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    The Watershed
    The Watershed
    The Watershed
    Ebook249 pages1 hour

    The Watershed

    By Annabel Soutar

    ()

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    About this ebook

    How much do we value clean water? Enough to stop our industrialized way of life from degrading it? The documentary play The Watershed follows an artist and her family in the struggle to chart a sustainable course between economic prosperity and environmental stewardship.

    Largely constructed from original interviews conducted by the playwright, The Watershed brings to the stage a multiplicity of ideological perspectives and conflicting visions for Canada’s natural resources, and its characters speak the words of real Canadians from all across the political spectrum.

    As the play reaches its boiling point, one thing becomes abundantly clear: a contemporary play about water in Canada must also be about oil. And so the playwright and family travel to Alberta’s tar sands, encountering along the way some of the world’s great freshwater scientists, some of Canada’s fiercest environmental activists, and impassioned individuals at work in the country’s burgeoning oil sector.

    Policy is anything but dry in The Watershed; in fact, it holds startling implications for our national identity and future.

    Cast of eight women and men.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTalonbooks
    Release dateJun 15, 2016
    ISBN9780889229891
    The Watershed
    Author

    Annabel Soutar

    Annabel Soutar is a Montreal-based playwright and theatre producer. In 2000 she co-founded the theatre company Porte Parole Productions with actor Alex Ivanovici, and she has acted as artistic director of the company since its inception. Annabel takes a documentary approach to theatre and since 1998 has applied it to her original plays, Novembre, 2000 Questions, Santé!, Seeds, Import/Export, and Sexy béton. In 2012 Seeds was published in both English (Talonbooks) and French (Les Editions ecosociété) and presented across Canada in Montreal (Centaur Theatre), Calgary (Theatre Junction), Vancouver (push Festival for the Performing Arts), and in Ottawa (National Arts Centre canada) in a production directed by Chris Abraham. Also in 2012, Annabel was commissioned with Chris Abraham of Crow’s Theatre to write a new documentary play about fresh water for the 2015 Toronto Pan American/Para Pan American Games cultural program, PANAMANIA. That play, The Watershed, premiered to great acclaim at the Berkeley Street Theatre (Canadian Stage) in Toronto during the games from July 12 to 19, 2015. Soutar lives in Montreal with Ivanovici and their two daughters Ella and Beatrice.

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      Book preview

      The Watershed - Annabel Soutar

      CHARACTERS

      (in order of appearance)

      ANNABEL: a Montreal-based documentary theatre creator, early forties

      ALEX: playwright’s husband and father of Ella and Beatrice, early forties

      ELLA: Annabel and Alex’s daughter, age ten

      BEATRICE: Annabel and Alex’s daughter, age eight

      NEWS ANCHOR: male, any age

      JANICE DEAN: reporter, Fox News Weather Center, mid-forties

      ELLIOT: plumber, sixties

      SHELLY GLOVER: then federal minister of Canadian heritage, late forties

      MICHAEL CHAN: then Ontario minister of tourism, culture, and sport, sixties

      ROB FORD: then mayor of Toronto, forties

      DON SHIPLEY: Pan Am Games creative director for arts and culture, festivals, sixties

      DIANE ORIHEL: Ph.D. candidate in ecology at the University of Alberta and director of the Coalition to Save ELA, thirties

      CHRIS ABRAHAM: artistic director of Crow’s Theatre in Toronto, Annabel’s co-production partner, forties

      HAZEL: Chris’s daughter, age seven, friend of Ella and Beatrice

      DR. HENRY (HANK) VENEMA: vice-president, business development, International Institute for Sustainable Development, forties

      DR. DAVID SCHINDLER: University of Alberta ecology professor and freshwater scientist, sixties

      MAUDE BARLOW: national chairperson for the Council of Canadians, sixties

      SUSANNE McCREA: executive director, Boreal Forest Network, forties

      RAMBLING DAN FRECHETTE: singer-songwriter, thirties

      CAROLINE: Annabel’s friend, forties

      GRANDPA: Ian, Annabel’s father, seventies

      GRANNY: Helgi, Annabel’s mother, seventies

      JAMES: Annabel’s brother, uncle to Ella and Beatrice, forties

      ABBY: James’s wife, aunt to Ella and Beatrice, forties

      STEPHEN HARPER: then prime minister of Canada, fifties

      ELOISE MITCHELL: then Department of Fisheries and Oceans communications manager, forties

