List of Canadian plays
Encyclopedia
Canada has a vibrant theatre scene with notable experimental
, fringe
and other alternative forms. Indeed, the largest fringe festival in North America is the Edmonton International Fringe Festival
.
This is an incomplete list of plays created by Canadian
playwrights.
Experimental theatre
Experimental theatre is a general term for various movements in Western theatre that began in the late 19th century as a retraction against the dominant vent governing the writing and production of dramatical menstrophy, and age in particular. The term has shifted over time as the mainstream...
, fringe
Fringe theatre
Fringe theatre is theatre that is not of the mainstream. The term comes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which name comes from Robert Kemp, who described the unofficial companies performing at the same time as the second Edinburgh International Festival as a ‘fringe’, writing: ‘Round the fringe...
and other alternative forms. Indeed, the largest fringe festival in North America is the Edmonton International Fringe Festival
Edmonton International Fringe Festival
The Edmonton International Fringe Festival produced by the Fringe Theatre Adventures is an annual event held every August in Edmonton, Alberta in Canada....
.
This is an incomplete list of plays created by Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
playwrights.
- 7 Stories7 Stories7 Stories is a play created by Canadian playwright Morris Panych.-Plot:The protagonist is standing on the ledge on the seventh story of a tall building, contemplating leaping to his death...
by Morris PanychMorris PanychStephen Morris Panych is a Canadian playwright, director and actor.Morris Panych was born in Calgary and grew up in Edmonton. He studied at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, and the University of British Columbia... - Beatrice ChancyBeatrice ChancyBeatrice Chancy is a 1999 Canadian opera. The libretto was written by George Elliott Clarke, and the music by James Rolfe.Based on Percy Bysshe Shelley's play The Cenci, which was itself based on the true story of Beatrice Cenci, the opera transplants the story from 16th century Italy to the...
by George Elliot Clarke - Being at Home with ClaudeBeing at Home with ClaudeBeing at Home with Claude is a 1992 Canadian drama film directed by Jean Beaudin and based on the play by René-Daniel Dubois.The film stars Roy Dupuis as Yves, a gay man who has just murdered his lover Claude , and is attempting to explain his reasons to the police investigator .At the 13th Genie...
by René-Daniel DuboisRené-Daniel DuboisRené-Daniel Dubois is a Québécois playwright and actor.-Movie career:He is best known for his 1985 play Being at Home with Claude, which was adapted into an award-winning film in 1992 and the 2009 Thriller drama 5150 Elm's Way... - Les Belles-soeursLes Belles-soeursLes Belles-soeurs is a two-act play written by Michel Tremblay in 1965. It was Tremblay's first professionally produced work and remains his most popular and most translated work. The play has had a profound effect on Quebec language, culture and theatre. Les Belles-soeurs premiered at Théâtre...
by Michel TremblayMichel TremblayMichel Tremblay, CQ is a Canadian novelist and playwright.Tremblay grew up in the Plateau Mont-Royal, a French-speaking neighbourhood of Montreal, at the time of his birth a neighbourhood with a working-class character and joual dialect, something that would heavily influence his work...
(produced in ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
as The Guid-Sisters) - Billy Bishop Goes to WarBilly Bishop Goes to WarBilly Bishop Goes to War is a Canadian musical, written by John MacLachlan Gray and Eric Peterson. One of the most famous and widely-produced plays in Canadian theatre, it dramatizes the life of Canadian World War I fighter pilot Billy Bishop....
by John MacLachlan Gray with Eric PetersonEric PetersonEric Neal Peterson, C.M. is a Canadian stage and television actor, known for his roles in three major Canadian series – Street Legal, Corner Gas and This is Wonderland.-Personal life:... - Blood on the Moon by Pierre Brault
- Blood RelationsBlood Relations (play)Blood Relations is a psychological murder mystery by Sharon Pollock. The play is based on historical fact and speculation surrounding the life of Lizzie Borden and the murders of her father and stepmother, crimes with which Borden was charged....
by Sharon PollockSharon PollockSharon Pollock is a Canadian playwright, actor, director, who lives in Calgary, Alberta. She has been Artistic Director of Theatre Calgary , Theatre New Brunswick and Performance Kitchen & The Garry Theatre, the latter which she herself founded in 1992. In 2007, she was made a Fellow of the Royal... - Butler's Marsh by Robert ChafeRobert ChafeRobert Chafe is a Canadian playwright. His play Afterimage won the Governor General's Award for English language drama at the 2010 Governor General's Awards. He was previously nominated for the same award at the 2004 Governor General's Awards for his plays Butler's Marsh and Tempting Providence.He...
