FEMME FOLKS FEST
We love to read. We know you do too.
COVID-19 may have shuttered our festival but it can’t stop the power of the press – Playwrights Canada Press. We want to get these incredible femme-authored texts into your hands and not shutter them into a box back to a warehouse. To do so we are happy to offer 25% off regular price on all titles AND curb-side delivery in Waterloo Region.
What better way to celebrate World Theatre Day March 27?
Please note we have limited amounts of each selection.
Question about what plays you’d like to read? Feel free to reach out to our Literary Ambassador and 2019 Canada Council Playwright-in-Residence Deanna Kruger deanna@patthedog.org who will be delighted to make suggestions and answer any questions.
To Purchase:
Email rebecca@patthedog.org with the names of the play(s) you would like to order and the payment method you would like to use: PayPal (3% + $0.30 processing fee will apply) OR direct pay by Credit Card over the phone (3.4% + $0.15 processing fee will apply).
4000 Miles & After the Revolution by Amy Herzog – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
“After the Revolution is a smart, funny and provocative play. . . . Herzog deftly avoids simple-minded polemics in favor of richly detailed people who are as ready to examine their relationships as they are their consciences. “—Variety “A funny, moving new play . . . 4000 Miles is a quiet meditation on mortality. But it’s hardly a downer: Ms. Herzog’s altogether wonderful drama also illuminates how companionship can make life meaningful, moment by moment, in death’s discomforting shadow. “—The New York Times
Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God by Djanet Sears – $16.95 (25% off = $12.71)
From Governor General’s Literary Award–winning playwright Djanet Sears comes a beautiful and deeply moving story set in present-day Negro Creek, a two-hundred-year-old black community in Western Ontario. Rainey Baldwin-Jackson, a country doctor, struggles to come to terms with the loss of her daughter, the disintegration of her marriage, and an eccentric elderly father on an astonishing crusade.
Armstrong’s War by Colleen Murphy – $16.95 (25% off = $12.71)
After suffering an injury during a military tour of Afghanistan, Michael, a young soldier, is recovering in the rehabilitation wing of a hospital. The last thing he wants is to spend time with a twelve-year-old girl, but Halley, a spirited Pathfinder and self-described “reading fiend,” is eager to earn her community service badge. The pair is at odds from the start, but they find a shared interest in The Red Badge of Courage, the classic American Civil War novel, which spurs them to reveal their own stories. As their friendship grows, uncomfortable truths are exposed and questioned, redefining the meaning of courage and heroism.
Bang Bang by Kat Sandler – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
Lila, a young Black ex-cop, has been on leave from the police force ever since she shot an unarmed Black youth. She’s moved back in with her mother, Karen, and is drinking beer for breakfast. So when Tim, a white playwright, shows up at her door to casually inform her that his play inspired by her experience is being adapted into a movie, Lila’s trauma is dragged out for speculation once again. The star of the film, their ex-cop bodyguard and Karen are pulled into the fight, leading to an epic metatheatrical standoff in a living room play about a living room play about gun violence, police, art and appropriation.
Between the Sheets by Jordi Mand – $16.95 (25% off = $12.71)
Marion, a working mother with a special-needs child, has discovered a devastating secret: her husband Curtis has been engaging in a torrid love affair with none other than their son’s young teacher, Teresa. Armed with love notes between Curtis and Teresa, Marion shows up to a parent-teacher interview to confront the woman who may be the thread that unravels her life. What ensues is a gripping and raw confrontation between two women, one fighting to protect her family, the other fighting for the family she always wanted.
Bone Cage by Catherine Banks – $16.95 (25% off = $12.71)
Jamie is twenty-two years old and works twelve-hour shifts operating a wood processor, clear-cutting for pulp. At the end of each shift, he walks through the destruction he has created looking for injured birds and animals and rescues those he can. Jamie’s desire to escape this world is thwarted by his fear of leaving the place where he has some status.
Bone Cage examines how young people in rural communities, employed in the destruction of the environment they love, treat the people they love at the end of their shift. Bone Cage is about the difficulty in growing and hanging on to dreams in a world where dreams are seen as impractical or weak. It is funny. It is tragic. It is about different kinds of escaping. It is about a soul trapped in its own rib cage, a cage of bone, a Bone Cage.
