Parallel Play

by Joel Bernbaum, Lancelot Knight, Yvette Nolan, 2022

Discrimination

Docudrama

Reasonable Doubt

"A significant moment in Canadian history is portrayed in this documentary musical about race relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Weaving hundreds of real interviews conducted with Saskatchewan residents and the court transcripts surrounding the killing of Colten Boushie and trial of Gerald Stanley, a kaleidoscopic picture is formed of the views of the incident, the province, and relationships between all people in Canada. A verbatim play with music created by Joel Bernbaum, Lancelot Knight, and Yvette Nolan, Reasonable Doubt provides a space to honestly talk to each other about what has happened on this land and how we can live together." - from the publisher "In 2015, playwright and journalist Joel Bernbaum was commissioned by Persephone Theatre to gather interviews with local citizens for the purposes of writing a documentary play on race relations in our province. Then, in 2016, Colten Boushie, was fatally shot on Gerald Stanley’s farm near Biggar, SK. and the interviews changed dramatically." - persephonetheatre.org

Characters: 6

by Jordan Tannahill, 2022

Discrimination

Play with Music

Is My Microphone On?

"In another life I was a small bubble of foam on a wave coming to shore, and the wave broke, and I burst, and that was it. Before that I was a small stream, for centuries. And in another life I was a mortal girl. Which is this life. After thousands of years, I have a mouth. So if you don’t mind, Mom, Dad, I’m going to speak. I’m going to shout. When I become a human I’m going to use some words. Can you still hear me? Is my microphone on? Young people have inherited a burning world. In this urgent and lyrical play, they reckon with the generations who have come before them, questioning the choices that have been made, and the ones that they will yet be forced to make. Is My Microphone On? is a play in the form of a protest song, in which a chorus of young performers hold the audience to account, and invite them to experience the world together anew." - from the publisher

Characters: 17

Environment

Intergenerational issues

Stylized

A Soldier’s Tale

A Soldier's Tale is a multi-disciplinary production written by Tara Beagan. The 13-member cast included actors and dancers, mixing spoken word, music and movement.

Play with Music

Destiny of Desire

On a stormy night in Bellarica, Mexico, two baby girls are born — one into a life of privilege and one into a life of poverty. When the newborns are swapped by a former beauty queen with an insatiable lust for power, the stage is set for two outrageous misfortunes to grow into one remarkable destiny.

by Karen Zacarías, 2023

Characters: 10

Class

Stylized

Cambodian Rock Band

Part comedy, part mystery, part rock concert, this thrilling story toggles back and forth in time, as father and daughter face the music of the past. Neary, a young Cambodian American has found evidence that could finally put away the Khmer Rouge’s chief henchman. But her work is far from done. When Dad shows up unannounced—his first return to Cambodia since fleeing 30 years ago—it’s clear this isn’t just a pleasure trip. The core of the play is the relationship between the father and daughter.

Stylized

The Coloured Museum

The Colored Museum has electrified, discomforted, and delighted audiences of all colours, redefining our ideas of what it means to be Black in contemporary America. Its eleven "exhibits" undermine Black stereotypes old and new, and return to the facts of what being Black means.

by George C Wolfe, 2010

by Suzan-Lori Parks, 2015

Black Experience

Race

Realistic

Indecent

Indecent is inspired by the true events surrounding the controversial 1923 Broadway debut of Sholem Asch’s "God of Vengeance"—a play seen by some as a seminal work of Jewish culture, and by others as an act of traitorous libel. Indecent charts the history of an incendiary drama and the path of the artists who risked their careers and lives to perform it.

Realistic

Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts I, II, III

Offered his freedom if he joins his master in the ranks of the Confederacy, Hero, a slave, must choose whether to leave the woman and people he loves for what may be yet another empty promise. As his decision brings him face-to-face with a nation at war with itself, the loved ones Hero left behind debate whether to escape or wait for his return…only to discover that for Hero, free will may have come at a great spiritual cost. Father Comes Home From the Wars is an explosively powerful drama about the mess of war, the cost of freedom, and the heartbreak of love, with all three parts seen in one night.

