In association with THE CANADIAN STAGE COMPANY
From the novel by Helen Humphreys
Arranged for the stage by Anne Hardcastle
STUDY GUIDE
FOR
WILD DOGS
Production Sponsor:
This study guide was written and researched by Alexandra Rambusch, Assistant
Director of Wild Dogs with consultation by Rebecca Peirson, Director of
Marketing and Audience Development, Nightwood Theatre, September 2008.
For further information on this study guide please contact Rebecca Peirson either
by email at [email protected] or by phone at (416) 944.1740 x8
www.nightwoodtheatre.net
This document may be used for educational purposes only.
About This Study Guide
Portions of this study guide are formatted in easy-to-copy single pages. They may be
used separately or in any combination that works for your classes.
Page
Section Title
May Be Used To:
3
An Overview
Introduce students to story, setting,
characters, themes and adaptation of
literature for the stage
7
The Production 2008/9
Program detail and background on
Nightwood Theatre
8
Suggested Activities
Suggest ways to extend students’
learning in the classroom
10
What to Watch and Listen
for in this Production
Guide students’ viewing of the
production
10
Interview with Anne Hardcastle,
Arranger for the Stage
Offer insight into the creative process
12
Interview with Author
Helen Humphreys
Offer insight into the creative process
14
Scenes from Wild Dogs
Read scenes for classroom work
21
Resources
Explore web and print resources
This play is suitable for students 14 years of age and up.
2
Wild Dogs Study Guide
AN OVERVIEW
Story
Arranged for the stage by Anne Hardcastle from Helen Humphreys’ book, Wild Dogs
explores wildness and domestication, loss and hope, and identity and belonging, through
the story of seven people in an industrial town reeling from the closure of the furniture
factory that had been its center.
Each evening at dusk six people gather at the edge of the woods outside the town
calling their dogs back – dogs that have been dumped by their families and have turned
wild. Alice, on the run from a bad relationship; Rachel a wildlife biologist, distant from all
but the wolves she studies; Jamie, a young boy with an abusive step father and no way
out; Lily, brain damaged as a child and a child still; Walter, only just tolerated by his
daughter and her new family; and Malcolm, an artist, struggling with mental illness. The
losses they have suffered have unmoored them from themselves. Drawn together by
need and hope this unlikely group forms a community, until an act of violence strikes
unexpectedly. Wild Dogs delves into what is required of us to venture into the
wilderness that is love, to belong or to stand alone.
Setting
Woods behind the fields on Cooper’s farm, bar, cabin, industrial town and surrounding
area, action moves among the present, past and future.
Characters
Alice: Thirty-five years old. She rides a motorbike, has had many different jobs and
hasn’t really lived up to her potential. An open, caring person who’s had a tough life. Her
dog is Hawk, a husky/shepherd mix. Her boyfriend John sent Hawk away.
Rachel: Thirty-five years old. Wildlife Biologist who studies wolves. She is emotionally
guarded. Her dog is Lopez, an orphan wolf pup who was part of the pack she observed.
Lopez ran away when Rachel took him off the leash and let him run free.
Jamie: Thirteen years old. Scruffy kid abandoned by his father, beaten by his stepfather. He appears rebellious and defiant but desperately needs love. His dog is Scout, a
pit bull. His stepfather sent Scout away.
Lily: Girl in her twenties. A sensitive soul, she is brain-damaged and exists in a child-like
world. Her dog is Dog, a mostly black lab mutt. Her parents sent Dog away.
Malcolm: Artist in his forties, mentally unstable. He appears normal but something
about him makes one uneasy. Lives with his mother, he says. His dog is Sidney, an
apricot standard poodle. He left Sidney with a neighbor who let Sidney out without a
leash and Sidney ran off.
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Walter: Widower in his seventies. He lives in the basement of his married daughter’s
house. He is a dawdling old man, isolated and a bit of a hypochondriac. His daughter’s
focus on her husband and new baby means his only friend is his dog Georgie, a Jack
Russell terrier. His daughter and son-in-law sent Georgie away.
Spencer: Average middle aged married guy in his forties, with a teenage son named
Tyler. An unemployed former factory worker, emasculated by his situation, he is a ticking
time bomb. Hunter.
Adaptation of Literature for the Stage
In Helen Humphreys’ book Wild Dogs, the story is told to us by each of its seven
characters. They speak directly to us and there is an intimacy between teller and
reader. In a series of individual chapters each speaks of the other characters, and the
events they shared, through the prism of their own unique perspective. We see that
reality is not an absolute; rather we each construct a reality, and “what is” lies in this
accumulation of realities, not in any individual perspective. Like Akira Kurosowa’s
famous film “Rashomon” (1950) in which the story of a crime and its aftermath is retold
from different points of view, Wild Dogs explores the effect of the subjectivity of
perception on recollection.
