National Network for Equitable Library Service

Hot. Burning hot. In the dry, hot summer of 1988, Kate, a young woman from the city moves with her boyfriend to his family’s Saskatchewan farm. A world-travelled vegetarian who listens to punk rock, she is not exactly the kind of girl John Richards’ parents had thought he would bring home. After months of unrelenting heat, dust and the endless complaints of everyone around her, Kate makes a very public promise: if only the drought will break, she’ll run naked through the streets of town.

It’s May 1945, liberated Holland. The War is over, but because of a shortage of troop ships the Canadian Army remains in the Netherlands. Emma, an independent Dutch woman, meets Alex, a young Canadian private from rural Alberta. Emma has lived through five harrowing years of German occupation that ended in the ‘hunger winter’ of 1944-45, and wonders how she can put her life back together after everything she’s experienced and everything she’s lost.

What happens when someone is overwhelmed by a desire to help? Does it matter if people only do good in order to feel good? One of Canada’s finest playwrights tackles tricky questions in Generous–four short interconnected plays that explore the complications and moral ambiguity created by the altruistic impulse. By turns hilarious, shocking, moving, and politically-charged, Healey’s intertwined plots and characters create a theatrical piece that is both thought-provoking and powerfully entertaining.

Two grown sisters face off over their mother's death-bed. Together they confront one another, their own identities, and what will remain when their mom leaves this world. A contemporary look at the significance of faith and family, Honour Beat explores the stories this Indigenous family has told itself through the years, as their mother's youthful spirit leads them toward forgiveness.

In Care is about a mother's quest to get her children out of foster care. Janice Fisher has not had an easy life. She worked the streets as a teenager, was addicted to cocaine, and had her first daughter taken from her when she was just 15. But she's since turned her life around, and is a good mother to three happy girls - until a false accusation gets them apprehended by foster care. Now, Janice is trapped in the system like a butterfly in a spider's web: the more she struggles to get out, the more stuck she gets.

Welcome to Henderson Tessier McGuire & Smythe’s annual Christmas cocktail party, held at the gracious home of managing partner George Smythe and his lovely wife Buffy. It’s The Catering Gig From Hell. Behind the scenes is Melanie, McKinley Catering’s supervisor, plating up hors d’oeuvres and juggling her career as a writer, her ex-boyfriend’s appearance on the arm of a gorgeous young lawyer and her friends’ expectations.

Vic and Kat were the stars of the iconic 90s punk band, Trigger. A decade after both the band and their friendship imploded on stage, they meet again to make an appearance at a fundraiser--provided, of course, that they can stand being near each other again. In a single night, they crash through their past, their respective addictions, and their remaining aspirations. Trigger is a fiercely personal and philosophical clash between two women, a battle between ideologies and lifestyles--and between memories and the present.

Children of God is a powerful musical about an Oji-Cree family whose children were taken away to a residential school in Northern Ontario. The play tells the story of one family: Tommy and Julia, who are trying to survive in the harsh environment of a religious school, and their mother, Rita, who never stops trying to get them back. The impact of this experience on the lives of them all is profound and devastating, yet the story moves toward redemption.

Ga Ting, which means "family" in Cantonese, is about an immigrant Chinese couple trying to come to terms with the suicide of their son, Kevin. When they invite Kevin's Caucasian boyfriend to dinner, the evening devolves into a fiery cultural and generational clash. Minh Ly's poignant play explores one family's struggle to accept their son as he was, not as they wished him to be.

As a condition of his parole, Darren has been ordered by the court to live with his father, Wally, on the rez. The two have always had a contentious relationship: Wally is a problem drinker, and Darren's got a short fuse. But Wally tells his son that he's stopped drinking and started going to ceremony, and urges Darren to do the same. As old family secrets start to be revealed, the father and son grapple with complex issues.