Courting Johanna is set in the claustrophobic atmosphere of Huron County, Ontario in the 1950s. Johanna is a dignified Scottish immigrant housekeeper who works for the well-off Mr. McCauley. She looks after McCauleyÕs granddaughter, Sabitha, whose mother is dead and whose father, Ken, is a deadbeat looking for work out West.
When silly, spoiled Sabitha and her younger, but more mature friend EdithÑthe sensible daughter of an immigrant shoemakerÑdiscover a personal letter Johanna has written to Ken, they decide to play a trick on her. More out of boredom than cruelty, they begin forging letters from ÒKenÓ to the lonely Johanna, who opens her heart and confesses that before she became his pen pal, she had Òonly had one friend in my life.Ó
When the semi-fictional correspondence becomes more explicitly romantic, events spiral out of control: Johanna takes off for Gdynia, Sask., with a load of furniture that belongs to Ken - an accusation of theft following in her wake.
Based on the luminous short story ÒHateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, MarriageÓ from the Alice Munro collection of the same name, Courting Johanna is a window into the human heartÑa tale of loneliness, deception, and redemption.

Marcia Johnson is a playwright and actor based in Toronto. Her plays include Binti's Journey, an adaptation of The Heaven Shop by Deborah Ellis; Courting Johanna (Scirocco Drama, 2009) based on Alice Munro's Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, and Late. Her plays have been performed by the Blyth Festival, Obsidian Theatre Company, Theatre Direct Canada, Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Black Theatre Workshop, Western Canadian Theatre Company, and more. My Mother's Ring, a short opera for which she wrote the libretto with composer Stephen A. Taylor, was nominated for a 2009 Dora Mavor Moore Award. Their second collaboration, Paradises Lost, based on the Ursula K. Le Guin novella, had excerpted concert performances by Third Angle Ensemble in Portland, Oregon and at The Gershwin Hotel in New York. Marcia Johnson is a core member of Got Your Back Canada and is a juror/dramaturg for Ergo Pink Fest, supporting, developing and showcasing the works of women and playwrights of marginalized genders.

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ÒThe play is well-imagined and brought vividly to lifeÉ Courting Johanna is a mirror held up to human nature.Ó
ÑLondon Free Press