Poet and novelist Humphreys sites William Faulkner as a literary influence. In the
complex lyrical narrative of multiple voices she creates in Wild Dogs can be seen the
connection she feels to his powerful use of stream of consciousness and multiple first
person narratives in “As I Lay Dying”. In fact, Humphreys prefaces Wild Dogs with the
quotation which gave Faulkner’s book its title:
“As I lay dying
the woman with the dog’s eyes
would not close my eyes for me …”
(Homer’s “The Odyssey”, Book XI, translated by William Faulkner)
Adapting traditional narrative literature and making it compelling theatre is always a
challenge. The nature of each form and how the reader or audience member
experiences the form is very different. In the case of Wild Dogs there are additional
challenges posed by the unconventional narrative structure and rich language of the
book.
Anne Hardcastle, who adapted the book into the play, was determined to retain the
primacy of the language and develop a theatrical form that would reconceive its
unconventional structure for the stage. Kelly Thornton, who is directing the production
and who has worked with Hardcastle on the script’s evolution, describes this successful
adaptation:
“It is an extremely theatrical piece, unique to what is most often portrayed on our
stages…One of the most interesting things about the script is that it exists on
multiple planes of narrative. In one breath it speaks to the audience in
monologue, the next it slips into dialogue with a fellow actor, then swiftly a
solipsistic moment. And this ongoing relationship with the audience is especially
interesting. They become an active scene partner. Adapted from the novel this
makes sense as the audience, like the reader feels the story is being told directly
and for the benefit of them… It also plays past, present and future almost
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simultaneously. As though all of this had happened and is also is happening.
The story chases you.”
Themes
Loss and Hope
Loss is the pivot point in Wild Dogs. Like stones dropped in water it radiates in
intersecting circles from the town’s loss of the factory, from the losses experienced by
the individual characters we meet, and from the fear of the possibility of losses yet to
come.
The existence of the pack of wild dogs can be seen, in part, as a manifestation of this
chain of loss. The reasons the dogs have been sent away reflect the loss of love, of
jobs, of status and of identity. And the absence of the dogs in their lives causes a loss of
connection, comfort and momentum in their humans. They are stuck. And yet they
hope that their dogs will come back to them, and together form a “pack” based on that
hope. Hope is the bulwark against despair. “Were it not for hope the heart would
break” says the Scottish proverb.
The theme of loss and hope also plays out in relationships that develop between and
among them. The desire for connection, and the act of opening one’s heart to another
require great acts of courage. Love is an act of hope, of affirmation, in the face of
experience. What is the act of rejecting love?
The targeting of the pack of dogs is also a manifestation of loss. The unemployed men,
once providers and heads of families, have lost this identity and have lost hope. They
join together to forge a new group identity, and create a pack whose purpose is
destruction.
Belonging and Identity
Humans, like dogs, are social creatures. Over the course of our lives we are members
of several groups and may live in many different worlds; for instance the world of family,
school, peers, community, work, religious and political belief. We derive our identity from
our context.
When we define ourselves in accordance with our group we are seen as supporting our
shared group identity and conforming, when we define ourselves in opposition to our
group we are seen as rebelling and putting ourselves outside the group. Of course
sometimes rebellion against one group is a statement about the primacy of membership
in another group. When teenagers rebel against the world of their parents they are often
asserting that their membership in their own peer group is the stronger in expressing
their identity. There is also the situation in which we are forced to become outsiders,
when we are excluded from what we see as our group by virtue of something beyond
our decision to stay or go.
Whether we see ourselves through the reflected definition of our group, our human pack,
or whether we define ourselves as outsiders, as “lone wolves”, belonging is an essential
element of identity.
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Wild Dogs explores the dichotomy between ourselves as lone wolves and our desire to
run with the pack. It observes the consequences of being forced out of our groups by
circumstances beyond our control, like unemployment, age, disability and mental illness.
It examines those decisions we make which set us adrift from our essential selves.
Wildness and Domestication
Six people stand on the threshold of the woods and try to call their dogs back from
wildness. As they attempt to assert the connection between themselves and their once
domesticated dogs they struggle with the nature of wildness and domestication. As
they form relationships with each other they are confronted by the wildness that lies
within.
The pack of wild dogs, once companions, now re-enter the world of men to find food. A
group of men come together as predators, to cross into the wilderness to hunt the dogs
down.
Wildness is always there, both in the dogs and in themselves. What calls it forth? How
thin is the veneer of domestication? How strong is the lure of familiar, the tame?
Wild Dogs explores the theme of love as a wildness within us, and as a wilderness that
requires courage and a leap of faith.
Alice says, “Love is like those wild dogs. If it hunts you down, it will not let you go. And
what you can never know from the beginning is how hard or long you will love
something..”
The way of love is not
A subtle argument,
The door there lies devastation.
Birds make great sky circles
Of their freedom.
How do they do it?
They fall, and falling
They’re given wings.
(Rumi, 13th century Persian poet, 30 September 1207-17 December 1273)
Wild Dogs asks us to consider what our essential selves are.
What moves us to risk, to cross into the unknown?
What price do we pay for immobility or for possibility?
