The Salvationist

Synopsis:

Joan Flanagan is a rare person – one who appreciates just how lucky she is.

So much so that, upon waking each morning, the very first thing she does is count her blessings.  And formidable blessings they are, too:  Her daughter, Liberty, a precocious, angelic child, made all the more angelic by her extraordinary singing voice.  Her husband, Peter, who understands just how rare a person she is, and gives her her head (up to a point).  Her sister, Kate, who survived cardiac surgery as a child and who views every cigarette as, potentially, her last.  Her father, Harry, who is about as mixed a blessing as they come.

At least, that’s what Joan thinks, until her work as a Salvation Army officer brings her into contact with her fifth and most perilous blessing:  Guy.

Guy is a fourteen-year old with nothing to lose, and every social and moral taboo he breaks screams this fact out to the world.  Joan makes it her mission in life to save Guy’s soul.

At about this time, Harry dies.  Whilst cleaning up his apartment, Joan and Kate come across an old videotape containing newsreel footage of an aircrash that occurred 25 years earlier.  Due to a car accident on the way to the airport, Harry just missed the ill-fated airliner.  In watching the tape, Joan discovers that his seat on the plane was taken by a young man who left behind a pregnant wife.

Joan cannot get the image of this woman out of her head, and vows, somehow, to find her and to make amends for this terrible twist of fate.

The journey that Joan undertakes – to fulfil both her vow and her mission – challenges almost every value and belief that she has ever held dear, threatening to deprive her of the very blessings upon which her life has been built.

In a subtle, engaging and highly original narrative that deftly builds the impetus of a steam train, we are forced to question the moral and religious tenets that lie at the very core of human existence.

Production History:  Not yet produced.

Running-time: 115 minutes.

Only available in hard copy, which can be obtained through the author.