How It Works

by Daniel MacIvor

Daniel MacIvor's How it Works introduces us to four unforgettable Al, his ex-wife Donna, his new partner Christine, and his troubled daughter Brooke. Brilliantly weaving past and present, this play illuminates these four lives as they come to terms with their own stories.

Genres: Plays

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2006

About the author

Daniel MacIvor was born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 1962. He is a stalwart of the Canadian theatre scene, having written and directed numerous award-winning productions including See Bob Run, Wild Abandon, 2-2-Tango, This Is A Play, The Soldier Dreams, You Are Here, How It Works, A Beautiful View, Communion, Bingo! and his work has been translated into French, Portuguese, Spanish, Czech, German and Japanese. From 1987 to 2007 with Sherrie Johnson he ran da da kamera, a respected international touring company which brought his work to Australia, the UK and extensively throughout the US and Canada. With long time collaborator Daniel Brooks, he created the solo performances House, Here Lies Henry, Monster, Cul-de-sac and This is What Happens Next.

Daniel won a GLAAD Award and a Village Voice Obie Award in 2002 for his play In On It, which was presented at PS 122 in New York. His play Marion Bridge received its off-Broadway premiere in New York in October of 2005. In 2006, Daniel received the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama for his collection of plays I Still Love You. In 2007, his play His Greatness won the Jessie Richardson Award for Best New Play in Vancouver. In 2008, he was awarded the prestigious Siminovitch prize in Theatre.

Also a filmmaker, Daniel has written and directed the feature films Past Perfect, Wilby Wonderful and the short films Permission and Until I Hear From You, and he is the writer of the feature films Trigger, Marion Bridge and co-writer (with Amnon Buchbinder) of Whole New Thing.

Currently, Daniel divides his time between Toronto and Avondale, Nova Scotia and he is playwright in residence at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto.

Reviews

[Parnian.K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did they seriously hold that teenage girl hostage? How did the parents trust an almost-stranger to be alone with their daughter for that long (against the girl’s will)—and even lock the two of them in the house? And then it’s somehow a transformative moment for the girl?! Come on! Nonsense! It should be considered as domestic violence!🫤
But it would also be unfair to overlook the playwright’s incredibly engaging style of writing! A quick read that I enjoyed.
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Christine: “As far as I can figure, the way that it works is this: everyone has something that happened to them. The thing that we each carry. And you can see it in people, if you look. See it in the way someone walks, in the way someone takes a compliment, sometimes you can just see it in someone’s eyes, in one moment, of desperation, of fear, in one quick moment you can see that thing that happened. Everyone has it. The thing that keeps you up at night, or makes you not trust people, or stops love. The thing that hurts. And to stop it, to stop the hurt you have to turn it into a story. And not just a story you play over and over again for yourself, but a story that you tell. A story’s not a story unless you tell it. And once you give it away it’s not something that hurts you anymore, it’s something that helps everyone who hears it. It’s the kind of thing that’s hard to explain. It’s probably best if we just show how it works.” (Page 13)
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یادداشت شخصی:
مونولوگ رو به تماشاچی ۱۳
مونولوگ رو به شخصیت ۷۸

[Debbie Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

HOLY SMOKES firstly why is it so hard to find a script these days??? Thank god I found one did not want to travel in a blizzard to uni to see if we had a script in the theatre department. I thought I aquired a script before as I was performing Christine's monologuge the "I was married to Jesus Christ" once to audition to get into my theatre class and again in our class performances. But anyways, I'm directing first years and this is my second play I chose to direct them in. I think I have some fun scenes I can do with singing to really challenge them.


I want to do the romantic scenes if thats what you call them focusing on Christine and Al's relationships.

But this was a fast and quick read.


SHOUT OUT TO SOMEONE IN MY ACTING CLASS FOR HELPING ME FINALLY AQUIRE A SCRIPT! ITS SO HARD TO GET MY HANDS ON THIS PLAY!

[Adam Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having scene it in production I know this script can easily be a five star show, it's one of the best plays about the aftermath of sexual assult I've encountered as a survivor.

The gaps in the script are lovely in production, so that it's never exploitative. And the right actors will know how to fill the space with the intention and care required. That said, the script still needs the actors interpretation for this text to be fully realized, and as reading material, the same gaps lack the connotation that would make it a five star experience as text alone.

Still, one of my favourite all time plays. I read the script in under 90 minutes.

[Tony Loyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An utterly fantastic play. Terrific pace and story. Extremely moving. A Canadian masterpiece. Good characters, easily one of my favourite plays of all time.