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Sound of the Beast
Give It Up
Gas Girls
Cake
A Man, A Fish
Carnival Medea
Birthright
Happy Place
CRASH
Confessions of the Other Woman
Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers
A Chitenge Story
Yellow Fever
Empire of the Son
Soliciting Temptation
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Have you ever found the perfect part? Or read a scene that speaks to you? Or seen a play where the actor on stage matched the writing as if made-to-measure? Don’t you wish it happened more often?

Parallel Play is a tool to help smooth the search for material that really fits. Fits actors, directors, teachers, students, writers, readers and theatre enthusiasts in their quest to find parallels between cast and character.

Parallel Play draws from an extensive database of culturally diverse plays and playwrights. Its foundation is a collection curated by theatre people and designed for all. With new plays added regularly, we think you’ll find our collection unparalleled!

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In our database, there are more than 1000+ plays. Search by title or playwright. Click on a playwright's name to see more of their works.

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  • Discover plays with S.Asian + Diasp Characters

    Counter Offence
    Sultans of the Street

  • Discover plays with characters of Unspecified Ethnicity

    Cyrano de Bergerac
    The Bears Sleep at Last

  • Discover plays with d/Deaf, and/or Person(s) with a Disabilities Characters

    Silence: Mabel and Alexander Graham Bell
    How It Ends

  • Discover plays with Latinx Characters

    Six Essential Questions/”6 Essential Questions”
    The Doorman of Windsor Station

Discover Styles, like 'Realistic'

Silence: Mabel and Alexander Graham Bell play banner

Historical

Silence: Mabel and Alexander Graham Bell

It only takes one spark of love to change the world forever. Mabel Hubbard Bell was a strong, self-assured woman—bright, passionate, and a complete original. Despite a near-fatal case of childhood scarlet fever that cost her the ability to hear, she learned to talk and lip-read in multiple languages. At nineteen, she married a young inventor named Alexander Graham Bell and became the most significant influence in his life. This is Mabel's story, offering the unique perspective of a woman whose remarkable life was forever connected to her famous, distracted husband. From inspiring invention to promoting public service, Mabel and Alec challenged each other to become strong forces for good. Silence is a beautiful and true love story about how we communicate.

by Trina Davies, 2020
Characters: 6
Empowerment
Disability
Andy's Gone play banner

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 Marie-Claude Verdier, 2021
Characters: 2
Death
High School
Half-Cracked: The Legend of Sissy Mary play banner

Realistic

Half-Cracked: The Legend of Sissy Mary

"Sisters Sissy and Yewina have been on their own for who knows how long exactly. It's just them (and their hens) in a weathered farmhouse miles from town. Their rural, woodsy East Coast community has been losing residents for years, but the almost-forgotten stories have lived on for the sisters in different ways. While Yewina is more guarded and level-headed, dreamer Sissy has a flair for twisting fact with fantasy. When Scott, a folklorist from Scottsdale, Arizona, shows up at their door in hopes of chronicling whispers, he's in for much more of a story than he expected. This unique and quirky ode to folklore storytelling and to small lives lived large illuminates how living our own truths can make us legends." - from the publisher

by Mary-Colin Chisholm, 2023
Characters: 3
Ageing
Community
Interrogation play banner

Historical

Interrogation

Two youth (a boy, Naeem, and a woman, Safiya), loyal to the anti-colonial struggle in Algeria, cannot stop their acts of violence even after the revolution has been won. Their stories tell a timeless truth: nothing enduring can be built on violence.

by Mohammad Rahmanian, 2008
Characters: 4
Colonialism
Cultural issues
Aurash play banner

Historical

Aurash

'Based on a Persian myth dating back over one thousand years, in the 1970s the fable was adapted into a dramatic narrative by Bahram Beyza'ie. In Beyza'ie's story, Aurash, a naïve and human stablehand, becomes an unwilling player in his country's post-war border treaty. He must determine his people's fate by firing an arrow from the top of a mountain." -- from the publisher

by Bahram Beyza'ie, 2008
Characters: N/A
Cultural issues
Politics
The Drawer Boy play banner

