Janet Munsil
playwright, director, teacher, instigator
Be Still
VISUAL THEATRE
75 minutes
4 WOMEN (one child)
2 MEN
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AUTHOR NOTE
Synopsis
A fictional play inspired by the multiple-exposure work of Victorian photographer Hannah Maynard. Consumed by grief at the loss of her daughter, Hannah submerges herself in morbid photographic work and the clockwork routines of daily life with her husband. Intrigued by a friend's Spiritualist leanings, Hannah questions mysterious goings-on in her studio, and wonders if a reunion with her child is possible. But the ghostly presence she encounters is her own double, Hannah 2.
Press
“Captures beautifully the Victorian obsession with death and the afterlife. It's a spookily sweet nightmare , , , of grief surpressed to the verge of hysteria. Be Still expresses an often breathtaking vision.” — TIMES COLONIST
“Munsil's new play is written from an 1890s sensibility: an era on the brink of amazing scientific advances yet still attracted to the occult: seances, apparitions, mediums.” — VANCOUVER COURIER
Script
Production
History
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Developed with the assistance of Playwrights Theatre Centre, Vancouver.
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Reading at PTCs New Play Festival, dir. DD Kugler.
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2001 Co-produced by Richmond Gateway Theatre and Belfry Theatre, dir. Stephanie Kirkland.
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Nominated for nine Jessie Richardson awards including Best Original Script, and the Sydney Risk Award for Outstanding Script by an Emerging Writer.
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