Andy's Gone
- Publisher
- Playwrights Canada Press
- Initial publish date
- Jul 2021
- Category
- Women Authors, Canadian
- Recommended Age
- 15 to 18
- Recommended Grade
- 10 to 12
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780369102188
- Publish Date
- Jul 2021
- List Price
- $19.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9780369102201
- Publish Date
- Jul 2021
- List Price
- $14.99
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
What stories do we tell ourselves to keep our walls up and our privilege intact? What is the cost of revolution?
In this contemporary retelling of Antigone, denial of what rages outside of a city’s perimeter comes to a head when a young princess named Alison tries to expose the truth of her beloved cousin Henry’s death. By night, Henry went as Andy, as together he and Alison scaled the walls of their kingdom to help the migrants who are kept out of sight. Burdened by the weight of the inequality that his future reign represented, he killed himself. But his mother, Queen Regina, hails his death as a valiant knight and will do anything she can to keep Alison silent. The two women become locked in a poetic battle of power and prejudice, until a push turning into a shove might mean it’s too late to find peace.
About the authors
Marie-Claude Verdier’s first play, Je n’y suis plus, was produced at the National Arts Centre’s French Theatre. Her play Nous autres antipodes received an honourable mention by the Prix Gratien-Gélinas from the Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD). In 2018, Marie-Claude became the first playwright-in-residence at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), where she worked on her play Apparitions. She is currently working on a sci-fi play, Seeker, which Alexis Diamond has been commissioned to translate for BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective. Marie-Claude is also a dramaturg and has worked with many distinguished directors, including Marc Beaupré, Christian Lapointe, and Benoît Vermeulen. She lives in Laval.
Marie-Claude Verdier's profile page
Alexis Diamond is a theatre artist, opera and musical librettist, translator, and theatre curator working on both sides of Montréal’s linguistic divide. Her award-winning works have been presented across Canada, the US, and Europe. Her translation of Pascal Brullemans’ plays for young audiences, Amaryllis and Little Witch (Playwrights Canada Press) was a finalist for the 2020 Governor General’s Award. In 2018, Alexis began a collaboration with Erin Hurley and Emma Tibaldo researching the history of English-language theatre in Québec. Alexis is the Anglo-Canadian theatre curator for the famed Festival du Jamais Lu; she presented the mostly French-language Faux-amis with co-author Hubert Lemire for the festival in 2019 and has continued to work on it with Hubert at the 2021 Banff Playwrights Lab. Upcoming tours of her theatre translations include The Problem with Pink by Érika Tremblay-Roy and Pascal Brullemans’s The Nonexistent. She is currently working on translating Alexia Bürger's Les Hardings and Marie-Hélène Larose-Truchon's Un oiseau m'attend. She lives in Montréal.
Excerpt: Andy's Gone (by (author) Marie-Claude Verdier; translated by Alexis Diamond)
Suddenly, Alison enters, out of breath. She has her bag with her laptop. She takes a bottle of water.
ALISON
It’s hella dark in here.
She looks around; sees the neon H. Regina stands up and faces her.
REGINA
Didn’t you hear the edict?
ALISON
Why the circus?
REGINA
I was worried.
ALISON
This is what, a chapel for Henry? What else are you going to fabricate?
Alison goes to open the curtains.
Regina stands up to draw them closed, but Alison stops her.
The technician makes a move to intervene; Regina waves them off.
REGINA
You ought to have been at the cemetery this morning. With us.
ALISON
I couldn’t.
REGINA
Too busy living the hectic life of a princess?
ALISON
I’m not a princess.
REGINA
But you are. Your father was king.
ALISON
Not anymore.
REGINA
You’re a still a member of the family. You must always remember that.
ALISON
What family?
REGINA
We used to be close.
ALISON
When I was twelve and had my hair in pigtails.
REGINA
What’s changed?
ALISON
I got older.
REGINA
Because you’re so old now. And wise to boot.
ALISON
(indicating the neon lights) What’s all this? Can’t be for him.
REGINA
It’s for us. Our grief.
ALISON
Because, at his burial, we’re what’s important. Of course. Appearances are all you care about.
REGINA
You ought to have been there this morning.
ALISON
For you.
REGINA
For the family.
ALISON
You make it sound like we’re the mafia!
REGINA
I demand to know where you were.
Regina shuts off her mic then signals to the technician to play music in our headsets. Alison does not turn off her mic, which enables us to hear the conversation.
ALISON
You are not my mother.
REGINA
I am the leader.
ALISON
I was at the cemetery. Farther in.
REGINA
Why didn’t you join us?
ALISON
You weren’t at the right grave.
REGINA
Are you saying that we missed the one with the honour guard, flag, photograph and flowers? That wasn’t Henry’s grave?
ALISON
It wasn’t Andy’s grave.
REGINA
You will stop this Andy nonsense!
I have one son and he’s called Henry.
ALISON
Henry the valiant. The fucking knight. The king of the city!
REGINA
Watch your manners. Henry was a brilliant boy!
ALISON
A real little star.
Or maybe a comet. Whose brilliance flamed out over our heads. I’m not brilliant.
I live in shadow.
Little Miss Serious.
And it was in the dark that I saw.
Andy appear.
You lie.
You’ve got more than one son.
Editorial Reviews
“Astute, relevant, at once brutal and sophisticated.”
Michel Flandrin, France Bleu Vaucluse
“Very loosely inspired by the classical tragedy, the script written by a young Quebec playwright—Marie-Claude Verdier—uses the current geopolitical context as the basis for the conflict between state policy and personal values.”
Yves Kafka, Le bruit du off