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WILD DOGS PRODUCTION 2008
Creative Team
Director
Set & Costume Designer
Lighting Designer
Sound Designer
Assistant Director
Stage Manager
Assistant Stage Manager
Kelly Thornton
Teresa Przybylski
Kimberly Purtell
Jennifer Gillmor
Alexandra Rambusch
Kristen Kitcher
Sandi Becker
Cast
Alice
Rachel
Jamie
Lily
Malcolm
Walter
Spencer
Tamara Podemski
Raven Dauda
Stephen Joffe
Taylor Trowbridge
Steve Cumyn
Les Carlson
Tony Nappo
About Nightwood Theatre
As Canada’s national women’s theatre since 1979, Nightwood has launched the careers
of many of the leading theatre artists in the country creating a repertoire of Canadian
plays including Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet,
Djanet Sears’ Harlem Duet and Sonja Mills’ The Danish Play.
Nightwood has touched the lives of thousands in our history and today we are thriving.
Nightwood has won Canada’s highest literary and performing arts awards and more than
ever our success proves the need for theatre that gives voice to women and celebrates
the diversity of Canadian society. Nightwood is a national theatre and we remain actively
engaged in mentoring young women and promoting women’s place on the local, national
and international stage.
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SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES
PRE-Production Activities
Making connections between text and personal experiences
People and Paws
Create a list of character traits (loyalty, kindness, empathy, fear, selfishness, excitement,
etc.). Cut out a copy of each word. Have students draw a chart on the board with DOGS
as one heading, HUMANS as the another and SHARED as the third. Only provide
students with one set of character traits cut outs, at first. Get the students to accredit one
group (dog or human) or the other with each character trait. Allow them to discuss their
choices and walk through the process together. Discuss the challenges in choosing
between dogs or humans for each personality trait. Discuss similarities between the
two species.
Making connections between text and world knowledge
Into the fire
Have each student write down names of things/people/realities that s/he holds dear. The
top 10. Then cut them out so that there is one item each on 10 pieces of paper. Each
student must then take turns throwing them one by one into the fire in order of least
importance to most importance.
Discuss the following questions:
What do you END up with?
What is most essential to your survival?
Present the students with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and have them form discussion
groups.
How do the ten items you have listed fit into Maslow’s schema?
Would you choose differently if we were focused not on survival but on happiness?
How would you rank human “needs” from physiological needs to growth needs?
Abraham Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, from Motivation and Personality (1943)
1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep,
etc.
2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.
3. Belongingness and Love needs - work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.
4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status,
dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.
5. Self-Actualization needs - realising personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking
personal growth and peak experiences.
POST-Production Activity
Making connections between text and personal experiences & world knowledge
Social Animals and Lone Wolves
Distribute the “Understanding Pack Behavior” information that follows the activity
description.
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Give each student a card that explains their “status” in the pack, and provide the class
with a situation where there is a fixed resource and rules of behavior.
Have the students interpret actions of other players – name their emotion/situation.
Have the students draw a chart on the board with PACKS as one heading and
RULES/ROLES as the other. Discuss ideas of group membership and status.
What packs do you see around you in school and in your community (i.e. family,
religious, affinity groups, teams, social groups/cliques)?
What are the rules of the packs?
What packs do you belong to? What do you get out of membership?
What packs are you excluded from? Have you lost anyone to another pack (i.e. clique)?
Have you tried to call them back?
Understanding Pack Behavior
Wild canines have been around for millions of years but their domestication as pets is a
relatively recent event. They are social creatures and form bonds with “their” humans as
part of their social group. Dogs retain the instinctual behaviors and social organization
that enabled them to survive. In daily life as pets many of these behaviors are
unwelcome, and are actively discouraged by their humans. In the company of other
dogs these instinctual behaviors and rules of interaction assert themselves.
“Dogs have a well developed social system. This system establishes orderly relations
among its members. There are two separate dominance orders within each pack: a
male order and a female order. The highest ranking member of each order occupies the
“alpha” position. “Alpha” is followed by the “beta” individual and so forth until the last
position which is called “omega”. Very few individuals are considered equal. The
ultimate dominant individual can be either male or female and that individual directs the
activities of the pack and takes the initiate in reacting to intrusions. The leader of the
pack initiates the play pattern, which direction the pack will travel; when to rest and when
it is time to hunt. A well established leader rarely has his authority challenged. Because
dog packs are highly organized ... order is the rule. Dogs within each pack generally
interact predictably and the social structure of the groups is maintained. Much of the
behavior is directed toward the goal of either maintaining ones social status or possibly
raising it… Any drastic disturbance such as the loss or addition of pack members can
trigger a status rearrangement… An important contributing factor to harmony within a
pack is the display of submission. Each and every member is constantly watchful and
interested in all socially important happenings within the pack…The role of the omega
dog is crucial to the stability of day to day pack life. Usually this animal is the outcast and
is not allowed to join in pack activities. Some scientists believe that the omega position
offers a way for wolves to disperse energy. If the omega strays from allotted territory or
attempts to join in on a feeding, the pack will persecute the omega until order is restored.
Energy is released during the confrontation and this is immediately followed by a period
of peace.
