When Catherine returns home on the eve of ceremonies honouring her physician father, she unleashes a kaleidoscope of memories as father and daughter attempt to lay old ghosts to rest. While public service has been the keynote of Doc’s life it has covered the private anguish of a family in crisis. Interacting with figures from the past (including wife and mother Bob, best friend Oscar, and Catherine herself as the young child Katie), the characters retrace and relive past triumphs and tragedies, culminating in Bob’s death. Humour leavens this drama of a father and daughter’s struggle to love, to forgive, and to understand in order to go on.

Doc was first produced in 1984 at Theatre Calgary and has since been produced widely elsewhere. The play received the Governor General’s Award for Drama in 1986.

Sharon Pollock
Sharon Pollock was born Mary Sharon Chalmers in Fredericton, New Brunswick, in 1936, where she first became involved in the theatre in university. Later, with the Praire Players, she toured British Columbia and Alberta in 1966, and was voted Best Actress at the Dominion Drama Festival. She settled in Calgary the next year, raised a family, and while pregnant with her sixth child she began writing her first play. In 1973, Walsh (1983) premiered at Theatre Calgary. A subsequent production in 1974 at the Stratford Festival brought Pollock’s writing to wide public attention. She has written many plays, including Blood Relations and Other Plays, which won the Governor General’s Award in 1981, and Doc (1985), which won the Governor General’s Award in 1986.

Sharon Pollock's profile page

“An emotional steamroller of a play.” — Toronto Star

“Doc will have the same impact wherever it is performed…what happens on the stage has the truth of good theatre.” — Saint John Telegraph-Journal

“Doc emerges as Pollock’s finest work yet…she has made a strong personal statement for universal applications.” — Calgary Herald