- The Canvas BarricadeThe Canvas BarricadeThe Canvas Barricade is a two-act play by Donald Jack. It won a Canadian play-writing competition held jointly by The Globe and Mail and the Stratford Festival, and had a six-performance run at the Stratford Festival in 1961. It was the first original Canadian play produced at Stratford...
by Donald JackDonald JackDonald Lamont Jack was a Canadian novelist and playwright.He was born in Radcliffe, Bury, England and grew up in Britain, attending the well regarded Bury Grammar School and Marr College and later serving in the RAF in World War II .After the war he emigrated to Canada in 1951, and became a... - The Crackwalker by Judith ThompsonJudith ThompsonJudith Clare Thompson, OC is a Canadian playwright who lives in Toronto, Ontario. Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail once declared that "...in this country, a playwright as good as Judith Thompson is a miracle." She has twice been awarded the Governor General's Award for drama, and is the...
- Cranked by Michael P. Northey
- The Drawer BoyThe Drawer BoyThe Drawer Boy is a play by Michael Healey. It is a two-act play set in 1972 on a farm near Clinton, Ontario. There are only three characters: the farm's two owners, Morgan and Angus, and Miles Potter, a young actor from Toronto doing research for a collectively created theatre piece about...
by Michael HealeyMichael HealeyMichael Healey is a Canadian playwright and actor. He graduated from the acting programme at Toronto's Ryerson Theatre School in 1985. His acting credits include the plays of Jason Sherman and George F... - Departures and Arrivals by Carol ShieldsCarol ShieldsCarol Ann Shields, CC, OM, FRSC, MA was an American-born Canadian author. She is best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award in Canada.-Biography:Shields was born in Oak Park, Illinois...
- Doc by Sharon PollockSharon PollockSharon Pollock is a Canadian playwright, actor, director, who lives in Calgary, Alberta. She has been Artistic Director of Theatre Calgary , Theatre New Brunswick and Performance Kitchen & The Garry Theatre, the latter which she herself founded in 1992. In 2007, she was made a Fellow of the Royal...
- The Donnellys by James ReaneyJames ReaneyJames Crerar Reaney was an influential Canadian poet, playwright, librettist, and professor, "whose works transform small-town Ontario life into the realm of dream and symbol."...
- Drag Queens on Trial by Sky GilbertSky GilbertSchuyler Lee Gilbert, Jr. is a Canadian writer, actor, academic and drag performer. Born in Norwich, Connecticut, he studied theatre in Toronto, Ontario at York University and the University of Toronto, before becoming co-founder and artistic director of Buddies in Bad Times, a Toronto theatre...
- Dry Lips Oughta Move to KapuskasingDry Lips Oughta Move to KapuskasingDry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing is a play by Tomson Highway, which premiered in 1989 at Theatre Passe-Muraille in Toronto.Set in the fictional Wasaychigan Hill reserve in Northern Ontario, Dry Lips is a companion piece to Highway's earlier play The Rez Sisters...
by Tomson HighwayTomson HighwayTomson Highway, CM is a celebrated Canadian and Cree playwright, novelist, and children's author. He is the author of the plays The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, both of which won him the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Floyd S... - Earshot by Morris PanychMorris PanychStephen Morris Panych is a Canadian playwright, director and actor.Morris Panych was born in Calgary and grew up in Edmonton. He studied at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, and the University of British Columbia...
