Canadian Plays by Playwright:

Welcome to the Canadian Plays section where you will find plays published in English from across Canada and plays in translation from French Canada. Plays are listed by playwright, by last name.

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Canadian Anthologies

If you are unsure of the author's name, please to to our search engine and enter the title of the work you are interested in.

Private Jokes, Public Places
Oren Safdie
An architecture student. Her thesis. The jury. Private Jokes, Public Places is a scathing account of academia, intellectual arrogance, and the failure of postmodernist culture. M-3, F-1. 5.8 pp. $13.95.

Richard Sanger

Two Words for Snow
Richard Sanger
1935. Set in the American Museum of Natural History, while the Eskimo Room is undergoing renovation, this play examines the moral implications of an incident from 1897 where the polar explorer Robert Peary brought six Inuit back to New York to serve as a "living display" in the museum. M-6, F-1. Softcover, 72 pp. $12.95.

1837 A History / A Play
Rick Salutin
This unique book offers a splendid combination of history, drama and visual material in its portrayal of William Lyon Mackenzie and the 1837 revolution in Upper Canada. 264 pp. $19.95.

Les Canadiens
Rick Salutin
Hockey as a metaphor, the history of Quebec and Canada is traced through stick and puck. M-8 186 pp. $18.95.

Calling Home
Richard Sanger
Framed by an unusual dream sequence and ranging from the caustic to the tender, from ballads and monologues to childhood elegies, these various poems are thematically linked by the notion of what one calls home, and the idea itself that home can be a calling. 67 pp. $14.00.

Lokkinen
Barbara Sapergia
Lokkinen is the story of a man's obsession with his Finnish ancestry and his dreams of a northern farm. His fantasies almost destroy the four women who share a house with him. Lokkinen is also about the separate visions of these women, who range in age from adolescence to old age. M-2, F-4. 90 pp. $14.95.

Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God
Djanet Sears
A remarkable love, an incredible heist, an extraordinary funeral, and an impassioned search for answers to the profound mysteries of being alive. This beautiful and deeply moving story set in present-day Negro Creek, a 200-year-old Black community in Western Ontario. Rainy Baldwin-Johnson, a country doctor, struggles to come to terms with the loss of her daughter, the disintegration of her marriage, and an eccentric elderly father of an astonishing crusade.
M-6, F-4, chorus. $16.95.

Afrika Solo
Djanet Sears
A young black woman's voyage of self-discovery, as she questions where she came from and her relationship to the image of black people as portrayed on the screen.
101 pp. $9.95.

Harlem Duet
Djanet Sears
A prequel to Othello (he had a wife before Desdemona). "An ambitiously complex and satisfying work about interracial marriage, ghettos and the whitening of Black history and culture..." Variety. $14.95.
 

Talking Masks
Adam Seelig
Talking Masks is a dramatic score whose themes collide, clash and harmonize. At its core are a son, two mothers and an absent father who, in exploring their intertwined fates, fuse two of the world's most enduring myths: the tragedy of Oedipus and the tale of Isaac and Ishmael. What unfolds is a wild progression of rapid-fire interactions that reveal and expose as much as they conceal and mask about the charactors. Softcover, 78 pp. $15.00.

A Trilogy of Performances
Sandra Shamas
154 pp. $17.95.

 
Wit's End
Sandra Shamas
Acclaimed writer/performer Sandra Shamus displays her skills as a brilliant comedic storyteller in this hilarious yet heartfelt one-woman play. Softcover, 90 pp. $17.95.

 
 

Mourning Dove
Emil Sher
Inspired by a true story, Mourning Dove explores the unspeakable dilemma faced by Doug Ramsay, the father of a severely disabled girl. When he takes matters in his own hands, no one is prepared for the fallout. Controversial and challenging, Mourning Dove is a timely reminder of the theatre to transform age-old questions into art.
$16.95.

Making Waves: Three Radio Plays
Emil Sher
The three plays in Making Waves are all centered on characters who have made waves by taking a moral stand rooted in an unshakable belief. Drawn from national headlines that caused passionate debates across the country, the stories in Making Waves go beyond the facts of the stories to explore the human soul. They are Mourning Dove, Denial is a River and Past Imperfect.
138 pp. $18.99

Sanctuary
Emil Sher
June, an emotionally bruised woman, retreats to a secluded spot in a park for some time alone. For the past year, Philip has sketched her from a distance. They finally meet with fiery results. M-1, F-1. 21 pp. $10.99.

