About the Play:

Beautiful Man & Other Short Plays contains three thought-provoking plays by Erin Shields that centre on the inner lives of women, offering space for those who dare to listen.

An eviscerating satire of gender roles in popular culture, Beautiful Man imagines a world in which women are the subjects and men the objects. As three women dissect the latest Hollywood blockbuster, narrative after narrative of strong female characters fold into each other, fusing into a brutally recognizable story.

In Unit B-1717, a woman is trying to clean out her storage locker and say goodbye to the past, but an overwhelming feeling of dread forces her to confront the way she has historically subjugated herself to the needs of others.

In And then there was you, a mother addresses her child as they both visit milestones that offered them each independence, and in the process explores how the profound connection between mother and child evolves.

Beautiful Man received a workshop production at the Summerworks Festival in 2015. The full production premiered in 2019 at Factory Theatre in Toronto.

Cast: 3 female, 1 male

What people say:

"There’s a great deal of rage underlying [Beautiful Man], but also many humorous elements, and so many things to admire about Shields’s acute observations and inversions of expectation ... Every new play from her is a challenge, and a treat." — Toronto Star

"A brilliant, brutal reminder of the realities of being a woman in a society that values beauty and compliance." — Now Magazine

"Shields successfully immerses us into this world of make-believe. She first deconstructs what we know and then builds on a blank slate with heightened ridiculousness." — The Vancouver Arts Review

About the Playwright:

Erin Shields is a Canadian playwright and actor who trained at Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in London, England. She is a founding member of Groundwater Productions through which she creates, develops, and produces much of her work. She is best known for her play If We Were Birds, which won the prestigious Governor General Award for Drama.