About the Play:

The Minor Keys is a full-length romantic comedy by David Belke. In a half-forgotten jazz club the lives of seven colourful but low key characters become entangled in the course of one night of unexpected adventure and romance. The Minor Keys mixes comedy, drama, and musical performance in a charming theatrical cocktail.

The Minor Keys is set in the Combo Club, an easily overlooked jazz club barely hanging on in a hostile world, where the lives and dreams of its inhabitants intersect, intertwine and collide. These are marginal people with small, personal ambitions and obstacles. Inspired by jazz music, but not necessarily about jazz. It is about the problems, dreams, and desires of the "minor key people in a minor key world," and how even the smallest of lives can find their hearts' desire.

For David Belke, writing plays took a new direction when he began thinking about smaller characters – ones with modest dreams and quiet ambitions. Inspiration struck on a trip to Disney World at an out-of-the-way jazz club – atmosphere; smooth, calming music; dim lights; musicians lost in their music; staff floating amidst tables; patrons. Jazz has never been mainstream. It would suit a cast of modest characters with small dreams and quiet ambitions. Somebody should write a play – Quickly Belke scribbled down his ideas on a Pleasure Island doodle pad. Characters were born in that moment. Like an instrument in a jazz combo, each character would have an opportunity to contribute to the whole. One character’s story would take the lead for a while, then slide back to support another. And like a jazz composition, there would be no breaks in the play – scenes smoothly crossfade, sometimes with a remark, sometimes by a character moving, sometimes because a character simply demands attention. And throughout the play there would be music – sometimes in the background, sometimes in a live performance. Jazz rhythms would shape the play. Minor key music for minor key people!

The Minor Keys premiered in 1999 at the Varscona Theatre during the Fringe Festival in Edmonton. It was remounted in during the 2001 and 2012 Festivals.

Cast: 3 female, 4 male

What people say:

"David Belke may quietly have become the best playwright in the country." — NeWest Review

"[In The Minor Keys] we're introduced to a wildly normal set of characters, people you'd never look at twice.... Yet this motley crew is also strangely engaging in their own right. Belke skirts caricature with all his creations for good effect, walking the fine line between veracity and lyrical expression." — See Magazine

"David Belke's oddly wistful new comedy – his best yet...." — The Edmonton Journal

About the Playwright:

David Belke was born in Winnipeg but was raised in Edmonton, Alberta. He is a designer, performer, producer, award-winning writer, and teacher. His plays have been presented across Canada and in places as varied as Northern Ireland and New York City. Since 1995 he has worked as resident playwright and designer with Edmonton's Shadow Theatre.