Title: '67
Author: Wallace, Robert Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1974
Description:
roy Canadian - drama eleven characters seven male; four female two acts
"A professor tries to explain his philosophy of "no commitments" to his new male student in this lively portrait of the late '60's."
Title: 17 Dogs
Author: Chambers, Ron Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 2002
Description:
roy comedy all male cast; five characters five male two acts
After 40 years of simmering rage, a man betrayed by his former business partner has a chance to exact revenge.
Title: 1837: A History
Author: Salutin, Rick Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1976
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - historical five characters three male; two female (doubling) two acts
A lively, humorous and ultimately tragic look at Canada's ill-starred revolution for national independence. Title: 1837: The Farmer's Revolt
Author: Salutin, Rick Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1976
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - historical five characters three male; two female (doubling) two acts
A lively, humorous and ultimately tragic look at Canada's ill-starred revolution for national independence.
Title: 1949
Author: French, David Publisher: Talonbooks 1989
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - historical - Confederation fourteen characters six male; six female; two boys two acts
Newfoundland is about to join Confederation. The Mercer family is reunited for the occasion - and sparks fly as some mourn the passing of an independent Newfoundland.
Nominated for the 1988 Chalmers Award.
Title: 2000
Author: MacLeod, Joan Publisher: Talonbooks 1997
Description:
roy drama - Canadian five characters two male; three female two acts
"The relationships of the young, the aging and the middle-aged, and between urban life and nature at the end of the millenium. . . 'I am intrigued by the notion of the wild invading the city and the city invading the wild, by the idea of things being not quite right in the nature and the reproach of the millenium.' - Joan MacLeod." Title: 24 Exposures Portraits Author: Boucher, Serge translated by Shelley Tepperman Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1999
Description:
roy drama - family relations eight characters five male; three female four acts
On a Sunday in August 1997, the Dubé family gathers in Nicole and Richard's backyard to celebrate Richard's 40th birthday. Facing a whole afternoon and evening together, how will they make the time pass? Ordinary people talk, laugh, play and love each other; they love each other all wrong, but they love each other all the same. As the day unfolds, Richard unwraps his birthday gifts, lottery tickets are doled out, the “specials” are surveyed in the weekly circular, and family scars and skeletons come to light; what emerges is a portrait of what could be any (or every)
Title: 400 Kilometres
Author: Taylor, Drew Hayden Publisher: Talonbooks 2005
Description:
roy comedy - self-awareness five characters two male; three female two acts
Third play in Hayden-Taylor's hilarious and heart wrenching identity-politics trilogy. Janice Wirth, having discovered her roots as the Ojibway orphan Grace Wabung, and having visited her birth family on the Otter Lake Reserve, is pregnant, and must now come to grips with the question of her true 'identity'. Her adoptive parents have just retired, and are about to sell their house to embark on a quest for their own identity by 'returning' to England. Meanwhile, the Native father of her child-to-be is attempting to convince Janice/Grace that their coming child's future lies with
Title: Aberhart Summer, The
Author: Massing, Conni Publisher: NeWest Press 1999
Description:
roy comedy - Albertan - historical eleven characters eight male; three female two acts
"Based on Bruce Allen Powe's 1984 novel [of the same name], Massing's marvelous play is at once a gripping Alberta history lesson, a sweetly nostalgic comedy and a cracking-good-murder-mystery, all rolled up into one big, bright ball of theatrical energy and verve..." Calgary Herald
"At its best, Aberhart Summer is a vivid and unsentimental depiction of small-town Canadian life in Title: Acre of Time: The Play, An
Author: Sherman, Jason Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2001
Description:
roy drama - historical fiction - Canada - family relations large cast three male; three female (doubling) two acts
A surveyor uncovers the history of an acre of land near the Ottawa River, a barren rectangle that contains the memories of all who passed through it, from the last native hunter to the first white settler. But the one person she most wants to bring back from the dead remains the most elusive - her daughter.
Title: Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God, The
Author: Sears, Djanet Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2003
Description:
roy self awareness eleven characters; chorus seven male; four female (doubling possible) two acts
'A remarkable love, an incredible heist, an extraordinary funeral, and an impassioned search for answers to the profound mysteries of being alive. From Governor General's award winning playwright Djanet Sears, comes a beautiful and deeply moving story set in present-day Negro-Creek, a 200-year-old Black community in Western Ontario. Rainey Baldwin-Johnson, a country doctor, struggles to come to terms with the loss of her daughter, the disintegration of her marriage, and an eccentric elderly father on an astonishing crusade.'
Title: Adventures of Ali and Ali and the Axes of Evil, The A divertimento for warlords Author: Youssef, Marcus Verdecchia, Guillermo Publisher: Talonbooks 2005
Description:
roy satire - Canadian all male cast; seven characters (doubling) four male one act (long)
"An elaborate agitprop theatrical collaboration where the internal contradictions and duplicitous double-speak of the "war on terror" are exposed as the propaganda vehicles for the neo-colonialism of the West that they are. Ali Hakim and Ali Ababwa, refugees from the imaginary country Agraba, attempt to seduce their audience into providing them with food, refuge, security, freedom and the material benefits of Western consumer society, failing miserably at every step." Title: Affaire Tartuffe; or, the Garrison Officers Rehearse Moliere
Author: Ackerman, Marianne Publisher: NuAge Editions 1993
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - French - historical ten characters seven male; three female two acts
French and English speaking characters.
"A young director wants to explore an odd historical incident from 1774. When a power failure suddenly plunges the dinner party into darkness, the candles come out and the scene segues seamlessly into the historical action of the director's script itself."
Title: Affections of May, The
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1990
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian five characters four male; one female two acts
1 interior set.
After being deserted by her husband, a woman suddenly finds herself the centre of attention in a small town.
Title: Aforesaid Bates
Author: Tarver, Ben Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1982
Description:
roy drama - Albertan six characters five male; one female two acts
The views and philosophies of a pioneer rancher are aired when he takes his stand, refusing to leave his spread on a missile range in New Mexico. Title: After Abraham
Author: Chudley, Ron Publisher: Talonbooks 1980
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - historical all male cast; fifteen characters; extras fifteen male two acts
"After Abraham" is a play in which Ron Chudley examines events that took place on the Plains of Abraham in 1759 - and how they continue to haunt the two rival cultures of Canada. The protagonists in that fateful battle, Wolfe and Montcalm, both died without meeting but, in this play, they hold a continuing dialogue as ghosts or dream figures. "After Abraham" is a play that depicts the struggle of two great cultures for a continent. There are no heroes in either camp, simply a group of people caught up in the tangle of events, the echoes of which are reverberating
Title: Age of Arousal
Author: Griffiths, Linda Publisher: Coach House Press 2007
Description:
roy Canadian - suffrage movement - historical - comedy six characters one male; five female two acts
approx. running time: 2 hours and 20 minutes
"It’s a time of passion and confusion. Virtue is barely holding down its petticoats. People are bursting their corsets with unbridled desire. It’s 1885, and the typewriter and the suffrage movement are sending things topsy-turvy. In the midst of it all, five ambitious New Women and one Newish Man struggle to find their way. Miss Mary Barfoot runs a school for secretaries with
Title: Al Cornell Story, The
Author: Ballantyne, Bill Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian four characters two male; two female two acts
2 interior sets.
A second-rate pianist, trapped in fantasies of "hipness" in life and in jazz, is forced to choose between the big chance and his dread of change. Title: Aleola
Author: Charlebois, Gaetan Publisher: Talonbooks 1980
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian two characters one male; one female two acts
1 interior set.
"Aleola" is a play about people on the other end of the age spectrum - two old people who are celebrating their anniversary in the city, having given up their language and their land; have been forgotten by their children.
Title: Alfred Jarry's Circus Ludicrous Presents Boss Ubu
Author: Payne, Richard Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press
Description:
roy Canadian - clown play seven characters five male; two female three acts
"Jarry's landmark farce, reconstituted as a contemporary political cartoon; staged as a one-ring clown circus with Jarry presiding."
Title: Alice The Tea Party Author: Graves, Warren Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1980
Description:
roy comedy - fantasy - Albertan seven characters four male; three female two acts
1 exterior set.
A journey into the style and whimsy of the mad and wonderful world of Lewis Carroll; a re-creation rather than a re-telling. Title: All Fall Down
Author: Lill, Wendy Publisher: Talonbooks 1994
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - social issues - abuse seven characters two male; two female; three children two acts
"A play about witch-hunting in the late twentieth century. The rumours and whispers in the community - every suspicion of the unusual, the eccentric, the unexplained - are added to the growing body of evidence that a heinous evil is afoot in the quiet innocence of the daycare centre. No distinction between circumstantial and substantive evidence is made: the evil is too profound, the threat too great. How, in such a poisoned atmosphere, does one maintain one's sanity and reason, one's imagination, compassion and sense of fairness? How does one determine what
Title: All Other Destinations Are Cancelled
Author: Murphy, Colleen Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1985
Description:
roy drama - Canadian four characters one male; three female two acts
2 exterior sets.
In an isolated northern town, a family rages against the past and each other, in a struggle for love and forgiveness.
Title: All the Verdis of Venice
Author: Chaurette, Normand Publisher: Talonbooks 2000
Description:
roy drama - comedy - historical five characters one male; three female four acts
"A play about the megalomaniacal, tragic and passionate world of opera. Surrounded by the director of Milan's la Scala, a retired baritone and the young diva teresa Stoltz, with whom he is very much taken, composer Guiseppe Verdi is forced to write his opera, Don Carlos, for political reasons." Title: Almighty Voice and His Wife
Author: Moses, Daniel David Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2001
Description:
roy Canadian - native - drama two characters one male; one female two acts
A young Cree couple woo and wed, but it's 1885, the generation after the Riel Rebellion. It's hard for any Indian to live happily ever after, unless one goes into show business. A retelling of historic incidents to create a play about the place of Native people in Canada.
Title: Amigo's Blue Guitar
Author: MacLeod, Joan Publisher: Summerhill Press 1990
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - ethnic five characters three male; two female two acts
1 interior sets and 1 exterior set.
Sander's life is given meaning when he chooses to sponsor a Salvadoran refugee for his sociology class. He never really thinks Elias will make it to Canada, and when he does, Sander and his family must learn what it means and feels like to be a refugee, and how to best relate to someone who has endured such intense personal grief. The warmth and humour of the
Title: Angel of Death
Author: Storey, Raymond Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1985
Description:
roy drama - Albertan five characters three male; two female two acts
1 interior set.
The year is 1916 and the war is dragging on. When Alice McCauley returns home she has more on her mind than mourning her dead cousin. She has to come to terms with the tyrannical father who drove her from home, and who drove her young cousin to his death. She must also deal with the housekeeper who raised her, a woman who talks to spirits and speaks of worlds other than our Title: Angelique
Author: Gale, Lorena Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1999
Description:
roy drama - racism, slavery fourteen characters flexible casting two acts
'Gale has fashioned a spare but powerful tale that thrusts the indignities of slavery and the stupidity of racism out of the murky 18th century and into the here and now.'
Title: Anger in Ernest and Ernestine, The
Author: Morgan, Robert Publisher: Theatrum Publishing 1989
Description:
Roy Canadian - comedy Two characters One male; one female Two acts
'Ernest and Ernestine live in a perfectly ordered world until cracks appear in the veneer. Repressed anger rears its ugly head and the couple's efforts to maintain order and affection range from comic to tragic.'
Title: Anne
Author: Ledoux, Paul Publisher: Miscellaneous 1999
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - family relations eight characters two male; six female two acts
"This is a rich evocation of turn-of-the century life on tiny Prince Edward Island, with Anne at its center. In his hands Marilyn and Matthew, Anne's adoptive parents, and nosy neighbour Rachael Lynde, come alive as powerful archetypes who gentle story is deeply sentimental, but never saccharin in its delivery of a timely message about the importance of community." Title: Another Two-Hander or Two
Author: Belke, David Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 1995
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy - acting - theatre five characters two male; three female two acts
"A comedy with a theatrical bent. Kelly deMare is a stage manager with a problem; namely the director. Is Kevin Russ inspired, intriguing or insane? Or is he just an actor/director? About directors, actors, stage managers and designers and what happens when the play becomes personal."
Title: Aphra
Author: Cullen, Nancy Jo Patience, Alexandria Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1997
Description:
roy Canadian - historical - women - drama all female cast; three characters three female two acts
"This is a play about Aphra Behn, the first English woman to earn her living by her pen, and who challenged the popular expectations placed upon seventeenth-century women."
Title: API 2967
Author: Gurik, Robert Gelinas, Marc F. Publisher: Talonbooks 1974
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian two characters one male; one female two acts
"API 2967" is Robert Gurik's science fiction play. Two characters resemble Adam and Eve, citizens of a world 1,000 years in the future, relive the turmoils of humanity. Do they actually live or do their lives resemble an "elongated death?"
The form of the play allows complete integration of film, music, tv, slides. Title: Appetite
Author: Stickland, Eugene Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 2000
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - human nature - fantasy - relationships four characters two male; two female two acts
"Sam and Alice accept an invitation to dinner...but who, exactly , are their hosts? Victor and Tanya seem welcoming enough, but as the evening progresses events start to take an hilariously sinister turn...
Title: Apple
Author: Thiessen, Vern Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2002
Description:
roy drama - relationships, Canadian three characters one male; two female two acts
"Andy is in trouble. Downsized from his job, his marriage in crises, he meets a mysterious young woman who he looks to for salvation. But when his wife becomes seriously ill, Andy must make a choice: care for an estranged wife, or run away with a woman he knows little about. A haunting tale of sex, secrets and second chances."
Title: Artichoke
Author: Glass, Joanna McClelland Publisher: Dramatists Play Service Inc. 1979
Description:
roy drama - Canadian seven characters five male; two female two acts
1 interior set.
Margaret, Walter and Margaret's old dad live on a Saskatchewan farm. A water-witch leaves a baby, Lily Agnes, on their porch, with a note saying the baby is Walter's. Walter has been banished to celibacy in the smokehouse when Gibson, an international authority on Alexander Pope, arrives on the scene and woos Margaret. Title: Assorted Candies for the Theatre
Author: Tremblay, Michel translated by Linda Gaboriau Publisher: Talonbooks 2007
Description:
roy autobiographical drama seven characters two male; four female; one male or female two acts
'Assorted Candies for the Theatre' is a stage adaptation of Michel Tremblay's fourth book of autobiographical sketches, offering a rich and colorful cast of characters in this exquisite remembrance of childhood past in Montreal's Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhood.
Title: At the Zenith of the Empire
Author: Lemoine, Stewart Publisher: NeWest Press 2007
Description:
roy theatre - biography - Sarah Bernhardt - Edmonton eight characters three male; five female two acts
In 1913, legendary tragedienne Sarah Bernhardt traveled to Edmonton, Alberta, to perform the last act of Alexandre Dumas' "The Lady of the Camellias" before two packed houses at the Empire Theatre. Inspired by "Fallen Empires" - John Orrell's celebrated history of Edmonton's Early theatre scene - this play creates a swirling speculative scenario about the impact of this very special day on the lives of Edmonton's earliest theatre goers and theatre practitioners. The Divine Sarah herself narrates this sumptuous romp of reminiscence, as the characters visit such local
Title: Atlantis
Author: Hunter, Maureen Publisher: Scirocco Drama 1997
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - relationships two characters one male; one female two acts
"A passionate encounter on the Greek island of Santorini illuminates this new play by Maureen Hunter. Ben is a Canadian in his fifties who has taken refuge on the sunny isle - thought to be the legendary Atlantis. He encounters Mircea, a mystical local woman and, in the words of Kevin Prokosh, theatre critic for the Winnipeg Free Press, their ensuing love affair provides "a badly needed hot spot for the soul." Title: Audition, The
Author: Daniels, Dan Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1965
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - theatre six characters four male; two female three acts
1 interior set.
A super-naturalistic or surrealist treatment of man's relationship to man. There is an inner contradiction between the action and the dialogue and each act is a complete unit in itself with its own value. Collectively the play brings about another value.
Title: Automatic Pilot
Author: Ritter, Erika Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1980
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian four characters three male; one female two acts
1 interior set.
A stand-up comic discovers that unhappiness is the source of her creative and comic powers. An expose of modern relationships.
Winner, 1980 Chalmers Canadian Play Award.
Title: Baby Blues, The
Author: Taylor, Drew Hayden Publisher: Talonbooks 1999
Description:
roy Canadian - satire - comedy six characters three male; three female two acts
"Drew Hayden Taylor's highly wrought farce of patrimony in a politically correct, post-colonial milieu of 'fancy dancers' of every stripe on the Pow Wow Trail."
Winner of the Alaska State University Playwrights Award. Title: Bag Babies
Author: Stratton, Allan Publisher: Coach House Press 1991
Description:
roy Canadian - satire six characters three male; three female two acts
"The rich speak verse and the poor speak prose in this comic and wildly theatrical satire on hypocrisy and greed."
Title: Balconville
Author: Fennario, David Publisher: Talonbooks 1980
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian eight characters four male; four female two acts
exterior set.
Three families and the neighborhood drunk sit on their balconies in the Montreal summer. It is election time and Gaetan Bolduc drives around making promises that infuriate the families and their friends. We see the English and French Canadian working class take on the establishment.
Title: Banana Boys
Author: Woo, Terry adapted by Leon Aureus Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2004
Description:
roy comedy all male cast; five characters five male five acts
"Banana Boys" is a smart, contemporary and wickedly funny play about five young Asian-Canadian men wrestling with the issues of race, identity and the death of a friend. it is one story, fragmented into five and reconstructed throughout the course of their lives. Adapted from the novel by Terry Woo, Banana Boys is a "meditation for the restless" and a call to anyone who has felt out of place in this world. Title: Bastard (Once Removed), A
Author: MacKillop, Larry Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1995
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy four characters two male; two female two acts
"An Albertan yields his economic power to his Nova Scotia relatives after they lead him via the graveyard to doubt his own legitimacy."
Title: Bat Masterson's Last Regular Job
Author: Ballantyne, Bill Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1987
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy - western five characters four male; one female two acts
An aging hero of the Old West flails against his fading reputation in turn-of-the-century Manhattan. He is offered a celebrity appearance at a second-rate boxing match and, viewing this as his salvation, he grabs at it passionately. But sports heros have replaced those of the Wild West and the once-dapper gunslinger who made Crazy Horse dance suffers the final humiliation. This is a compelling vision of the human condition.
Title: Bathory
Author: King, Moynan Publisher: Broken Jaw Press 2000
Description:
roy comedy - dark - historical all female cast; four characters four female two acts
" 'Bathory' is a darkly comic portrayal of the life and crimes of the 17th Century's infamous "Blood Countess," Erzsebet Bathory (Elizabeth Bathory) of Hungary. King's hit play blends gothic wonder with black humor while exposing contemporary obsessions with power, female sexuality, and the lure of magic. 'Bathory was both applauded and reviled for laying bare the truth of female violence. Then there's the play's romantic core - a beautifully constructed lesbian love triangle. 'Bathory', like it's Title: Battering Ram
Author: Freeman, David E. Publisher: Talonbooks 1974
Description:
roy drama - Canadian three characters one male; two female two acts
1 interior set.
Irene, a "professional volunteer," provides a room in her home for the handicapped Virgil. She and her daughter Nora, both sexually frustrated, try to use Virgil to satisfy their needs. All three search for love but find something much less.
Title: Bea's Niece
Author: Gow, David Publisher: Canadian Playwrights 1997
Description:
roy drama - women four characters one male; three female (doubling) two acts
"Anne Hirsch, a famous novelist, battles to regain her sense of place, time and reality. She is surrounded by characters and happenings which challenge our understanding and perception."
Title: Bearded Circus Ladies Internet address - http://www.playwrights.ca/portfolios/pdf/Bearded_Circus_Ladie Author: Derbyshire, Jan Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1997
Description:
roy comedy - women - monologues all female cast; many characters flexible casting two acts
'Seven women, seven in-betweens all arrive at the same bridge on the same night to end it all. When they fall, the force of gravity compacts them into one statistic; the fall women. This woman does not drown. Instead, she lands on a houseboat chartered by the Real women, an anti-feminist organization.' Title: Beautiful Lake Winnipeg
Author: Hunter, Maureen Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1989
Description:
roy drama - Canadian four characters two male; two female two acts
1 exterior set.
When a man accompanies his fiancee to her cabin, only to find her ex-husband waiting for them, the web of deceit grows thick enough to chop with an axe. Who's lying? Who's telling the truth? Is there a body?
Title: Beaver A play Author: Dey, Claudia Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 2000
Description:
roy Canadian tragicomedy - suicide - wedding - family relations eight characters two male; six female two acts
"Young Beatrice grapples with growing up in this tragicomedy. Set in rural Ontario, the Jersey family faces the chilling challenges of a sister’s suicide and her daughter’s wedding."
Title: Bedtime Stories
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2006
Description:
roy comedy - romance fifteen characters nine male; six female (doubling possible) two acts
In a series connected by time, place and a most unusual radio broadcast, we follow inter-weaving characters in their comic struggle to find the meaning of love. Title: Belle
Author: Gibson, Florence Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2000
Description:
roy drama - history eight characters four male; four female twenty-three scenes
'The extraordinary story of two recently freed slaves, husband and wife, journeying to the north in search of a new life. When they encounter a white woman fighting for the suffrage movement, they become entwined in the social upheaval that epitomizes post Civil War America.'
Title: Belle Moral A natural history Author: MacDonald, Ann-Marie Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2005
Description:
roy comedy - historical eleven characters; one dog six male; five female (doubling possible) three acts
“A rewrite of her play “The Arab’s Mouth”. Setting: Stone house called Belle Moral on the coast of Scotland a few miles outside Edinburgh - Spring/Summer 1899. Pearl MacIsaac, a budding young amateur scientist with an interest in evolution, is left alone with her Aunt Flora after her father’s recent death. They await the return of Pearl’s aimless artistic brother Victor so that their father’s will can be read and the estate settled. Victor arrives but almost immediately attempts suicide. Meanwhile, the family doctor Seamus Reid and Flora furtively discuss what to do with the creature
Title: Belles Soeurs, Les
Author: Tremblay, Michel translated by J. van Burek and B. Glassco Publisher: Talonbooks 1991
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - French all female cast; fifteen characters fifteen female two acts
Germain wins a million trading stamps and invites her friends and relatives over for a pasting party during which the frustration, bitterness and poverty of their lives is revealed. Title: Berlin Blues, The
Author: Taylor, Drew Hayden Publisher: Talonbooks 2007
Description:
roy comedy - native peoples six characters three male; three female two acts
A German conglomerate puts up $64 million for a theme park called Ojibway World. Their dream requires stepping on certain native traditions and offers temporary gains for what would be permanent losses of dignity. The Germans display ignorance of the culture, suggesting caribou and Rocky Mountain features, neither of these being indigenous to the Ojibway's region. If one needs an innocuous night of theatre, this can be taken as a series of funny events. Those hoping for something deeper can find allegories and metaphors pointing through history.
Title: Bethune
Author: Langley, Rod Publisher: Talonbooks 1975
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - biography twenty-nine characters nineteen male; ten female (doubling possible) three acts
A chronicle of the passionate life and times of Dr. Norman Bethune. Set in the slums of Detroit, in 1930's Montreal, in Civil War Spain and in China, the play paints a larger than life portrait of a remarkable man.
Title: Billy Bishop Goes to War
Author: Gray, John Publisher: Talonbooks 1981
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - musical all male cast; one character; (one pianist) one male two acts
The truth about war. A high-flying ace of a show celebrating the derring-do of Canada's greatest pilot hero. Billy is an anti-hero and the Bishop myth is inflated and deflated in the same gesture. Title: Bingo!
Author: Stratton, Allan Publisher: Samuel French 1987
Description:
roy farce - Canadian five characters three male; two female two acts
David Pearce, Associate Professor of English, is giving a tutorial to a pretty coed who aspires to the lofty heights of poetical inspiration - and to romance. David is fending her off when the department chairman's wife barges in with plans to make her husband jealous by telling him she is having a torrid affair with David. David is shocked (and worried about his tenure review). He is even more shocked when the chairman arrives, boiling, and finds his wife in one room and the love-smitten coed in another. Matters become hilariously complicated until David finally manages
Title: Birthright
Author: Skinner, Constance Lindsay adapted by Joan Bryans Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2003
Description:
roy drama - native peoples - discrimination eleven characters five male; six female (doubling possible) three acts
In the British Columbia frontier in 1905, missionary Robert Maclean has an ever-increasing foothold of power and influence. Into the swirling melee of shifting allegiances steps Precious Conroy, Maclean’s adopted daughter. She is unaware that she was sent away for schooling to avoid the shame and discrimination which would occur should the secret get out that she is part Native. The son of the local chief, himself a product of a mixed marriage, is in love with her but so too is the son of the house. What will happen when, as it must, the secret of her parentage gets
Title: Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon, The
Author: Mitchell, W. O. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1979
Description:
roy drama - Canadian ten characters nine male; one female two acts
'A man curls a game in return for his soul.' Title: Blackpool and Parrish
Author: Belke, David Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1998
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy five characters three male; two female two acts
"A fast-paced comedy about Good, Evil, Destiny, Free Will, Family, and the End of the World. Harry Blackpool is the representative of all that is Evil on the planet Earth. Rachel Parrish represents the Good. After two thousand years of rivalry they are ready to pass their roles to their children. With the Apocalypse due tomorrow at tea time, is there any way to save the world? And doesn't humanity get any say in the matter?"
Title: Bland Hysteria
Author: Palmer, John Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1972
Description:
roy Canadian - farce two characters one male; one female two acts
"A farce about Sally who meets Jeff at a bus stop. The two develop into several different characters."
Title: Blessed Art Thou Among Women
Author: Werner, Hans Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy drama - Canadian six characters two male; four female two acts
Description not available. Title: Blind Dates
Author: Fuerstenberg, Anna Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press
Description:
roy comedy - drama - youth - social issues - high school six characters three male; three female two acts
"Young adults attempt to deal with fears of the future, including unemployment, lack of communication, birth control and nuclear war".
Title: Blood
Author: Walmsley, Tom Publisher: Scirocco Drama 2000
Description:
roy comedy two characters one male; one female two acts
'Noelle is desperate for cash to score some drugs. She's set up a date for kinky sex with a john who likes to watch her with someone else, but all her usual partners are busy. Then her long-lost bisexual brother walks through the door and Noelle gets to thinking... A play about moral ambiguities and the possibility of love.'
Title: Blood is Strong, The
Author: Sinclair, Lister Publisher: Book Society of Canada 1956
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - historical eleven characters seven male; four female three acts
1 interior set; 19 th century costumes.
A drama of early Scottish settlement in Cape Breton. The play, spanning several years, shows the varying degrees with which members of a family of Highland immigrants, the MacDonalds, adapt to the "new country". The effect of the generation gap is seen when the children begin to consider themselves Canadians. Title: Blowfish
Author: Thiessen, Vern Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1996
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy - drama - monologue all male cast; one character one male two acts
"What do food, funerals, the Edmonton tornado, and Mila Mulroney have in common? Join the caterer Lumiere as he serves you up a whole new eating experience."
Title: Blue Dragons
Author: Armstrong, Gordon Publisher: Scirocco Drama 1993
Description:
roy drama all male cast; three characters three male two acts
Through memory and imagination, Simon searches for truth and the play explores relationships, the quality of living, and the nature of love in a world of cynicism, fear and AIDS.
Title: Blues, The
Author: Alianak, Hrant Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian four characters two male; two female ten scenes
1 interior set.
Four B-movie types play out their tenuous lives in a dingy bar. A pathetic and hilarious account of losers always hoping to win. Title: Boiler Room Suite
Author: Deverell, Rex Publisher: Talonbooks 1978
Description:
roy Canadian - drama three characters two male; one female two acts
"Deverall's play about two Skid Row winos who have climbed into the boiler room of an abandoned hotel on the Prairies to seek refuge from winter - and from the world, until it has turned more kind."
Title: Bone Cage
Author: Banks, Catherine Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2008
Description:
roy drama - Canadian seven characters four male; three female two acts
Bone Cage is about the difficulty in growing and hanging on to dreams in a world where dreams are seen as impractical of weak. It is funny. It is tragic. It is about the different kinds of escaping. It is about a soul trapped in its own rib cage, a cage of bone, a Bone Cage.
Nominated for the 2008 Governor Generals Award.
Title: Bonjour La Bonjour
Author: Tremblay, Michel translated by John Van Burek and Bill Glassco Publisher: Talonbooks 1975
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian eight characters two male; six female thirty-one scenes
Serge returns from Europe to confront his family, the kinds of love they offer him and the kinds of love he needs from them. Title: Book of Jessica, The A theatrical transformation Author: Griffiths, Linda Campbell, Maria Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1989
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - women six characters three male; three female two acts
"Imagine one woman acting out another woman's life before that woman's eyes. Imagine that the woman improvising is white, and the woman watching is Metis. Imagine that the two women collaborate on a play; fight over the play; do not speak to each other for years, and finally reconcile, recording their tempestuous journey in a book which ends with the play."
Title: Bordertown Cafe
Author: Rebar, Kelly Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1987
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian four characters two male; two female two acts
In a small family-run "bordertown" cafe, Jimmy faces the most important decisions of his life. Caught between his Canadian mother and his American father, he must decide where he wants to live - and who he really is.
Title: Bousille and the Just
Author: Gelinas, Gratien Publisher: Clarke, Irwin and Company 1961
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian ten characters six male; four female two acts
1 interior set.
When Bousille, an earnest and self-effacing innocent, becomes a key witness in the Montreal murder trial of his cousin, the family are passionately concerned that his testimony should exonerate the accused and clear their good name. The situation points up the prevailing self-deception of the modern world which while professing its belief in God and spiritual values, Title: Branch Plant
Author: Markowitz, Harvey Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1972
Description:
roy drama - Canadian twelve characters eleven male; one female two acts
1 interior set.
Based on an actual incident, this play examines the closing of a Toronto-based branch plant, and its effect on the Plant Manager as he discovers what it means to be a Canadian and what he can do about it.
Title: Bravado
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 1988
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy five characters four male; one female two acts
"Little guys Ray and Wes attempt to take control of their lives. The result is a bungled robbery which accidentally escalates into blackmail and hostage-taking."
