Latest Episode: Crawlspace
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Listen to past plays and short stories in our archives.
Crawlspace by Karen Hines
Part 1:
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 everything she owns into a glorified car garage.
Part 2:
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 god knows where.
Part 3:
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.
Bonus episode – Interview with Karen Hines:
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.
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The Boy in the Moon by Emil Sher
Based on the book by Ian Brown
Part 1:
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.
Part 2:
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 hitting yourself?
Part 3:
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.
Bonus episode – Interview with Ian Brown and Emil Sher:
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 love and where to find it.
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BUTCHER by Nicolas Billon
Part 1:
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.
Part 2:
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 becomes clear: the old man isn’t the only one in the room with secrets.
Part 3:
“Revenge is the confession of pain … it wants you to feel what it feels.” We all know what it means to kill someone, but what does it mean to break them? No one in the room is playing the same role as when they entered it. No one will ever be the same again.
BONUS EPISODE – Interview with Playwright Nicolas Billon
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 can’t have both.”
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PlayME NOW: Bunny by Hannah Moscovitch
Laura and Chris revisit the perfect play for summer, Bunny by Hannah Moscovitch. The play explores taboos of female sexuality when Sorrel, a grown-up married woman, finds herself alone in a canoe with a much younger man. She is wrestling with whether to give into her desires, or stick to what society expects for her.
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Between Breaths
By Robert Chafe
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Bonus Episode – Interview with Robert Chafe
Between Breaths tells the story of Dr. Jon Lien, the “Whale man of Newfoundland,” known for his pioneering efforts in freeing whales from fishing nets. Told in reverse chronological order, the play portrays his final moments when he finds himself trapped in his own body, much like the whales he worked to free. Note: this play includes coarse language.
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Huff
By Cliff Cardinal
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
A gut-wrenching yet darkly humorous tale about Wind and his brothers, all caught in a cycle of solvent abuse following their mother’s death. Wind’s fantastic dream world bleeds into his haunting reality, as he’s preyed on by the Trickster. Please note: this play includes explicit language, difficult themes and graphic scenes depicting sexual violence, addiction and suicide. Listener discretion is strongly advised.
Bonus Episode – Interview with Cliff Cardinal
Laura speaks with award-winning writer and performer Cliff Cardinal about his gut-wrenching play, Huff. He talks about the taboo subculture of Indigenous kids who abuse solvents and are at risk of suicide, how theatre saved him in high school, and what was like to grow up as the son of iconic actress Tantoo Cardinal.
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The Fish Eyes Trilogy
By Anita Majumdar
Part One: Boys with Cars
Part Two: Let Me Borrow That Top
Part Three: Fish Eyes
Bonus Episode! An interview with Anita Majumdar
Set in the hormone-filled halls of Port Moody Senior Secondary School, we meet Naznin. Her story is the first in three inter-woven Bollywood-meets-high school plays where cultures collide, women struggle for status, and heartbreak awaits at every corner.
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PlayME NOW: Better Angels by Andrea Scott
Who should be feared? Who should be grateful? And who should get to tell the story? These questions are as relevant today as they’ve ever been. As Black History Month winds down, the theatre-powered PlayME podcast resurfaces a work that connects past, present and future.
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What A Young Wife Ought To Know
By Hannah Moscovitch
What A Young Wife Ought To Know Episode 1 / 4
What A Young Wife Ought To Know Episode 2 / 4
What A Young Wife Ought To Know Episode 3 / 4
What A Young Wife Ought To Know Bonus Episode – Interview with Hannah Moscovitch
Set in 1920s Canada, What a Young Wife Ought to Know tells the story of Sophie, a young working-class wife who has a lot to learn about love, sex, and birth control. The play is a brave and honest examination of fertility and family planning, inspired by real stories about young mothers during the early Canadian birth control movement.
Featuring the original Halifax-based 2b theatre company cast that toured Canada – David Patrick Flemming, Rebecca Parent and Liisa Repo-Martell. Directed by Christopher Barr.
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Bang Bang
By Kat Sandler
Bang Bang Episode 1 / 4
Bang Bang Episode 2 / 4
Bang Bang Episode 3 / 4
Bang Bang Episode 4 / 4
Bang Bang – Bonus Episode – Interview with Kat Sandler
A Factory commissioned world premiere.
Featuring: Sébastien Heins, Jeff Lillico, Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah, Karen Robinson and Richard Zeppieri.
A white playwright uses the shooting of an unarmed young black man by a police officer as a “jumping-off point” for his hit play, soon to be adapted into a major movie. As Hollywood comes knocking, the writer visits the officer involved.
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Bunny
By Hannah Moscovitch
Bunny Episode 1
Bunny Episode 2
Bunny Episode 3
Aroused by inappropriate love, a young woman discovers the power of her own allure. Ever the outsider, she struggles with what’s social acceptable only to find herself increasingly alone in her desires.
A Tarragon Theatre production.
BUNNY was commissioned and received its world premiere in August 2016 at the Stratford Festival – Antoni Cimolino, Artistic Director.
Featuring: Gabriella Albino, Maev Beaty, Rachel Cairns, Matthew Edison, Cyrus Lane, Jesse LaVercombe & Tony Ofori. Directed by Sarah Garton Stanley.
Buy tickets: http://www.tarragontheatre.com/show/bunny/
Plays at the Tarragon Theatre, Toronto, Canada
Feb 21 – Apr 1, 2018
Use the discount code, “bunny20” for a 20% discount.
