Canadian Plays by Playwright: L

Welcome to the Canadian Plays section where you will find plays published in English from across Canada and plays in translation from French Canada. Plays are listed by playwright, by last name.

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Canadian Anthologies

If you are unsure of the author's name, please to to our search engine and enter the title of the work you are interested in.

Stretching Hide
Dale Lakevold et al
The Willows, Saskatchewan: Frank, a young Metis lawyer, introduces his fiance to the idyllic life of his community one July long weekend. That weekend his law practice and his personal life are threatened when the provincial game wardens accuse him of poaching a deer. Softcover, 104 pp. $14.95.

The Betty Lambert Reader
Betty Lambert & Cynthia Zimmerman (editor)
Readers will find common threads of concern - moral, political, metaphysical, aesthetic - that link these disparate works of fiction. The Betty Lambert Reader contains short stories, novel excerpts and full plays, including: "The Pony," "Guilt," Jennie's Story, and Under the Skin. Softcover, 424 pp. $45.00.

Jennie's Story & Under the Skin
Betty Lambert
Jennie's Story: Set on the prairies in 1938, this play concerns a young woman who must confront her apparent inability to bear children. But her personal frustration has greater implications, because it is entangled with the Catholic church, and an earlier relationship with a priest. M-2, F-3. Under the Skin: When Maggie Benton's 12-year-old daughter disappears, her friends try to console her, but their ominous behavior makes this cold comfort. M-1, F-2. 194 pp. $18.95.

Rave
Kevin A. Land
A deranged actor terrorises the cast and director of a summer theatre when he is replaced as the lead in a highly successful romantic comedy from last season. M-2, F-1. 84 pp. $12.95.

Bethune
Rod Langley
Set in landscapes which move from Detroit to China, Bethune is a study of how one man's vision may shape the world. In this play, Rod Langley attempts to chronicle the journey of Dr. Norman Bethune towards his final destiny. M-19, F-1.0 119 pp. $16.95.

The Dunsmuirs: Alone at the Edge
Rod Langley
The first of three plays chronicling the saga of one of Canada's wealthiest, most ruthless and ill-fated families. M-8, F-3. 103 pp. $12.95.

 
The Catering Queen
Alison Lawrence
Christmas cheer, sex, romance, death, laughter, appetizers, and a whole lot of vodka all come together in this hilarious comedy that looks at what happens behind the scenes at the annual corporate Christams cocktail party. 3M 3F. Softcover, 82 pp. $14.95.

Bittergirl
Annabel Fitzsimmons, Alison Lawrence & Mary Francis Moore
Bittergirl charts the break-ups of three women -- one single and dating, one co-habiting, and one married with a child. Following the women as they experience, heartbreak, hilarity, tequila, mounties, love, honour, car-keying, and fairy-tales gone wrong, this theatrical phenomenon had three sold-out runs in Toronto, toured to London, England, and played off-Broadway in NYC. This new, full-length version of the script has even more bittergirl wit and hard-won wisdom. Softcover, 67 pp. $14.95.

John Lazarus's Shorts
John Lazarus
A collection of one-acts and skits including Puppets, Fighting Fear at the Bus Stop, The Illegal Playwriting Class, Alien Mice, You're Him , and Yuppie Ciao. $12.95.


Ice: Beyond Cool
John Lazarus
A dynamic dance-and-theatre extravaganza, which explores the world of today's teenagers and the pressures on them, through the story of 15.-year-old Sara, her friends and family, and her efforts to make sense of her world. M-7, F-8 72 pp. $15.95.

Dreaming and Duelling
John Lazarus
Fantasies and love for the same girl lead two fencing students to "play" with the safety tips off and the points sharpened. A look at adolescent role-playing. M-3, F-2. 72 pp. $12.95.

Double Bill: Still Desire You & Fire
Paul Ledoux & David Young
Playing like the A and B sides of an old 45, these two plays deal with the interpenetrating relationships between carnal desire, spiritual love, media and popular music. Taken together, they paint a vivid picture of the struggle to find spiritual meaning within the maelstrom of a media-driven culture. Softcover, 176 pp. $17.95.

Cheatin' Hearts
Paul Ledoux and David Smyth
A story of love, friendship, and betrayal as seen through the eyes of a slow janitor at the honky-tonk cabaret where the action takes place. M-3, F-3. 126 pp. $11.95.

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Shylock
Mark Leiren-Young
This award-winning play chronicles the plight of a Jewish actor who finds himself condemned by his own community for his portrayal of Shakespeare's notorious Jew. M-1 44 pp. $11.95.

Articles of Faith
Mark Leiren-Young
A play about the blessing of same sex relationships. M-4, F-1. 43 pp. $10.00.

Witness to a Conga and Other Plays
Stewart Lemoine
Three brilliant, moving plays from Canada's master of comic theatre. Also includes The Oculist's Holiday and Happy Toes. Softcover, 210 pp. $19.95.

At the Zenith of the Empire
Stewart Lemoine
Inspired by Fallen Empires, At the Zenith of the Empire creates a swirling speculative scenario about the impact of this very special day on the lives of Edmonton's earliest theatre-goers and theatre practitioners. The Divine Sarah Bernhardt herself narrates this sumptuous romp of reminiscence, as the characters visit such local landmarks as Ada Boulevard, the Groat Ravine, newly annexed Strathcona, and the not-quite-completed High Level Bridge. Softcover, 134 pp. $18.95.