Title: Bush-Ladies: In Their Own Words
Author: Thom, Molly Publisher: Scirocco Drama 2000
Description:
roy drama - historical - Canadian all female cast; four characters four female two acts
" 'The Bush-Ladies: In Their Own Words' is adapted from the writings of Susanna Moodie, Catharine Parr Traill, Anne Langton, and Anna Jameson. In the 1830's, these four well-born, highly-educated British women came to Canada - and the accounts of their lives have made them the First Ladies of Canadian literature. In this clever play, Molly Thom uses the Bush-Ladies' own words to illuminate the immigrant experience. It is a spirited and dramatic romp through a vivid era in our history." Title: Butcher's Apron, The
Author: Tidler, Charles Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1990
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian six characters four male; two female two acts
open stage.
August Strindberg falls in love with the young feminist theatre critic, Frida Uhl, and they attempt to forge a new kind of marriage wherein the Feminist and the Superman may co-exist as partners, lovers and equals. But through an experiment in alchemy, Strindberg has become two people and his doppelganger is out for blood.
Title: Buz'Gem Blues, The
Author: Taylor, Drew Hayden Publisher: Talonbooks 2002
Description:
roy comedy - stereotypes - native - non-native six characters three male; three female two acts
The third play in Taylor's ongoing zany, outrageous, often farcical examination of both native and non-native stereotypes. As absurdly claustrophobic as "Gilligan's Island", Taylor is pulling some of our most revered icons - European anthropologists, their native elder informants and their militant young warrior critics - off their pedestals. This is a play about how our ritualized and institutionalized systems of maintaining and policing clichés prevents us from recognizing our common humanity in each other.
Title: Bye Bye Baby
Author: Gasco, Elyse Publisher: Scirocco Drama 2006
Description:
roy dramatic comedy - Canadian - family relations all female cast; five characters five female twenty-eight scenes
"Inspired by Gasco's award-winning collection of short stories, Can You Wave Bye Bye, Baby? It's the journey of a young woman, Elle, and her mission to uncover the truth about her birth mother. Elle struggles to make sense of her own life and identity, her complicated relationships with her adoptive mother and her own growing fetus. The audience shares in the intimate realities of Elle's early pregnancy, in her rage at the uncertainty that is her legacy, and in her frustrations as she butts up against the bureaucratic red-tape that provides the only route to her origins." Title: Call of the Whipperwill, The
Author: Dufresne, Guy Publisher: New Press 1972
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian six characters three male; three female two acts
exterior set.
Godfrey Dechenes is motivated less by his greed for the sale money from his farm, or by his anger at the modern Boston pirates' who hope to buy it, than by his love for his beautiful daughter, Gabrielle. In a play that is both quick-paced and evocative, Dufresne gives us another view of Quebec - earthy, emotional, and full of a rage that is at times articulated, at times powerfully
Title: Can You See Me Yet?
Author: Findley, Timothy Publisher: Talonbooks 1977
Description:
roy drama - Canadian eleven characters four male; seven female fifteen scenes
1 interior set.
In 1938, in a world about to go mad with war, an Ontario insane asylum seems to offer sanctuary to the characters, but as Cassandra Waklin, Findley's protagonist, begins to confuse her fellow inmates with members of her own ill-fated family, the question arises - can anyone find sanctuary... anywhere?
Title: Canadiens, Les
Author: Salutin, Rick Dryden, Ken Publisher: Talonbooks 1977
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian large cast flexible casting two acts
1 interior set.
Hockey as a metaphor; the history of Quebec and Canada is traced through stick and puck.
Winner, Chalmers Canadian Play Award, 1977. Title: Captives of the Faceless Drummer
Author: Ryga, George Publisher: Talonbooks 1971
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - political seven characters; chorus five male; two female two acts
1 interior set.
A timeless, balanced and important statement about political kidnapping and terrorism.
Title: Capture Me
Author: Thompson, Judith Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2004
Description:
roy drama five characters three male; two female two acts
Juxtaposing lived and imagined realities of hate and love, fear and hope, quirky humour and bitter knowledge, Capture Me takes the kind of risks that keeps theatre powerfully alive and kicking. Connecting the lives of a kindergarten teacher, the traumatized Islamic immigrant with whom she falls in love, the insanely abusive former husband who is stalking her, and the icy, mortally ill mother whom she struggles to understand, Thompson achieves an intensity that owes as much to the jagged poetry of her writing as to the stark conflicts she stages.
Title: Cariboo Magi
Author: Frangione, Lucia Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 2002
Description:
roy comedy - theatre four characters two male; two female two acts
running time : 110 minutes
'A drunken Anglican minister, an avarice saloon owner, a pregnant dancing girl and a man who claims to be the last of the Mohicans form a bedraggled troupe of desperate players. They head north, from San Diego, through the wilds of the Cariboo gold rush to perform a Christmas Pageant for the Theatre Royal in Barkerville, B.C., with hilarious results.' Title: Caribou
Author: Melski, Michael Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1995
Description:
roy drama all male cast; two characters two male eight scenes
'Set on a mountain, near an anonymous village along the Trans-Canada highway, 'Caribou' is a stark, unrelenting character study of two hunters in a savage October of the heart - Louis, a construction worker and his brother-in-law Duncan, mentally disordered since birth, and dependant on Louis and his wife Anne. One day, Louis and Duncan embark on a hunting trip. It is a last chance for both men, driven to the limit by love, each willing to kill for their right to exist. Loosely based on the myth of Isaac and Abraham, (the play) is about yearning and sacrifice, rites
Title: Carmela's Table
Author: Rossi, Vittorio Publisher: Talonbooks 2008
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - immigrants five characters two male; three female two acts
"In Rossi's second play of his Carpenter's Trilogy, his dramatic portraits of the decorated Italian war hero Silvio's manipulative mother, Filomena, his inexplicably loyal wife Carmela, and the extended family's understanding and supportive neighbours Neva and Dave, are finely drawn variations on what have become pop-culture stereotypes of Italian immigrants. They clearly exist to allow Rossi to peel back the complex layers of Silvio's psyche to reveal all the classic symptoms of what we now know as post-traumatic stress disorder..."
Title: Castrato
Author: Nelson, Greg Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1993
Description:
roy drama - Canadian four characters three male; one female two acts
At the center of Castrato is the tragic and sensational suicide of an abusive father and preacher. Haunted by their father's death, his surviving sons come to a less than perfect reunion after their twelve-year estrangement. Amidst the clash of liberal and fundamentalist religious views, Nelson's charged characters and tightly crafted dialogue bring to the forefront the experience of heartfelt struggle, psychological ramifications and long simmering rage. Title: Catlover
Author: Spence, Janis Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1990
Description:
roy Canadian - drama eight characters six male; two female two acts
'With the unexpected return of her absent husband of nineteen years, Hester, chief caregiver of her father-in-law and her husbands ancient cat, reassesses her life during her apparent widowhood and, comparing it with her husband's adventures, decides its her turn.'
Title: Cecil and Cleopaytra
Author: Libman, Daniel Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada
Description:
roy drama two characters one male; one female two acts
"An aged, formerly renowned, acting coach rekindles his interest in life when his day nurse becomes his next protege."
Title: Centenarian Rhyme
Author: Bernier, Alexis Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1980
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy six characters three male; three female two acts
Description not available. Title: Chairs and Tables
Author: Wyatt, Rachel Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - comedy three characters one male; two female two acts
"The story of a dangerous friendship. Alix has once again arrived to disrupt Susan's life and refresh her memories. "
Title: Champion, The
Author: Gurik, Robert translated by Allan Van Meer Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1982
Description:
roy drama - Canadian eleven characters nine male; two female two acts
A modern tragicomedy based on the life of Muhammed Ali. With most of the U.S. against him. Ali fights back against racism, white religion and the draft board.
Title: Charbonneau and Le Chef
Author: McDonough, John Thomas Publisher: McClelland and Stewart Inc. 1968
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian ten characters eight male; two female three acts
Quebec's Quiet Revolution did not begin in Montreal in 1959. It began a full ten years earlier in 1949 in the quiet town of Asbestos, forty-five miles east of Montreal. Here Premier Maurice Duplessis pitted his immense political power against social justice - and lost. Siding with business in the critical strike of 1949, Le Chef bitterly opposed the demands of the workers - demands which were strongly upheld by Joseph Charbonneau, the Archbishop of Montreal. It was Duplessis who ultimately had to retreat and capitulate to the demands of the strikers. He lost, but Title: Chautauqua
Author: Clinton, Robert Publisher: Miscellaneous 1973
Description:
roy drama - Canadian fifteen characters eight male; seven female nine scenes
open stage.
'To the people in Saskatchewan in the 1920's, the word Chautauqua meant entertainment - lectures, shows, and actors travelling from town to town. This play is a chautauqua performance.'
Title: Chief Shaking Spear Rides Again; or, The Taming of the Sioux
Author: Graves, Warren Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1975
Description:
roy Albertan - western - melodrama - comedy - high school twelve characters six male; six female two acts
1 interior set.
Set in the old West at the turn of the century, this is a melodrama about a Bard of the Plains whose plays bear a striking resemblance to those of you-know-who's.
Title: Chimera
Author: Lill, Wendy Publisher: Talonbooks 2007
Description:
roy Canadian - political drama seven characters five male; two female two acts
"A fearless examination of the ethics of stem cell research. More than this, the playwright turned politician turned playwright moors her script with a piquant yet comical narrative of a parliamentarian who wants answers, a journalist who wants a story, a scientist who wants her privacy, and a Cabinet Minister who just wants to do the right thing." Title: China Doll
Author: Chan, Marjorie Publisher: Scirocco Drama 2004
Description:
roy drama - Chinese - historical four characters one male; three female two acts
20th century China.
"In China Doll, Marjorie Chan's first play, Ibsen is a catalyst for a young woman who comes to see her future in terms other than those laid out for her by the patriarchal society in which she lives. As Su-Ling grows into womanhood, she makes choices that lead her toward independence, and which have consequences for everyone in her world."
Title: Chinese Man Said Goodbye, The
Author: McManus, Bruce Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1988
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian all male cast; two characters two male one act
1 interior set.
Candid humor helps reveal the strengths and weaknesses of a bond between father and son.
Title: Chronic
Author: Griffiths, Linda Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2003
Description:
roy drama - illness six characters three male; three female two acts
Ostensibly about CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) and the virus that may or may not cause it, Chronic puts one woman’s disease under the theatrical microscope along with various other pathologies of modern life. At first Petra seems familiarly neurotic, a Woody Allen character refracted through George F. Walker. But as Griffiths examines the psychological, social and sexual dimensions of Petra’s experience in her desperate pursuit of a cure, as well as her medical treatments, her dreams, and the peculiarities of her post-industrial workplace, the stage becomes Title: Claudius
Author: Gass, Ken Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1995
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy ten characters six male; four female two acts
"A contemporary look at the Hamlet story, focusing on the marriage of Claudius and Gertrude. A play of passion, politics, and paranoia. A murky comedy full of intrigue, humour, and spectacle."
Title: Clever As Paint The Rossettis in love Author: Morrissey, Kim Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1994
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy - drama three characters two male; one female two acts
"A comic reappraisal of the painting circle of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his wife Lizzie Siddal, and protege William Morris. Examines the boundaries between inspiration and despair, art and craft. After Siddal's suicide, Rossetti buried his love poems in her coffin. Seven years later he dug them up again, publishing them to please his new lover and model, Janey Morris (wife of William Morris). Strangely beautiful, witty and compassionate, 'Clever As Paint' offers fresh insights into the boundaries between art, craft, grief, inspiration and despair."
Title: Closer and Closer Apart A play in two acts Author: Stickland, Eugene Publisher: Miscellaneous 2007
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - family relations three characters two male; one female two acts
"Born out of a one-act two-hander Stickland wrote in 1999, the play takes place entirely in Joe’s well-furnished high-rise condo. Joe's daughter, Melody, returns home from Vancouver on a stop-over to a new job in Arizona, coming to grips with her own divorce as she confronts not only her deteriorated father, but also her never-stop real estate agent brother Michael, a pragmatist whose day-to-day dealings with their dad have taken their toll, but whose cellphone is always ringing." Title: Clouds of Glory
Author: Lambert, Betty Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1979
Description:
roy Canadian - political - drama eight characters four male; four female two acts
The contradictions between personal and social politics in contemporary Canada become evident when student riots erupt following the declaration of the War Measures Act in October 1970.
Title: Club Chernobyl
Author: Warren, Dianne Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1994
Description:
roy Canadian - drama six characters three male; three female two acts
"Dallas MacKenzie's new nightclub has a nuclear-meltdown concept, but it's not turning out to be the hot-spot he'd hoped for. He's coping with a troubled marriage, a violent rainstorm, a flooded basement, a stranded motorist, and the dead body of tattooed woman on what just might be the night that ends the world."
Title: Cold Comfort
Author: Garrard, Jim Publisher: Talonbooks 1982
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian three characters two male; one female two acts
"Cold Comfort" is the third in a quartet of plays that Jim Garrard calls "Bondage Plays for My Country". The play could take place anywhere along the Trans-Canada Highway, but it happens to be set in Saskatchewan, the geographic centre of the country. There are three characters in the play: Dolores, a fifteen year old girl who wants to know more about the world than the window and the household TV can tell her; Floyd, her father, with whom she lives in an abandoned service station, whose paternal misdeeds form the sinister backdrop for the play's action; and Stephen, Title: Cold Meat Party
Author: Fraser, Brad Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2003
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian seven characters three male; four female two acts
"Cold Meat Party concerns a group of former friends; a gay pop star, a feminist filmmaker and a homophobic politician, and their attendant partners, who meet in a Manchester B&B for the funeral and reading of the will of their recently deceased college friend. They gather to remember past friendships and the happy days of success but also to face the uncertain and chaotic present. It will be a hilarious and heartbreaking weekend and, in the end, more painful than they ever imagined."
Title: Colonial Tongues
Author: Robinson, Mansel Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1995
Description:
roy drama five Characters three male; two female two acts
In 1967 in a small Northern Ontario town, Edna Barnett finds her family in moral jeopardy. Her youngest son returns home - to a ghost town. Moving back and forth 30 years, "Colonial Tongues" enacts the disintegration of family and the struggle to rebuild community.
Title: Colours in the Dark
Author: Reaney, James Publisher: Talonbooks 1971
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - childhood six characters; extras (children); chorus three male; three female two acts
Set in a magical toy box, a series of images, poems and memories evoke the terrors and delights of childhood. Title: Colours in the Storm
Author: Betts, Jim Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1990
Description:
roy biography - Canadian, drama five characters three male; two female two acts
'About the life and mysterious death of one of Canada's most famous painters, Tom Thomson, it tells the story of his life with a variety of colorful characters, a number of whom have been implicated in his possible "murder".'
Title: Come Good Rain
Author: Seremba, George Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1993
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - Africa all male cast; thirty-one characters one male (doubling) two acts
Set in Uganda during the turbulent and murderous regimes of Idi Amin and Milton Obote, 'Come Good Rain' chronicles George Seremba's life as a young man growing up and witnessing the reckless abandon with which the "Pearl of Africa" becomes its own festering curse. While pursuing studies in literature and drama, he becomes swept up in the polarized tide of power struggles, living with a constant fear for his companions, contemporaries and most of all, his family. Combining African mythology, history, and dynamic narrative, this play emerges finally as a
Title: Compulsory Option
Author: Pollock, Sharon Publisher: Miscellaneous 1970
Description:
roy drama - Canadian three characters two male; one female three acts
Alberta Playwriting Competition, 1970, 2nd Prize.
No abstract available. Title: Consecrated Ground
Author: Boyd, George Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1999
Description:
roy Canadian - historical drama seven characters four male; three female two acts
"In 1965, Africville, the largest and oldest Black community in Canada was bulldozed into memory. In 'Consecrated Ground', award-winning play-wright George Boyd retells the struggles of Africville's residents to save their homes and their dignity. With tremendous wit and gravity, George Boyd resurrects Africville on the verge of extinction, making us a gift of people believable in their vulnerabilities, their courage, and their outrage."
Title: Corker
Author: Lill, Wendy Publisher: Talonbooks 1998
Description:
roy Canadian - drama six characters three male, three female two acts
"Uses the familiar but difficult and treacherous nineteenth-century device of representing the family as a microcosm of the nation state. It is Wendy Lill's great skill as a playwright that actually makes this symbolism work by unraveling it into a devastating conclusion that is seen in two completely different ways by the characters and the audience."
Title: Coronation Voyage, The
Author: Bouchard, Michel Marc Publisher: Talonbooks 1999
Description:
roy Canadian - drama fourteen characters eight male; six female two parts
"May 1953. The Empress of France sets sail from Montreal. On the pretext of attending the celebrations marking the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, an important mafioso leaves for England where he secretly plans to live in exile with his two sons. Aboard this floating palace in the middle of the ocean, the petty lord of the Montreal underworld must face the most important decision of his dubious career: will he sacrifice his youngest son for a safe-conduct?" Title: Crabdance
Author: Simons, Beverley Publisher: In Press 1969
Description:
roy tragicomedy - Canadian four characters three male; one female three acts
1 interior set.
A tragicomedy in which a lonely woman plays elaborate, ritualistic games with three men forced to play her son, her husband, and her lover.
Title: Crackpot
Author: Wyatt, Rachel Wiseman, Adele Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1995
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - relationships fourteen characters nine male; five female (doubling possible) two acts
Based on the novel by Adele Wiseman. Follows the life and relationships of Hoda and her family, through 2 wars, from 1912 to 1945.
Title: Crackwalker, The
Author: Thompson, Judith Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy drama - Canadian five characters three male; two female two acts
1 interior set.
This remarkable play about a mentally disabled woman and her friends explores the psyche of those living outside of "normal" society. Title: Criminals in Love
Author: Walker, George F. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian six characters three male; three female nine scenes
Gail and Junior are young and in love in an urban wasteland. Junior's jailbird dad and his schizo girl-friend get them mixed up in a terrorist plot while William, the drunken philosopher, espouses the meaning of destiny.
Winner, 1984 Chalmers Canadian Play Award and Governor General's Literary Award for Drama, 1985.
Title: Crossing the Line
Author: Craig, Colleen Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1989
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - women five characters one male; four female two acts
"Women caught in the web of South African politics. Ann is a political artist. Paula and her would-be lover Rosie are young white activists. Hannie is an aspiring model and grace is the black domestic worker who forces each character to cross the line separating truth from self-delusion."
Title: D'Arcy A docu-drama Author: Dempsey, Sandra Publisher: Simon and Pierre Publishing 1981
Description:
roy Canadian - monologues - drama - men all male cast; one character one male two acts
1 setting; background music.
"One man play about life of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Irish by birth, a poet, rebel and journalist who became known as Father of Confederation in Canada." Title: Dali
Author: Millan, Jim Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1985
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy - surrealism six characters four male; two female two acts
"A biographical look at the artist's life, his relationship with Gala, and his obsession with sex and death."
Title: Dancing in Poppies
Author: Bowen, Gail Marken, Ron Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 1992
Description:
roy drama - war three characters two male; one female two acts
Two young veterans and a nursing volunteer adjust to life after World War I. With growing confidence, they discover peace and love in a socially and politically dynamic Canada.
Title: Dancock's Dance
Author: Vanderhaeghe, Guy Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1996
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - mental Illness - identity six characters five male; one female two acts
"Shell-shocked, judged unfit for society and haunted by the sins of war, Lieutenant John Carlyle Dancock finds himself committed to an insane asylum where he cannot escape the confines of righteous authority or his own conscience which visits him in the ghostly apparition of a dead soldier." Title: Danish Play, The A true tale of resistance Author: Mills, Sonja Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2002
Description:
roy historical drama - women - biographical large cast flexible casting two acts
'Agnete Ottosen was tough, unsentimental and remarkable. When World War II broke out, Ottosen immediately joined the resistance, organizing the escape of many Jews, and writing for an underground newspaper. She was caught and tortured by the Gestapo but revealed nothing, managing to survive internment in the notorious Ravensbruck concentration camp. Sonja Mills, Ottesen's great-niece, has written a play that offers historical insight and critical reflection on some of the most urgent issues of our time - nationalism, justice and freedom. A moving dramatic
Title: Dark Harvest
Author: Pharis Ringwood, Gwen Publisher: Thomas Nelson and Sons 1945
Description:
roy drama - Canadian seven characters five male; two female three acts
1 exterior set; 1930's costume.
"A trivial tragedy of the Prairies". For Gerth Hansen, wheat farmer, God is in the land and he struggles against it, alone.
Title: Davin: The Politician
Author: Mitchell, Ken Publisher: NeWest Press 1979
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - political nine characters; extras eight male; one female three acts
various sets.
Canada's settlement is portrayed through the turbulent life of Nicolas Flood Davin: poet, politician, newspaperman and lover of Kate Simpson, one of Canada's first feminists. Title: Dead Serious
Author: Greenall, Doug Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1989
Description:
roy Canadian - thriller seven characters four male; two female; one dead man two acts
"Terror strikes when employees at an isolated resort discover a guest brutally murdered. A teenage girl's belief in her younger brother's innocence is severely tested as the killings continue and it becomes clear that his obsession with a childhood game has become pathological."
Title: Dead Together
Author: Rideout, George Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1994
Description:
roy Canadian - mystery - thriller five characters two male; three female two acts
"Five ex-student radicals reunite 25 years after their occupation of a university records office. The 'Big Chill' gone wrong."
Title: Death of the Donnellys, The
Author: Johns, Ted Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1982
Description:
roy drama eleven characters nine male; two female three acts
" A look at the violent Donnelly legend as a study law - the laws of the family, society and God." Title: Devil's Petition
Author: Scott, Munroe Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - historical thirteen characters nine male; four female; (doubling possible) two acts
Based on a true story from Upper Canada, the play tells the tale of a Methodist preacher who tries to save a man from being legally hanged without breaking the law.
Title: Dishwashers, The
Author: Panych, Morris Publisher: Talonbooks 2005
Description:
roy dramatic comedy all male cast: four characters four male two acts
Haplessly determined to have his own miserable authority vindicated, chief dishwasher Dressler presides over the steam-choked basement of an upscale restaurant, a place of seamless drudgery so remote from the light of day that its wage-slaves have no contact with anyone outside. Sprouting an indiscriminate cornucopia of working-class ethic and an interminable babble of pride of craft, Dressler tyrannizes his co-workers. Unfortunately, both the "old hand" Moss and the "new guy" Emmett fail to see things his way as they stubbornly and pursue both their rejection
Title: Divinity Bash / nine lives
Author: MacDonald, Bryden Publisher: Talonbooks 1999
Description:
roy Canadian - drama nine characters five male, three female, one hermaphrodite three acts
Everything, and therefore nothing, is sacred: sterile aliens abduct the unemployed while their boyfriends leave their wives and pour out their grief and longing by singing sentimental pop music at karaoke bars. It struts and frets its absurdities on a stage of collapsing and colliding walls; between the hell that is the here and now of the late 20th century and the possibility of a heaven far off at the horizon where the sea meets the sky like the converging pages of an open book: the edge of the margin on can always see, always move toward, but never get to. 'Divinity Title: Doc
Author: Pollock, Sharon Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy drama - Albertan five characters two male; three female two acts
Catherine returns home to visit her aging father, a doctor revered and honoured by his community. She confronts, through a series of flashbacks, her thwarted need for his love and her late mother's decline into alcoholism, finally realizing that it is time for a reconciliation with her father.
Winner of the Governor General's Literacy Award for Drama.
Title: Dolly Rockers, The
Author: Craig, Colleen Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1997
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy - musical - feminism all female cast; five characters five female two acts
"The year is 1974. The Dolly Rockers, an all-female rock band, set out to meet the oil rich Calgarian who has promised to back them for a record. As the band crosses Canada via seedy hotels, small town bars and high school gyms, they encounter aggressive rival bands, sexist bar owners, drugs, romance, ruthless opportunism and violent internal squabbling."
Title: Donnellys: Part I, The Sticks and stones Author: Reaney, James Publisher: Press Porcepic 1975
Description:
roy drama - Canadian eleven characters; extras eight male; three female (doubling is possible) three acts
"Based on the story of an actual family who came out from Ireland in 1844 to Biddulph Township, Ontario, and were nearly annihilated by a secret society formed among their neighbours 36 years later. The complete story of the Donnellys is too large for one evening. This play gets you started and takes you as far as when 'persons unknown' burnt down James Donnelly's barn in 1867. Donnelly defied this invitation to get out of the neighbourhood and he swore that he would stay in Biddulph Township forever. He is still there. It was at this time that the Donnellys decided to be Title: Dora A Case of Hysteria Author: Morrissey, Kim Publisher: Nick Hern Books 1994
Description:
roy Canadian - black comedy - drama three characters two male; one female two acts
"A feminist play about Freud and his most famous patient."
Title: Down for the Weekend
Author: Moher, Frank Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy drama - Albertan seven characters six male; one female two acts
open stage.
A young roughneck from Alberta's Tar Sands has big plans for his future - plans that implode violently on a weekend visit to Edmonton.
Title: Drawer Boy, The
Author: Healey, Michael Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1999
Description:
roy Canadian - drama five characters three male; two female one act
A haunting tale of love and obsession in which the varieties of both are explored.
Finalist, the Governor General's Literary Award for Drama, 1982 Dora Award Winner 1999 Title: Dream Without Bottom
Author: Belke, David Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 2001
Description:
roy romantic comedy six characters three male; three female two acts
'Forty years ago Rosalind Downey fell in love with an actor while performing "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Now he's back. Rosy colored memory collides with cold reality against a Shakespearean background in this touching comedy.'
Title: Dream, The
Author: Tweed, T. W. Publisher: Centennial Commission 1965
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - historical all male cast; fifteen characters fifteen male nine parts
1 interior set.
"An entertainment leading up to Confederation". In 1864, the Fathers of Confederation discuss the dream of a "Dominion from Sea to Sea". Other less famous historical figures constitute the prologue and the epilogue.
Title: Dreaming and Duelling
Author: Lazarus, John Lazarus, Joa Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1980
Description:
roy drama - Canadian five characters three male; two female two acts
Fantasies and love for the same girl lead two fencing students to "play" with the safety tips off and the points sharpened. A look at adolescent role-playing. Title: Dreamland Saturday Nights
Author: Belke, David Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 1998
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy - romance four characters two male; two female two acts
"When a die-hard movie fan accidentally meets a film student at the Dreamland Repertory Cinema, will it be true love, or merely an illusion? Desire and film fantasy collide with hilarious and heartbreaking results. With appearances by Bogart, Bette Davis, Astaire and others."
Title: Dreary and Izzy
Author: Beagan, Tara Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2006
Description:
roy drama four characters one male; three female two acts
1975, Lethbridge Alberta. When the Monoghan sisters lose their parents in a car accident, Deirdre remains as the sole caregiver to her older sister, Isabelle. Adopted as an infant from the neighbouring Blood Indian Reserve, Isabelle is loving, joyous, and severely affected by fetal alcohol syndrome in a time before the disorder had a name. Just as Deirdre is poised to enter university and begin exploring her own future, she must choose how much of her life she will sacrifice for the love of Isabelle. Deirdre is barely staying afloat under the strain of this reality
Title: Dressing Gown, The
Author: Gilbert, Sky Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy drama - Canadian eight characters seven male; one female two acts
various interior sets.
A magical dressing gown is passed from person to person and evokes pointed questions about violence, male sexuality and the human condition. Title: Drift
Author: Deverell, Rex Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy drama - Canadian five characters three male; two female two acts
A portrait of a young woman who comes to Canada during the thirties and marries a Canadian farm boy, and the struggles of a writer of the next generation trying to recreate this portrait.
Title: Drinking Alone
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: PUC Play Service 1998
Description:
roy comedy - family relations five characters two male; three female two acts
'Joe Todd hires Renee Duchene to pose as his fiancee so that he can impress his father in this romantic comedy set in the midst of a dysfunctional family reunion.'
Title: Driving Force, The
Author: Tremblay, Michel translated by Linda Gaboriau Publisher: Talonbooks 2003
Description:
roy drama - family relations all male cast; two characters two male two acts
In Act 1 Claude, 55, visits his father Alex, 77, in an Alzheimer’s ward, tending to his needs while hopelessly trying to reach his father with a series of monologues to settle old scores and misunderstandings. In a reversal of roles, in Act 2 it is Alex who visits Claude in the same Alzheimer’s ward, and it is Alex’s turn to rant and rail at what he perceives to be his son’s contempt for his own working class life. We come to see that his father’s lifelong attempt to mock Claude’s work has been the very driving force behind Claude’s compulsion to continue to reveal Title: Dry Lips Oughta Move To Kapuskasing
Author: Highway, Tomson Publisher: Fifth House 1989
Description:
roy comedy - drama - Canadian - native indians eight characters seven male; one female two acts
Once again, we're on the "Rez". This time the men band together to protest the formation of an all-girl hockey team, which confounds their already tenuous sense of identity.
