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David Fennario

DAVID FENNARIO

  (1947 - )
Nationality:    Canadian
facebook     email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a

Anglophone playwright born David Wiper in Montreal, Quebec, 1947. He was raised in the working class district of Pointe-St-Charles, an area he would make the centre of most of his plays. He was one of six children, his father was a housepainter. His pen name, given to him by a girlfriend, was part of a Bob Dylan song, Pretty Peggy-O. David Fennario has described his life as: Born on the Avenues in the Verdun-Pointe Saint Charles working-class district of Montreal; one of six kids growing up in Duplessis Quebec, repressed, depressed, oppressed and compressed. School was a drag. My working experience turned me into a raving Red calling for world revolution. the process of becoming a political activist gave me the confidence to be a writer. Up to then, I thought only middle-class people could become artists, because they were not stupid like working-class people, who were working-class because they were stupid. But reading Socialist literature convinced me that working-class people can change themselves and the world around them. We are not chained to fate, Freud, God, gender or a genetic code. We can make ourselves into what we want. Ive been trying my best to do that ever since, and have had some success as a playwright and a prose writer.

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below is a list of David Fennario's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Balconville         Banana Boots         Blue Mondays         Bolsheviki         Changes         Condoville         Death Of Rene Levesque, The         Doctor Thomas Neill Cream ( Mystery At Mcgill)         Gargoyles         Joe Beef         Motherhouse         Moving         Murder Of Susan Parr, The         Nothing To Lose         On the Job         Toronto         Without A Parachute

Balconville

Balconville
Three families and the neighbourhood drunk sit on their balconies in the Montreal summer. It is election time and Gaetan Bolduc drives around making promises that infuriate the families and their friends. as a result, we see the english and French Canadian working class take on the establishment. Winner, 1979 Chalmers Canadian Play award

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Centaur Theatre, Montreal    1979

Organisations:
Centaur Theatre Company

1st Published:
Talonbooks, Vancouver, 1980   978-0889221451

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Banana Boots

Banana Boots
a one-man show/memoir in which Fennario recounts the phenomenon of taking his famous bilingual play Balconville, to Belfast on a British/Canadian cultural mission.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
annex Theatre, Toronto, Ontario.    1994

Organisations:
Mixed Company

1st Published:
Talon Books, Vancouver, BC, 1998   978-0889223967

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Blue Mondays

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Black Rock Creations (1984)   978-0920295007

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Bolsheviki

Bolsheviki
Set in a hotel bar in Montreal on Remembrance Day, Bolsheviki has World War I veteran Harry Rosie Rollins telling young reporter Jerry Nines about his experience in the trenches. Rollins recalls men pissing their pants, losing limbs and planning a revolt against their officers. the character of Rosie Rollins is based on World War I veteran Harry Rosie Rowbottom, who was wounded at Vimy Ridge. Fennario taped an interview with Rowbottom in 1979 in the old King eddy Hotel in Toronto over a bottle of Bushmills whiskey. Rosies meandering monologue delivers a blistering de-glorification of war as it shifts back and forth between his wartime recollections and the present. the veterans clattering, fast-paced description of lifeand deathon the Western Front reproduces the chaotic sounds and rhythm of battle. This cutting-edge drama, profoundly in opposition to conventional histories of Canadian troops in World War I, debunks every sentimental notion of duty, heroism and nationhood. Birth of Nation they called it on TV but I didnt see nobody getting born just a lot of people dying so we could sit there on top of another shit hole of mud with Captain Rutherford still pushing for that DSO or the MC or the MCB or the YMCA with Trianglesjust give him a medal will ya?

Notes:
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1st Produced:
InfiniTheatre, le Bain St-Michel, Montreal    09 Nov 2010

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Talonbooks (2012) >>>    978-0889226876

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
dead serious comedy

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Changes

Synopsis:
author's personal story of becoming streetwise amongst the ethnic and language divides of Montreal.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Ottawa    1980

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
One-man show

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Condoville

Synopsis:
the sequel to "Balconville" - twenty years on

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Centaur Theatre Company, Montreal    2005

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Death Of Rene Levesque, The

Death Of Rene Levesque, The
examination of the changes to the separatist movement in Quebec in an anniversary celebration of the death of its most charismatic leader.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Montreal    1991

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Talon Books, Vancouver, BC,    978-0889224803

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Doctor Thomas Neill Cream ( Mystery At Mcgill)

Doctor Thomas Neill Cream ( Mystery At Mcgill)
In 1876, Jack the Ripper, otherwise known as Canadian Doctor Thomas Neil Cream, graduated with merit from McGill's faculty of medicine. Cream was a backstreet abortionist and manages an exclusive brothel called the elite Club. His notorious reputation eventually forced him to flee Canada for London. He was hanged in 1892 for the murder of four prostitutes

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Mixed Company, Toronto    1988

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Talon Books, Vancouver, BC,    978-0889223325

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama One act

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Gargoyles

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Talon Books   978-0889224469

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Joe Beef

Joe Beef
a revisionist history of Montreal presented by the innkeeper who fed a thousand families during the strike in1887. a tough political satire that throws a mean left uppercut at the privileged classes.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Blackrock Community Group, Montreal, Quebec.    1985

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Talonbooks, Vancouver, 1991   978-0889222915

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Drama One act

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Motherhouse

Motherhouse
Women working in near slave conditions in a munitions factory during World War One

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Talonbooks 2014   978-0889228481

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Moving

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Montreal    1983

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Murder Of Susan Parr, The

Synopsis:
Depicts the break up and splintering of the local Pointe St. Charles Community in Montreal.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Montreal    1989

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Nothing To Lose

Nothing To Lose
In a tavern in the Point Saint Charles district of Montreal, three friends gather on their lunch hour to reminisce. an old friend turned radical playwright shows up at the bar. When one of the men challenges his abusive foreman, they take the advice of the playwright and launch a sit-down strike

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Centaur Theatre, Montreal    1976

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Talonbooks (February 15, 1977)   978-0889221215

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama One act

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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On the Job

On the Job
Christmas eve 1970. the workers at a Montreal dress factory, frustrated by lack of job opportunities and emboldened by smuggled liquor, go on strike. the gesture proves futile and they wind up at home, jobless, with nothing to show but their Christmas bonuses.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Centaur Theatre, Montreal    1975

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Talonbooks, Vancouver, 1976   978-0889221024

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Toronto

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Centaur Theatre, Montreal    1978

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Without A Parachute

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Toronto    1978

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
McClelland and Stewart 1974   978-0771031205

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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