Brothel #9 by Anusree Roy – $16.95 (25% off = $12.71)
A deal has been struck between two men in India—twenty-one hundred rupees in exchange for a young village woman named Rekha. Sent to Calcutta without knowing why, Rekha finds herself in the confines of a brothel with Jamuna, a prostitute and madam, who is resigned to her trade. In these conditions, Rekha must shape her destiny and find inner liberty.
Bunny by Hannah Moscovitch – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
Sorrel grew up with professor parents, where carob was dessert, reading passages of Canadian poetry aloud was entertainment, and canoeing was the only sport encouraged. No one really noticed the studious Sorrel until she turned seventeen, when late puberty suddenly transformed her into a hot dork. Boys wanted her and girls loathed her, and all at once Sorrel discovered the joys of sexuality and the pain of social rejection.
Sorrel enters college as a self-proclaimed loser with no female friends, but then she meets Maggie. Maggie’s unwavering friendship helps her shed her inhibitions and become more truly herself. The two women grow older, but when Maggie is diagnosed with cancer, Sorrel must choose between raw feeling and devotion.
Clean House and Other Plays by Sarah Ruhl – $28.95 (25% off = $21.71)
This volume is the first publication of Sarah Ruhl, “a playwright with a unique comic voice, perspective, and sense of theater” (Variety), who is fast leaving her mark on the American stage. In the award-winning Clean House—a play of uncommon romance and uncommon comedy—a maid who hates cleaning dreams about creating the perfect joke, while a doctor who treats cancer leaves his heart inside one of his patients. This volume also includes Eurydice, Ruhl’s reinvention of the tragic Greek tale of love and loss, together with a third play still to be named.
Cost of Living by Martyna Majok – SOLD OUT
Overworked but struggling, Jess takes a job as a caregiver for John, a brusque but bright graduate student who has cerebral palsy. Eddie is an unemployed truck driver who reaches a fragile détente with his estranged wife Ani after a devastating car accident requires her to go through a double above-the-knee amputation. With an unsentimental but keen eye, Majok deftly challenges the typical perceptions of those living with disabilities and delves deep into the ways class, race, nationality, and wealth (or lack thereof) can create gulfs between people, even as they long for the ability to connect.
Crackwalker by Judith Thompson – $16.95 (25% off = $12.71)
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.
Da Kink in My Hair by trey anthony – $15.95 (25% off = $11.96)
Set in a West Indian hair salon in Toronto, da Kink in my hair gives voice to a group of women who tell us their unforgettable, moving, and often hilarious stories. Mixing laughter and tears—and told in words, music, and dance—the stories explore the hardship, struggles, and joys of black women’s lives.
December Man by Colleen Murphy – $16.95 (25% off = $12.71)
Using humour and the humdrum of everyday life, Murphy intuitively moves backwards in time to the fateful day when Jean, the only ray of hope in this working-class family, escaped the massacre… or thought he did. This searing drama on courage, heroism, and despair explores the long private shadow that public violence casts.Winner of the 2007 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama and the 2008 CAA Carol Bolt Award.
Escaped Alone by Caryl Churchill – $24.95 (25% off = $18.71)
Three old friends and a neighbour. A summer of afternoons in the back yard. Tea and catastrophe. Escaped Alone premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016, in a production directed by James Macdonald.
Femme Playlist & I Cannot Lie to the Stars That Made Me by Catherine Hernandez – SOLD OUT
From masturbation to motherhood, body shaming to burlesque, Catherine Hernandez reveals the reality of living as a queer woman of colour. Set to the music of her life, The Femme Playlist shows what it’s like to be sexy and proud, slutty and loud, queer and brown.I Cannot Lie to the Stars That Made Me is an around-the-campfire guide to mourning and healing for women of colour, written after Hernandez and her daughter left an abusive relationship. As a group of women share their stories around a campfire, they pray for each other and give as much strength as their bodies will allow.
The Fish Eyes Trilogy by Anita Majumdar – $24.95 (25% off = $18.71)
Fish Eyes is the story of Meena, a classically trained Indian dancer who, despite being obsessed with Bollywood movies and her dance career, just wants to be like the rest of her high-school friends. When she develops a massive crush on Buddy, the popular boy at school, Meena contemplates turning down an incredible opportunity to pursue him, even if he barely notices her.
