Try: Communion/Was Spring/Small Things

by Daniel MacIvor

Three new plays by award-winning author Daniel MacIvor featuring generations of women as they come to terms with themselves and each other. In Communion , a recovering alcoholic and her estranged daughter try to negotiate a new relationship; Was Spring follows three women who suffered a tragic accident years ago; and Small Things explores how little differences keep us from understanding each other.

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2016

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

[Adam Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Communion is a masterpiece.
Was Spring works better on the stage than the page, where it suddenly seems much thinner than it is on performance. But MacIvors work frequently stages different than it reads, it's just very apparent here.
Small Things is a play I haven't seen but would love to work on. Small town parents and grandparents learning how to get along with the future and the past. It was beautiful and sad.

All of these plays will gain more from multiple readings.

[Gareth Davies · Rating 2 out of 5]

COMMUNION
Love the three short acts, makes it feel faster paced.
Three very distinctly different characters, each with their own character arc.

WAS SPRING
A little slow.
Really fun concept and nice story, but the monologues were just too long, at least from a reading perspective.

SMALL THINGS
Really great content.
I wish it tied up better at the end with Birdy appreciating Alice for who they are.
Also we never get an answer on what is wrong with Patricia?

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

MacIvor's writing is superb; after reading this collection i had a longing to see these plays produced or to be involved with their productions, especially Communion & Was Spring.

[katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very nice writing. Would like to see these performed. Recommended to me by my playwriting professor.