Keeper

By Tanisha Taitt

Keeper is a powerful, intriguing story about a connection between two women—the memory of which carries such weight in each of their pasts that the only means of self-preservation has been to try to shut it down. We witness an evening in the lives of Avalon and Constance--the former in her early 20s, the latter 16 years older--who have been bonded and blistered by death, doubt and distance. As the details of their shared history emerge, long-buried feelings and hidden truths rise to the surface. Stirring, humorous and resonant, Keeper is one part cat-and-mouse, and one part long lost love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scirocco Drama
• Release date: Oct 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781990737435

Tanisha Taitt

Tanisha Taitt is a writer/director/actor, producer and artist-educator. She has worked with YPT, Obsidian, NAC, Acting UpStage, Buddies In Bad Times, Nightwood, and is Director of the Peace Camp program at Children’s Peace Theatre—an organization that teaches young people about creating a culture of peace through theatre. Also a singer and songsmith, she is a winner of the Canadian Music Publishers' Award for excellence in songwriting. Tanisha's plays include Keeper, Violent Be Violet, which received favourable reviews at the 2012 SummerWorks Festival and Admissions, a play for high schools. An ardent anti-VAW activist, Tanisha is a two-time YWCA Woman of Distinction nominee for her commitment to anti-violence and social justice.

Book preview

SCENE ONE

Early evening at the home of CONSTANCE ALLEN, a 39-year-old black woman. All remaining scenes are in the same location. Soft music wafts through the room. CONSTANCE sits in a chair to the left of a mid-sized coffee table. To the right of the table, another chair sits empty. Beside each chair is a small end table. On the coffee table sits a pitcher of water, a glass, and some magazines. CONSTANCE leans forward, looking for dust on the table, then gets off the chair and gets down on her knees. She takes the magazine at the bottom out of the pile and slides it under the chair to the right, out of view. She straightens up the pile, blows some crumbs off the table and cleans dust off the magazines with her fingers. As she stands back up, she absentmindedly wipes her dust-covered hands on her black pants.

CONSTANCE: Crap.

She feverishly wipes the dust stain off her pants and walks over to the window. She lifts the blind and peers out. There is a knock at the door. She is startled but does not turn around. Her grip on the blind tenses.

AVALON: (From behind the door.) Hello?

CONSTANCE: It’s not locked.

AVALON: I’m sorry, can you please speak louder?

CONSTANCE: (Releases the blind and raises her voice slightly.) It’s not locked.

The door opens. A young woman enters. CONSTANCE still faces the window.

AVALON: Um, hello. This is Apartment 326?

CONSTANCE: Yes.

AVALON: Oh thank God. I’m so relieved.

CONSTANCE does not turn toward the woman. She continues facing the closed blind.

AVALON: The entire flight I kept imagining that I’d get here and it would be the wrong address. Or the right address but the wrong person. (CONSTANCE doesn’t respond). You are Constance Allen—oh please. Please tell me you are.

CONSTANCE: Yes. And you’re Maggie.

AVALON: No. Or, well, yes. Oh my gosh—your voice.

CONSTANCE: What?

AVALON: You are Constance. Yes, I’m Maggie. I mean, I was Maggie.

CONSTANCE: (Peers slightly over her shoulder.) Was.

AVALON: Maggie is my middle name.

CONSTANCE: Your middle name is Sue.

AVALON: Not for a very long time.

CONSTANCE: You changed your name.

AVALON: My name was changed.

CONSTANCE: (Looking back out the window.) Was it.

AVALON: It was.

CONSTANCE: Huh.

AVALON: I know that’s kind of strange.

CONSTANCE: Yes.

AVALON: Yes.

CONSTANCE: So... am I going to have to play Twenty Questions?

AVALON: Oh, no. I’m Avalon.

CONSTANCE turns partially, but not all the way. She does not face the woman.

CONSTANCE: What?

AVALON: Avalon.

CONSTANCE: Seriously.

AVALON: Um, yes.

CONSTANCE: You’re not joking.

AVALON: Uh... I know my name.

CONSTANCE: I thought I did too.

AVALON: My name was changed.

CONSTANCE: So you said.

AVALON: It’s Avalon.

CONSTANCE: So you said.

AVALON: Well... I’m serious as a heart attack. (She chuckles nervously.) That’s my name.

CONSTANCE: That’s quite a name.

AVALON: Can I ask why you’re being like this?

CONSTANCE: What is this?

AVALON: You’re acting like you don’t believe