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Drama Canadian

Jennie's Story & Under the Skin

by (author) Betty Lambert

introduction by Pamela Hawthorn

Publisher
Playwrights Canada Press
Initial publish date
Nov 1987
Category
Canadian, Women Authors
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780887544620
    Publish Date
    Nov 1987
    List Price
    $18.95

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Description

Winner of the 1983 Chalmers Canadian Play Award, Jennie's Story is set in the late 1930s on the Canadian prairies. It concerns the Sexual Sterilization Act that was enacted in 1928, allowing a sterilization procedure to be performed without consent on individuals that were deemed to be unfit or mentally challenged. Jennie McGrane takes the title role, and her discovery of what the priest Father Fabrizeau has done to her is the central drama of the play. Believing she had an appendectomy when she was a teenager, the truth is revealed when she's unable to conceive.In Under the Skin, Emma, the twelve-year-old daughter of Maggie Benton, has disappeared. John and Renee Gifford, Maggie's neighbours and friends, attempt to console her, but their own ominous behaviour makes this a cold comfort.

About the authors

Betty Lambert was a renowned Canadian playwright and English professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her most famous works were the childrenâ??s play The Riddle Machine, the radio play Grasshopper Hill, the comedy Sqrieux-de-Dieu, and the dramas Under the Skin and Jennieâ??s Story, which was adapted into the film Heart of the Sun in 1999. Betty Lambert passed away in 1983.

Betty Lambert's profile page

Pamela Hawthorn's profile page

Awards

  • Winner, Chalmers Canadian Play Award