About the Book:

Alien Creature is a full-length drama by Linda Griffiths. Inspired by the words and life of poet Gwendolyn MacEwen, Canadian playwright and actor Linda Griffiths has created a one woman tour-de-force that explores the life and death of one of Canada's most most admired literary figures, known as much for her personal misadventures as for her Governor General's Award-winning poetry.

Alien Creature is a one-woman show that brings the late Canadian poet eerily to life. Gwendolyn MacEwen was to many a piercing, mesmerizing presence. A self-invented personality, she died young as a penniless alcoholic. But in less than 26 years, she taught herself three ancient languages, published twenty books and became, with Margaret Atwood, the most Canadian celebrated poet her day. Then, at the age of forty six, she was dead. Many suspected suicide. Alien Creature is inspired by Gwendolyn MacEwen's life and work, yet is an entirely new creation about magic women, "alien creatures" who, like MacEwan, find the world a difficult place. MacEwen, as evoked by Linda Griffiths, returns to the modern world one night, bringing images and prophetic warning. There has been a death of poetry, of imagination. The city will pay. The world will pay. Then she laughs, opens her hands, pulling brilliant scarves from the air. On this night, MacEwen is torn apart by her magic, made invincible by her magic. Revealed as drunk, lover, poet and magician, Gwendolyn MacEwen rises to inspire and incite us.

Alien Creature premiered in 1999 at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto, following the run of a short-version at The Ottawa Fringe, and won both Chalmers and Dora awards. Since then the play has been successfully staged at several professional theatres across Canada, and enjoyed a critically acclaimed revival at Theatre Passe Muraille in 2017.

Cast: 1 woman

What people say:

"A pure stage experience that ranges from stunning to sublime." — The Ottawa Citizen

"Anyone looking for a conventional docudrama will be disappointed by Linda Griffiths' new one-woman show… what they'll find instead is a sketch of MacEwen's soul. And that is the haunting beauty of this play." — Variety

"The poet is imagined as she would have presented herself: not without humour, companionable with pain, a sorceress, an extremist, unapologetic. Griffiths' … script, quoting sparingly from MacEwan's poetry, meets poetic standards. Her imagery … burns into the back of the mind." — The Toronto Star

"Without ever romanticizing or sensationalizing, Griffiths paints a compelling portrait of a self-invented personality whose emphatic exoticism is both charming and maddening. An engrossing and convincing evocation of the creative spirit. The show's subtitle is acutely accurate: a visitation." — The Globe and Mail

About the Playwright:

Linda Griffiths (1953-2014) was a Canadian actress, producer and writer. One of Canada's most lauded modern theatre voices, she reached international fame with her production of Maggie and Pierre, a one-woman show in which she played former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, his wife Maggie, and a reporter. She has received five Dora Mavor Moore Awards, winning Outstanding New Play four times for: Maggie and Pierre, O.D. in Paradise, Jessica, and Alien Creature. She was also a two-time winner of the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award for Jessica and Alien Creature, and two-time nominee for the Governor General's Award for English-Language Drama for The Darling Family and Alien Creature.