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Jason Sherman

Patience
Jason Sherman
Called the most important play of the 1998 Toronto season, Patience gives us the world of Reuben who 'has it all' till one day his universe tumbles with almost biblical abruptness. How does Reuben put it all back together again in our spiritually brutal age? $14.95.

It's All True
Jason Sherman
This time, the award winning playwright turns his imagination to the fabled story of Marc Blitzstrein's and Orson Welles' production of The Cradle Will Rock and the controversy which surrounded it in 1937 New York when the US government padlocked their theatre. $14.95.

Reading Hebron
Jason Sherman
A Toronto Jew 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. "Compelling, challenging, thought provoking, terrifying. " The Toronto Sun. $14.95.

The League of Nathans
Jason Sherman
Three guys, all named Nathan form a league for life, then split up in their late teens. Seven years later they reunite in Spain... "An articulate and sensitive examination of the multi-facetted nature of loyalty." $12.95.

Three in the Back, Two in the Head
Jason Sherman
Winner of the 1995 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama. "A beguiling debate on state morality versus personal morality and the themes of loyalty and betrayal." The Toronto Star. "Chilling." Theatre Week. $12.95.
 

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Larry's Party
Book by Richard Ouzounian, Music by Marek Norman
Based on the novel by Carol Shields
The bestselling novel has been transformed into a musical which equals the charm, humour and compassion found in the original by award winning novelist Carol Shields. The story of Larry Weller, the master mazemaker, is a rich source for Ouzounian's thoughtful lyrics and Norman's moving score. Nine performers play the wide range of characters who Larry meets on his unique journey through life. The libretto features music for four of the songs featured in the show. Larry's Party moves audiences to laughter and tears while experiencing a journey common to many. $16.95.

Thirteen Hands and other Plays
Carol Shields
From one of Canada's most beloved authors comes this collection of four delightful plays: Thirteen Hands, Departures and Arrivals, Anniversary, and Fashion, Power, Guilt and the Charity of Families. 416 pp. $24.95.

Hot off the Press! Congratulations to Erin Shields
2011 Governor General's Award Winner Drama
If We Were Birds
Erin Shields
If We Were Birdsis a shocking, uncompromising examination of the horrors of war, giving voice to a woman long ago forced into silence and placing a spotlight on countless female victims who have been silenced through violence. This adaptation of Ovid's poetic masterpiece features a chorus of ravaged women, each a survivor of 20th C conflict. 7 F; 2 M. $16.95.

Crabdance
Beverley Simons
Crabdance is a tragicomedy in three acts in which a lonely, middle-aged woman plays elaborate, ritualistic games with three men whom she forces to play the roles of her son, husband and her lover. M-3, F-1. 122 pp. $16.95.



Birthright
Constance Lindsay Skinner
In the British Columbia frontier in 1905, missionary Robert Maclean has an ever-increasing foothold of power and influence. Into the swirling melee of shifting allegiances steps Precious Conroy, Maclean's adopted daughter. She is unaware that she was sent away for schooling to avoid the shame and discrimination which would occur should the secret get out that she is part Native. The son of the local chief, himself the product of a mixed marriage, is in love with her but so too is the son of the house. What will happen when, as it must, the secret of her parentage gets out? M-5, F-5. Softcover, 84 pp. $16.95.

Running To Paradise
E. Smyth
A one-woman play exploring the life of Pulitzer-prize-winning writer Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979). 69 pp. $9.95.

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Gas Girls
Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
"Love for gas, gas for cash, cash for living, living for love." Two women in Zimbabwe do what it takes to survive, and inspire each other to find joy on the edges of survival in this dark, ponderous, and stirring play. 2M 2F. Softcover, 70 pp. $16.95.

Urban Myths: Anton & No Cycle
Harry Standjofski
Simultaneously serious and self-mocking, Anton is a sexy and wickedly funny play. M-2, F-3. No Cycle is a cycle of five stories after the classic Noh theatre of Japan. 111 pp. $14.95.

Hunter Of Peace
Sharon Stearns
This play is inspired by the real-life adventures of a turn-of-the-century botanist and explorer Mary Shaffer Warren, a U.S. widow who, in 1907, led a dangerous expedition to the headwaters of the Athabasca River, then married a much younger man and settled in Banff, Alberta. M-2, F-4. 80 pp. $12.95.