A dog’s emotional state is obvious to its fellow pack members - they do not conceal their
emotions. Certain postures and gestures express the inner state of a dog. Other dogs
notice these patterns and will respond in characteristic ways depending on their own
feelings. A pattern of behavior involves the entire physical posture of a dog….
Whimpering, growling or other sounds may also accompany these positions. Facial
expressions indicate one level of behavioral change. For example, ears pinned back with
drawn-back lips indicate aggression because the dog is insecure. Ears forward with full
tooth display indicate a full threat by a dominant dog. The position of the dog's tail
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coupled with other parts of the body can indicate the mood of the dog. The range of
noticeable emotion varies anywhere from happy to depressed. “(from http://www.italiangreyhound.net/packbehave.htm)
WHAT TO WATCH AND LISTEN FOR IN THIS PRODUCTION
1.
The stage design for Wild Dogs functions as much more than traditional sets
which create a facsimile of a real location. To create a physical context for this play’s
poetic landscape, director Kelly Thornton and designers Teresa Przybylski and Kimberly
Purtell have transcended a literal representation of woods, town, and cabin. They have
used a combination of set and lighting to create an innovative stage environment. How
do these elements act as psychological expressions of character? How do they act to
interpret, contrast, or enhance the action? How does the cabin in the woods act as
another character in this play?
2.
The narrative structure of the play exists on multiple planes. Actors speak
dialogue, monologue, narrative, and directly address the audience, so they are speaking
in multiple “voices”. They are also speaking about the same events from the perspective
of different times. For instance, sometimes they are in the present moment of the action,
sometimes they speak about events as in the past. In addition to speaking to each other
and directly to the audience what other “voices” do you hear? How do the actors
differentiate these voices, what do they do? Think of examples of what individual actors
do when they are changing “voices” during a speech, or series of lines.
AN INTERVIEW ANNE HARDCASTLE, ARRANGER FOR THE STAGE
Anne Hardcastle Bio
Anne Hardcastle trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where
she worked extensively in theatre and television before she emigrated to Canada in
1969. Since then she has taught at the Universities of Regina, Dalhousie, Brock and
Queen's. She has also taught some special projects at the National Theatre School.
She continues to act and direct professionally and has worked for the Globe Theatre in
Regina, Sudbury Theatre Centre and Theatre New Brunswick among others. She has
also appeared in numerous shows at The Thousand Islands Playhouse including Noises
Off, The Secret Garden and Arms and the Man.
What was it about the novel that made you think it would make compelling
theatre?
I really like the way Helen writes so quietly about potentially explosive issues. There
seems to be a sense of danger in the calm. I feel that if I breathe a little louder than
normal some thing out there might find me. A bit like sleeping alone in the woods when
each leaf flutter feels like an earthquake. The image I couldn’t shake free from in Wild
Dogs was the moment Lily says ‘Hello’ to Spencer. That moment catapulted me into
‘seeing’ the novel in terms of theatre.
The language in the novel is so elegant, I didn’t want to lose it. So when I told Helen that
I thought her book would make terrific theatre, I explained that I thought it would work
10
only if her language was retained as much as possible even though I knew that the
structure of the novel would be rebuilt.
What are you trying to do with the script? What kind of theatre excites you?
I wanted to see how far I could take the idea of creating a stage piece without losing
Helen’s language and style. I guess you could call it ‘story theatre for grownups’.
I like theatre that pushes me out of my comfort zone.
What would you have a young audience take away from their experience of Wild
Dogs?
The excitement of being in the same time and place as the actors who are telling the
story. Recognizing that what they experienced in that particular performance was unique
and that their presence modifies/influences a performance in all sorts of subtle and
inexpressible ways. And hungry for more.
It takes an hour and a half to watch Wild Dogs, but it took Anne Hardcastle more
than nine drafts to write her adaptation. Here’s her personal account of the script
development process:
My very first draft was quite short. I saw the piece at that time primarily as a movement
piece. (I had worked with a dance company about 25 years ago. Not as a dancer but as
a director and I had written a ‘word score’ for the company). As I became more deeply
involved in re-structuring the novel, the primacy of the language reasserted itself and I
began to develop more scenes within the narrative.
To make a long story short: I built draft after draft; giving them titles like 5, 5amended, 5
changed again, 6, 6a,6b, and so on. I can’t remember what number I was at when Kelly
Thornton chose to direct the piece. Her input was vital. It was wonderful to sit across
the table from someone who had as much invested in the script as I. She asked if I could
‘fill out’ some of the characters. We discussed and argued about line order and who
should express a specific idea. Our conversations cleared the picture for me. A bit like
breathing onto my spectacles and then polishing them. Getting rid of the finger marks on
the lenses allowed me to focus better.
I’m writing this about 2 weeks before Kelly and the company start rehearsals for the
performance of Wild Dogs. This baby is out of my hands now. It has been hard to let go.
I am sure that Helen felt somewhat the same when she let me rampage through her
wonderful novel.