Boys With Cars follows Naz, also a classically trained Indian dancer, who dreams of getting out of small town Port Moody to attend the University of British Columbia. But when Buddy causes a stir over Naz at school, Naz’s university plans begin to crumble quickly.
Let Me Borrow That Top centres on Candice, a girl who appropriates Meena’s Indian dance skills and bullies Naz after a nasty rumour spreads through the halls of their high school. But like her two enemies, Candice shares a passion for Indian dancing, and has just been accepted to the Conventry School of Bhangra. Will she leave behind the comforts of home to pursue her dreams?
The Flood by Leah Simone Bowen – $17.95 (25% off by $13.46)
In 1887, women were property and could be imprisoned for any reason. Jail was considered a place for the criminal, the disabled, the mentally ill, and the marginalized.
In the basement prison below Toronto’s largest market, two women named Mary—one a shunned, pregnant Irish immigrant, the other a vilified Mississauga woman—become an unlikely pair as they form a friendship within their cold, shared cell. Their bond threatens fellow inmate Sophia—who calls herself the first Black woman in Canada and the leader of the prisoners—and she plots to use the women to gain better treatment for herself. But as melting ice water pours into the prison from Lake Ontario, the forgotten women of Toronto must come together to survive.
Inspired by true accounts and the history of Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market, The Flood gives voice to the little-known stories of early female prisoners in Canada.
Gas Girls by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard – $16.95 (25% off = $12.71)
Gigi knows the limitations of her trade, while her young protege, Lola, looks for love in every man that comes her way. Lola’s brother, Chickn, ekes out his own living while keeping an ever-watchful eye for Gigi’s affections and Lola’s safety. But love is not a luxury these girls can afford. Through story, song, and play, Gigi and Lola inspire each other to find joy on the edges of survival.
Gertrude and Alice by Evalyn Perry and Anna Chatterton – $18.95 (25% off = $14.21)
Visiting the audience in the present day, Gertrude and Alice come to find out how history has treated them. The couple recounts stories of their forty-year relationship; of meetings with iconic artists and writers; and of Alice’s overwhelming, consuming devotion to Gertrude’s genius. Before they leave, they want to find out what has become of their artistic and cultural influence, and how their lives and work are—or are not—remembered.
Girl in the Machine by Stef Smith – SOLD OUT
Polly and Owen have nailed it. Successful in their careers and wildly in love with each other, they feel ready to take on the world.
But when a mysterious new technology, promising a break from the daily grind, creeps into everyone’s phones, their world is turned upside down. As the line between physical and digital rapidly dissipates, Polly and Owen are forced to question whether their definitions of reality and freedom are the same.
Girl in the Machine is a disturbing but compassionate vision of our potential digital future, and what it might mean for ‘life’ as we know it. The play premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 2017, directed by Traverse Artistic Director Orla O’Loughlin.
Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp. by Caryl Churchill – $24.99 (25% off = $18.71)
A girl made of glass. Gods and murders. A serial killer’s friends. And a secret in a bottle. Four stories by Caryl Churchill.
Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp. premiered at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, London, in September 2019, in a production directed by James Macdonald.
Goats by Liwaa Yazji – SOLD OUT
As coffins pile up, a local party leader decides on a radical compensation scheme: a goat for each son martyred.
Goats is a major new work by Syrian playwright and documentary film-maker Liwaa Yazj, translated by Katharine Halls.
Developed as part of the Royal Court International Department’s long-term project with writers from Syria and Lebanon, the play premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, on 24 November 2017, in a production directed by Hamish Pirie
Guarded Girls by Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
The stories and experiences of three imprisoned women and a guard intertwine in dramatic and dangerous ways, as the psychological destruction that is solitary confinement taunts each of their lives.
Nineteen-year-old Sid is transferred to a new prison, finding friendship with her cellmate Britt, but she also forms a complicated relationship with a guard who seems to be watching their every move. In another time, an older inmate named Kit talks to an unseen audience about a coming visitor and how she’ll stop at nothing to see them, even if that means bringing down the entire prison system. In another place, three girls wait as visitors, each one thinking about the complicated positions their mothers are in.
At times playful and mysterious, Guarded Girls is about the stories we tell to survive, and how the same stories can also destroy us.
