Double Bill: Still Desire You & Fire

By (author): Paul Ledoux

Still Desire You (a fresh adaptation of I Love You, Anne Murray, first produced in the 1980s) deals with issues that are central to the growing malaise of celebrity culture in our society. For some fans, innocent fantasies about their connection to the performer behind the song can become real and dangerous obsessions. Such is the story of David Stuart, a fundamentally decent man on trial for “the crime of loving a girl” who happens to be a pop icon. Still Desire You explores the slippery slope of a fan’s delusions and, in the process, indicts the star-making machinery behind our communal obsession with celebrity.

Fire
explores the extraordinary relationship between Pentecostal Christianity, the birth of rock and roll, and the rise of right-wing fundamentalism as a force in American politics. Inspired by the lives of Jerry Lee Lewis and Reverend Jimmy Swaggart, who learned how to play on the same piano, Fire traces the rise and fall of Cale and Herschel, the sons of a Southern preacher. In the ’50s Cale becomes a rock and roll star but, convinced he is damned for playing “the devil’s music,” embarks on a self-destructive rampage that nearly destroys him. By the 1980s Herschel has become a famous televangelist and is drawn into a dangerous mix of faith and right-wing politics. Caught between the two brothers is the woman who loves them both, Herschel’s wife, Molly. A play about searching for salvation with your head, your heart, and your groin.

AUTHOR

Paul Ledoux

Paul Ledoux was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He studied at Dalhousie University and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. He began writing for theatre while living in Montreal and working at the Centaur Theatre.

His play The Electrical Man won the award for best play in the 1976 Quebec Drama Festival. Since then, he has worked as an artistic director, dramaturge, director, designer, and now writes for film and television as well as theatre. He won the Chalmers Award for Fire (written with David Young, premiered at Magnus Theatre, 1986) and was nominated for a second for Secret Garden (adapted from Frances Hodgson Burnett, Young People’s Theatre, 1991). He has twice been a finalist for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Fire and Judy! (Stages Cabaret, 1980). Other plays include: The Children of the Night (Factory Theatre, 1982), As Time Goes By (music by David Smyth and Peter Willson, Magnus, 1986), Sam Slick, The Clockmaker (music by A. MacDonald, Mermaid Theatre, 1983), Love is Strange (with David Young, Magnus, 1984), Cheatin’ Hearts (with David Smyth, Magnus, 1994), Ubu the Barbarian (songs by Joe Hall, Arbour Festival), and Anne (Young People’s Theatre, 1998).

Awards

  • Dora Mavor Moore Award- Best New Play (Fire) 1986, Short-listed
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    Details

    Dimensions:

    192 Pages
    8.375in * 5.375in * 0.6in
    200gr

    Published:

    October 20, 2008

    ISBN:

    9780887548178

    Book Subjects:

    DRAMA / Canadian

    Featured In:

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    Language:

    eng

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