About the Play:

Finalist for the 2019 Governor General's Award for Drama (Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize)

What a Young Wife Ought to Know is a full-length drama by Hannah Moscovitch. Set in 1920s Canada, the play tells the story of Sophie, a young working-class wife who is repressed by the lack of sexual education and craves liberation. What a Young Wife Ought to Know is an exploration of society's tradition of withholding knowledge from women.

What a Young Wife Ought to Know offers hard truths about life for women without birth control through the story of a young wife living in poverty in 1920s Ottawa, and paints a stark picture of what's at stake in women's health and fertility that resonates today. Sophie falls madly in love with and marries a stable-hand named Jonny. After two difficult childbirths, doctors tell Sophie she shouldn't have any more children, but don't tell her how to prevent it. When Sophie inevitably becomes pregnant again, she faces a grim dilemma. In an unflinching look at love, sex, and fertility, and inspired by real stories about young mothers during the early Canadian birth-control movement, one of Canada's most celebrated playwrights vividly recreates a couple's struggles with reproduction.

What a Young Wife Ought to Know premiered in 2015 at Neptune Theatre in Halifax. After rave reviews, the production has performed to critical acclaim across Canada.

Cast: 2 women, 1 man

What people say:

"By giving the women of the 1920s a voice, Moscovitch has given many contemporary women a voice as well. What a Young Wife Ought to Know is more than a compelling history lesson, it is an opportunity to contemplate the state of sexual health and freedom in our society today." — The Globe & Mail

"Bristles with humour, intelligence, and big-hearted humanity." — Times Colonist (Victoria)

"The play adds to necessary, current conversations around representation of women, gender inequity and female sexuality." — Toronto Star

"Brace yourself for a heart-wrenching experience that will provoke tears and laughter." — NOW Magazine

About the Playwright:

Hannah Moscovitch is an acclaimed Canadian playwright and TV writer. Her plays have been widely produced across Canada, as well as in the United States, Britain, Europe, Australia and Japan. She has been honoured with numerous awards, including the Governor General's Literary Award for drama (Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize), and the prestigious Windham Campbell Literary Prize administered by Yale University (she is the first Canadian playwright to win the prize). She's twice been a finalist for the Governor General's Award, and twice for the Siminovitch Prize, as well as the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize honouring the best English-language women writers worldwide.