Fault Lines. Nicolas Billon
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ABOUT THIS BOOK
‘Iceland is a beautifully structured and extremely powerful play that haunts the mind. Billon is an original and exciting voice.’– Atom Egoyan
In Greenland, the naming of a new island off the nation’s coast mirrors a growing rift between the island’s discoverer and his family.
In Iceland, greed and sex fuel a confrontation between a corrupt real estate agent, an Estonian prostitute and a naive tenant.
A young woman’s idealism is challenged by the whale hunt in Faroe Islands.
Nicolas Billon’s critically acclaimed trilogy uses intertwined monologues to tackle, with wit and dark humour, our yearning to belong to something larger than ourselves.
copyright © Nicolas Billon, 2013
first edition
Published with the generous assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. Coach House Books also gratefully acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit.
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Billon, Nicolas
[Plays. Selections]
Fault lines [electronic resource] : three plays / by Nicolas Billon.
Contents: Greenland — Iceland — Faroe Islands.
Electronic monograph in EPUB format.
Issued also in print format. ISBN 978-1-77056-349-0
I. Billon, Nicolas Greenland. 2. Billon, Nicolas Iceland. 3. Billon, Nicolas Faroe Islands. 4. Title. 5. Title: Plays. Selections.
PS8603.I44A62013 C842′.6 C2013-900312-6
Fault Lines is available as a print book: ISBN 978 1 55245 276 9.
Fault Lines is dedicated to three of my favourite collaborators:
Greenland
is for Claire Calnan
Iceland
is for Ravi Jain
Faroe Islands
is for Kat Chin
PLAYWRIGHT'S NOTE
The only advice I have for staging these plays is this: strive for simplicity.
Director Ravi Jain and I discovered this when working on Greenland. Throughout the rehearsal process, we whittled everything (text, acting, design, direction) down to the essential. It was terrifying. And it worked.
There is no spectacle to speak of; there is only the narrative which the actor must illuminate in the heart of each audience member. To use a film metaphor, these plays are meant to be shot in close-up. Or perhaps a better image is that of a confessional?
In any case, the goal is the same: to connect.
I hope you enjoy them and, especially, that you find something that resonates with you.
Nicolas Billon
February 2013
GREENLAND
Greenland premiered at the SummerWorks Theatre Festival on August 7, 2009, with the following artistic team:
Jonathan: Andrew Musselman
Judith: Claire Calnan
Tanya: Jajube Mandiela
Director: Ravi Jain
Production Designer: Ken MacKenzie
Stage Manager: Kat Chin
Assistant Director: Natalia Naranjo
Producer: Roxanne Duncan
Winner of the 2009 SummerWorks Prize for Outstanding Production
Greenland subsequently opened at the New York International Fringe Festival on August 12, 2011, with the following artistic team:
Jonathan: Andrew Musselman
Judith: Claire Calnan
Tanya: Susan Heyward
Director: Ravi Jain
Production Designer: Christopher D’Angelo
Stage Manager: Michelle Foster
Assistant Director: Esther Barlow
Producers: Dustin Olson and Esther Barlow
Winner of the 2011 NYC Fringe Overall Excellence Award for Playwriting
JONATHAN
Jonathan nurses a glass filled with ice and whiskey.
He swirls the ice. Looks at it. Listens to it.
So, after he cut off my baby toe, Miteq threw it in the Arctic Ocean. It was an offering to Arnakuagsak, the mercurial goddess who lives at the bottom of the sea. How’d she react to my frostbitten toe? Disgust? Perplexity? Perhaps it was rent for spending the night alone on her island, which was now, technically, my island.
We found it while collecting ice samples, about 300 kilometres north of Kulusuk.
The island was quite large, and maybe a dozen metres off the coast? I didn’t remember it from any of the maps; Miteq was equally baffled by it, and we’re talking about someone who can draw the outline of the coast on the palm of his hand. My hypothesis – which ended up being correct – was that it used to be connected to the mainland by the ice sheet, which is why it was mapped as part of Greenland, but that because of the glacial retreat, it was no longer ‘attached’ and was an island proper. And this was a big deal – the island is roughly four square kilometres, the first significant land mass discovery since the Antarctic islands in the 1800s, probably.
And it meant I could name it.
We flew in by helicopter the next day. I felt a … an attraction? A pull towards this island. I decided to camp there overnight – a way of claiming it, perhaps? I don’t know. But it’s something I felt compelled to do, and do alone.
Jonathan rubs his forehead.
Now, before I tell you about … I think it’s important to mention that I had no romantic notions about Greenland. I was curious, yes, even excited to be finally going there. Perhaps because I knew it would be my last summer doing field work. (I’d promised Judith.) But I never thought, I never expected … to … to … Look, I went there to do research, to collect ice samples, to ask questions …
Jonathan smiles.
At my wedding, my mother joked that I was born with a silver question mark in my mouth. The story goes that the first word I spoke as a toddler was ‘Why?,’ and that I haven’t stopped since. She got the requisite laughs, and I remember grinning sheepishly at Judith. She shrugged, you know, as if to say, ‘What can you do? She’s right.’
I’m not gonna lie to you. That moment gave me pause. Because the thought