PlayME

By Daniel MacIvor. After much anticipation, Allen arrives at Dougie’s mobile home in Cape Breton for a reunion after a 30-year absence. When Allen opts for water instead of alcohol, Dougie and Cheryl get nervous that they might be in for an awkward night. Allen finally agrees to a rum and coke, much to their relief, and he and Dougie catch up until Dougie decides he needs to get something off his...

By Daniel MacIvor. Dougie’s old friend Allen has a surprise for him. A piece of nostalgia from their childhood delights his ex-wife and daughter but makes Dougie uncomfortable. They decide to knock back some drinks and turn up the music, and the party becomes a raucous night of dancing and flirting. Tempers flare, insults are hurled, and Sandy crosses a line. She digs for the real reason Allen has...

As a holiday gift, we're re-releasing the radio versions of some of our favourite shows this year. These plays have been edited for a general audience, and enriched with playwright interviews. Today: Nicolas Billon's "Butcher," a wildly unpredictable crime thriller set on Christmas Eve. Warning: it's anything but holly jolly.

As a holiday gift, we're re-releasing the radio versions of some of our favourite shows this year. These plays have been edited for a general audience, and enriched with playwright interviews. Today: Chloé Hung's ferocious comedy "Three Women of Swatow," about three generations of women linked by one fierce legacy.

As a holiday gift, we're re-releasing the radio versions of some of our favourite shows this year. These plays have been edited for a general audience, and enriched with playwright interviews. First up: Emil Sher's adaptation of "The Boy in the Moon" — Ian Brown's memoir exploring the "trials, tribulations and triumphs" of raising a child with a rare disability.

Laura talks to playwright and performer Jiv Parasram, who is currently quarantining at home in Vancouver and getting ready to take a play online. Parasram reflects on being the first in his family to grow up in Nova Scotia, his complicated feelings about identity plays, and why he made the bold request for some audience members to skip part of the story.

Jiv is Canadian. Jiv is Indian. And Hindu. And West Indian. And Trinidadian too. Or maybe he is just colonized. In order to explore all these hyphenated identities, he creates the first-ever Hindu-Caribbean-Canadian identity play — even though he hates identity plays. He starts with a brief history of indentured servitude in Trinidad, and his family.

Jiv is the first in his family to be born in Canada and raised in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Here some people call him black, while his own family calls him “white boy”. Jiv goes on a teenage quest to Trinidad to untangle his roots and become more legitimately “third world”. Things do not go as planned.

Jiv shapeshifts again to prove identity is pretty trippy. Maybe we are all “Jiv”. Maybe this is all an illusion. But then a memory from Junior High brings him crashing back down to earth. Disaster strikes on 9/11 and Jiv feels forced to choose an “identity raft”. He’s not proud of his choice. He asks certain “Jivs” to skip to the next episode.

We all meet again for one final thought from our multi-hyphenated hero. Here’s why it matters how we choose to define the divides between us, and within us.

Chris talks to Governor General Award-winning playwright David Yee, who is currently isolating from home and workshopping a new play over Zoom. Yee reflects on why “underused” actors of colour often resort to writing their own stories, and why he wanted “Carried away on the crest of a wave” to be too big for small theatres. He also shares where he was when he first heard about the devastating 2004...

In 2004, the deadliest tsunami in recorded history tore through over a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean. In a series of vignettes, David Yee imagines the people left behind in disaster’s wake. In Australia, a scientist notes that the planet got smaller the day of the disaster. In Malaysia, two brothers toss family treasures to save their house from descending into the sea. In India, a pries...

The tragedy travels all the way to Toronto where a radio DJ defies his bosses to perform a parody of Tears for Fears. In Sri Lanka, a man speaks frankly to a child orphaned by the tsunami. And in Thailand, a man mourns his beloved wife in the company of an highly-specialized escort.

The ripples extend far below the surface of the earth as two men endlessly fall down a hole. In Salt Lake City, an FBI agent questions a bereaved mother about the child she lost in the tsunami. And on a sandy beach in Ko Phi Phi Island, Thailand, two men sit together deciding who is responsible for the tragedy.

Laura talks to playwright and performer Karen Hines about her solo show Crawlspace. Hines explains how her play was inspired by her true-life experience of buying a home, how it fundamentally changed her as a person and redefined her concept of home.

Writer Karen Hines dreams of homeownership so when she discovers a lemon yellow coach house advertised as a “condo alternative,” she decides to invest her life savings. She adores the granite countertop and the walk-in closet and its lack of basement. But on move-in day, she sits on the window sill and it crumbles beneath her. She soon learns that she hasn’t bought a coach house. She’s just sunk e...

Karen learns that not only is her coach house actually a converted garage, but also that it’s encroaching on her neighbour’s property. And because her neighbour won’t sell her the land, she can’t sell the house. And because she spent all her money on the house, she can’t afford to do the repairs. She falls deeper into debt and despair, and then she notices a mysterious foul odour emanating from go...

The stench pervading from somewhere is a mystery no one can solve. Karen incurs tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt to find the problem and … deal with it. Karen’s coach house goes from bad investment to a health hazard. She must get out.

Chris talks to playwright Emil Sher and journalist Ian Brown about Ian’s bestselling book-turned-play, The Boy in the Moon. Both tell the story of Ian’s quest to connect with his son, Walker, who was born with a rare genetic disorder. The two writers discuss the challenge of portraying Ian’s family on stage; the guilt and shame associated with disability; and why Ian had to rethink the idea of lov...

An early delivery of their son catches Ian Brown and his wife Johanna Schneller by surprise. Their son Walker is born with a rare genetic disorder, which went undetected in the womb. His condition will impact everything from walking to talking to eating. And life changes, completely.

Walker is diagnosed with Cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome, a condition so rare only 300 people in the world have been diagnosed with it. Ian and his wife are faced with the task of raising a boy who can’t tell them anything, and soon find themselves imagining everything. They yearn to communicate with Walker and ask him questions. What do you dream at night? What do you think about? Why do you keep h...

Ian reflects on the beautiful moments — the private language of tongue clicks and the joys of an echoing hallway. He also recalls the worst moments — his wife at the bottom of the darkness, and well-meaning friends who cannot help. The family makes a decision with a profound impact; a turning point with no turning back.

Laura talks to Governor General award-winning playwright Nicolas Billon about his play "BUTCHER", a dark political thriller set on Christmas Eve. Billon explains why he felt the need to invent a country, and a whole language, to tell the story he wanted to tell; how Hitchcock's thrillers inspire his writing; and what he thinks of the notion that "you can have peace or you can have justice, but you...

It’s Christmas Eve at a Toronto police station, and Inspector Lamb is no longer having a silent night. A drugged old man in a Santa hat and military uniform has been dropped on his doorstep. Around the man’s neck: a butcher’s hook spiked with a business card that reads “arrest me.” The cop makes two calls: to the lawyer on the card and an interpreter who speaks Lavinian. The lawyer arrives first.

At first, it seems like a Christmas miracle. The Lavinian interpreter arrives to find the old man moaning in pain. Besides being fluent in his language, Elena is also a nurse with some timely advice. As the four wait for an ambulance to arrive, she quickly deduces a lot more about the man — from the hook that hung around his neck to the missing fingernails on his toes. But tensions rise as it beco...