HER2 by Maja Ardal – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
In this poignant meditation on the uneasy relationship between science and the human spirit, a group of women aged nineteen to sixty-three with HER2-related breast cancer are recruited for a clinical drug trial. For some of them the trial is renewed hope; others feel it’s a weary last resort. For Dr. Danielle Pearce, the research scientist in charge of the program, the trial is the most critical moment of her career. Her mission is global, and measured outcomes are her chief concern. But in the chemo room, medical statistics are just background noise as the women gradually form a collective bond through humour and compassion, raising the question, does community positively influence immunity?
How Black Mothers Say I Love You by trey anthony – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
Claudette still can’t forgive her mother for leaving. For six years of her childhood, Claudette and her sister Valerie were left with their grandmother while their mother, Daphne, moved from Jamaica to the United States to start a new chapter for their family. But in that time, Daphne remarried and had another daughter. Claudette, now in her late thirties, travels to visit her dying mother in Brooklyn, but that doesn’t stop her anger and abandonment issues from bubbling up. It doesn’t stop Daphne from voicing her opinions on how Claudette lives her life, either. With Daphne, Claudette, and Valerie all under one roof again, each family member is forced to confront their emotions while there’s still time. Though rooted in buried strife and sadness, How Black Mothers Say I Love You is full of humour, love and tenderness as it explores the complicated perceptions of immigrant mothers.
I Am For You by Mieko Ouchi – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
Fighting words . . .Lainie and Mariam have it out for each other, so it’s no surprise when they finally come to violent blows in the middle of their high school’s drama room. That’s when Caddell Morris, an ex-professional actor and newly minted student teacher, steps in. By teaching the girls the art of stage combat, he hopes to help them understand more about the roots and costs of violence. But when he convinces the drama teacher to let them play Mercutio and Tybalt in their school production of Romeo and Juliet, swords, words, and egos battle and clash. Can they find a way to work together?
If We Were Birds by Erin Shields – $16.95 (25% off = $12.71)
If We Were Birds is a shocking, uncompromising examination of the horrors of war, giving voice to a woman long ago forced into silence, and placing a spotlight on millions of female victims who have been silenced through violence. A deeply affecting and thought-provoking re-imagining of Ovid’s masterpiece “Tereus, Procne, and Philomela,” Erin Shields’s award-winning play is an unflinching commentary on contemporary war and its aftermath delivered through the lens of Greek tragedy.
In Spirit by Tara Beagan – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
Twelve-year-old Molly was riding her new bicycle on a deserted road when a man in a truck pulled up next to her, saying he was lost. He asked if she could get in and help him back to the highway, and said he could bring her back to her bike after. Molly declined, out of interest for her own safety. The next things Molly remembers are dirt, branches, trees, pain, and darkness. Molly is now a spirit. Mustering up some courage, she pieces together her short life for herself and her family while she reassembles her bicycle—the same one that was found thrown into the trees on the side of the road. Juxtaposed with flashes of news, sounds, and videos, Molly’s chilling tale becomes more and more vivid, challenging humanity not to forget her presence and importance.
John by Annie Baker – $22.95 (25% off = $17.21)
Lion in the Streets by Judith Thompson – $16.95 (25% off = $12.71)
Seventeen years ago, Isobel was murdered at the tender age of nine. Now she finds herself back in her previous life as a ghost searching for the person responsible for her untimely death. But this time she’s powerful, having the ability to watch over the living, observe them, and sometimes interact with them. Isobel has been paying attention to her former neighbours, and it’s not long before she begins to suffer along with them during their dark and horrific private experiences. Will she finally get the peace she’s been yearning for? One of Judith Thompson’s most enduring plays, Lion in the Streets looks at the inner emotional turmoil in ordinary people and the ways in which they cope.
Maggie and Pierre & The Duchess by Linda Griffiths – $18.95 (25% off = $14.21)
Winner of the first Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, Maggie and Pierre chronicles the public and private relationship between Pierre Trudeau and Margaret Trudeau from 1974-1980. In this mock epic tale three characters, Pierre, Margaret, and Henry, a newspaper reporter navigate the landscape of a changing nation and opposing ideals. The Duchess tells the story of Wallis Simpson, the infamous woman for whom Edward VIII abdicated his throne in 1936. Wallis was brazen and sexual, and unintentionally steered the course of British history as she captivated the king. An inspired epic, The Duchess traverses between a straightforward narrative and magic realism.