- Eight Men SpeakEight Men SpeakEight Men Speak is a Canadian play written in 1933 by a committee of Oscar Ryan, E. Cecil-Smith, Frank Love and Mildred Goldberg. Although the play made only one performance in its initial run, the attempts by the authorities to suppress it backfired into a political embarrassment for the Canadian...
- Einstein's GiftEinstein's GiftEinstein's Gift is a play written by Canadian playwright Vern Thiessen in 2003. Through the recollections of Albert Einstein, the play focuses on the life and career of German chemist Dr. Fritz Haber, who helped improve living conditions with his work on nitrogen fixation...
by Vern ThiessenVern ThiessenVern Thiessen is a Canadian playwright.Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Thiessen studied at the University of Winnipeg and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. He later attended the University of Alberta, where he obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree.Thiessen currently lives in Edmonton, Alberta and was... - Elizabeth RexElizabeth RexElizabeth Rex is a play by Timothy Findley.The plot involves a meeting between Queen Elizabeth I and an actor from Shakespeare's troupe who specializes in playing women's parts...
by Timothy FindleyTimothy FindleyTimothy Irving Frederick Findley, OC, O.Ont was a Canadian novelist and playwright. He was also informally known by the nickname Tiff or Tiffy, an acronym of his initials.-Biography:... - The Ecstasy of Rita JoeThe Ecstasy of Rita JoeThe Ecstasy of Rita Joe is a drama by George Ryga. The play, in two acts, premiered at the Vancouver Playhouse, November 23, 1967. It was directed by George Bloomfield. The play has an important place in the history of modern Canadian theatre, as it was one of the first to address issues...
by George RygaGeorge RygaGeorge Ryga was a Canadian playwright and novelist.Ryga was born in Deep Creek near Athabasca, Alberta to poor Ukrainian immigrant parents. Unable to continue his schooling past grade six, he worked at a variety of jobs, including radio copywriter... - Fortune and Men's EyesFortune and Men's EyesFortune and Men's Eyes is a 1967 play and 1971 film by John Herbert about a young man's experience in prison, exploring themes of homosexuality and sexual slavery. The title comes from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 which begins with the line "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes". It has...
by John HerbertJohn Herbert (playwright)John Herbert was a Canadian playwright. Best known for Fortune and Men's Eyes, he wrote 24 plays, six of which were published.-External links:* *... - Fronteras Americanas by Guillermo VerdecchiaGuillermo VerdecchiaGuillermo Verdecchia is a Canadian theatre artist.Verdecchia was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and came to Canada at the age of two. He was raised in Kitchener, Ontario...
- Girl in the Goldfish BowlGirl in the Goldfish BowlGirl in the Goldfish Bowl is a 2003 Governor General's Award winning play by Canadian playwright Morris Panych.Set in Steveston, British Columbia near Vancouver in the 1960s, it tells the story of a young girl named Iris who is preoccupied with the events leading up to what she describes as “the...
by Morris PanychMorris PanychStephen Morris Panych is a Canadian playwright, director and actor.Morris Panych was born in Calgary and grew up in Edmonton. He studied at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, and the University of British Columbia... - The Glace Bay Miners' Museum by Wendy LillWendy LillWendy Lill is an award-winning Canadian playwright, screenwriter and radio dramatist who served as an NDP Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2004. Her stage plays have been performed extensively in theatres across Canada as well as internationally in such countries as Scotland, Denmark and Germany...
(adapted from the novel by Sheldon CurrieSheldon CurrieSheldon Currie is a Canadian author, critic and professor emeritus . His books include The Glace Bay Miners' Museum, The Company Store and Down the Coaltown Road. A movie, Margaret's Museum, was based on The Glace Bay Miners' Museum. Currie was born in Reserve Mines, Cape Breton as one of five...
) - Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)Goodnight Desdemona is a 1988 comedic play by Ann-Marie MacDonald in which Constance Ledbelly, a young English literature professor from Queen's University, goes on a subconscious journey of self-discovery....
by Ann-Marie MacDonaldAnn-Marie MacDonaldAnn-Marie MacDonald is a Canadian playwright, novelist, actor and broadcast journalist who lives in Toronto, Ontario. The daughter of a member of Canada's military, she was born at an air force base near Baden-Baden, West Germany.... - La guerre, yes sir! by Roch CarrierRoch CarrierRoch Carrier, OC is a Canadian novelist and author of "contes" . He is among the best known Quebec writers in English Canada....
