Within the Glass

By Anna Chatterton

Two very different couples meet after a critical mistake at a fertility clinic: a fertilized egg has been implanted into the wrong woman. Over the course of an awkward and absurd evening, they fight to determine the uncertain future of their IVF child. The situation forces each of them to reassess their relationships, the depths of their desire to parent, and their hopes for the future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scirocco Drama
• Release date: Jul 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781990738012

Anna Chatterton

Anna Chatterton is a librettist, playwright, and performer. She is a two-time finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama—in 2018 for her play Gertrude and Alice (co-written with Evalyn Parry), and in 2017 for her play Within the Glass. Her solo play Quiver was a finalist for the 2019 Hamilton Literary Awards in Fiction. Anna's plays have been produced by the Shaw Festival, Nightwood Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, and Alberta Theatre Projects, among others. Anna has been a playwright-in-residence at Nightwood Theatre, the National Theatre School of Canada, Tarragon Theatre, and Tapestry Opera. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Book preview

Cover: Within the glass by Anna Chatterton, published under Scirocco Drama, by J. Gordon Shillingford, shows a newly born baby, sleeping calmly, unclothed as in the womb.

Within the Glass

Anna Chatterton

Within the Glass

first published 2017 by

Scirocco Drama

An imprint of J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing Inc.

© 2017, Anna Chatterton

Scirocco Drama Editor: Glenda MacFarlane

Cover design by Terry Gallagher/Doowah Design Inc.

Author Photo by Dahlia Katz

Production photos by Cylla von Tiedemann

Printed and bound in Canada on 100% post-consumer recycled paper.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Manitoba Arts Council and The Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, for any reason, by any means, without the permission of the publisher. This play is fully protected under the copyright laws of Canada and all other countries of the Copyright Union and is subject to royalty. Changes to the text are expressly forbidden without written consent of the author. Rights to produce, film, record in whole or in part, in any medium or in any language, by any group, amateur or professional, are retained by the author.

For professional or amateur production rights, please contact

Ian Arnold, Catalyst TCM

#312 – 100 Broadview Ave.

Toronto, ON Canada

M4M 3H3

phone: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Chatterton, Anna, author

Within the glass / Anna Chatterton.

A play.

ISBN 978-1-927922-32-3 (softcover)

I. Title.

PS8605.H3925W58 2017C812'.6C2017-900711-4

J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing

P.O. Box 86, RPO Corydon Avenue, Winnipeg, MB Canada R3M 3S3

For my mother, Elizabeth Susan Gertsman Chatterton

A black and white photograph of the author Anna Chatterton. She is dressed in a black top, with a heavy black neckpiece. Her tresses are black and thick and is let loose to fall freely on her shoulders. She is seen posing with a beautiful smile.

Anna Chatterton

Anna Chatterton is a librettist, playwright, and performer. Anna’s plays include Quiver (Nightwood Theatre, Uno Festival, Playwrights Canada Press 2018,) and Within the Glass (Tarragon Theatre MainSpace.) She is a Playwright-in-Residence at Tarragon Theatre and Nightwood Theatre, and is in the playwrights unit at Alberta Theatre Projects.

Anna also writes and performs with the acclaimed feminist theatre collective Independent Aunties (with Evalyn Parry and Karin Randoja). The Aunties have created six shows together (co-written by Anna and Evalyn Parry) including Clean Irene and Dirty Maxine(Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, SummerWorks Award for Best New Play,) Frances, Mathilda and Tea (Theatre Passe Muraille,) Breakfast(Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and the Theatre Centre, three Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations,) and Gertrude and Alice (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Ensemble.) Anna was also honoured with a Toronto Theatre Critics Award for her role as Alice. Gertrude and Alice will be published by Playwrights Canada Press.

As a librettist Anna’s work includes Swoon (Canadian Opera Company,) Rocking Horse Winner (Tapestry Opera,) Crush (COC and The Banff Centre,) and The Man Who Married Himself (Toronto Masque Theatre.) Anna works frequently with composer Juliet Palmer’s company Urbanvesse; their work includes includes Voice-Box (World Stage/Harbourfront Centre,) Stitch (Theatre Centre,) and Sweat (Center for Contemporary Opera) in Brooklyn, NY. Anna and Juliet were nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Opera.

NOW magazine named Anna one of Toronto’s Top Ten Theatre Artists of 2016 and she has been nominated three times for the K.M. Hunter Award for Theatre. Anna has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph, and a BFA in Theatre Performance from Concordia University.

Acknowledgements

Within the Glasswas developed through the Playwrights Unit, and subsequently in residence at Tarragon Theatre, with support from the Ontario Arts Council as well as the Toronto Arts Council.

Director Andrea Donaldson and I worked closely on this play and one couldn’t ask for a more perfect director/writer relationship. I am eternally grateful for our joyful and intense artistic collaboration on this play and others in the works. Literary Manager Andrea Romaldi and Artistic Director Richard Rose also provided invaluable, insightful dramaturgy—and an additional deep thank you to Richard Rose for believing in the play.

Within the Glass was also developed at the Banff Centre for the Arts Playwrights Colony, and through the University of Guelph MFA program in Creative Writing—in both instances Colleen Murphy was a treasured mentor, and I am continually inspired and grateful to her. Judith Thompson is also my hero and a kind champion, and to both these geniuses and strong women I owe a great deal.

Deep gratitude to the talented, smarty-pants actors who performed the premiere production at Tarragon Theatre: Paul Braunstein, Nicola Correia-Damude, Philippa Domville and Rick Roberts. Your feedback was integral. And thank you to the actors who developed the play along the way: Tom Barnett, Liisa Repo Martell, Elizabeth Saunders, Kristen Thompson, David Jansen, Kevin Bundy, Severn Thompson, Claire Armstrong, Richard Zeppieri, Sasa Brown, Tracey L. Ferencz, Trevor Leigh, David Mcllwraith.

To my other friends and artistic consultants/supporters: Evalyn Parry, Karin Randoja, Soraya Peerbaye, Suzanne Robertson, Ayelet Tsabari, Andrea Syrtash, Chris Warren, James Rolfe, Juliet Palmer, Sasha Wentges and Kelly Thornton. The Tarragon Playwrights Unit—Andrew Kushnir, Deborah Pearson, Ravi Jain, d’bi young Anitafrika.

To all the blogs I followed, filled with women whose hearts were broken and