Plays

The December Man

Colleen Murphy

Playwrights Canada Press

9780887545955

2007

"I was interested in looking beyond the headlines and looking at the footnotes, because so often when you hear about these things — and they saturate the news about four days and then they disappear — one wonders what happened to the people that were touched by it.” Colleen Murphy

Citation: Arts, CBC. "December Man Looks Beyond Headlines of 1989 Montreal Killings." CBC News December 6 2007.

Awards:

Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, 2007

Canadian Authors Association (CAA) Carol Bolt Award for Drama, 2008

Enbridge playRites Award, 2006

Premiere:

Enbridge playRites Festival of New Canadian Plays, 2007, at Alberta Theatre Projects, Calgary, Alberta

Reviews:

“The first scene opens, years after the massacre, with the emotionally ravaged pair gassing themselves in their living room-we understand there must be some motivation, but, since Murphy's play progresses backward through time, toward 1989, we must wait to discover the antecedents.”

Citation: "The December Man (L'homme De Décembre)." Books In Canada 37.1 (2008): 25.

Excerpt:

“Benoit: When I close my eyes.  For a long time I only saw what I say in the basement that morning… then I remembered Jean once telling me how he’d close his eyes and see buildings inside his head and how he’d swivel them around just by thinking.  So I started thinking about that day in December, musta been early 70’s, a big snowstorm and you and me and Jean – he was about six – we all went out in the backyard and made a snowman… so I just swiveled the pictures around and put that one in front of that other one.  Now every time I close my eyes I see Jean running around inside my head, laughing, shouting, his arms fulla  snow… a happy little boy who always tried his best.”

Citation: Murphy, Colleen. The December Man (L'homme De Décembre). Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2007. p. 10