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AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR HELEN HUMPHREYS*
Helen Humphreys Bio
Helen Humphreys is the author of four books of poetry, four novels and a book of literary
non-fiction. Her first novel, Leaving Earth, won the City of Toronto Book Award and was
a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her second novel, Afterimage, won the
Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, was nominated for the Commonwealth Prize and
was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. The Lost Garden was a CBC Canada
Reads selection and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Wild Dogs won
the Lambda Award for fiction. The Frozen Thames, was a #1 bestseller in Canada. Her
latest book, Coventry, releases September 2008. Her work has been translated into
many languages. Afterimage and Wild Dogs have both been optioned for film.
On Writing Wild Dogs
I got the idea for Wild Dogs from a small article in the paper that detailed an attack by
wild dogs on a woman jogger in Detroit. The woman was killed while running through a
wooded area just outside of the city. The article mentioned that many North American
cities have packs of wild dogs living on their fringes – dogs that have been dumped by
their owners – and I became intrigued by this fact. I liked the idea of stripping a story
down to its bones, of using a single metaphor to fuel it, and peopling it with multiple
voices. I liked the idea of exploring wilderness and domesticity through a pack of wild
dogs and their former owners, and wanted each of the characters to embody a different
form of wildness. I worked at having the pace and structure of the book mirror the
subject it was portraying. I wanted a fast pace, wanted the prose to break into a run, the
way the dogs ran through the fields of Cooper’s farm. And I wanted the story to circle
round, turn back on itself, the way an animal will circle before settling.
I did research on wolves and wild dogs but, more important, I spent a lot of time in
nature, just observing what I could of the creatures who lived there. What I learned is
that there is a rhythm and lyricism in everything in the natural world, and I tried to put
that rhythm, and that simple lyric truth, into my story.
Your earlier novels were all set in a specific historical period and details from
those periods form an integral part of the story. Why did you decide to move to a
contemporary setting in Wild Dogs?
I wanted to write a story that was stripped down to essential elements: voice; a single
extended metaphor; place as archetypal rather than specific. There is a reliance when
writing historical fiction on the historical detail, and I wanted to see if I could write a
compelling story without leaning on the past.
Like the famous Japanese film “Rashomon” Wild Dogs explores an incident from
different perspectives. What drew you to this narrative form?
Increasingly I think that life is a meshing of different perspectives, that ‘truth’ is entirely
subjective and, therefore, non-existent. I wanted to write a story that reflected how
distinct and separate from one another we really are, even when we’re experiencing the
same event.
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Wild Dogs explores the theme of love brilliantly against a background of our
relationship to nature and wilderness. Can you talk about this theme with regard
to the novel?
I think that love is kind of a wilderness, and to venture into the unknown of it requires a
certain amount of courage and optimism. And, just like a physical wilderness, one never
knows what is waiting out there, or what mistakes will be too costly to recover from. And
just like the wild dogs in the novel, love can turn from something tame into something
that will rip your heart out. The risk is always there and one is never really safe from
danger. But this is why we crave it.
Last summer they were doing road work in my neighborhood, ripping up the streets to
replace sewage and water pipes. The hole they made in one particular street was
massive, had little wooden bridges crossing the chasm, showed layers of limestone this
city – Kingston – is built on. Whenever I went out at night I walked by the crater, and
always there were other people there – all of us staring into the hole, commenting on
what was visible that had previously been hidden. And I realized that we liked this, that
we found the destruction exciting, and I think that as humans we alternately crave order
and chaos. We want the nice, paved over street and tidy houses, but, after a time, we
grow bored with that and want to destroy it all and start again. This is what love can do
for us. It is perhaps the only thing that can satisfy these conflicting desires in us, and
because of this we can never master it, can never truly know it. Love can put things to
rights, make us safe – and love can tear up the foundations and show us what we are
made of.
One of the wonderful aspects of this novel is your understanding of the
importance of dogs to people. Can you discuss this?
I like that dogs and humans can co-exist relatively amicably, both being social animals. I
like that dogs (like people) are opportunists and yet (unlike people) are so open and
honest in their dealings with the world. We have a lot to learn from all animals, I think,
but because dogs are capable of forming a bond with us we can learn an extraordinary
amount about them, and about ourselves, from our relationship with them.
* From Harper Collins
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SCENES FROM WILD DOGS
(Scenes have been selected to relate to the themes detailed in the Overview section)
Jamie no longer joins the others at the edge of the woods to call Scout back. He
has given up on getting his dog back. It has been almost a week since he left the
group.
SCENE 17
ALICE
Nights are better to work than days at the gas station. They are quieter. I can
read listen to the radio when there are no customers. This shift goes fairly
smoothly at the beginning. The flow of cars is steady until about nine o’clock and
then it eases off. I spread the newspaper out on the desk and start looking for
apartments for rent. This shift goes fairly smoothly at the beginning.
JAMIE
The robbery was never something I wanted to do.
ALICE
A car pulls up.
JAMIE
A gas station seemed a good place to rob.
ALICE
Not to the pumps but right up against the booth.
