In his late thirties, English playwright and screenwriter Timothy Hainault wants to accomplish two things in life: to write well, and make something of himself as a worthwhile human being. Turning to autobiography to gauge his progress, he revisits his childhood and youth, and following the loss of his mother and older brother, his only sibling, also his late-teens break from his father’s quietly steadfast Christian faith; and makes connections as well, with a bearing on what he wants for himself, between his work and certain personal and professional relationships of his. And never more so than with “Congravino,” his latest play-about Restoration playwright William Congreve’s constant pursuit of excellence, firstly through his art, then personally in his lasting love affair with Henrietta, the young duchess of Marlborough-a runaway, critically acclaimed success in London, and later at Canada’s Stratford Festival.
As with two earlier plays of his about writing and loving, Hainault again associates validation as both a writer and a self he can be true to with his finding a soulmate he can love unconditionally-and once more too in the person of a beautiful and talented actress whose romantically-driven stage character is of his own making. Only this time-and potentially even more problematic than before-his Canadian Henrietta has some complicated personal issues of her own to resolve.