Realistic

The Drawer Boy

"It's 1972, and a self-absorbed young Toronto actor, Miles, arrives on a small farm to do hands-on research for an upcoming role in a play about country life. He is sent to live with two middle-aged farmers, Morgan, who is not to thrilled with the self-involved young city dweller, and Angus, who is unable to remember that the young actor is even there due to a head injury sustained in London during World War II. Miles unwillingly stumbles upon the truth about their past and as a result, their lives are forever altered when art attempts to imitate life and the line between truth and fiction is crossed. What begins as an amusing portrayal of rural and urban culture-clash, slowly peels away layers of forgotten truths and lies, exposing hidden secrets of love and tragedy. Think farm life is boring? Think again! Think plays about farm life are boring? You be the judge." - The Drawer Boy Task Force, St. Thomas University

by Michael Healey, 2005
Characters: 3
Ageing
Disability
The Elephant Song play banner

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
Death
Disability
The Crackwalker play banner

Realistic

The Crackwalker

Teresa is sexy, seductive, and mentally challenged. Worshipped by her boyfriend, she turns tricks at $5, is addicted to Tim Hortons' doughnuts, lies without thinking, and overflows with endless kindness, but she continues to hold on to her limitless innocence. The Crackwalker captures the music, the dialect, and the unpretty realities of the inner city. First produced thirty years ago, Thompson's striking portrayal of the discarded class in Canada continues to move audiences today.

by Judith Thompson, 2010
Characters: 5
Class
Cultural issues
The Little Years play banner

Realistic

The Little Years

"Kate possesses the makings of a gifted mathematician with an enthusiasm for exploring the mysteries of space and time. But this is the 1950s and women are routinely laughed out of scientific circles. Besides, every family has its star, and Kate's brother already holds that distinction. Hindered by prejudices against women, Kate is confined to a life of unfulfilling jobs, leading her to become bitter and unhappy. The Little Years confronts the impact of chauvinism and explores the nature of fame, the value of art, and the passing of time." - from publisher

by John Mighton, 2012
Characters: 7
Cultural issues
Discrimination
Paradise play banner

Realistic

Paradise

After a traumatic assault in Central America, Rachel returns home, but it isn’t the reprieve she expected. She comes back to turmoil between her parents, and a part-time job in her dad’s medical office. Her father, George, full of endearing blunder, tries unsuccessfully to connect with his daughter, who seems to be reeling. Her childhood friend Khalil isn’t around to provide support. He’s in Afghanistan travelling and volunteering when he is wrongfully arrested. On the periphery is Wally—off work because of a logging injury—who spends a great deal of time in George’s office. Wally struggles to buy food for his dog Lucky, his rent payments are overdue, and the ringing in his ears just won’t stop. He’s looking for help in all the right places, but nobody seems to notice he’s deteriorating until it’s too late.

by Patti Flather, 2017
Characters: 4
Family
Marriage
The Doorman of Windsor Station play banner

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
Quick Bright Things play banner

Realistic

Quick Bright Things

Can a weekend trip to visit family ever be smooth? Nick was hoping for a quick dinner at his brother Reid’s house when he stopped by with his seventeen-year-old adopted son, Gerome, on their way to meet Gerome’s birth mother. Gerome was recently diagnosed with schizophrenia, and he wants to know more about his family history. Though Reid and his family wreak havoc with their well-meaning but misguided ideas about Gerome’s diagnosis, they manage to convince Nick and his son to stay the night, even after they find Gerome on the roof ready to demonstrate backflips. The dinner pit stop becomes a tense weekend-long event full of claims and questions as the family attempts to “un-crazy” Gerome, leading them all to a dangerous breaking point. With truth, humour, and pathos, Quick Bright Things explores a family’s struggle with understanding mental health, their ways of expressing love, and what it ultimately means to be “okay.”

by Christina Cook, 2020
Characters: 4
Empathy
Family
True Love Lies play banner

Realistic

True Love Lies

Sparking a series of further revelations, the sudden reappearance of David exposes suppressed emotions and desires in everyone and the family must renegotiate their relationships with each other and, ultimately, redefine their family. In sharp, non-stop dialogue, Brad Fraser brings each of his characters to life with a depth, humour, and emotion that tears open the nuclear family and finds the heart that is often lost and forgotten.

by Brad Fraser, 2010
Characters: 5
2SLGBTQI+
Family
The Best Brothers play banner

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
Characters: 2
Death
Empathy
Arigato, Tokyo play banner

Realistic

Arigato, Tokyo

On a publicity tour in Japan, Carl, a Canadian author, finds himself falling in love amidst the sacred stages of Noh theatre and the seedy dance clubs in Tokyo, wired on cocaine and sake. His object of affection is the young, seductive actor, Yori, but the affair becomes complicated when Carl’s translator and Yori’s sister, Nushi, becomes entranced with him. As his tour continues, he straddles the fragmentary place between two cultures—one of individuality and directness, the other of tradition and formality—and uncovers the dualities that exist in life and love. Based on The Tale of Genji, one of the world’s oldest pieces of literature, MacIvor’s script takes us into the center of a clandestine Japan as experienced by the visiting outsider.

