Scirocco Drama
Une femme et un homme s’affrontent pour raconter une blague en apparence banale : A Man Walks Into a Bar.
Sur un quai de gare désert, une vieille femme en sari blanc, chargée d’une valise usée et d’un coffret à bijoux, rate son train. Quand une jeune fille surgit et lui dit : *« Je pars avec toi.
St-Pétersbourg, 1905. Vasley, jeune orphelin naïf, débarque en ville et se retrouve pris entre révolutionnaires et tsaristes. Une comédie noire où la survie se joue entre trahisons et idéaux, sur fond de société au bord de l’implosion.
Quand la naissance de deux bisons blancs sur une réserve du Saskatchewan bouleverse tout : miracle ancestral ou manipulation génétique ?
Deux cousines mohawks, l’une sur la réserve, l’autre en ville après un drame familial, se retrouvent dans une ruelle de Toronto.
New York, 1950. Anne Frank a survécu à la guerre et tente de reconstruire sa vie à 25 ans. Entre l’envie de publier son récit et les compromis imposés par un éditeur, elle se bat pour faire entendre sa voix.
Et si on pouvait calculer le prix de l’amour ? Haley McGee, endettée, organise un vide-grenier des cadeaux de ses ex. Entre humour et autodérision, elle interroge : nos relations amoureuses valent-elles vraiment ce qu’elles nous coûtent ?
À Harlem, entre Martin Luther King et Malcolm X, Harlem Duet revisite le mythe d’Othello avant Desdémone. Billie, épouse abandonnée, incarne la lutte entre amour, race et identité. Une tragédie blues, primée et saisissante.
Joyce, Effie and BB are cowgirl goddesses on Mount Olympus who lament that the heroines of rodeos past are all but forgotten. It's a cowboy's world. Cocky steer-ropers have stolen the spotlight down on earth for long enough. The goddesses decide to use their considerable supernatural powers to give rise to a cowgirl revolution. When they discover Cassidy Clark, a talented, charismatic loner from Claresholm, they know they have found the barrel racer poised to lead their cause. The three goddesses appear to her one day, offering her all the gifts she will need to earn her first buckle at the Canadian Finals Rodeo championship. Cassidy and her trusty mare, Starbright rise to the top of the circuit, throwing back shots of Jack Daniels and two-stepping along the way... but just how far will Cassidy push herself and Starbright in pursuit of their dream?Co-created with Meg Braem and Christine Brubaker.
Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ DramaIt is 2150 in M-City, a society without gender where everyone uses the pronoun ish. When two historians discover an abandoned millennium-era house, they hatch a plan to turn the building into a museum that re-enacts life in the year 2000. The historians gather a group of locals, including a student, an engineer, and a community elder, to restore the building and animate the site for local visitors. Together, the volunteers explore the fashion, furnishing, and family roles of their millennial forebears, all through the lens of binary gender roles. But the project turns risky when one of the historians and the youngest volunteer start to explore illegal sexual acts in secret. When the others discover what they've been up to, they must decide if the project can go ahead or if it threatens to upend the values of their society.
Misty Lake tells the story of a young Metis journalist from Winnipeg who travels to a Dene reserve in Northern Manitoba to conduct an interview with a former residential school student. What Mary imparts in her interview will change Patty's life profoundly, allowing the journalist to make the connections to her own troubled life in the city. Patty knows that her Metis grandmother went to residential school when she was a girl. But Patty hasn't understood until now that she's inherited the traumatic legacy of residential school that was passed down to her mother from her grandmother. With this new understanding, Patty embarks on a healing journey. It will take her to the Dene fishing camp at Misty Lake, a place of healing, where, with Mary, she will learn that healing begins when you can talk about your life.
A man is at a silent meditation retreat where participants are not supposed to speak or communicate in any other way with each other for ten days. His recent terminal cancer diagnosis has made him acutely aware of the need for community and human interaction, but his thoughts are his only company. In this poignant and surprisingly funny solo play, Brooks invites us to bear witness as he explores the anxieties and joys of loving and living, and the inevitability of dying.
What if a fighter jet vanishes in 1956 and, after a brief inquiry by the Royal Canadian Air Force, it is decided that the plane and its two pilots are at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and, thus, gone: case closed? What if the young wife of one of the pilots refuses to accept that her husband is dead? What if, years later, it becomes clear that the plane crashed in the wild Callaghan Lake country near Whistler Mountain and the pilots, or at least one of them, survived that crash and maybe, just maybe, could have made it out and home if the official response had been less hasty?Inspired by the mysterious disappearance of the playwright's pilot-father in a routine flight from the Comox Base on Vancouver Island, Our Ghosts is at once a taut investigative tale, a moving testament to the love and tenacity of a woman determined to uncover the truth, and a daughter's journey toward learning to live with her ghosts.
our place by Kanika Ambrose is a new work set in a fictional Caribbean restaurant, Jerk Pork Castle in Scarborough, where newcomers Andrea and Niesha work in exchange for cash under the table. As the two women scrape out a life in Canada, leaving their children in their Caribbean homelands, they must also navigate their status as undocumented workers. This funny, keenly observant script unveils the lives of these undocumented Caribbean workers who go to desperate lengths to get Canadian citizenship for the betterment of their children-a moving, timely story of those rendered invisible in a "welcoming" Canada.
