Canadian Plays
Theatre Books located at 101 Spadina Avenue in Toronto (near the corner of Spadina
Avenue and King Street) is a great place to find a companion play. The staff is
extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic. The phone number is 416.922.7175.
Anthony , Trey
DKink in My Hair [819.254 ANT]
Set in a West Indian hair salon in Toronto, the play introduces the reader to a group of
unforgettable women who share their moving and often hilarious stories.
Beissel, Henry
Inuk and the Sun [819.254 BEI]
An Inuit boy whose father is killed during a mid-winter hunt goes in search of the sun, finds it
imprisoned in an iceberg and finally succeeds in setting it free. A drama in 10 scenes.
Brebner, Morwyn
Music for a Contortionist [819.254 BRE]
Valeska Gert—1930’s cabaret star, avant-garde performance artist—explains life, love, and art from
her own unique perspective. By turns hilarious and moving, this play is a wild ride. A comedy in 1
act.
Carley, David
After You [819.254 CAR]
A 2 act drama about cousins Adele and Jean who return to their family cottage on Lake Kawartha for
one last time. Adele is dying and Jean, who cares for her, is determined that her cousin’s last
summer will end with grace. But too many memories intrude as the pair relives the summer of
1938 when one young men determined the paths of their lives.
Chislett, Anne
Tomorrow Box [819.254 CHI]
A farmer retires and decides to move to Florida. His wife is determined to remain on the farm she
helped build. A comedy in 2 acts.
Clark, Sally
Life Without Instructions [819.254 CLA]
Based on a true story and a real trial, Artemesia Gentileschi’s father, the late-Renaissance painter
Orazio Gentilischi, takes the unusual step of having his daughter trained in painting under the
instructions of his friend, Agostino Tassi. Tassi rapes Artemesia and is taken to trial. A drama in 2
acts.
Craig, David
Having Hope at Home [819.254 CRA]
This is a comedy about 9 months pregnant Carolyn who has invited her highly critical, very urban
parents for dinner for the first time in three years. She is determined that nothing will go wrong,
but of course everything does.
Druick, Don
Through the Eyes [819.254 DRU]
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. A drama in 2 acts.
Dyba, Kenneth
Lilly Alta [819.254 DYB]
Two lovers attempting to free themselves from the fuling matriarch of Lilly, Alberta unleash a chain
of events which forever alters the small town.
Fennario, David
Nothing to Lose [819.254 FEN]
In a tavern in the Point Saint Charles district of Montreal, three friends gather on their lunch hour to
reminisce. An old friend turned radical playwright shows up at the bar. When one of the men
challenges his abusive foreman, they take the advice of the playwright and launch a sit-down strike.
A drama in 1 act.
On The Job [819.254 FEN]
Set in 1970 on Christmas Eve, this play looks at class structures of the time. In a shipping room of a
Montreal dress factory, the workers get drunk and decide to go on strike when a new manager
defies tradition and refuses to give them the afternoon off. The play is a humorous look at the
often precarious relationship that exists between workers, management and the boss.
Findley, Timothy
The Stillborn Lover [819.254 FIN]
A Russian youth is found brutally murdered in a Moscow hotel room. The repercussions of this
crime will unravel the past of a respected career diplomat. This is a play about love, loyalty,
integrity and the dark side of commitment.
Foon, Dennis
Bedtimes and Bullies [819.254 FOO]
Kevin and Kelly make friends with Peter, the neighbourhood bully. They convince his strict father to
let him sleep over with his new-found pals. A musical in 9 scenes.
Foster, Norm
Melville Boys [819.254 FOS]
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. The women stay the night and
become catalysts for a tenderly funny and unsentimental look at four lives in transition. A comedy
in 2 acts.
Wrong For Each Other [819.254 FOS]
A chance meeting in a restaurant after four years apart, sends a divorced couple flashing back
through the highs and lows of their relationship. Comedy 2 Acts.
Fraser, Brad
Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love [819.254 FRA]
This comedy-drama follows the lives of several sexually frustrated “thirty-somethings” who try to
learn the meaning love love, during a period when the residents of the city are living in fear of a
serial killer.
Freeman, Bill
Glory Days [819.254 FRE]
A play based on the events leading up to the 1946 Stelco Strike. Stelco in the 1930’s and 40’s was
fraught with discrimination and favouritism. The workers lived under a form of tyranny where their
rights were disregarded. The play describes the intense emotion that workers experienced as they
prepared for the strike and lived through those dramatic days.
Fulford, Robin
Steel Kiss
Through a series of short, powerful scenes the play presents a society in which bigotry is condoned.
A gay man is brutally killed in a park by four “normal” teenage boys whose defense is that the
incident was an accident. A drama in 1 act.
The Sleep Room
Environmental theatre that takes place at an open house in the Institute of Inner Ecology. It was
inspired by Dr Cameron’s mind control techniques in the 1950’s in Montreal.
Glass , Joanna
Artichoke [819.254 GLA]
Margaret and Walter Morley have been estranged for 14 years, ever since his encounter with a
“water witch” resulted in the arrival of an illegitimate daughter, Lily Agnes. Walter has been
banished to the barn while Margaret has been raising Lily as her own child. This is a play about
relationships, love, anger and pride.
