About the Plays:

For more than half a century, Mavor Moore was an integral part of the Canadian cultural community, working as an actor, producer, writer, broadcaster, director, dramatist, impresario, composer, critic and academic.

Mavor Moore wrote more than 100 works for stage, radio, television and film. Six Plays by Mavor Moore is a collection intended to showcase his dramatic talent – these are theatre pieces stripped to the bare essentials of character sketches in quick, subtle lines; dramatic conflict, development and resolution with a minimum of props; and an emphasis on the performer's resources as an actor, rather than the externals of scene changes and stage contexts.

• The Apology: Socrates's self-defence at his trial in Athens tests the limits of free speech in the democracy. (Cast: 2 men)
• The Store The manager of a cosmic department store murders a complaining customer who blames the store for every catastrophe in her life. (Cast: 2 women, 2 men)
• The Pile: An engineer and a businessman buy a pile of something – that lies where the audience sits – and try to find a use for it. (Cast: 2 women, 2 men)
• Getting In: A man applies for admission into an organization. His facade and his confidence are shattered when the interview takes an unexpected direction. (Cast: 2 men)
• The Argument: A domestic spat between a man and a woman, of indeterminate relationship, develops into a war between the sexes about different attitudes to the truth. (Cast: 1 woman , 1 man)
• Come Away, Come Away: An old man meets the angel of death in the person of a little girl who pries into his life. (Cast: 2 men, 1 child)

These plays have all been performed in Canada, the USA, and the UK.

About the Playwright:

James Mavor Moore CC OBC (1919-2006) was a distinguished Canadian playwright, actor, stage and television producer, critic, professor, journalist and a champion of the arts and culture in Canada. He was a Companion of the Order of Canada, the recipient of the 1986 Molson Prize, and the holder of honorary degrees from six universities. He was the first chair of the Canadian Theatre Centre and the Guild of Canadian Playwrights, as well as the first artist to chair the Canada Council for the Arts. While continuing to write and perform, he was research professor, Fine Arts and Humanities, at the University of Victoria, B.C. A graduate of the University of Toronto, He was a pioneer in radio drama and documentary and was the first chief producer for CBC English Television and won three Peabody Awards for his programs as executive producer with United Nations radio-television in New York. He directed and starred in theatres across Canada and appeared in some 60 films, including The Killing Fields (with Sam Waterston), Mortal Sins (with Christopher Reeve), and Shadow of a Doubt (with Brian Dennehy).