In August 2000, Liza Balkan witnessed the beating death of a man named Otto Vass during an altercation with the police in the west end of Toronto. Called to the witness stand on a number of occasions over several years, Balkan found herself needing to delve more deeply into what had happened. Seven years after the incident she started a creative journey, inviting others into a multi-year process of turning verbatim court transcripts, audio, video, and text derived from interviews with lawyers, officers, family members of the deceased, activists and artists, into a documentary theatre project that examines policing and police violence, use of force, mental illness, racism, the justice system, witnessing, and memory.This book chronicles this project's process through its various iterations and includes the script from The Theatre Centre/Luminato Festival co-production in Toronto in 2018, directed by Sarah Garton Stanley.
For the past three years, Charlie and her two roommates have been running a secret online girl group, "Tell Us What Happened," which boasts over 400 members and prides itself on being a safe space for young women to disclose their stories and support each other. Tensions rise when a handful of members come to realize they have all been sexually mistreated by the same guy--and that guy happens to be Charlie's best friend, Josh. Alliances are stretched to the breaking point as the girls pursue justice while Josh and Charlie fight for their friendship.Tell Us What Happened is a charged investigation into the mechanics of sexual assault reconciliation in the age of social media.
In this absurd and apocalyptic young-adult comedy filled with dazzling wit and wild imagination, two teenaged outsiders at "one of the worst schools in the country" seem to be the only ones who understand or care that the whole world is a mess. Joan responds by attacking everyone around her: Olivier retreats. But when they are forced to run against each other for student council, it unleashes their determination to change: the system, and themselves.
The place is a porch in Little Current on Manitoulin Island, where city-transplants Glenda and Suzanne have lived together since Suzanne arrived single, penniless and pregnant thirty-three years previous, moving in with Glenda and her late husband, Mark. While one is warm and industrious and the other brash and prone to late mornings, the sisters are nevertheless devoted to one another and spend laughter-filled days swapping stories about the locals and roping their appealing veterinarian neighbour, Patrick into various chores. This summer, an imminent visit from Suzanne's daughter, Beth, a doctor from Toronto, is about to complicate things. Not only do Suzanne and Beth clash over everything, starting with Beth's choice of pants, the sisters have recently been harbouring a weighty secret. When Beth arrives, it becomes clear that they aren't the only ones. Amid a busy reunion week that includes a wild wedding, medicinal experimentation and a budding romance between the two doctors, the women are eventually forced to confront truths that will change all four lives forever. Where You Are is a hilarious and honest exploration of family, forgiveness and falling in love.
Culture, science, and commerce collide when twin white buffalo calves are born on a First Nations ranch in Saskatchewan. Are they the sign of the prophecy or the results of genetic manipulation? As crowds of pilgrims gather to witness what they hope is a miracle in action, the reserve's veterinarian, Dr. Vanessa Brokenhorn, must do all that she can to protect her research and the twin calves.
"I swear, I absolutely swear that hope has a sound..." It's October 1991, and the residents of Casey House, Canada's first free-standing AIDS hospice, have woken up to the life-changing news that Princess Diana will be paying them a visit. Inspired by incredible true events, Casey and Diana is the story of compassion, kindness, community, and forgiveness in the face of devastating loss.
Finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for DramaFinalist for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New PlayAt the beginning of the 20th century in China, copies of Ibsen's A Doll's House began circulating secretly amongst women in tea-houses. In China Doll, Marjorie Chan's first play, Ibsen is a catalyst for a young woman who comes to see her future in terms other than those laid out for her by the patriarchal society in which she lives. Su-Ling, an open-minded and intelligent young woman in Shanghai, has her feet bound by her grandmother, Poa-Poa. Despite the pain and the crippling effects, custom decrees that the smaller and daintier the foot, the more marriageable the woman. (The most desirable, "lotus feet," fit into lotus shoes only 3-4 inches long). Poa-Poa has high hopes that her granddaughter will marry well and bring prosperity to them both. Then Su-Ling meets the merchant Li, who enlarges her world by teaching her to read. As Su-Ling grows into womanhood, she makes choices that lead her toward independence, and which have consequences for everyone in her world.
