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Silverwing

Kenneth Oppel

Shade is the runt of his Silverwing bat colony, determined to prove himself on the perilous migration to Hibernaculum. During a fierce storm, he loses the others and soon faces the most incredible journey of his short life. This is a fantastic adventure with a plot that soars from the first page.
The Rez Sisters

Tomson Highway

Winner of the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best New Play
Nominated for the Governor General's Award
This award-winning play by Native playwright Tomson Highway is a powerful and moving portrayal of seven women from a reserve attempting to beat the odds by winning at bingo. And not just any bingo. It is THE BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD and a chance to win a way out of a tortured life.
The Rez Sisters is hilarious, shocking, mystical and powerful, and clearly establishes the creative voice of Native theatre and writing in Canada today.
Cyrano De Bergerac

Edmond Rostand

'Tonight When I make my sweeping bow at heaven's gate, One thing I shall still possess, at any rate, Unscathed, something outlasting mortal flesh, And that is ...My panache.' The first English translation of Cyrano de Bergerac, in 1898, introduced the word panache into the English language. This single word summed up Rostand's rejection of the social realism which dominated late nineteenth-century theatre. He wrote his 'heroic comedy', unfashionably, in verse, and set it in the reign of Louis XIII and the Three Musketeers. Based on the life of a little known writer, Rostand's hero has become a figure of theatrical legend: Cyrano, with the nose of a clown and the soul of a poet, is by turns comic and sad, as reckless in love as in war, and never at a loss for words. Audiences immediately took him to their hearts, and since the triumphant opening night in December 1897 - at the height of the Dreyfus Affair - the play has never lost its appeal. The text is accompanied by notes and a full introduction which sets the play in its literary and historical context. Christopher Fry's acclaimed translation into 'chiming couplets' represents the homage of one verse dramatist to another.
The Edible Woman: Based on the Novel by Margaret Atwood

Dave Carley

Margaret Atwoods internationally–renowned first novel has been brilliantly adapted for stage by playwright Dave Carley. With wit, affection and dollops of irony, The Edible Woman traces the journey of Marian, a young woman who has embraced the consumer society. Marian has a good job, a handsome lawyer–fiancé, and a conventionally bright future. But slowly Marians consumer world starts slipping out of focus, as she begins instead to identify with the things consumed. Compounding Marians confusion is her newly–pregnant roommate, her incensed landlady, and that strange young man she just kissed at the laundromat
Barney's Version

Mordecai Richler
Waiting for the Parade (Plays in print 1980)

John Murrell
Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Ann-Marie MacDonald

In this exuberant comedy and original revision of Shakespeare's Othello and Romeo and Juliet -- Constance Ledbelly, a drab and dusty academic, deciphers a cryptic manuscript she believes to be the original source for the tragedies, and is transported into the plays themselves. She visits Juliet and Desdemona, has a hand in saving them, and finds out what these women are about. In true Shakespearean spirit, Constance plunders the plays and creates something new, all the while engaging in a personal voyage of self-discovery. With an abundance of twists, fights, dances, seductions, and wild surprises, the play is an absolute joy of theatricality.
Miss Julie

August Strindberg

August Strindberg's masterpiece portrayal of the conflict between sexual passion and social position. Contains the full text, commentary, notes for students, a chronology of the author's life, and context of the play.
East End Plays Part Two

George F. Walker
Blood Relations: And Other Plays (Prairie Play Series, No. 4)

Sharon Pollock

This brand new edition features the plays that established Sharon Pollock as a major Canadian playwright and gained her many accolades, among them, the first ever Governor General's award for drama for 'Blood Relations' in 1981. In the four plays in this collection Pollock uses historical backdrops to tackle the issue of freedom of choice in the midst of physical and emotional confinement. Her characters are the oppressed, from the spinster Lizzie Borden in the title play, 'Blood Relations', to the prisoners of 'One Tiger to a Hill', to Leah, 'chosen' daughter/mistress of rum runner Mr Big in 'Whiskey Six Cadenza'. In 'Generations', she uses a regional setting of a prairie farm kitchen to examine the tensions and affections of a family, and their relationship to 'The Land'. Pollock's skilfully driven action and keen ear for dialect make for a satisfying read for drama- and fiction-lovers alike.
Three Sisters

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

The volume contains a chronology of the playwright's life and work; an introduction giving the background to the play; a discussion of the various interpretations; and notes on indiviual words and phrases in the text
As for Me and My House (New Canadian Library)

Sinclair Ross

“It’s an immense night out there, wheeling and windy. The lights on the street and in the houses against the black wetness, little unilluminating glints that might be painted on it. The town seems huddled together, cowering on a high tiny perch, afraid to move lest it topple into the wind.”

The town is Horizon, the setting of Sinclair Ross’ brilliant classic study of life in the Depression era. Hailed by critics as one of Canada’s great novels, As For Me and My House takes the form of a journal. The unnamed diarist, one of the most complex and arresting characters in contemporary fiction, explores the bittersweet nature of human relationships, of the unspoken bonds that tie people together, and the undercurrents of feeling that often tear them apart. Her chronicle creates an intense atmosphere, rich with observed detail and natural imagery.

As For Me and My House is a landmark work. It is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand the scope and power of the Canadian novel.
Suburban Motel

George F. Walker
Harlem Duet

Djanet Sears

Winner of the Governor General’s Award for Drama. Winner of the Chalmers Play Award. A rhapsodic blues tragedy. Harlem Duet could be the prelude to Shakepeare’s Othello, and recounts the tale of Othello and his first wife Billie (yes, before Desdemona). Set in contemporary Harlem at the corner of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X boulevards, the play explores the space where race and sex intersect. Harlem Duet is Billie’s story.
The East End Plays: Part 1

George F. Walker
Heaven and Hell (On Earth): A Divine Comedy

Short Plays from Actors Theatre of Louisville
Les Belles Soeurs: (Revised)

Michel Tremblay

Michel Tremblay's classic joual play. Cast of 15 women. "A tart but human satire on Canadian life and aspirations". -- Vancouver Sun
Staging Coyote's Dream

The first anthology of First Nations drama to be published in Canada, this volume includes seminal work by Spiderwoman Theatre, Daniel David Moses, Monique Mojica, Drew Hayden Taylor, Yvette Nolan, and Marie Humber Clements, and features previously unpublished plays by Tomson Highway, Maria Campbell, Floyd Favel Starr, and William Yellow Robe, Jr.
The Stone Angel

It is the late 1960s, and Hagar Shipley's days are drawing to an end. In the course of an afternoon, Hagar's life unfolds: her childhood in a small prairie town, her Scottish immigrant father, the tumultuous relationship with her now-estranged husband, her sons, and their partners. Based on the novel by Margaret Lawrence.
Judith Thompson: Late 20th Century Plays: 1980-2000: 1980-2000

Judith Thompson

By the end of the century, one of Canada's leading female playwrights had written, produced and published seven important and successful plays, all of which continue to be in demand both on stages and on academic courses. Includes: Crackwalker, I Am Yours, Lion in the Street, Sled, Perfect Pie, White Biting Dog and Pink.