If We Are Women [819.254 GLA]
Looks back through three generations of mothers and daughters, tracing the hopes and
disappointments, the loves and losses, and the bonds and distances. A drama in 2 acts.
To Grandma’s House We Go [819.254 GLA]
Three generations of family gather at “Grandie’s “ house in Connecticut. The tradition of the young
taking care of the old is reversed as the marital anarchy of the younger generation lays in angst and
requests at the old lady’s feet. A drama in 2 acts.
Graham, Beth and Charlie Tomlinson and Daniela Vlaskalic
The Drowning Girls [819.2208 GRA]
Bessie, Alice and Margaret have two things in common: they are married to the same man and they
are dead. Surfacing from the bathtubs they were drowned in, the three women gather evidence
against their murderous husband by re-living the events leading up to their deaths.
Comrades [819.2208 GRA]
Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco left their small Italian villages in search of opportunities and
freedom in the United States. Their dream quickly turns into a nightmare resulting in their controversial imprisonment for murder. Both men must fight for their lives amidst discrimination and
public humiliation. Based on actual events, the play explores the men’s struggles during their
seven-year imprisonment.
Highway, Thomson
The Rez Sisters [819.254 HIG]
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.
Lill, Wendy
The Occupation of Heather Ross Nurse Rose goes north to work on an Indian reserve. Her
adventure turns into a painful exploration of her own fragile cultural heart of darkness. A drama in
1 act.
The Glace Bay Miners [819.254 LIL]
The story of an ill-fatted love between a wandering musician/social idealist and a Cape Breton coal
miner’s daughter whose dreams are reawakened by their passion. A drama in 2 acts.
MacDonald, Anne Marie
The Attic, The Pearls, and Three Fine Girls
A comedic play about three very different sisters who go through the attic in the home of their
recently deceased father. In the process, they are reminded of their childhood, which forces them
to redefine their future together.
Macleod, Joan
Amigo’s Blue Guitar [819.254 MAC]
When 19-year old Sander sponsors Elias, a Salvadoran refugee to come to his B.C. gulf island home,
his family must face his story of oppression, especially Sander’s sister Callie who has fallen in love
with him. A drama in 2 acts.
Toronto Mississippi [819.254 MACL]
Jhana, a mentally handicapped teenager, lives with her mother and a cheerfully morose poet.
Jhana’s estranged father—a professional Elvis impersonator—arrives unexpectedly. What follows
is an exploration of fragmented identities and fractured understandings. A drama in 2 acts.
Mighton, John
Possible Worlds [819.254 MIG]
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 sam woman. A black comedy in 2 acts.
A Short History of Night [819.254 MIG]
Based on the lives of Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe, an astronomer who discovered a supernova
and lost his nose in a scientific duel. Set in a time of witch-hunts and religious wars, the play
explores the parallels between medieval and modern thought. A comedy/drama in 2 acts.
Scientific Americans [819.254 MIG]
The marriage of two scientists working for the Strategic Defense Initiative crumbles as he mundane
and humorous aspects of their lives are contrasted with the monstrous strangeness and importance
of their ideas. A black/comedy in 2 acts.
The Little Years [819.254 MIG]
Growing up in the 1950’s, Kate is fascinated by time and space, interests dismissed as unbecoming
for a young woman of her time. While her brother achieves literary fame, her family struggles to
reach the brilliant Kate as she grows from precocious teen to troubled woman. This is a play about
the many ways we touch each other’s lives without knowing it.
Moody, Andrew
A Common Man’s Guide to Loving Women [819.254 MOO]
Just as the stag party is about to begin, the bride cancels the wedding. Chris, the jilted fiancé, is
walking wounded, but as his three buddies attempt consolation we discover that they, too, are
relationship-challenged. Four guys sit around and talk about sex, love, women and the meaning of
life.
Riot [819.254 MOO]
A dramatic and often humorous look at 6 black Canadians who come from diverse backgrounds and
share a house in Toronto. Their life stories unfold during a time of civil unrest following the
acquittal of the Los Angeles police officers who were on trial for beating Rodney King. The chaos
outside their house keeps intruding on the characters’ conversations stemming from Malcolm X to
Canadian television.
Mouawad, Wajdi
Scorched [819.22 MOU]
The play follows the journey of twins Jeanne and Simon who, following the death of their mother,
Nawal, go on a journey to the Middle East to uncover the mystery of their mother’s life. In pursuit
of their roots, they uncover a long-lost brother and father.
Murrell, John
Waiting for the Parade [819.254 MUR]
Five women work for the war effort in Calgary while their husbands are overseas. Tragedy and
humour interweave as each of them copes with the impingement of war on her daily life. A drama
in 24 scenes.
Panych, Morris
Girl in the Goldfish Bowl [819.254 PAN]
Ten-year-old Iris is preoccupied with the events leading up to what she describes as “the last
few days of her childhood.” Her parents’ marriage is floundering so when she finds a mysterious
man on the beach she regards him as a godsend; he can make everything all right.