Characters: 14

War

Race

Stylized

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf

A "choreopoem" that blends poetry and music to reveal the experiences of black women through a tapestry of stories.

by Ntozake Shange, 1997

by Tarell Alvin McCraney, 2013

Feminism

Racism

Stylized

One More River to Cross: a Verbatim Fugue

Verbatim texts taken from interviews with former slaves made between 1936 and 1938 as part of the Federal Writers' Project: true testimonies that chronicle American slavery. A strong selection of story-telling, high stakes monologues

by Lynn Nottage, 2015

Characters: 12

Stylized

Mlima’s Tale

Mlima is a magnificent elephant trapped by the underground international ivory market. As he follows a trail littered by a history of greed, Mlima takes us on a journey through memory, fear, tradition, and the penumbra between want and need.

by Lynn Nottage, 2021

Characters: 20

Stylized

Vietgone

An all-American love story about two very new Americans. It’s 1975. Saigon has fallen. He lost his wife. She lost her fiancé. But now in a new land, they just might find each other. Using his uniquely infectious style – and skipping back and forth from the dramatic evacuation of Saigon to the here and now – playwright Qui Nguyen gets up close and personal to tell the story that led to the creation of… Qui Nguyen.

Stylized

The Brothers Size

The Brothers Size dramatizes the struggle between brothers who have taken different paths: Ogun, single-mindedly running his auto shop, and Oshoosi, recently returned from prison and fallen back with trouble.

Characters: 3

Siblings

Family

Realistic

Choir Boy

Pharus wants nothing more than to take his rightful place as leader of the school’s legendary gospel choir. Can he find his way inside the hallowed halls of this institution if he sings in his own key? An affecting and honest portrait of a gay youth tentatively beginning to find the courage to let the truth about himself become known.

by Tarell Alvin McCraney, 2016

by Marie-Claude Verdier, 2021

Black Experience

Discover Tags, like 'Death'

Realistic

Andy’s Gone

What stories do we tell ourselves to keep our walls up and our privilege intact? What is the cost of revolution? In this contemporary retelling of Antigone, denial of what rages outside of a city’s perimeter comes to a head when a young princess named Alison tries to expose the truth of her beloved cousin Henry’s death. By night, Henry went as Andy, as together he and Alison scaled the walls of their kingdom to help the migrants who are kept out of sight. Burdened by the weight of the inequality that his future reign represented, he killed himself. But his mother, Queen Regina, hails his death as a valiant knight and will do anything she can to keep Alison silent. The two women become locked in a poetic battle of power and prejudice, until a push turning into a shove might mean it’s too late to find peace.

by Debbie Patterson, 2023

High School

Stylized

How It Ends

Most of us, when faced with death, wish we could just have a little more time. But what if this is the little more time that we wished for? What are you going to do with it? Grieving siblings Natalie and Bart have differing views on how we die. Natalie, a palliative care nurse, knows how drugs can help ease someone’s pain, and do so on their own terms; Bart, a minister, believes that surrendering to what may come can bring peace and wisdom. Through this immersive show about end-of-life choices, Natalie and Bart are guided by a disabled angel who helps them address their mother’s final decision and understand their own hopes and fears about death. Packed with relatable existential questions, this joyously engaging and reflective play offers a welcoming space to think about what comes next.

Characters: 4

Cultural Issues

Stylized

Six Essential Questions/”6 Essential Questions”

6 Essential Questions tells the story of Renata as she travels to Brazil to reunite with the mother who abandoned her when she was just five years old. In Rio, Renata discovers more than she bargained for in her quest to uncover the truth of who abandoned whom. She is continually tossed about by her undead grandmother and a semi-invisible uncle as they choreograph the ultimate dance of mother and daughter, both of whom must confront their dreams before they can ever attempt to confront each other. Imaginations run wild in this strangely beautiful and funny story loosely based on Uppal’s critically acclaimed memoir, Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother, a finalist for both the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

by Priscila Uppal, 2015

Characters: 4

Family

Grief

Historical

The Death of the King

A retelling of Persian history. At the end of the Sassanian Empire, during the onslaught of Muslim invasions into Persia, the last king of Persia, Yazdgird III, finds death in an impoverished flourmill. Discovered red-handed by the king's army, the helpless miller, his wife, and his daughter must reenact their experience with the king to prove their innocence—or else face a horrible death.

by Bahram Beyza'ie, 2008

Class

Realistic

The Elephant Song

An eminent psychiatrist has vanished from his office. The last person to have seen him is Michael, a troubled patient. Dr. Greenberg, the hospital director, is determined to question Michael, ignoring the head nurse's cryptic warnings. Michael speaks of elephants and opera—with the occasional hint of murder and foul play. Fraught with mind games and verbal tugs-of-war, The Elephant Song is a cat-and-mouse game that will keep you guessing until its haunting conclusion.

