About the Play:

Winner of the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Outstanding Original Script.

His Greatness is a full-length drama by Daniel MacIvor. Three men, a great American playwright, his trusted and loyal assistant, and a young Canadian street hustler, find themselves together for two days in a hotel room in Vancouver. His Greatness is based on a potentially true story about two days in the last years of the life of playwright Tennessee Williams.

His Greatness is a voyage through the mind of a great American playwright – potentially the legendary Tennessee Williams – presenting the man as he's never been seen before, grasping at straws of his former glory, pleading for some form of rebirth. It's true that Tennessee Williams was a writer-in-residence at Vancouver's University of British Columbia in the autumn of 1980, and that one of his plays was produced in that city at this time. This witty and moving play imagines two tumultuous days in a Vancouver hotel room as the great artist, determined to recapture his glory years, battles booze, reviewers, and time, not to mention his ever-hovering assistant. His new play is opening, and the assistant has hired a handsome young man to escort him to the premiere. Hope springs anew. What follows is a battle for power, love and loyalty that is frequently funny, engagingly dark, and ultimately moving.

His Greatness premiered in 2007 to acclaim at the Arts Club Theatre in Vancouver, winning the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Outstanding Original Script. The US premiere was in 2009 at off-Broadway's Cherry Lane Theatre during the New York International Fringe Festival. Following its critically acclaimed run at the FringeNYC Encore Series, and due to audience demand, the US premiere enjoyed an extended run at the Soho Playhouse. Since then, it has enjoyed major productions in Toronto at Factory Studio Theatre in 2011 and in London at The Finborough Theatre in 2012.

Cast: 2 female, 3 male

What people say:

"Canuck Daniel MacIvor's play is the toast of New York City." — The Toronto Star

"His Greatness is a great piece of theatre. More than mere homage to Tennessee Williams, Daniel MacIvor's superb study of a fading Southern playwright is a finely detailed story with nuance to spare." — Vancouver Sun

"It's rare to find a play in which the entire cast is so sharply written, but that's just one of the old-fashioned pleasures of His Greatness." — The Globe and Mail

About the Playwright:

Daniel MacIvor is a Canadian playwright and performer. Recipient of the coveted Governor General's Award for Drama (Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize), two Chalmers New Play Awards, an Obie Award, a GLADD Award, the $100,000 Siminovitch Prize, and countless theatre awards across the country, he is one of Canada's greatest living playwrights.