Title: Dry Streak
Author: Minogue, Leeann Publisher: Scirocco Drama 2006
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy - rural life - Prairies seven characters four male; three female two acts
Hot. Burning hot. In the dry, hot summer of 1988, Kate, a young urban woman, moves with her boyfriend to his family's Saskatchewan farm. A world-travelled vegetarian who listens to punk rock, she is not exactly the kind of girl John Richards' parents had thought he would bring home. After months of unrelenting heat, dust, and the endless complaints of everyone around her, Kate makes a very public promise: if only the drought will break, she'll run naked through the streets of town. Now the media is running the story and things are about to get interesting in Stony
Title: Duchess, The a.k.a. Wallis Simpson Author: Griffiths, Linda Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1998
Description:
roy Canadian - drama ten characters five male; five female (doubling possible) two acts
"An extravagant and inspired epic takes us into a kaleidoscopic wonderland, when Kings and Queens dance the Black Bottom, Faerie creatures demand blood and Empires are given up for love. The play tells the story of the woman for whom Edward VIII abdicated his throne. It journeys into the emotional centre of a plain, brash, sexual woman who danced through her ulcers and collapsed only when the cocktails ran out - a woman destined to become the Black Queen of her time. This multi-layered script finds a place between straight-forward narrative and magic Title: Dunsmuirs: A Promise Kept, The
Author: Langley, Rod Publisher: Talonbooks 1992
Description:
roy Canadian - drama fifteen characters ten male; five female two acts
The second of three plays chronicling the saga of the Dunsmuirs. Robbie Dunsmuir cuts a deal with Sir John A. Macdonald to build a railway from Victoria to Nanaimo to distract B.C. voters from the fact that the promise of a transcontinental railway has been delayed. The last spike of the E & N is driven, and Robbie and Sir John descend to the lowest level of the Dunsmuir pits where they consummate their deal in a two day orgy of bonded whiskey, cold chicken. In a devastating final scene, the family secret emerges from the closet of the Dunsmuir's castle on the eve of its
Title: Dunsmuirs: Alone At The Edge, The
Author: Langley, Rod Publisher: Talonbooks 1991
Description:
roy Canadian - drama eleven characters; extras eight male; two female two acts
The first of three plays in this saga of one of Canada's wealthiest and most ruthless families. The play chronicles the disgrace and exile of Robbie Dunsmuir from Scotland; the settlement of his family as indentured labourers to the Hudson's Bay Company in the Nanaimo coalfields; his application of "scab" labour tactics which won him an independent prospector's licence from the company; his discovery of a vast coal deposit on Vancouver Island; and his scramble to first finance and then gain control over the Wellington Mine on this site over the literally dead bodies
Title: Duo For Obstinate Voices
Author: Pelletier, Maryse Publisher: Guernica Editions Inc. 1990
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian three characters two male; one female six acts
This psychological drama explores the relationship between a man in his thirties and a woman some ten years younger who are unable to love without hurting each other. This difficult relationship lasts five years, during which Catherine becomes increasingly self-reliant and Philippe flounders in increasing self-contradictions. The first in a trilogy of more personal plays, Duo examines contemporary love relationships in the West. It is more experimental in structure and style than the playwright’s previous plays. Title: Easy Lenny Lazmon and the Great Western Ascension
Author: Piatigorsky, Anton Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2000
Description:
roy drama - Canadian four characters two male; two female two acts
'Two exiled travellers head west on an abandoned desert road, searching for the promised land. Encountering a lonely old rancher and his strangely scarred wife, they glimpse the dreams and dangers of their quest. A mystical journey exploring the mythology of western expansion, Jewish history and ancient religious traditions.'
Title: Ecstasy of Rita Joe, The
Author: Ryga, George Publisher: Talonbooks 1970
Description:
roy drama - Canadian eighteen characters; extras fifteen male; three female two acts
open stage.
A lyrical documentary of a young Indian girl who comes to the city only to die on Skid Row, a victim of white man's violent and paternalistic attitudes towards native people.
Title: Edible Woman, The
Author: Atwood, Margaret adapted by Dave Carley Publisher: Scirocco Drama 2002
Description:
roy comedy eight characters four male; two female (doubling) two acts
Margaret Atwood's internationally-renowned first novel has been adapted for the stage. With wit, affection and dollops of irony, this play traces the journey of Marian, a young woman who has embraced the consumer society. Marian has a good job, a handsome lawyer fiance, and a conventionally bright future. But slowly Marian's consumer world starts slipping out of focus, as she begins instead to identify with the things consumed. Compounding Marian's confusion is he newly pregnant roommate, her incensed landlady, and that strange young man she just kissed at Title: Einstein's gift
Author: Thiessen, Vern Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2003
Description:
roy drama - biography twelve characters; extras; musicians five male; two female (doubling) two acts
'A scientist who enhances life with his work and knowledge but discovers too late that knowledge in the wrong hands brings death. The ideal of 'science to serve humanity' is shown in sharp contrast against the reality of political will, nationalism and war. Chance pride, ego, and passion collide in this play based on the life and Nobel Laureate Dr. Fritz Haber, who risked everything for a country that never accepted him, but used his work to murder millions.'
Title: El Crocodor
Author: Anderson, Peter El Crocodor Collective Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1986
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy - cabaret eight characters four male; four female two acts
"A group of fifth-rate vaudevillians are exiled from their native El Crocodor and continue their subversive nightclub act in Canada."
Title: Elizabeth Rex
Author: Findley, Timothy Publisher: Miscellaneous
Description:
roy drama nineteen characters thirteen male; six female two acts
"In this daring and original dramatic effort Timothy Findley brings together none other that William Shakespeare and the formidable Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I. What makes a man a man and a woman a woman? Late at night on the eve of her lovers execution, this is the question queen Elizabeth descends to the stable lodgings of Shakespeare's players to wrestle with...." Title: Emptygirl
Author: Chafe, Rick Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1998
Description:
roy comedy four characters three male; one female two acts
running time : 90 minutes
'Timid entertainment agent, Fred, is convinced by his brash underling to sign on a controversial circus side show. His life really becomes a circus when he falls for their headlining act, the Emptygirl, whe swallows objects and regurgitates them on command.'
Title: Ends of the Earth, The
Author: Panych, Morris Publisher: Talonbooks 1993
Description:
roy drama - Canadian twenty characters twelve male; eight female two acts
various sets.
Frank, having dedicated his life to the unremarkable, and Walker, paranoid since age three, attempt to flee from each other and end up following each other instead. They find themselves in a run-down hotel operated by the deaf and misdirected Willy and the blind Alice - who has a murderous dislike for visitors.
Title: Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout A "String Quartet" for four female actors Author: Highway, Tomson Publisher: Talonbooks 2005
Description:
roy drama - historical - native four characters all female; four female two acts
"Based on a deposition signed by 14 Chiefs of the Thompson River basin on the occasion of a visit to their lands by Canadian Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier in 1910, Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout is a ritualized retelling of how the Native Peoples of British Columbia lost their fishing, hunting and grazing rights, their lands, and finally their language without their agreement or consent, and without any treaties ever having been signed." Title: Escape Entertainment
Author: Bolt, Carol Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian three characters two male; one female two acts
A film producer, a critic and a movie star are marooned on the sound stage of a low budget movie in Kleinberg. Sparks and repartee fly.
Title: Esker Mike and His Wife Agiluk Scenes From Life in the Mackenzie River Delta Author: Hardin, Herschel Publisher: Talonbooks 1973
Description:
roy satire - Canadian - social issues - native indians fifteen characters nine male; six female twelve scenes
A social satire about Inuit life in the Mackenzie River Delta and how it is affected by white settlers, priests, and government officials.
Title: Espresso
Author: Frangione, Lucia Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 2002
Description:
roy drama - family relations two characters one male; one female two acts
'Espresso is a shot of caffeine, Italian family, death and Catholic erotic mysticism. Rosa unfolds the story of her father's car accident and how it affects the lives of the three women who love him the most: his daughter, his mother and his wife. Meanwhile, Amante, the second uninvited narrator, bursts into the story when Rosa avoids the truth, skips over parts, or is unable to continue.' Title: Ethan Claymore
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1998
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian six characters five male; one female two acts
'With a lot of nudging from a well-meaning friend, and a visit from his recently-deceased brother, a young widower re-enters the world and finds love and laughter.'
Title: Eve
Author: Fineberg, Larry Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1976
Description:
roy drama - aging six characters four male; two female two acts
An older woman leaves her ailing husband and family to discover how she became trapped. Moving to a rooming house, she has an affair and re-examines her life.
Chalmers Award winner.
Title: Ever Loving
Author: Hollingsworth, Margaret Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1980
Description:
roy drama - Canadian six characters three male; three female two acts
Three war brides from England, Scotland and Italy travel to Canada in 1945. The lives of the three women and their relationships with their husbands weave together the fabric of the Canadian experience - the hopes, fantasies, disappointments and the grim reality of starting a new life in a new land. Title: Evidence to the Contrary
Author: Pedneault, Helene translated by Linda Gaboriau Publisher: Miscellaneous
Description:
roy drama four characters one male; three female three parts
A riveting interrogation of a woman who has been arrested for the murder of her mother.
Title: Execution, The
Author: Blais, Marie-Claire Lobdell, David Publisher: Talonbooks 1976
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - murder twenty characters seventeen male; three female two acts
Set in a boarding school, it is the story of two schoolboys who plot the murder of one of their classmates and enact the crime. As a play, it is a study of innocence, evil, and complicity.
Title: Exile
Author: Crail, Archie Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1990
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - Africa - black - women three characters one male; two female two acts
Two South African women meet after a separation of twenty years. Sarah, seeking a rekindling of her activist youth, searches out Elizabeth, an exiled fiery labour leader, only to find her fallen into solitary obscurity, numbed by alcohol, and living in a shack on the outskirts of Soweto.
1989 winner of the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild Literary Competition Title: Fair Liberty's Call
Author: Pollock, Sharon Publisher: Coach House Press 1995
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - historical eight characters five male; three female two acts
"1785. A Loyalist family that has fled from Boston to New Brunswick is joined by two other veterans, and a stranger whom they assume is a former Loyalist soldier. The stranger reveals himself to be a Rebel and a gunpoint demands justice for the death of his younger brother at the battle of Waxhaws. He gives them until dawn to choose one person for execution. As the Loyalists debate who among them is least worthy to live, each is forced to confront his own actions and conscience."
Title: Fairies Are Thirsty, The
Author: Boucher, Denise Brown, Alan Publisher: Talonbooks 1982
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - French - serious - stereotypes- women all female cast; three characters three female one act
Three women - a housewife, a whore, and the Virgin Mary - fight to break out of the stereotypes in which they've been imprisoned for years.
Title: Falling Out of Place
Author: Stearns, Sharon Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 2003
Description:
roy drama - western three characters two male; one female two acts
running time : 110 minutes.
'A Cowboy tale of love and intrigue. Takes place in 1912, during a January winter. Guy McCauley is found dead, lying in a snow bank beside his broken sleigh. His widow, a young and lovely actress, is left alone with the hired hand. An old friend comes to visit, a cowboy musician who's spent too many years drifting in the saddle. As the play unfolds, it becomes clear that all three of Title: False Messiah, The
Author: Salutin, Rick Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy Canadian - drama twelve characters ten male; two female two acts
The Kabbalah and the last great Messianic movement. Set in Constantinople.
Title: Far as the Eye Can See
Author: Wiebe, Rudy Publisher: NeWest Press 1977
Description:
roy drama seventeen characters thirteen male; four female three acts
various interior and exterior sets.
A contemporary (1977) look at Alberta inspired by the struggle of the Dodds-Round Hill farming community with Calgary Power over an enormous thermal power-plant development just outside of Edmonton.
Title: Faraway Nearby, The
Author: Murrell, John Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1995
Description:
roy drama - biography - relationships - American two characters one male; one female three parts
'In John Murrell's "The Faraway Nearby", Georgia O'Keefe resigns herself to an old age spent in the auburn and tawny light of her beloved Faraway mountains without the company of others until a stranger enters her life. Juan Hamilton, a young artist and handyman, befriends the elderly O'Keefe, becoming the eyes for the almost-blind artist, and the cushion between her and the outside world. Hamilton remained O'Keefe's companion for over a decade, and it is in the complexities of this friendship that John Murrell explores the uncompromising nature of the artist Title: fareWel
Author: Ross, Ian Publisher: Scirocco Drama 1996
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy - drama six characters four male; two female two acts
"Life is tense on the Partridge Crop Reserve. The Chief is in Las Vegas (again), the band is in receivership, and there's a move on to unilaterally declare self-government. And now that the welfare cheques have gone missing, the people of this fictional First Nation are forced to take control of their lives."
Title: Farewell Heart
Author: Tidler, Charles Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1983
Description:
roy tragedy - Canadian six characters four male; two female seven scenes
Set on an imaginary island off the coast of B.C., "The Farewell Heart" marks the transition from the 1960's to the 1970's. The small community on Madras Island is about to lose its leader. A promising spring day sours into death and destruction... and rebirth for some players.
Title: Farm Show, The
Author: Thompson, Paul Theatre Passe Muraille Publisher: Coach House Press 1976
Description:
roy drama - Canadian six characters three male; three female two acts
Written by collective creation.
Theatre Passe Muraille spent a summer in the farming region around Clinton, Ont. to gather the material for this delightful portrayal of rural living. Title: Fashion, Power, Guilt and the Charity of Families
Author: Shields, Carol Shields, Catherine Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1995
Description:
roy dramatic comedy - Canadian - family relations seven characters four male; three female (doubling) two acts
"Explores the social and private worlds of the modern family in this funny, poignant, and gently challenging play. When a department of government bureaucrats begins to receive widespread complaints of loneliness, it attempts to legislate a remedy by creating a "family unit" which appears, on the surface at least, to be a stereotypical suburban family. But it is not until the "family unit" looks inward and addresses its problems - including the unspoken secret which has haunted the parents for years - that they become a real family. A uniquely contemporary
Title: Featherland
Author: Clarke, Denise Publisher: Red Deer College Press 2004
Description:
roy Canadian - fantasy - love-triangle five characters two male; three female two acts
Cecil and Adele Hyndman are completely devoted to each other and their collection of live birds. They open an avian menagerie in rural British Columbia, and when a magnificent golden eagle arrives, an erotic attraction between Cecil, Adele and the eagle develops into a bizarre love triangle.
Title: Fifteen Miles of Broken Glass
Author: Hendry, Tom Publisher: Talonbooks 1975
Description:
roy drama - Canadian ten characters; extras seven male; three female two acts
It's 1945 and young Alec has a passionate desire to become a fighter pilot. So strong is his yearning that he is blind to the fact the war is ending. Only the Hiroshima tragedy can force him to turn his mind to a civilian future.
Winner, Ontario Lieutenant-Governor's Medal in 1970. Title: Fighting Days, The
Author: Lill, Wendy Publisher: Talonbooks 1985
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - women - history - Nellie McClung four characters one male; three female two acts
"The polarities of public and private lives and issues of racism and pacifism in the suffragette movement."
Title: Filthy Rich
Author: Walker, George F. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian six characters four male; two female nine scenes
1 interior set.
Tyrone Power, reporter, has retired to write a novel when a murder case involving corrupt tycoons and bankrupt politicians bursts through his office door, grabs him by the throat and pulls him back onto the investigative trail.
Title: Fire
Author: Ledoux, Paul Young, David Publisher: Summerhill Press 1989
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - musical six characters (doubling) five male; one female two acts
Inspired by the lives of cousins Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimmy Lee Swaggart, "Fire" tells the story of two Razorback, Arkansas brothers who follow different branches of the same road of pride, lust and greed. Cale sells his soul to rock and roll, Herchel to TV evangelism. Both love Molly, who loves both of them.
Chalmers and Dora Mavor Moore Award winner. Title: First Falls on Monday, The
Author: Murphy, Arthur L. Publisher: University of Toronto Press 1972
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - political twelve characters eight male; four female three acts
various interior sets.
"The First Falls on Monday" deals with a factual mystery: the solution to a political impasse one week before the new state of Canada was to come into existence, which threatened to ruin the whole design. The stalemate concerned English language representation from Quebec in the government cabinet. No one knows how it was settled, what deals were made, or who conceived
Title: First Strike
Author: Carley, Dave Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian four characters two male; two female two acts
1 interior set
"First Strike" is the post-bomb tale of two couples who have taken refuge in a Mississauga fall-out shelter. The wild comedy does not conceal the fact that there is something very rotten in the Borough of Mississauga, and the whole issue of man's right to survive is called into question.
Title: Flight Into Danger
Author: Hailey, Arthur adapted by Christopher Sergel Publisher: Dramatic Publishing Company 1959
Description:
roy drama nineteen characters; extras nine male; ten female three acts
representative set.
When the pilot and the co-pilot of a charter plane become incapacitated by severe food poisoning, a passenger has to take over the controls of the plane and land it. Title: Fly Fisher's Companion, The in - Canadian Theatre Review Vol. 128 / PER Author: Melski, Michael Publisher: Miscellaneous 2005
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - friendship - old age all male cast; two characters two male two acts
"The Fly Fisher's Companion tackles the complications of friendship, the hope for forgiveness, the significance of memory, and love, loss and death. Both humorous and heartwrenching."
Title: Flytrap
Author: Freeman, David E. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1980
Description:
roy drama - Canadian three characters two male; one female two acts
1 interior set.
Ruthie and Bobby bring Stanley into their already troubled relationship to see how far they can push each other. They end up pushing Stanley over the edge, but manage to keep their menage-a-trois together.
Title: Footprints on the Moon
Author: Hunter, Maureen Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1988
Description:
roy drama - Canadian five characters two male; three female two acts
2 interior sets.
A woman's struggle to prevent her teenaged daughter from leaving home evolves into a struggle to understand the past. A play about loving and losing, constancy and change. Title: For Home and Country
Author: Brodie, Leanna Publisher: Talonbooks 2004
Description:
roy feminism - women - historical - comedy thirty characters; chorus eleven male; seventeen female; two girls (doubling possible) two acts
Dramatizes the generational conflict created by the rise of an urban and radicalized feminist agenda in the latter part of the 20th century and its head-on collision with its much more conservative, rural roots in the Women's Institute.
Title: For Love and Chicken Soup
Author: Leiman, Brad Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1978
Description:
roy tragicomedy - Canadian four characters two male; two female two acts
various interior and exterior sets.
Description not available.
Title: For Love and Money
Author: Wyatt, Rachel Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 2002
Description:
roy drama - marital relations - middle age five characters three male; two female two acts
"Howie and Jane have been married for thirty-three years. On this particular evening, Howie is going to tell Jane that he is leaving her. Jane, determined to keep him, has arranged a party for his friends. During the evening, she looks back on scenes from the marriage. She sees good times and also times when drinking and violence took over. And it is an act of violence that brings Jane to a place where she must think her way through to a future on her own." Title: Forest, The
Author: Milner, Arthur Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 2001
Description:
roy drama nine characters five male; four female two acts
running time : 120 minutes.
'A modern fable about a remorseful captain of industry who pulls together an odd assortment of characters, including his three estranged daughters and two lost actors. Their mission? To establish a utopian society.'
Title: Fortune and Men's Eyes
Author: Herbert, John Publisher: Grove Press, Inc. 1967
Description:
roy drama - Canadian all male cast; five characters five male two acts
1 interior set.
'Four young men in Canadian reform school brutalized by system and other inmates.'
Title: Foursome, The
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1998
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian all male cast; four characters four male two acts
'Four college chums, home for a fifteenth class reunion, get together for a round of golf. The play, set on the 18 tees of a golf course, follows the four as they relive old times, and catch up on their problems, successes and failures.' Title: Fragments of a Farewell Letter Read by Geologists
Author: Chaurette, Normand Publisher: Talonbooks 1986
Description:
roy drama - mystery seven characters six male; one female two acts
"An engineer dies during an expedition to purify a river in Cambodia. His team of four geologists face a commissioned inquiry with minutely detailed accounts which fail to elucidate the mysterious tragedy. Rational thought and scientific jargon cloud the way to real understanding. Only the Asian engineer called in at the last minute perceives the essential."
Title: Frankenstein
Author: Nowlan, Alden and Walter Learning Shelley, Mary Publisher: Clarke, Irwin and Company 1976
Description:
roy drama sixteen characters eleven male; two female (doubling) three acts
"Canadian adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel. The play comes to grips with the philosophical issues raised by Shelley - man's evil, his guilt, and his attachment to his Maker, and his persistent attempts, by trying to rectify his wrongs, to ease that guilt and placate the Maker. The play explores the implications of the issues to a point where the adaptation justifies itself as an independent work of art. The Creature that inhabits the novel and the Nowlan and Learning play is no grunting automaton, no grotesque prop, but a thinking, feeling, articulate being. It is this that
Title: Free at Last
Author: Nicol, Eric Publisher: New Play Centre 1983
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian seven characters one male; six female two acts
1 interior set. production version.
Description not available. Title: Friends of a Feather
Author: Stratton, Allan Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy comedy - French Canadian ten characters seven male; three female three acts
two interior and one exterior set. Adapted from "Celimare" by Labiche and Delacour.
Newlywed Celimare dodges former flames, jealous husbands and suspicious in-laws in this hilarious adaptation of the classic French farce.
Title: From Here to Insanity
Author: Russell-King, Caroline Publisher: William Rosewood Publishing 1995
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy four characters two male; two female three acts
"A psychiatrist's ex-wife ends up playing hostess to several extraordinary patients with multiple personalities, when the nearby mental hospital burns down."
Title: Fronteras Americanas American Borders Author: Verdecchia, Guillermo Publisher: Coach House Press
Description:
roy drama - geography all male cast; two characters two male two acts
A meditation and critique of geography and cartography. A struggle to construct a home between two cultures. Title: Garage Sale, The A Suburban Comedy Author: King, David Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy eight characters four male; four female two acts
"The point of a garage sale is to get rid of unwanted things. But when members of the Grady family hold a garage sale, they wind up with more than they started out with, including a lovey-dovey hippie couple, a grumpy old neighbour lady, and a mentally unstable young man. They also get a lot of laughs."
Title: Gayden Chronicles, The
Author: Cook, Michael Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1979
Description:
roy Canadian - drama thirteen characters nine male; three female three acts
"William Gayden is a British sailor who loves the poor, the oppressed, women and the sea. Awaiting execution for mutiny and murder, he recreates his life and the events which led to his sentence."
Title: Genesis The Mary Shelley play Author: Baldridge, Mary Humphrey Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1998
Description:
roy drama - horror - historical five characters three male; two female two acts
"A theatrical re-creation of the emotional events surrounding Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Mary Shelley-- events that inspired the literary births of our two most famous monsters Frankenstein and Dracula." Title: Genuine Fakes
Author: Lazarus, John Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1987
Description:
roy drama - Canadian eight characters four male; four female two acts
Sharon bears an uncanny resemblance to a rock celebrity. She joins Genuine Fakes, a look alike agency, only to find that she prefers her alter-ego to her own... with near-disastrous results.
Title: Geometry
Author: Wyatt, Rachel Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1983
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - comedy four characters two male; two female two acts
A comedy of manners set in a private school in which a new teacher arrives and is made to feel welcome, not realizing that he is nothing more than a new toy that will be discarded when the novelty wears off.
Title: Geometry in Venice
Author: Mackenzie, Michael Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press
Description:
roy drama six characters four male; two female two acts
A young Canadian is hired by a British family in Venice as a tutor for their son. He uncovers a household trying to marry off the only daughter to a wealthy American author to revive the family fortunes. When he finally tries to break away he becomes entangled with his student's worldly and fascinating mother... Title: Get Away
Author: MacArthur, Greg Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 2005
Description:
roy drama - thriller three characters two male; one female two acts
Everyone's an animal - but only some are predators. A remote getaway. A cabin in the woods. Peace of mind. Or so David thinks, until he invites two young drifters to stay, in this spooky tale about danger and desire by one of Canada's freshest, most compelling young playwrights.
Title: Girl in the Goldfish Bowl
Author: Panych, Morris Publisher: Talonbooks 2003
Description:
roy comedy five characters two male; three female two acts
'As Morris Panych's latest comedy opens, we hear Iris, a precocious girl of ten saying: "These are the last few days of my childhood." The death of her goldfish, she is sure, has been announced by the air-raid sirens during the day's school drill. For Iris there remain a few more days of life in a universe that is inherently ordered, where the spirit of her departed goldfish can, of course, be re-incarnated in a lost and amnesiac drifter given to rhetorical questions of seemingly deep philisophical import.'
Title: Glace Bay Miners' Museum, The
Author: Lill, Wendy Publisher: Talonbooks 1996
Description:
roy Canadian - drama five characters three male; two female two acts
"The Glace Bay Miners' Museum is the story of an ill-fated love between a wandering musician/ social idealist and a Cape Breton coal miner's daughter whose dreams are reawakened by their passion - a play of the all consuming brightness of dreams and memory, overshadowed by absentee greed, callousness, exploitation. A tragedy that is hard as nails, totally unsentimental, yet full of love and humour." Title: Glenn
Author: Young, David Publisher: Coach House Press 1992
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - biography all male cast; four characters four male two acts (30 variations)
"The music, ideas, and remarkable life of the iconoclastic and celebrated pianist. Gould's early and late recordings of the Goldberg Variations serve as a structural template for the dramatic action."
Title: Glorious 12th, The
Author: Storey, Raymond Publisher: J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing 1993
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - historical fifteen characters eight male; seven female two acts
1927 was a difficult year for the Orange Lodge. The House of Commons was now officially bilingual. French appeared on our postage stamp, refugees from continental Europe fled to Canada to share in our prosperity. The story of this play is fiction but its historical background is not. Opportunistic Klansmen crossed our borders to prey on the fears of our citizens. The cross burning at Kingston occurred. The debate and hate-mongering is documented. Dora Award Winner 1996
Title: Glu Club The Power of Persuasion Author: Andre, Marion Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1997
Description:
roy Canadian - farce - tragedy twelve characters eight male; four female; doubling three acts
"Set on the planet Archaica, a top banker and his cronies endorse a "medical" treatment that purifies human skin and so entrenching at the same time the rule of the racist persuasion." Title: Goblin Gold
Author: MacKay, Isabel Ecclestone Publisher: Samuel French 1933
Description:
roy comedy - drama - Canadian nine characters four male; four female three acts
2 interior sets.
When Uncle Simon comes to stay with the Beamer family he does not appear to be the rich relative they expected but they grow fond of him nonetheless.
Title: Good Mother
Author: Atkins, Damian Publisher: Prism International 2001
Description:
roy drama - memory loss, motherhood nine characters variable casting two acts
'What would you do if suddenly your mom wasn't your mom any more? The Driver family struggles to cope with an accident that robs them of a mother and leaves them to care for her as she fights to regain her memory.'
Title: Goodbye Cruel World
Author: Graves, Warren Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1978
Description:
roy comedy - Albertan four characters two male; two female two acts
1 interior set.
Rather than face the disintegration of old age, an aging author decides to commit suicide. He hires a young man to write his autobiography and a lawyer to draw up his will. In the process, love at all ages is examined. Title: Goodness
Author: Redhill, Michael Publisher: Coach House Press 2005
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - genocide sixteen characters three male; three female (doubling) two acts
"A playwright, Michael, stands in front of an audience. He tells us someone else's story - the story of events surrounding a genocide and subsequent murder trial in the homeland of a character named Althea. Althea was a prison guard. Her prisoner, an old man, was thought to have orchestrated a genocide. At his trial, though, he claims to have Alzheimer's. Michael promises Althea never to repeat the terrible tale she tells him. He lies. GOODNESS dances with the idea of what "responsibility" is and what telling a powerful story does, not only to the story, but to those
Title: Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)
Author: MacDonald, Ann-Marie Publisher: Grove Press, Inc. 1990
Description:
roy comedy - drama - tragicomedy fifteen characters; chorus nine male; six female three acts
"Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)... its central character is Constance Ledbelly, a lecturer in Renaissance drama at Queen's University, enamoured of the oily male professor whose academic papers she ghost-writes. She's also trying to decipher a coded manuscript which she believes is a lost souce for Othello and Romeo and Juliet. Not only does she decode the manuscript, but she literally falls into the two worlds of the plays and causes each of them to turn from tragedy to comedy."
Title: Goodnight Disgrace
Author: Mercer, Michael Publisher: Talonbooks 1986
Description:
roy Canadian - drama seven characters four male; three female two acts
From his wheelchair in a nursing home, the aging Conrad Aiken recalls his long, stormy friendship with Malcolm Lowry. When Aiken is 40, Lowry's father pays him to tutor the young Malcolm. But the protege becomes Aiken's friend, and, gradually, a real literary contender. Mercer's powerful play reveals the shifts in the two men's relationship as they struggle with alcoholism, women, creative energy, and each other; and as the student metamorphoses into a rival. " I will be the one they remember," Lowry declares in their final scene together. Title: Gravel Run
Author: Massing, Conni Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1991
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy five characters three male; two female two acts
A wildly dysfunctional family plans a small-town wedding for a prodigal daughter who returns home after a five-year absence.
Title: Great Hunger, The
Author: Peterson, Leonard Publisher: Book Society of Canada 1967
Description:
roy drama - Canadian twelve characters; extras seven male; five female three acts
interior and exterior sets; use of some Inuit vocabulary.
A tragedy in traditional form, with a traditional theme. Retribution is demanded for a past murder, and inevitably the unknowing and innocent are caught up in the unfinished pattern, and the entire community is afraid.
Title: Great Wave Of Civilization, The
Author: Hardin, Herschel Publisher: Talonbooks 1976
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - native Indians seventeen characters thirteen male; four female ten scenes
The Great Wave of Civilization is Herschel Hardin's play about the destruction of the people of the Blackfoot Confederacy by the liquor trade in Montana and Alberta in the 19th Century. Little Dog of the Northern Blackfoot tribe vs. Snookum Jim, free trader, I.G. Baker, merchant-prince of Fort Benton and the rest of the "great wave of civilization". Title: Guid Sisters, The A translation of Les - Belles Soeurs into modern Scots Author: Tremblay, Michel Bowman, Martin Publisher: Exile Editions 1988
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian all female cast; fifteen characters fifteen female two acts
"A translation of Les Belles-Soeurs into modern Scots. French Canadian woman in poor neighbourhood wins one million trading-stamps and invites female relatives, friends and neighbors to pasting-in party."
Title: Guide to Mourning, A
Author: Stickland, Eugene Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1998
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - funeral - family seven characters four male; three female two acts
"Wally Pringle is dead. His wife Deirdre mourns. The family gathers. The story of the Pringle family's quest to give Wally a decent funeral."
Title: Gwendoline
Author: Nichol, James W. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1978
Description:
roy drama - Canadian six characters four male; two female two acts
Life in a small Ontario town is disrupted when a travelling shoe salesman arrives to pay court to a wealthy and eccentric young woman. Title: Gwendolyn Poems, The
Author: Dey, Claudia Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2002
Description:
roy biography - drama ten characters seven male; three female (doubling) two acts
A lush re-imaging of the life of legendary Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen. From her meteoric rise to her final unraveling in the grips of alcoholism, we meet a Gwendolyn with a contagious wit, a brave heart, and an endless capacity for self re-invention.
Title: Gyroscope
Author: Reaney, James Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1983
Description:
roy drama - Canadian six characters two male; four female two acts
Spinning images; a model for the loose threads, empty caves, war memorials...dreams, confrontations that living with other people involve.