- Leaving HomeLeaving HomeLeaving Home is a drama in two acts by Canadian playwright David French."The work is the first presented of what has come to be known as the Mercer Plays and was responsible not only for introducing a unique Canadian voice to the world, but also for proving that Canadian playwrights could write...
by David French - The Head, Guts and Soundbone Dance by Michael Cook
- I, ClaudiaI, ClaudiaI, Claudia is a successful one-woman play starring Kristen Thomson, which was adapted into a movie, shown on CBC's Opening Night and at the Toronto International Film Festival....
by Kristen ThomsonKristen ThomsonKristen Thomson is a Canadian actress and playwright.Thomson was born in Toronto, Ontario. She is known for her one-woman play I, Claudia, which was adapted to film in 2004... - The InvestigatorThe InvestigatorThe Investigator was a radio play written by Reuben Ship and first broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on May 30 of that year...
by Reuben ShipReuben ShipReuben Ship was a Canadian playwright and screenwriter best known for his 1954 radio satire The Investigator, which lampooned the Army-McCarthy Hearings and the anticommunist paranoia of the Second Red Scare.-Biography:... - Leaving HomeLeaving HomeLeaving Home is a drama in two acts by Canadian playwright David French."The work is the first presented of what has come to be known as the Mercer Plays and was responsible not only for introducing a unique Canadian voice to the world, but also for proving that Canadian playwrights could write...
by David French - Lillies by Michel-Marc Bouchard
- Lion in the StreetsLion in the StreetsLion in the Streets is a two-act play by award-winning Canadian playwright Judith Thompson and was workshopped as the first Public Workshop Project at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, Canada in May of 1990. It was then produced in its now published form one month later at the duMaurier Theatre...
by Judith ThompsonJudith ThompsonJudith Clare Thompson, OC is a Canadian playwright who lives in Toronto, Ontario. Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail once declared that "...in this country, a playwright as good as Judith Thompson is a miracle." She has twice been awarded the Governor General's Award for drama, and is the... - Moo by Sally Clark (playwright)Sally Clark (playwright)Sally Clark is a Canadian playwright and filmmaker.-Career:After moving to Toronto in 1973, Sally Clark served as playwright/dramaturge for Theatre Passe Muraille, the Shaw Festival, Nakai Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and Nightwood Theatre.Her plays have received two Dora Mavor Moore...
- Never Swim Alone by Daniel MacIvorDaniel MacIvorDaniel MacIvor is a Canadian actor, playwright, theatre director and film director. He was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia and educated at Dalhousie University in Halifax, and then at George Brown College in Toronto, Ontario....
- Not Wanted on the VoyageNot Wanted on the VoyageNot Wanted on the Voyage is a novel by Canadian author Timothy Findley, which presents a magic realist post-modern re-telling of the Great Flood in the biblical Book of Genesis. It was first published by Viking Canada in the autumn of 1984.-Plot summary:...
by Timothy FindleyTimothy FindleyTimothy Irving Frederick Findley, OC, O.Ont was a Canadian novelist and playwright. He was also informally known by the nickname Tiff or Tiffy, an acronym of his initials.-Biography:...
(adapted by Richard Rose and D.D. Kugler) - Nothing Sacred by George F. WalkerGeorge F. WalkerGeorge F. Walker, CM is a Canadian playwright and screenwriter. He is one of Canada's most prolific playwrights, and also one of the most widely produced Canadian dramatists both in Canada and internationally.-Early years:...
