The Colony of Unrequited Dreams

By Robert Chafe

Spanning two decades, Smallwood’s story is anchored and propelled by one of Johnston’s most memorable creations: the fictitious Sheilagh Fielding, a caustic newspaper columnist whose own battles with the past and alcohol addiction find full vent and expression in her tireless dogging of Smallwood’s climb to power. At its heart, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams is the story of a man whose career is buoyed and sometimes sunk by his unresolved feelings for a woman he never allowed himself to love. It is also the story of Newfoundland’s final years as a country, the end of one cultural and political trajectory, and the beginning of another.

Based on the classic novel by Wayne Johnston, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams is a fictionalized portrait of Joseph R. Smallwood, the controversial political figure who ambitiously led Newfoundland into Confederation with Canada, and became its first premier.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press
• Release date: Feb 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781770915787

Robert Chafe

Robert Chafe is a writer, educator, actor, and arts administrator based in St. John’s, Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). He has worked in theatre, dance, opera, radio, fiction, and film. His stage plays have been seen in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and in the United States, and include Oil and Water, Tempting Providence, Afterimage, Under Wraps, Between Breaths, Everybody Just C@lm the F#ck Down, and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (adapted from the novel by Wayne Johnston). He has been shortlisted three times for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama and he won the award for Afterimage in 2010. He has been a guest instructor at Memorial University, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, and the National Theatre School of Canada. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Memorial University. He is the playwright and artistic director of Artistic Fraud.

Book preview

Also by Robert Chafe

Afterimage

Oil and Water

Robert Chafe: Two Plays (Butler’s Marsh and Tempting Providence)

Under Wraps

The Colony of

Unrequited

Dreams

a play by

Robert

Chafe

based on the novel by

Wayne Johnston

Playwrights Canada Press

Toronto

The Colony of Unrequited Dreams © Copyright 2016 by Robert Chafe

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Wayne Johnston.

No part of this book may be reproduced, downloaded, or used in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except for excerpts in a review or by a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca.

For professional or amateur production rights, please contact:

Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland

PO Box 23193, Churchill Square

St. John’s, NL A1B 4J9

[e-mail]

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Chafe, Robert, author

The colony of unrequited dreams / Robert Chafe.

A play.

Based on: Johnston, Wayne, 1958-. Colony of unrequited dreams.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77091-576-3 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-77091-577-0 (PDF).

--ISBN 978-1-77091-578-7 (HTML).--ISBN 978-1-77091-733-0 (Kindle)

1. Smallwood, Joseph R., 1900-1991--Drama. 2. Premiers

(Canada)--Newfoundland and Labrador--Drama. 3. Newfoundland

and Labrador--Drama. I. Title.

PS8555.H2655C53 2017 C812’.54 C2016-907652-0

C2016-907653-9

We acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.

Logos: Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts du Canada, Ontario Arts Council Conseil des Arts de L'Ontario an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l'Ontario, Canada Watermark, Ontario Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Contents

Also by Robert Chafe

Production History

Characters

Act 1: 1927–1932

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Act 2: 1934–1941

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Act 3: 1947–1949

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Note

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Production History

The Colony of Unrequited Dreams was first produced by Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland at the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre from February 18–21, 2015, with the following cast and crew:

Astrid Van Wieren: Sheilagh Fielding

Colin Furlong: Joseph Smallwood

Jody Richardson: Sir Richard Squires/Producer

Alison Woolridge: Minnie Smallwood/Lady Squires

Steve O’Connell: Charlie Smallwood

Willow Kean: Clara Smallwood/Nurse

Brian Marler: Daniel Prowse

Paul Rowe: Andrews/Louis St. Laurent

Charlie Tomlinson: Mackenzie King/Sir John Hope Simpson

Darryl Hopkins: David Hanrahan/Gordon Bradley

Angus Younghusband: the boy

Jillian Keiley: Director

Shawn Kerwin: Set Design

Leigh Ann Vardy: Lighting Design

Don Ellis: Sound Design

Marie Sharpe: Costume Design

Connie Walsh: Costume Assistant/Dresser

Amy Edwards: Dresser

Karl Simmons: Technical Director/Set Construction

Flora Planchat: Props

Christine Brubaker: Assistant Director

Sarah Garton Stanley: Dramaturge

Patrick Foran: Producer/Production Manager

Kai-Yueh Chen: Stage Manager

Mark Denine: Assistant Stage Manager

Brian Kenny: Lighting/Sound Assistant

Victoria Wells: Media Production

The show was remounted and toured to Canada’s National Arts Centre in January 2017 with Carmen Grant playing the role of Sheilagh Fielding.