Title: Habitat
Author: Thompson, Judith Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2001
Description:
roy drama five characters two male; three female two acts
'Janet and her mother both live on Mapleview Lanes - the perfect neighbourhood with the perfect neighbours, until Lewis Chance buys a house on their street to open up a group home for troubled adolescents. Raine, unable to respond emotionally when her mother dies, finds herself at this group home, in a community that has little tolerance for its newest residents. The ensuing battle - over whether the group homes stays or not - allows Raine to re-awaken her emotions through rage, and a political will she didn't know existed in her.' Title: Half Life
Author: Mighton, John Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2005
Description:
roy drama - canadian - love - aging eight characters three male; five female fourteen scenes
"Two nursing home residents, both in their 80s, meet and fall in love, rekindling what might have been a wartime romance. Had they previously met somewhere else under different circumstances? Why is their love so troubling for their children? Indeed, the light at dusk is sometimes warmer and more enveloping than that of the midday sun. Characters navigate between being and appearance, between cowardice and dissoluteness..." Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award.
Title: Halo
Author: MacDonald, Josh Publisher: Talonbooks 2002
Description:
roy comedy seven characters four male; three female two acts
"When an image of Jesus appears on the side of a Tim Horton's restaurant in Nately, Nova Scotia, life is forever changed. The town's inhabitants are challenged to ask difficult questions about faith, life and love with sometimes moving, sometimes hilarious results. Complicating the matter, of course, are the more mundane questions of whether this appearance is a miracle, an accident, or a quite possibly even a hoax."
Title: Hamlet, Prince of Quebec
Author: Gurik, Robert translated by Marc F. Gelinas Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian sixteen characters flexible casting two acts
A political adaptation. The ghost is DeGaulle, Hamlet is Quebec and Horatio is Rene Levesque. Title: Hand That Cradles the Rock, The
Author: Graves, Warren Publisher: Samuel French 1972
Description:
roy comedy - Albertan five characters two male; three female two acts
1 interior set.
Alexandra is in demand as an interior designer so her husband, Ross, agrees to stay home and raise the baby. An erratic washing machine, baby formula and an increasingly-attractive local nurse bring on housewife syndrome and make him fear for his masculinity.
Title: Hand to Hand
Author: Bruno, Walter Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1983
Description:
roy drama - Canadian thirteen characters; extras nine male; four female four acts
No description available.
Title: Hanged Man, The
Author: Gurik, Robert translated by Philip London and L. Berard Publisher: New Press 1972
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian all male cast; twelve characters twelve male two acts
"The Hanged Man" is a strong condemnation of man's inability to transcend his selfish needs and act for the common good. When one man attempts to show his fellow workers that they are capable of changing their desperate situation, he is destroyed. Set in a small Quebec mining town; universal in its examination of false idealism and greed. Title: Happily Ever After
Author: Hayes, Elliott Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy - relationships five characters two male; three female two acts
"Moments before his wedding, Tom experiences all the paranoia of a confirmed bachelor. Down the hall, his wife-to-be wonders if she's making the right decision."
Title: Harbour House
Author: King, David Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1999
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy six characters two male; four female two acts
"Four guests weekending in a Vancouver Island 'bed and breakfast' run amok in an hilarious attempt to "get away from it all".
Title: Harlem Duet
Author: Sears, Djanet Publisher: Scirocco Drama 1996
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - ethnic - relationships five characters two male; three female two acts
"A rhapsodic blues tragedy...It is the prelude to Shakespeare's Othello, and his first wife Billie (yes, before Desdemona). Set in contemporary Harlem at the corner of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X boulevards, the play explores the space where race and sex intersect. Harlem Duet is Billie's story."
The Canada Council for the Arts Governor General's Literary Award Winner. Also winner of the Title: Harps of God, The
Author: Stetson, Kent Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1999
Description:
roy drama all male cast; thirteen characters; extras thirteen male three acts
"In 1914, from March 31 to April 2, death travelled the North Atlantic with many companions-madness, fear, deceit and despair. Survival means constant measured movement, and the constant kindling and rekindling of hope. Arising from official transcripts of survivor's testimony before two commissions of enquiry into the Great Newfoundland Sealing Disaster, The Harps of God develops themes of human survival in the face of profound personal devastation."
Title: Haunted House Hamlet, The
Author: Weiss, Peter Eliot Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1986
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - historical - fantasy - ghosts sixteen characters six male; five female (doubling) two acts
"When a street kid breaks into an abandoned building, he discovers a group of ghost actors doomed to perform Hamlet until the end of time."
Title: Having Hope at Home
Author: Craig, David S. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2005
Description:
roy comedy - family relations six characters three male; three female two acts
A sidesplitting look at a family learning to love again. On a winter night in a drafty farmhouse a baby is about to arrive. But modern medicine meets midwifery head on in a torrent of family feuding. As tensions rise between three dysfunctional generations, so does the laughter. It takes a baby to heal the rift in this funny, heartwarming story of forgiveness and hope. Title: Head, Guts and Soundbone Dance, The
Author: Cook, Michael Publisher: Breakwater Books 1973
Description:
roy drama - Canadian seven characters six male; one female; children as extras two acts
"A tyrannical old Skipper fights to keep his vision of the past alive in the face of inevitable change and what he sees as moral decay."
Title: Hearing, The
Author: Stein, David Lewis Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1978
Description:
roy drama - Canadian sixteen characters ten male; six female two acts
Description not available.
Title: Heart As It Lived, The
Author: Robinson, Mansel Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1997
Description:
roy Canadian - drama five characters three male; two female two acts
"Annie is a cranky, puritanical spinster who has never questioned the status quo - until the night her solitude is invaded by a charming young hustler named Zak who breaks into her house. When Annie discovers that Zak is the grandson of her estranged sister, she is forced to confront the events surrounding the Regina Riot of 1935 and face the consequences of decisions she made more than sixty years ago." Title: Heatwave
Author: Bouchard, Michel Marc Publisher: Scirocco Drama 1996
Description:
roy comedy - domestic relationships five characters three male; two female two acts
"Michel Marc Bouchard's 'Heat Wave' tells the story of a family learning how to live again after a three year vigil at the bedside of controlling patriarch Fred Cloutier. Cloutier is still controlling his wife and children from beyond the grave, as the characters deal with guilt complexes created by years of manipulation. But this situation comedy is mainly about love, about May / September relationships, and about appearances and the lies that people tell in order to disguise their true selves and deny their true emotions."
Title: Heaven
Author: Walker, George F. Publisher: Talonbooks 2000
Description:
roy black comedy six characters four male; two female ten scenes
'Five instantly recognizable multi-cultural characters play out their coincidental relationships in a very contemporary paradise—a park on the outskirts of a city. All of them are, in one form or another, engaged in the "fundamental right" of the pursuit of their own happiness, whether that means acquiring life skills, improving their career prospects, working on their family relationships, increasing social justice in the world, balancing the concerns of crime and punishment, or integrating more closely with what they identify as their own communities. Of
Title: Hellfire Pass A carpenter's trilogy Author: Rossi, Vittorio Publisher: Talonbooks 2007
Description:
roy drama - autobiographical - historical - family relations seven characters four male; three female two acts
1956. Silvio Rosato, a decorated WWII veteran, shows up at the house of his father, Eduardo Rosato, who had abandoned him and his mother in Italy in 1920 to start a new life and family for himself in Chicago. Silvio's Italian-American half-siblings are fascinated by this stranger who has suddenly appeared. Handsome, assured and accomplished, there is something not quite right, something sinister about this visitor, with his air of familiarity and the distant, impenetrable look in his eyes. This mystery begins Hellfire Pass, part one of Rossi's autobiographical 'A Carpenter's Title: Here on the Flight Path
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: PUC Play Service 1997
Description:
roy comedy four characters one male; three female - doubling two acts
'John Cummings is a lonely and divorced back-porch philosopher. Over three and a half years, three very different women occupy the apartment next door. As John reflects on his relationships with neighbours Fay, Angel & Gwen, he shares his unique views on everything from poets to sex.'
Title: Hide and Seek
Author: Havard, Lezley Publisher: Dramatists Play Service Inc. 1980
Description:
roy thriller nine characters four male; four female; one young girl three acts
1 interior set.
'Couple moves to old farmhouse where a little girl died five years earlier. Her ghost still haunts farmhouse.'
Title: Hockey Mom, Hockey Dad
Author: Melski, Michael Publisher: Breton Books 2001
Description:
roy romance two characters one male; one female two acts
1 interior.
Divorced dad courts divorced mom as they watch their sons play hockey. Title: Holy Mo and Spew Boy
Author: Frangione, Lucia Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1977
Description:
roy comedy all female cast; three characters three female two acts
'A reverently irreverant post-modern romp through the Old Testiment from creation to King Solomon, not for the religously faint of heart. Three fools endeavor to shake the dust off of ancient tales and a bring a cast of thousands to life. Follie tries to keep the stories going, what she can remember of them, while Guff throws dinosaurs into Genesis and Bufoona demands to play a princess instead of King David. good for all ages and people of all faiths. Wildly acclaimed, sold out Vancouver hit, produced four times in five years.'
Title: Homechild
Author: MacLeod, Joan Publisher: Talonbooks 2008
Description:
roy drama - history eight characters three male; five female two acts
Homechild is an evocative and tender tale of family bonds, lineage and the endurance of love. It centres on Alistair MacEachern, a crotchety, funny and fearless farmer. For 70 years he has silently longed for the sister he left behind in Scotland. This story unearths the secret and the shame of the 100,000 Home Children sent to Canada from Britain between 1860 and 1930.
Title: Homeward Bound
Author: Hayes, Elliott Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1991
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian six characters four male; two female two acts
1 interior set.
A comedy of modern manners, Bonnie Beachum's daughter is pregnant, her son-in-law may have kidnapped the children, her son's lover arrives to set matters straight and her husband is calmly contemplating suicide. Title: Hooking for Paradise
Author: Stearns, Sharon Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1983
Description:
roy drama - Canadian five characters one male; four female two acts
1 interior set.
Set in a brothel in Moose Jaw in 1912, the play explores the power struggle between men and women, looking at one woman's attempt to create a matriarchy in a traditionally male-dominated society.
Title: Hosanna
Author: Tremblay, Michel translated by John Van Burek and Bill Glassco Publisher: Talonbooks 1974
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian all male cast; two characters two male two acts
1 interior set.
Homosexual transvestite, humiliated by practical joke, assesses his life and relationship with lover.
Title: How Are Things With The Walking Wounded?
Author: Hendry, Tom Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1972
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy eight characters four male; four female three scenes
In the summer of Expo '67 a businessman and his young "ward" celebrate their second anniversary together. During the party, relationships and emotional attachments are challenged and changed. Title: How Could You Mrs. Dick?
Author: Rodger, Douglas Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1989
Description:
roy drama - Canadian eight characters five male; three female two acts
A 'whodunit' with a difference - a fascinating theatrical exploration of the notorious Torso Murder case of the 1940's. Evelyn MacLean, beautiful, pleasure-bent, flush with dark family secrets and mysterious money, seduces 40 year old Mennonite bachelor John Dick. Their brief marriage resulted in a gruesome murder, a spell-binding court case, and even more ghastly revelations which have resonated in the Canadian psyche to this day.
Title: How it Works
Author: MacIvor, Daniel Publisher: Scirocco Drama 2006
Description:
roy drama - marital relations - divorce four characters one male; three female two acts
"In How It Works, Daniel MacIvor enters the world of an awesomely articulate teenage girl whose world has fallen apart after her parents divorce. What breaks a family apart and what can bring them back together? How It Works is a tremendously witty and moving play that looks at parenting and how we can re-create the idea of family in the modern world."
Title: Hunter of Peace
Author: Stearns, Sharon Publisher: Scirocco Drama 1993
Description:
roy drama - biography five characters two male; three female twenty scenes
Mary Schaffer, one of the first women to explore the Rocky Mountain wilderness on horseback, journeys through the Banff and Jasper area in 1907. She was explorer, botanist and naturalist. Title: If We Are Women
Author: Glass, Joanna McClelland Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1994
Description:
roy Canadian - relationships - family relations - women all female cast; four characters four female two acts
"Two grandmothers, a daughter, and a granddaughter gather on the deck of a beach house. The three older women discuss their pasts, their present, and they are confounded with the granddaughter's decision to disregard all that she's heard."
Title: Illegal Entry
Author: Martini, Clem Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1994
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - men all male cast; three characters three male three acts
"Three teens escape from a group home for young offenders, intending to head out to the west-coast and freedom. To raise funds for this enobling enterprise, they attempt to burglarize a house. Things take an unexpected turn when they suddenly find themselves trapped in the garage. One of them happens upon an electric sander and they decide to sand their way to freedom."
Title: Impromptu of Outremont, The
Author: Tremblay, Michel translated by John Van Burek Publisher: Talonbooks 1981
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian all female cast; four characters four female two acts
interior set.
The four Beaugrand sisters meet once a year. Three of them live in their native Outremont, trapped by time, the choices they have not dared to make, and by the position that society has foisted upon them. Title: Impromptu on Nun's Island
Author: Tremblay, Michel translated by Linda Gaboriau Publisher: Talonbooks 2002
Description:
roy comedy four characters one male; three female one act
An opera diva, Patricia, meets her Waterloo singing Salomè at the Opèra Bastille in Paris. In an impromptu get-together in her Nuns' Island penthouse, on the afternoon of her return from Europe, Her Mother, a popular Montreal stage and television actress, and her idealistic committed-to-new-work daughter lie in wait for her.'
Title: In a World Created by a Drunken God
Author: Taylor, Drew Hayden Publisher: Talonbooks 2006
Description:
roy dramatic comedy - family relations all male cast; two characters two male two acts
Jason, a 31-year-old Canadian half-Native man is paid an unexpected visit by a 34-year old American man, Harry, who introduces himself as Jason's half brother. Harry wants Jason to be compatibility tested for a possible kidney donation to their dying non-native father, a man who abandoned Jason's mother when he was two months old. Embroiled in the absurdity of their dilemma, Harry is forced to acknowledge that the father he has loved all his life has concealed his capacity for an absent, heartless cruelty. Jason, on the other hand, must wrestle with the
Title: In Confidence
Author: Hollingsworth, Margaret Publisher: Scirocco Drama 1994
Description:
roy drama - monologues all female cast; two characters two female two acts
"In Confidence features two monologues by two different women in two different kitchens in two different cities three thousand miles apart - this simple conceit is all Hollingsworth needs to create a complex portrait of a friendship hampered by dark secrets in each woman's marriage." Title: In Gabriel's Kitchen
Author: Antonio, Salvatore Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2006
Description:
roy drama - family relations five characters four male; one female two acts
The Montesano family attempts to navigate through the storm of grief and denial, following the suicide of its youngest member; the vibrant Gabriel. The surviving son, Marco, dutifully returns to the childhood home to spend Christmas with his mother and father. This year’s visit is almost over, but something snaps Marco’s restraint. He confronts his mother, unleashing a torrent of unexpected emotions. Years of rage, neglect, and fierce blame come to surface as mother and son try to piece together a new existence, without Gabriel.
Title: In the Cards
Author: Russell-King, Caroline Publisher: William Rosewood Publishing 1995
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy three characters two male; one female two acts
"A reluctant psychic's powers cause her no end of trouble with her fated romance."
Title: In the Eyes of God
Author: Inglis, Raul Sanchez Publisher: Talonbooks 2007
Description:
roy comedy - Hollywood seven characters four male; three female two acts
“There’s no business like show business,” and if you ever had any doubt about that, In the Eyes of God will bring you back to your senses. A vicious, vulgar, unsparing and grotesque look at the talent agencies that remake the Hollywood stars and tabloid personalities out of the willing clay of their own flesh, the greed, avarice and banality laid bare in this play would be horrifying if it weren’t so funny, and laughter is our only defense when somewhere deep down in what’s left of our souls we know this portrait of rank, speculative, self-interested capitalism to be true. Title: In the Freedom of Dreams The story of Nelson Mandela Author: Miller, Michael A. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2003
Description:
roy biography - political - South Africa - Nelson Mandela twenty-two characters; chorus, extras sixteen male; six female (doubling possible) two acts
Explores the vivid world of Rolihlahla Nelson Madiba Mandela's childhood in the village of Qunu. It takes us to the rough and tumble world of Johannesburg in the years before World War II, the harshness of the Robben Island prison and finally to the corridors of power. The play not only illuminates Mandela's public role as a freedom fighter for his people, it speaks about his love affair with justice and to the cause, and how this affair of the heart affected the dreams of the people around him. We see him as a fighter and humanitarian, but also as a father, son,
Title: In The Lobster Capital Of The World
Author: Hannah, Don Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1988
Description:
roy Canadian - drama five characters three male; two female two acts
Emma is a recent widow and hard pressed to make sense of her family: Michael, her almost manically reclusive son who stayed with her in New Brunswick; Ed, the older son, a cynical gay man from Toronto, never able to deal with relationships and now wrestling with a lover 15 years his junior, and Pat, Michael's ex-wife who finally admits, after a litany of her own failed relationships, that it is Ed she loves. They've all gathered to celebrate Emma's birthday but also to try to surmount the effects of their disastrous choices - to reconcile.
Title: Indian Heart
Author: Schroeter, Edward Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1992
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - native indians - biographical eight characters three male; one female (doubling) two acts
"Archie Belaney masqueraded as an Indian naturalist. After making his reputation as an international lecturer, best-selling author, and pioneer wildlife-conservationist during the 1930s, he was unmasked as an impostor." Title: Inexpressible Island
Author: Young, David Publisher: Scirocco Drama 1998
Description:
roy drama - exploration, Antarctica all male cast; six characters six male three acts
'In 1912 a Royal Navy scientific expedition was stranded in the Antarctic without supplies or shelter. The winter was approaching with months of total darkness, hurricane force winds and bottomless cold. Their situation seemed entirely hopeless. Being Royal Navy, the group did not capitulate. They killed seals for food, dug a cave in the snow and crawled inside. Three officers and three men, a miniature society, trapped in total degradation at the end of the world, at the end of an heroic age. "Inexpressible Island" explores the survival mechanisms that carries this group
Title: Innocent Eye Test, The
Author: Healey, Michael Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2006
Description:
roy farce seven characters five male; two female two acts
A grand Tuscan hotel. A gathering-place for people from across the globe. Two transactions. In one, art is for sale; in the other, weapons-grade plutonium. When the money gets mixed up, it's up to Canadian art dealer and world-class innocent Samuel Kneck to sort it out. An old fashioned farce about contemporary anxieties.
Title: Intimate Admiration
Author: Epp, Richard Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1987
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - historical two characters one male; one female four acts
"Based on the correspondence between Anton Chekov and Olga Knipper, star of the Moscow Art Theatre, the play traces their relationship from an affectionate admiration of each other's work, to a passionate and often stormy marriage." Title: Invention of Poetry, The
Author: Quarrington, Paul Publisher: Summerhill Press 1990
Description:
roy drama - Canadian all male cast; two characters two male one act
1 interior set.
Once upon a time Gary pitched in the majors. He even has a bubble gum card to prove it. Moon was once nominated for the Nobel Prize for his poetry, but that was years ago. Now they both live and drink in their hideout from the world, a fleabag hotel. Tonight the plan is to stay sober and to create a poem of beauty and a joy forever. But writing poetry requires a muse...
Title: Invisibility of Eileen, The
Author: Brennan, Kit Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 2005
Description:
roy drama five characters two male; three female two acts
Eileen feels she's become invisible, to her son, her ex-husband, and even her colleagues at work. When a strange older woman shows up one morning, sleeping in her flowerbed, Eileen welcomes in more than a seemingly confused bag lady. She welcomes in a new life.
Title: Isabel
Author: Gourlay, Elizabeth Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1979
Description:
roy Canadian - political drama ten characters five male; five female three acts
Mackenzie King receives dream visitations from his mother and a former fiancee in this disturbing study of kinship and political power. Title: It's All True
Author: Sherman, Jason Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2000
Description:
roy drama - historical - American eight characters; extras four male; four female one act (full length)
"New York 1937. Art and politics collide when the government padlocks the doors of the theatre on the opening of the Marc Blitzstein's "The Cradle Will Rock". The director, Orson Welles, marches the actors and most of the audience down Seventh Avenue and finds another theatre, and in one brilliant stroke makes theatre history. As much a play for our times as it is about and historical event."
Title: Jacob's Wake
Author: Cook, Michael Publisher: Talonbooks 1975
Description:
roy drama - Canadian seven characters five male; two female two acts
A storm of elemental proportions mirrors the forces unleashed by painful memories at a family gathering in a Newfoundland outport.
Title: Jennie's Story
Author: Lambert, Betty Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy drama - Canadian five characters two male; three female two acts
1 interior set.
Jennie consults a doctor about her inability to become pregnant. She discovers that years before during an abortion, she was also sterilized. Consent was given by her mother and by the priest who impregnated her. Jennie chooses never to be victimized again. Title: Jenny's House of Joy
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2006
Description:
roy comedy all female cast; five characters five female two acts
Jenny runs the best little house of ill repute in her corner of the old "Wild West". But when a tireless young runaway comes begging for a job, the girls at Jenny's house might just have to leave their lingerie behind. A delightful new comedy about the oldest profession.
Title: Jitters
Author: French, David Publisher: Talonbooks 1986
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - theatre nine characters six male; three female three acts
1 interior set.
David French's sophisticated backstage comedy, opens on the night of a preview of a new play, "The Care and Treatment of Roses". Within minutes, the audience is plunged into the world of the theatre, a world of instant loves and hates, easily bruised egos, contradictory interpretations of role and script-all complicated by crises involving faulty props, lost lines, and bad reviews, and
Title: Joggers
Author: Stratton, Allan Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1982
Description:
roy tragicomedy four characters two male; two female two acts
"A young man, stranded in a blizzard, is chased into the home of Vanessa, a murderous Venus Flytrap." Title: John and the Missus
Author: Pinsent, Gordon Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1977
Description:
roy drama - Canadian fifteen characters eleven male; four female two acts
The copper mine is played out and the town is dying. John is a miner like his father before him and will not abandon the town, but his wife has tired of the struggle. A truthful, moving story of a family and a Newfoundland town in transition.
Title: Karla and Grif
Author: Laxdal, Vivienne Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1991
Description:
roy drama - Canadian three characters one male; two female two acts
'Haunted by the explosive love of her obsessive father and the memories of a friendship crossing emotional and physical boundaries, Karla holds Grif hostage one suspenseful night in an attempt to alleviate her pain and confusion.'
Winner Full length Category
Title: Kilt
Author: Wilson, Jonathan Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1998
Description:
roy drama - comedy five characters three male; two female two acts
"The 'kilt' in question belongs to Mac, a young Scots soldier fighting in Africa during the second world war, and is later worn by his grandson Tom for his act as a table dancer in a Toronto gay club. This break with tradition upsets Tom's Scottish dancing teaching mother, and the rift in their relationship comes to a touching and hilarious head when they travel to Scotland for Mac's funeral." Title: Kiss the Moon, Kiss the Sun
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2003
Description:
roy drama - friendship five characters three male; two female two acts
A thirty-five year old man with the mental capacity of a seven-year old, meets a pregnant young woman in crisis, and the two form a lasting friendship. A story about people finding the nerve to take responsibility, and about persevering against the odds.
Title: Kitchen Witches, The
Author: Smith, Caroline Publisher: Samuel French 2006
Description:
roy comedy four characters two male; two female two acts
Isobel Lomax and Dolly Biddle are two "mature" cable-access cooking show hostesses who have hated each other for 30 years, ever since Stephen Biddle dated one and married the other. When circumstances put them together on a TV show called The Kitchen Witches, the insults are flung harder than the food! Dolly's long-suffering TV-producer son Stephen tries to keep them on track, but as long as Dolly's dressing room is one inch closer to the set than Isobel's, it's a losing battle, and the show becomes a rating smash as Dolly and Isobel top both Martha Stewart and
Title: Kite, The
Author: Mitchell, W. O. Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 2003
Description:
roy drama - Canadian nine characters eight male; one female one act
'By early May kites hang in the foothills wind, but none hangs higher of performs with more acrobatic skill than the kite of Daddy Sherry, the oldest man in the world. Daddy has flown the kite of his life for almost one-hundred and seventeen years. Between the personal deeds of his birth and his death, he has known that the string is thin, that it can be dropped, snapped. Daddy has lived always with the awareness of his own mortality and has refused to settle for less. Time and death and Daddy Sherry insist: never settle for less.' Title: Knock, Knock
Author: Wyatt, Rachel Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2000
Description:
roy drama - psychological - relationships five characters three male; two female two acts
"When Harold Fryer knocks at the door of the Lacoste house, he only wants to explain his policies and leave a few leaflets with the occupants. Inside, however, he is welcomed as a friend of the family. The two women who greet him are mourning their sister who has just died. Little by little they take away his identity. They speak to him of a past which begins to seem very much like his own. He joins the family in an unusual ritual and when he leaves the house a few hours later, he knows he will never be quite the same."
Title: Last Adam, The
Author: Rossi, Vittorio Publisher: NuAge Editions 1995
Description:
roy drama - family relations seven characters three male; four female two acts
"Set in the present, the story is of the Leones, who are not unlike the Corleones when they lecture each other on the priority of the family and the need to protect it from the entanglement of 'business.' Here, however, the criminality is not overt; it lurks on the peripheries and in the past of a normal middle-class existence... "
Title: Last Bird, The
Author: Johnstone, Keith Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1972
Description:
roy drama - Albertan seventeen characters thirteen male; four female (doubling possible) two acts
Headstone has the wounds of Christ. Death fights Jesus for control of the world. An angel is captured and interrogated. It's a colonial war... Title: Last Bus, The
Author: Storey, Raymond Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1987
Description:
roy drama - Canadian four characters two male; two female two acts
The death of a childhood friend brings Robert back to his home town where he forms an uneasy relationship with his dead friend's outcast girlfriend. Together they try to come to terms with past, present and future.
Title: Last Call A Post-Nuclear Cabaret Author: Panych, Morris Publisher: Harbour Publishing 1983
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian all male cast, two characters two male two acts
A provocative, witty, spell-binding black comedy set in the post-nuclear ruins of a large North American city.
Title: Last Real Summer, The
Author: Graves, Warren Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy drama - Albertan eight characters three male; five female two acts
open stage.
In this memory play, the older Lizzie reflects on her youth and the choices which led her to her current unrest. Title: Last Romantics
Author: MacLennan, Michael Lewis Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2003
Description:
roy drama eight characters five male; three female two acts
running time: 130 minutes.
'Ranging from the drawing rooms of fin-de-siecle London with Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley, to Canada on the eve of the Great Depression. The play chronicles the staggering triumphs and losses of the now-forgotten brilliant artistic duo Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon, to create a vivid portrait of a world left behind by the dawning of the modern age.'
Title: Law of the Land
Author: Anderson, Peter Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1982
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - musical fifteen characters; extras seven male; three female; five male or female two acts
"On the eve of the grand opening of the Black Creek Power Plant, the head of the Power Authority arrives in the village expecting a relaxed hunting trip and a smooth opening, only to run afoul of both local inhabitants and wildlife."
Title: Lawrence & Holloman
Author: Panych, Morris Publisher: Talonbooks 1998
Description:
roy comedy - black play all male cast; two characters two male two acts
"This is a universe in which Camus meets Dali, where Goya meets Disney, where gunshots and bathtub drownings, disillusion and dismemberment become the Seventh Seal of the Grey Flannel set."
First produced in 1998 at Tarragon Theatre, Toronto. Title: League of Nathans, The
Author: Sherman, Jason Publisher: Scirocco Drama 1996
Description:
roy Canadian - drama all male cast; four characters four male two acts
" Ten years after their last meeting, three Jewish friends reunite in a Spanish synagogue, where they finally face a past they wish both to embrace and escape."
Winner of the 1997 CAA Literary Award for Drama and the Chalmers Play Award.
Title: Leaving Home
Author: French, David Publisher: General Publishing 1972
Description:
roy drama - Canadian seven characters four male; three female two acts
A realistic drama of the late fifties, in which a Newfoundland family attempts to make a new life in Toronto. On the eve of their youngest son's wedding, they see their family break up.
Runner-up, 1972 Chalmers Canadian Play Award.
Title: Leisure Society, The
Author: Archambault, Francois Translated by Bobby Theodore Publisher: Talonbooks 2003
Description:
roy dark comedy - contemporary four characters two male; two female sixteen scenes
"Peter and Mary work long hours; invest money for a retirement they will probably never enjoy; buy things that are supposed to make them happy but that they never use. They obsess about the nightmare engines of Western economic growth: make, earn and have more. Bringing a child into this frightening world; wanting time and space for themselves and their friends; all seem like colossal tasks. Even worse, they seem like acts of resistance or betrayal — against a system that requires everyone to be active, productive and consuming." Title: Liar
Author: Drader, Brian Publisher: J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing 2004
Description:
roy drama four characters three male; one female two acts
'Liar' examines the power and influence of human interaction and the perils of assumption. Mark is a young man who is anything you want him to be - a chameleon. Jeremy meets Mark in a gay bar, and, shortly after, the two men end up on the roof of an office building where Jeremy mysteriously falls to his death. After the "accident", Jeremy's estranged sister befriends Mark. Effortlessly gaining her confidence, he insinuates himself into her life and her home. Her husband is soon brought under the spell of the mysterious drifter. After knowing the brother only a matter
Title: Lies My Father Told Me
Author: Allan, Ted Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1983
Description:
roy drama - Canadian eight characters six male; two female two acts
A boy in 1920's Montreal begins to see the lies most adults live by behind the visions and dreams related to him by his grandfather.
Title: Life On The Line
Author: Bush, Steven Booth, Allen Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy Canadian - political - satire all male cast; one character (and two musicians) one male two parts
A satirical look at employment, unemployment, nuclear madness and everyday political predicaments. Title: Life Skills
Author: King, David Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy two characters one male; one female two acts
"An enterprising young woman describes to an interviewer her plans for a "Life Skills" workshop. The "Life Skills" to be addressed are illustrated in a series of humorous vignettes."
Title: Life Without Instruction
Author: Clark, Sally Publisher: Talonbooks 1994
Description:
roy Canadian - drama eleven characters (doubling possible) eight male; three female two acts
Based on a true story and a real trial. Artemisia's father, the late-Renaissance painter Orazio Gentileschi, has his daughter trained in the art of painting under the instruction of his friend, Agostino Tassi. Tassi rapes Artemisia, and is taken tor trial by both Artemisia and Orazio. As usual, the person really on trial is the woman, who is publicly humiliated and forced to endure the torture of thumb screws. Yet through this ordeal Artemisia not only emerges as a strong and independent women: she comes into her own as talented painter.
