About the Plays:

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

This collection features the plays that established Sharon Pollock as a major Canadian playwright and gained her many accolades.

The title play Blood Relations is a psychological murder mystery based on the case of Lizzie Borden, who was acquitted of murdering her father and stepmother in 1892. Did she or didn’t she? Years after her trial, Lizzie Borden and her friend re-enact the tension within the Borden home in the days leading up to the infamous axe murder. The audience can decide her guilt or innocence, or whether the murders were the only way out of a constrained existence in the mind of Lizzie Borden. The play premiered in 1980 at Theatre 3 in Edmonton, Alberta and won the first ever Governor General's Award for Drama in 1981. (Cast: 5 women, 3 men)

In the four plays in this collection Sharon Pollock uses historical backdrops to tackle the issue of freedom of choice in the midst of physical and emotional confinement. Her characters are the oppressed, from the spinster Lizzie Borden in Blood Relations to the prisoners of One Tiger to a Hill, to Leah, "chosen" daughter/mistress of rum runner Mr. Big in Whiskey Six Cadenza. In Generations, she uses a regional setting of a prairie farm kitchen to examine the tensions and affections of a family, and their relationship to "The Land."

Sharon Pollock's skillfully driven action and keen ear for dialogue make for a satisfying read for drama- and fiction-lovers alike.

About the Playwright:

Sharon Pollock, OC FRSC, (1936-2021) was one of Canada's most notable playwrights. Her stage plays have been produced by major and alternative theatres in the United States, Great Britain, Australia, India, Japan, Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, and throughout Canada. She scripted a large number of plays for Young Audiences, wrote for both radio and television, and led playwriting and theatre workshops and labs both inside and outside Canada. She received many honours including the Canada-Australia Literary Award, the Nellie Award for Drama, the Chalmers Award, and two Governor General's Awards. In 2007, and she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.