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PlayME NOW: Iceland by Nicolas Billon
In the midst of a severe stock market correction, PlayME revisits Iceland by Nicolas Billon. Set against the backdrop of the 2008 banking crisis, Iceland unearths greed, selfishness, and other ugly human impulses that help fuel the fires of raging capitalism.
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PlayME NOW – Vitals
On the heels of the recent California fires, PlayME revisits a clip from past show, Vitals by Rosamund Small. Listen to get inside the mind of a paramedic in the heat of the action. PlayME NOW is a series of bonus episodes that explore the relevance of previous shows to today’s headline events.
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Prairie Nurse
By Marie Beath Badian
Prairie Nurse Part 1 / 3
Prairie Nurse Part 2 / 3
Prairie Nurse Part 3 / 3
Bonus Episode – Interview with Marie Beath Badian
A comedy about two Filipino nurses who come to work at a small-town Saskatchewan hospital in the late 1960s. Cultural clashes, personality differences, homesickness, and the amorous but dim-witted goalie from the local hockey team complicate the women’s lives.
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PlayME Season 2 Trailer
Coming soon….
PlayME has joined CBC Podcasts. Coming soon: Prairie Nurse, What a young wife ought to know, Huff, Between Breaths, and The Fish Eyes Trilogy. Welcome to your Digital Theatre.
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Iceland
By Nicolas Billon
Set against the backdrop of the banking crisis, a confrontation between a real estate agent and a tenant takes an unexpected turn.
Featuring the original cast of Kawa Ada, Claire Calnan and Christine Horne.
PlayME – Iceland – Episode 1
PlayME – Iceland Episode 2
PlayME – Iceland Episode #3
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Vitals
By Rosamund Small
PlayME – Vitals Episode 1
Vitals Episode 2
PlayME – Vitals Episode 3
PlayME – Vitals Episode 4
http://cbc.mc.tritondigital.com/CBC_PLAYME_P/media/playme-cjacISsY-20181026.mp33PlayME – Interview with Rosamund Small
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Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells)
By Rose Napoli
#12 Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells) – Episode 1
PlayME – Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells) – Episode 2
Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells) – Eps. #3
Dear Mr. Wells – Bonus Interview with Rose Napoli
Laura, a 15-year-old school girl, is in an inappropriate relationship with her English teacher. She is in love, but he’s in a complicated marriage he can’t leave. Things ignite when his wife calls during the couple’s secret night of passion.
Featuring Vivien Endicott-Douglas and David Jansen. The original workshop production was directed by Andrea Donaldson.
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Quiver
By Anna Chatterton
Quiver – Episode 1
Quiver – Episode 2
Quiver – Episode 3
Quiver Bonus Interview with Anna Chatterton
Maddie’s sweet sixteen sister, Beatrice, is dating someone she shouldn’t. Their brassy single mom, Sheila, makes up with her ex-boyfriend again. So fourteen-year-old Maddie is left to fend for herself with nothing but her bow and arrow.
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Theory
By Norman Yeung
#19 – PlayME – Theory – Episode 1
PlayME – Theory – Episode 2
PlayME – Theory – Episode 3
PlayME – Bonus Interview with Norman Yeung
Isabelle, a young liberal professor of film theory, creates an Internet discussion board for her class. A mysterious student posts offensive comments and videos, testing Isabelle’s open-mindedness.
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Better Angels
By Andrea Scott
Better Angels – Episode 1
Better Angels – Episode 2
Better Angels – Bonus Interview with Andrea Scott
Akosua is a young woman from Ghana who has come to Canada to work as a nanny for a couple in Toronto. They insist she is a member of their family, but when they increasingly deny her pay she comes to a chilling realization: she has become their prisoner.
Written by Andrea Scott and featuring Akosua Amo-Adem, Sascha Cole, Peyson Rock and David Christo, the play premiered at Summerworks in 2015 and was originally directed by Nigel Shawn Williams.
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Grade 8
By Dwayne Morgan
PlayME – Grade 8 – Episode 1
PlayME – Grade 8 – Episode 2
PlayME – Bonus Episode – Interview with Dwayne Morgan
Grade 8 looks at what it means to be a black father today, and the role men play in young girls’ lives as they grow up and become women. Told through spoken word, this one-man show is part beat poetry and part urban lyricism.
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The Philosopher’s Wife
By Susanna Fournier
Featuring: Keith Barker, Aviva Armour-Ostroff, Chala Hunter, and Ishan Davé.
Directed by Leora Morris.
The Philosopher’s Wife, is a modern Gothic subverting notions of education, sex, power, and submission.
The Philosopher’s Wife – Episode 1
The Philosopher’s Wife – Episode 2
The Philosopher’s Wife – Episode 3
New Episode!
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PlayME Mono
Laura and Chris host conversations with some of Canada’s most celebrated playwrights in front of a live audience. Together, they dive deep into their favourite monologues. d’bi young anitafrika talks about her monologue Mami Wata.
Episode 1 – d’bi young anitafrika
Episode 2 – Judith Thompson
Laura and Chris host conversations with some of Canada’s most celebrated playwrights in front of a live audience. Together, they dive deep into their favourite monologues.Judith Thompson talks about her monologue from Palace of the End.
Episode 3 – Keith Barker
Laura and Chris host conversations with some of Canada’s most celebrated playwrights in front of a live audience. Together, they explore their favourite monologues. Keith Barker talks about his monologue from This is How We Got Here
Episode 4 – Daniel MacIvor
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Interview with Erica Kopyto
Thoughts on improving writing.
Chris talks with Erica about the role of dramaturgy in playwriting. Erica walks us through what makes for a great play.
PlayME – Interview with Dramaturg, Erica Kopyto