Title: Like Death Warmed Over
Author: Tremblay, Michel translated by Allan Van Meer Publisher: Playwrights Co-op 1973
Description:
roy drama - Canadian; family relationships twenty-one characters; extras five male; sixteen female seven scenes
3 interior; 1 exterior; singing; music.
"Once-beautiful woman supporting freeloading husband becomes hash-house waitress in Montreal's East End slum, drinking into debt and despair after losing better job. Retarded brother escaped from sanatorium, and is only optimistic person left in tenement." Title: Lilies
Author: Bouchard, Michel Marc Publisher: Miscellaneous 1990
Description:
roy romantic drama - gay men all male cast; nine characters nine male seven episodes
'The revival of a romantic drama. Simon Doucet re-enacts for Jean Bilodeau, now a Catholic bishop, their past as lovers while rehearsing The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian.'
Title: Lilly, Alta.
Author: Dyba, Kenneth Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy Canadian - Albertan - drama three characters; extras one male; two female two acts
"When two lovers attempt to free themselves from the obsessive matriarch who rules Lilly, Alberta, they unleash a chain of events which forever alters this small prairie town. The play is set in 1952, underscored with song and music, and punctuated with the comic antics and dramatic entanglements of the town's forty-six colourful human, animal and bird characters."
Title: Lion in the Streets
Author: Thompson, Judith Publisher: Coach House Press 1992
Description:
roy drama - Canadian six characters two male; four female two acts
A young girl, Isobel, delves into the secret lives of her neighbors as she searches for her killer. Title: Listen to the Wind
Author: Reaney, James Publisher: Talonbooks 1972
Description:
roy drama - Canadian ten characters; extras five male; five female three acts
In a Perth County farmhouse sometime during the thirties, a boy named Owen decides to spend the summer putting on plays with the help of his cousins, his grownup relatives and the neighbourhood children. One of the plays they put on is their adaptation of a Victorian novel, "The Saga of Caresfoot Court". In James Reaney's "Listen to the Wind", we watch a double story unfold: we see Owen fighting illness and trying to get his parents back together again; we see Angela Caresfoot threading her way through a world of evil manor-houses and sinister Lady
Title: Little Something to Ease the Pain, A
Author: Aloma, Rene Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1980
Description:
roy drama - Canadian eight characters six male; two female two acts
interior and exterior sets.
After a self-imposed exile of seventeen years, Paye returns to Cuba to confront his past and determine his future.
Title: Little Years, The
Author: Mighton, John Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1996
Description:
roy Canadian - drama five characters one male; four female two acts
"From the playwright who brought cybersex, virtual reality, dog suicide and necrophilia to the stage, comes a new play about the passing of time, our own immortality, and the way in which our lives are extended in the bodies and minds of others. A recipient of the Governor General's Literary Award for Drama, a philosopher and a mathematician, John Mighton leads is on another intriguing journey which explores the passionate connection between science, philosophy, and human nature and emotions." Title: Live With It
Author: Moore, Elise Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1994
Description:
roy Canadian - drama all male cast; two characters two male two acts
"Hurt, anger and rage permeate this chronicle of Joe Orton's rise to fame as a daring London playwright and the jealous frustration of his lover and murderer, Ken Halliwell."
Title: Lokkinen
Author: Sapergia, Barbara Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy drama - Canadian six characters two male; four female two acts
1 interior set.
A man's obsession with his Finnish ancestry and his fantasies about a northern farm almost destroy the four women with whom he lives. "Lokkinen" is also about the separate visions of these women, who range in age from adolescence to old age.
Title: Long Weekend, The
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy four characters two male; two female two acts
"The truth and lies of a friendship come to the surface during a weekend visit between two couples. There are plenty of surprises along the way in this comedy of manners." Title: Looking
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Samuel French 2006
Description:
roy comedy - relationships four characters two male; two female two acts
Val is an OR nurse, Andy is in the storage business, Nina is a police officer and Matt is the host of a morning radio show. They're middle-aged, single and looking. Val agrees to meet Andy after answering his personal ad in the newspaper and Nina and Matt are coaxed into joining their friends for support. What follows is hilarious, touching and so very true to life.
Title: Lost and Found
Author: Daniels, Dan Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 199?
Description:
roy Canadian - drama seven characters five male; two female two acts
"A city magically found is lost. The ridiculous is confronted in a nightmare unleashed and threatening all - and the city that ought to be."
Title: Lost Boys, The Letters form the sons in two acts: 1914-1923 Author: Thomson, R. H. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2001
Description:
roy drama - history - World War I - monologues thirteen characters ten male; three female (doubling possible) two acts
The main character/narrator in 'The Lost Boys' undertakes a dream journey to bring to light the men hidden in a collection of 700 family letters - letters from five brothers who fought in the First World War. Not only does the actor step into the characters of these forgotten soldiers, but also into his own life as a child. The journey breathes life into these men of the battlefields, as well as gives voice to the women of the world; mother, cousin, French stranger. Based on the author's own life, and that of his five great uncles, the play becomes a search for the immensity of story Title: Lost Souls and Missing Persons
Author: Clark, Sally Publisher: Talonbooks 1998
Description:
roy dramatic comedy twenty characters eleven male; nine female (doubling possible) two acts
'A comic, surreal investigation of the question of self and identity in the North American middle-class. Hannah, wife and mother of two teenagers, vacationing with her husband Lyle in New York, wakes up in the middle of the night and looks at the man sleeping in the bed next to her and screams. She does not remember who she is, who Lyle is, how she got there, and finally, how to speak. Revealed to the audience in a series of flashbacks and through Lyle’s search for her, she ends up wandering among strangers and street people like herself, and is picked up by
Title: Love List, The
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Samuel French 2006
Description:
roy comedy - romance three characters two male; one female two acts
In this side-splitting and thought-provoking new comedy, Leon and Bill concoct a list of attributes of the ideal woman the top ten best qualities in a mate. When this allegedly ‘Ideal Woman’ actually arrives on the scene the men quickly learn that their list could use a few revisions. Be careful what you wish for--especially in choosing a mate. This old adage leads to hilarious results in Foster's sparkling new comic hit.
Title: Lucky Strike
Author: Alianak, Hrant Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1978
Description:
roy drama - Canadian three characters two male; one female seven scenes
1 interior set.
On the run and holed up in a North African warehouse, a trio of B-movie renegades is trapped in a twilight zone of film noir. A desperate young gunman gasps out his last hours, blood oozing from his wound onto the grimy warehouse floor. Half-mad with pain, he recalls the events leading to this deadend retreat; he, his unfaithful moll, and his sinister partner-in-crime go through the Title: Mad Boy Chronicle
Author: O'Brien, Michael Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1996
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - historical - fiction twelve characters; extras eight male; four female two acts
"From the smoky halls and icy fens of Viking Denmark comes a timeless tale of murder and revenge. Set in the final days of the first millenium, Mad Boy Chronicle hauls the Hamlet story howling back to its origins. Join the Mad Bot as he sets out in fierce pursuit of his destiny - in a world where wolves, elves, spirits, and Jesus Christ all compete for the future of humanity, and Hate might be mightier that Love after all."
Title: Maggie and Pierre
Author: Griffiths, Linda Thompson, Paul Publisher: Talonbooks 1980
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - political three characters two male; one female two acts
A fantasy of love, politics and the media. The play is "a tantalizing refresher course on the libido of Canada's most enigmatic politician".
Winner, Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, 1980.
Title: Maggie's Getting Married
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 2001
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy - romance six characters three male; three female two acts
"A touching romantic comedy that follows the pitfalls the Duncan family encounters on the eve of their daughter's wedding." Title: Maggie's Last Dance A play Author: Chan, Marty Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 1996
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - life six characters three male; three female two acts
"A high school reunion brings together old friends and nemeses to relive the past. Old crushes are revisited along with regrets and hopes. The play jumps between the present-day reunion when people are wiser and more experienced, and the high school hey days when youthful exuberance and naivete ruled."
Title: Magnificent Slowpoke, The
Author: Lager, Martin Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1976
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian eight characters five male; three female two acts
1 interior set.
The bungling Ubby Ellison is haunted by his mother's ghost.
Title: Magnificent Voyage of Emily Carr, The
Author: Marchessault, Jovette translated by Linda Gaboriau Publisher: Talonbooks 1992
Description:
roy Canadian - drama six characters two male; four female ten tableaux
Emily Carr lived in magical place that she had christened 'The House of All Sorts'. In this House which is open to all that is vital on Earth, Emily Carr, with all her greatness and her imperfections, receives visitors from her planet: Lizzie, her sister, is greeted with war whoops and rebuffs, for Lizzie is the adversary, as is all Victorian society; Sophie, her Amerindian friend, who brings messages, reminders and lessons from life; Lawren Harris, her young painter friend from the Group of Seven, who wants to free painting from dogma and revolutionize art in Canada; the Soul Title: Mail Order Bride, The
Author: Clinton, Robert Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1988
Description:
roy Canadian - drama seven characters four male; three female two acts
Rich with humour and the bittersweet realities of a time gone by, 'The Mail Order Bride' is a vivid, moving, and often surprising evocation of the true nature of family and love.
Title: Maison Suspendue, La
Author: Tremblay, Michel translated by John Van Burek Publisher: Talonbooks 1991
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - french ten characters five male; three female one act (full length)
A rich, emotional, sweeping drama of anger and sorrow spanning three generations. The family house in the country is the setting for the story of Victoire and her descendants through her husband and through her true love - who also happens to be her brother. It is Victoire's anger at being forced away from the family home and her sorrow at being separated from her dreamy, impractical, fiddle playing brother that fuel the machinery of 80 years of family relationships.
Title: Majority of Two, A
Author: Hibbert, Alun Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1983
Description:
roy drama - Canadian two characters one male; one female two acts
John and Sophie have very different ideas about life after retirement. They lock horns in a battle of wits and wills. As the harsh winds of a Quebec in turmoil blow through their tidy Montreal rose garden, they are forced to reassess their dreams. Title: Maltese Bodkin, The
Author: Belke, David Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 1991
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - murder - mystery - historical six characters two male; four female two acts
"Times were tough for hard boiled detective Birnam Wood. He never asked to be in London. Especially in 1605. When Wood's Partner is killed, he has to find the killer amongst a cast of suspects that includes Richard III, Falstaff, Iago, Mercutio and a merchant from Venice. The worlds of film noir and Shakespeare collide in this 'who hath done it'."
Title: Mambo Italiano
Author: Galluccio, Steve Publisher: Talonbooks 2004
Description:
roy comedy - family relations eight characters three male; five female two acts
'While the press has often called the film version of Mambo Italiano "a gay My Big Fat Greek Wedding", there is more at work in this play than the zealous mining of Italian immigrant family and gay culture stereotypes. Translated by its biggest fan, Michael Tremblay, into a wildly successful Francophone theatrical phenomenon, Mambo Italino is far more about the dynamics of a family, about the vast spaces between the old world and the new, about grasping the resonant codes embedded in what is said and what is meant in ordinary speech, than it is "about" gay
Title: Marion Bridge
Author: MacIvor, Daniel Publisher: Talonbooks 1999
Description:
roy drama - family five characters one male; four female two acts
"In 'Marion Bridge', three women in their thirties come 'home' to Cape Breton to be with their dying mother. Each in her own way tries to deal with the painful loneliness of the lives they have chosen for themselves - each is trying to reconcile what they have become with what they thought they wanted out of life and with what they thought their parents wanted for them. Nothing, of course, has turned out exactly the way anyone imagined it would." Title: Mark
Author: Wylie, Betty Jane Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1979
Description:
roy drama - Canadian four characters two male; two female two acts
2 interior sets.
A doctor and his family must learn to face the fact of his terminal illness. Tackles the subject of death with uncompromising honesty.
Title: Marriage a la Chaucer
Author: Walsh, Patrick Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy ten characters six male; four female two acts
1 setting.
Translated and adapted by Patrick Walsh. "A modern-verse dramatic adaption of three of Chaucer's classic marriage-tales. Bawdy and bold, full of ironic comment on relationships. "
Title: Martin Yesterday
Author: Fraser, Brad Publisher: NeWest Press 1998
Description:
roy drama - homosexuality - relationships five characters four male; one female two acts
"At thirty-something, Matt suddenly finds himself looking for more than reckless flings with younger partners. He wants maturity and commitment - someone to know through and through. Martin Yesterday, a middle-aged city councillor appears to be the end of Matt's pursuit. Martin, however, is not always forthcoming about his private affairs, and holds some very dark secrets." Title: Mary Shelley Play, The
Author: Baldridge, Mary Humphrey Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1979
Description:
roy drama - Albertan five characters three male; two female two acts
2 interior sets; 1 exterior set.
Shelley, Byron and Polidori talk about ghosts. Mary Shelley is entranced by the tales and in her own imagination devises mystery and terror that affects them all.
Title: Maybe We Could Get Some Bach
Author: del Grande, Louis Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1971
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian seventeen characters twelve male; five female nine scenes
1 interior set.
A comedy about two young people who decide to share an apartment in New York in the late 50's. John thinks he is "a little bit fruity" but Robin is determined to start "a meaningful relationship".
Title: McClure
Author: Scott, Munroe Publisher: Simon and Pierre Publishing 1988
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - biography all male cast; one character one male two acts
Set in China, "McClure" is the story of Doctor Robert Baird McClure's twenty-five adventurous, dangerous years there as 'dai fu', a doctor. McClure arrives in China in 1926 as a young bachelor. War is ever-present: the Nationalists fight the Communists, both parties fight the Japanese, and then Mao and the Communists take over the country. The story ends with the doctor's prayer to God for peace in this troubled land. This is a one-man play, with the actor playing not only McClure but also other characters, from a Scottish university registrar to a Chinese warlord. Title: McGillicuddy's Lost Weekend
Author: Roulston, Keith Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1980
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy five characters two male; three female two acts
"McGillicuddy, the only policeman in town, finds his fishing weekend cancelled due to a kidnapping. His search is hindered more than helped by the kind interference of the town's inhabitants."
Title: Medicine Line, The
Author: Mitchell, Ken Publisher: Miscellaneous
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - historical twenty-three characters; extras twenty-one male; two female thirteen scenes
Drama for a Saskatchewan Heritage. Sponsored by the Department of Culture and Youth. Description not available.
Title: Medium for Murder
Author: McRae, Murray Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1989
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy - mystery four characters two male; two female two acts
"A husband and his mistress hire an actor to play a medium who will bring back the spirit of the rich wife's dead brother to convince her to commit suicide so that they can get the estate." Title: Medium Saignant
Author: Loranger, Francoise Publisher: Lemeac Inc. 1970
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian twenty-one characters flexible casting two acts
The play is written in French. Description not available.
Title: Melville Boys, The
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian four characters two male; two female two acts
1 interior set.
Owen and Lee Melville arrive at their uncle's lakeside cabin for a weekend of beer and fishing, but their plans are thrown out of whack by the arrival of two sisters.
Title: Memoir A play about Sarah Bernhardt's last summer Author: Murrell, John Publisher: Avon Books 1978
Description:
roy Canadian drama - women two characters one male; one female two acts
Sarah Bernhardt's seventy-seventh and last summer. Title: Memories of You
Author: Lill, Wendy Publisher: Summerhill Press 1989
Description:
roy drama - Canadian five characters one male; four female two acts
various interior sets.
Based on the romantic and literary entanglements of the late great Elizabeth Smart, the play explores one woman's passions as she struggles to be a lover, a mother and a writer.
Title: Mending Fences
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2006
Description:
roy comedy eight characters two male; three female (doubling) two acts
An hilarious, but thoughtful, comedy about love, loss and making the most of a second chance. Harry is a Saskatchewan farmer that sticks to his guns no matter what the consequences. The loss of his family many years ago is just one of many life-altering changes his stubbornness has caused. Gin, an equally headstrong woman, from the neighbouring farm has helped ease his pain, but the past haunts her as well. When Harry's son Drew suddenly shows up after a thirteen-year estrangement, Harry must decide whether he will learn from his mistakes or make them all over
Title: Metastasis Chain of ruin Author: Pengilly, Gordon Publisher: International Readers' Theatre 1996
Description:
roy Canadian - drama twenty-four characters fifteen male; nine female two acts
No description available. Title: Mick Unplugged
Author: Nelson, Greg Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 2005
Description:
roy comedy - romance five characters three male; two female two acts
Mitch wants to re-start his life - but will his old pals "clash" with his plans or will they play along? Sparks fly as old friends reunite in this unabashedly romantic and boldly contemporary comedy about the perils of nostalgia, the joy of 80's punk, and how hard it is to tell your best friend that you're in love with them.
Title: Midlife
Author: Stickland, Eugene Publisher: Broadview Drama 2002
Description:
roy comedy - aging - domestic relations three characters two male; one female two acts
"The landscape of middle-aged bravado and angst that Eugene Stickland populates here with Calgary oilmen and their romantic difficulties ."
Title: Midnight Madness
Author: Carley, Dave Publisher: Summerhill Press 1989
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian seventeen characters twelve male; five female nine scenes
1 interior set.
A comedy about two young people who decide to share an apartment in New York in the late 50's. John thinks he is "a little bit fruity" but Robin is determined to start "a meaningful relationship". Title: Minor Keys, The A romantic comedy Author: Belke, David Publisher: NeWest Press 2000
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian ten characters four male; three female (doubling) two acts
"In a half-forgotten jazz club, the lives and dreams of its inhabitants intersect, intertwine and collide. A wistful jazz-inspired comedy about minor key people in a minor key world, and how even the smallest of lives can find their hearts' desire."
Title: Miss Autobody Translation of : Mademoiselle Autobody. Author: Gaboriau, Linda Publisher: gynergy books 1993
Description:
roy comedy - women all female cast; six characters six female two acts
"Led by a savvy group of feminist mechanics, the women of Pompomville thwart a scheme to show porn videos at a local bar. This is the premise of Miss Autobody, the celebrated and hilarious play by the acclaimed Quebec theatre troupe, les Folles Alliees. Miss Autobody accurately depicts the insidious effects of pornography and misogyny, and splits your sides in the process".
Title: Mistaken Identity A Comedy in two acts Author: Penman, Steve Publisher: Steve Penman 2006
Description:
roy comedy - mystery thirteen characters six male; seven female two acts
Two detectives arrive at an old castle in a snow storm to help a Countess discover who has been threatening her life. An avalanche cuts them off, someone ends up dead and the detectives must discover the murderer before other members of the household die. It sounds a bit like Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie, but the lead detective is Sherlock Jones, it is 2006, the castle is in Southern Alberta, the Countess isn't really a Countess and most of her household aren't who they seem to be. Of course, there is an avalanche, someone does die and the detectives do investigate, Title: Molly's Veil
Author: Bajer, Sharon Publisher: J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing 2005
Description:
roy comic drama - Canadian history - romance five characters one male; four female two acts
"Set in Ottawa in 1952, it explores the relationship between Canada's first female mayor Charlotte Whitton and her lover of thirty years Margaret Grier."
Title: Mom's the Word
Author: Carson, Linda Daum, Jill Publisher: Talonbooks 2000
Description:
roy drama - comedy - Canadian - family - motherhood all female cast; six characters six female two acts
"Getting together to share their experiences, six woman performers struck upon the idea to write about what they were going through as mothers trying to maintain their careers, their individual identities, and their relationships with their partners. The result is an evening of hilarious stories, bittersweet monologues, poetic reflections and revelatory anecdotes. Touching tales of giving birth to a premature baby are balanced against comic, ribald, rants on diaper soup; whispered, hesitant conversations about sex after children; and the desperate confessionals of
Title: Mom, Dad, I'm Living With a White Girl
Author: Chan, Marty Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1995
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian four characters two male; two female two acts
"A Chinese son must tell his parents he has moved in with his white girlfriend. In a counter-narrative, the play explodes Asian stereotypes in a B-movie spoof called Wrath of the Yellow Claw."
Winner of the 1998/99 Elizabeth Sterling Hayes Award for Best New Work. Title: Montreal
Author: Fineberg, Larry Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian seven characters five male; two female two acts
various sets.
A dark comedy that charts the activities of Theophilus Plender and friends in developing the city of Montreal from 1935 to 1972.
Title: Moo
Author: Clark, Sally Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian eight characters three male; five female two acts
When the feisty and rebellious Moragh (Moo) meets the intriguing Harry, she decides nothing will ever separate them... and Harry has been running ever since. An unconventional comedy of love and obsession.
Title: Mors Draculae
Author: Graves, Warren Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1979
Description:
roy drama - Albertan eight characters six male; two female two acts
2 interior sets.
Lucy and Count Dracula are together again in a gloomy castle in Suffolk. Van Helsing believes he knows what's wrong with Lucy; so does the charming but mysterious count. Title: Motherlode
Author: Dore, Deirdre Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2000
Description:
roy drama - comedy - Canadian - relationships - women - family relations six characters three male; three female two acts
"An exotic dancer gives up her baby to her straight-laced sister and biker hubby to raise, then three months later has second thoughts. From playground to strip bar to church to trailer, a traumatic comedy of errors ensues as the sisters battle each other as well as thier own demons to determine who is best suited to be the mother."
Title: Mounting Sex in the Afternoon Zone
Author: Russell-King, Caroline Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1995
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - relationships six characters flexible casting two acts
This play is a farce within a sitcom. Both genres being comedy, the bulimia and adultery issues should in no way be attempted to be played dramatically. . .'
Title: Mumberley Inheritance, The
Author: Graves, Warren Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1971
Description:
roy melodrama - Albertan eight characters five male; three female two acts
1 interior set.
A good-time melodrama, subtitled "His Substance Frittered". Pale Daphne is nursing her father and trying to get Rodney Stoutheart to the altar, meanwhile awaiting the return of her brother Jack from "the Canada's ". Enter Marmaduke Mayhem, archvillain. Title: Murder Game
Author: Ross, W. E. Dan Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1982
Description:
roy mystery - Canadian five characters three male; two female two acts
1 interior set.
When Beth moves into an old Ontario farmhouse, she is disturbed to find that the former tenant was murdered. After several mysterious visits and revelations, she begins to suspect that she, too, is marked for murder.
Title: Murder in the Empress
Author: Wagner, Phillip C. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1978
Description:
roy mystery - Canadian six characters two male; four female two acts
1 interior set.
Description not available.
Title: My Darling Judith
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1987
Description:
roy comedy - marital relations four characters two male; two female two acts
David Stafford, a men's clothing tycoon, coerces one of his employees into having an affair with his wife Judith, so he can sue her for divorce and marry another. However, when David discovers that his wife might actually have feelings for the underling, he begins to have second thoughts, in this modern comedy of manners. Title: My Sister's Keeper
Author: Allan, Ted Publisher: University of Toronto Press 1969
Description:
roy drama - mental illness two characters one male: one female two acts
"The play is set in London, England, flat of Robert, a university lecturer from Canada. His sister Sarah comes from Canada to visit. We learn she has a history of mental illness. We learn they have been deeply emotionally involved and that he feels guilty for her illness. We also learn to ask a question: which one of them is the mentally ill one?"
Title: Mystery Man of Nova Scotia
Author: Kastner, Elizabeth Publisher: Miscellaneous 1983
Description:
roy drama - Canadian twelve characters eight male; four female two acts
1 interior set.
Original story based on real-life characters in early Nova Scotia.
Title: Myth of Summer, The
Author: Massing, Conni Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 2005
Description:
roy comedy - relationships eight characters three male; five female two acts
In the mood for the ultimate summer vacation? Warm sun, beautiful landscapes, carefree days and balmy nights? In this touching comedy people look for love and fulfillment in the promise of summer only to find that the journey is turbulent. But paradise is closer than they think. Title: Ned and Jack
Author: Rosen, Sheldon Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1978
Description:
roy drama - Canadian all male cast; three characters three male two acts
1 interior set.
After his brilliant Broadway opening as Hamlet, actor John Barrymore climbs the fire escape for a late-night visit with playwright Edward Sheldon. The play captures both men at a moment when their personal and professional lives are faced with abrupt change.
Title: Ned Durango Comes To Big Oak
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian five characters three male; two female two acts
"An aging television cowboy star comes to the aid of an economically troubled small town in this funny, sometimes moving play."
Title: New World Order, The
Author: Hardin, Herschel Publisher: Talent Group Ltd. 1992
Description:
roy Canadian - drama six characters five male; one female two acts
A dinner conversation between Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae (a Canadian doctor who wrote In Flanders Fields), Salvador Allende (former president of Chile), Jan Masaryk (former foreign minister of Czechoslovakia), Mohammed Mossadegh (former president of Iran), and Jacobo Arbenz (former president of Guatemala). The dialogue works at two levels - for theatregoers out to enjoy themselves and for gameplayers and students of history. The characters, very sophisticated in life and with the advantage of being dead, are extraordinarily knowledgeable and don't bother Title: Next Move, The
Author: Szanto, George Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy satire five characters three male; two female two acts
"Set in an Army Induction Center, where an overweight, over-age, and overwrought draftee has reluctantly reported for his physical. Confronted by an Amazon-like female sergeant, he tries every evasion he can think of to disqualify himself, but is ultimately shattered by the realization that nothing will stave off the inevitable. His final monologue, a harrowing exposure of bitterness and confusion, reveals the dilemma of a man to whom the meaning and purpose of his country have become unclear".
Title: No Deadly Medicine
Author: Hailey, Arthur adapted by Sherman L. Sergel Publisher: Dramatic Publishing Company 1960
Description:
roy drama nineteen characters; extras seven male; twelve female three acts
2 interior sets.
A senior pathologist's persistence in doing things his way with out-dated knowledge, equipment, and technique jeopardizes the lives of the patients in the hospital for which he works.
Title: No Great Mischief
Author: Young, David MacLeod, Alistair Publisher: Scirocco Drama 2006
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - historical seven characters (doubling) six male; one female two acts
"The long history of the Clan MacDonald begins in 1779 as Calum Ruadh leaves Scotland to begin a new life on Cape Breton Island. Haunted by the stories and songs of the ancestry, two brothers seek to reconcile their past with their present. From the writer of Glenn and Inexpressible Island comes this adaptation from the award-winning novel by Alistair MacLeod." Title: Noam Chomsky Lectures, The
Author: Brooks, Daniel Verdecchia, Guillermo Publisher: Talonbooks 1991
Description:
roy Canadian - lecture all male cast; two characters two male two parts; lecture format
"Ordinarily, theatre relies on illusion in order to reveal truths; this play relies on truths in order to reveal illusion. Following the impetus of Chomsky himself, Brooks and Verdeccchia have recognized the mass media, mass spectacle, have trivialized and severed consciousness and conscience, separating both from a communal base. We collectively know little about what is done in our name by our elected governments and the business interests they serve. The play assumes not only that we do want to know, that our "knowing together" may change things, but it is also
Title: Noran Bang The yellow room Author: Kang, M. J. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1993
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - ethnic - family relations fourteen characters six male; eight female two acts
"The death of a beloved grandmother, Halmonee, ignites a wave of explosive emotions within a Korean family in Canada."
Title: Norbals, The
Author: Drader, Brian Publisher: Scirocco Drama 1998
Description:
roy comedy - family relations nine characters four male; five female two acts
'A heart-warming new comedy about a loving but dysfunctional family in the throes of a Christmas crisis. The Norbals will make you feel a whole lot better about those strange people you call relatives. Danny and Penny are broke, Randall is narcoleptic, Bee wants a sex change, Mom decides to celebrate Winter Solstice instead of Christmas - but Sean's surprise outdoes them all!'
Winner of the Herman Voaden National Playwriting Competition Title: North of America
Author: Brown, Kenneth Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1988
Description:
roy Canadian - drama three characters two male; one female two acts
"The time is the near future. Canada as a nation has ceased to exist, and the fundamentalist right is running the new America. A play about love, the faces of facism, and the importance of remembering who we are."
Title: Nothing Sacred
Author: Walker, George F. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1988
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian eleven characters nine male; two female nine scenes
Bazarov is a haughty "nihilist" rebel whose mission is to wreak havoc on all established order. An irreverent and broad adaptation of Ivan Turgenev's "Father's and Sons".
Winner of the Governor General's Award for Drama and Chalmers Canadian Play Award, 1988.
Title: Nurse Jane Goes to Hawaii
Author: Stratton, Allan Publisher: Samuel French 1981
Description:
roy comedy - farce seven characters three male; four female two acts
When Vivien Bliss, author of Harlequin Romance novels, sets out to spend a romantic weekend with respectable married school teacher Edgar Chisholm, she starts a train of events which involves all the classic elements of farce-confused identities, disguise, long-lost relatives, ambushes, chases and glorious mayhem. How Vivien gets her new novel finished in the face of, behind the back of, in spite of and with the help of an advice columnist, a nosy reporter, a doctor in pantyhose, an orphan with a cake and 'Helga the evil Russian physicist', makes this a very Title: Odd Fish
Author: Boyd, Pamela Publisher: Red Deer College Press 1994
Description:
roy drama - Canadian six characters four male; two female two acts
'Czech woman living comfortably in Canada with her husband and two children forced to confront past when old lover pays unexpected visit.'
Winner of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Premiere Production Award.
Title: Odd Jobs
Author: Moher, Frank Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1986
Description:
roy drama - Albertan three characters one male; two female two acts
1 set.
Tim has been laid off from his factory job and finds contentment in the employ of a retired professor. When Tim's wife is offered a job in another city, the hopes and needs of the three come into conflict.
Title: Odyssey, The A play adapted from Homer Author: Chafe, Rick Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2000
Description:
roy drama - mythology large cast four male; five female (doubling) twenty-six parts
Odysseus is twenty years gone from Ithaca. Penelope has bluffed and delayed a growing band of murderous suitors, but as threats to her son and kingdom grow, her resolve weakens. Now a beggar arrives at the palace and asks the queen to hold off a new marriage until she's heard his story - fantastic tales of her husband's travels among monsters, witches and gods. Penelope finds herself battling her husband's very legend over fidelity, her kingdom and her vengeance. Title: Of the Fields, Lately
Author: French, David Publisher: New Press 1975
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - family relations four characters three male; one female two acts
1 interior set.