Monument by Colleen Wagner – $16.95 (25% off = $12.71)
Stetko is the model boy next door and the son of middle-class parents, but when war arrives it forever changes his life. Although he does nothing more than follow his commanding officer’s orders, when the war is over he stands accused of terrible crimes. A profoundly affecting two-person drama that reminds us of the faceless horror of war, and of the guilt which whole nations must carry on their shoulders. Wagner’s play goes to the heart of man’s inhumanity in war time.
Mother’s Daughter by Kate Hennig – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
In this stunning third part to Kate Hennig’s powerful Queenmaker series, England’s first queen regnant finds herself fighting xenophobia, religious nationalism, and strained familial bonds in the power struggle that dubs her Bloody Mary.
Upon the death of King Edward VI, the thirty-eight-year-old princess Mary—daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon—wrests the throne from Edward’s deemed heir. But Mary’s mother appears from the vaults of memory, and adamantly questions the motives of Mary’s cousin Jane and her half-sister Bess, despite Mary’s affection for them both. As the kingdom splits along Roman Catholic and Protestant lines, Mary walks a gauntlet of squabbling ethics and politics, and is forced to make some tough decisions. Should she execute her opponents before it’s too late, the way her father did? Should she scramble to find a husband who can give her a rightful heir? And can she trust her mother, her sister, or even herself?
Mr. Burns and Other Plays by Anne Washburn – $29.95 (25% off = $22.46)
Anne Washburn’s plays blend naturalistic human presence with formal thought experiments that drive at the question of what storytelling means to human survival. Via high-and-low storytelling, Washburn writes about contemporary and near-future culture, calling on Homer, Euripides, the prophet Jeremiah, the world of fantasy games and The Simpsons. This volume also contains 10 Out of 12, The Small and I Have Loved Strangers.
Mustard by Kat Sandler – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
Mustard shouldn’t still be here, but he is. Imaginary friends don’t normally stay with their Person until that Person is a troubled teenager, exhibiting strangely violent behaviour. Imaginary friends don’t suddenly become visible to their Person’s mom and then go on a date with them, either. But Mustard is special. At least that’s what he thinks. And he’s not ready to leave his best friend, Thai, even though he’s in deep trouble with some unsavoury characters who are ready to enforce some serious rules. And, oh yeah, he’s falling in love with Sadie, Thai’s recently separated, wine-guzzling mom, who doesn’t believe he’s real.
A twisted fairy tale about friendship, love, growing up, moving on and finding magic where you least expect it, this darkly comedic bedtime story by Canadian theatre’s indie darling blurs imagination with reality in order to save a family from its own destruction.
Other Side of the Game by Amanda Parris – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
I don’t think you can expect society to change if you’re not ready to take the first step.
In the 1970s Beverly walks into an office of Black activists, wanting to join the Movement, and has to prove she’s committed enough to fight. Some forty years later, in the Hip Hop Generation, Nicole reunites with her ex-boyfriend on a basketball court, wondering where he’s been, when a police officer stops them.
In this striking debut, Amanda Parris turns the spotlight on the Black women who organize communities, support their incarcerated loved ones, and battle institutions, living each day by a ride-or-die philosophy, strengthening their voices and demanding to be heard.
Outspoken edited by Susan G Cole – $19.95 (25% off = $14.96)
Touching on gender, sexuality, family, pop culture, and history, these pieces range from the hilarious to the poignant, the sexy to the sincere, the truthful to the tongue-in-cheek. Collected by writer and journalist Susan G. Cole from poetry, prose, theatre, and even a graphic novel, the scenes and monologues found in this collection reflect personal, political, and cultural complexities in the Canadian lesbian community. Intended for study or auditions and infinitely readable on its own, OutSpoken includes works by trey anthony, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Mariko Tamaki, d’bi.young.anitafrika, Jovette Marchessault, and many more.
