The Play

La Fin du Silence

Drama (4w, 1m). Open, flexible staging; unit set. Present. Two acts with intermission.

Semifinalist at Ashland New Play Festival and a Quarterfinalist at PlayPenn.

Journey Magazine, an on-line publication, gives voice to the stories of women and girls who have experienced sexual violence. The “journey” is from victim to survivor. Simone, a woman in France, offers her story – through email – to publisher Brian Carter. She spent her childhood as an orphan in a convent under the care of nuns. While on a trip to the circus with them, she was kidnapped and raped by three men. She will submit her story in three installments and name the rapists in the last. Brian and his staff are deeply affected by the power and pain Simone reveals as she breaks her silence. They and the audience are led on a gut-wrenching journey to a final bear trap at the end.

La Fin du Silence is a drama centering on the effect of rape and violence against women and girls. It explores the pain of women remaining silent in relation to the difficulty of ending their silence and confronting the abuser. The play was developed at Boston Playwright’s Theatre and first produced by Winchester Little Theatre (Winchester, VA) on March 6, 2020. The play was directed by Sara Gomez; set design by Tom Jordan; lighting design by Heather Fredericks; sound design by Roxy Orndorff; and costume design by Colette Sabbagh. The original French translations were performed by Debra Wiess. The production was stage managed by Irina Price, with a cast including: Gemma Davimes, Ryuan McGaughey, Juan Hernandez, Leandra Ganci, and Amanda Lawrence.

The production received standing ovations each night, but the production run was cut short by COVID.

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Cast of Characters

Tami (19), an intern at Journey Magazine
Nicole (24), the Assistant Editor
Brian (47), the Editor and Publisher
Simone (40), a woman in France
Susan (28), a free-lance journalist
(A Courier, offstage)

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Script Sample

Read the First Pages

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Setting

The play takes place in the present in Newburyport, Massachusetts and somewhere in France. There is an open set presenting the sparse indication of three offices: Brian’s, stage right; Nicole’s, center; and Simone’s home office, left. Brian’s office has a desk and enough seating for four people. Nicole’s office has at least one side chair for her desk. Simone’s home office area is small, with her desk and possibly a side table with wine. Each desk has a computer screen and keyboard; the two magazine offices have desk phones. Brian and Nicole’s offices are not connected but are near to each other along an imagined hallway. The “hallway” leads offstage-right, to the unseen front entry, Tami’s office and the rest of the publication departments. The shape or size of the stage is not important.

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Dialect Note

Nicole and Simone must appear to speak fluent French for the small amount of French spoken.

Buzz about the Play

“When I went to theater school in NY I couldn’t get enough of the Group Theater and Clifford Odets plays. They were very popular back then and they were great plays – but more importantly, he wrote about the troubles of the times they were in.
It seems most of the great writers are off in Los Angeles because of the money in films. Most of the successful plays now are from years past.
I just finished reading the La Fin du Silence. It’s excellent. You should be really proud of your work. Your play is current and centers on an important topic of now. Great timing with all the discussions of women’s issues in the elections. Sad really. Hopefully your play and its characters will help women.
I honestly think you have a powerful play – very moving. The role of Tami is heart-breaking. Thanks for sending this to me I can’t wait to see it.”

Danny Venezia

Actor, Director

“An Important concept, sensitively handled. And a terrific drama.
The dialogue is natural and real, and character-specific (which is and always has been my bugbear as a tyro writer). I feel the change of making the teenaged Simone’s out-of-France destination more unspecific keeps the McGuffin out of the audience’s reach until you want to reveal it.
Oh, Michael, I just think the script is so stage worthy, and so pertinent, and just so goddamned Good. I’m very glad to have been able to read it as it progressed.
I hope the Boston reading next month garners the audience response that it deserves.”

Jim Cavanaugh

Author, ACTing Means DOing; Professor Emeritus, Mount Holyoke College

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