Honour Beat

By Tara Beagan

Two grown sisters face off over their mother's deathbed. Together they confront one another, their own identities, and what will remain when their mom leaves this world. A contemporary look at the significance of faith and family, Honour Beat evokes both laughter and tears as three women grapple with one of life's most difficult inevitabilities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scirocco Drama
• Release date: Jul 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781990737312

Tara Beagan

Tara Beagan is a proud Ntlaka’pamux and Irish “Canadian” halfbreed based in Calgary, Alberta. She is co-founder/director of ARTICLE 11 with her most cherished collaborator, Andy Moro. She served as the artistic director of Native Earth Performing Arts from February 2011 to December 2013. A Dora Mavor Moore Award–winning playwright, she has been in residence at Cahoots Theatre, NEPA, the National Arts Centre, and Berton House. Five of her twenty plus plays have been published, and her first film script, 133 Skyway, co-written with Randy Redroad, won the imagineNATIVE award for best Canadian drama. Beagan is also a Dora and Betty Mitchell Award–​nominated actor.

Book preview

A palliative hospital room in Toronto, 2018.

Four in the morning.

RAE sits beside the bed which holds her MOM. MOM is dressed in a ruffly pinkish nightgown. RAE finds a video on her phone, then watches it – she and her mother (as her actual age) a mere six months ago.

VIDEO:

MOM: Are you taking a picture right now?

RAE: No.

MOM: Oh. Okay. That would be weird.

They laugh a little.

RAE: No kidding!

MOM: So anyways… I found –

RAE stops the video.

RAE: Aw, Mom. Can you hear me? (Beat.) Oh! Here…

RAE finds another video – two young Indigenous females singing a Travelling Song. She holds it close to MOM, in view for her.

It’s the girls.

RAE is working hard to sing along, though very softly. When she hears someone approach she abruptly stops the video.

ANNA enters, a flurry of essential oils, accessories and colour. RAE checks the time on her phone.

RAE: Sound the trumpets.

ANNA: Mom! I’m here. I’m sorry I took so long.

ANNA kisses her MOM.

RAE: So, they don’t have cell service in South Dakota?

ANNA: Little sister.

ANNA and RAE hug rather without warmth.

RAE: It’s been a long time.

ANNA: Just over a year.

RAE: We invite you every Christmas.

ANNA: It’s always a busy time at the studio. New resolutions, new interest in