- One Man Star Wars Trilogy by Charles Ross
- Perfect PiePerfect PiePerfect Pie is a play written by Judith Thompson, and first staged at Toronto's Tarragon Theatre in 2000, with Judith Thompson also directing....
by Judith ThompsonJudith ThompsonJudith Clare Thompson, OC is a Canadian playwright who lives in Toronto, Ontario. Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail once declared that "...in this country, a playwright as good as Judith Thompson is a miracle." She has twice been awarded the Governor General's Award for drama, and is the... - Possible WorldsPossible Worlds (play)Possible Worlds, written in 1990 by John Mighton, is part murder mystery, part science-fiction, and part mathematical philosophy, and follows the multiple parallel lives of the mysterious George Barber. At the play's beginning, George is found dead, with his brain missing...
by John MightonJohn MightonJohn Mighton, OC is a Canadian author and mathematician. He is the founder of JUMP , a charitable organization that works to educate students in mathematics. He is the author of The Myth of Ability and The End of Ignorance... - The Rez SistersThe Rez SistersThe Rez Sisters is a two act play by Cree Canadian writer Tomson Highway, first performed on November 26, 1986 by Act IV Theatre Company and Native Earth Performing Arts....
by Tomson HighwayTomson HighwayTomson Highway, CM is a celebrated Canadian and Cree playwright, novelist, and children's author. He is the author of the plays The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, both of which won him the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Floyd S... - Rootless but Green Are the Boulevard Trees by Uma Parameswaran
- Same Time, Next YearSame Time, Next YearSame Time, Next Year is 1975 comedy play by Bernard Slade. The plot focuses on two people, married to others, who meet for a romantic tryst once a year for two dozen years.-Plot:...
by Bernard SladeBernard SladeBernard Slade is a Canadian playwright and screenwriter.Born in St. Catharines, Ontario, Slade began his career as an actor with the Garden Center Theatre in Vineland, Ontario. In the mid-1960s, he relocated to Hollywood and began to work as a writer for television sitcoms, including Bewitched... - Skydive by Kevin Kerr
- Studies in Motion by Kevin Kerr
- Suburban Motel by George F. WalkerGeorge F. WalkerGeorge F. Walker, CM is a Canadian playwright and screenwriter. He is one of Canada's most prolific playwrights, and also one of the most widely produced Canadian dramatists both in Canada and internationally.-Early years:...
- TamaraTamara (play)Tamara is a play by John Krizanc. It was premiered at Strachan House in Trinity-Bellwoods Park, Toronto, Canada on May 8, 1981 and published as a book the same year. Tamara won two Dora Mavor Moore Awards in 1982 -- one as outstanding new play, and another as outstanding production. In May, 1984,...
by John KrizancJohn KrizancJohn Krizanc is a Canadian playwright who established an international reputation with his non-linear work, Tamara. Its Toronto production won him a Dora Mavor Moore Award in 1982.-Writing career:... - TidelineTidelineA tideline refers to where two currents in the ocean converge. Driftwood, floating seaweed, foam, and other floating debris may accumulate, forming sinuous lines called tidelines...
by Wadji Mouawad - Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of LoveUnidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of LoveUnidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love is a 1989 stage play written by Canadian playwright Brad Fraser. Set in Edmonton, Alberta, the comedy-drama follows the lives of several sexually frustrated "thirty-somethings" who try to learn the meaning of love — during a time in which...
by Brad FraserBrad FraserBrad Fraser is a Canadian playwright, screenwriter and cultural commentator. He is one of the most widely produced Canadian playwrights both in Canada and internationally. Fraser's plays typically feature a harsh yet comical view of contemporary life in Canada, including frank depictions of... - Unity (1918) by Kevin Kerr
- Vigil by Morris PanychMorris PanychStephen Morris Panych is a Canadian playwright, director and actor.Morris Panych was born in Calgary and grew up in Edmonton. He studied at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, and the University of British Columbia...
(produced as Auntie and Me in the UK) - Yesterday the Children were DancingYesterday the Children were DancingYesterday the Children were Dancing, or Hier, les enfants dansaient, is a Canadian, specifically Québecois play by Gratien Gélinas.The story is about a member of parliament, Pierre Gravel, who is offered the post of Minister of Justice...
(Hier, les enfants dansaient) by Gratien GélinasGratien GélinasGratien Gélinas, was a Canadian author, playwright, actor, director, producer and administrator who is considered one of the founders of modern Canadian theatre and film....