Isolated

Two Plays

Greg MacArthur

• Publisher: Coach House Books
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN: 9781552451915
• eBook ISBN: 9781770561182
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Canadian Drama
• Index: Literature

Isolated brings together two inventive, disturbing plays by one of Canada’s most intriguing dramatic voices.

In Recovery, people around the world are addicted to a mysterious substance. Large recovery centres are set up, promising refuge, treatment and healing to millions of addicts. But all is not what it seems. Following three residents of a facility in Antarctica, McArthur delivers a quirky and unsettling play that reveals the fear and isolation of the oppressed individual, and the consequences of a medicalized society.

In Get Away, David finds two beautiful teenagers when he escapes to an isolated cabin where he hopes to cure his unusually persistent listlessness. Sensing that they might need protecting – and may be crucial to his survival – he invites them in, but the roles of predator and prey become unclear as the three become dangerously intertwined. Both fantastical and horrifying, Get Away provides a resonating look at the destructive nature of longing and our desperate need for love.

RECOVERY

Recovery was commissioned and first produced by the National Arts Center in Ottawa in April 2006.

Ben: Ian Leung
Clare: Kate Hurman
Ash: John Koengsen
Leroy: Jeff Lawson
Mya: Alix Sideris
Alex: Paul Wernick

Director: David Oiye
Set and costume design: Kim Nielson
Lighting design: David Fraser
Original music and sound design: Robert Perrault
Stage Manager: Stephanie Seguin
Dramaturge: Lise Ann Johnson

It has since been produced by Rumble Theatre (Vancouver, BC) and the University of Toledo’;s School of Theatre and Film (Ohio, USA).

My thanks to the National Arts Centre, Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal, the 2004 Banff playRites Colony and the many directors, actors and designers across the country who have contributed to this script.

CHARACTERS

Ben (thirties)
Clare (thirties)
Ash (sixties)
Leroy (twenties)
Mya (twenties)
Alex (twelve)

PRODUCTION NOTES

Although the play has very few stage directions, it should still have a strong physical, auditory and visual quality.

The use of slides, projections, video, holograms, recorded voices, sound effects and children are encouraged.

‘Let me be weak, let me sleep, and dream of sheep.’
– Kate Bush

PART ONE

SCENE ONE

BEN: In a banquet room at a hotel downtown they offer us warm croissants and espresso. They give us brochures and show us slides. Pictures of rotting teeth, infected skin and a man lying on a cot, emaciated. Pictures of people wandering naked down streets. Pictures of bodies lying dead in alleys, unattended, floating in pools of water, grey and bloated, people poking them with sticks and mothers holding dead, limp children.

They say, ‘This isn’t happening yet, but it could happen. They say, ‘It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when.’ They say, ‘You may not think you have a problem, but that’s often the first sign you have a problem.’ They say, ‘If you love yourself or there’s someone you love.’

I sign a release form and give them a series of cheques. The next day my mother and I take a limousine to the airport. I get on a chartered flight. I am allowed to bring one piece of luggage. Just the essentials: toiletries, clothing. Personal items – photographs, stuffed animals, CDS, jewellery – aren’t encouraged.

‘Everything will be waiting for you when you come home.’

SCENE TWO

CLARE: You probably have a lot of questions. How was the travel?

BEN: Planes I find disorienting. You get on, you’re somewhere. You get of, you’re somewhere else. It’s jarring.

CLARE: Yes, and the seating is often cramped, and the recycled air. Although you can buy your own vials of oxygen now, so …

BEN: There was a large person beside me who was constantly shifting back and forth like a–

Well, constantly fidgeting. I requested another seat, and luckily there were a few empty seats on the plane, but even still the attendant gave me a condescending look.

CLARE: There are some people who don’t enjoy doing things for others, even if it costs them nothing.

BEN: Regardless –

CLARE: Here you are, in one piece.

BEN: When we were landing, I thought I saw some penguins.

CLARE: Yes, they like to flop about on the coastline.

BEN: Well, that’s something.

