Sextet

By Morris Panych

Music has long been considered beneficial in enhancing cognitive skills, and some have even suggested that music constitutes its own category of brain function; that it is, in fact, a separate and distinct type of thought. As is sex, which can produce, aside from children, complete dysfunction, confused mental activity – even, quite possibly, a compromised immune system, and certainly, in many cases, complete and utter memory loss – both before and after. It seemed only natural, then, for playwright Morris Panych to put these two types of human experience together into one play. After all, both take practice.

This dark and steamy comedy explores the harmonies and dysfunctions of six sexually entangled musicians on an ill-fated winter tour. When a blizzard strands this sextet for an extra night, they have only their instruments, each other, and their secrets to keep them warm.

Cast of 4 men and 2 women.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Talonbooks
• Release date: Apr 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9780889229853

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

Title Page

CONTENTS

Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night)

Production History

Characters and Setting

Production Note

Playscript

About the Author

Copyright

Matt, Rebecca, Laura, Jordan, Bruce, and Damien

Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night)

Two figures pass through the bare, cold grove;

the moon accompanies them, they gaze into it.

The moon races above some tall oaks;

No trace of a cloud filters the sky’s light,

into which the dark treetops stretch.

A female voice speaks:

I am carrying a child, and not yours;

I walk in sin beside you.

I have deeply sinned against myself.

I no longer believed in happiness

And yet was full of longing

For a life with meaning, for the joy

And duty of maternity; so I dared

And, quaking, let my sex

Be taken by a stranger,

And was blessed by it.

Now life has taken its revenge,

For now I have met you, yes you.

She takes an awkward step.

She looks up: the moon races alongside her.

Her dark glance is saturated with light.

A male voice speaks:

Let the child you have conceived

Be no trouble to your soul.

How brilliantly the universe shines!

It casts a luminosity on everything;

you float with me upon a cold sea,

but a peculiar warmth glimmers

from you to me, and then from me to you.

Thus is transfigured the child of another man;

You will bear it for me, as my own;

You have brought your luminosity to me,

You have made me a child myself.

He clasps her round her strong hips.

Their kisses mingle breath in the night air.

Two humans pass through the high, clear night.

—RICHARD DEHMEL, first published in Weib und Welt (1896)

     Translated by Scott Horton

PRODUCTION HISTORY

Sextet was first produced in the Mainspace at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto on November 5 to December 14, 2014, with the following cast and crew:

HARRY: Damien Atkins

SYLVIA: Laura Condlln

GERARD: Bruce Dow

DIRK: Matthew Edison

MAVIS: Rebecca Northan

OTTO: Jordan Pettle

Directed by Morris Panych

Set and costume design by Ken MacDonald

Lighting design by Kimberly Purtrell

Sound design by Thomas Ryder Payne

Stage managed by Kate Porter

Set plan, overhead view and front elevation, used for the premiere production.

Drawing courtesy Ken MacDonald

Drafted by Claire Cavanagh

Set plan, front view, used for the premiere production.

Drawing courtesy Ken MacDonald

Drafted by Claire Cavanagh

CHARACTERS

HARRY, cellist, thirty-something, pale, thin, and worried

SYLVIA, cellist, thirty-something, tough, sensual, volatile

GERARD, violinist, large build, forty-something, sexually diverse but married to Mavis

MAVIS, violinist, thirty-something, religious, pragmatic, married to Gerard

OTTO, violist, thirty-something, romantic, passionate

DIRK, violist, thirty-something, as good-looking as he is self-absorbed

SETTING

Winter. A small-town motel. The characters occupy four double rooms and move in and out, like the sounds of instruments in an orchestral arrangement. Scene shifts are sometimes indicated by the plucking of strings or other musical flourishes. Lighting defines the perimeter of each room and where the main action takes place.

PRODUCTION NOTE

In the original production there were six identical beds divided by partial identical walls, each with its own door, upstage, as well as a hallway running along behind the doors, further upstage, giving a sense of personal isolation to each character and serving to create, in a relatively open area, four distinct rooms. Lighting allowed the sizes of rooms to shift so that the actors could occupy a small area (for example, one bed) or a more open area (accessing two beds). Hallway scenes were played downstage of the beds, as were the swimming pool scenes, and scenes set in an outdoor parking lot. (The real hallway, upstage, was only used for entrances and exits.) At almost all times, all the actors were visible on stage, in their various room arrangements, either acting the main scene or finding a simple stillness in silhouette. In this way, the play took place in multiple locations simultaneously and, with a shift of light, could move quickly, simply, and elegantly from one place to the next, the action replicating a moving orchestration – the way one can watch musicians take and give focus, depending on which instruments are playing, at the same time giving the distinct feeling of an ensemble. Likewise, in text, the actors were instruments in an interwoven harmony. For the purposes of clarity in this published edition of the script, stage locations are denoted by room numbers, from 201 to 204, and in stage directions.

Above: A production still from the world premiere of Sextet, at the Tarragon Theatre (2014).

From left to right: Otto (Jordan Pettle), Dirk (Matthew Edison), Harry (Damien Atkins), Sylvia (Laura Condlln), Mavis (Rebecca Northan), and Gerard (Bruce Dow).

Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann

A gust of wind. Out of nowhere, HARRY appears downstage, as a moonlit form.

HARRY

I don’t even know what day it is. I don’t even know where we are.

Five others appear downstage,