Rating: NNNNN
SMOKE DAMAGE: A STORY OF THE WITCH HUNTS (1983)
Collectively created by Banuta Rubess and the cast, this fascinating time-travel play takes five modern female tourists back to the medieval witch trials. Originally staged in an imposing church, with actors using the doors that were part of its huge organ, the piece blends theatre with an exposé of patriarchal attitudes.
THIS IS FOR YOU, ANNA (1986)
The Anna Project’s collectively written show was inspired by the story of a German woman who killed her daughter’s murderer. An image-rich piece dealing with women and violence, it’s subtitled “a spectacle of revenge.
GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA (GOOD MORNING JULIET) (1988)
In Ann-Marie MacDonald ‘s clever variation on Shakespeare, a mousy female prof tumbles into the worlds of Othello and Romeo And Juliet, turning incipient tragedy into unexpected comedy and finding her own power in the process.
PRINCESS POCAHONTAS AND THE BLUE SPOTS (1990)
Monique Mojica examines the truth behind the myth and legend of the Indian princess in a play about the spirit and survival of native women from various countries and times.
A FERTILE IMAGINATION (1991)
A landmark lesbian play by Susan G. Cole looks with humour and heart at what happens in a relationship as two dykes try to conceive a child.
THE ADVENTURES OF A BLACK GIRL IN SEARCH OF GOD (2002)
Following her 1997 award-winning Harlem Duet, Djanet Sears wrote an epic piece about a sorrow-filled black woman who rediscovers her strength and her roots. Multigenerational in its outlook, filled with music, dance and song, delightfully funny and grippingly emotional, Adventures, co-produced with Obsidian , is one of the key theatre pieces of the past decade.
THE DANISH PLAY (2002)
Sonja Mills demonstrated that she could write strong drama as well as effortless comedy in this play about a second world war Danish resistance fighter, Agnete Ottosen, whose dedication proved to be crippling on several levels.