by Daniel MacIvor, 2013
Characters: 4
2SLGBTQI+
Cultural Issues

Discover Tags, like 'Violence'

Interrogation play banner

Historical

Interrogation

Two youth (a boy, Naeem, and a woman, Safiya), loyal to the anti-colonial struggle in Algeria, cannot stop their acts of violence even after the revolution has been won. Their stories tell a timeless truth: nothing enduring can be built on violence.

by Mohammad Rahmanian, 2008
Characters: 4
Colonialism
Cultural issues
Aurash play banner

Historical

Aurash

'Based on a Persian myth dating back over one thousand years, in the 1970s the fable was adapted into a dramatic narrative by Bahram Beyza'ie. In Beyza'ie's story, Aurash, a naïve and human stablehand, becomes an unwilling player in his country's post-war border treaty. He must determine his people's fate by firing an arrow from the top of a mountain." -- from the publisher

by Bahram Beyza'ie, 2008
Characters: N/A
Cultural issues
Politics
The Crackwalker play banner

Realistic

The Crackwalker

Teresa is sexy, seductive, and mentally challenged. Worshipped by her boyfriend, she turns tricks at $5, is addicted to Tim Hortons' doughnuts, lies without thinking, and overflows with endless kindness, but she continues to hold on to her limitless innocence. The Crackwalker captures the music, the dialect, and the unpretty realities of the inner city. First produced thirty years ago, Thompson's striking portrayal of the discarded class in Canada continues to move audiences today.

by Judith Thompson, 2010
Characters: 5
Class
Cultural issues
Shooting Magda (The Palestinian Girl) play banner

Realistic

Shooting Magda (The Palestinian Girl)

Love between a Palestinian girl and an Israeli man is born and then ruined in a violent reality.

by Joshua Sobol, 2006
Characters: 11
Cultural issues
Grief
The Murder of Isaac play banner

Historical

The Murder of Isaac

Twelve inmates in a closed ward in a mental hospital for soldiers suffering acute PTSD presenting a cabaret about the assassination of Yitzhak (Isaac) Rabin, Israel’s former prime minister following his peace negotiations with the Palestinians. In a show they can't control they explore the infrastructure of Israeli society and present the deep internal conflicts that led to this tragic assassination.

by Motti Lerner, 2006
Characters: 12
Antisemitism
Cultural issues
Reading Hebron play banner

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
Cultural issues
Crime
House of Many Tongues play banner

Realistic

House of Many Tongues

During the Six Day War, an Israeli general found an abandoned house and made it his home. Forty years later, the general, along with his imaginative and distant son Alex, live in peaceful solitude. When a Palestinian writer shows up with is daughter and lays claim to the house he left decades ago, an internal house war ensues. The bathroom is seized, a fig tree is destroyed, and the basement becomes a shrine in the resulting chaos. Relenting, both men strike a deal to share the house. Somehow these two families are going to have to live together—if they don't kill each other first.

by Jonathan Garfinkel, 2011
Characters: 10
Cultural issues
Family
Reasonable Doubt play banner

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

by Joel Bernbaum, Lancelot Knight, Yvette Nolan, 2022
Characters: 6
Cultural issues
Discrimination
Trans-Bacchanalia Express play banner

Stylized

Trans-Bacchanalia Express

This happy-ending colloquial take on the ancient Greek tragedy “The Bacchae” loosely follows the confrontation of the young god Dionysus with Pentheus, the young king of Thebes. Pentheus, a heroic athlete, adored by all, has recently become king and is called upon to halt the cult of Dionysus from spreading to Thebes. However, Pentheus has serious issues—although a family man, he is ill-at-ease with his new role, with what the public and his family expect of him, and—more importantly—his own body and gender. He seeks advice from his grandfather and the blind seer Tyresias, but they are not much help. Pentheus unsuccessfully imprisons Dionysus, who easily escapes. Dionysus causes the destruction of the palace and manipulates Pentheus to further his own agenda. Pentheus is torn apart by the followers of the young god—including his own mother and members of the Royal Court. Dionysus—who has his own issues—ultimately brings Pentheus back to life, to live again—this time as a woman.