Dying to be Thin is a witty and inspirational look behind locked doors into the secret life of a young teenager battling with the eating disorder Bulimia. Written from the author's own personal experience, the play unfolds to tell the poignant story of Amanda, as she sets out to have her "Last Ever in Her Whole Life Binge."
Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for DramaLife is tense on the Partridge Crop Reserve. The Chief is in Las Vegas (again), the band is in receivership, and there's a move on to unilaterally declare self-government. And now that the welfare cheques have gone missing, the people of this fictional First Nation are forced to take control of their lives. fareWel is a raw and funny look at a group of ordinary people tackling some extraordinarily big issues.
A hard-boiled 1940s Manhattan newspaperman, sent to photograph a crime scene, goes on the lam with the suspect in Morwyn Brebner's new hit play-the first-ever film noir/social drama/musical comedy! Little Mercy Callaghan has led a sheltered life. But her fugitive night with Weegee takes her from a four-alarm fire to a high society gala... and a nightclub where the floor show isn't the only entertainment. An hilarious romp from one of Canadian theatre's truly original young voices, Little Mercy's First Murder celebrates an awakening to the world in all its seedy magnificence.
Finalist for the Governor General's Award for DramaMother Tongue is a unique and innovative play that weaves together Cantonese, English and American Sign Language. It is about family loyalties, youthful dreams, and generational and cultural differences.Set in Vancouver, it follows the life of a widowed middle-aged mother and her two children, Mimi, an aspiring architecture student, and 16-year-old Steve who lost his hearing at age 11.
Miskozi is searching for something...There's something missing.And she's not sure what it is.She goes on a search for herself and her culture, accompanied by her inner white girl, Waabishkizi, and guided by Ziibi, a manifestation of an ancestral river, both provoking her to try and find the answers.She begins the journey back before she was even born, right at the seeds of colonization when her ancestors were forced to hide their culture anywhere they could.Burying their language.Their teachings.Their bundles.Their moccasins.White Girls in Moccasins is a hilarious and poignant reclamation story that world-hops between dreams, memories, and a surreal game show. Miskozi recounts her life and is forced to grapple with her own truth, while existing in a society steeped in white supremacy.A love letter to brown kids born in the 80s, surviving in the 90s and all those continuing to deeply reclaim.
Canadian Rajah is the incredible -- and true -- story of Esca Brooke Daykin. He was the first-born son of the legendary "White Rajah of Sarawak" but was exiled from that country (a British colony, now part of Malaysia) to the backwoods of Eastern Ontario. Esca's very existence was erased from his birth country's history books. He waged a lifelong battle to have his true identity and parentage recognized. Esca's life spans continents, races, generations and centuries -- and only now is it being told.
The War Being Waged is a poetic and unflinchingly truthful examination of what happens when patriotism and sovereignty collide. An Indigenous mother becomes an activist while her brother becomes a soldier. A grandmother speaks to her granddaughter from prison. A granddaughter, filled with turmoil, struggles to accept her family's history. Three generations of Indigenous women try to connect the pieces of their lives after experiencing all the ways Canada has torn them apart.
A dramatic and often humourous look at six black Canadians of diverse backgrounds who share a Toronto house. Their lives unfold against the backdrop of civil unrest which erupted when the Lost Angeles police officers on trial for the beating of Rodney King are acquitted. The fracas outside keeps intruding as characters clash, collide, and swap jokes about everything from racism to the status of Quebec as a distinct society, from Malcolm X to The Road to Avonlea.
Venus' Daughter is inspired by the life of Sara "Saartjie" Baartman, who was known as "The Hottentot Venus". Baartman was a Khoisan woman taken from South Africa to be displayed on London stages from 1810 to 1815; she was then posthumously displayed at the Musee de l'Homme in Paris, France until 2002. The story follows Denise, a young Black woman guided by an ancestor to begin her journey into self-love. Exploring the intersection of myth, fable, and the reality of how women and their bodies are viewed, Venus' Daughter peels back the layers of pop culture's obsession with the Black female form and the silence around the infamous figure, making connections through the centuries.
In Anishnaabemowin, Okinum means dam. In deciphering a recurring dream about beavers, Émilie Monnet discovers how to break down interior barriers, to trust in the power of intuition, and to deconstruct cultural walls. A circular and immersive experience that interweaves three languages -- English, French and Anishnaabemowin -- Okinum is an ode to reclaiming language and reconnecting to one's ancestors.
While revisiting the shores of Juno Beach, Jake, a Canadian World War II veteran, encounters a precocious ten-year-old from the local village. Isabelle's inquisitive nature challenges the old soldier to confront some long-ignored ghosts--most notably, the wartime death of his eldest brother. By revealing the very personal story behind one soldier's grave, Jake's Gift takes us to the heart of remembrance.