by Nicolas Billon, 2006

Characters: 3

Disability

Solo show

Watching Glory Die

Glory is a troubled teenage inmate who, in her solitary prison cell, is tormented by hallucinations. While she battles the creature in her mind, her adoptive mother Rosellen struggles to remain connected to her daughter, believing that she can sense Glory’s feelings no matter the distance. In the prison halls, Gail, a working-class guard, glides between her conscience and her professional duties, knowing her actions could ultimately lead to a tragic end.

by Judith Thompson, 2016

Family

Realistic

The Doorman of Windsor Station

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

by Julie Vincent, 2017

Characters: 8

Ageing

Class

Realistic

The Best Brothers

Bunny Best has met her unfortunate end after a mishap at a Gay Days parade. Now her two sons, Kyle and Hamilton, have the task of arranging her funeral and caring for her most beloved companion, a troublesome Italian greyhound named Enzo. In the bustle of obituary-writing, eulogy-giving, and dog-sitting, sibling rivalry quickly reaches its peak and years of buried contentions surface.

by Daniel MacIvor, 2013

by Evalyn Parry, Anna Chatterton, 2018

Empathy

Historical

Gertrude and Alice

Visiting the audience in the present day, Gertrude and Alice come to find out how history has treated them. The couple recounts stories of their forty-year relationship; of meetings with iconic artists and writers; and of Alice’s overwhelming, consuming devotion to Gertrude’s genius. Before they leave, they want to find out what has become of their artistic and cultural influence, and how their lives and work are—or are not—remembered.

Solo Show

Dividing Lines | Líneas Divisorias

"The one thing everyone knows is that we’re all going to die. Which means our loved ones are going to die. So how can we prepare for, experience, and honour their deaths? And does that look different if we have to make the decision to end their lives for them if they’re suffering? Dividing Lines | Líneas Divisorias is one woman’s story that offers a space for communal grieving through a celebration of life. Traced by the historic world events that coincide with her memories of independence and immigration, Beatriz reflects on how she spent over a decade caring for her mother—the one person she promised she’d be there for all the way until the end—as she lost her more and more to Alzheimer’s, and ultimately had to make the tough call to end her mother’s pain. A meditation full of light that doesn’t shy away from fear of the unknown, Beatriz’s narrative comes from a vulnerable and recognizable place of love that will invite our memories and choices in to heal." - from the publisher

by Beatriz Pizano, 2022

Ageing

Alzheimer's

Docudrama

Reading Hebron

A Toronto Jew named Nathan Abramowitz investigates the Hebron Massacre—in which a Jewish settler murdered 29 Muslims at prayer—as a way of questioning his own responsibility for the oppression of Palestinians.

by Jason Sherman, 1997

Characters: 5

by Shelley M. Hobbs, 2017

Crime

Realistic

A Good Death

A Good Death is about the conflict between the best friend and the mother of a young woman who has been severely brain injured by a hit and run accident. The young woman has been in a persistent vegetative state and the decision must be made about whether or not to remove her from life support: her best friend is her attorney for personal care. The mother has been estranged from her daughter for seventeen years over religious and lifestyle issues, including the fact that the young woman is a lesbian.

Realistic

Seven Stories/”7 Stories”

A man is perched on the ledge of an apartment building, preparing to plunge to his death. All about him, the building's inhabitants pop in and out of their windows, revealing snippets of their own incongruous lives. As he contemplates the meaninglessness of his existence, he is unexpectedly and suddenly set free.

by Morris Panych, 1990

Characters: N/A

Community

by Scott White, Denis McGrath, 2012

Musical

Top Gun! The Musical

Set in a decrepit rehearsal hall, down and out writer/director Billy Palmer (writer/director of the musical fiasco Apocalypse Wow!) attempts to keep his musical adaptation of Top Gun from crashing and burning, despite a quarreling cast, a sketchy ex-Navy Seal producer, and a love triangle that threatens to destroy the entire project.

by Lawrence Aronovitch, 2016

Solo Show

The Auden Test

"A play about a poem about a painting about a myth - and what it means to be human. A queer tale, interweaving the lives and works of the poet W.H. Auden and the mathematician Alan Turing." - fromt the publisher.

2SLGBTQ2I+