PLAYS
Published playscripts are available directly from the publishers listed below. Unpublished, out-of-stock and out-of-print plays may be purchased in manuscript form directly from the author.
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All productions, amateur or professional, require prior written permission from the author as well as payment of royalties, even if no ticket fees are charged, as per International Copy Right Law.
Elephant
Description:
Two couples have been having dinner together for years, both in and at the edges of Academia; one couple is solidly established, the other increasingly losing footing.
On a fateful evening, a dinner with a lot of truth telling and honesty brings about massive changes to the order and expectations of both couple's lives, with unexpected results. Dialogue heavy, one setting; witty, funny and heartfelt.
Available in Manuscript format
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Boilerplate
Description:
Four women in an arbitration setting, trying to address a conflict concerning consent, rape, pornography, the internet, and damages- both personal and financial. Has the feeling of transcript play, dialogue heavy, one setting, with the women being at four ages: Seventy, Fifty, Forty and Eighteen.
Available in Manuscript format
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Cherry Docs
ISBN 1-896239-37-4
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Publisher:
Scirocco Drama, J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing
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Description:
A neo-Nazi skinhead, accused of a racially motivated murder, is defended by a liberal, court appointed Jewish lawyer. At first glance this is a story with a diametrical opposition, a moral wrestling match between good and evil. Just below the surface you will find an allegory for the human dilemma. The two men in preparing for trial find that they must come up with a way to work and consequently live with one another. In the process they find they both must deal with deeply held prejudices that they have for the other. While the men never become friends per se, they are each enriched by the contact with one another and both come to seriously examine their own faults. The characters Michael and Daniel are inspired by the meaning of these names found in the Old Testament. An extremely challenging play for interpreters and audience alike, the work asks questions such as can we eliminate hatred with love or with equal force? The text is resonant and filled with hidden doorways to both the worlds of the racist skinhead and the liberal Jewish lawyer. Structurally the piece alternates between monologues and dialogues with a very nearly jazz like or musical outline. The monologues’ structure reference and follow the techniques found in Shakespeare, of Elizabethan rhetorical argument. The play has often been described as an emotional and physical workout for both leads and is credited with never shying away from dealing with the full repercussions and complexity of it’s subject matter.
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Full Length Drama: 90 min/No Intermission
Cast: 2m
Setting: Prison Room/Contemporary/Summer to Spring
Contemporary Costumes: Business Suits/Prison Uniform
Cautions: (Intense) Adult Themes/Strong Language/Smoking
Relative Good
ISBN 978-1-897289-82-2
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Publisher:
Scirocco Drama, J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing
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Description:
(NYC production known as ARRIVALS) was first produced by GCTC in Ottawa, ON, fall 2005. It won the WGC Top Ten Award. It had its US premiere by The Bank Street Theatre in NYC, February 2007, directed by Dan Wackerman and produced by Jay Harris. “Relative Good” was first a radio play written for CBC National Radio before being adapted for the stage. This political satire traces the story of Mohammed El Raffi, a Canadian citizen of Middle Eastern heritage, who finds himself held in a New York port of entry by the Department of Homeland Security. The play satirizes Canada’s unwillingness to do the right thing by a citizen under arrest and being held outside of the country. It also attempts to put a human face on a man accused of being a terrorist, a man who is not given due process, nor proven guilty--simply sentenced.
Bea's Niece
ISBN 0-88754-489-0
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Publisher:
Playwrights Canada Press
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Description:
Bea's Niece was first produced by 25th St. Theatre, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Subsequently produced at GCTC in Ottawa, ON. US premiere in 2003 at Metrostage in Washington, DC. Next Act Theatre in Milwaukee, WI in 2003. Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, ON in 2005. Published by Playwrights Canada Press. Currently being translated into German by Anna Bott Cron.
This work is an exploration into the mind and psyche of a female novelist secluded in a psychiatric hospital. An engaging illuminating psychological mystery. It has been described as “An enigmatic and moving piece that clearly evidences the writer’s ability to capture his audience” (Susan V. Booth Director of New Play Development The Goodman Theatre, Chicago). “A compelling, funny, unpredictable piece of writing, satisfying structurally yet somehow still wild...” (Vanessa Porteous, Alberta Theatre Projects). With rigour and humour, the play deals with concepts and experience of memory and grief, sanity and reality, psychology and spirituality. “Bea’s Niece” has attracted productions in Canada and the United States, and will soon be translated into Spanish. First Produced by 25th St. Theatre, Saskatoon.
The Friedman Family Fortune
ISBN 0-88754-626-9
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Publisher:
Playwrights Canada Press
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Description:
The Friedman Family Fortune was first produced by Centaur Theatre, Mainstage in Montréal, QC, May 1996. Published by Playwrights Canada Press. Currently being translated into German by Anna Bott Cron.
This well constructed drama focuses on the emotional fallout that results when a publicly adored, iconic, family business passes from the hands of one generation to the next. The play examines with finely detailed psychological realism and wry humour, the intricate relationships that family member have forged one with another; as well as how those relationships are reshaped by the succession of the family’s seat of power. “...David Gow’s The Friedman Family Fortune... springs to life fully developed and dramatically arresting, with some of the sharpest, most literate dialogue to be heard in a Canadian play in years. That Gow manages to keep this familial free-for-all from bogging down in turgid melodrama by keeping it brilliant alive with a delicious sense of humour, is an additional indication of his instinctive theatrical genius” (Myron Galloway, The Suburban). First produced by Centaur Theatre, Montreal. Published by Playwrights Canada Press.
Wake of the Bones
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Description:
Wake of the Bones premiered in 2010 at Hudson Village Theatre in 2010 to critical acclaim. ”Wake of the Bones” is a musical drama, which details the haunting story of the discovery of a mass grave of Irish people, in 1859 near Montréal’s Griffintown, during the excavations for the Victoria Bridge. Only eleven years before building of the bridge began, six thousand Irish had perished in the “fever sheds” at Windmill Point, just as they were arriving in Québec, hoping they were safe from the potato famine which had half destroyed the Irish. This is the story of the rebirth of a community, through the burial of its own. It is often said that a people have only truly taken root in a place when they have buried their own in that place.
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Available in Manuscript format
The Flight of Peter Pumpkin-Eater
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Description:
Produced by Joe's Theatre, Tarragon Extra Space. Directed by Hamish Mc Ewan, a solo show. A 75 minute character-driven dialogue. The play drew national media attention.
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A one man show, in one act. Peter is concerned with violence all around him in the society, in hilarious, surreal remembrances and observations, we follow Peter's thinking as he comes to realize he is the most violent element in his life.
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Available in Manuscript format
Listen or Do You Have A Moment?
One-Act Play in Snappy Shorts at Tarragon Theatre
Compiled by Andy McKim
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ISBN-13: 978-0887547508
ISBN-10: 0887547508
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Publisher:
Playwrights Canada Press
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Description:
One-Act Play Produced by Tarragon Theatre for the Spring Arts Festival.
This is a remarkable volume of plays written by many of Canada's favorite and familiar playwrights, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Tarragon Theatre's annual Spring Arts Fair. This is a stimulating and diverse collection of 45 plays that premiered in the first 20 years of the fair. The book is a testament to Tarragon's commitment to the development of outstanding Canadian plays and playwrights.