What happens when someone is overwhelmed by a desire to help? Does it matter if people only do good in order to feel good? One of Canada's finest playwrights tackles tricky questions in Generous--four short interconnected plays that explore the complications and moral ambiguity created by the altruistic impulse. By turns hilarious, shocking, moving, and politically-charged, Healey's intertwined plots and characters create a theatrical piece that is both thought-provoking and powerfully entertaining. Act One of each of the plays happens before intermission--the resolutions--and revelations--take place afterward. In PMO, a minority government teeters on the brink of falling when an MP appears, soaked in blood. In The Death of the Alberta Report, a cut-throat oil executive tells the truth to a reporter, and then seduces him. One-Party Rule begins with an excruciating post-coital chat between an aging judge and a loquacious young law clerk. And Lily kicks off with a spectacular battle over a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Each play contains a generous deed. And in the second half, the surprising consequences of those four seemingly unrelated acts of generosity will take your breath away.

Michael Healey trained as an actor at Toronto’s Ryerson Theatre School in the mid-eighties. He began writing for the stage in the early nineties and his first play, a solo one-act called Kicked, was produced at the Fringe of Toronto Festival in 1996. He subsequently toured the play across Canada and internationally, winning the Dora Mavor Moore Award for best new play. The Drawer Boy, his first full-length play, premiered in Toronto in 1999, winning the Dora Award for best new play, the Chalmers Canadian Playwriting Award, and the Governor General’s Literary Award (Canada’s highest literary honour). It has been translated into multiple languages and continues to be produced regularly across North America and internationally. Healey’s other works include The Road to Hell (co-authored with Kate Lynch), Plan B, Rune Arlidge, The Innocent Eye Test, The Nuttalls, Are You Okay, and 1979. His trilogy focusing on Canadian values and politics—Generous, Courageous, and Proud—met with great critical success and have had multiple productions. In all, his plays have won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for best new play five times. He has also adapted works by Chekhov, Molnar, Hecht and MacArthur, Dürrenmatt, and Shaw for the Stratford Festival, the Shaw Festival, and Soulpepper. He continues to find work as an actor occasionally.

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