Vigil

By Morris Panych

Since Morris Panych’s classic black comedy, Vigil, premiered in 1996, it has been produced throughout North America, the United Kingdom and Europe, including a 2009 Off-Broadway production, which opened to rave reviews, a run as Auntie & Me in London and, most recently, shows at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, where Panych directed Academy Award–winner Olympia Dukakis opposite Marco Barricelli in the lead role.

This updated edition incorporates changes to scenes and dialogue that have been part of the play’s evolution over the past fifteen years, as well as a new playwright’s note.

Vigil is about a man returning—after thirty years—to sit with a female relative on her deathbed. Kemp, the protagonist, is an extremely self-centred and shallow person who uses acid wit and seemingly callous indifference to cover up the profound discomfort he experiences upon finding himself part of a death watch. Kemp’s problem is: she’s not dying fast enough. Through Kemp’s own errors and inattentiveness, the visit that he thinks will take a day or two stretches into a year, and he finds himself caring for his long-forgotten aunt Grace against his will. Gallows humour and Kemp’s diatribes on humanity and mortality fuel this delightfully dark narrative, but it is Grace’s economical contributions to the dialogue (she’s a woman of few words) that give this play its weight and profundity. A play of mistaken identity, twisted circumstance and surprising turns, it is deliciously absurd, incredibly funny and poignantly tender. This is one Vigil worth keeping.

Cast of 1 woman and 1 man.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Talonbooks
• Release date: Apr 5, 2013
• ISBN: 9780889227170

Morris Panych

Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Morris Panych is arguably Canada’s most celebrated playwright and director. His plays have garnered countless awards, including two Governor General’s Literary Awards for Drama (for The Ends of the Earth and Girl in the Goldfish Bowl), fourteen Jessie Richardson Awards (Vancouver), and five Dora Mavor Moore Awards (Toronto). His plays have been produced in over two dozen languages and across the globe. Mr. Panych has directed over ninety productions across Canada and the US. He was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award in 2021 for his CBC Gem webseries Hey Lady! He has appeared in over fifty theatre productions and in numerous television and film roles. He has directed more than ninety theatre productions and written over a dozen plays that have been translated and produced throughout the world. The 2009 Off-Broadway production of his play Vigil opened to rave reviews. Under the title Auntie & Me, Vigil was also produced in London in 2003–04; and in French at Théâtre La Bruyère in Paris in 2005; and his classic 7 Stories ranks 9th among the ten best selling plays in Canada, outselling the Coles version of Romeo & Juliet. For more information on the work and career of Morris Panych, visit his website.

Book preview

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CONTENTS

Cover

Preface

ACT I

SCENE ONE

SCENE TWO

SCENE THREE

SCENE FOUR

SCENE FIVE

SCENE SIX

SCENE SEVEN

SCENE EIGHT

SCENE NINE

SCENE TEN

SCENE ELEVEN

SCENE TWELVE

SCENE THIRTEEN

SCENE FOURTEEN

SCENE FIFTEEN

SCENE SIXTEEN

SCENE SEVENTEEN

SCENE EIGHTEEN

SCENE NINETEEN

SCENE TWENTY

SCENE TWENTY-ONE

SCENE TWENTY-TWO

ACT II

SCENE ONE

SCENE TWO

SCENE THREE

SCENE FOUR

SCENE FIVE

SCENE SIX

SCENE SEVEN

SCENE EIGHT

SCENE NINE

SCENE TEN

SCENE ELEVEN

SCENE TWELVE

SCENE THIRTEEN

SCENE FOURTEEN

About the Playwright

Copyright Information

Vigil was first produced as a co-operative venture between the Belfry Theatre of Victoria, British Columbia, and the Arts Club Theatre of Vancouver, British Columbia, opening first on September 28, 1995, at the Belfry Theatre, and subsequently at the Arts Club Theatre on October 28, 1995, with the following cast and crew:

GRACE: Margaret Barton

KEMP: Alan Williams

Directed by Morris Panych

Set and costume design by Ken MacDonald

Lighting design by Marsha Sibthorpe

Sound design by Ian Rye

Stage managed in Victoria by Dorothy Rogers

Stage managed in Vancouver by Louis-Marie Bournival

Vigil also opened at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, on December 27, 1995, with the following cast and crew:

GRACE: Joyce Campion

KEMP: Brian Tree

Directed by Morris Panych

Set and costume design by Ken MacDonald

Lighting design by Bonnie Beecher

Sound design by Ian Rye

Stage managed by Cheryl Francis

The author extends

special thanks to

Urjo Kareda,

in whose memory

this second edition

is dedicated

Thanks are also due to

Marco Barricelli, Olympia Dukakis,

Glynis Leyshon, Ken MacDonald,

Bill Millerd, Jenny Phipps, Alan Williams

and the Banff Playwrights Colony

for their help and contributions

in the development of this script,

original and revised

Preface to the Second Edition

Twenty years on, and many productions later, Vigil remains a puzzle, even to me. The short scenes, the endless stream of vitriol, the silent character, the decrepit room, the repeated joke – what kind of play is it? I still have no idea. But the experience of having watched, directed and even acted in Vigil has given me insights into this play I could never have had at the outset. There is much to be learned from audiences and actors, lighting and set designers, producers, collaborators.

Vigil has now played half the world over and been translated into more than two dozen languages. There is something unchanging about the way the piece resonates with people. Wishing your aging relatives were dead is apparently a universal truth; I seemed to have tapped into something. Sitting at my writing desk at the Banff Playwrights Colony so long ago, I couldn’t have known that so many people would find such a connection with this story. Kemp is, after all, a despicable nephew, and Grace is strangely and infuriatingly silent on all subjects.

In this revised second edition, the structure of the play, in multiple scenes, has remained unaltered, because there is no more effective way of conveying the passage of time that is so central to the story. I have, however, removed Blackout as a scene-ending stage direction. From the first production, it became apparent that full blackouts lurched the play forward and could become, if not handled properly, more of an impediment than an interesting theatrical device. The lighting changes should convey passages but not