Marion Bridge 2nd Edition

by Daniel MacIvor

This fascinating version of Daniel MacIvor’s most successful play to date lets the reader in on a secret: it was never primarily written as a work for live theatrical performance, but as a vehicle for his development of a screenplay, also included in this new edition. In his surprisingly revealing introduction, MacIvor talks about the genesis of both the play and the movie; the lessons he learned about the differences between the two media; and their radically different stylistic, technical and practical demands on both their authors and their audiences.

A well-known practitioner of Canada’s theatre of the avant-garde, MacIvor had for years wanted to write a brilliant screenplay, but there was a problem: he didn’t know how. Most of his stark improvisational work for the live stage, centered around minimalist sets and props, dramatic effects of light and sound, and usually his own improvisational solo performances, did not translate well into the medium of film. So in order to realize his ambition he decided to create Marion Bridge, a piece of “conventional theatre,” as a vehicle or transitionary playscript he thought he could use as a stylistic “bridge” from the live stage to the cinema. In the fact that Marion Bridge has become his most successful play to date lies one of the most important lessons MacIvor learned about the vast differences between the two media—between live performance that always relies on the audience to participate with the actor(s) in the active and collective creation of landscape and time within the space they share, and the cinematic experience wherein the creators and actors are absent, and the audience is estranged from the action by its passive consumption of a narrative of space and time always understood to take place in someone else’s world outside of the theatre.

Genres: Plays, Canada, Drama, Fiction, Theatre

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Daniel MacIvor was born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 1962. He is a stalwart of the Canadian theatre scene, having written and directed numerous award-winning productions including See Bob Run, Wild Abandon, 2-2-Tango, This Is A Play, The Soldier Dreams, You Are Here, How It Works, A Beautiful View, Communion, Bingo! and his work has been translated into French, Portuguese, Spanish, Czech, German and Japanese. From 1987 to 2007 with Sherrie Johnson he ran da da kamera, a respected international touring company which brought his work to Australia, the UK and extensively throughout the US and Canada. With long time collaborator Daniel Brooks, he created the solo performances House, Here Lies Henry, Monster, Cul-de-sac and This is What Happens Next.

Daniel won a GLAAD Award and a Village Voice Obie Award in 2002 for his play In On It, which was presented at PS 122 in New York. His play Marion Bridge received its off-Broadway premiere in New York in October of 2005. In 2006, Daniel received the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama for his collection of plays I Still Love You. In 2007, his play His Greatness won the Jessie Richardson Award for Best New Play in Vancouver. In 2008, he was awarded the prestigious Siminovitch prize in Theatre.

Also a filmmaker, Daniel has written and directed the feature films Past Perfect, Wilby Wonderful and the short films Permission and Until I Hear From You, and he is the writer of the feature films Trigger, Marion Bridge and co-writer (with Amnon Buchbinder) of Whole New Thing.

Currently, Daniel divides his time between Toronto and Avondale, Nova Scotia and he is playwright in residence at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto.

Reviews

[Melinda Worfolk · Rating 5 out of 5]

The more times I read this and watch it performed, the more I appreciate what Daniel MacIvor has done with Marion Bridge. In many ways this is a story that's been told before--wayward child returns to join more dutiful siblings at parent's deathbed, with demons and regret as companions--but MacIvor is a gifted writer who is very good at creating female characters and writing dialogue for them. This play passes the Bechdel Test and does it with intelligence, humour, and compassion.

This edition contains the script for the stage play and the screenplay for the film. In my opinion, the stage play is the stronger of the two.

[Martin Denton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marion Bridge is about three sisters who have reunited at their family home, after a long time apart, to care for their dying mother. The eldest, Agnes, is a struggling actress who lives in Toronto and is unhappy to have to return to her roots here on remote Cape Breton Island. Theresa, the middle sister, is a Catholic nun in a farming order; a natural peacemaker, she's determined to see the clan through this crisis. The youngest sister is Louise; she still lives at home, though without a job (at least lately): she is, as her sisters forthrightly put it, "strange."

