Parallel Play

by Mary-Colin Chisholm, 2023

High School

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 Mohammad Rahmanian, 2008

Community

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.

Colonialism

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

Politics

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

Disability

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

Disability

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

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

Discrimination

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

Family

Marriage

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

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

Empathy

Family

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.

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

Empathy

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

2SLGBTQI+

Cultural Issues

Discover Tags, like 'Racism'

Realistic

Graceful Rebellions

"Graceful Rebellions, playing in the SummerWorks Festival, tracks experiences of (and with) queerness in war-torn Afghanistan to Canada through two generations and four characters. We start with an idealistic fourteen year old, probably around sixty years ago, imagining her own future wedding on the eve of her sister’s. She is so good-natured and naïve that it is hard for us, the audience, who know her reality will not be able to meet her fantasy." - Mooneyonthetheatre.com "In this brilliant and engaging one-woman show, playwright and performer SHAISTA LATIF transitions seamlessly between distinctly complex characters in a deeply personal work. Moving across cultures and generations, Graceful Rebellions tells the stories of three Afghan women, each bartering for small joys and challenging the cultural norms that exist under Afghanistan’s patriarchal rule. Shaista lovingly portrays characters, by turns funny and heartbreaking, who struggle in a world where women commonly have no power, in a culture that has long been dominated by war." - National Arts Centre, Ottawa

by Shaista Latif, 2017

LGBTQ2S+

by Joel Bernbaum, Lancelot Knight, Yvette Nolan, 2022

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 Marie Beath Badian, 2017

Discrimination

Realistic

The Making of St. Jerome

When Jason De Jesus discovers his younger brother Jerome was the victim of a senseless shooting, his world is filled with questions surrounding Jerome’s death. Was his brother a threat or a casualty of racial profiling? Was he an innocent bystander or someone other than his family’s shining star? Internalizing his survivor’s guilt while reflecting on their strained relationship, Jason’s quest for truth and justice is tainted as he discovers there are no simple answers. Inspired by the shooting of a Filipino Canadian teenager by a police officer in Toronto, The Making of St. Jerome is a poignant look at the aftermath of an untimely death, the media’s role in the truth, and one family’s attempt to reconcile a haunting reality.

Characters: 6

by Hiro Kanagawa, Mark Sakamoto, 2023

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.

Characters: 30

Empathy

Family

Realistic

The Sister Op

The Sister Op begins in France and ends in Halifax in 1938. It follows the efforts of Beatrice, a private detective known as a ‘sister op’, to smuggle Miri, a thirteen year old German Jewish refugee, out of France into Canada to her waiting Uncle Max.

Historical

Viola Desmond

1946 New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. A Black beautician from Halifax refuses to sit in the balcony of the segregated movie theatre and is sent to jail and convicted of tax evasion for the $ 0.02 difference in price. The conviction is upheld by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

by Marcia Johnson, 2009

Characters: 20

Solo Show

The Sender

Cil Brown loves her work. Her job as a Sender on a global racism-elimination project has resulted in a peaceful, logical and sustainable world. However, she encounters technical difficulties when a Sendee objects to restrictions on the lives of residents of White Supremacist Island.

by Cheryl Foggo, 2023

Characters: 1

Black Experience

by Rita Shelton Deverell, 2017

Historical

Other People’s Heaven: The Viola Desmond Story

Viola Davis Desmond (July 6, 1914-1965) was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She was an African- Canadian who ran her own beauty parlor and beauty college in Halifax. She has been referred to as a Canadian version of Rosa Parks. Desmond’s story was one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Nova Scotian and Canadian history. On November 8, 1946, Viola Desmond refused to sit in the balcony designated exclusively for blacks in a New Glasgow theatre. Instead she took her seat on the ground floor where only white people were allowed to sit. After being forcibly removed from the theatre and arrested, Desmond was eventually found guilty of not paying the one-cent difference in tax on the balcony ticket from the main floor ticket.

Historical

Once A Flame

Once a Flame tells the harrowing story of the defiant Black slave Marie Joseph Angélique who was executed for arson in Old Montreal in 1734. This one act play recalls the events that took place before and after her trial.

Historical

Sisters Inc.

Sisters Inc. is a girls' road trip, only the girls, one Jewish, one Christian, one Black Muslim, are all in their 60’s. The girls revisit some tense moments they experienced throughout the course of their long-time friendships.

by Rita Shelton Deverell, 2005

Diversity

Realistic

Smoked Glass Ceiling

A little Black girl from the US South lives through the civil rights era, becomes a broadcast executive in Canada and tells all.

Characters: 1

Black Experience

Realistic

Who You Callin’ Black, eh?

Who you Callin Black Eh? is a coming of age play set in Canada’s largest, most multicultural, multilingual city, that is not about sexuality, but about colour. Wherever Our Heroine goes, she is not Black Enough or White Enough to find her people.

by Rita Shelton Deverell

Characters: N/A

Black Experience

Identity

Historical

My Place Is Right Here: Hugh Burnett and the Fight for a Better Canada

"This play is a research-based, dramatic exploration and celebration of little known African-Canadian hero Hugh Burnett's personhood and human rights legacy. The setting of the play is the world of Hugh Burnett's memory and our memory. Like our dreams, it is not confined by space or conventional rules. Through the interplay of text, theatre and movement, it is hoped that Hugh Burnett may speak his memory and our memory even as memory shifts and changes like the countless grains of a sand dune." - from the publisher

by Aaron Haddad, 2019