Lawrence and Hollowman [819.254 PAN]
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. Black Comedy. A drama in 2 acts.
The Dishwashers [819.254 PAN]
Chief dishwasher Dressler presides over the steam-choked basement of an up-scale restaurant, a
place of drudgery so remote from the light of day that its wage-slaves have no contact with anyone
outside. They are tyrannized by Dressler who espouses his views on topics ranging from workingclass ethic to Marxism. However, Moss the “old hand” and Emmett the “new guy” reject his views
and aspire to join “the folks upstairs”.
Vigil [819.254 PAN]
Is structured around what happens when an extremely self-centred and shallow person finds
himself, through his own errors and inattentiveness, in a life and death situation with profound and
far reaching consequences. A drama in 2 acts.
Paulsen , Gary
Soldier’s Heart [819.254 PAU]
Based on a true story about a fifteen-year-old boy in Minnesota named Charley Goddard who lies
about his age to join the first Volunteers of Minnesota to fight in the Civil War. When he arrives for
training, he realizes the conditions are far worse than what he had imagined. People are dying
before the war even begins and disease is rampant. Charley quickly loses his innocence in this
coming of age story.
Pettle , Adam
Zadie’s Shoes [819.254 PET]
A grandfather who is a compulsive gambler, gambles away everything—including his grand
daughter’s shoes. He is desperate to raise money so that his cancer-stricken girlfriend can receive
an alternative treatment at a Mexican clinic.
Pollock, Sharon
Blood Relations [819.254 POL]
Lizzie Borden is driven to desperation by family pressure and the ambiguous complexities unfold as
Lizzie’s actress friend helps act out the crucial scenes with Lizzie’s directions. A drama in 2 acts.
Ritter, Erika
Automatic Pilot [819.254 RIT]
A stand-up comic discovers that unhappiness is the source of her creative and comic powers. A
comedy in 2 acts.
The Splits [819.254 RIT]
A struggling writer tries to sort out her life and men in this witty, perceptive urban comedy. A
comedy in 2 acts.
Sears, Djanet
Harlem Duet [819.254 SEA]
This is an impressive achievement, an ambitious and accomplished work with scope and the vision
to realize it. Drama 2 Acts.
Sherman, Jason
An Acre of Time
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. But the one person she most wants to bring
back from the dead, her daughter, remains the most elusive.
It’s All True
New York 1937. Art and politics collide when the government padlocks the doors of the theatre on
the opening of 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. A drama in 2 acts.
The League of Nathans [819.254 SHE]
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. A drama in 2 acts.
Reading Hebron
A Toronto Jew uses a massacre in Israel to examine Palestinian oppression and his own responsibility for it. A comedy-drama in 1 act.
Three in the Back, Two in the Head
The son of a murdered arms designer confronts the CIA officer he believes responsible for ordering
the termination of his father. A drama in 1 act.
Stetson, Kent
The Harps of God [819.254 STE]
On the ice fields forty-five miles off the north coast of Newfoundland in March 1914, there is no
shelter from the perishing wind of a Labrador gale. George Tuff’s 150 sealers are soaked by
torrential rain, weighed down by wet, clumping snow. Constant measured movement is the only
hope. A drama in 3 acts.
The Warm Wind in China [819.254 STE]
Two Maritime families are forced to confront AIDS. A play about heroes, healing and
transcendence. A tragedy in 2 acts.
Thompson, Judith
Body and Soul [819.254 THO]
Twelve women , Twelve lives...one story. This is a play about ordinary women who share their
personal stories about surviving, triumphing, giving and forgiving. The women demonstrate that
there is value in telling and sharing life’s stories with others.
Lion in the Streets [819.254 THO]
Seventeen years after her murder, the ghost of nine-year old Isobel, a Portuguese immigrant, is
searching for her killer. A victim of violence herself, Isobel watches over the living, suffers with
them, and eventually experiences salvation.
The Crackwalker [819.254 THO]
A play about a developmentally delayed woman and her friends. Thompson explores the psyche of
those living outside of “normal” society. A drama in 2 acts.
Noam Chomsky Lectures
A meta-theatrical explication of the ideas of Noam Chomsky. Lecture performance—90 minutes.
White Biting Dog [819.254 THO]
A suicidal young man is rescued by a white dog who gives him a mission—to save his father from
death. A drama 2 acts.
Thomson, Kristen
I Claudia [819.254 THO]
Claudia is a pre-teen trying to recover from her parents’ divorce. She reveals the trials and
tribulations of her life from inside the boiler room of her school where she stores all the things that
are secret and dear to her.
Tremblay, Michel
For the Pleasure of Seeing Her [819.254 TRE]
A tribute to the author’s maddening, melodramatic and marvellous mother. It is a two character
play based on Tremblay’s memories of his mother.
Walker, George F.
Beautiful City
An urban comedy set in Toronto, pitting the glass and chrome condo set against the traditional brick
walk-up neighbourhoods. A comedy in 2 acts.
Suburban Motel [819.254 WAL]
A series of six plays, all taking place in the same seedy motel. The interconnecting theme is the
despair that these characters feel; they are stuck in lives they want to escape, but with no clear
idea as to how to leave.