About the Play:

Finalist for the 2010 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama (Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize)

lady in the red dress is a full-length drama by David Yee. Set in a gritty world of institutionalized racism, the play follows a Canadian government negotiator whose aggressive stance cannot save him from the attentions of a mysterious femme fatale. She makes him face the harm done by Canada's treatment of the Chinese workers who helped build this country.

lady in the red dress follows Max Lochran a lawyer for the Canadian Department of Justice. Embroiled in a world of corruption and deceit, he is losing his mind. In one nightmarish week he has been shot, punched, stabbed, had a heart attack, and is having conversations with dead men. A series of events all set in motion by Sylvia, an elusive figure who enters his life and charges Max with an impossible task. Dragged by his hair into the history of the Chinese Canadian struggle for redress and into the lives of those involved, Max discovers that not only is his life in danger, but also his son's. A modern-day noir that draws from both Haruki Murakami and Frank Miller, lady in the red dress is a darkly comic story about the skeletons in our closets and the consequences of our inactions told by one of Canada's most unorthodox young playwrights.

lady in the red dress premiered in 2009 at Young Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto. Since then the play has been produced in professional theatres and performed in college theatre productions as a showcase of student talent.

Cast: 2 female, 11 male (alternate casting 1 female, 4 male with doubling)

What people say:

"...part didactic narrative about the plight of Chinese Canadian immigrants, part magical realist fantasy, and part violent, hard-boiled noir." — Torontoist

David Yee is a Canadian playwright and actor, born and raised in Toronto, and proudly identifies himself as a Hapa of Scottish and Chinese descent. He is currently the co-founding Artistic Director of fu-GEN Theatre Company and a playwright-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre. A Dora Mavor Moore Award nominated actor and playwright, his work has been produced internationally and at home. His published work includes: carried away on the crest of a wave, paper SERIES and lady in the red dress. He is a Governor General's Literary Award laureate, for English Language Drama, receiving the award in 2015 for carried away on the crest of a wave.