About the Play:

One Crack Out is a full-length drama by David French. Charlie Evans, a pool shark down on his luck in the bedroom as well as in the pool hall, has two days to pay off a $3,000 debt, or have his legs broken by Bulldog, a psychotic debt collector who also happens to be having an affair with Charlie's wife, Helen. In his desperation to recover both the money and his self-esteem, Charlie gets involved in a series of hustles, pushing the tension to a breathtaking climax.

One Crack Out is a set-in-a-poolhall chiller about the Toronto underworld. The complicated narrative of this pool-hall drama allows David French to build a convincing case for Charlie's humanity — how his actions, devious, frantic, and perplexed as they are, spring directly from his need to survive his pathetic circumstance and to maintain his dignity as a survivor. Tired, suspicious, despairing, knowing that the game is no good for him and yet knowing no other game, Charlie plunges into a situation which may mean disaster or salvation, because in Charlie's world of cliché and stereotype, everything comes down to betting on the right thing at the right time.

One Crack Out was first produced in 1975 by the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. It went on to be produced in Montreal and off-Broadway in 1978 at the Marymount Theater in Manhattan by New York's renowned Phoenix Theatre. 

Cast: 2 female, 7 male

What people say:

"One Crack Out is a large-boned, daring work, reflecting an astute craftsmanship…the results are almost explosively stirring." — The Toronto Star

"French’s glimpse of life in one Canadian underworld is funny, vigorous, and highly theatrical." — The Globe and Mail

"A definite winner that will be around for a long time." — The Ottawa Citizen

About the Playwright:

David French (1939-2010) was one of Canada's most popular and critically-acclaimed playwrights. He is best remembered for the Mercer family plays, such as Leaving Home, which chronicle the lives of a Newfoundland family with humour and pathos. The Mercer plays have received hundreds of productions across North America, including a Broadway production of Of the Fields, Lately. This quintet of plays has also touched audiences in Europe, South America and Australia. His backstage comedy Jitters has been performed all over the continent, and most of his plays have been produced internationally and throughout North America, including on and off-Broadway runs. In 1989, David French was inducted into the Newfoundland Arts Hall of Honour, and in 2001 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.