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Drama Canadian

Walking on Water

by (author) Dave Carley

Publisher
Signature Editions
Initial publish date
Nov 2000
Category
Canadian
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780921833727
    Publish Date
    Nov 2000
    List Price
    $14.95

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Where to buy it

Description

Walking on Water is an engaging and theatrical murder mystery. It's also a moving and panoramic return to a place and time of moral clarity, good guys and bad guys, tough broads and daring dames. The play begins in the year 1999 with the sound of the bulldozers approaching. They are about to unearth the dead, moving the graves in the Ashburnham Necropolis to make way for a new highway. But those buried together in the cemetery share a secret and there is a mystery to solve before they are sent off to their new homes and gain their eternal rest. In 1949, Lee Kwan, the chauffeur for the town's newspaper publisher, was found dead under his employer's Packard. It quickly becomes apparent that Lee did not die of natural causes. He was murdered. But who did it” Each of the 13 wonderfully comic characters has secrets to hide and a story to tell, and over the course of two acts and fifty years, a fascinating portrait of a Canadian city emerges. And moments before the bulldozers arrive, Lee Kwan's murder is indeed solved in an immensely satisfying conclusion to this grand and moving drama.

About the author

Dave Carley is a Toronto-based playwright whose plays have had close to 500 productions across Canada, the United States and in many countries around the world. They include Midnight Madness, Writing with Our Feet (nominated for the Governor General's Award), After You, an adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel The Edible Woman, Taking Liberties, and Orchidelirium. Dave is the former editor at the Playwrights Union of Canada (now Playwrights Guild) and, for many years, was both script editor at CBC Radio Drama and play editor for Scirocco Drama. Dave's most recent full-length works have been Twelve Hours; an adaptation of Al Purdy's novel A Splinter in the Heart, and Canadian Rajah. He is currently completing a new work for stage: Hope is a Bird.

Dave Carley's profile page

Excerpt: Walking on Water (by (author) Dave Carley)

Neil: Sir! I have reason to believe Lee was murdered! I also believe he was operating some kind of gambling den at Bloom's store!

Heck: Your point?

Neil: Christine found a box in Bloom's basement. Hidden behind some bricks. There was $42,000 in it.

Heck: What!

Neil: In bills of all denominations.

Heck: How much?

Neil: Forty-two grand!

Heck: No slang, Kid. What'd she do with it?

Neil: She took it. Finders keepers.

Heck: Finders keepers is for when you find a quarter on the sidewalk.

Neil: That's how I felt. I told her we could go see a lawyer, but first she should put it back.

Heck: Has she?

Neil: She tried yesterday, but Bloom sent her home before she had a chance. I'm going with her tonight to return it. Sir—doesn't all this seem odd to you?

Heck: I don't pay you to play detective. But I do pay you. And right now I want a follow-up on the purse thing which includes Mrs Gillespie's full embrace of Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the twelve disciples. Get lost.

Heck turns to talk to someone on the phone.

Forty-two thousand! Be a nice story if it wasn't such a can of worms. I told the Kid to put it back. Imagine his girlfriend finding that kind of money in someone's basement and thinking she can just waltz home with it. Now give your sugar poppa a big phone kiss.

Betty: (Turning to tell someone.) The silly git finds the money; turns out Bloom's been hiding it behind a rock or something in his basement! So what does she do” She walks outa there at midnight and takes it home!

Terry appears on other phone.

Terry: So that's where it is! How much did you say” Forty-two thousand! Where does she live” Oh—her boyfriend's returning it to the store—tonight?

Terry turns to someone in shadow.

I've located the money. But my share's two-thirds now.

Editorial Reviews

"Dave Carley's work stands out for its questing intelligence, warm humanity and engaging storytelling."?Variety