by Bill Zaget
Characters: 12
Class
Death
Queen Goneril play banner

Historical

Queen Goneril

Set seven years before King Lear, Queen Goneril centres the struggles of Lear’s daughters as they negotiate patriarchal systems built to keep them relegated to the sidelines. In Goneril, we find a natural-born leader. In Regan, a boundary pusher. And in Cordelia, a reluctant peacekeeper. As the three work to dismantle their individual constraints, a storm of inner reckoning begins to brew that reflects their deepest yearnings and mirrors our contemporary world. Whip smart and wide awake, Queen Goneril is another deliciously disruptive adaptation from Erin Shields. In her signature revisionist style, Shields investigates some of our most urgent feminist issues by reimagining the roles of women in classic texts—shifting them from subjects, objects, or witnesses to central figures of both their own lives and the story’s narrative. Queen Goneril lays bare the challenges of maintaining authenticity while achieving authority—how we retain a strong sense of self while twisting around systems meant to make us play small. A compelling story about complicated characters struggling—the way we all struggle—to find their place in this world.

by Erin Shields, 2023
Characters: 11
Cultural issues
Empowerment
I Am For You play banner

Realistic

I Am For You

Fighting words . . . Lainie and Mariam have it out for each other, so it’s no surprise when they finally come to violent blows in the middle of their high school’s drama room. That’s when Caddell Morris, an ex-professional actor and newly minted student teacher, steps in. By teaching the girls the art of stage combat, he hopes to help them understand more about the roots and costs of violence. But when he convinces the drama teacher to let them play Mercutio and Tybalt in their school production of Romeo and Juliet, swords, words, and egos battle and clash. Can they find a way to work together?

by Mieko Ouchi, 2016
Characters: 3
Friendships
Violence
Forgiveness play banner

Historical

Forgiveness

Mitsue Sakamoto and Ralph MacLean both suffered tremendous loss during WWII: Mitsue as a survivor of a Japanese Canadian internment camp, and Ralph as a prisoner in a Japanese POW camp. In order to rebuild their lives and their families after the war, Ralph and Mitsue must find the grace and generosity necessary to forgive those who have wronged them. Their paths eventually cross in 1968 when Mitsue’s son and Ralph’s daughter begin dating, and Ralph is invited to Mitsue’s home for dinner. This soaring adaptation of Mark Sakamoto’s award-winning memoir affirms the power of forgiveness and shows us that in our challenging times characterized by political divisiveness, xenophobia, and race hatred, the story of Mitsue and Ralph’s personal triumphs over hatred, injustice, violence, and bigotry remains vitally relevant and urgently necessary.

by Hiro Kanagawa, Mark Sakamoto, 2023
Characters: 30
Empathy
Family
Winter of Eighty-Eight/”Winter of 88″ play banner

Realistic

Winter of Eighty-Eight/”Winter of 88″

A new apartment should be a warm and welcoming signal to a fresh chapter of life. It shouldn’t be where a family waits in the dark, surrounded by unpacked boxes, as missiles rain down around them. Already eight years into the Iran–Iraq war, Nasrin and her two adult children—daughter Nahid and son Mahyar—just want to feel safe and settled. Tensions are already high, from bickering over who gets what room and what goes where to why Nahid’s husband left her. Mahyar leaves the apartment in a heated moment, leaving Nasrin wracked with fear. As the missiles start to strike and the power goes out, Nahid tries to hold everything together. From that moment on, it’s about survival. This heart-wrenching meta-autobiographical play, presented in both English and Farsi, is a window into days when death was practically a neighbour in war-torn Tehran. It’s a dedication to those who are left behind with the trauma of war and survivors’ guilt. Author Mohammad Yaghoubi survived it, so he had to write about it.

by Mohammad Yaghoubi, 2023
Characters: 8
Cultural issues
Family
Peter Fechter: Fifty-Nine Minutes/”Peter Fechter: 59 Minutes” play banner

Historical

Peter Fechter: Fifty-Nine Minutes/”Peter Fechter: 59 Minutes”

Peter Fechter: 59 Minutes chronicles the last hour of Peter Fechter’s life, a teenager in East Berlin shot while attempting to cross the Berlin Wall in 1962 with his companion.

by Jordan Tannahill, 2013
Characters: 1
Cultural issues
Death
Zahgidiwin/love play banner

Stylized

Zahgidiwin/love

Zahgidiwin/love follows Namid through multiple generations: as a survivor of abuse in a residential school in the 1960s, as a missing woman held in a suburban basement in the 1990s, and as the rebellious daughter of a tyrannical queen in a post-apocalyptic, matriarchal society. A comedy about loss in the era of truth and reconciliation

by Frances Koncan, 2022
Characters: N/A
Cultural issues
Feminism