Synopsis

Quiller is a play about Newfoundland fisherman and logging man, Quiller Laite. Somehow Quiller has become an outcast in his small community, but he hasn’t lost his desire for connection. The play is the story of a man who repeatedly tries to quell his loneliness by reaching out to his town, to his wife, and to the Lord.

By: Michael Cook 
Director: Allison Moira Kelly (Directing, 2024)

Warning: Use of theatrical haze 

A Word From Our Director

Quiller is an abandoned anchor on the shoreline. Quiller is a man clinging to that anchor. Quiller is a glint in an old man’s eye. Quiller is the spring in a young man’s step. Quiller is reaching for your wife. Quiller is a question to the Lord. 

I was compelled to spend time with Quiller. I wondered how it would feel to sit in his backyard, and watch as he tried to reconnect with a community he once was a part of. ‘He’s become the town boogeyman’, I thought. The type of man that I, growing up, would have run away from; I would have believed the lore around him; I would have thrown stones at him. Now I wonder, how do people become so isolated? How do loneliness and grief affect us? Why is it so easy to ignore the chronically lonesome? 

Thanks to everyone who worked on this play with me. Thanks to my Dad, who kind of is a magical Quiller, and to my Mom, who taught me to see people like him.   

I am from a place that claims to have eradicated an entire population. The culture of the Beothuk is lost to us forever. My ancestors were colonized, and became colonizers. The intentional eradication of culture speaks to the darkest, most cruel side of the human experience. There are places in this country where people do not have access to water to drink. This is not the past. This is now. Some days, I wonder where we can find love or beauty. Please, read the Calls to Action, and visit: https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/beyond-94?&cta=1. You’ll see here how little has been done to remedy the atrocities committed to the Indigenous people, who are the stewards of these lands. We must break the cycle. 

Allison Moira Kelly