

      Kim: Roxann Lee

      Jim: Benny Min

      Director: Jessie Fraser

      Stage manager: Michael Galloro

      Sound designer: Milan Djordjevic

      Willow Quartet was first produced by Greenwillow Productions on November 18, 2011, at the Papermill Theatre in Todmorden Mills, Toronto, with the following company:

      Marjorie: Patricia Casey

      Ben: Chris Owens

      Kim: Andy Fraser

      Jim: John Healy

      Director: Jane Carnwath

      Stage manager: Margot Devlin

      Set designer: Ed Rosing

      Lighting designer: Paul Hardy

      Costume designer: Alice Torrance

      Sound designer: Rick Jones

      Characters

      Ben

      Marjorie

      Kim

      Jim

      Act 1 • Scene 1

      Lights rise on the wraparound porch of a turn-of-the-century farmhouse. Maybe a rocker, wicker chairs, a small table sit about, a screen door and window look into the summer kitchen, steps lead down into the yard. It is summer, early afternoon. Country fiddle music plays softly from a radio inside the house. MARJORIE, a mature woman, is sitting on the porch with a folded newspaper and pen in hand. She doesn’t look up at the sound of a car approaching, focused on her newspaper even as the car comes to a stop. From offstage there’s the sound of a car door opening and closing. BEN Walters, a man in his mid-forties, enters.

      BEN

      Marjorie.

      MARJORIE

      Ben.

      BEN

      Didn’t see your car until I drove into the yard.

      MARJORIE

      I parked it under the willow. Out of the sun.

      BEN

      Yeah. It’s a hot one.

      Beat.

      So… you’re back, then?

      MARJORIE

      No. Just parked for the day. Came out to hang my sheets and towels on the line. Can’t hang ’em out at the condo. People complain.

      BEN

      Imagine.

      She looks up.

      MARJORIE

      It’s a waste of energy usin’ a dryer on a day like today.

      BEN

      Using it on your air conditioner instead then, eh?

      She glares at him then returns to her paper.

      MARJORIE

      She’s not here.

      BEN

      Did I ask?

      MARJORIE

      Just thought you’d like to know. Is that why you thought it was safe to come down the lane?

      BEN

      She knows. I phoned her a few days ago. I’m looking at the tractor.

      MARJORIE

      The tractor?

      BEN

      Ray wants to use it, if it’s driveable.

      MARJORIE

      My God, that thing hasn’t been used in years. What’s he need it for?

      BEN

      For the parade.

      She looks at him.

      August twentieth. The closing of the arts festival. The town’s organized a tractor parade on the last Sunday afternoon.

      MARJORIE

      What for?

      BEN

      They’re trying for some Guinness world record. Ray’s one of the organizers. He’s trying to round up as many tractors as he can. He remembered you use to have one so he asked me if I could get it going. I said I’d take a look at it.

      MARJORIE

      What the heck does a tractor parade have to do with the arts festival?

      BEN

      Just part of the spirit.

      MARJORIE

      A bunch of farmers sittin’ on their tractors, drivin’ down the main drag? Are they pullin’ floats with the musicians on them or something?

      BEN

      No. I don’t believe so. It’s just a line of tractors.

      MARJORIE

      Why?

      BEN

      I don’t know. Just a way of getting involved with the whole festival, I guess. A chance for those less musical to do something, have a little fun. Some of them might win a prize.

      MARJORIE

      By showing off their old tractors?

      BEN

      Marjorie, it was an idea from the arts committee. My brother was put in charge of it. I’m just here to help him out.

      MARJORIE

      All right. You don’t have

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