JAMIE
If we had to rob somewhere it seemed the best sort of place to rob. A gas
station.
ALICE
Four teenage boys spill out of the car.
JAMIE
There was just a woman in the booth.
ALICE
They jam themselves inside the booth.
JAMIE
Just a woman.
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ALICE
Then I see that one of the boys has a gun.
JAMIE
It was only because Tyler had just bought that gun and wanted to use it. A
woman is more afraid than a man.
ALICE
And that one of the boys is Jamie.
JAMIE
It was only when Tyler pulled the gun on the cashier and I looked up to make
sure I was out of range…
ALICE
Give me the money bitch.
JAMIE
That I saw the cashier was Alice.
ALICE
Give me the money bitch he said.
JAMIE
I didn’t want Alice to get hurt.
ALICE
This is all there is.
JAMIE
I liked her. Tyler liked that gun. What good was it to have a gun if you couldn’t
use it? Couldn’t use it to make someone afraid?
ALICE
Where’s the safe? Says the boy with the gun.
JAMIE
I suppose I should have done something.
ALICE
It’s bolted to the floor.
JAMIE
I wish I had something to move me the way the river moves what’s thrown into it.
ALICE
I don’t have the combination.
JAMIE
I can’t seem to run or fight. A wolf will fight and so will a rat.
ALICE
Who has the combination?
15
JAMIE
I don’t know what sort of animal that makes me.
ALICE
The manager. Call him.
JAMIE
Let’s just take the money and go.
ALICE
The boy with the gun presses it against my forehead.
JAMIE
Fuck. Don’t do that.
ALICE
Call him says the boy with the gun.
JAMIE
I see the swirling lights of the police car. Shit.
ALICE
The boys lunge at the door and I follow them out. Jamie come here.
JAMIE
She pulls me down quickly behind the oil display.
ALICE
The car with the boys in it squeals out of the parking lot. The police car squeals
after it. Lights on. Siren open. They’ll be caught. We have to get you away from
here.
JAMIE:
Alice. I didn’t know you worked here.
ALICE:
It’s okay. He is crying by the time we’re in the car and heading out of the parking
lot, away from the gas station He puts his hands up to his face and leans against
the side window. He sobs as though he’s drowning.
JAMIE:
They’ll kill me.
ALICE:
I don’t know whether he means his parents or the boys in the car. I’m taking you
to the cabin. Don’t worry.
16
SCENE 20
Lily has run away and gone into the woods to join the dogs. The others miss her
but it is not until the third day that they realize she might have gone into the
woods, and on the fourth day they go in to search for her. But they do not find
her. Then they hear that men have gone into the woods to hunt the wild dogs.
(The action in this scene takes place in two different time periods. Spencer and
Lily occupy one time period, Rachel, Alice and Jamie occupy another that is
slightly more in the future than that of Spencer and Lily).
RACHEL:
The men have already emerged from the woods.
SPENCER
There are words in my life I wish I’d never said.
LILY:
How long have I been here? I can’t remember what it was like before I came
here. This world is not like that other world. I know many new things.
SPENCER:
I wish I’d never told my wife that I loved her, because then I had to line up all my
actions with those words. I had to always act like it was true. And those three
words, I love you, should never be used if you don’t mean them.
LILY:
I don’t know what wakes me.
SPENCER:
My lying has meant I will never get to use them on anyone else.
LILY:
A sound.
SPENCER:
I went against my own truth, and there is really no coming back from that.
JAMIE:
We all see the hunters at the same time.
SPENCER:
My life is crap.
LILY:
I lie there, with the dogs curled close around me.
17
SPENCER:
My wife giving me shit.
LILY:
It is almost the night still, almost the day.
JAMIE:
They’re carrying things.
SPENCER:
We came on the dogs almost by accident.
RACHEL:
You look at me. I know we are thinking the same thing.
SPENCER:
I remember us all getting to the clearing at roughly the same time.
ALICE:
I put my hand on Jamie’s shoulder.
JAMIE:
What?
LILY:
There’s the sound again.
SPENCER:
I know I was the one who came out of the trees and was directly facing the den.
LILY:
Now I know what it is. Something I haven’t heard for a long time now.
SPENCER:
There were more dogs than I thought and even though we had the guns, there
was a moment when I was afraid of the dogs.
LILY:
A man’s voice. Then all the dogs are awake and bristling with anger.
JAMIE:
A man carries something in his arms.
SPENCER:
There was a huge dog that challenged us. It looked exactly like a wolf.
LILY:
No, I try to say to them. People are good.
JAMIE:
When he gets closer, I can see that it’s a dog.
SPENCER:
Tommy shot it first. It’s always a good idea to take the leader out.
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RACHEL:
That’s Lopez.
SPENCER:
A good hunter has respect for what he kills.
LILY:
I seem to have lost my words.
JAMIE:
A dead dog. There’s my dog. There’s Scout.
SPENCER:
The big dog was shot first and then a skinny one that looked to be part collie.
Someone tried to kill a black dog, but only shot it through the ear.
LILY:
It happens so quickly.
