A virus has plagued the city and residents are quarantined. Curfews have been imposed and rumours of government corruption abound. Bureaucratic red tape is creating a food crisis. Laurel and her parents are imprisoned in the basement of their stately home, relying on the generosity of their former gardener, Cheater, for information and supplies. While Laurel and her family struggle just to survive, Cheater becomes intoxicated with his new-found power as a member of the Security and Surveillance police. Laurel must act as go-between if she is to liberate her family from their basement cell, and enters the dark and convoluted world of Cheater, discovering in the process startling revelations about herself, politics, art, violence, and the man they have become dependent upon.

A multi-award-winning writer, Colleen Wagner studied arts at the OCAD University, as well as literature and drama at the University of Toronto, and she moves between these art forms. Her writing interests include screenplays, stage plays, poetry, and short fiction. Her produced plays include: The Monument (Playwrights Canada Press), translated into a dozen languages and winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, several Dora Mavor Moore Awards, and a number of inter-national awards; The Morning Bird (Scirocco Drama), produced in English and French; down from heaven (Playwrights Canada Press), nominated for a MECCA Award for Best New Play; and Home (Scirocco Drama). Wagner is a past recipient of a research-creation grant from Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council that took her to Africa. Her documentary play, The Living, based on stories of survivors in post-conflict zones, premiered to sold-out audiences at the 2015 SummerWorks Performance Festival at the Theatre Centre’s BMO Incubator for Live Arts in Toronto, and won NOW Magazine’s Jon Kaplan Audience Choice Award and Best Director Award. Wagner has written a number of screenplays, including an adaptation of The Monument; filmed a documentary film about women in post-conflict zones and matriarchal societies, Women Building Peace, winner of the Silver Wave Film Festival’s 2016 Best Documentary Award; and an interactive website based on this research, thelivingplay.com. Her short fiction and poetry have been published in various anthologies, including Acta Victoriana, The Fiddlehead, and dANDelion Magazine. She divides her time between a riverside farm in New Brunswick and downtown Toronto.

Colleen Wagner's profile page

"…a magnificent play." —Anna Fuerstenberg, Montreal Arts Uncovered

"…there is rich text to feed on, a psychological thriller element, and some scathing observations about high culture and traditional religion." —Pat Donnelly, The Montreal Gazette