About the Play:

The Riddle of the World is a full-length comedy of urban wit by David French. An ex-priest Steve and a stockbroker Ron find themselves adrift in the world of singles and dating. The Riddle of the World, a fragment of a poem by Alexander Pope, resonates throughout this arch comedy of manners as it revisits the eternal struggle of the flesh and the spirit on the road to the characters' discovery of the true nature of love. Like all of Pope's characters, Ron and Steve are engaged in a mock battle with the social phantoms of their time, in a "sexual revolution” wherein every higher purpose is unmasked as a conceit of self-interest.

The Riddle of the World concerns the dearth of domestic harmony between the sexes as pondered by two lovelorn males. Stockbroker Ron and ex-priest Steve are two new singles who get together to console themselves after having been abandoned by their mates. Through a comic series of false starts, disastrous one-night stands, dead-end blind dates and absurd attempts to reconnect with their former lovers, they are forced to come to terms with their fragile natures as men in a world with few signposts of male identity left standing. Initially blaming others for "taking their partners away," Ron fails repeatedly to see and come to terms with his overwhelming possessiveness; while Steve gradually learns to embrace his own new found and deeply sublimated gay sexuality.

The Riddle of the World was first produced in 1981 at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto and remains a classic of the Canadian stage.

Cast: 2 female, 2 male (doubling)

What people say:

"Sharp, funny ... reaches the level of some of Shaw's better work." — CBC Radio

"[French] is one of Canda's most acclaimed playwrights and an accomplished explorer of the power of memory." — Quill & Quire

About the Playwright:

David French (1939 - 2010) was one of Canada's most popular and critically-acclaimed playwrights. He is best remembered for the Mercer family 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.