About the Play:

The Melville Boys has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues, Male Monologues, and Female/Male Scenes.

The Melville Boys is a full-length comedy by Norm Foster. Two brothers have their plans weekend plans thrown out of whack by the arrival of two attractive sisters who become catalysts for a tenderly funny and unsentimental look at four lives in transition. The Melville Boys is a comedy with heartfelt and tender moments.

The Melville Boys focuses on two brothers, Owen and Lee Melville. Outspoken Owen is three weeks away from getting married but he is experiencing some doubts. The elder brother Lee, who is seen as a mature and reliable married-man with two daughters, is weighed down by a troubling secret. As a diversion from their worries, the brothers decide to take off to their uncle's lakeside cabin for a relaxing weekend of beer-drinking and fishing. But their plans are thrown for more than a loop by the arrival of Mary and Loretta, two attractive, yet entirely different sisters; one, a no-nonsense and serious woman, and the other, an aspiring actress who's bubbly and carefree. Norm Foster's classic lighthearted comedy is full of vigour about brotherhood and the unexpected with clever one-liners and sensitive moments that go straight to the heart.

The Melville Boys premiered in 1984 at Theatre New Brunswick in Fredericton, New Brunswick, the second published play by Norm Foster. The US premiere in 1988 at the Eagle Theatre in Beverley Hills won the Los Angeles Drama-Logue Critics Award. It has been widely produced across Canada and the United States, including a well-received run off-Broadway in New York, and a remount in Los Angeles at Theatre East. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and remains massively popular with community theatre groups.

Cast: 2 female, 2 male

What people say:

"If The Melville Boys is representative of Norm Foster's writing, it would benefit the US stage to import more of his plays." — Los Angeles Daily News

"The Melville Boys effortlessly weaves the comic and tragic." — Variety

"Engrossing and entertaining. This is certainly a play you're bound to enjoy." — New York Post

"Foster declines to settle for the obvious, giving us instead a story that has the uncertainties and the complexity of real life." — London Free Press

"Engrossing and entertaining. This is certainly a play you’re bound to enjoy." — Fredericton Daily Gleaner

"A story with forthright honesty, simplicity, humor, drama, warmth, and a little tragedy." — Los Angeles Drama-Logue

About the Playwright:

Norm Foster enjoyed a 25-year career as the morning man at independent radio stations in Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, and Kingston, before finally ending up in Fredericton, where he began writing plays. He is considered to be Canada's most produced playwright, with more than sixty critically acclaimed plays that are known for their humour, accessibility, and insight into the everyday tribulations of life. He is the recipient of the Los Angeles Drama-Logue Award for his play, The Melville Boys which would go on to be produced across Canada and in the United States, including a well-received run Off Broadway in New York. It would become his signature play, and the one which would bring his name to the forefront of Canadian theatre. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2017.