 
The Harps of God
Kent Stetson
The Harps of God poses the question, what does it take to survive? How does an individual find the will to survive in a hopeless and absurd scenario? Beliefs that the men relied on to survive in their isolated fishing villages are put to the test on the desolate icefield under a curtain of cold. Those who are angry, hateful, vengeful, and hopeless lose the courage or strength to survive; however, those who accept the impossible and develop a particular urge to defy it, those are the true survivors. M-14. Winner of the 2001 Governor General's Award in Literature. Softcover, 135 pp. $16.95.
 

Midlife
Eugene Stickland
The landscape of middle-aged male bravado and angst that Eugene Stickland populates here with Calgary oilmen and their romantic difficulties has been visited before; however, rarely has it been visited in dramatic form with the combination of broad humour and gentle wit that Stickland brings to this comedy. 83 pp. $19.95.

Some Assembly Required
Eugene Stickland
Mom and Dad aren't going to have Christmas this year -- or so they think. When their three grown-up children unexpectedly return home Christmas Eve -- and hide out down in the basement with the barbed-wire, Barbies & BB gun -- it seems that Christmas might just happen after all. M-3, F-2. 78 pp. $19.95.

The Glorious 12th
Raymond Storey
$12.95.

The Saints & Apostles
Raymond Storey
The Saints & Apostles is a contemporary love story, complicated by the age of HIV infection. This is a warm and moving tale about the ultimate fear of intimacy which re-examines modern relationships, and the power and the limitations of love. M-3, F-2. 91 pp. $6.95.

The Girls in the Gang
Raymond Storey
Toronto, 1950 -- be-bop and bank robbery. The members of the notorious Boyd gang are capturing the hearts and minds of the public and all the headlines. This is the story of the women they loved and left behind, and of their passionate and desperate lives. M-4, F-4. 25.0 pp. $15.95.

Dreamland
Raymond Storey
Memories of a formerly grand, cottage country, dance pavilion weave through past and present, as the owner, Rose, grows to accept the demise of Dreamland. M-15., F-1.1, extras 133 pp. $16.95.

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Canada Split
Allan Stratton
Read together, A Flush of Tories and Rexy! form comic bookends, the first viewing our current dilemmas in the context of Conservative leadership in the last century; the second, in the context of more recent Liberal leadership.. $14.95.

The Phoenix Lottery
Allan Stratton
Edgar Beamish dies, leaving his empire to his estranged son, Junior, who launches a charitable foundation with company assets. Disaster ensues; bankrupcy is certain. But Junior has a fundraising inspiration, The Phoenix lottery, which offers its winner a chance to torch a prized van Gogh at a live event, and to sell the story to TV, tabloids and Hollywood. Junior has an ally in artist Lydia Spark. But powerful enemies include the slippery Vatican envoy Cardinal Wichita, the ghost of Junior's father - and the spirit of van Gogh himself.
91 pp. $14.95.

Bingo!
Allan Stratton
A young professor has his goals of stability and tenure thrown into chaos by a student, a collegue, his boss and an insurance salesman with a wife addicted to bingo. M-3, F-2. 93 pp. $11.99.

Papers
Allan Stratton
Two lonely and witty would-be lovers struggle with their mutual inability to communicate. M-1, F-2. 95 pp. $11.99.

Two Plays
Eugene Strickland
In Sitting on Paradise, Roy, a business man, and Wolf, his spiritual mentor, develop plans for Synchonicity Ridge, a commune for the millenium. All is well until Roy's wife, Dotty, hears of it. A Guide to Mourning is a dark comedy whose backdrop is the death of a father and husband. Winner of four Betty Mitchell Awards. 166 pp. $12.95.

Herr Beckmann's People
Sally Stubbs
Art, war, and the politics of culture collide in this moving account of a family's legacy of beauty and brutality. 2M 3F. Softcover, 94 pp. $14.95.

Wreckage
Sally Stubbs
A mysterious train wreck. A red suitcase. A ghost that sings Puccini. Nothing is quite what it seems in this surprising, highly original "gangster" play by award winning playwright Sally Stubbs. Wreckage is wild genre-crossing train ride through a dickensian vision of Vancouver's underbelly. Softcover, $14.95.

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Last modified July 18, 2012.
Please note that all prices are in Canadian dollars. All prices are subject to change without notice.