Ben Mercer comes home to Toronto in 1961 for his aunt's funeral, only to learn of his father's recent heart-attack. The complexities of family loves, loyalties and hurts are revealed as Ben learns that "you can't go home again".
Title: Office Hours
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1996
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian five characters three male; two female two acts
"Six separate stories unfold in six separate offices on one Friday afternoon. The stories are all related, though, in this biting look at how people get by in the modern world."
Title: Omniscience
Author: Carlson, Tim Publisher: Talonbooks 2007
Description:
roy modern murder mystery five characters; voices three male; two female two acts
'Omniscience' is much more than a murder-mystery set in a quasi-familiar contemporary landscape of high-tech urban warfare. The plot is redolent with untrustworthy “embedded” journalists manufacturing positivist pseudodocumentaries about the ongoing victories of our military forces over any and all stripes of vaguely defined terrorists, hell-bent on destroying the “wellness” of our contemporary “free society.” We recognize immediately the storyline’s seamless meld with everyone’s favourite post-9/11 reality TV show, the Evening News. Title: On the Job
Author: Fennario, David Publisher: Talonbooks 1976
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian all male cast; nine characters nine male one act
1 interior set.
Christmas Eve 1970. The workers of a Montreal dress factory, frustrated by lack of job opportunities and emboldened by smuggled liquor, go on strike. The gesture proves futile and they wind up at home, jobless, with nothing to show but their Christmas bonuses.
Title: One Crack Out
Author: French, David Publisher: New Press 1976
Description:
roy drama - Canadian ten characters eight male; two female three acts
A powerful and realistic drama in a pool hall setting. The characters are small-time whores, hustlers, pimps, and con-men who act out their fantasies and tragicomic dilemmas. Charlie Evans, a pool shark down on his luck in the bedroom as well as the , has two days to pay off a $3000 debt, or have his legs broken by Bulldog, a psychotic "bill collector" who takes pride in his work. In his desperation to recover the money and his self-esteem, Charlie moves through a series of hustlers, while the tension builds to a breathtaking climax.
Title: One Crowded Hour
Author: Fielden, Charlotte Publisher: Playwrights Co-op 1976
Description:
roy women - Canadian - drama all female cast; one character one female three acts
"Involves an "evocative journey into Arizona's scrubland and Mabel's personal inward journey toward her self-hood." Title: One Day in May A play in two parts Author: Light, Greg Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - family relations five characters three male; two female two parts
open stage.
An exploration of family relationships, observing the emotional isolation of five characters, their limitations and the disintegration of the very language which they use to communicate.
Title: One Night Stand
Author: Bolt, Carol Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1977
Description:
roy comedy - thriller - Canadian three characters one male; two female two acts
1 interior set.
Daisy picks up a charming stranger who punctuates his lies with country and western songs. Carol Bolt's comedy thriller, is the story of the chilling encounter that results from this curious and compelling romance.
Title: Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth
Author: Taylor, Drew Hayden Publisher: Talonbooks 1998
Description:
roy drama - native people - family relations five characters three male; two female two acts
"The emotional story of a woman's struggle to acknowledge her birth family. Grace, a native girl adopted by a white family, is asked by her birth sister to return to the Reserve for their mother's funeral. Afraid of opening old wounds, Grace must find a place where the culture of her past can feed the truth of her present." Dora Mavor Moore Award 1996 Title: Opening Night
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1988
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - theatre eight characters five male; three female two acts
During the opening night of a new play, there's more action in the audience than there is on stage. The madcap antics start as Jack and Ruth Tisdale celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary with an evening at the theatre. It's a dream come true for Ruth and an imposition for Jack who would rather be at home watching the World Series. However, after the events both on and off the stage that fateful night, their lives and those of all involved are irreparably altered. A funny, gentle look at human relationships.
Title: Orchidelirium
Author: Carley, Dave Publisher: Scirocco Drama 2004
Description:
roy drama four characters two male; two female two acts
A university professor fights to maintain her orchid conservatory, against an institution hell-bent on selling out to a pharmaceutical multinational.
Title: Orphan Muses, The
Author: Bouchard, Michel Marc Publisher: Scirocco Drama 1995
Description:
roy comedy - French - Canadian - family relations four characters one male; three female three acts
"Four siblings gather with the idea of "settling" family matters - some of which turn out to be not what they expected. They prepare for their mother to return who abandond them twenty years ago. She is coming on Easter Sunday, which lends a powerful dynamic to this odd assembly in Lac-Saint-Jean. There is a rich replaying of family tradition and rural Quebec religious celebration, modulated by the contributions of four eccentric individuals. The play is set in 1965, in Quiet Revolution of Quebec, offers yet another reminiscence another note of re-play." Title: Otherwise Bob
Author: Gault, Connie Publisher: Scirocco Drama 1996
Description:
roy comedy - drama - Canadian - marital relations nine characters five male; four female two acts
"This play delves into the mind of Jennifer, a woman yearning to escape the banality of her married, middle-class existence. When the other worldly Bob appears on the scene, the door to fantastic change blows wide open. Connie Gault has conjured a pshychologically rich and enchantlingly funny play with an original spin on the path we all travel but travel alone."
Title: Our Own Particular Jane
Author: Hurley, Joan Mason Publisher: A Room of One's Own Press 1975
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - biography six characters flexible casting two acts
Based on the life, letters and literature of Jane Austen.
Title: Outlaw
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2004
Description:
roy drama - western all male cast; four characters four male two acts
A young Canadian homesteader travelling far from home, finds himself accused of murder in the state of Kansas in 1871. With only his wits to defend himself, he turns the law of the land – and the men hell-bent on enforcing it – upside down. This authentic western is a unique take on the days when guns were the law. Title: Pageant
Author: MacDonald, Daniel Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2003
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian five characters four male; one female two acts
Cars, pageants and plastic surgery. The isolation of the East Kootenay mountains leads to strange and beautiful acts. A darkly comic tale of beauty, loyalty and redemption. Trudy, Deer Ridge's own beauty queen, comes face-to-face with the broken realities of her dream-life and must turn to a most unlikely source for solace and truth.
Title: Paper Wheat
Author: Twenty-Fifth Street House Theatre Publisher: Western Producer Prairie Books 1982
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - historical five characters three male; two female two acts
A collective creation about the sod-busting immigrants to the Prairies and the Saskatchewan Co-operative Movement that followed, drawn from discussions and interviews with the pioneers themselves.
Title: Papers
Author: Stratton, Allan Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1985
Description:
roy romantic comedy - Canadian three characters one male; two female two acts
two interior sets.
Two lonely and articulate academics struggle with their mutual inability to communicate. "Papers" is a witty and intelligent look at love; a compassionate comedy. Title: Particular Class of Women, A
Author: Feindel, Janet Publisher: Lazara Publications 1988
Description:
roy drama - Canadian all female cast; one to eight characters one to eight female two acts
open stage.
Portrays attitudes of women sex trade workers in monologue format. The characters are dynamic and would provide good audition material.
Title: Patience
Author: Sherman, Jason Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1998
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - biblical six characters three male; three female two acts
"Reuben has it all. Then with almost biblical abruptness - think of the story of Job - Reuben's universe tumbles, and almost everything he has come to count on turns to dust."
Opening night edition and collector's edition.
Title: Perfect Pie
Author: Thompson, Judith Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1999
Description:
roy drama - women all female cast; four characters four female two acts
"In the course of an afternoon's reunion between two long-estranged women, a buried memory, and two teenager's wild secret, slams into the present. A potent drama." Title: Phoenix Lottery, The
Author: Stratton, Allan Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2001
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - family relations six characters four male; two female two acts
Edgar Beamish dies, leaving his corporate empire to his estranged son, Junior, who launches a charitable foundation with company assets. Disaster ensues; bankruptcy appears certain. But Junior has a fundraising inspiration, The Phoenix Lottery. It offers its winner instant fame and fortune: the chance to torch a prized van Gogh at a live event, and to sell the story to TV, tabloids and Hollywood. But powerful enemies include the slippery Vatican envoy Cardinal Wichita, the ghost of Junior's father - and the spirit of van Gogh himself. An exploration of art, commerce, and
Title: Photographic Moment, The
Author: Baldridge, Mary Humphrey Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1975
Description:
not available for production drama - Albertan five characters two male; three female three acts
1 interior set.
A deceptively simple play that focuses on family, people and the human comedy. "It is convincing in its psychology and in its narrative structure, and its concerns are important and valid... The play is a valuable addition to Prairie dramatic literature."
Title: Pieces Detachees, En
Author: Tremblay, Michel translated by Allan Van Meer Publisher: Talonbooks 1975
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - French eight characters; extras two male; six female six scenes
The play concerns Helene, a waitress who used to work in a bar called the Coconut Inn, but who now works slinging smoked meat in a joint on Papineau Street. She is married to Henri, who sits around all day watching Captain Cartoons on TV. They live in a tenement in the East End with their daughter, Francine, and Helene's mother, Robertine. During the course of the play, Helene's mentally disturbed brother, Claude, who has been "sent away" and who wears "sunglasses and speaks English" as his passport to the world, runs away from the brothers at the sanitarium and Title: Piper, The
Author: Murphy, Colleen Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2002
Description:
roy tragicomedy thirty-two characters flexible casting three acts
running time: 150 minutes
'A boisterous comic tragedy loosely based on the Pied Piper legend but set in the modern corporate democracy of Hamelin, a town haunted by the lingering ghosts of dead children and vestiges from the Dark Ages.'
Title: Plainsman, The
Author: Mitchell, Ken Publisher: Coteau Books 1992
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - Metis four characters three male; one female two acts
"The Plainsman focuses on the Metis people, their struggles during the North West Resistance of 1885, and the pivotal role played by Gabriel Dumont."
Title: Plan B
Author: Healey, Michael Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2002
Description:
roy comedy - political four characters three male; one female one act
'High-level meetings to negotiate the departure of Quebec from Canada are charged by personal impulses toward seduction and betrayal, union and division, intimacy and distance.' 2002-Dora Award Winner Title: Play Memory
Author: Glass, Joanna McClelland Publisher: Samuel French 1984
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - family relations nine characters six male; three female two acts
1 interior set.
The decline and fall of an alcoholic's family. Cam, a dynamic and successful salesman on the prairie, loses his lucrative job, threatens the very survival of his wife and daughter and, finally, evicts them from the house in order to assure their survival.
Title: Playing Bare
Author: Champagne, Dominic translated by Shelley Tepperman Publisher: Talonbooks 1993
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - satire six characters three male; three female eight scenes
Witty, prickly and fresh, "Playing Bare" is a mordant satire on the relation between theatre and life. An accomplished actress is on the verge of a nervous breakdown as she directs Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot". In her deranged effort to expose the emptiness of playing fictional characters, she casts the lead roles with a pair of non-actors whose lives mirror those of the characters they play. Her search for the ultimate theatrical experience - life becoming art - takes the action in hilarious and insightful directions.
Title: Playing The Fool
Author: Hibbert, Alun Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1983
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - political farce seven characters six male; one female two characters
A political farce that spans the generation gap, from the idealism of the Spanish Civil War to the fanaticism of the Italian Red Guard. Title: Ploughmen of the Glacier
Author: Ryga, George Publisher: Talonbooks 1977
Description:
roy drama - Canadian all male cast; three characters three male two acts
Conversations between an aged prospector and a retired newspaperman bring about an examination of the myth of men who made the West.
Title: Plum Tree, The
Author: Miyagawa, Mitch Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2004
Description:
roy historical - Canadian - Japanese internment three characters two male; one female two acts
The roof of Frieda's house leaks. Ever since her husband died, she’s struggled to keep her u-pick berry farm running. One morning, she finds a stranger under the old plum tree, and the roof of her world begins to collapse. For George, three years as an activist in the Japanese Canadian Redress movement have finally paid off. But what has the struggle cost him? Driven by the puckish spirit of his Uncle Mas, he’s come to the berry farm in search of a connection to his past. The Plum Tree is an exploration of ownership and justice. Most of all, it’s a story of how the perennial
Title: Poor Super Man
Author: Fraser, Brad Publisher: NeWest Press 1995
Description:
roy drama - relationships five characters two male; three female two acts
"Frustrated by the lack of love and affection in his life, celebrated gay painter David McMillan returns to his humble beginnings as a waiter where he hopes to find his lost creativity. He finds that and more in the arms of his married male employer, Matt. Matt inspires David to paint the best pictures of his life. However, the affair forces David to face new realities about himself and his world when he re-examines his long-time friendship with a straight female gossip columnist, and when he watches his transsexual roommate live with being HIV positive." Title: Possible Worlds
Author: Mighton, John Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1988
Description:
roy Canadian - black comedy six characters four male; two female two acts
"George believes he lives in an infinite number of worlds at the same time. As detectives race to solve a series of murders in which the victims' brains are removed, George falls in love with different incarnations of the same woman."
Title: Prague
Author: Krizanc, John Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1983
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - theatre eight characters five male; three female two acts
1 interior set.
Prague, 1983. The members of a small theatre company grapple with personal and political oppression. Will they be allowed to perform a play that is a critical allegory of the invasion of '68? Where official versions prevail, truth can be made to disappear.
Title: Prairie Report
Author: Moher, Frank Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1988
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian eight characters five male; three female two acts
"A shrewd, funny attack on the contemporary western Canadian press and a wistful valentine to an old-time, grassroots style of journalism" Title: Primrose School District 109
Author: Galay, Ted Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1985
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - depression era eleven characters five male; six female two acts
An idealistic young woman comes to teach at a one-room country school in Manitoba during the depression days. Her attempts to inspire her students lead to consequences for everyone involved.
Title: Prisoner of Zenda, The
Author: Graves, Warren Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1983
Description:
roy romantic comedy - Albertan six characters three male; three female two acts
2 interior sets.
A long-lost cousin, the physical double to the rightful heir to the throne of Ruritania, stands in for the drugged Prince to prevent the conniving step-brother from seizing power. A swashbuckling adventure of mistaken identity and high romance.
Title: Prok
Author: Drader, Brian Publisher: Scirocco Drama 2003
Description:
roy drama large cast two male; one female (doubling) two acts
'Into a world of seemingly complacent conformity, Professor Alfred Kinsey's "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" exploded on to the scene and sparked off the sexual revolution. And Professor K, or "Prok", as he was known, had as many secrets as the subjects he interviewed for his groundbreaking studies... In this fascinating memory play, Kinsey's wife Clara recalls scenes from their lives: their first meeting, their wedding night, lovers, conflicts, and children. Kinsey emerges as a complex individual - a renowned scientist and outwardly conventional family man who Title: Prometheus Rebound A dramatic poem Author: Botting, Gary Publisher: Harden House 1972
Description:
roy poetic drama - Albertan nine characters eight male; one female; (off-stage voice) two acts
1 exterior set.
Prometheus whispers to man the secrets of atomic energy and is again bound to a rock as punishment.
Title: Promised Land, The
Author: Strong, Mark Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1983
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - adolescents - family relations - pregnancy five characters three male; two female two acts
"Two teenagers decide to deal with a pregnancy by moving in together, but the girl's mother is determined to prevent this."
Title: Queen Milli of Galt
Author: Kirkham, Gary Publisher: Samuel French 2005
Description:
roy comedy - romance - Little Theatre six characters three male; three female two acts
"Based on a true story. A lovely romantic comedy with a handy supply of humour, this play is a genuinely witty exploration of unexpected love. In 1972, the Duke of Windsor (Edward VIII) dies while living in exile at the age of 78. Two weeks later in Canada, an 80 year old woman from a small town named Galt has her tombstone engraved, claiming to be his wife. A young journalist appears at her door, eager for answers." Title: Queen of Queen Street, The
Author: Hunter, Maureen Publisher: NuAge Editions 1997
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - biography - social issues ten characters; voices three male; seven female two acts
"Bertha Rand, Winnipeg's Cat Lady, was a familiar figure in the news; many knew her as the mad woman who lived in squalour with over fifty felines. In her tiny house on Queen Street, Bertha took in sick and abandoned cats, battling her neighbours and city hall to save them, taking her cause to the media. In 'The Queen of Queen Street', Maureen Hunter has delved into Bertha Rand's past, a tragic life of poverty and deprivation, a life always lived on the margins. Hunter brings us a richly layered play that tells of one woman's will to survive."
Title: Question Time
Author: Davies, Robertson Publisher: MacMillan 1975
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - political twenty-seven characters flexible casting two acts
Robertson Davies here is once again concerned with the process of self-discovery. In this case the self-explorer is the Prime Minister of Canada, Peter Macadam, a man living a role that inevitably turns a private person into public property. As the play unfolds, Davies raises important questions about politics, the media, and a host of other subjects. But above all, his witty, urbane, and thought-provoking play is, as he says in his preface "about the relationship of the Canadian people to their soil, and about the relationship of man to his soul. We neglect both
Title: Quiet in the Land
Author: Chislett, Anne Publisher: Coach House Press 1983
Description:
roy drama - Canadian twelve to fourteen characters six male; four female; two to four children two acts
Yock brings about a crisis in his Amish community by enlisting in the First World War.
Winner of the 1982 Chalmers Canadian Play Award and the 1983 Governor General's Award. Title: Real Estate
Author: Harkin, Allana Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2005
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy four characters two male; two female two acts
"Joel, a mystery novelist experiencing writer's block, retreats to the small-town family home that his father built; but the house needs to be sold, and fast! Enter Emma-an incredibly determined realtor -who decides that Joel is as much of a fixer-upper as the house he lives in. With the addition of Joel's soon-to-be-ex looking to get divorce papers signed and her man purse - toting beauty entrepreneur boyfriend in tow, Emma focuses all her considerable energy into developing the curb appeal of the house-as well as its inhabitant. The comedy is sure , the characters are well
Title: Real McCoy, The
Author: Moodie, Andrew Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2006
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - biography - Elijah McCoy thirty-nine characters five male; two female (doubling) two acts
Biography of the inventor Elijah McCoy (1843-1929), whose name became a byword for quality, as in "the real McCoy'. The play explains why we've never heard of McCoy and reclaims a fascinating man's life from undeserved obscurity. McCoy, born in Canada to runaway American slaves, showed so much promise in school that he won a scholarship to study mechanical engineering at Edinburgh University. He moved to the US, where no one believed a black man could be an engineer so he was set to stoking boilers. Nevertheless, McCoy devised a solution to one of the
Title: Red Emma Queen of the anarchists Author: Bolt, Carol Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1973
Description:
roy drama - Canadian nine characters seven male; two female two acts
The early years of the anarchist feminist Emma Goldman and the events that led to her assassination attempt on Henry Clay Frick. Title: Red Kings Dream, The
Author: Belke, David Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1996
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - bachelorhood - relationships four characters one male; three female two acts
"Stephen Tudor's world is solitary, logical and precise. And that's good. Unitl a new neighbor moves down the hall. Now Stephen is feeling things he's never felt before. What happens when a man who thinks too much falls in love? A little story of love and logic through the looking glass."
Title: Red Priest, The (Eight Ways to Say Goodbye) Author: Ouchi, Mieko Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2003
Description:
roy Canadian - love story, Albertan, monologues two characters one male; one female two parts
'This bittersweet love story features enchanting music, a mysterious countess, Antonio Vivaldi, and a violin. "The Red Priest" is a poignant variation on the themes of love and freedom by one of Alberta's most exceptional young artists.'
Title: Refugees
Author: Rintoul, Harry Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1988
Description:
roy Canadian drama - relationships - abuse - poverty three characters two male; one female two acts
The action of the play takes place in the present, during the winter, over a duration of a week in a one bedroom apartment in an old house that has been converted into apartments. Title: Reluctant Resurrection of Sherlock Holmes, The
Author: Belke, David Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 1992
Description:
roy Canadian - murder - mystery seven characters (doubling) five male; two female two acts
"Two years after he killed off Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle is summoned to investigate the haunting of an old actor's country manor. Doyle is determined to prove the ghost a reality, but is he himself haunted by the super rational Sherlock Holmes who refuses to give up his literary life. When the maid is found dead, these two personalities must uncover the truth."
Title: Remnants (a Fable)
Author: Sherman, Jason Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2003
Description:
roy drama - biblical - family relations all male cast; twenty-three characters; extras twenty-three male (doubling possible) two acts
A bold retelling of the biblical story of Joseph and his brothers, set in the years before and during the Second World War. Sent to the new world against his will, Joseph Taylor rises to become an important advisor to Prime Minister King. When a boatload of European Jews lands on Canadian shores, Joseph is sent to turn them back - only to discover his brothers among the refugees.
Title: Respectable A play Author: Chambers, Ron Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 2001
Description:
roy drama - Canadian five characters four male; one female two acts
"Hork and Saul finally have a job that puts some coin in their pockets, some beer on the table, and might even make them respectable. It's like taking candy from a baby until they discover their boss is the brains behind a sinister plot that might just explode in their faces." Title: Resurrection of John Frum, The
Author: Thiessen, Vern Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1990
Description:
roy comedy - religion two characters flexible casting two acts
"For Issac, the key to hope lies in the teachings of Christ. Syd worships an obscure Melanesian cargo cult. What happens when they try to convert each other? An off-center look at the nature of faith, hope and salvation."
Title: Retreat, The
Author: Sherman, Jason Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1996
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian four characters three male; one female two acts
"A film producer is attracted to a young writer's screenplay - about a false Messiah - as as opportunity to recharge his own idealism. The young writer herself ponders big revisions not just to her screenplay but also to her integrity. This is a bracing comedy about deal making and soul searching."
Title: Rexy
Author: Stratton, Allan Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - political - biography five characters four male; one female two acts
1 exterior set.
An astute and witty look at PM Mackenzie King, spiritualist and politician.
Co-winner, 1981 Chalmers Canadian Play Award. Winner, 1981 Dora Mavor Moore and Canadian Author's Association awards for best new play. Title: Rez Sisters, The
Author: Highway, Tomson Publisher: Fifth House 1988
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - native indians eight characters one male; seven female two acts
1 exterior set.
This award-winning play by Native playwright Tomson Highway is a powerful and moving portrayal of seven women from a reserve attempting to beat the odds by winning at bingo. And not just any bingo. It is the biggest bingo in the world and a chance to win a way out of a tortured life. The REZ sisters is hilarious, shocking, mystical and powerful, and clearly
Title: Riel
Author: Coulter, John Publisher: Cromlech Press 1962
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - historical thirty-eight characters; extras thirty-five male; three female; doubling possible two parts
19 century costumes; music
The action centres on the Riel Rebellion, and is divided according to history into two periods: 1869-70 and 1885-86, including Riel's execution. The issue, as in history, is whether Riel is a hero attempting to lead an oppressed people to freedom, or a religious maniac.
Title: Righteousness
Author: Deverell, Rex Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1983
Description:
roy drama - historical - Canadian four characters two male; two female two acts
"The last days of St. Augustine's life were spent in solitude and penance. The ghosts of his past helped him to find a distinction between morality and moralism. Set in exotic fifth century North Africa, amid the crumbling remains of the Roman Empire." Title: Rinse Cycle
Author: Crossland, Jackie Lavalle, Rudy Publisher: Talonbooks 1972
Description:
roy drama - adolescent - nostalgia - 1950's six characters four male; two female twelve scenes
Rinse Cycle is a late 50's nostalgia play, like all the old rock movies. Ideally, it needs a naturalistic approach from costumes to slang and personal mannerisms to re-create the aura of the time.
Title: Riot
Author: Moodie, Andrew Publisher: Scirocco Drama 1997
Description:
roy drama - Canadian six characters four male; two female three acts
"Andrew Moodie's Riot is a dramatic and often humorous look at six black Canadians of diverse backgrounds who share a Toronto house. Their lives unfold against a backdrop of civil unrest which erupted when the Los Angeles police officers on trial for the beating of Rodney King were acquitted. The fracas outside keeps intruding as characters clash, collide and swap jokes about everything from racism to the status of Quebec as a distinct society, from Malcolm X to 'The Road to Avonlea'."
Title: Room with Five Walls, The The trials of Victor Hoffman Author: Barclay, Byrna Publisher: NeWest Press 2004
Description:
roy drama - historical - biographical - schizophrenia six characters; extras; chorus five male; one female (doubling possible) two acts
Barclay thrusts an audience inside the disordered mind of Victor Hoffman several decades after the Peterson murders (Canada's first mass murder). Hoffman, now an inmate in a maximum security institute for the criminally insane, is confined to a dark and dingy room reminiscent of an underground prison vault. The play's "fifth wall" is a surreal wormhole accommodating projections, entrances and exits. By reliving his crime's prelude and the subsequent trial, Older Victor engages a resisting young Victor in a daily search for "the right question" that was never Title: Rootless But Green are the Boulevard Trees
Author: Parameswaran, Uma Publisher: Tsar Publications 2007
Description:
roy drama - family relations fifteen characters ten male; five female three acts
In Winnipeg in the late seventies, an Indian immigrant family (the Bharves), are on the brink of coming apart due to a clash of values and ambitions. Sharad (the father), a former scientist, works as a real-estate broker; Savitri (the mother) is a teacher; Veejala (the aunt) is a frustrated scientist at the university. Jyoti (the daughter) has a white boyfriend and will probably move out. A crisis occurs as Veejala announces that she is going back to India and Jayant (the son) is packing to go off to Montreal. A phone call comes during this tense situation.
Title: Rope Enough
Author: Gilbert, Sky Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2005
Description:
roy psychological murder mystery five characters four male; one female two acts
Ichabod and Dylan are two young effeminate gay party boys whose sybaritic existence is abruptly interrupted when they are charged with the murder of Ichabod’s parents. In prison, they are interviewed by right wing-journalist Cecilia Wainscott, who quickly discovers that Ichabod is a complex character—both a theoretical mathematician and an exuberantly dark misanthrope. In the end, Cecilia learns a little bit about herself, gay men, theoretical mathematics and the nature of the universe. Are Dylan and Ichabod evil cold-blooded killers turned on by a perverse cocktail of
Title: Roundhouse
Author: LeMay, Bonnie Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1977
Description:
roy comedy - Albertan seven characters four male; three female two acts
1 interior set.
A spirited comedy set in the 1920's with two couples becoming involved in the sabotage of a transcontinental silk train. Title: Roundup
Author: Sapergia, Barbara Publisher: Coteau Books 1992
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - family relations seven characters three male; four female two acts
"'Roundup' gives us a look at the crisis in prairie agriculture along with a lively tale of love and marriage in three generations of an extended family. Full of passion, conflict, and humour, 'Roundup' encapsulates the love people feel for a way of life and their connection with the land - a connection that may be breaking."
Title: Rubber Dolly
Author: Hannah, Don Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 1986
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - poverty seven characters three male; three female; one boy twenty-two scenes
"Two sisters from Newfoundland battle poverty in Toronto's East End. Marie maintains a level of stability while Fern plunges into a world of crime and tragedy."
Title: Rune Arlidge
Author: Healy, Michael Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2004
Description:
roy family relations eight characters four male; four female (doubling possible) three acts
'A family of women - the eldest incapable of keeping stories to herself, her two daughters on the verge of making life altering decisions, a granddaughter wise beyond her years. The. . . author takes us on a 25-year long trip to the family cottage.' Title: Running Dog, Paper Tiger
Author: Johnston, Simon Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1995
Description:
roy Canadian - drama six characters four male; two female two acts
"Set in Hong Kong in 1967, when Communist Chinese riots rocked the stability of the British Colony. A mixed-race family is forced to choose between loyalty to their British roots and to their race."
Title: Running of the Deer, The
Author: Ursell, Geoffrey Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy drama - Canadian fifteen characters twelve male; three female two acts
A turmoil of politics, love and murder in 1768 St. John's, as the British governor tries to deal with the unruly French, the local merchants, indentured Irish and native Beothuks.
Title: Sacred Hearts
Author: Curran, Colleen Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1989
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian six characters three male; three female two acts
In the midst of a crisis over having given her daughter up for adoption, Bridget experiences a miracle - a sign from the Virgin Mary. Is it a miracle as the townsfolk believe, a psychic occurrence or Bridget's way of dealing with her guilt? Sacred Hearts is a warm, funny, thought-provoking investigation of Faith today. Title: Sadie Flynn Comes to Big Oak
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 2003
Description:
roy comedy five characters two male; three characters two acts
'Convicted husband killer Sadie Flynn is released from prison and decides to get off the bus and make her new home in the small town of Big Oak. Soon after her arrival, strange things begin to happen.'
Title: Sagouine, La
Author: Maillet, Antonine translated by Luis de Cespdes Publisher: Simon and Pierre Publishing 1985
Description:
roy biography - monologues - women all female cast; one character one female sixteen parts
'This is a true story. The story of La Sagouine, a scrubwoman, a woman of the sea, who was born with the century, with her feet in the water. Water was her fortune: the daughter of a cod fisherman, a sailor's girl, and later the wife of a fisherman who took oysters and smelts. A cleaning woman also, who ends up on all fours, with her bucket in front and her hands in the water.'
Title: Saint Frances of Hollywood
Author: Clark, Sally Publisher: Talonbooks 1996
Description:
roy Canadian - biography - drama seven characters; numerous extras four male; three female two acts
"Her star rising as a Hollywood diva, Frances Farmer chooses to join the socialist Group Theatre in New York. This idealistic, raucous and non-conforming movie star pursued by the Government for her alleged communist connections, was finally incarcerated with the help of her mother at Steilacoom, a Seattle psychiatric hospital, where she was lobotomised and released as "cured" in 1949." Title: Sainte-Carmen of the Main
Author: Tremblay, Michel translated by John Van Burek Publisher: Talonbooks 1981
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian seven characters; chorus three male; four female two acts
Carmen returns to the Rodeo after studying yodeling in Nashville. She begins to write her own songs but is brutally murdered. The show goes on, with her rival playing the lead; cultural identity becomes an aberration in time.
Title: Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons
Author: Nichol, James W. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1977
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - historical - native indians all male cast; eleven characters eleven characters two acts
A play about the conscience of a priest during the disastrous mission the Jesuits made to the Huron Indians in the 17th century.
Title: Saints and Apostles, The
Author: Storey, Raymond Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1991
Description:
roy Canadian - drama five characters three male; two female two acts
The Saints and Apostles is a contemporary love story, complicated by the age of HIV infection. This is as warm and moving tale about the ultimate fear of intimacy which re-examines modern relationships, and the power and the limitations of love. Title: Sand Castle, The
Author: Joudry, Patricia Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy drama - Canadian seven characters five male; two female two acts
1 interior set.