CLARE: Some of the Residents will get a little adventurous, plan a little expedition, pack a lunch, make a day of it, out to the coast with the penguins. It’s not encouraged, but –

BEN: Are they friendly?

CLARE: Well, they’re not unfriendly. I wouldn’t want one for a pet, I don’t think.

BEN: No, I wouldn’t imagine.

CLARE: Some of the Residents, on the other hand …

BEN: I beg your pardon?

CLARE: Oh, I was making a joke.

BEN: I’m sorry, I don’t understand.

CLARE: Well, perhaps now is not the best time for -– You’re probably feeling a bit fuzzy.

BEN: A bit, yes.

CLARE: Now that you’re here–

BEN: What did you say? Fuzzy, but …

CLARE: It’s an adjustment, but I think you’ll find it can be fun, it can be an adventure.

BEN: I mean, you hear so many contradictory things these days from so many people. Do this, try that.

CLARE: You’ve made a good choice. We’re a relatively new outfit, but I think we’re making a lot of progress.

BEN: Yes, well, it was either this one, or there was one off the coast of Japan that sounded –

CLARE: That’s a popular spot.

BEN: I thought it sounded exotic, but in the end –

CLARE: No penguins, of course, but lots of bamboo, if that’s your thing.

BEN: I saw your advertisements on the television, the celebrity endorsements, and I thought –

CLARE: We’ve received some nice exposure over the past few months.

BEN: I thought, if it’s good enough for John Stamos –

CLARE: He has such an honest quality to him, don’t you think?

BEN: And your treatment sounded –

CLARE: We’re working primarily with ventilation.

BEN: I have a funny taste at the back of my mouth.

CLARE: You’ll get used to that.

BEN: It wasn’t easy getting a spot. There was a waiting list but my mother pulled some strings so they managed to squeeze me in.

CLARE: We have close to 5,000 people staying with us.

BEN: Wow, that’s –

CLARE: It’s all very well organized, so you shouldn’t feel too overwhelmed by it all. We’ve tried to make it as intimate and homey as possible, little personal touches here and there.

BEN: Yes, I saw the large Chinese vases and the small marble tables in the corridors, and I think they’re really –

CLARE: There are ten wings or arms – separate little communities really – each with their own restaurant, and a games room, and a sunshine room, and an exercise room with blue mats, and a music room with some instruments –

BEN: I used to play in a chamber quartet.

CLARE: Really?

BEN: Yes, the violin.

CLARE: Well, I don’t know about violins. I think we have some recorders, a xylophone, a few trombones, a tambourine. You know, odds and ends.

BEN: That would be funny.

CLARE: What’s that?

BEN: Oh, I was just imagining the musical possibilities, the combination of those instruments all thrown together.

CLARE: Yes, that would be funny.

BEN: I’m sorry, I feel as though I should lie down.

CLARE: I just wanted to make sure everything was okey-dokey.

BEN: Everyone has been very helpful and generous. It will probably take me a few days to get a sense of the place.

CLARE: It’s a complicated system at first, but in the end I think you’ll find it makes some kind of sense.

BEN: I haven’t heard that expression in a long time.

CLARE: What’s that?

BEN: Okey-dokey.

CLARE: Oh, my son has taken it up. I don’t know where he got it. You can find you own way to your room?

BEN: I’m in the Woodpecker Wing, so that’s … ?

CLARE: Just down two flights and then straight ahead on your left.

BEN: Yes, I think I can remember that.

CLARE: Well, sweet dreams.

SCENE THREE

BEN: The first night, it’s uncomfortable. Everything feels strange. I unpack. I arrange things in my room, flicking light switches, looking at the floor tiles, arranging hangers, keeping myself occupied. I lie on top of the bed. The bedspread is synthetic and has a green kind of jungle pattern on it.

The sound of a violin. A woman and a boy appear.

BEN: I think of my mother at the airport. At the gate, waving goodbye, wearing a long coat, short white gloves and a mink stole. She was of that pedigree where just leaving the house was a formal occasion.

She gave me a card with a...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• GET AWAY
• RECOVERY
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• Appendix