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Drama Women Authors

Category E

by (author) Belinda Cornish

introduction by Ruth Bratt

Publisher
Playwrights Canada Press
Initial publish date
Apr 2019
Category
Women Authors, Canadian
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781770919785
    Publish Date
    Apr 2019
    List Price
    $17.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781770919808
    Publish Date
    Apr 2019
    List Price
    $12.99

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Description

I didn’t think we got to have names.

Two human test subjects—Corcoran, a half-blind paraplegic, and Filigree, a clinical psychopath—coexist in a laboratory cell. They are sterilized, property of the state, and utilized for the benefit of higher-valued citizens. In their cell are two beds and two chairs. But then Millet arrives. Within thirty-six hours there will only be two again. In the meantime, they play Monopoly, try to figure out who is next door, eat what is given to them, and do their best not to kill each other.

This black comedy takes a wry and unsentimental look at the cavalier cruelties of animal science and asks how we place value on life.

About the authors

Belinda is an actor and playwright. Her last two plays, Little Elephants and Category E, both received Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Awards for Outstanding New Play. She is a core company member of Die-Nasty, the live improvised soap opera, a member of the acting ensemble with Teatro La Quindicina, and founder of her own company, Bright Young Things. She is the recipient of a Rosie Award and a Canadian Screen Award nomination for her performance in the sitcom Tiny Plastic Men, and she voices a variety of characters in BioWare’s Mass Effect and Dragon Age games. She lives in Edmonton in a Halloween house with her husband and two small but mighty dogs.

Belinda Cornish's profile page

Ruth Bratt is a writer/performer/improviser. As an improviser, she is a regular guest with the Comedy Store Players; is one quarter of the Glenda J Collective with Josie Lawrence, Pippa Evans, and Cariad Lloyd; one half of A Very Serious Play with Lee Simpson; is often in The Actor’s Nightmare; and has guested on Whose Line Is It Anyway Live. She is a founding member of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, with whom she has performed and taught all over the world, as they continue to tour worldwide and perform regularly in the West End following their Olivier AwardÐwinning run in 2015. She’s a regular player in the London 50-​hour Improvathons, and has done two with Die-​Nasty in Edmonton, where it all started! She plays Roche in the BAFTA-​winning show People Just Do Nothing (BBC), and was Carol in the last series of Man Down for Channel 4. She wrote and performed Trodd En Bratt Say Well Done You with Lucy Trodd (BBC Radio 4). Other credits include Derek (C4), Mongrels (BBC 3), and Sarah Millican’s Support Group (Radio 4). Ruth is an ambassador for World Animal Protection, and likes sitting on sofas with dogs and cats, and is obsessed with ceramics and becoming a part-​time potter.

Ruth Bratt's profile page

Editorial Reviews

“Great theatre disturbs its audiences from time to time. Great theatre energizes an audience. Great theatre provides a riveting story. Category E is an astonishing play.”

Joe Szekeres, OnStage Blog

“A gem of grim science fiction.”

Dorianne Emmerton, Mooney on Theatre

“There’s certainly a dash of Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter here, not to mention a little bit of Beckett’s Endgame.”

J. Kelly Nestruck, Globe and Mail