Characters

Joseph R. Smallwood: Twenty-seven to forty-nine years old, political upstart, future premier of Newfoundland

Sheilagh Fielding: Twenty-eight to fifty years old, newspaper columnist

Richard Squires: Forty-eight years old, leader of the Newfoundland Liberal Party

Daniel Prowse: Twenty-eight to fifty years old, lawyer, schoolmate of Smallwood’s

Charlie Smallwood: Fifty to seventy-two years old, Smallwood’s father

Minnie Smallwood: Forty-nine to seventy-one years old, Smallwood’s mother

Clara Smallwood: Twenty-six to forty-eight years old, Smallwood’s wife

Lady Squires: Forty-six years old, wife to Richard Squires

Roy Andrews: Fifty-five years old, a fisherman

Lord Hope Simpson: Sixty years old, leader of the Commission of Government

David Hanrahan: Twenty-six years old, an American naval officer

William Lyon Mackenzie King: Seventy-four years old, Prime Minister of Canada

Louis St. Laurent: Sixty-six years old, Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs

Gordon Bradley: Fifty years old, Chairman of the Newfoundland National Convention

Producer: Thirty years old, Smallwood’s radio producer

Nurse: Forty years old, nurse at the Harbour Light Addictions Centre

Colonial building constables

Government House doorman, servers, and guards

Men and women outside Pleasantville cinema

American soldiers and military police

Radio announcer

Reporters

A boy with a broom

Act 1

1927–1932

1.

Sheilagh Fielding, large, sturdy, nevertheless resting on a cane. There is a suitcase at her feet. A moment of silence and then she speaks.

Fielding

Everyone knows your name.

Elsewhere, perhaps in her memory, a storm. Joe Smallwood, small, bony, a poor man’s suit. He walks with effort against the snow and wind, the shoulders of his shabby overcoat and the top of his hat frosted.

There’s a man called Smallwood, they had said. He’s walking across the country.

He’s following the train tracks, every branch, one end of Newfoundland to the other. He’s trying to organize us all into a railway union, they said. They used words like noble. His body is as thin as his shoe leather; he is alone. They used words like brave.

Smallwood collapses on the railbed.

That storm. I remember your footprints outside my railway station house and disappearing into the distance. No town for miles. What choice did I have?

A light glows through the storm. A younger Fielding bundled, holding a lantern.

First time I’d seen you since New York, but even as a snow-covered lump, I knew it was you.

The younger Fielding extends her arm and holds the lantern up, catching sight of Smallwood’s body on the ground. And they vanish.

I dragged you to warmth. I stripped all of your clothes and put you in a tub. I saw just how apt your name is.

She smiles sadly.

I saved your life that night, Smallwood. You’re lucky I was there. I somehow always was. No matter how far away I exiled myself.

Like the train tracks themselves, our lives have lain side by side.

Black.

2.

An opulent dining room. Smallwood, in the same meagre coat and hat, dusted in a little less snow. He is startled from his thoughts by the abrupt arrival of Sir Richard Squires, former prime minister of Newfoundland and current leader of the Liberal Party of Newfoundland.

Squires

Forgive me the delay, Smallwood, but you looked to the doorman like someone who just escaped from the sanatorium.

He looks Smallwood up and down.

Smallwood

I’ve always been a bit on the skinny side, Prime Minister Squires.

Squires

Please, I haven’t been PM in years. Newfoundland is a country that doesn’t like her prime ministers too long in the tooth.

Sir Richard will suffice for now.

Come, sit. Help yourself to what’s left.

Smallwood

(lying) Thank you. But I’m not hungry.

Squires

No matter how small the portions they always leave something on the plate. Please help yourself. Were you waiting long out there in the garden? You must be frozen. Some people just don’t know when to leave.

Smallwood

Thank you for seeing me.

Squires

How could I not. Such an impassioned plea.

Squires picks up a letter, loosely scans it to refresh the memory.

New to the party, no solid credentials, and yet appealing to meet me in person.

Do you know why I asked you here, Smallwood?

Smallwood

Modesty stifles any sensible answer, sir.

Squires

You’ll have to get over that, modesty.

This letter. Your boldness, my boy. Cultivate that, won’t you.

Smallwood

Doing my best.

Squires

Where did you go to school?

Smallwood

Bishop Feild, sir.

Squires

Ah, a Bishop Feild graduate. Boldness indeed. Three of them around this very table not half an hour ago.

Smallwood

No, not . . . not quite a graduate, I’m afraid.

Squires

Ah, just as well. Bores, the lot. Lady Squires has as much of a hand in the guest list as I. Half of them invited in the hopes they’ll join her in a post-dessert commune with the dead.

Smallwood

Sir?

Squires

Seances, my boy. My wife talks more to the deceased than she does to our children. Between ourselves, by the way. Can you imagine the press on that little nugget come election time? You’re a newspaper man yourself, you must know.

Smallwood

Not my brand of journalism, sir.

Squires

A Bishop Feild dropout, eh? How far did you get?

Smallwood

I left in the middle of the fifth form.

Squires

In the middle? I never left in the middle of anything in my entire life.