PASSAGE OF THE HEART
Written by Wendy Lill
Directed by Alan Erlich
| Katherine Ward | Shirley Douglas |
| Kate Ward | Martha Burns |
| Clare Spencer | Kristina Nicoll |
| Alan Spencer | Nigel Bennett |
| Helen Ward | Meg Hogarth |
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A storm blows into the Kent cottage of writer Katherine Ward one afternoon in the form of her chaotic daughter, Clare . At six o'clock, Clare's father, Alan , is due to be married to another woman. Clare has come to console, confront and confound her mother. She wants to know the 'truth' of her parents' relationship: begun as an intense affair, it continued over thirty years. Abandoning the conventions of her wealthy and privileged background, Katherine bore Alan, a 'grimy British poet', four children through the many storms and few calms of their love. Their love of words drew them together; their overwhelming love and anger inspired their words. This all-consuming experience demanded a few sacrifices. Clare, a drugged, drop-out mother of three, believes she was one of them. She challenges Katherine to justify her life as an artist, a lover and a mother; she is looking for a reason to live. Copyright 1991 Primedia Releasing. |
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| heart1.wav "Shut up." heart2.wav "I want you here in front of me so I can worship you." "You can worship me from a distance." |
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| heart4.wav "What is this? A conspiracy?" "No. No, it isn't, love. The poet is not for sale." heart5.wav "You go back to your society life. Parade your little indiscretion around in upper row. Sit with your bored friends in cafes and tell titillating tales about your grimy British poet. I want nothing more to do with you!" |
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| heart6.wav "Is this a game, too? Like hide and seek? Because if it is, I don't want to play." heart7.wav "I'm back where I belong. I sleep beside my wife and I'm not disturbed. I teach empty verse to empty-headed students at the university, I drink with my friends and I write my poems" |
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| heart8.wav "Your scent. Your laughter. Your wide blue eyes are the last thing I remember as I fall asleep at night." heart9.wav heart10.wav "I do love you, Katherine. Do you still want me?" |
| "Passage of The Heart was called something quite different right up to the moment we started filming. It was originally a stage play about Elizabeth Smart, the lady who wrote "By Grand Central Station, I sat down and wept", but at the last moment one of her surviving children contacted the producers from England and threatened that if anything about the film was traceable to his family, he would sue for huge amounts of cash. The producers, being producers, immediately backed down and changed all the names, all the locations and the title. I arrived in Ottawa to film the thing, and found out about all this as I arrived. It was a nightmare! Every time we ran a scene, you could guarantee that one of us would forget and slip in one of the old names or places." |
| Playwright Wendy Lill is a researcher and broadcaster who has won two ACTRA Awards, one for Shorthanded, a CBC radio drama, and another for Who is George Forest?, a Manitoba school broadcast radio documentary. She has written several other well received plays, including The Fighting Days in 1984 and Sisters, which debuted at the Parrsboro Theatre Company in 1989. Sisters was revised and remounted this year at the Prairie Theatre Exchange, whose production also appears in Confederation Life's Stage on Screen series. The Occupation of Heather Rose, staged at the Prairie Theatre Exchange during the 1985-86 season, was nominated for a Governor General's Award in 1987. |
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This page last updated June 10, 1997