A professor who specializes in the delusion of romantic love discovers that he too can fall victim.
Title: Saskatoon Pie!
Author: Ursell, Geoffrey Publisher: Coteau Books 1993
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - musical ten characters four male; five female; one piano player two acts
"Set in Regina in 1906, the two-act musical comedy deals with political corruption, scandal, the CPR, and women's suffrage."
Title: Satin Thigh
Author: Carter, Liberty Jane Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1994
Description:
roy drama - Canadian seven characters four male; three female two acts
The innocent Satin enters the Yonge St. world of pimps and pushers. A black call girl teaches Satin where to find love amid the lust and longing. Title: Saucy Jack
Author: Pollock, Sharon Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1994
Description:
roy drama - Canadian four characters three male; one female two acts
"Pollock, implicates the most upper echelons of British society in the brutal murders of London's prostitutes. In a stately Victorian drawing room, two old friends, James Kenneth Stephen, a scholar, and his former pupil, Prince Albert Victor, dance around the truth of the identity of London's most notorious killer, and while a tale of psychological intrigue is played out, an unraveling of tested friendship, betrayal, duplicity, and motive is revealed. With the single female character of Kate, an actress hired by James to re-enact the death throes of the prostitutes, Pollock
Title: Scary Stories
Author: Armstrong, Gordon Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1996
Description:
roy drama - horror five characters three male; two female two acts
'Jules Chaykin is an expert in the field of blood and gore stories, like the ones found in the classic 'Tomb of Doom' comics, and the survival of his art is in the hands of his publisher, Wally Hoverton. With the 1954 senate committee's investigations into the effect of horror comics on juveniles and the newly imposed Comics Code Authority as a backdrop, Gordon Armstrong's Scary Stories matches pleasure and pain with exquisitely ghoulish twists and a subtle commentary on the state of censorship and freedom of the artist.'
Title: School Show, The
Author: Johns, Ted Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1979
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian one character; monologue flexible casting two acts
A witty tour de force for one performer that deals with the problems that challenge Canadian school systems. Title: Science and Madness
Author: Walker, George F. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1982
Description:
roy melodrama - Canadian six characters four male; two female twelve scenes
A melodrama set in a mansion on the Scottish Isle of Mull.
Title: Scientific Americans
Author: Mighton, John Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1987
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian five characters four male; one female twenty-two scenes
1 interior set.
The marriage of two scientists working for the Strategic Defence Initiative crumbles as the mundane and humorous aspects of their lives are contrasted with the monstrous strangeness and importance of their ideas.
Title: Season of the Witch A play Author: Callaghan, Morley Publisher: Exile Editions 1976
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - witches nine characters six male; three female three acts
There is no description available for this play. Title: Second Chance
Author: Ravel, Aviva Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian five characters three male; two female two acts
A middle-aged woman leaves her husband to look for love, but discovers that her happiness lies in starting a school.
Title: Self-Help
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2002
Description:
roy comedy - farce six characters three male; three female two acts
A married couple of second-rate theatre actors cast themselves as nationally renowned self-help gurus. Their lives unravel in a farce as they try to conceal a body and hold on to their falsely won fame.
Title: Selkirk Avenue
Author: McManus, Bruce Publisher: NuAge Editions 1998
Description:
roy drama - American - minorities eleven characters three male; eight female two acts
"McManus has crafted a story whose broad reach is matched by its sure grasp. The history of Selkirk Avenue as a haven-cum-springboard for successive minorities is told in a complex but comprehensible and emotionally irresistible tale that winds back and forth through the 30's, 50's and the present." Title: Serpent in the Night Sky
Author: Warren, Dianne Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1989
Description:
roy drama - Canadian six characters three male; three female two acts
Joy, a runaway from Montana, travels with Duff to his northern Saskatchewan home. There she finds a family filled with anger, a mentor who believes in the power of good walking shoes and a dreamer who believes he can catch the serpent if he can just keep his eye on the night sky.
Title: Serpent Kills
Author: Millan, Jim Brooker, Blake Publisher: Miscellaneous
Description:
roy drama four characters two male; two female two acts
In the late 1970's, twenty tourists become murder victims to a gang of petty swindlers. A young Canadian woman falls in love with the leader, and becomes an accomplice in an international crime spree.
Title: Seven Caesars' Ransoms
Author: MacLennan, Munro Publisher: Exposition Press 1952
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - historical eighteen characters; extras fifteen male; three female three acts
The Christian princess, betrothed to a Prefect, falls in love with a Centurion while the Visigoths, led by Alaric, besiege Rome. Title: Seven Hours to Sundown
Author: Ryga, George Publisher: Talonbooks 1977
Description:
roy drama - Canadian six characters four male; two female; (doubling is possible) three acts
A play about the nature of power in small communities - designed to be adapted for specific audiences.
Title: Seven Streams of the River Ota, The
Author: Lepage, Robert Publisher: Methuen & Co 1997
Description:
roy drama - relationships ten characters five male; five female (doubling possible) seven acts
Early one August morning in 1945, several kilos of uranium was dropped over Japan and changed the course if human history. Fifty years later, Hiroshima's vitality is striking: the city where survival itself seemed unimaginable, today incarnates the notion of renaissance. In "The Seven Streams" , Hiroshima is a mirror in which seeming opposites - East and West, tragedy and comedy, male and female, life and death - are revealed as reflections of the same reality.
Title: Shadow of Suspicion
Author: Hailey, Arthur adapted by William A. Miles Jr. Publisher: Dramatic Publishing Company
Description:
roy drama - murder nineteen characters six male; six female; four boys; three girls three acts
'.. a moving story of a young boy caught in the web of suspicion... it dramatically focuses on the problems faced by one family when society suddenly turns against them.' Title: Shadow Walkers, The
Author: Tremblay, Brian Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy Canadian - mystery seven characters two male; five female two acts
"While Clair researches her film in the tranquility of an Edwardian house, she discovers letters written by the original inhabitants. Past and present intertwine as she uncovers their unsettling story."
Title: Shakespeare's Will
Author: Thiessen, Vern Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2002
Description:
roy drama - Shakespeare all female cast; one character one female series of vignettes
"Shakespeare's Will explores the extraordinary life of Anne Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, from a very passionate and human point of view. In a mystically imaginative narrative, Anne reflects on a lifetime spent with, and without, her husband. From the moment they meet at the Faire, to the disapproving tone of her father when they marry, to the birth of their children, to their shared tragedy, this haunting story reveals a world of love, loss and longing."
Title: Shellgame
Author: Bankson, Douglas Publisher: Miscellaneous 1968
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian four characters two male; two female two acts
1 exterior set.
Description not available. Title: Shelter
Author: Bolt, Carol Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1975
Description:
roy comedy all female cast; five characters five female three acts
"A comedy about life and politics in Saskatchewan and the role of women in public life. A widow runs for office to retain her late husband's seat and thereby makes a new life for herself".
Title: Sheltercycle; or, You Asked for This Vacation
Author: Bankson, Douglas Publisher: Miscellaneous 1968
Description:
roy drama - Canadian nine characters six male; three female three acts
1 interior set.
Description not available.
Title: Shooting Stage, The
Author: MacLennan, Michael Lewis Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2001
Description:
roy drama - relationships all male cast; five characters five male two acts
Twenty years ago, Len took a photograph. Now that the nude portrait has resurfaced in an obscenity trial, Len's childhood friend Malcolm re-enters his life to confront him. At the same time, teenage Elliot pursues his secret "sissy boy" ambitions while bullied by Derek, a troubled schoolmate who himself is mired in a web of lies. Eliot's friend Ivan may be able to stop the inevitable disaster - but only if he can find the courage to transform himself. A thrilling puzzle weaving two generations, this play explores how boys become men, and how the fortunate Title: Shylock's Treasure
Author: Scott, Munroe Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1978
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian nine characters seven male; two female three acts
1 interior set.
Twenty years after The Merchant of Venice, the major characters get together, Shylock's trial is restaged, Antonio convicted and reconciliation achieved.
Title: Silver Dagger
Author: French, David Publisher: Talonbooks 1993
Description:
roy drama - Canadian six characters two male; four female two acts
1 interior set.
Steve Marsh is a mystery writer. Soon after his third novel is published, Marsh's wife receives a series of phone calls that threaten to destroy their marriage. Adultery, blackmail, murder, a figure lurking in the rain - all these classic elements of Marsh's fiction soon become part of his life. French delivers a thriller guaranteed to have audiences perched on the edge of their seats.
Title: Singing the Bones
Author: Hicks, Caitlin Publisher: PUC Play Service 1997
Description:
roy drama - feminism - musical all female cast; three characters three female two acts
" 'Singing the Bones' is the journey of the birth of twins, and the story of three women: Meg, the passionate midwife who believes in women's ultimate power in birth; Nicole, the strong and vulnerable mother searching for a birth experience uninterrupted by modern medicine; and Sara, the compassionate obstetrician whose "secrets are leaking from every pocket." As Nicole's pregnancy is considered to be high risk, Meg must answer the question: Is one woman's choice worth the chance that her babies may die at birth?" Title: Sinners
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian six characters three male; three female two acts
1 interior set.
A furniture store owner is found in the arms of a local minister's wife. The situation becomes complicated when he is mistaken for the minister and attempts to flee the scene.
Title: Sister Jude
Author: Carley, Dave Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 1986
Description:
roy Canadian - drama five characters two male; three female two acts
"Wesley, an introverted young man, sets out on the rocky road to maturity, with help from his sister, a bit of divine guidance, and any number of run-ins with the powers-that-be in his conservative hometown."
Title: Sisters
Author: Lill, Wendy Publisher: Talonbooks 1991
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - native indians six characters two male; four female two acts
Sisters is a tough uncompromising look at a convent-run Native residential school. While the play chronicles in graphic detail the by now well-documented agenda of cultural genocide which motivated the establishment of Native residential schools in Canada, the daring triumph of this play is that it reveals the far less well documented cultural infrastructure and values of the society which created those schools - the church and the state of white, colonial, paternalist Canada. Title: Sky
Author: Gault, Connie Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1988
Description:
roy drama - Canadian four characters one male; three female two acts
2 interior sets.
A 16-year-old girl becomes pregnant by her father and is then married off. She tells her naive young husband that she's carrying God's child, and he believes her.
Title: Sled
Author: Thompson, Judith Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1997
Description:
roy Canadian - drama seven characters four male; three female three acts
"A gripping look at the effects of a totally senseless string of violent murders, on the inhabitants of a quiet neighbourhood that could be anywhere in urban North America."
Title: Sliding for Home
Author: Moher, Frank Reid, Gerald Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1987
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian five characters three or four male; two or one female two acts
one exterior set; music by Gerald Reid and William Shookoff.
His mother wants him to return to Buffalo, the land of his birth and the local authorities view him as a foreign zealot - a threat to Canada's finest sport - curling. But in this boisterous "comedy with music in nine innings," Charlie Dempsey is a man with a dream. He must bring professional baseball to "Edmonton", Alberta. Title: Small Time
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Scirocco Drama 2000
Description:
roy black comedy five characters three male; one female (doubling) two acts
Lounge singer Scott Sherman has a gambling problem and it is about to cost him his nightclub unless he and his keyboard player, Marty Birch, break somebody's legs. Holds audiences spellbound as the story involving sex, violence and romance unfolds.
Title: Smoke Damage
Author: Banuta, Rubess Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1985
Description:
roy drama - Canadian all female cast; five characters five female two acts
A vacation in Europe becomes a quest as five women visit the landmarks where nine million women perished as witches between the 15th and 17th centuries. Wicked humour is blended with fact, fairy tale and quotes from the Church's handbook for witch hunters.
Title: Snake in Fridge
Author: Fraser, Brad Publisher: NeWest Press 2001
Description:
roy drama nine characters five male; four female two acts
'Drama set in large rooming house about group of twenty-somethings on the edge of porn industry.' Title: Snob, The
Author: Andre, Marion Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy Canadian - drama eight characters four male; four female three acts
"Set in pre-WWI Germany, a man sacrifices family and friends in his struggle to rise from bourgeois origins but is redeemed by love."
Title: So What if She Did? A comedy from Rex the WonderFringe Author: Johnston, Russell Publisher: Miscellaneous
Description:
roy comedy - melodrama seven characters four male; three female two acts
'This is the story of the valiant Corporal Duffry Dogood, and his love: the honest, kind Polly Pureheart. An inspiration to women everywhere, her purity and chastity have made her a shining example for all her sisters. . .except for that one time, in summer camp. . .'
Title: Socrates
Author: Sinclair, Lister Publisher: Book Society of Canada 1957
Description:
roy drama - Canadian twenty-eight characters; extras twenty-three male; five female three acts
1 interior and exterior set; Greek costumes.
When the oracle names Socrates "the wisest man in the world" the "Athenians listen to him with increased attention and respect. Government officials conspire to "silence" him by falsely convicting him of sedition. Though he makes the accusers appear foolish, Socrates is convicted and sentenced to death. Title: Soft Eclipse, The
Author: Gault, Connie Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1990
Description:
roy drama - Canadian seven characters one male; six female two acts
1 exterior set.
A poignant evocation of a small Saskatchewan town in the 60's, it follows six women, aged 16 to 76, through a day both strangely unique and satisfyingly "everyday", as they anticipate the coming eclipse of the sun.
Title: Some Assembly Required
Author: Stickland, Eugene Publisher: Coteau Books 1995
Description:
roy dark comedy five characters three male; two female two acts
Mom and Dad aren't going to have Christmas this year - or so they think. 'Home for the Holidays - chestnuts roasting on an open fire - jingle bells - I'm dreaming of a white. . . wait a minute! This isn't the Christmas Eugene Stickland had in mind for us and for the wacky, beleaguered members of his 'all-Canadian' dysfunctional family - losers, big time - as they gather around the family tree at gunpoint, under mistletoe strung on barbed wire, and sip eggnog made without milk (try it, its not bad).'
Title: Someday
Author: Taylor, Drew Hayden Publisher: Fifth House 1993
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - family relations four characters one male; three female two acts
"Anne Wabung's daughter was taken away by children's aid workers when the girl was a toddler. It is Christmas time 35 years later, and Anne's yearning to see her now-grown daughter is stronger than ever. When the family is finally reunited, however, the dreams of neither woman are fulfilled. The setting for the play is a fictional Ojibway community, but could be any reserve in Canada, where thousands of Native children were removed from their families in what is known among Native people as the "scoop-up" of the 1950s and 1960s. An entertaining, humorous, and spirited Title: Something Red
Author: Walmsley, Tom Publisher: Miscellaneous 1978
Description:
roy drama four characters two male; two female two acts
'Bobby and Christine live downstairs from their friends Alex and Elizabeth. Bobby is a poet with a bitter past and is currently being hunted by a variety of vicious people. His girlfriend is in a dead-end job and, too, has a past. Alex, however, who wandered with Bobby before, now wants to settle down, works and is even working on a novel. The catalyst for catastrophe, however is Elizabeth; she is a student, from money, with a taste for Bobby's dark side. The foursome get together for an evening which turns violent. Revelations explode in everyone's face and the
Title: Sometime, Never
Author: Harding, Norah Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2001
Description:
roy relationships - dramatic comedy eight characters three male; five female two acts
Sometime, Never, picks up from where Norah Harding's previous play This Year, Next Year leaves off. Norah marries her Canadian solder and goes to live in Canada. But life in Canada, and living with in-laws is not rosy and she returns to England, at Christmas time a few years later. Ben misses her and eventually follows her to England, where we also catch-up with events in her sister's and mother's life after the war.
Title: Song of This Place
Author: Coghill, Joy Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1987
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - biography - puppets - Emily Carr seven characters; chorus; puppets three male; four female two acts
The story of an actress who wants to play Emily Carr, only to find that the eccentric, cantankerous Carr will not let her. The play creates both a portrait of the artist Emily Carr and an investigation into the process of liberation required for the creation of art. The confrontation between Carr and Freida, the actress who wishes to portray her, provides debate and eventual illumination for the characters. Inspired by Emily Carr - with her animals, oddities and burning artist's soul, the play combines actors and puppets in a powerful play about the magic of theatrical experience and the Title: Soul Mate
Author: Belke, David Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 2006
Description:
roy comedy four characters two male; two female two acts
For Centuries demons have played the game of offering mortals their fondest wish in exchange for their souls. When Moira Bedham get drawn into the sport, the unexpected choice of her victim may most her more than anyone (or any demon) expected. A high-spirited comedy of demons desire and discovering humanity.
Title: Souvenirs
Author: Rosen, Sheldon Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy drama - Canadian seven characters five male; two female two acts
1 interior set.
An eclectic group of tourists arrive on a tropical island, in hot pursuit of tans, drugs and sex. Political turmoil on the island forces the vacationers to decide where and with whom they stand.
Title: Spirit Wrestler
Author: Nelson, Greg Publisher: Coteau Books 1998
Description:
roy Canadian - historical - drama fourteen characters twelve male; two female two acts
"Nikolai is a Russian Doukhobor who rises as a champion of his people in the face of their persecution, and takes part in the negotiation of their 1898 immigration to freedom in the new land - Canada. But something unexpected happens, both to the Doukhobors in their new home, and to Nikolai, as he finds himself forced to choose between the vision of his religious leader and the personal goals of achieving self-hood." Title: Splits, The
Author: Ritter, Erika Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1978
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian four characters three male; one female two acts
An harassed writer tries to sort out her life and men in this witty, perceptive urban comedy.
Title: Spratt
Author: Wiesenfeld, Joe Publisher: Talonbooks 1978
Description:
roy drama - Canadian seven characters four male; three female two acts
A play about a man trapped within a macho world.
Title: Sqrieux de Dieu
Author: Lambert, Betty Publisher: Talonbooks 1976
Description:
roy farce - Canadian eight characters three male; five female two acts
A racy farce about suburban mores. A harried housewife with four kids is set free from her responsibilities when her husband's mistress conveniently trades places with her. Title: St. Sam and the Nukes
Author: Johns, Ted Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1980
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian five characters three male; two female two acts
A nuclear power development has caused controversy in a small Ontario town. The local eccentrics collide with the high-powered engineers, housewives entertain the Atomic Energy Commission and Ontario Hydro works to soften the hearts of the people.
Title: Steel Kiss
Author: Fulford, Robin Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1991
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - homosexuality all male cast; four characters four male thirty-seven scenes
Based on an actual "gay-bashing" murder by a group of teenagers, this disturbingly realistic look at society's conditioning of the modern male, and the homophobia it tolerates and condones, will leave readers everywhere questioning age-old values of machismo.
Title: Stephen and Mr. Wilde
Author: Bartley, Jim Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1993
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - comedy six characters four male; two female two acts
"In 1882 Oscar Wilde arrived in Toronto with his personal valet, Stephen Davenport, a black American and ex-slave. History and fiction, wit and judgement, art and life clash as past events are revealed and two very different men grope toward mutual understanding." Title: Steps
Author: Wylie, Betty Jane Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1997
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - love story twelve characters one male; one female (doubling) two acts
"A woman's husband dies suddenly. She goes through the steps of recovery into a new life - with all the men in her life (undertaker, minister, insurance agent, young lover, gay friend, serious suitor) played by one man."
Title: Still the Night
Author: Tova, Theresa Publisher: Scirocco Drama 1998
Description:
roy drama - historical all female cast; five characters two female (doubling) two acts
'(This play) is a celebration of survival - the story of two young women who were separated from their parents during the Second World War, and wander through Poland, pretending not to be Jewish. Theresa Tova has fashioned from true stories a moving, heart-rending and uplifting drama of survival against all odds, and punctuated it with songs from the Holocaust era.'
Winner Dora Mavor Moore Award in 1997
Title: Stillborn Lover, The
Author: Findley, Timothy Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1993
Description:
roy Canadian - drama seven characters four male; three female two acts
The abrupt recall of a highly regarded Canadian ambassador from his post, the mysterious death of a Russian youth found brutally murdered in a Moscow hotel room, and the ambitions of an Ottawa diplomat - the play explores the darker side of loyalty and commitment, when the stakes are high and diplomatic careers hang by the thread. Kept isolated in a "safe-house" and subjected to interrogations by two special police agents, Harry Raymond, his ailing wife and adult daughter are forced to unravel the past, and with the past comes revelations that set off loyalty struggles Title: Stone Angel, The
Author: Nichol, James W. based on the novel by Margaret Laurence Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1991
Description:
roy drama - self awareness - adaptation twenty seven characters five males; four females (doubling) two acts
Ninety-year old Hagar Shipley is in hospital. There were four men in her life - her father, her husband, and her two sons - and she fought with them all. In the course of the play, Hagar gets out of her bed and relives being a headstrong little girl, a high-spirited young woman, a disillusioned wife, an anxious demanding mother, a sardonic old woman, and in doing so, particularly in reliving the stark reality around her younger son's death, she finally and truly sees herself.
Title: Stories for a Winter Solstice
Author: Hicks, Caitlin Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1994
Description:
roy drama - monologues large cast one male or one female (doubling) eight stories
"A diverse collection of lively characters telling comedic and dramatic winter stories in the first person. Includes seasonal stories from the Pacific Northwest: Rachel is Born!, My First Christmas with Rachel, A Knock on the Door, Read Island Santa Clause, When I Think of Hanukkah, The Christmas Monster of Ripple Rock and Cornucopia, Land of Winter."
Title: Storm Warning
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2003
Description:
roy comedy - relationships two characters one male; one female two acts
The setting is cottage country. . . the time is 1953 and Jack Forrester, a damaged World War II vet, has retreated from life. Then one weekend he meets Emma Currie, an amphetamine-popping chart writer for a big band. Both lives change forever as these two opposites collide. Title: Story of Canada, The From the Commission of Jacques Cartier to the Federation of the Nine Provinces Author: Baker, Ida Emma Publisher: Musson Book Company 1927
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - historical all male cast; nineteen characters; extras nineteen male twenty-four scenes
16-19 century costumes; dance and music.
This pageant presents incidents from Canadian history from the time of Cartier to Confederation.
Title: Stragglers
Author: Martin, Eric Roland Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy drama - Albertan all male cast; five characters five male two acts
1 interior set.
The victorious of war are no less its victim than the defeated. Five Canadian veterans of WWII and Korea have experienced horror in the cause of Freedom, but their final reward is neglect and obscurity.
Title: Strawberries in January
Author: de la Cheneliere, Evelyne translated by Morwyn Brebner Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 2003
Description:
roy comedy four characters two male; two female seventeen scenes
'If only life could be like the movies! This fizzy concoction takes the classic ingredients of romantic comedy, love, humour, coincidence and fantasy, and serves them up with a suprisingly touching twist in this tender and witty comedy by an extraordinary new voice from Quebec.' Title: Striker Schneiderman
Author: Gray, Jack Publisher: University of Toronto Press 1973
Description:
roy drama - Canadian sixteen characters; extras thirteen male; three female two acts
It's Winnipeg, 1919. Moishe Schneiderman must decide which side he's on during the General Strike. Almost by chance, he joins the Strikers, and becomes their leader.
Title: Stupid Life of the Montagues, The
Author: Bolt, David Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1979
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - relationships five characters two male; three female two acts
"In this 'renovation' comedy, the chic pretensions of modern urban life are exposed when a young couple yields to the temptations of unexpected wealth."
Title: Summer of My Amazing Luck The play Author: Craddock, Chris Toews, Miriam Publisher: Signature Editions 2007
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy - life three characters one male; two female two acts
Based on the novel by Miriam Toews. "Very unlucky things have happened to Lucy. She lost her mom and to fill the void she got pregnant. Now she's in the Have-A-Life (better known as Half-a-Life) welfare housing for single mothers - but she thinks her luck's about to turn. Leaving their rat-fink neighbours behind, Lucy and her friend Lish load the kids into a beat-up van for a hair-brained, hilarious and heartwarming journey. It's a play about love, generosity and wishful thinking. It's also a cutting and comical look at 'having a life' below the poverty line. Winner of Title: Sun Runner, The
Author: Dyba, Kenneth Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - death seven characters three male; four female (doubling) two acts
"A mother dying of cancer comes to terms with her family, her memories and, ultimately, her impending death. She learns to reconcile the intimacy of dying with the public expression."
Title: Sunday Father
Author: Pettle, Adam Publisher: J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing 2003
Description:
roy family relations three characters two male; one female two acts
'Alan and Jed are struggling with what it means to be sons and fathers. After their parents divorced, their father became a "Sunday Father" a role Jed finds himself slipping reluctantly into as his own marriage disintegrates. Meanwhile, Alan, ensconced in the family firm, is having trouble living up to his father's expectations. As the brothers work their way through situations filled with pain and anger, Jed and Alan discover strengths they never knew they had, and a deepening bond that leads them toward hope.'
Title: Sunrise on Sarah
Author: Ryga, George Publisher: Talonbooks 1973
Description:
roy drama - Canadian thirteen characters; extras six male; seven female two acts
"Sunrise on Sarah" presents us with a woman the exact opposite of the title character Ryga created in "The Ecstasy of Rita Joe". In place of the ideological conflict that is characteristic of his other plays, Ryga has set up a psychological dialectic between the central character and her opposite, known only as the Man. In "Sunrise on Sarah", Ryga displays complete mastery of his own particular brand of "liquid dramaturgy" and brings to the play the compassion and poetry that are hallmarks of his work. Title: Swollen Tongues
Author: Oliver, Kathleen Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1999
Description:
roy Canadian - poetic - comedy four characters one male; three female two acts
"Thomas and his sister Catherine are both receiving instruction on the powers of poetry by their tutor Dr. Wise. While Thomas is more prolific than skilled in his praise of his beloved, Sonja, Catherine is strangely mute. The problem? Catherine is secretly in love with Sonja too, and has taken the liberty of improving her brother's verses and giving them to Sonja under the assumed name - Overripe. The characters discover that no one is without secrets, and that poetry can unlock the door to love in unexpected ways."
Title: Take Me Where the Water's Warm
Author: DeFelice, James Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1978
Description:
roy comedy - Albertan eight characters five male; three female three acts
1 exterior set.
A distinguished author seeks out an old flame on Vancouver Island in order to get his love letters back. Complications arise when he meets a young sculptor who is about to make the same mistake in love as he did, and with the same letters.
Title: Taking Steam
Author: Klonsky, Kenneth Shein, Brian Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1982
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - aging - Jewish all male cast; seven characters seven male two acts
Six cronies and a mothering locker room attendant grow old together in a decaying health club for Jewish men. Title: Tales From a Prairie Drifter
Author: Langley, Rod Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1974
Description:
roy drama - Canadian eight characters seven male; one female two acts
An epic panorama of the Canadian West, complete with homesteading, building the CNR and the Metis Rebellion. An expose of greed, deceit and self- interest.
Title: Talking Back The birth of the CCF Author: Kerr, Don Publisher: Coteau Books 1992
Description:
roy drama - historical - Canadian - political eight characters five male; three female three acts
"Talking Back: The Birth of the CCF, with is engaging mix of historical drama, humour, and song, both entertains and enlightens. This play masterfully portrays the men and women of the Depression who decided to "talk back" to Liberal and Conservative governments and ended up forming a new party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. By mixing real-life figures from CCF history - J. S. Woodsworth, Agnes Macphail, Frank Underhill, and Louise Lucas - with a farm couple of his own invention, Kerr captures the various forces which created a new political party."
Title: Talking Dirty
Author: Snukal, Sherman Publisher: Harbour Publishing 1983
Description:
roy comedy five characters two male; three female three scenes
1 interior set.
A comedy of manners in Vancouver's trendy Kitsilano area. Basic human emotions and traditional needs are examined.
Winner, 1983 Chalmers Canadian Play Award. Title: Tamara
Author: Krizanc, John Publisher: Stoddart Publishing 1989
Description:
roy drama - Canadian ten characters five male; five female two acts
A haunting portrait of fascist Italy and of Gabriele d'Annuzio, the poet and patriot who could have stopped Mussolini's rise to power.
Title: Tanned
Author: Wade, Bryan Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1977
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - comedy - relationships six characters three male; three female three acts
"Three women at a summer cottage attempt to deal with themselves and the men in their troubled lives."
Title: Tantrums
Author: Alianak, Hrant Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1972
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian twenty-four characters fourteen male; ten female (doubling possible) four parts
A stark play about social and personal collapse, including a menacing countdown and a mechanistic soundtrack. Title: Teach Me How to Cry
Author: Joudry, Patricia Publisher: Dramatists Play Service Inc. 1955
Description:
roy drama - Canadian ten characters; extras three male; seven female three acts
unit set.
Despite the will of their parents, a self-conscious , proud girl and a boy who is "more than the writer type" fall in love and mature.
Title: Ten Times Two
Author: Belke, David Publisher: Miscellaneous 1999
Description:
roy drama - romance three characters two male; one female; doubling two acts
"When an evil-doer cursed with immortality falls for a barmaid in 1399, it is the start of romantic pursuit spanning the Middle Ages to Modern Times. But in order to believe in this reincarnating, the villain must learn to become a lover."
First produced in 1999 at the Edmonton Fringe, Alberta.
Title: That Darn Plot!
Author: Belke, David Publisher: Samuel French 2002
Description:
roy comedy - theatre - relationships six characters four male; two female two acts
'Mark W. Transom, one of Canada's greatest playwrights, is at the end of his rope. In order to fulfil his contract to artistic director and old friend Jo Harber, he has to create a play in one night or lose everything. Half asleep and half drunk, Transom starts putting theatrical personalities he knows into a simple comedy about putting on a play. As the characters come to life before his eyes, the play seems to be progressing well until, unbidden and without warning, Transom's son appears as a character and the play takes on a life of its own. As the playwright struggles to Title: That Summer
Author: French, David Publisher: Talonbooks 2000
Description:
roy Canadian - drama seven characters two male; five female two acts
"It's Memorial Day, 1990, and Margaret Ryan has returned from Vermont to the Ontario cottage where, thirty-two years before, she was forced to vacation with her family at a lakeside resort. For her and her sister Daisy, it was a time of awakening, a time of discovery. As the narrator Margaret watches Maggie, her younger self, relive the innocence and beauty of that summer, the play moves inexorably back to the heartbreak of a headlong surrender to experience, both won and lost in a single day."
