Saint Frances of Hollywood

By (author): Sally Clark

Her star rising as a Hollywood diva, Frances Farmer chooses to join the socialist Group Theatre in New York. This idealistic, raucous and non-conforming movie star, pursued by the government for her alleged communist connections, was finally incarcerated with the help of her mother at Steilacoom, a Seattle psychiatric hospital, where she was lobotomized and released as “cured” in 1949. Saint Frances of Hollywood has taken the biographical details of Frances Farmer’s life and transformed them into a mesmerizing and quintessential classical tragedy.

Cast of 4 women and 4 men.

AUTHOR

Sally Clark

Born in Vancouver, Sally Clark is a critically acclaimed playwright who has been dazzling audiences with her penchant for dark humour, ironic wit and sharp character portrayals. Her plays, typically presented in a series of short, vivid and fast-paced scenes, seamlessly combine comedic and tragic motifs to tell the stories of strong and adventurous women. In Saint Frances of Hollywood and Life Without Instruction, she demonstrates her knack for dramatizing the lives of historical figures, providing a feminist re-visioning of what it means and what it costs to be a heroine. Clark has been playwright-in-residence at Theatre Passe Muraille, the Shaw Festival, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Nakai Theatre and Nightwood Theatre. She is also an accomplished painter, director and filmmaker. While a resident at the Canadian Film Centre in 1991-92, Clark adapted and directed a movie version of Ten Ways to Abuse an Old Woman, which won the Special Prix du Jury at the Henri Langlois Short Film Festival, held in Poitiers, France. Another short by Clark, The Art of Conversation, won the Bronze Award for best dramatic short at the Worldfest Charleston Festival.

Reviews

“It is this mix of fact and fantasy that Clark has captured so brilliantly and used to striking advantage … the effect is brutally chilling.”
Variety


“A searing tragedy …”
Toronto Star


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Her star rising as a Hollywood diva, Frances Farmer chooses to join the socialist Group Theatre in New York. This idealistic, raucous and non-conforming movie star, pursued by the government for her alleged communist connections, was finally incarcerated with the help of her mother at Steilacoom, a Seattle psychiatric hospital, where she was lobotomized and released as “cured” in 1949. Saint Frances of Hollywood has taken the biographical details of Frances Farmer’s life and transformed them into a mesmerizing and quintessential classical tragedy.

Cast of 4 women and 4 men.

Reader Reviews

Details

Dimensions:

200 Pages
8.5in * 216mm * 5.5in * 140mm * 0.5625in14mm
269gr
9.5oz

Published:

January 01, 1996

City of Publication:

Vancouver

Country of Publication:

CA

Publisher:

Talonbooks

ISBN:

9780889223660

Book Subjects:

DRAMA / Canadian

Featured In:

All Books

Language:

eng

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