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Canadian drama

  • Auteur:
    Graham, Beth
    Sommaire:

    Iris Trimble is trying to hold it all together. She may very well fly off the face of the earth if she doesn’t hang on to the kitchen counter. At least that’s how she feels after her mother, Bernice, a lively, recently widowed fifty-five-year-old breaks the news that she has early onset Alzheimer’s. In an effort to cope with the stress, Iris makes her mother’s famous Everything-That-Is-Bad-For-You casserole, a childhood favourite. Her siblings, on the other hand, are on opposite sides of the spectrum: Sara, the eldest, irately calls for a second opinion, while Peter, the youngest, seems completely unfazed. As for Bernice, she’s still as vivacious as ever, always up for a good laugh, and, most of all, ready to finally put herself first.

    The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble is about the tricky nature of family dynamics, and the effects of mental illness seen through the eyes of a young woman who’s searching for her own feelings amidst the whirlwind emotions of her family.

  • Auteur:
    Lazarus, John
    Sommaire:

    Julius Rothstein and his granddaughter Abby have loved each other from opposite ends of Canada since Abby was born. But now, accepted as a freshman student at the university where Julius teaches, Abby is moving in with him to be close to school and to keep her newly widowed grandfather company. The two must negotiate a new relationship as housemates and friends, which means dealing with issues of youth and age, work and play, activism and apathy, homework and heart attacks, and those three tricky topics: sex, politics, and religion.

  • Auteur:
    Murphy, Colleen
    Sommaire:

    Lilly and Morgan Beaumont are comfortable in their routine until Parker, a homeless man, lands on the balcony of their new condo. After scaring the older couple half to death, he pours himself into the holes of their relationship, agitating them with talk of sex—talk that drives Lilly out into the night and sends Morgan on the road to another heart attack.

  • Auteur:
    MacLennan, Michael Lewis, Strilchuk, Amy Lynn
    Sommaire:

    They're the ultimate downtown couple—attractive, smart, and successful. They have everything they could ever want. Except a child. When bad news points them to alternative methods of conception, they encounter a handsome young art model. He seems like the perfect solution to their problems. But as this unlikely trio gets more intimate, secret agendas surface and threaten to destroy not only their hasty deal, but everything they've so carefully built for themselves. From one of Canada's funniest playwrights, The Good Egg is a penetrating look at timely, controversial issues. Theatrically audacious, it's also an achingly real and hilarious portrait of three unpredictable people on the brink.

  • Auteur:
    Aikins, Carroll, Wright, Kailin
    Sommaire:

    Carroll Aikins’s play The God of Gods (1919) has been out of print since its first and only edition in 1927. This critical edition not only revives the work for readers and scholars alike, it also provides historical context for Aikins’s often overlooked contributions to theatre in the 1920s and presents research on the different staging techniques in the play’s productions. Much of the play’s historical significance lies in Aikins’s vital role in Canadian theatre, as director of the Home Theatre in British Columbia (1920–22) and artistic director of Toronto’s Hart House Theatre (1927–29). Wright reveals The God of Gods as a modernist Canadian work with overt influences from European and American modernisms. Aikins’s work has been compared to European modernists Gordon Craig, Adolphe Appia, and Jacques Copeau. Importantly, he was also intimately connected with modernist Canadian artists and the Group of Seven (who painted the scenery for Hart House Theatre). The God of Gods contributes to current studies of theatrical modernism by exposing the primitivist aesthetics and theosophical beliefs promoted by some of Canada’s art circles at the turn of the twentieth century. Whereas Aikins is clearly progressive in his political critique of materialism and organized religion, he presents a conservative dramatization of the noble savage as hero. The critical introduction examines how The God of Gods engages with Nietzschean and theosophical philosophies in order to dramatize an Aboriginal lover-artist figure that critiques religious idols, materialism, and violence. Ultimately, The God of Gods offers a look into how English and Canadian theatre audiences responded to primitivism, theatrical modernism, and theosophical tenets during the 1920s.

  • Auteur:
    Foster, Norm
    Sommaire:

    Experienced tailor Norman Davenport has barely opened the doors to his new clothing store in downtown Halifax when Sophie, an exuberant young woman, barges in looking for work, followed by Patrick, a single father who claims to be handy. Hesitantly Norman hires them both to tie up the last few threads before the grand opening. And whether Norman realizes it or not, he needs help getting into the twenty-first century to cater to the current tastes of his customers. When the shop’s first customer, Alisha Sparrow, a friendly, attractive woman, drops in looking for a suit for her husband, Norman is smitten against his better judgment. His sensible, modest world has become profoundly complicated in less than a week, and Norman longs to live in a simpler time. Unfortunately for him, his life is about to get messier as he wakes to find things are not what they used to be.