      DAVE GILLIS: then Department of Fisheries and Oceans assistant deputy minister, late sixties

      DR. MAGGIE XENOPOULOS: professor of aquatic science, Trent University, thirties

      DR. PAUL FROST: Maggie’s husband, limnologist and professor of aquatic science, Trent University, thirties

      KENNEDY STEWART: then NDP MP for Burnaby-Douglas, fifties

      DAVID MCGUINTY: then Liberal MP for Ottawa South, fifties

      MICHELLE REMPEL: then CPC MP for Calgary Nose Hill, parliamentary secretary to the minister of the environment, thirties

      LAURIN LIU: then NDP MP for Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, twenties

      GARY GOODYEAR: then CPC MP for Cambridge, fifties

      ACTING SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE (BARRY DEVOLIN): then CPC MP for Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock, fifties

      CAMERON: CBC TV reporter, mid-forties

      ANGELA: CBC TV producer, early thirties

      JOHN: CBC TV cameraman, sixties

      ADÈLE HURLEY: director, Program on Water Issues, University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs, fifties

      JOE OLIVER: then federal minister of natural resources, CPC MP for Eglinton-Lawrence, early seventies

      CLAUDIA BARILÀ: Annabel’s friend and spouse of Cirque du Soleil and One Drop Foundation co-founder Guy Laliberté, thirties

      DR. MIKE PATERSON: then ELA senior research scientist, late fifties

      ASSISTANT TO SENATOR SEIDMAN: female, thirties

      OIL MAN: an executive vice-president (sustainability) for a large oil sands company, forties

      JIAN GHOMESHI: then host of CBC Radio show Q, forties

      KATHLEEN WYNNE: Liberal premier of Ontario, sixties

      CAROL OFF: host of CBC Radio show As It Happens, sixties

      GREG RICKFORD: then CPC MP for Kenora, fifties

      LIISA: Hazel’s mother and Chris’s wife, forties

      FIRST NATIONS ELDER: seventies

      FILM NARRATOR: thirties

      MALE SUSHI DINER: thirties

      FEMALE SUSHI DINER: thirties

      OIL SANDS TOUR PILOT: male, thirties

      Other characters, played by various actors: two waitresses, workman, Canadian Press reporter

      Approximate run time: 3 hours, including one 20-minute intermission

      ACT 1

      SCENE 1

      ALEX, ANNABEL, ELLA, and BEATRICE are sitting on the front stoop of their house in the Plateau Mont-Royal neighbourhood of Montreal. ELLA and BEATRICE are eating ice cream cones. ALEX and ANNABEL are looking at their smartphones. It is an unseasonably hot, late October afternoon in 2012.

      ANNABEL

      I called the plumber. (pause) Do you think it’s the best way to start the research?

      ALEX

      I think … water is a big subject. (pause) You gotta start somewhere.

      ANNABEL

      I know.

      ALEX

      So when’s he coming?

      ANNABEL

      Sunday. It’s his only day off.

      ALEX

      It’s our only day off.

      ANNABEL

      Darling, our life is a day off.

      Breaking news from the Fox News Weather Center, October 25, 2012.

      NEWS ANCHOR

      And a Fox News Alert happening now on Hurricane Sandy. That storm already slamming Cuba, now we have brand new tracking which shows where this massive system might be heading next. And it is not good news for those who live in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. Janice Dean has the latest from the Fox News Extreme Weather Center. What’s goin’ on, J.D.?

      JANICE DEAN

      If this track comes true it is the worst-case scenario, John. Right now this storm looks like it’s going to be headed for millions of people. If you live across the mid-Atlantic, up to Maine and eastern Canada, you need to be paying very, very close attention. The worst-case scenario happening right now, people. I am not just standing here making this stuff up. We are going to see torrential rain and flooding inland, high winds – significant power outages that could last for weeks for millions of people. John, our mouths have just dropped at the latest tracking system that shows this storm heading right for us!

