Love and Anger is a play by George F. Walker. [1] It remains one of his most widely produced plays both in Canada and internationally.
It is the fourth installment of Walker's East End Plays, a series of plays that also includes Criminals in Love, Better Living, Beautiful City and Escape from Happiness . [2] Walker wrote the play specifically as a starring vehicle for actor Peter Blais, who had performed in supporting roles in nearly all of Walker's plays over the previous decade, to the point that he had earned a reputation as the "quintessential" Walker actor. [3]
The play was a shortlisted finalist for the Governor General's Award for English-language drama at the 1990 Governor General's Awards, [4] and won the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award [5] and the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play. [6]
The play centres on Petey Maxwell, a lawyer in Toronto who is recovering from a stroke. [7] Formerly a greedy corporate lawyer, he has reinvented himself as a champion of the underdog who runs a one-man legal office with the help of his secretary Eleanor Downey. His first client is Gail, a woman whose husband has been framed for a crime by John "Babe" Connor, the wealthy and powerful publisher of an archly conservative tabloid newspaper; Connor's lawyer Sean, an aspiring politician, is a former law school classmate of Maxwell's who is now married to Maxwell's ex-wife. Maxwell's only other ally is Sarah, Eleanor's mentally ill sister. [7]
At the play's climax, Maxwell stages a mock trial in his office to charge Connor with being "incurably evil", with the trial presided over by Sarah. [7]
The play premiered at the Factory Theatre in 1989. [7] Its original cast comprised Blais as Petey Maxwell, Clare Coulter as Eleanor, Nancy Beatty as Sarah, Benedict Campbell as John Connor, Dawn Roach as Gail and Hardee T. Lineham as Sean Harris. [7] In March 1990, Eric Peterson took over from Blais in the lead role for several weeks, [8] although Blais returned to the role when the play moved to the Bluma Appel Theatre in May. [9]
The play opened at the Perry Street Theatre in New York City in December 1990, with Saul Rubinek in the lead. [10] A 1996 production at the West Coast Ensemble Theatre in Los Angeles starred Ian Buchanan as Petey Maxwell. [11]
The Attic, The Pearls and Three Fine Girls is a Canadian comedic play collectively written by Jennifer Brewin, Martha Ross, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Alisa Palmer, and Leah Cherniak. The title is sometimes stylized The Attic, The Pearls And 3 Fine Girls. The play premiered in 1995 at Theatre Centre West in Toronto, starring MacDonald, Ross, and Cherniak. Both the 1995 production and the revival in1997 were nominated for several Dora Mavor Moore Awards. In 2011, the creators of The Attic, The Pearls, and Three Fine Girls created and performed a sequel titled More Fine Girls.
Michael Healey is a Canadian playwright and actor. He graduated from the acting programme at Toronto's Ryerson Theatre School in 1985. His acting credits include the plays of Jason Sherman and George F. Walker.
The Drawer Boy is a play by Michael Healey. It is a two-act play set in 1972 on a farm near Clinton, Ontario. There are only three characters: the farm's two owners, Morgan and Angus, and Miles Potter, a young actor from Toronto doing research for a collectively created theatre piece about farming.
Peter Blais is a Canadian actor, best known for his frequent roles in the plays of George F. Walker.
The Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play is an annual award celebrating achievements in Toronto theatre.
The Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Direction of a Play/Musical is an annual award celebrating achievements in Toronto theatre.
The Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Production of a Play is an annual award celebrating achievements in live Canadian theatre.
The Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male in a Principal Role - Musical is an annual award celebrating achievements in live Canadian theatre.
The Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female in a Principal Role - Musical is an annual award celebrating achievements in live Canadian theatre.
Nothing Sacred is a play by Canadian playwright George F. Walker, written as a stage adaptation of Ivan Turgenev's 1862 novel Fathers and Sons.
Ken Garnhum is a Canadian playwright, performance artist and theatrical designer. He is most noted for his performance piece Beuys, Buoys, Boys, which was a shortlisted finalist for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play in 1989, and his play Pants on Fire, which won the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award in 1995.
Clare Coulter is a Canadian actress. Although she has appeared in film, television and stage roles, she is most highly regarded for her stage work.
Erik Hillar Liitoja was a Canadian playwright and theatre director. He was most noted for his 1993 play The Last Supper, which won the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award in 1994 and was adapted by Cynthia Roberts into the 1994 feature film The Last Supper.
Leah Cherniak is a Canadian playwright, actor, and teacher. She is a co-founder of Theatre Columbus.
Beverley Cooper is a Canadian actor, director, dramaturg, and playwright who works in film, radio, television, and theatre.
Salt-Water Moon is a Canadian theatrical play by David French, first staged by Tarragon Theatre in 1984. It is the third in his Mercer Plays series, following Leaving Home (1972) and Of the Fields, Lately (1973), and preceding 1949 (1988) and Soldier’s Heart (2001).
Hardee T. Lineham is a Canadian actor. He is most noted for his performance in the 1996 film Shoemaker, for which he was a Genie Award nominee for Best Supporting Actor at the 18th Genie Awards in 1997.
The Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, Independent Theatre is a Canadian theatre award, presented as part of the Dora Mavor Moore Awards to honour the year's best new play by a Canadian playwright which had its premiere in the Toronto theatre market in the previous year.
Sean Dixon is a Canadian playwright. He is most noted for his 2014 stage play A God in Need of Help, which was a Governor General's Award nominee for English-language drama at the 2014 Governor General's Awards.
Theatre of the Film Noir is a stage play by Canadian playwright George F. Walker. Inspired by film noir tropes, the play centres on Inspector Clair, a detective who is investigating the death of Jean, a young gay resistance fighter in the aftermath of the Liberation of Paris in 1944.