“She doesn’t care about me; she doesn’t even want to see me; she just pretends she does. ”
Shy, fourteen-year-old Maddie wasn’t expecting to have to worry about taking care of herself just yet. Her sixteen-year-old party-girl sister Bea has scandalously moved in with their mom’s ex-boyfriend, and in turn their brassy mother Sheila has run straight to the comfort of another lover. Maddie is finding that an empty apartment is quiet and lonely, even though her time is normally spent reading comics in her closet. Feeling abandoned and vulnerable, she turns to her favourite superhero, Arrowette. Armed with a backpack filled with a bow and arrows, she embarks on a radical plan to join the army, where she thinks she will find a new family she can count on.
Meanwhile, Bea is second-guessing the whole dating an older man thing, and Sheila defends her unorthodox sexual candour, entertaining the ideals of freedom. When Bea and Sheila decide to come home for Maddie’s birthday, they’re faced with the pointed arrow of Maddie’s newfound power and the startling reality of the kind of family they’ve become.
DARK COMEDY, 65 MINUTES / CAST: 1 Woman
Production History
Directed by Andrea Donaldson, Quiver was first produced by Nightwood Theatre, Oct 2016
“Chatterton’s play goes behind closed doors of a salacious family event, while straddling the line between humour and tragedy. Chatterton infuses this potentially traumatizing story with plenty of humour in both her writing and performance. Chatterton’s presence onstage is undeniable and endlessly watchable”
-Carly Maga- The Toronto Star
“I loved this play’s depiction of the sweetness, confusion, and anguish of adolescence and adulthood alike. ”