About the Play:

Finalist 1986 Governor General's Award for Drama (Canadian-equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize)

Papers is a full-length romantic comedy by Allan Stratton. A sophisticated comedy about two lonely and would-be lovers, a "frayed" novelist and a female academic who has devoted herself to criticism of his work, and their terrible inability to communicate.

Papers follows respected Professor of English Moira Fitzsimmons, who is lecturing about a novel by Writer-in-Residence Martin Edwards. Her hilarious version of their love affair that inspired the novel constitutes the bulk of this sophisticated light comedy. The story is complicated by first year co-ed Bobbi Roy, and her desire to become a writer. She monopolizes Martin's time and attention much to the dismay of Moira. Humour ensues as the professor, writer and student try to unravel the love triangle that never really was. Just as the autobiographical characters in the novel reach a loving resolution, it is revealed that Moira and Martin are happily married, and that the preceding lecture actually outlines the novelist latest book. Papers is filled with clever jokes and a clever ending that will have audiences thinking and laughing.

Papers premiered in 1985 in the Mainspace at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto and won a Chalmers Award for Outstanding New Play, as well as being nominated for The Governor General's Award and the Dora Mavor Moore Award. Since then the play has been successfully staged at several professional theatres across Canada and in the US, and is regularly performed in repertory and community theatre productions.

Cast: 2 female, 1 male

What people say:

"A clever script peppered with fiery barbs at academia, . . . provocative one liners, ... gets lots of belly laughs." — Variety

"It is possible to laugh long and hard during Allan Stratton's Papers. His gift for a witty line and a witty set-up has not been in question since he wrote Nurse Jane Goes To Hawaii." — The Globe and Mail

"Stratton's love of theatre and of people illuminates his work... Packed with crisply funny lines, Stratton has almost certainly conjured up another hit." — The Toronto Star

About the Playwright:

Allan Stratton is the internationally acclaimed Canadian playwright and novelist. He spent two years at the Vancouver Playhouse, from 1975 to 1977 as both actor and playwright. He has also lived and worked in the theatre in Winnipeg, Regina, Montreal, and New York. In 1980 he turned to playwriting full-time after the success of Nurse Jane Goes to Hawaii, which remains one of the most produced plays in Canadian theatre history.