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Mathias is an innkeeper. He came to Alaska twenty years ago with his wife and daughter, hoping to find a better life during the boom of the Gold Rush. Just two years after arriving, his wife died during a severe winter that left Mathias in desperate straits, unsure how he would provide for himself and his only child, Annette. How Mathias pulled through is a secret that he keeps close to his chest. In order to compensate for what he did, Mathias feels that it’s now his job to take care of everyone in the town. But his generous nature is no match for the overwhelming guilt that may be driving him mad. "Come a long winter’s night, and out here the nights are long, you have time to ask yourself, what does it mean to be human, in the wilderness." |
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Annette, a lonely young woman in her twenties, was raised in the wilderness of Alaska by her father, Mathias. As a girl, she was befriended by the “Chinaman,” Xuifei, and was given a set of bells. Very protective of her father and worried that people might take advantage of his generosity, Annette has to be the tough. Because of this she tends to come across as sharp and brittle. With the arrival of Baptiste, she turns into a tongue-tied school girl, contemplating a kind of happiness she never dreamed of finding in this isolated place. "The world is so lonely, even with there being just one person that you love. At least my pa and I… we have each other." |
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Baptiste is a handsome, well-educated bounty hunter from Montreal, who is running from his own unhappiness. Hired by Xuifei’s family to discover what happened eighteen years ago, he uncovers the secret Mathias has been hiding. “I will tell her, then. If that is the only justice he can have, he will have it. |
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Xuifei left his home in China due to a broken heart. He came to Alaska during the Gold Rush to find his fortune. But unlike most others, Xuifei struck it rich. Missing his family and hoping to reunite with his love, Xuifei takes his bag of gold and decides to go back home, but he is murdered before he can do so. Unable to find peace, his ghost haunts Mathias. "They told me not to come here, but there was a hole in my heart and I did not know how to stay in one place. I don’t want to die here. I want to die in my home, where the cold is warm." |
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Charlie is a garrulous prospector still hungry for the gold he never found. Ever the optimist, Charlie still believes that tomorrow he’ll find his gold mine. In the meantime, he passes most of his days telling tall tales to anyone who’ll listen while sharing a bottle of stolen whiskey with his friends Jim and Sally.
"I'm not ready to just drink away my last years. I want to do something. I want to feel yearning in my heart. I want to climb into some freezing hellhole and look for gold." |
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Jim is another prospector who never struck it rich. He lives off the generosity of Mathias with his friends Sally and Charlie. He alone saw Xuifei go off into the woods with Mathias eighteen years earlier, but he’s kept that knowledge to himself. Now, with the arrival of Baptiste and his questions, Jim finds his chance to blackmail Mathias for a share of the stolen gold. "Maybe I don't want to be taken care of no more. You ever think about that? Feels good to be the king, don’t it, always doling out favors. Never crosses your mind, maybe a man would want more than that." |
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Sally is a survivor. During the Gold Rush she made her living as a prostitute, and she is tough enough to make it through anything. Currently she scrapes along by stealing whiskey from Mathias and scrounging meals with her friends Jim and Charlie. “Cause I offered to work it off with him. It’s not natural,
livin’ like a priest when there’s whores in the world" |
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The Play & its contents
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Character Profiles |
Drama in the Classroom
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About this production
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