About the Play:

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

Johnnyville and Total Body Washout contains two award-winning one-act plays by Drew Carnwath. Johnnyville gives us spies, lies, and the search for a lot more than love as three characters take a surreal spin on the dance floor of deception. Total Body Washout charts one man's journey to the edge of modern madness – and back again. Both plays will appeal to actors and directors who are interested in surrealism.

Johnnyville: An Official Secrets Act is a mysterious love triangle set in the not-to-distant future, where love is the exception and no-one is what they seem. Investigator Doyle, a menacing, almost robotic authoritarian, relentlessly questions Alisa who met Johnny, supposedly a fugitive and an enemy of the state. A struggle between the real self and the self we present to others thrusts the characters into multiple versions of reality with the same outcome. Who is Johnny, spy or innocent? What does Alisa feel for him? Is she telling the truth? Who can you trust and how do you know if you ever truly see someone for who he or she is? Johnnyville is based loosely on the incident about a security service ''mole'' planted in an organization of the radical right.

Johnnyville was first produced in 1996 at at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. Since then the play has been successfully staged at several professional theatres across Canada, including Edmonton and Kingston. It has been performed in high school and college theatre productions as a showcase of student talent.

Cast: 1 woman, 2 men

What people say about Johnnyville:

"The action zaps smartly from present to past, and back again. Played effectively in taut thriller mode ... capturing the fears and anxieties of all three characters.... The reliability of memory, different perceptions of what happened, and concerns over identity are questioned with dramatic clarity." — The Toronto Star

"Johnnyville employs the terse, tense language of the spy thriller to probe an intimate relationship between two people who are not what they seem.... We move between past and present in the blink of an eye, and Drew Carnwath is not afraid to use language in a muscular, heightened way.... Earnestly enigmatic, with complex and coy structures...." — Edmonton Sun

Total Body Washout is a one-man play about James, a young man who has committed himself to the hospital psych ward for an "anxiety attack." During his stay, he is treated by a reticent doctor and falls in love with poetically-gifted anorexic girl – both whom we meet through James' musings into a recorder. Through the course of this one-act play, we get to know a little about James' life both in the hospital and before his admission, as well as learning something about the events that brought him to the breaking point. Is he slightly confused? Or a nutcase? And is he "cured"? An accessible and moving exploration of mental illness.

Total Body Washout was first produced in 1996 at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto and has had several productions on the Fringe Festival circuit.

Cast: 1 man

What people say:

"Another clever puzzle of a play by Drew Carnwath, an intelligent writer with a knack for sharply focussed images, thumbnail social observations, and quirky, yet assured rhythms." — NOW Magazine

"Drew Carnwath's script is funny ... and tightly woven. A beautifully polished little gem that should be treasured by anyone who loves theatre." — The Kingston Whig-Standard

About the Playwright:

Drew Carnwath is a Canadian playwright, screenwriter and performer. He was Playwright-in-Residence at Toronto's esteemed Tarragon Theatre. As a playwright his award-winning plays (including Johnnyville and Total Body Washout) have been produced across North America. Since his residency at the Canadian Film Centre he has written and produced over 200 hours of scripted and unscripted television.