JAMIE:
There’s my dog. There’s Scout. That’s my dog.
SPENCER
Her giving me shit.
RACHEL:
The hunter pushes Jamie’s hands away. I’m sorry, he says. We need the dogs
for evidence.
SPENCER:
I had my gun raised.
JAMIE:
Evidence for what?
SPENCER:
I hadn’t shot anything yet. The dogs had stood up and taken a stand at the rear
of the den, growling and trying to stare us down.
LILY:
The men are coloured like the leaves and they are carrying guns. The dogs start
to growl and they back up against the fallen logs.
RACHEL:
I made a mistake.
SPENCER:
There is something else in the den.
RACHEL
I shouldn’t have taken Lopez as a pup.
LILY:
The men stop.
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RACHEL
I should have just let him die.
LILY
I think they have understood.
SPENCER:
It wasn’t a dog.
ALICE:
We stand by the truck at the edge of the woods as the hunters come out from the
trees with the bodies.
SPENCER:
But it was wild. I knew that.
LILY:
And then they raise the guns to their shoulders and the noise is the most terrible
noise I’ve ever heard, terrible and close.
SPENCER:
It struggled to get upright.
LILY:
They shoot the wolf dog and he squirms on the ground, yelping like a puppy.
They shoot him again and he is quiet.
SPENCER:
It was waving and moaning and starting to come towards me.
LILY:
Dog has been shot through the ear. There’s blood trickling down her lovely black
fur into her eyes.
SPENCER:
Then it made a screeching sound.
LILY:
Hello.
SPENCER:
And I shot it.
ALICE:
Lily is in the arms of the last man. She is still wearing the cardigan she always
had on.
RACHEL:
She has been shot in the head.
JAMIE:
They killed Lily, They killed my dog. (repeat as required)
20
RESOURCES
Child Abuse
The RCMP has created a fact sheet with tips for recognizing and responding to child
abuse.
www.rcmp.ca/ccaps/child_e.htm
Kid’s Help Phone website created for kids has a topics library of issues. Click on “Keep
Informed”.
www.kidshelpphone.ca
Online documents related to families
www.familyservicecanada.org/resources/index_e.html
Unemployment
Psychological effects of unemployment
http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/jbl02410.htm
http://www.cmha.ca/BINS/content_page.asp?cid=2-28-62
Factory/Plant Closing
From Toronto Star September 3, 2008
John Deere's rolling out of Ontario
Plant closure costs Welland 800 jobs
High dollar blamed for move to U.S., Mexico
Tony Van Alphen
BUSINESS REPORTER
Ontario's reeling manufacturing sector took another big hit yesterday as farm equipment giant
Deere & Co. revealed the closing of its major plant in Welland and the elimination of about 800
jobs.
The announcement comes days before the expected launch of a federal election in which the
economy is emerging as a central issue. Company and union officials primarily blamed a
continuing high Canadian dollar, which makes exports to the U.S. market more expensive, for the
closing of the plant.
Workers strode out of the sprawling plant in shock after senior executives of U.S.-based Deere
halted production for the day and told them the company will gradually shut down operations by
the end of November next year.
Deere will move output of grass mowers and front-end tractor loaders to two plants in Mexico and
transfer production of utility vehicles to Wisconsin. "This is absolutely devastating for the people
there and the whole Niagara region," said Hemi Mitic, a top official for the Canadian Auto
Workers. "The John Deere plant is a world-class operation."
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The Deere decision follows a long line of manufacturers who have announced reductions or
closings in southern Ontario in recent years because of the soaring dollar, a weakening U.S.
economy, stiff offshore competition and high energy and commodity costs.
Ontario's opposition parties claim the province has lost more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs in
the last four years. Union and company critics blasted the federal government again for ignoring
the plight of the sector, which is a key engine of the Canadian economy.
Last night, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion seized on the Deere cuts to slam Prime Minister
Stephen Harper. "Today, we have heard that again we are losing jobs in the manufacturing
sector," he said in Winnipeg, accusing the Harper government of taking a "laissez-faire, no-care"
approach to economic problems.
Federal officials expressed regret at the closing but noted the government has already taken
steps to counter the effects of the economic slowdown through accelerated capital cost allowance
write-offs and a $1 billion fund to assist workers and communities facing trouble in the
manufacturing sector.
"There are global economic factors that are putting pressure on our manufacturing sector," said
Chisholm Pothier, a spokesperson for Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. Dion also got in a dig at
Flaherty, saying that a key Conservative economic minister has "insulted the province of Ontario
and invited the world not to invest there." Toronto
Mayor David Miller said he hopes the loss of manufacturing jobs will be a major issue in the
upcoming federal election."I would expect that every party should have an economic strategy that
includes manufacturing and supports manufacturing. It's critically important to Ontario and
Toronto," he told the Star."About one in five Canadians lives within an hour's drive of Toronto,
and manufacturing affects the liveability of our whole area by providing good quality, meaningful
jobs," Miller said.
The Deere closing comes as Harper plans to announce funding for a GM project in nearby St.
