About the Play:

Diplomacy is a full-length drama by Tim Carlson. Sharing a title with Henry Kissinger's infamous book, the play delves into the heart of the most fractious debate facing Canada: Are we a nation of peacekeepers or a nation of warriors? Is there a middle ground? International war politics infuse the personal views of four Canadians whose lives were were profoundly altered by the Vietnam War and now struggle to define themselves amidst today's issues.

Diplomacy charts the psychological disintegration of Roy, a US Army deserter during the Vietnam War turned historian specializing in Canadian diplomacy. Roy's Vietnamese-born wife, Thu Van, has flashbacks to the "shock and awe" of war she experienced as a girl, while the new armed conflicts heat up in the Middle East where their daughter, Ann, serves as a Canadian diplomat in Damascus. Roy's best friend Sinclair is an ambitious, possibly unprincipled, newsman. His interest and obvious involvement in Thu Van's public self-immolation makes him decidedly a suspect. "We don't need a lot of martyrs but we need a few," argues Thu Van in Sinclair's videotape of her suicide statement. Following the suicide protest of Thu Van, Roy's principles are shaken: once believing his desertion was an honourable reaction to a dishonourable war, he now believes he was misguided. His grief, fury, fear and despair keep this play on its razor's edge. Nominally about Canada and America's active military involvement in the Middle East's many theatres of war, Diplomacy scrutinizes the part the media plays in manufacturing our private reactions to foreign policy – how the new phenomenon of "embedded journalism" has become complicit in making everything personal, political.

Diplomacy premiered in 2006 at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre (affectionately known as "The Cultch").

Cast: 2 female, 3 male

What people say:

"It's a rare thing – the well-argued blast of political outrage." — Globe & Mail

"Diplomacy is a sharp piece of theatre… a war of words filled with blistering battles back and forth between left and right." — Vancouver Sun

"Diplomacy couldn't be more topical." — Vancouver Courier

About the Author:

Tim Carlson is a Canadian playwright, dramaturge, journalist, and artistic producer of Theatre Conspiracy. From 2009 to 2016, he was co-curator of Club PuSh with the Push International Performing Arts Festival. As a journalist, he worked on staff at the Halifax Daily News, Vancouver Sun, and Georgia Straight. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia, earned a journalism degree at University of King's College, Halifax, and an BA in English from the University of Regina.