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How does a farm girl in 1950s Ontario escape the stall-cleaning, cow-milking, hay-baling drudgery of life on Rural Route 2? She becomes a movie star, of course! The quickest route to Hollywood for a plucky gal in the mid-twentieth century was to enter as many beauty pageants as possible and to sing, twirl and pivot her way into the hearts of judges.ÊAnd so Peggy Ann Douglas did just that, as did so many other young women of her generation, hoping to follow in the footsteps of starlets like Debbie Reynolds.
As all the great dramatists since the Greek tragedians have known, class and gender roles continue to remain the two fundamental determinants of the social fabric of any culture—even one, like our own, in which the boundaries of those identities have become fluid, situational and transitory.
David French’s adaptation of August Strindberg’s disturbing and enduring drama of the transgressive affair between the daughter of a count and the count’s man-servant has an eerie feel of the contemporary about it. In this adaptation of Miss Julie, French has sharpened the psychodramas of the original—scenes of conflict, desire, anger, jealousy, coercion, manipulation, exploitation, arrogance, dominance, submission and deceit—and backgrounded the historical elements of the play which have made it a favourite “period-piece” of the repertory theatre circuit. His revisioning of Miss Julie foregrounds the ruptures of identity and faith that ambition and desire eternally work in their rending of social norms, strictures and conventions, and he has re-enacted them in a contemporary idiom and vernacular that virtually cries out for the casting-call of a Paris Hilton to play the lead role.
As with his adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull, David French, one of Canada’s best-loved playwrights, has here once again paid homage to one of the enduring masters who have brought to the stage the most elemental and universal dramas of the human condition.
When a mad dentist steals people’s teeth, Miss Lamp comes to town.
Miss Lamp, a young and savvy lawyer, is holed up in Room 32 of the Peachland Hotel, waiting for a perfect grilled cheese sandwich and reviewing the case of Delano, the teeth-stealing dentist everybody loves to hate.
Meanwhile, the narrator takes us on a tour of Miss Lamp’s memories, stories of her family, the adventures of those who knock on her door. There’s Miss Lamp’s mother, Abby, and her mean grandmother. There’s the supremely lovable Paper Boy, abused by Delano and in love with a younger Miss Lamp. There’s naive Room Service Boy, on the hunt for the perfect tomato soup to accompany Miss Lamp’s grilled cheese; at the grocery store he meets the assertive Banana Tray Hair – could it be love?
These characters’ stories weave together into a tangle – like moths to a light, they all kaleidoscope back to our Miss Lamp in her floralhotel room. She invites you in to smell the flowers, to walk in someone else’s shoes, to eat a peach, to watch a magpie pick for gold.
‘To read Miss Lamp is to see daily life again in clear, sharp lines and delightfully bright colours.’ – Larissa Lai
Fran longs to be a star of stage and screen, but she’s too poor to afford elocution and dance lessons. When she lands the leading role of Miss Matty in a school production of Cranford, she’s determined to make a splash. Far away, in Europe, World War II rages on, but Fran isn’t worried, because her boyfriend is stationed in Canada. Her life seems to be heading in the right direction, finally — until she begins to unravel a web of lies and deception. Much as she wants to cling to familiar fantasies, Fran may have no choice but to face the truth.
Miss O: My Life in Dance is the candid autobiography of Betty Oliphant, founder of Canada’s renowned National Ballet School. World War, two failed marriages, two daughters, an abortion, a long battle with depression, back-breaking work, eventual world-wide recognition, and friendships with some of leading dancers of our time make Betty Oliphant’s exceptionally frank autobiography both a vivid picture of the birth of ballet in Canada and the story of an exceptional woman. With an introduction from Mikhail Baryshnikov.”Betty Oliphant has written a moving account of her pioneering efforts to launch ballet in Canada. She paints vivid behind-the-scenes pictures of the school and company she founded and of the ballet stars she nurtured, among them Veronica Tennant, Karen Kain and Rex Harrington. With characteristic candour, she recounts her many battles along the way and her experiences with international stars Erik Bruhm and Rudolf Nureyev.”–Diane Solway, author of A Dance Against Time
Sixteen-year-old Miles has run away from home, inviting his childhood companion, the fourteen-year-old Inuit orphan Chateaugué, to join him in a rented flat opposite Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours in Montreal. There they construct a chaste life for themselves, living as brother and sister. They spend their days riding bicycles wildly through the streets of the city, dodging the automobiles that symbolize for them the adult world they despise, a world that has dominated the landscape with its roadmaps of social discourse. They spend hours at the library, laughing with disdain at how the classics have become venerated, how their authors’ words and turns of phrase have become confused with the things and actions they signify. Enthralled by the works of the “mad” poet Nelligan, Miles begins a journal, determined to free language from the constraints of convention, but finds he cannot write anything without immediately conjuring up its opposite.
To escape the boredom that history seems to have decreed shall be re-enacted endlessly by all grown-ups, Miles and Chateaugué enter into a suicide pact to preserve their childhood freedom and purity from the debasement of the adult roles pre-ordained for them.
Destitute after spending what little money they have, Miles goes to a bar in search of a drink, where he is seduced by an older woman, and suddenly finds himself both attracted and repelled by the pleasures and debasements of the flesh. Having stepped out of their world of childhood innocence, can he return to Chateaugué and consummate their vows, or is this brush with experience irrevocable?
Written in a style that echoes the work of Arthur Rimbaud and William S. Burroughs, Ducharme’s vision is darkly prophetic of a world that has lost its innocence, and on which “our lady of good help” now only gazes with an inscrutable Mona Lisa smile.
