Plays by Women
Winner of the Governor General's Award for Drama, this is a play within a play. Hélène is writing a play which draws heavily on the past of her lover and his twin brother, but refuses to reveal the tragic ending until the actual staging of the piece. >>
Silent-film performer Louise Brookes was living in obscurity when bad-boy theatre critic Kenneth Tynan, who was infatuated with her film persona Lulu, tracked her down for a New Yorker profile. In a script crackling with wit, Munsil recreates their encounter. >>
Lena Fulvi has been arrested for her mother's murder. She insists it was an accident, but she has been accused by a nurse who saw her do the deed, and her sisters happily furnish a motive. But the Inspector questioning Lena is not convinced. >>
Magpie, Having, Hunger Striking
Three plays from award-winning playwright Kit Brennan which explore secrets, obsessions, and desire through the stories of three women, Bernice, the victim of small-town repression, Sarah, a former anorexia sufferer and young Erin, whose epileptic seizures leave her scared and vulnerable. >>
Spring Planting tells the story of two widowed neighbours, one an illiterate elder, the other a suddenly single mother. Their new circumstances are made yet more difficult by younger family members who push them beyond tolerable limits. >>
The Last Journey of Captain Harte
A phone call from the nomadic Captain Harte, an old friend of her husband's, awakens a middle-aged widow's imagination. As the Captain makes his circuitous way home, she follows his journey and prepares for her own escape from her small prairie world. >>
Based on the life of Bertha Rand, Winnipeg's notorious Cat Lady, who battled her neighbours and city hall to save her cats, this play looks behind the headlines, giving a sensitive portrayal of the circumstances that led Bertha to retreat into squalid isolation with dozens of animals. >>
Z: A Meditation on Oppression, Desire and Freedom
When the concentration camps were opened at the end of World War II, Anne Szumigalski worked with the survivors as a translator for the British Red Cross. In Z, she translates that profound and disturbing experience into an amazing theatrical event—a blend of drama, poetry and dance. >>