Palace of the End by Judith Thompson – $16.95 (25% off = $12.71)
Based around the lives of three distinct characters—a young soldier imprisoned for her misconduct at a prison camp in Iraq, a microbiologist-cum-weapons inspector who exposes the false justifications for war, and a mother/political opponent of Saddam Hussein—Palace of the End details the reality of the war in Iraq from three unique perspectives. With its emphasis on the human voice and power of the soul in the midst of a destructive war, each account is a riveting and brilliantly portrayed indictment of one of the contemporary world’s worst conflicts.Winner of the 2008 Susan Smith Blackburn PrizeWinner of the 2008 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play
Paradise by Patti Flather – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
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.
Paradise Lost by Erin Shields – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
The seventeenth century and present day are seamlessly intertwined as Satan vents to an audience about her frustration at being cast out of Heaven and her thoughts on oppression. When she finds out that God has created delicate new creatures called “humans,” she crafts a plan for revenge and betrayal on the Almighty.
Erin Shields turns Heaven and Hell upside down in this witty, modern, feminist retelling of John Milton’s epic poem about the first battle between good and evil. Shields’s wickedly smart and funny script questions the reasons of the universe, the slow process of evolution and the freedom of knowledge. The debate over right and wrong has never been so satisfying.
Pig Girl by Colleen Murphy – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
At 4:00 a.m. on a secluded farm, a woman fights to take her life back from a serial killer as her desperate sister and a haunted police officer reach across time and distance in an attempt to rescue her.
Pyaasa & Letters to my Grandma by Anusree Roy – $16.95 (25% off = $12.71)
Set in Calcutta, Pyaasa tells the story of Chaya, an eleven-year-old untouchable who dreams of nothing more than learning her times tables. When Chaya’s mother begs a woman from a higher caste to give Chaya a job at a local tea stall, Chaya’s journey from childhood to adulthood begins and ends over ten days. A moving and heartfelt play, Pyaasa illustrates with subtlety and nuanced truth the inequalities and injustices that persist through the Indian caste system.
In the haunting Letters to My Grandma, Malobee unearths letters detailing her grandmother’s fight to survive the 1947 partition of India, which resonates with Malobee’s own struggles to create a new life in present-day Toronto. A grand multi-generational tale of hatred, regret, love, and forgiveness, Letters to my Grandma weaves the remarkable stories of these two women together, inextricably linking their histories and delving into how the hatred bred between Hindus and Muslims in the Old World consumes families in Canada today.
Q2Q edited by Peter Dickinson, C.E. Gatchalian, Kathleen Oliver and Dalbir Singh – $29.95 (25% off = $22.46)
A companion anthology to Q2Q: Queer Canadian Theatre and Performance, the work contained in this volume provides a snapshot of Canadian contemporary queer performance practices—from solo performance to political allegory to family melodrama to intersectional narratives that combine text, movement, and music.
Queer Play edited by Moynan King- $29.95 (25% off = $22.46)
Queer / Play includes plays, performances, interviews, and more, shining a light on important and radical voices in Canada’s performance community.
Through these works by both emerging and established Canadian queer artists, this diverse anthology finds itself at the intersection of queer life and art, delving into the resulting subcultures and always-changing concepts of identity and performance. In this book, queer is not just something someone is; it’s also something they do.
Quiver by Anna Chatterton – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
Shy, fourteen-year-old Maddie wasn’t expecting to have to worry about taking care of herself just yet. Her sixteen-year-old party-girl sister Bea has scandalously moved in with their mom’s ex-boyfriend, and in turn their brassy mother Sheila has run straight to the comfort of another lover. Maddie is finding that an empty apartment is quiet and lonely, even though her time is normally spent reading comics in her closet. Feeling abandoned and vulnerable, she turns to her favourite superhero, Arrowette. Armed with a backpack filled with a bow and arrows, she embarks on a radical plan to join the army, where she thinks she will find a new family she can count on.
Meanwhile, Bea is second-guessing the whole dating an older man thing, and Sheila defends her unorthodox sexual candour, entertaining the ideals of freedom. When Bea and Sheila decide to come home for Maddie’s birthday, they’re faced with the pointed arrow of Maddie’s newfound power and the startling reality of the kind of family they’ve become.
Soliciting Temptation by Erin Shields – SOLD OUT
In a sweaty hotel room, a lonely businessman and a young woman meet for sex. Somewhere between reality and fantasy, the sex becomes talk and the talk becomes dangerous. Nothing is off limits in this battle of morality, economics and desire. This witty, dark and sexually charged new play by Governor General’s Award–winner Erin Shields shines a light on the complexities of sex tourism and our preconceptions about love.