      The sound of the storm arrives in the family’s universe. ALEX, ANNABEL, ELLA, and BEATRICE sit transfixed by the oncoming storm. It appears to slam directly into their house before they can even react.

      SCENE 2

      Two days later. Sound of very loud drying machines. The house is occupied by four industrial-sized dryer fans blowing air up into huge holes in the home’s walls and ceilings. ELLIOT is ringing the front doorbell. ANNABEL sees him through the window.

      ANNABEL

      Oh shit … shoot … the plumber! Alex! Elliot’s here!

      ALEX

      Who?

      ANNABEL

      The plumber!

      ALEX

      What?!

      ANNABEL opens the front door. We can hear her dialogue with ELLIOT now that she’s outside. Sound of a dog barking furiously inside the house.

      ANNABEL

      Elliot, I’m so sorry.

      ELLIOT

      Is this a bad time?

      ANNABEL

      No, it’s actually perfect. You won’t believe what happened. Come in.

      ELLIOT enters the noisy household.

      ELLIOT

      Wow!

      ANNABEL

      Can I get you a glass of water or something?

      ELLIOT

      No, I’m good. Jesus!

      ANNABEL turns off the dryer fans one by one.

      Offstage sound of Katy Perry’s Extraterrestrial.

      ANNABEL

      Alex! Girls! Elliot is here!

      ALEX

      (offstage) Okay, girls! Turn it off!

      ELLIOT

      Lemme guess … your pipes couldn’t handle the storm?

      ANNABEL

      Yes, and the speedway got disconnected somehow. But it’s okay – the insurance is covering it. We have to redo all the bathrooms. Girls!

      ELLIOT

      Jeez. Sorry about the piano.

      ANNABEL

      Yeah. (pause) Elliot, I just want to say, um, you know we would have hired your company to do the work but –

      ELLIOT

      You don’t even have to say it … I know. The insurance guys always have their own plumbing teams.

      ELLIOT glances around the house imagining all the money he could have made.

      ALEX

      (offstage) I SAID TURN IT OFF!!

      Music stops abruptly.

      ALEX enters, followed by ELLA.

      ALEX

      Elliot, how are you?

      ELLIOT

      Always a pleasure, Mr. Ivanovici. (to ELLA) Hello, I’m Elliot.

      ELLA

      Hi.

      ELLIOT

      What’s your name?

      ELLA

      Um, Ella.

      ELLIOT

      Ella. Like Elliot.

      ALEX

      It’s very similar. You wanna shake Elliot’s hand?

      ELLA hesitates.

      ELLIOT

      How old are you, Ella?

      ELLA

      Ten.

      ELLIOT

      Give me five!

      ELLA slaps ELLIOT’s hand half-heartedly. BEATRICE enters.

      BEATRICE

      Mama, I’m hungry. Can I have a Fruit Roll-Up?

      ELLA

      Oh, me too!

      ELLIOT

      Hi!

      BEATRICE

      Hi.

      ANNABEL

      Bibi, would you like to meet Elliot first?

      ELLIOT

      What’s your name?

      Pause.

      ANNABEL

      Can you say hello to Elliot?!

      ELLIOT

      Hi! I’m Elliot. How are you?

      BEATRICE

      I’m Beatrice.

      ELLIOT

      Hi, Beatrice! How old are you?

      BEATRICE

      Eight.

      Pause.

      ELLIOT

      Okay then, uh, whenever you’re ready …

      ANNABEL passes BEATRICE and ELLA two Fruit Roll-Ups – extremely long, sticky fake-fruit snacks that the girls will unspool and play with during the interview.

      ANNABEL

      So the reason I asked Elliot to come to the house is because I thought, as a point of departure for a play about water, that we need to become more in tune with how water enters, circulates, and leaves our house – and Beatrice, you can suck on that, but maybe a little more discreetly please – because we don’t even really know how water gets into our house, right?

      ELLA

      Yes, we do. By pipes.

      ANNABEL

      Okay, but –

      ELLIOT

      That’s correct, Ella!

      ANNABEL

      But do you know how the pipes get in here?

      BEATRICE

      Yeah, from underground.

      ELLIOT

      That’s right. You girls are good!

      BEATRICE

      And the pipes go all around the house and all over the country!

      ELLIOT

      They do! They do!

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