About the Play:

Vinci is a full-length drama by Maureen Hunter. Weaves fact and fiction as it takes an imaginative look at the custody battles over the "golden boy" who will grow up to change the world as Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance genius who also happened to be an illegitimate child. Vinci is a compelling play about faith, forgiveness and wonder.

Vinci is about a 15th-century custody dispute that might have surrounded the illegitimate birth and early childhood years of Leonardo da Vinci. Though not much is known about the genius's early years, Maureen Hunter imagines Leonardo's father Piero has a fling with the family servant Caterina. She becomes pregnant, but Piero leaves her for a wealthy woman that his father has ordered him to marry. Alone and outcast, Caterina raises the boy on her own for his first five years, nurturing his gifts. When Piero and his new wife are unable to have children, a custody battle erupts as they try to get their priest and longtime friend Padre Bartolomeo to persuade Caterina to give the boy to them. Who will shape the brilliant mind of Leonardo da Vinci and prevail in the battle for the gifted child, his peasant mother or his rich father? Bartolomeo finds himself caught between the powerful da Vinci's and Leonardo's defiant unwed mother Caterina. In his efforts to mediate the dispute and determine the future of Leonardo, Bartolomeo comes to a new understanding of the nature of forgiveness and love.

Vinci premiered in 2002 at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg. Since then the play has been successfully staged at professional theatres across Canada, and has been mounted by community theatres.

Cast: 2 female, 4 male

What people say:

"Hunter's writing is utterly intoxicating." — Calgary Herald

"... an engrossing, rich drama... [Maureen Hunter] proves again in Vinci that she has a talent for taking historical subjects and creating compelling natural theatrical worlds." — Ottawa Citizen

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. Her play Transit of Venus became the first Canadian play ever staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company of Britain. A native of Saskatchewan, Maureen Hunter now lives in Winnipeg.