Title: Theatre of the Film Noir
Author: Walker, George F. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian five characters four male; one female twelve scenes
Film noir intrigue in Paris, 1945. A murder that occurred during the liberation of Paris is under investigation.
Title: There Are No Dragons
Author: Siminovitch, Elinore Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - aging all female cast; four characters four female two acts
Two younger women, one an attendant and one a visitor in a nursing home, consider old people to be ungrateful and burdensome until they find themselves sharing a room and discover that human frailty is not unique to the old. Title: They're All Afraid
Author: Peterson, Leonard Publisher: Book Society of Canada 1981
Description:
roy drama - Canadian seven characters four male; three female; doubling is possible three acts
Frustrated, disillusioned, disappointed and isolated, Arnie concludes that he is so lonely because everyone around him is so afraid.
Title: Third Ascent, The
Author: Moher, Frank Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1990
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - men all male cast; six characters six male two acts
This is a drama of Henry Stimson, Triuman's Secretary of War, his decision to drop the atomic bomb, and his spiritual quest for the Thunderbird...
Title: Thirteen Hands A play in two acts Author: Shields, Carol Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1993
Description:
Roy Canadian - women - drama All female cast; four characters Four female Two acts
This play creates a voice for a whole generation of women often overlooked. The women in Thirteen Hands welcome a once-a-week gathering at a bridge club as a time to momentarily suspend feelings of loneliness, isolation and fear, and begin to indulge, reveal and celebrate in the wonderful intimacy they form. An intimacy that gets passed on, like an exquisite heirloom, to a next generation of bridge players. Title: This Year, Next Year
Author: Harding, Norah Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1996
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - war - women - British six characters one male; five female two acts
"Step back in time to Bournemouth, England, 1944 and meet three high-spirited sisters, Ivy, Norah, and Sheilah, and their Mum as they struggle to survive together while bombs whistle overhead. In a richly-textured and truly moving script, Morah Harding recreates the hardships and profound effects of war on their lives and their loves, and the great courage, compassion, and humour these wonderful characters draw on to overcome those trials."
Title: Through the Eyes
Author: Druick, Don Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1995
Description:
roy drama - historical - monologue all male cast; one character one male two acts
'Set in Paris and Versailles in 1665, a climate of intrigue and violence. The story of Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini's visit to the court of Louis XIV. The resultant clash between these great egos is awesome. The story is told by an anonymous courtier, a witness to the passion and conflict about him. This story is his, for it is he whose life is unalterably changed.'
Title: Tideline
Author: Mouawad, Wajdi Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1999
Description:
roy drama - life eight characters six male; two female two parts
(translated from French) I don't even know who I am anymore so how can I know what's hurting me? When you're little, it's easy, all kids are scared of the same thing. Of the big bad wolf or monsters from outer space. But now? Why do I hurt? I really don't have a clue. I hurt and that's it. And everyone's hurting and nobody gives a damn! (Wilfrid in Tideline)
Winner - Governor General's Literary Award, French Category - 2000 Title: Tiger's Heart
Author: Brennan, Kit Publisher: Scirocco Drama 1996
Description:
roy drama - historical - women thirteen characters; chorus seven male; six female two acts
"England, 1815. A young woman disguises herself as a man so that she may be allowed to study medicine. Ten years later "Dr. James Barry," a military doctor and physician to the British Governor of South Africa, faces the contradictions of living behind her mask. Tiger's Heart explores questions of sexual and racial identities and exploitation within the complex and stratified world of colonial South Africa where, ultimately, Dr. Barry must face her "tiger's heart."
Title: Tit Coq
Author: Gelinas, Gratien translated by Kenneth Johnstone Publisher: Clarke, Irwin and Company 1967
Description:
roy drama - Canadian ten characters five male; five female two acts
1 set.
Desperately aware of his illegitimacy, Tit-Coq discovers in love the remedy for his loneliness, and envisages in marriage the opportunity to give his child all the love and respectability which has been denied him.
Title: To Ride in Triumph
Author: Abel, Douglas Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1988
Description:
roy Canadian - drama all male cast; one character one male two acts
"Elizabethan playwright, poet, and spy, Christopher Marlowe tells a tale of triumph and tragedy as he anticipates his assassination." Title: Tomorrow Box, The
Author: Chislett, Anne Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1980
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian eleven characters six male; four female; one child two acts
A farmer retires and decides to move to Florida. His wife is determined to remain on the farm she helped build.
Title: Tower
Author: Jeffery, Lawrence Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1983
Description:
roy drama - Canadian six characters four male; two female two acts
Explores the personal consequences of power brokerage among three business partners on Bay Street and its effect on the losing partner's family.
Title: Transit of Venus
Author: Hunter, Maureen Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1992
Description:
roy drama - relationships five characters two male; three female three acts
"France, 1760. Astronomer Guillaume de Gentil sets sail for India. He leaves behind three women: his mother, his housekeeper and his young fiance. Hoping to chart the transit of Venus, le Gentil travels half the world - only to finally take the measure of his own heart." Title: Trial of Jean Baptiste M., The
Author: Gurik, Robert translated by Allan Van Meer Publisher: Talonbooks 1974
Description:
roy drama - Canadian twelve characters ten male; two female two acts
The headline reads: 'Fired Employee Shoots Bosses'. A man murders his corporate bosses. They come back to judge him. The chorus chants: "The Dutron Corporation, the greatest chemical empire in the world, thousands of employees, dozens of factories, millions of capital shares. The Dutron Corporation, injured party, innocent victim vs. Jean-Baptiste M." In "The Trial of Jean-Baptiste M., Robert Gurik explores the story behind the headline, dramatizes the case history of a man caught in the vice of our multi-national corporate society.
Title: Trial of Judith K., The
Author: Clark, Sally Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1985
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian seven characters three male; four female (doubling) two acts
Roughly based on Kafka's "The Trial". Judith K. finds herself accused of an unknown crime. The harder she delves into the bureaucratic nightmare, the more firmly she is bound by it, and the more obscure the reasons for conviction become.
Title: Trickster of Third Avenue East, The in - Darrell Dennis: Two Plays / CCO Author: Dennis, Darrell Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2005
Description:
roy Canadian - dark comedy - Aboriginal three characters two male; one female two acts
Roger and Mary are spiraling out of control but are too scared to let each other go. Enter J.C., a mysterious visitor who turns their lives upside down and forces them to confront their darkest secrets. J.C. pushes Roger and Mary into the realm of the supernatural and past the brink of sanity. Title: Trout Stanley
Author: Dey, Claudia Publisher: Coach House Press 2005
Description:
roy drama - Canadian three characters one male; two female two acts
"What do fraternal twins, a man named after a fish, and a missing stripper who happens to be a Scrabble champion all have in common? According to playwright Claudia Dey, these seemingly haphazard items are intrinsically linked. Her play, Trout Stanley, is about two sisters and a mysterious stranger who threatens to split them apart."
Title: Trying
Author: Glass, Joanna McClelland Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2004
Description:
roy comedy - relationships two characters one male; one female two acts
At 81, Francis Biddle (a "Philadelphia Biddle," and former Attorney General of the United States under Franklin Roosevelt) hires Sarah, a direct, plain-spoken newlywed from the Canadian prairie, to be his personal secretary. Ill and irascible, Biddle functions, as he says, "somewhere between lucidity and senility," and announces he only has one year left to live. Sarah is sensitive and vulnerable, but determined to last out that year. Together they "try" to communicate across significant barriers of age and class.
Title: Two for the Show
Author: Tremblay, Brian Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian six characters three male; three female two acts
1 interior set.
A romantic comedy in which a married couple, he a talented actor and she a promising artist, move from Vancouver to Toronto and take up residence in a house with a couple of very quirky inhabitants. Title: Two Ships Passing
Author: Carley, Dave Publisher: Simon and Pierre Publishing 1999
Description:
roy comedy three characters two male; one female two acts
In the decade since their encounter in MIDNIGHT MADNESS, Anna and Wesley's lives have changed considerably; Anna has recently been appointed to the bench and Wesley has become a minister. Anna's son, Jason, 13 when we last saw him, is now a university graduate - in business administration. The trio's political views have diverged over the years, and the once sexually repressed Wesley has even managed to develop a few sexual peccadilloes.
Title: Two Words for Snow
Author: Sanger, Richard Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1999
Description:
roy drama - historical seven characters six male; one female two acts
'Two men meet in the Eskimo Room at the American Museum of Natural History in 1935. Robert Peary Jr. is young, white and brash. He is there to protect the good name of his father, Robert Edwin Peary, who in 1909 laid claim to the title of the first man to reach the North Pole. Matthew Henson, who accompanied Peary on that journey, is old, black and full of regret… A smart, powerful and deeply moving examination of colonialism at home and abroad.'
Title: Under Coyote's Eye A play about Ishi Author: Beissel, Henry Publisher: Quadrant 1980
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - native people fourteen characters; extras nine male; two female; three flexible full length (one act)
"A poetic rendering of two days in the life of Ishi, the last survivor of the doomed Yahi tribe, whose people were slaughtered by white settlers and gold-seekers." Title: Underground
Author: Wade, Bryan Publisher: Playwrights Co-op 1975
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy - Lone Ranger three characters two male; one female three scenes
1 interior.
"A triangle of two men and one woman takes us through many levels of eroticism and ends in a ritualistic suicide."
Title: Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love
Author: Fraser, Brad Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1990
Description:
roy drama - Canadian seven characters four male; three female two acts
various sets.
Set in Edmonton, Alberta. A serial killer is loose in an urban labyrinth of friends grasping for some kind of love and direction in their lives.
Title: Unity (1918)
Author: Kerr, Kevin Publisher: Talonbooks 2002
Description:
roy drama - Canadian history thirteen characters three male; ten female (doubling) two acts
A story about the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 in Canada which killed more people than the First World War. "As fear of the dreaded flu begins to fill the town of 'Unity' with paranoia, drastic measures are taken. The town is quarantined in an attempt to keep the illness out. Trains are forbidden to stop, no one can enter, and the borders are sealed. Mail from overseas, feared to be carrying the deadly virus, is gathered and burned. But when the disease descends upon the town despite the these precautions, the citizens begin to turn on each other as they attempt to find a Title: Unveiling, The
Author: Angel, Leonard Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1982
Description:
roy drama - Canadian eight characters four male; three female; one girl one act
1 exterior set.
On an autumn afternoon a family gathers around a grave for the traditional unveiling ceremony, and is itself gradually unveiled.
Title: Very Desirable Residence, A
Author: Doucet, Clive Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1978
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - relationships five characters two male; three female two acts
"A constant round of vicissitudes threatens to overwhelm a young Ottawa couple in this close-up of modern urban life."
Title: Vicky
Author: Woods, Grahame Publisher: Simon and Pierre Publishing
Description:
roy drama - Canadian nine characters; extras three male; six female two acts
Description not available. Title: View From The Roof, A
Author: Carley, Dave Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1996
Description:
roy Canadian drama eleven characters five male; six female (doubling possible) four short plays
"Four short plays, dramatizations of stories from Helen Weinzweig, from her Governor-General's Award -nominated collection. A View From The Roof spans sixty years, an immensely satisfying jigsaw history, piecing together the story of a young woman who flees Germany in 1938 with her lover. A moving, often humorous, complex look at memory and loss, and love amid terror."
Title: Vigil
Author: Panych, Morris Publisher: Talonbooks 1996
Description:
roy comedy - drama - Canadian two characters one male; one female two acts
"Morris Panych's brilliant new black comedy Vigil, is structured around what happens when an extremely self-centered and shallow person finds himself, through his own errors and inattentiveness, in a life and death situation with profound and far reaching consequences. A play of twisted circumstance, mistaken identity and surprising turns, it is deliciously absurd, incredibly funny and poignantly tender."
Title: Village of Idiots
Author: Lazarus, John Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1992
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - Jewish play twelve characters eight male; four female (doubling possible) two acts
A year in the life of Chelm, the village of fools legendary in Jewish folklore. Outsider Yosef falls in love with another "stranger" and watches in fear as the "Chelmniks" prepare for a Cossack attack. Title: Vimy
Author: Thiessen, Vern Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2007
Description:
roy drama - war - Canadian history eight characters seven male; one female (doubling possible) two acts
France. 1917. Aided by a nurse from Nova Scotia, four wounded Canadian soldiers recover in a field hospital in the wake of the battle for Vimy Ridge. Governor General’s Literary Award winner Vern Thiessen explores how a nation’s defining moment is reflected in the lives of everyday people, their hopes and their dreams.
Title: Vinci
Author: Hunter, Maureen Publisher: Scirocco Drama 2002
Description:
roy drama six characters four male; two female two acts
"Set in an Italian village in the fifteenth century, Vinci revolves around the struggle for custody of a gifted child, a "golden boy" - Leonardo da Vinci. In his efforts to mediate the dispute between the da Vinci family and Leonardo's defiant unwed mother, Padre Barolomeo comes to a new understanding of the nature of forgiveness and love."
Title: Visit to Cal's Mother, A
Author: Procunier, Edwin R. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - family relations four characters two male; two female two acts
"When Ted visits his lover's mother, many personal and family relationships are finally explored." Title: Visitor From Charleston, A
Author: Ritter, Erika Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1975
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian five characters four male; one female two acts
After forty-nine viewings of Gone With the Wind, Eva's fantasy world is almost perfect. She manages to destroy a salesman's illusions about himself in a battle of wits before retreating into the character of Scarlett O'Hara.
Title: Walking on Water
Author: Carley, Dave Publisher: Signature Editions 2000
Description:
roy mystery - murder thirteen characters nine male; four female two acts
'Ashburnham is a green and pleasant city, a Canadian "Our Town". But one morning in 1949 Lee Kwan, chauffeur for the town's newspaper publisher, is found dead under his employer's Packard. It is quickly apparent that Lee did not die of natural causes - but who murdered him, and why? Each of the wonderfully complex characters has secrets to hide and a story to tell, and over the course of two acts and fifty years a fascinating portrait of a Canadian city in transition begins to emerge. But it is only when the thirteen citizens of Dave Carley's magical city are finally gathered
Title: Walking Upright Through Fire
Author: Wilson, Allan Publisher: Allan Wilson 2005
Description:
roy drama - death - cancer nine characters five male; two female; two flexible two acts
A play that realistically portrays the last months of a sixteen year old boy's life as he faces terminal cancer. Based on a daily journal of the same name by his father (Allan Wilson). Title: Walls
Author: Bruyere, Christian Publisher: Talonbooks 1978
Description:
roy Canadian - drama fourteen characters; extras twelve male; two female two acts
1 setting
"Documentary drama of hostage-taking incident at British Columbia Penitentiary in 1975, which resulted in death of Mary Steinhauser, a classification officer."
Title: Walsh
Author: Pollock, Sharon Publisher: Talonbooks 1973
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - historical fourteen characters eleven male; three female two acts
An historical documentary of Sitting Bull's exile in Canada after the Montana Massacre at Little Big Horn.
Title: Warriors
Author: Garneau, Michel translated by Linda Gaboriau Publisher: Talonbooks 1990
Description:
roy Canadian - drama all male cast; two characters two male nine parts
Warriors enters the world of advertising where, even if the product is war, the product can be sold. Two ad men lock themselves in a room to work on a new slogan for The Canadian Armed Forces - the tension of creation is brilliantly and dangerously portrayed as they consider the morality of the war machine. Title: Wasps A drawing room comedy for distempered times Author: Clark, Sally Publisher: Talonbooks 1998
Description:
roy comedy thirteen characters three male; eight female; two children two acts
Wasps is a play about the elements of our constructed tribal identities: incest, fashion, fetishism, populist art, amateur psychobabble and a fearful, murderous fascination with the other, hovering behind the cupboards, over the sink, in the basements of suburbia, and in the filing cabinets of your local travel agent.
Title: Wawatay
Author: Gummerson, Penny Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 2002
Description:
roy drama - family relations - native peoples six characters three male; three female two acts
According to Cree legend, when the Northern Lights (Wawatay) dance, they have come to take the souls of the newly-departed to the Spirit World. When Lois is unexpectedly hospitalised, her husband and four children are forced to come together and confront family demons. They seem to have their dysfunctional lives under control until estranged younger sister Jaz shows up from Vancouver. The black sheep of the family, Jaz disrupts the family balance by challenging it. She has embraced her Native heritage and as her mother lies in a coma and the Northern Lights dance,
Title: Way of Lacross, The
Author: Barbeau, Jean translated by Laurence R. Berard and Philip W. L Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1973
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian three characters one male; two female one act
Description not available. Title: Wedding Script
Author: Hannah, Don Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1986
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian five characters three male; two female three acts
Winner of the Chalmers Award. "An English rock singer needs to marry in order to avoid deportation, but his girlfriend isn't interested. His housemate decides to help him out while his transsexual landlady oversees the ensuing complications."
Title: Welcome to the NHL
Author: Williams, Alan Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1988
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian all male cast; six characters six male two acts
A warmly comic look at the facts, faults, foibles and fallacies of Canada's character and its national sport.
Title: Westray The long way home Author: O'Neill, Chris Schwartz, Ken Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1994
Description:
roy Canadian history five characters three male; two female twenty-one scenes
'When the Westray Mine exploded the human tragedy and suffering which resulted were chilling proof of the age-old price paid for coal in human blood. After the dead were laid to rest the bureaucratic backstabbing and corporate refusal of responsibility were all too familiar to followers of the history of mining and labour. In "Westray: The Long Way Home", Chris O'Neill and Ken Schwartz give a human face to the lives and families of the community that has suffered North America's worst mine disaster of the era.' Title: Westroy Hotel
Author: Hallgren, Chris Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1982
Description:
roy farce - French Canadian seven characters five male; two female two acts
1 interior set.
An affectionate farce about separatism and Quebec, set in the decaying Westroy Hotel in Montreal.
Title: What Happens at the No Nancy Summit
Author: Ouzounian, Richard translated by Richard Ouzounian Publisher: Ms Fit Press 1987
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - political thirteen characters nine male; four female five acts
1 interior set.
Translated by Richard Ouzounian from Moliere's Tartuffe. This translation transforms "Tartuffe" into the rarest of Canadian commodities: a truly funny political satire.
Title: When Girls Collide
Author: Lemoine, Stewart Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada
Description:
roy comedy - WWII all female cast; three characters three female two acts
"It's 1943. There's a war on and Bunsen Bay is a town without men. Three citizens find themselves bound together by a tangled web of family secrets, psychotherapy and ping pong." Title: When the Reaper Calls
Author: Colley, Peter Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 1999
Description:
roy comedy - mystery five characters three male; two female two acts
" Two young rival academics spend a weekend at a cottage with their wives. One of them plays a trick on the other to prove a point, but the trick goes murderously wrong..."
Title: Where is Kabuki?
Author: Druick, Don Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1988
Description:
roy drama - Canadian all male cast; seven characters seven male two acts
1 interior set.
A sultry summer day in Tokyo, 1888. Backstage at the great Kabuki-za Theatre, beneath the exquisitely ritualistic behaviour, a vicious power struggle is underway. The Master Playwright is fighting for his life, buffeted by the crass ambitions of the Onnagata.
Title: White Biting Dog
Author: Thompson, Judith Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy Canadian - drama five characters three male; two female two acts
A suicidal young man is rescued by a white dog who gives him a mission: to save his father from death. His mission flounders until the dog's owner helps him by bringing his reluctant mother back into the family.
Winner, Governor-General's Literary Award for Drama, 1984 Title: White Geese, The
Author: Dube, Marcel translated by Jean Remple Publisher: New Press 1972
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian eight characters three male; five female two acts
The play begins in the late afternoon on a Friday in October in what seems an ordinary Quebec bourgeois household. All the secrets of the past and all the family skeletons are safely tucked away behind the Victorian furniture. Everything is in place except for the two blood-stained white geese still hidden inside a very common-place travelling bag in the hall; this inoffensive looking object is the complicating factor in the drama, the Pandora's Box which, once opened, releases all the house's old mysteries and provokes the final catastrophe.
Title: Who Has Seen the Wind
Author: MacDougall, Lee Publisher: Playwrights Union of Canada 2000
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - depression era - childhood seven characters four male; three female; children two acts
"This is a story of Brian, an inquisitive boy growing up on the Saskatchewan prairie in the 1930's. Featuring the trials of life and death, and W.O. Mitchell's hilarious characters this play is a moving tale of a Canadian childhood."
Title: Whylah Falls: The Play
Author: Clarke, George Elliot Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1997
Description:
roy drama - love nine characters; chorus five male; four female two acts
'A passionate play about poets and the lies they tell in the pursuit of love. Set in Nova Scotia's pastoral Annapolis Valley in the 1930's, the story unfolds exclusively in a rural, African-American-founded community, full of cultural lovers and rowdy truth tellers.' Title: Widger's Way
Author: Pharis Ringwood, Gwen Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1976
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - melodrama eleven characters nine male; two female five acts
A melodramatic farce about a stingy father, an innocent love-struck daughter, a murderer on the loose and a bag of gold.
Title: Wild Guys, The
Author: Shaw, Rebecca Wreggitt, Andrew Publisher: Blizzard Publishing
Description:
roy comedy all male cast; four characters four male two acts
"When four men set off to find an isolated cabin in the forest on a "wildman" weekend, a la Robert Bly, everything that can go wrong does!".
Title: Winter 1671
Author: Ritter, Erika Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1979
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian four characters three male; one female two acts
A 1671 Quebec law demands that all bachelors select brides from among the filles du roi sent to New France by King Louis. Difficulties arise when the young men and their intendeds confront one another. Title: Wintersong
Author: Libman, Carol Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy drama - Canadian four characters two male; two female two acts
2 interior sets.
Old dreams battle new realities in a Montreal ghetto in the early 1970's. A woman dreams of her old life in pre-World War II Europe while her daughter struggles to build a life in Canada. The conflict escalates when two men enter the daughter's life.
Title: Women in the Attic
Author: Peterson, Len Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1979
Description:
roy drama twenty-five characters four male; three female (doubling) three acts
''A newspaperman pieces together the story of an old derelict woman's life, to find beneath her tale of lost love, abortion and alcoholism, the legend of Lillith, Adam's first wife, who was abandoned to make way for the subservient Eve.'
Title: Women's Work
Author: Hurley, Joan Mason Publisher: A Room of One's Own Press 1979
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian all female cast; sixteen characters; extras sixteen female two acts
1 interior set.
A play that illustrates the varied and complex situations that occur in the maternity wing of a hospital. Title: Wooden Hill, The
Author: Hannah, Don Montgomery, Lucy Maud Publisher: Playwrights Guild of Canada 1994
Description:
roy drama - Canadian - biography nineteen characters nine male; eight female; two boys two acts
Based on the journals of Canadian writer Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942).
Winner of an AT&T OnStage Award
Title: World Without Shadows Celebrating Nova Scotia's most beloved Folk Artist - Maud Lewis Author: Woolaver, Lance Gerrard Publisher: Stage Hand Publishers 1996
Description:
roy biography eight characters six male; two female seventeen parts
'World without shadows dramatizes the life of folk artist Maud Lewis and her husband Everett Lewis. The story is set against the backdrop of rural Nova Scotia in the Annapolis Valley where Maud and Everett lived together in a small home. Rural Life, its joys and simplicity, became the subject matter for many of Maud's paintings. The play examines the source of Maud's inspiration, juxtaposing the world she painted to the life she lived.'
Title: World's Biggest
Author: Brennan, Kit Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1995
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian five characters two male; three female two acts
"In a wild attempt to attract tourist dollars, the small but enterprising town of Gurkin decides to erect a gigantic pickle to raise community pride and save the town's economy. Unfortunately, there is something rotten about the whole deal." Title: Writer's Block
Author: Stickland, Eugene Publisher: B house 2008
Description:
roy comedy six characters three male; three female two acts
The play follows a playwright, who after experiencing writer's block, submits a claim to his theatre's insurance company for long-term disability (for writer's block!). His claim gets accepted, and at the same time his muse is released and he writes the best play he's written in years.
Title: Writing With Our Feet
Author: Carley, Dave Publisher: Blizzard Publishing 1992
Description:
roy comedy - drama - Canadian two characters one male; one female eleven scenes
1 interior set.
A young agoraphobic hides in his garage, writing poetic pearls with his feet. Slowly he gathers the courage to venture outside, aided by the wisdom of Raymond Loew, Adlai Stevenson, Jean Lesage and an oddball cast of relatives and neighbors.
Title: Wrong For Each Other
Author: Foster, Norm Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1992
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian two characters one male; one female two acts
'A chance meeting in a restaurant after four years apart, sends a divorced couple flashing back through the highs and lows of their relationship.' Title: Wu-Feng
Author: Scott, Munroe Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1975
Description:
roy drama - Canadian fifteen characters; extras ten male; five female two acts
open stage.
A Confucian scholar in 1769 Taiwan, appointed to govern a head-hunting tribe, is faced with a cultural uprising in which the threat of violence is used for political blackmail. Inspired by the October Crisis.
Title: Yankee Notions
Author: Chislett, Anne Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1992
Description:
roy Canadian - drama eleven characters seven male; four female two acts
1 unit set.
It's the tumultuous year following the Mackenzie rebellion, and the future of Canada is at stake. So are the lives of Maria Wait's husband and Sarah Chandler's father, two "rebels" and pawns in a dangerous political game. With nothing in common but a quirk of fate, the young women are at daggers as Sarah chooses to save her family while Maria battles for her country. Yankee Notions
Title: Yellow Fever
Author: Shiomi, R. A. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian - mystery eight characters six male; two female two acts
1 exterior set.
Sam Shikaze is a Japanese-Canadian private eye of the Sam Spade school. His life is complicated by the disappearance of the local Cherry Blossom Queen, and when he sets out to find her he falls into a maelstrom of intrigue. Title: Yellow House at Arles: Gauguin / van Gogh, The
Author: Hayes, Dennis Payne, Richard Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1984
Description:
roy drama - Canadian all male cast; two characters two male two acts
1 interior set.
Paul Gaugin and Vincent van Gogh, two of the founders of Modern Art, spent two months living and working together in isolation in the South of France; their intent was to create a school of new painting which would bring commercial success for themselves and their fellow artists. The play deals with the impact of poverty, the art market, and technology on the artist, both as craftsman
Title: Yesterday the Children Were Dancing
Author: Gelinas, Gratien translated by Mavor Moore Publisher: Clarke, Irwin and Company 1967
Description:
roy drama - French Canadian eight characters five male; three female two acts
1 interior set.
A play set in the explosive Montreal of 1967 presenting the emotional and ideological views of Quebec and the French Canadian.
Title: Yesteryear
Author: McClelland Glass, Joanna Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1998
Description:
roy Canadian - comedy - relationships - depression era ten characters seven male; three female two acts
"Brimming with the romantic optimism of the post-war era, this sunny comedy brings the hopeful message that love can be lovelier the second time around. Be part of the fun when an Irish Sweepstakes ticket exalts the meek above the mighty in a close knit prarie town. Yesteryear is the perfect entertanment for the open-hearted, open minded, joy loving people." Title: You Are Here
Author: MacIvor, Daniel Publisher: Scirocco Drama 2002
Description:
roy drama twelve characters five male; three female (doubling) two acts
'You are about to meet Alison, who searches her life for meaning in this remarkable and powerful play. In a series of luminous moments and encounters, we're drawn into Alison's world: love that fades, hopes that die, and enduring friendship that offers the promise of redemption. You Are Here, MacIvor shows us, and our emotional reality is in this moment, now.'
Title: You're Gonna Be Alright Jamie Boy
Author: Freeman, David E. Publisher: Talonbooks 1974
Description:
roy drama - Canadian five characters three male; two female two acts
1 interior set.
After suffering a nervous breakdown at college, Jamie returns home. His attempts to recover are threatened by his family's insensitivity. The play offers a biting look at people living what they watch on TV.
Title: Young Doctors, The
Author: Hailey, Arthur adapted by Sherman L. Sergel Publisher: Dramatic Publishing Company 1960
Description:
roy drama nineteen characters; extras seven male; twelve female three acts
unit set.
The arrival of a new young pathologist to the Pathology Department of a hospital is resented by the Senior Pathologist who does not realize the extent of the damage he is causing through his own dated techniques. Title: Z A meditation on oppression, desire and freedom Author: Szumigalski, Anne Publisher: Coteau Books 1995
Description:
roy Canadian - drama - holocaust - Jewish eleven characters; chorus three male; five female (doubling) two acts
"Z: A Meditation on Oppression, Desire and Freedom" is an astonishing first stage play by the internationally-acclaimed and award winning poet Anne Szumigalski. When the concentration camps were opened at the end of World War Two, Anne Szumigalski worked with the survivors as a translator for the British Red Cross. In "Z" Szumaigalski translates that profound and disturbing experience into an amazing theatrical event -- a blend of drama, poetry, music and dance.
Title: Zadie's Shoes
Author: Pettle, Adam Publisher: Scirocco Drama 2001
Description:
roy comedy eight characters four male; four female two acts
'The stakes don't get any higher than this! Benjamin is a compulsive gambler who's just lost the money for his girlfriend's trip to an alternative cancer clinic in Mexico. He has 72 hours to find the cash, and his options are running out. In desperation Benjamin finds himself in a synagogue, where he meets a prophet named Eli who gives him rabbinical advice - and a hot tip on a horserace. The thrill of the race is only the beginning of this hilarious and touching journey that contemplates the nature of luck, and the power of faith.'
Title: Zastrozzi The master of discipline Author: Walker, George F. Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1979
Description:
roy melodrama - Canadian six characters four male; two female ten scenes
A revenge melodrama inspired by Shelley's novel in which Zastrozzi, the Satan of Europe, engages in a never-ending quest of retribution against his double, the saintly, deluded Verezzi. Title: Ziggy Effect, The
Author: Diamond, Marc Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1981
Description:
roy comedy - Canadian five characters three male; two female one act
A funny look at the generation gap between the sixties and the eighties; fanatic lifestyles as survival strategies.
Title: Zone
Author: Dube, Marcel adapted by Aviva Ravel Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press 1982
Description:
roy drama - Canadian seven characters six male; one female three acts
Five young people in Montreal are selling black market American cigarettes. When the gang leader, Tarzan, kills a border guard, everything falls apart except the love between him and his female follower.