Damian Tarnopolsky

Winner of the Voaden Prize

Staged readings:

Kingston WritersFest, directed by Craig Walker

Village Playhouse, Toronto

Stage Ready script available from Canadian Play Outlet for amateur productions

Setting

The present.

A modern meeting room in a university: boardroom table, office chairs, AV unit, etc. The action takes place over the course of one afternoon as the final oral examination of Hannah Ward’s PhD thesis – her defence – is ending. In an oral defence the student is questioned about her thesis by her supervisor, committee members, and an external examiner. It finishes with the examiners voting on whether or not the student passes and receives the degree.

At curtain: Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin playing. Images of woods and frozen lakes. Pots and pans upstage, a harmonium and an astrolabe and a samovar and a liquor cabinet, typewriters, other imaginative antiques. Lots of books.

As the play begins, the exam has been going on for about three hours: the chairs have become painful, the air close.

Characters

Hannah Ward, a graduate student, mid 20s. On a mission. Insightful, cutting, and vulnerable.

Tom Solloway, a biographer, 50ish. August, well-fed, charming, and elusive.

Barney Patricchio, a young professor, 30ish. Nervous, besotted, smart. (And: Tom when he was decades younger.)

Galina Jackson, a dean, mid 40s. Ambitious, perfectly dressed, and keen to maintain her assurance. (And: Marilyn, a powerful New York literary agent.)

Alfred Whinny, an old professor, 70ish. Doddery and narcissistic, but perhaps not such a fool as he appears. (And: Armin, an eccentric Slovenian publisher.)

Janis Chung, a middle-aged professor, mid 50s. Caring and honourable, someone who actually listens, a good person. (And: Claudia, an able office assistant.)  

1.

GALINA

If there are no other questions--