08/09

The Factory Theatre announced its 08/09 season and it looks pretty promising, with new work from Andrew Moodie, Florence Gibson and Marjorie Chan (for more info check out their website at: www.factorytheatre.ca)

The play that I’m looking forward to the most is "Scratch," written by a former classmate of mine at the National Theatre School named Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman. Here’s the synopsis:

Anna has lice. Her mother has cancer. Her Aunt buys her a pair of Gap jeans and worries she’s on drugs while Anna lusts after the Poet who looks after her mom. Still, she can’t stop scratching. She can’t get rid of the lice and she can’t face the inevitable.

I remember reading one of the first incarnations of this play. She was in first year. I was in third year. I thought that I was the man, the way most graduating students think they’re the man. I was dating a wonderful girl. I was going to Banff after graduation. I had a show being read at the Factory. Yup. I was the man. I asked if I could read one of her plays just to get a sense of what the young ones were writing. She gave me the play (then called "Lice") and apologized because she had written it when she was 16 and wasn’t sure how good it was.

I read it. And man. It was great. Not just great, but damn great. Some of it was like lava, coming from a place within her that I could never understand. I read it at home. I read it again in the park. I would read it over the phone to my girlfriend to tell her that it was brilliant. I would e-mail excerpts of it to friends and tell them to watch for this play, just watch for it because it was special, the writing was special, Charlotte was special.

See it.

J