Cul-de-sac

by Daniel MacIvor, Daniel Brooks (Foreword)

Co-founder of Toronto’s groundbreaking theatre company da da kamera, Daniel MacIvor is Canada’s most influential post-modern playwright.

In his latest collaboration with director Daniel Brooks, MacIvor plays the role of Leonard, who narrates the events leading up to his murder while trying to understand them himself. Through the course of the play, we peer behind the curtains of his neighbourhood as MacIvor transforms into the multiple characters who bear witness to Leonard’s life and death. Yet each of their stories, while internally consistent, tells a subtly different version of what happened, progressively colouring and transforming our understanding of the characters as we think we had come to know them. In a headlong rush we understand that everyone’s story inevitably dead-ends at precisely the bottom of the preconceptions they brought to its telling.

Punctuated by brilliant lighting and a mood-setting soundscape, this dazzling one-man show is storytelling of the highest order.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Canada

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

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

[Kazen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think I've read a single play since my theatre classes in college, but it all came back to me - analyzing parts, coming up with different readings for the same line, imagining what this play must have looked like on stage.

I bet it was interesting. A one man show, Cul-de-sac slowly takes you through a series of character studies of people who all live on the same dead end street. They're all talking, more or less directly, about an event that happened recently. I'll just leave it there to avoid spoiling anything.

There are some downright beautiful lines and interesting insights sprinkled throughout. One of my favorites, from a 14 year old girl:

"I wish I could be a lesbian. It would be easier. Girls are easier. I mean girls can be bitchy but so can boys just when boys are bitchy they call it highly motivated."

A short read even with the lengthy introduction, this play reminded me that there's a whole world of drama out there waiting for me.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of bleh. A good ending, but mostly people just talking about stuff. I'm sorry Daniel and I still love you, but you win some you lose some.