2000

According to Joan MacLeod, her play 2000 grew out of a story she read about a cougar that had wandered into a sports arena in Vancouver, BC: “I was intrigued by the notion of the wild invading the city and the city invading the wild, by the idea of things being not quite right in nature and the approach of the millennium.”

In the play, the cougar appears to embody the precarious and increasingly circumscribed state of nature. Each character relates to nature in a different way, whether it be with distrust, cynicism, awe or longing. The figure of the “Mountain Man,” who has abandoned all of his civilized ways, even speech, to live among the animals of the forest, provides a meeting ground between humanity and nature. Like the cougar, increasingly crowded by a rapidly encroaching civilization, he scavenges what precious little remains of the beautiful animal in all of us.

Cast of 3 women and 2 men.

AUTHOR

Joan MacLeod

Multiple Betty Mitchell, Chalmer’s, Dora ,and Governor General’s Award-winning author Joan MacLeod grew up in North Vancouver and studied Creative Writing at both the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia. Now an internationally celebrated star of the world of the theatre, MacLeod developed her finely honed playwriting skills during seven seasons as playwright-in-residence at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. She turned her hand to opera with her libretto for The Secret Garden, which won a Dora Award. She has had many radio dramas produced by CBC Stereo Theatre, including Hand of God, a one-hour drama adapted from her play Jewel. She has also written numerous scripts for film and television productions. Translated into eight languages, her work has been extensively produced around the world. Multiple simultaneous productions of her hit play Shape of a Girl toured internationally for four years, including a sold-out run in New York. Her play Amigo’s Blue Guitar won the 1991 Governor General’s Drama Award. Her Governor General’s Award nominations include one in 1996 for The Hope Slide / Little Sister and one in 2009 for Another Home Invasion. Talon has also published her 2000, Gracie, The Valley, Toronto, Mississippi, and Homechild. MacLeod also writes prose and poetry, which has been published in a wide variety of literary journals. She also teaches Creative Writing at the University of Victoria.