About the Play:

The Ends of the Earth has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues and Male Monologues.

The Ends of the Earth is a full-length a dark comedy by Morris Panych. Would you journey to 'The Ends of the Earth'? Two paranoid men tried, but keep colliding with those they are trying to avoid. The Ends of the Earth is a fast-paced, philosophical, and darkly hilarious comedy about the dangers of paranoia, wrapped inside a film noir murder mystery.

The Ends Of The Earth fuses elements of Kafka with horror movie conventions and film noir. Paranoid Frank Gardener and terminally unlucky Henry Walker, two complete strangers, are both convinced that the other is their stalker. Each man's ill-fated attempts to evade the other brings their paths closer together, and so they embark on an increasingly surreal journey to escape their imagined doom. Along the way, Frank and Henry each meet a variety of eccentric characters – including a drug dabbling truck driver, a gun-toting aspiring actress and a gypsy psychic – before they reach their final destination: a run down hotel on a remote island "at the end of the earth" run by a blind woman with a murderous dislike for visitors. There, the two men ultimately collide with the one thing they're the most afraid of... each other. The Ends of the Earth is a delightfully warped tale that serves to remind us all that fear can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The Ends of the Earth was first produced in 1992 at the Arts Club Theatre in Vancouver. Later that year it was performed at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto and won the 1994 Governor General's Award for Drama (Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize). Since then the play has been successfully staged at several professional theatres across Canada and had its off-Broadway premier was in 2006 at the Sanford Meisner Theatre in New York City. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has been mounted by high schools, colleges, and community theatres.

Cast: 2 female, 3 male

What people say:

"Panych's witty script is full of laughs and packed with action." — Globe & Mail

About the Playwright:

Morris Panych is one of Canada's most significant contemporary playwrights. He has written more than 25 works for the stage and directed nearly 100. He is the winner of two Governor General's Literary Awards for Drama, the country's most prestigious literary honour. He has won 14 Jessie Richardson Awards, three Sidney Riske Writing Awards and five Dora Mavor Moore Awards.