When an image of Jesus appears on the side of a Tim Hortons restaurant in Nately, Nova Scotia, life is forever changed. The town’s inhabitants are challenged to ask difficult questions about faith, life and love with sometimes moving, sometimes hilarious results. Complicating the matter, of course, are the more mundane questions of whether this appearance is a miracle, an accident or quite possibly even a hoax.
At the centre of this wickedly entertaining play resides the more existential and personal question of what has happened to our notion of meaning and ethics in the strip-mall culture of concrete and crass competition which has replaced a more pastoral and rural life of care for the earth, the cycle of the seasons and its festivals, and the blessings of renewal in the family. Has religion lost the ability to mediate these two conditions, or did it ever really have that power?
Halo is a brilliant examination of the need to believe and the power of forgiveness. Cast of three women and four men.

Josh MacDonald is a playwright, screenwriter, actor, and teacher. His three plays published by Talonbooks, Halo, Whereverville, and The Mystery Play are curriculum titles at Canadian high schools and universities.Halo has been produced around North America and has been adapted into the feature film Faith, Fraud & Minimum Wage (eOne Entertainment), for which Josh wrote the screenplay. Josh is also the writer of the horror feature The Corridor (IFC Films; D Films), which played around the world and won the “Next Wave” Award for Best Screenplay at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.He is the writer-director of the short film Game, which has over a million views online. Josh has written for CBC Television and Radio, the National Film Board, the Smithsonian Channel, Reelz, Blue Ant, and others. He has taught creative writing at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) and the Fountain School of Performing Arts at Dalhousie University.Josh is married to actor Francine Deschepper.

Josh MacDonald's profile page

• Short-listed, Merritt Theatre Award for Best Play

“Brimming with humour and humanity, Halo retains a serious, poignant core that resonates deeply in a post 9/11 world. Beautifully constructed, it’s a homegrown work that’s slowly but surely establishing a North American-wide reputation.”
—HFX Entertainment Guide

“Halo is theatre at its very best. There is not a false note in this high-wire act of comedy and tragedy with beautifully-written, believable characters who never lose their balance in script or performance. [MacDonald] is a writer to watch.”
—Chronicle Herald

“Halo successfully melds faith, drama and honour...very funny and quite moving.”
—Halifax Daily News

“As gullible faith and hard-hearted defeatism collide in the face of a possible miracle, Canadian playwright Josh MacDonald’s warmhearted Halo finds its way to genuine moments of human reconciliation and acceptance.”
—Los Angeles Times