About the Play:

This collection contains three outstanding plays by Maureen Hunter. How one ordinary woman can be filled with so much pain and survive is the tale of Footprints on the Moon. A powerful drama about an ambitious astronomer and the women who love him, Transit of Venus examines the conflicting needs of men and women. Beautiful Lake Winnipeg is about a romantic weekend in cottage-land gone wrong.

Footprints on the Moon (Finalist for the Governor General's Award and winner of the Labatt Award for Best Canadian Play) has proved very popular with community theatres across Canada. Joanie has seen people disappear out of her life without reason or cause. It tells the story of a woman's attempt to prevent her teenage daughter from leaving home and escalates into a struggle to understand the loves and losses that have shaped her life. First her mother abandoned her as a tot, then her husband didn't come home one day. Now her daughter, Carol-Ann, wants to leave and Joanie hits rock bottom. (Premiered in 1988 at the Gas Station Theatre in Winnipeg; Cast: 3 women, 2 men)

What people say:

"Footprints on the Moon ... centres on a woman's attempt to prevent her teenage daughter from leaving home to live with her father. In a sensitive portrayal of self-discovery, the woman struggles to understand the loves and losses that have shaped her life. Strong confrontations counterbalanced by warm, emotional scenes and humour make this a show not to miss." — Langley Times

Beautiful Lake Winnipeg a shocking rollercoaster ride through a landscape of terrifying lies and horrible truths. It's also a black comedy thriller of the about adults who play adulterous and murderous mind games as a young man accompanies his fiancée to her lakeside cabin, only to find her ex-husband waiting for them. (Premiered in 1990 at Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg; Cast: 2 women, 2 men)

What people say:

"Whatever happened to 'friendly Manitoba'? Maureen Hunter's Beautiful Lake Winnipeg is a bloody, bone-chilling psycho-thriller that'll make you think twice about visiting the province's great outdoors." — Calgary Herald

Transit of Venus which is set in France at a time when society was rapidly expanding its knowledge of the earth and the cosmos. Spanning eleven years in the life the eighteenth-century astronomer, Le Gentil, obsessions and lifelong loves permeate as he charts the heavens for Venus, and the realm of his heart for his young fiancée. Le Gentil puts off marrying the young and wilful Celeste as he travels around the world in his attempts to plot the course of Venus across the sky, only to be undone at every turn by weather, war, and misfortune, and to find upon his final return a woman undone by his absence and ready to set her own course. Transit of Venus became the first Canadian play ever staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company of Britain. (Premiered in 1992 at Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg; Cast: 3 women, 2 men)

What people say:

"Transit of Venus, by Maureen Hunter, is one of the most powerful yet lyrically beautiful plays I have ever seen ... Sprinkled with warm humour, this is truly necessary theatre at its very best." — The Kitchener-Waterloo Record

"...Skillful writing ... it's about the love of knowledge, it's about the love of life." — CBC Radio

About the Playwright:

Maureen Hunter is one of Canada's most accomplished playwrights. Her work has been produced extensively on Canada's major stages, as well as in Britain and the U.S. and has been nominated for two Governor General's Awards, two Dora Mavor Moore Awards (Outstanding New Play) and the Elinor and Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. Her work has been produced extensively on Canada's major stages, in the United States, and Britain, and by CBC and BBC Radio.