  • Auteur:
    Foster, Norm
    Sommaire:

    Rick, Ted, Donnie, and Cameron are home for their fifteen-year college reunion; a great time to go out for a game of golf and catch up on each other’s lives. Unlike their college days, the conversation doesn’t include talk of beer and final exams, but of colonoscopies, home-security systems, alcoholism, Buddhism, and more.

  • Auteur:
    Bowen, Leah Simone
    Sommaire:

    "I bore him fourteen children and he had me down here faster than lightning." In 1887, women were property and could be imprisoned for any reason. Jail was considered a place for the criminal, the disabled, the mentally ill, and the marginalized. In the basement prison below Toronto's largest market, two women named Mary-one a shunned, pregnant Irish immigrant, the other a vilified Mississauga woman-become an unlikely pair as they form a friendship within their cold, shared cell. Their bond threatens fellow inmate Sophia-who calls herself the first Black woman in Canada and the leader of the prisoners-and she plots to use the women to gain better treatment for herself. But as melting ice water pours into the prison from Lake Ontario, the forgotten women of Toronto must come together to survive. Inspired by true accounts and the history of Toronto's St. Lawrence Market, The Flood gives voice to the little-known stories of early female prisoners in Canada.

  • Auteur:
    Majumdar, Anita
    Sommaire:

    Fish Eyes is the story of Meena, a classically trained Indian dancer who, despite being obsessed with Bollywood movies and her dance career, just wants to be like the rest of her high-school friends. When she develops a massive crush on Buddy, the popular boy at school, Meena contemplates turning down an incredible opportunity to pursue him, even if he barely notices her. Boys With Cars follows Naz, also a classically trained Indian dancer, who dreams of getting out of small town Port Moody to attend the University of British Columbia. But when Buddy causes a stir over Naz at school, Naz's university plans begin to crumble quickly. Let Me Borrow That Top centres on Candice, a girl who appropriates Meena's Indian dance skills and bullies Naz after a nasty rumour spreads through the halls of their high school. But like her two enemies, Candice shares a passion for Indian dancing, and has just been accepted to the Conventry School of Bhangra. Will she leave behind the comforts of home to pursue her dreams?

  • Auteur:
    Oliver, Sean Harris
    Sommaire:

    Sean Harris Oliver's The Fighting Season is a searing investigation into the Afghan War through the eyes of a Canadian field medic (Kristy), an OR surgeon (Terry), and a recovery room nurse (Karine). When all three medical professionals experience a life-changing event in the operating room of the NATO-controlled Role 3 Multinational Medical Unit at Kandahar Airfield, they are sent back to Canada for further evaluation. Through Kristy, Terry and Karine's interwoven monologues we begin to understand the contribution that Canada's medical teams made in Afghanistan, as well as the devastating impact that war has on the ones charged with saving lives.

  • Auteur:
    Hernandez, Catherine
    Sommaire:

    From masturbation to motherhood, body shaming to burlesque, Catherine Hernandez reveals the reality of living as a queer woman of colour. Set to the music of her life, The Femme Playlist shows what it's like to be sexy and proud, slutty and loud, queer and brown. I Cannot Lie to the Stars That Made Me is an around-the-campfire guide to mourning and healing for women of colour, written after Hernandez and her daughter left an abusive relationship. As a group of women share their stories around a campfire, they pray for each other and give as much strength as their bodies will allow.

  • Auteur:
    Johns, Ted.
    Sommaire:

    'This is a record of our version of grassroots theatre. The idea was to take a group of actors out to a farming community and build a play of what we could see and learn. There is no story or "plot" as such... Nevertheless, we hope that you can see many stories woven into the themes of this play and that out of it will emerge a picture of a complex and living community.' - Paul Thompson

  • Auteur:
    Cooper, Beverley
    Sommaire:

    The tale of a mother and daughter dealing with grief and teen angst in small town Ontario. Late night, on a lonely Huron County road, fifteen year old Eloise Bernhardt has an extraordinary supernatural encounter. What she sees changes her life forever. This is a story of a mother and her teenaged daughter who have lost their way, and how they are fighting their way back to loving each other. It is a story that questions what we believe in, examines how we judge each other and asks the universal question; "What is out there, beyond the stars?" By turns funny and touching, with a little of the unworldly thrown in for good measure, this a play that will grab you and keep you entertained until the last word is spoken.

  • Auteur:
    McGee, Haley
    Sommaire:

    Haley McGee was on the phone with Visa, promising to pay off her bill by having a yard sale, when she realized that the only things she could sell were gifts from her exes. Inspired by this call, The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale is a hilarious and daring play about the cost of love... or what love costs us. So: can we translate sentimental value into cold hard cash? Why does Haley want to -- and why now?