As their time together passes, all manner of family secrets and recriminations emerge (or re-emerge). Agnes is angry at her mother because when she was a teenager, she became pregnant and was forced to give up her baby for adoption. Theresa is exasperated by Agnes's drinking and by her constant swearing. Louise has become, apparently, addicted to TV soap operas; she also has found religion, and her sisters are a little concerned about her close relationship with a "butch" (Agnes's term) member of her prayer group who drives a truck. All three deal with their conflicted feelings about their father, who abandoned the family long ago and now lives in a mansion with a sexy young woman whom Agnes and Theresa both call "Lolita." And there's a lot of lingering resentment about a family trip, decades ago, to a town called Marion Bridge. Agnes was disappointed because this place, a favorite of their mother's, proved so lackluster. Louise--though the other two have forgotten this--is still nursing a grudge because she wasn't allowed to go, on account of having the chicken pox.

More--much more--surfaces as the play progresses. MacIvor has created three vivid, strikingly contrasting women in this family. The story of these three women is easy to enjoy and easy to get lost it; but MacIvor is no conventional storyteller, and for those interested in digging beneath the surface of this homey drama, there's some buried treasure waiting to be discovered. What MacIvor does here--shrewdly, subtly--is to create a soap opera (a cannily engaging one) and at the same time, explore why such a story, for all its excess and strained plausibility, is so appealing and so necessary to us. Agnes says, exploding the mythology of her glamorous life in the theatre:

I'm just trying to make some kind of story. I've spent so long trying to tell other people's stories. Telling stories in dirty basements with people who think crazy means brilliant and brilliant means poor. Telling stories I don't even understand. I want my own story.

And Louise, disarmingly, states the playwright's purpose very directly when she says to us, in a direct-address monologue:

I suppose some people would say it's strange for me to be standing here talking to you.
(Long pause.)
And I suppose some people'd say it's strange for you to be sitting there listening.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can totally see why Mation Bridge is consider MacIvor's best play ever. The characters are so fleshed out and flawed. It's beautifuly written and tells the story perfectly for the stage.

The screenplay is just as well done and fleshes the story out for a film medium.

I prefer the ages of the sisters in the film better than the play but that's my little nit pick.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just read the script for the stage play version of this story. Marion Bridge is the story of three sisters who gather together just before the death of their mother. Each sister has their own issues to deal with. Three very strong female characters and some great monologues for auditions.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marion Bridge my beloved. This is such a fabulous play. It really really grew on me while I worked on it.

[Mijo Stumpf · Rating 4 out of 5]

❤️

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5)

[Judy Cormier · Rating 3 out of 5]

📍 Nova Scotia, Canada 🇨🇦
🎭 Marion Bridge
🖊️ Daniel MacIvor

🇨🇦 🎭
Marion Bridge is a rural community in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and the name of the bridge over the Mira River in said community.

It is also a Canadian based play about 3 sisters who gather because their mother is dying. The play deals with the death of a mother, loneliness and emptiness in the day to day lives of 3 sisters who begin to understand that they are living the lives their mother wanted, not what they wanted.

The eldest sister, Agnes is an alcoholic, unemployed actress. She has reluctantly returned home because her mother is dying. Theresa is the middle sister and a nun and loves the solitude of country life. She has taken on the responsibility of caring for her mother in her dying days and their younger sister, Louise, who is thought to be a bit odd, living her life through soap operas on television.

The film version was released in 2002 and is quite different from the play. It is also notable for being Elliot Page's first performance in a feature film.

My friend Elizabeth is producing this show for a run in London, Ontario from February 29 to March 10, 2024.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good for a show with such a seemingly depressing premise. All three women win you over in their own ways, their responses to their grief are so authentic. Really enjoyed this one in spite of my aversion to feelings.