Haven
Description
Strangers Elsie and Matt are both feeling great voids in their lives. Elsie, a literature professor, is grieving her famous novelist mother’s tragic death. Matt, a city engineer, is trying to regain childhood memories from living in war-torn Yugoslavia. When a sudden sinkhole in front of Elsie’s apartment building swallows a car that happens to contain a copy of Elsie’s mother’s novel, their paths cross, and the two are quickly drawn to each other’s search for fulfillment.
Haven is a beautiful portrait of how certain life events can be incredibly isolating, and what happens when people come into our lives when we need them most.
Reviews
“In highlighting emotions, grappling with regret and remorse, combining the horrors of war with the redemption that only art can provide, and juxtaposing all that’s superficial in our era with the real depth of love, this play brings to mind the work of Wajdi Mouawad. Even as she remains very much of her time, the playwright privileges human connection over making speeches, feelings over ideas, life experiences over schools of thought. By granting to her characters the power of narration—an approach that calls to mind the early plays of Daniel Danis—Mishka Lavigne writes with admirable sensitivity, in prose that is delicate yet not lacking a sharp edge.”
- Christian St-Pierre, Lettres québécoises
“Mishka Lavigne's storytelling provides us with a fine example of the resilience of the human spirit.”
- John Jane, Review Vancouver