Considered a masterpiece of Canadian literature, Margaret Laurence’s The Diviners is the compelling story of Morag Gunn, a woman who perseveres through challenge after challenge as she attempts to carve out an authentic life as a writer. The play moves backward and forward through time, taking us to Morag’s impoverished childhood in rural Manitoba, her early struggles to establish herself as a female artist, and her present, as she works to finish a novel while navigating a thorny relationship with her teenage daughter, Pique. Inextricably bound with Morag’s Scottish settler story is the Metis story of Jules Tonnerre, her friend, lover, and Pique’s father. Adapted for the stage by Vern Thiessen with Yvette Nolan, The Diviners illuminates issues of identity, class, and reconciliation.
About the Authors
Vern Thiessen is one of Canada’s most produced playwrights. His plays have been seen across Canada, the UK, United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia, and have been translated into five languages. His works include Of Human Bondage, Vimy, Einstein’s Gift (Governor General’s Literary Award winner), Lenin’s Embalmers (Governor General’s Literary Award finalist), Apple, and Shakespeare’s Will. He has been produced off-Broadway five times. Vern is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Dora and Sterling awards for Outstanding New Play, The Carol Bolt Award, the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award, the City of Edmonton Arts Achievement Award, the University of Alberta Alumni Award of Excellence, The Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition, and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, Canada’s highest honour for a playwright. He was also a finalist for the Siminovich Prize in Playwriting. Vern received his B.A. from the University of Winnipeg and an M.F.A. from the University of Alberta. He has served as president of both the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Writers Guild of Alberta. For six years he served as Artistic Director of Workshop West Playwrights Theatre, one of Canada’s leading new play companies. He is married to acclaimed screenwriter and novelist Susie Moloney.
Yvette Nolan (Algonquin) is a playwright, director and dramaturg. Her works include the plays The Unplugging, The Art of War, Annie Mae’s Movement, The Birds (a modern adaptation of Aristophanes’ comedy), the dance-opera Bearing, the libretto Shawnadithit, the short play-for-film Katharsis, and the VR piece Reconciling for Boca del Lupo. She co-created, with Joel Bernbaum and Lancelot Knight, the verbatim play Reasonable Doubt, about relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan. From 2003-2011, she served as the Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts. Her book, Medicine Shows, about Indigenous performance in Canada, was published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2015, and Performing Indigeneity (co-edited with Ric Knowles) in 2016. Born in Prince Albert, grown up in Winnipeg, Yvette has lived all over this land, from Nova Scotia to the Yukon.
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