A Teatro Trilogy: Shockers Delight! Pith! The Margin of the Sky
Stewart Lemoine
This Trilogy of Lemoine's work displays the best of his highly imaginative, witty comedies. With the love of "playing" in theatre as explored in Pith!, the wistful meditation of Shockers Delight! and the vivid self-exploration of The Margin of the Sky, Lemoine displays three very contrasting parts of his talent, yet keeps that focus for which he is known: for creating contemporary adult fairy tales and juxtaposing the strange and the familiar. Shockers Delight!: m:2 f:1. Pith!: m:1 f:2. The Margin of the Sky: m:2 f:2. Softcover, 214 pp. $18.95.

Cocktails at Pam's & Evelyn Strange: Two Plays
Stewart Lemoine
In the comedy Cocktails at Pam's, Pam assumes the putative role of the perfect hostess at a cocktail party. M-4, F-7 Evelyn Strange chronicles the story of a beautiful amnesiac who seeks to rediscover her identity while unravelling a tangeled web of deceit, murder, and betrayal. M-2, F-2. 173 pp. $12.95.


The Vile Governess
Stewart Lemoine
An Ibsenesque romp set in Vienna where a bourgeois family's world is turned upside down by the arrival of terrifying governess and a loveable dog. M-2, F-4. 63 pp. $12.95.

Connie in Egypt
Stewart Lemoine
Connie is a government librarian who takes an impulse vacation to Egypt in order to get rid of unused holiday time. Her adventures include a brush with terrorism, a chat with the Sphinx, a visit with characters from Death in Venice, and a romantic interlude in a subterranean tunnel. M-2, F-2. 48 pp. $10.95.

Neck-Breaking-Car-Hop
Stewart Lemoine
Annette Styx loves trees more than she loved her husband Dennis and probably more than she loves her kids Sharon and Doug. Her family's grim routine is irrevocably changed by the visit of an A&W employee with a perchant for manslaughter. M-2, F-3. 20 pp. $10.95.

The Seven Streams of The River Ota
Robert Lepage
147 pp. $35.00.
*this title is print on demand.

Polygraph
Robert Lepage
44 pp. $16.95.

Nathan the Wise
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
This engrossing revival of a serious German classic has a late-Shakespearean romance kind of plot which makes the argument, both intellectual and emotional, that what matters is not the label of one's faith but the quality of one's humanity. Banned by the Nazis, Lessing's 18th-century Nathan The Wise is a passionate plea for religious tolerance. Translated by Edward Kemp. Chichester Festival 2003. Soulpepper Theatre Company, Toronto 2004. 6M, 3W. Softcover, 96 pp. $22.95.

The Occupation of Heather Rose
Wendy Lill
Young, naive and inadequately trained, urban health care/social worker Heather Rose flirts with the pilot as she wings her way north in a bush plane to land in an isolated and remote northern/Native community. Nine months later, utterly disillusioned, she returns to tell her stories to others, illustrating her monologue of despair on a blackboard to an absent colonial authority for which the audience stands in as its silent and complicit witness. Softcover, 62 pp. $16.95.

Chimera
Wendy Lill
The ethics of stem-cell research - in particular the creation of cross-species "chimeras," the mixing of genetic material from humans and animals - is a hotly debated topic with political, scientific, moral and spiritual dimensions. While such experiments could hold the key to curing many diseases, to their detractors they conjure up everything from visions of divine retribution to sci-fi nightmares from B-grade horror films. To explore this controversy, Wendy Lill created a chimera of her own: a hybrid play that's part Parliament Hill expose, part examination of the efforts to regulate genetic engineering, Softcover, 96 pp. $15.95.

Memories of You
Wendy Lill
Based on the romantic and literary entanglements of the late great Elizabeth Smart, the play explores one woman's passions as she struggles to be a lover, a mother and a writer. M-1, F-4. 96 pp. $15.95.

Sisters
Wendy Lill
Sisters explores the life of a nun who burns down a Native residential school, examining the cultural infrastructure and values of the white society which created them. M-2, F-4. 95 pp. $15.95.

All Fall Down
Wendy Lill
Set in the midst of a sexual abuse case at a daycare centre, the play examines the roots of intolerance and hysteria, and their effects on love. M-2, F-2. 116 pp. $16.95.

Glace Bay Miners' Museum
Wendy Lill
Based on the novel by Sheldon Currie. The story of an ill-fated love between a wandering musician/social idealist and a Cape Breton coal miner's daughter whose dreams are reawakened by their passion.
M-3, F-2. 126 pp. $16.95.

Corker
Wendy Lill
A hard-driving, social program budget slashing female political aparatchik, and her husband, a lion of free enterprise, are hell bent on dismantling their government's social services by replacing them with a privatised human warehousing system whose track record to date has been the streamlining of the American prison system. M-4, F-2. 127 pp. $16.95.

The Fighting Days
Wendy Lill
Set in the 1910's, the play follows Frances Beynon's journey into the Winnipeg feminist movement, where she eventually clashes with Nellie McClung over pacifism and universal suffrage. M-1, F-3. 93 pp. $15.95.

The Mystery of Maddy Heisler
Daniel R. Lilliford
Contemplating his next mystery novel, Nova Scotian author Jacob Meisner is forced to revisit his past. Ghostly figures start to flit into sight and long-buried memoreis surface. 4M 3F. Softcover, 82 pp. $16.95.

Where the Blood Mixes
Kevin Loring
Though torn down years ago, the memories of their Residential School still lives deep inside the hearts of those who spent their childhoods there. For some, like Floyd, the legacy of that trauma has been passed down through families for generations -- in his case, resulting in pain, isolation, and alcoholism. Brutally honest yet irreverently funny, Where the Blood Mixes is a story about loss and redemption. Softcover, 96 pp. $16.95.

Street Level
Patricia Ludwick
Personal visions of transcendence from five people whose jobs keep them grounded. M-2, F-3. 68 pp. $12.95.

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Last modified July 18, 2012.
Please note that all prices are in Canadian dollars. All prices are subject to change without notice.