About the Play:

HARD TO FIND BOOK, only a very limited number of copies are still available.

Beat the Sunset is a full-length drama by Michael Lewis MacLennan. Weaving themes of memory, HIV/AIDS, a mother's love, and the history of epidemics, Beat the Sunset focuses on the relationship between two childhood friends who overcome scandalous events to find a closer understanding of themselves and their relationship.

Beat the Sunset opens in a hospital room. Adam is a young, angry man battling the late stage of HIV infection and his family's refusal to acknowledge having a gay son. Ten years after a shattering crisis, Adam and his boyhood friend Sacha meet again. Sacha, now a history professor, who ironically, teaches a class on the history of disease, is spontaneously moved to visit his old friend recuperating from a bout of AIDS-related pneumonia. They carry the scars a shattering crisis which severed – and nearly destroyed – them both when they were teenagers. Together they forge a relationship which transforms them both. At the same time, Adam's mother Iris, a real-estate agent, struggles to accept her son, while desperately trying to reconcile a fractured family. Beat the Sunset is an explosive, life-affirming play about the transformative power of intimacy.

His first play, Beat the Sunset premiered in 1993 at the Belfry Theatre during the Victoria Fringe Festival. It was remounted in Vancouver, winning both the 1994 Theatrum National Playwriting Competition and the 1995 Jessie Award for Outstanding Emerging Playwright, and was then staged in London and the US at ArtsWest in Seattle.

Cast: 2 female, 2 male

What people say:

"A fascinating, moving, touching portrait of life and love. A true rarity in the world of theatre." — Vancouver Echo

"A probing, skilfully written drama which brings incredible insight and humanity to its subject. Without a hint of preachiness or pedantic, the play is as much about true emotions and human dignity as is about the ravages of AIDS ... Startlingly accomplished and sophisticated. MacLennan has emerged as a playwright of great promise." — Victoria Times-Colonist

"There were times I wanted to burst into applause; I was that grateful for the beauty and honesty of writing.... Right from the opening monologue, it's apparent that MacLennan is a playwright with prodigious theatrical instincts." — Georgia Straight (Vancouver)

About the Playwright:

Michael Lewis MacLennan is a Canadian playwright, screenwriter and TV producer who divides his time between Toronto, Vancouver and Los Angeles. He is a two-time finalist for the Governor General's Award (Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize), and the only playwright to win the prestigious Herman Voaden National Playwriting Award twice. For TV, his credits that include The Fosters, Bitten, Bomb Girls, Flashpoint, Being Erika, Godiva's, Queer as Folk, and Wind at my Back.