About the Play:

Silver Dagger was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Mystery Play.

Silver Dagger is a full-length murder mystery thriller by David French. A successful crime writer, winner of the coveted Silver Dagger Award, discovers his real life is becoming uncomfortably close to the plot of one of his novels. Is he artful enough to disentangle himself from this morass of his own making – an imbroglio of blackmail, adultery and murder? Silver Dagger is a gripping thriller guaranteed to have audiences perched on the edge of their seats.

Silver Dagger is the story of a nefarious mystery book writer whose real life comes to resemble one of his bestsellers. Pam is a clever woman from a monied background. Her wealthy father has just died and she is now living in her father's home with her husband, Steve Marsh, who is a writer of some fame in the murder-mystery writer circle. But he has a problem. Soon after his third novel is published, having won the prestigious "Silver Dagger" for his second, his wife Pam receives a series of anonymous phone calls and letters that casts suspicion on her husband, claiming he isn't who she thinks he is. Despite some success as an author, Steve's comfortable lifestyle is due more to his wife's inheritance than to his own success, and because of a pre-nuptial agreement, he will be left much poorer if his marriage falls apart. Adultery, blackmail, murder, a figure lurking in the rain – all these elements of Steve's fiction become part of his life as the mystery's twists and turns carry the audience to its surprising conclusion.

Silver Dagger had a joint premiere in 1993 at Canadian Stage Company in Toronto and then at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Since then it has been consistently delighting audiences, and has become a staple of community theatres.

Cast: 4 female, 2 male

What people say:

"The plot shifts gears faster than the Andretti race-car kings…." — The Toronto Star

About the Playwright:

David French (1939-2010) was one of Canada's most popular and critically-acclaimed playwrights. He is best remembered for the semi-autobiographical Mercer 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 had successful international runs, including two Broadway productions. 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.