Squawk by Megan Gail Coles – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
Annie Runningbird doesn’t have time for the games boys want her to play. She’s aging out of foster care on her next birthday. The system has decided she is an adult, so Annie must make adult decisions. Where will she live? How will she make money? Demanding grown-up choices preoccupy the young girl’s mind as she navigates relationships with boys and men in her company. Does she like Isaac, a cute yet naive boy she met at the mall food court? Can she trust Louis, her older and increasingly overbearing foster care worker? Who can Annie depend on in her ever-shifting world? This intel is important. Because Annie needs to win the very real game she’s playing. She must save herself to save the day.
Superhoe by Nicôle Lecky – SOLD OUT
Sasha Clayton is twenty-four and living with her mum, stepdad, and irritating little sister, in Plaistow, East London. She’s gone from being the most popular girl at school, to spending most of her time on her own in her bedroom scrolling through social media.
She may not have a job or a flat, and, admittedly her boyfriend’s not answering her calls—but she’s got talent and a dream. When she releases her first EP everything’s going to change.
Nicôle Lecky’s play Superhoe was first staged in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in January 2019, performed by its author and directed by Jade Lewis. It was the first collaboration between Talawa Theatre Company and the Royal Court.
Sweat by Lynn Nottage – $22.95 (25% off = $17.21)
In one of the poorest cities in America, Reading, Pennsylvania, a group of down-and-out factory workers struggles to keep their present lives in balance, ignorant of the financial devastation looming in their near futures. Set in 2008, the powerful crux of this new play is knowing the fate of the characters long before it’s even in their sights. Based on Nottage’s extensive research and interviews with real residents of Reading, Sweat is a topical reflection of the present and poignant outcome of America’s economic decline.
The Bears Sleep at Last by Genevieve Billette – SOLD OUT
Their whole bodies are ready for sleep, but sleep doesn’t come.
The cold has deserted winter, causing the polar bears in the zoo to pace in an endless quest for sleep. Their caretaker, Sasha, will do anything to bring them slumber. But when a boy named Marcus suddenly appears at his window, bringing a different outlook on the meaning of family, Sasha finds himself buried under new responsibilities—such as packing lunches and reading bedtime stories—rather than snow. And so he keeps going back to the bears, believing that he’ll find relief by the day that’s circled on the calendar, but missing Marcus’s pleas for attention and care.
Woven through a delicate and charming balance of the unique and familiar, this ethereal, melancholy play for young audiences brings light and warmth to wintering hearts.
The Children by Lucy Kirkwood – $24.95 (25% off = $18.71)
Lucy Kirkwood’s play The Children premiered at the Royal Court, London, in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs on 17 November 2016, in a production directed by James Macdonald.The Children was named Best Play at the 2018 Writers’ Guild Awards.
The Flick by Annie Baker – $22.95 (25% off = $17.21)
WINNER! 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Winner! 2013 OBIE Award, Playwriting Winner! 2013 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Nominee! 2013 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Play Nominee! 2013 Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Play Finalist! 2013 New York Critics Circle Award, Best Play In a run-down movie theater in central Massachusetts, three underpaid employees mop the floors and attend to one of the last 35 millimeter film projectors in the state. Their tiny battles and not-so-tiny heartbreaks play out in the empty aisles, becoming more gripping than the lackluster, second-run movies on screen. With keen insight and a finely-tuned comic eye, The Flick is a hilarious and heart-rending cry for authenticity in a fast-changing world.
The Last Wife by Kate Hennig – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
Kate Parr is smart, confident, and passionate: a rising star in a world of intense competition. But her obligatory marriage to Henry is rife with the threat of violence and the lure of deceit; her secret liaisons with Thom, her husband’s former brother-in-law, could send her to an early grave; and her devotion to the education and equal rights of Henry’s daughters is putting an even bigger strain on her marriage. Does Kate risk her life to gain authority in both her relationship and her political career? Which love will she be led to if she follows her heart? And what kind of future is there for her children if she makes a crucial mistake?