Catharines and a Ford plant in Windsor during a pre-election swing in the province this week.The
plant has remained an industrial icon on Welland's Canal Bank Rd. for more than a century.
Deere bought it from Dain Manufacturing in 1910.Troy Carrey, who has been working at Deere
for more than a decade, said there was "mainly shock" at the plant as workers learned about the
closing. "All jaws dropped at the same time," Carrey told the Welland Tribune."Now, there are so
few places to work. This was one facility that was looked to as a positive example in the
community and, without proper political intervention, it may be gone too," said CAW Local 275
president Tom Napper.
The Canadian dollar peaked at $1.10 U.S. last November and is currently trading at 93.58 cents
U.S."Manufacturing in Canada has been a financial challenge for us because of the exchange
rate," said Ken Golden, Deere's director of strategic public relations. "The decision is not a
reflection of the work or productivity of our employees."
The company, whose long-time slogan is "Nothing runs like a Deere," and the union worked to
improve productivity and efficiencies in recent years. Workers earn an average of about $18 an
hour.
Mitic, an assistant to CAW president Buzz Hargrove, said Deere told the union a few years ago
that the plant would be "in trouble" if the dollar approached the 90 cent U.S. level. The Canadian
currency reached that point in May 2006 and continued to rise steadily until last fall.
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"To some extent, the government is looking at the economy through rose-coloured glasses," said
Jay Myers, president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters. "Things look good for the
energy and commodities sectors, but if we don't do more to save manufacturing, we'll have lost a
lot of high-paying jobs and value-added industrial companies."
Myers, a veteran economist, said Ottawa can't do much about the fluctuations in the Canadian
dollar in view of the weak U.S. greenback, but it should help manufacturers by giving them better
tax treatment on capital investment, innovation and training."The federal government is giving
corporate tax relief, but that doesn't help struggling manufacturers who aren't making money
now," Myers said.
Hargrove said the CAW will be contacting the federal, provincial and municipal governments in
efforts to keep the plant open."It is the Harper government that should bear the brunt of the
responsibility for this closure," Hargrove added. "This government's utter insensitivity to the plight
of working Canadians is shameful and must come to an end," Hargrove said. "In my 16 years as
president of the union, I have never seen such governmental indifference."
Sandra Pupatello, Ontario's economic development and trade minister, said her government
would attempt to "intervene" and save the plant."There may be some opportunities," she said.
"We can't ... give up (on this plant)."
NDP MPP Peter Kormos (Welland) said the Deere closing has slammed a region that "can't take
much more."Having said that, there's not very many jobs left to be lost," noted Kormos, accusing
Harper and Premier Dalton McGuinty of not taking seriously the problems in Ontario
manufacturing. "I am furious that now that we're at a quarter of million jobs plus (lost), we still
don't have from the provincial government a plan to respond to the manufacturing jobs loss –
never mind anything from the federal government," he said. "These are job losses that flow from
globalization and free trade. They are unlikely to ever come back."
With files from Bruce Campion-Smith, Robert Benzie, Les Whittington, Paul Moloney and The
Canadian Press
RECENT JOB LOSSES AT ONTARIO PLANTS
July 2008: Progressive Moulded Products Ltd. confirms it has ceased production of
plastic instrument panels and consoles at 11 small auto parts plants in Concord and
Rexdale, putting 2,000 people out of work.
June 18, 2008: Magna International Inc. announces it is laying off about 400 workers at
its Formet truck frame plant in St. Thomas in September.
June 4, 2008:Nearly 200 workers at Hallmark Cards Canada are told the North York
operations are folding to centralize manufacturing in the U.S.
June 3, 2008: General Motors announces closing of four truck-assembly plants,
including one in Oshawa that employed more than 2,000 people.
May 28, 2008: Canac Kitchens of Thornhill confirms it will lay off 400 employees and
close its manufacturing plant due to the soaring Canadian dollar. The company, which
earlier laid off 600 other workers, says it will move production to its plant in Statesville,
N.C.
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April 3, 2008: Dana Corp., an auto-parts plant in St. Marys, Ont., says 350 of its 410
workers will be laid off at the end of June when a contract with Ford Motor Co. of
Canada Ltd. ends.
Compiled by Tony Yeung, Star Library, Source: Star files
“Roger and Me” - Michael Moore’s 1989 feature-length documentary film on General
Motors. It chronicles “the efforts of the world's largest corporation, General Motors, as it
turns its hometown of Flint, Michigan, into a ghost town. In his quest to discover why GM
would want to do such a thing, filmmaker Michael Moore, a Flint native, attempts to meet
the chairman, Roger Smith, and invite him out for a few beers up in Flint to "talk things
over". In between his efforts to see Smith, Moore, the son of a Flint autoworker, takes us
on a bizarre journey through Flint accompanied along the way by Ronald Reagan, Miss
America, Pat Boone, Bob "Newlywed Game" Eubanks, and TV evangelist Robert
Schuller--all of whom show up to save Flint from destruction.” (synopsis from
www.michaelmoore.com)
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