About the Play:

Tempting Providence has become a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues and Female/Male Scenes.

Robert Chafe: Two Plays contains a pair of plays with a deep sense of Newfoundland's history. Butler's Marsh explores 30-year-old family secrets hidden in the dark, dense woods, and in Tempting Providence, Myra Grimsley boards a steam ship from London in 1921, charged to serve as the sole health provider for the sparsely settled coast of Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula.

Butler's Marsh: Thirty years ago Nora's mother disappeared into the small, dense forest of Butler's Marsh. She emerged three days later, covered in blood, badly shaken, and completely silent about what had happened. Having never been offered a suitable explanation, and now finding herself at her own moment of crisis, Nora ventures to Newfoundland for the first time to explore Butler's Marsh for herself. She is accompanied by her partner Tim, who, while less than helpful, is nevertheless adamant that she not be left alone. But as Nora's night in Butler's Marsh unfolds, and Tim's good humour wanes, the primary question of what happened to her mother quickly becomes less troubling than another; with whom exactly is she lost in the woods? (Cast: 1 female, 1 male)

Tempting Providence is the wonderful, heart-felt true story of Myra Grimsley, a young nurse who volunteered to leave her home in England to give medical care to outport communities on the remote rugged coast of Newfoundland. In 1921 she signed a two-year contract, and boarded a steam ship from London, England to St. John’s, Newfoundland. Her charge: to serve as the sole health care provider for three hundred miles of the sparsely settled coast of Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula. By the time her contract ran out two years later, Myra was married to local Angus Bennett, and had given birth to their first child, Grace. Based on the true story of Nurse Myra Bennett, Tempting Providence is a play about duty and sadness, love and change. Four strong characters drive this no-frills drama about a young British nurse who only signed on for 2 years, and the local man for whom she stayed for 70.

Tempting Providence was a finalist for a Governor General's Award (Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize) in 2004, and since its 2002 premiere at Theatre Newfoundland Labrador's Gros Morne Theatre Festival, has played to over 70,000 people in 370 performances in nine Canadian provinces, one territory, Ireland, England, Scotland and Australia. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is especially recommended for community theatre productions. (Cast: 2 female, 2 male)

What people say about Tempting Providence:

"A tempting tale of old-fashioned heroism and this simple, deeply sympathetic show leaves you feeling both braced and restored." — The Telegraph

"It’s one of the finest Canadian productions I’ve seen." — Ottawa Sun

"A rare prize." — Ottawa Citizen

About the Playwright:

Robert Chafe is a Canadian playwright and actor who has worked in theatre, dance, opera, radio, fiction and film. His stage plays have been seen in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and in the United States. He has been shortlisted twice for the Governor General's Literary Award for Drama and he won the award for Afterimage in 2010. He has been guest instructor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, and The National Theatre School of Canada. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is currently Playwright in Residence and director of Artistic Fraud Theater in St. John's Newfoundland.