Miss Wondergem’s Bakery, coming quite soon! In fact, it will open tomorrow at noon!There’s a brand new bakery in town, and no one could be happier about it than Verna, Myrna and Bradley McGrew. As much as they love their mother, the McGrew children dread what comes out of her kitchen – and with very good reason. But when the three young McGrews meet the new bakery’s owner, they’re in for a most unpleasant surprise
Dr. Lorne Thorpe, a well-known pediatrician, is on a rare outing with his daughter Shawn when she is abducted. Although Shawn is eventually returned, seemingly unharmed but refusing to talk about what has happened, it seems that she is not the only child who has gone missing from their Troutstream neighbourhood. Detective Beldon has been put on the case, but Dr. Thorpe’s increasingly erratic behaviour is hindering his investigation. And it’s imperative to solve the mystery before more children disappear.
Recipient of the 2006 Poetry Prize of the Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award.In this collection of poetry, acclaimed poet and writer Renee Norman captures the sensuous and surreal, the serious and the serene, the simple truths about life, love, self and family.
Who is the mysterious woman in the Matisse drawing, “Woman in a Blouse, Dreaming?” What secrets is she hiding? Chloe Rea grew up with the Matisse sketch and believes the woman in the famous Rumanian blouse is her grandmother. But the sketch now belongs to Adam Jensen, who inherited it after his brother’s sudden death in the south of France. Now Chloe wants the sketch back, but someone else is willing to kill for it. When a prominent art dealer in Toronto is murdered, Chloe and Adam flee to France to walk in the footsteps of Matisse and the beautiful Russian named Lydia. Her remarkable story, set amid the darkness and treachery of wartime Nice, holds the key to a missing masterpiece. Missing Matisse is a novel with a puzzle, set in the contemporary world of art theft and the historical reality of World War II, France. The heart of the story is the enigmatic and complex Lydia Delectorskaya, a Russian orphan who became Matisse’s muse, model, caregiver, administrator, and companion for twenty years. Lydia Delectorskaya is a fascinating figure, though little is known about her life after Matisse’s death. Brief accounts of her relationship with Matisse are noted in Hilary Spurling’s biography Matisse The Master (2005). While the author has held true to those facts, she has also imagined an inner life for Lydia, one that comes from her study of the paintings and her knowledge of the history of Nice and Vence during World War II. In Missing Matisse, Jan Rehner gives Lydia a voice, and pays tribute to her remarkable contribution to some of Matisse’s greatest paintings.
A spun radio dial passing clean through poetry. A stuttering loop of Endgame recorded by Stockhausen, remixed by Kraftwerk. The chatter of minotaurs and metadata. Transmissions from far-off futures or new pasts, recordings from a recoded present topped off with a cherry. Evel Knievel, above it all, mysterious, forever taciturn. Mission Creep comes on with the inferno of apocalyptic prophecy and melts on your tongue like the last snowflake of a nuclear winter.
Praise for Joshua Trotter:
‘Joshua Trotter’s long-awaited debut is here, and it’s every bit as good as we’d hoped. His poems have the one maker’s mark of authenticity that absolutely cannot be faked: a fresh style that holds novelty and tradition in creative tension. … By turns funny and terrifying, airy and claustrophobic, non-representational and razor-sharp, Trotter is stock to buy early and hold.’
– National Post (on All This Could Be Yours)
‘A miracle of meter and meteorology’
– Poetry Foundation (on All This Could Be Yours)
Missy tells all … and there is a lot to tell. First came Missy. Then came Sable, Sunny, Chyna, and the rest. Missy Hyatt was professional wrestling’s first character — the original sexy “socialite” sidekick whose trademark Gucci purse and tough-girl attitude made her the most loved — and most hated — woman in wrestling. Now, fifteen years after she first shimmied up to the ring, Missy Hyatt takes fans inside the world of wrestling. From her high school days as a hard-core fan, cheering from her living room, to the cover of Wrestler magazine, Missy has done it all. In this no-holds-barred memoir, Missy discloses the behind-the-scenes secrets of table-throwing, chair-smashing, hair-pulling, and the technique of “juicing” — how wrestlers make themselves bleed on cue. Find out about her intimate relationships with Jake the Snake, Wonder Years’ Jason Hervey, Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert, and many many more. Missy has worked with wrestling’s biggest stars, from Hulk to Jesse, from Vince to the Rock, and she tells everything.
In these two plays for young audiences, award-winning playwright Erin Shields presents the challenges of friendship and communication.
In Mistatim, which is based on a concept from Sandra Laronde of Red Sky Performance, two eleven-year-olds strike up an unlikely friendship at the fence between one’s reserve and the other’s ranch. On Speck’s side, she’s carved names of family members into the wooden posts as she tries to piece together her identity. On Calvin’s side, he’s trying to train a horse in order to prove himself to his father. When Speck realizes she can communicate with Calvin’s horse Mistatim, the pair work to liberate the animal, and in the process learn about one another’s cultures.
In Instant, three teens find out how far they’ll go in their quest to be seen and heard. Meredith is a singer-songwriter who makes YouTube videos of covers in an attempt to gain Internet fame. But her friend Jay, a rising hockey star, can’t understand why she won’t post her original songs. When their classmate Rosie suddenly goes viral after a video is posted of her singing to raise money for her father’s medical bills, Meredith’s jealousy takes over and she pushes Rosie too far, triggering a near-deadly response.
In this poetry collection, the author takes an astonishing look into the heart of the afterworld and questions the circle of life as we know it. Mister Blackhurst miraculously regains consciousness on his hospital bed but he realizes that the world around him is no longer under his control. Strange people go in and out, collect their things in boxes, and then disappear. The reality of existence becomes more unpredictable and complex then he could have ever imagined.