The Unplugging by Yvette Nolan – $16.95 (25% off = $12.71)
Forced to rely upon traditional wisdom for their survival, Elena and Bern retreat from the remains of civilization to a freezing, desolate landscape where they attempt to continue their lives after the end of the world. When a charismatic stranger from the village arrives seeking their aid, the women must decide whether they will use their knowledge of the past to give the society that rejected them the chance at a future.
This is War by Hannah Moscovitch – $16.95 (25% off = $12.71)
Master Corporal Tanya Young, Captain Stephen Hughes, Private Jonny Henderson, and Sergeant Chris Anders have lived through an atrocity while holding one of the most volatile regions in Afghanistan. As each of them is interviewed by an unseen broadcasting organization, they recount their version of events leading up to the horrific incident with painful, relenting replies. What begins to form is a picture of the effects of guilt and the psychological toll of violence in a war where the enemy is sometimes indiscernible.
Topdog Underdog by Susan-Lori Parks – $22.95 (25% off = $17.21)
A darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity is Suzan-Lori Parks latest riff on the way we are defined by history. The play tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, foretelling a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment. Haunted by the past, the brothers are forced to confront the shattering reality of their future.
Twisted by Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman and Joseph Jamo Pierre – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
Growing up, Nancy believed in magic despite a hand-me-down life in a small town. So it’s no wonder the buzzing excitement of Toronto and its allure of freedom was a likely choice for her new home, the place she finds herself years later selling her body for drugs. Nancy is further from freedom than ever under the wings of Sikes, a drug dealer and pimp. When she meets Oliver, a seventeen-year-old who lands at Sikes’s feet after a life of foster care and shelters, the two find unlikely solace in each other. As text messages are exchanged by the instant, and truths are revealed, Nancy and Oliver form an unbreakable bond in order to write a new story together.
Unholy by Dianne Flacks – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
Up the Garden Path & The Adventures of a Black Girl in Her Search for God by Lisa Codrington – $19.95 (25% off = $14.96)
In Up the Garden Path, Rosa, a young Barbadian seamstress, offers to pose as her brother to go to the Niagara Region in Ontario to work. There, she meets an aspiring actress obsessed with Joan of Arc, the ghost of a black Loyalist soldier who wants to die and a boss who can’t keep the starlings away from his failing vineyard. Finding it impossible to ignore their demands, but not wanting to be found out and sent home, Rosa has to stop and figure out what she really wants instead of what everyone around her needs.Based on Bernard Shaw’s short story, The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God follows a black girl who is abandoned by a white missionary for asking too many questions. Taking matters into her own hands, the Black Girl sets off to find out who or what God really is. Along the way she meets a number of characters who have very different views on God, but the Black Girl’s unrelenting questions create conflict, and in the end she’s forced to make her own decisions on God and her search.
Virgin Trial by Kate Hennig – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
Fifteen-year-old Bess has no idea when she heads to London to see her Uncle Ted that she is about to find herself at the heart of a scandal involving sexual impropriety; her stepfather, Thom; and an attempted overthrow of the government. What does all this have to do with her? How adroitly can Bess manoeuvre through a series of interviews to avoid being swept up in the peril that might ensue? And will she be able to spin the facts to create a myth based on her own innocence?
Watching Glory Die by Judith Thompson – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
Glory is a troubled teenage inmate who, in her solitary prison cell, is tormented by hallucinations. While she battles the creature in her mind, her adoptive mother Rosellen struggles to remain connected to her daughter, believing that she can sense Glory’s feelings no matter the distance. In the prison halls, Gail, a working-class guard, glides between her conscience and her professional duties, knowing her actions could ultimately lead to a tragic end.
What a Young Wife Ought to Know by Hannah Moscovitch – $17.95 (25% off = $13.46)
Just don’t lie down and no child will come.
It’s Ottawa in the 1920s, pre-legalized birth control. Sophie, a young working-class girl, falls madly in love with and marries a stable-hand named Jonny. After two difficult childbirths, doctors tell Sophie she shouldn’t have any more children, but don’t tell her how to prevent it. When Sophie inevitably becomes pregnant again, she faces a grim dilemma.
In an unflinching look at love, sex, and fertility, and inspired by real stories of mothers during the Canadian birth-control movement of the early twentieth century, one of Canada’s most celebrated playwrights vividly recreates a couple’s struggles with reproduction.