Canadian Gothic & American Modern

Canadian Gothic is Presented on a virtually bare stage, with the characters speaking sometimes to the audience and sometimes to each other, the play uses language of poetic eloquence and incision to illuminate its tale of an ill-fated love affair and the family it destroys

It begins with the evocative memories of the mother and father - a Saskatchewan dentist and his mildly rebellious wife - and then goes on, after the mother's death, to explore the love which blossoms between their daughter and a young Indian

Sadly the romance results in tragedy rather than happiness, leading to the conception of a child out of wedlock, the accidental blinding of the dentist, the jailing of the young Indian and, in the end, a bittersweet accommodation between father and daughter as they face the long, futile years still left to them

A moving and imaginatively conceived study of love and loss by one of Canada's most highly regarded playwrights, which earned the unique distinction of being presented by two of Off-Broadway's most outstanding producing groups The Manhattan Theatre Club (two seasons) and The Phoenix Theatre

"She has an original voice, and a quizzical way of looking at the world" ~ NY Times

"It is a simple tale, simply and movingly told in the manner that reminded me of the art of Willa Cather" ~ Newsday

Cast of 2 men and 2 women

In American Modern Pat and Mike, an urban couple, find themselves ever more out of touch with the world in which they must live, and with ever less to hold onto and believe in

He toys with the prospect of suicide, and she with the notion of madness, as they reminisce about the events, large and small, which have brought them to where they are

Their conversation grows ever more bizarre - and revealing - as they seek to "fill the empty spaces," and to fight back, to survive, against the meaningless which threatens to devour them

A highly imaginative, "free-form" evocation of the numbing isolation which besets a couple as they struggle to adjust to the terrors of urban life. Successfully presented by two of Off-Broadway's leading theatre groups as a companion piece to Canadian Gothic

"She has a reassuring facility with language and a splendid command of her material" ~ San Francisco Examiner

" a sharp atmosphere of razor-like wit and quick paced repartee" ~ Montreal Star

Cast of 1 man and 1 woman