  • Auteur:
    Lena, Suvendrini
    Sommaire:

    The Sri Lankan civil war has left many scars on Thangan and his family, most noticeably the loss of his eldest son and the crippling epileptic seizures brought on by his torture. As the final days of the war play out, the family bears witness from their new home of Toronto. Thangan's other son Kanan comes home from a protest, shaken that someone referred to him by his brother's name. His young daughter Kavitha innocently dances around with a mysterious pair of anklets that she found. And Thangan's wife Sevi is consumed with feeling responsible for her broken family. Amidst the ongoing trauma, the family is faced with the possibility of Thangan undergoing neurological surgery. Will the surgery give them a chance to heal, or will it cause even more pain? Presented in both English and Tamil, this poetic play is both medical and mystical, drawing a connection between trauma and memory that creates a stark reminder of loss, hope, family, and freedom.

  • Auteur:
    Graham, Beth
    Sommaire:

    The Drowning Girls. Bessie, Alice, and Margaret have two things in common: they are married to George Joseph Smith, and they are dead. Surfacing from the bathtubs they were drowned in, the three breathless brides gather evidence against their womanizing, murderous husband by reliving the shocking events leading up to their deaths. Reflecting on the misconceptions of love, married life, and the not-so-happily ever after, The Drowning Girls is both a breathtaking fantasia and a social critique, full of rich images, a myriad of characters, and lyrical language.Comrades. Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco dreamt of the land of the free. Leaving their small Italian villages, they embarked on a long voyage to the United States, only to encounter a world they never could have imagined. Controversially imprisoned for murder, both men must fight for their lives amidst discrimination and public humiliation. Based on actual events, Comrades bring to life Sacco and Vanzetti's seven-year imprisonment and explores the struggles and agonies of two men, tried not for what they did, but for who they were.

  • Auteur:
    Vincent, Julie, Hazelton, Hugh, Alfonso, Javier
    Sommaire:

    Francisco will forever be haunted by the sight of his best friend Juan lying on the floor of a train station, pierced by five bullets. He’ll remember that sight as he flees the political uprising in Uruguay that night. He’ll remember when he’s holding a dying homeless man in Windsor Station in Montreal eight months later. He’ll remember when he’s a successful architect. He’ll remember when he’s having an affair with a Québécoise pianist named Claire. He’ll remember when he’s much older, a vagrant sleeping in a café that was once part of Windsor Station, where he meets his son, an activist in the student strikes in Quebec. As he tries for a better life, Francisco’s past keeps finding him, until it blurs with the present in a series of hallucinations, challenging him to reclaim his identity and his rights.

  • Auteur:
    Reaney, James, Filewod, Alan
    Sommaire:

    Based on the true story of an Irish family with seven sons and one daughter immigrating to Biddulph Township near London, Ontario, in 1844, The Donnellys tells the tale of mystery and truths stranger than fiction. It is the story of a secret society and a massacre that shocked the Canadian public, a story overlooked by the artistic community until Reaney’s play elevated the events to the level of legend. First published in 1975, this script takes its place among other true Canadian classics on university and college course listings and in the hearts of drama lovers everywhere. The Donnellys is a trilogy comprised of Sticks & Stones, St. Nicholas Hotel and Handcuffs, three tense and mythic tragedies that garnered critical praise at the 1973 Tarragon Theatre opening and continue to acquire accolades from professors, actors and artistic directors across the country. As with the drama of Yeats, Eliot, O’Neill, Brecht and Beckett, this rendering of a generation of Irish settlers and their brutal murder at the hands of more than thirty vigilante killers is controversial and exciting to this day. Foreword, Afterword and Chronology by James Noonan.

  • Auteur:
    Ardal, Maja
    Sommaire:

    Elsa is a typical fifteen-year-old growing up in the early 1960s. Her world revolves around independence, boys, and being popular at school, despite growing concerns surrounding the Cuban missile crisis. In fact, this is Elsa's opportunity to let loose before the world blows up. Knee-deep in teenage angst, her mission is clear: get drunk for the first time and lose her virginity. Though Elsa is old enough to feel the tense political climate, she is young enough to believe there might be a cure for everything. A comedic and compassionate sequel to Ardal's award-winning You Fancy Yourself, The Cure for Everything is a coming-of-age story about a teenager who discovers that the world is more complex than she could have imagined.

  • Auteur:
    Karasik, Daniel
    Sommaire:

    Every day after school, seventeen-year-old Timothy waits at the neighbourhood crosswalk where years earlier his older sister disappeared. Every day he crosses the street with Jim, the elderly crossing guard. It's a ritual Timothy thinks might go on forever, until one day he arrives and Jim is absent. Instead, standing at the crosswalk is a young woman—a young woman who looks a lot like his missing sister. The Crossing Guard is a tender meditation on the limits of fidelity. Ben's teenaged daughter Claire is hit by a car. To ease his conscience, Leon, the driver, approaches Ben with a cheque. Which Ben takes. But now why is Leon calling Ben at work and showing up on his front lawn? And what's going on with Claire, now recovered, throwing rocks at the window of the boy who lives across the street? In Full Light is a riveting exploration of obligation, obsession and desire.

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