Shortly after the Conservatives win a majority government in the 2011 federal election, the prime minister discovers a secret weapon in his caucus—Jisbella Lyth, a single mother with a limited understanding of her role as an MP. Using her ignorance to his advantage, the PM hatches a plan to have Jisbella front and centre in a campaign of misdirection and distraction. Humorous and clever, Proud explores the corrosive nature of the politics of division.

Michael Healey trained as an actor at Toronto’s Ryerson Theatre School in the mid-eighties. He began writing for the stage in the early nineties and his first play, a solo one-act called Kicked, was produced at the Fringe of Toronto Festival in 1996. He subsequently toured the play across Canada and internationally, winning the Dora Mavor Moore Award for best new play. The Drawer Boy, his first full-length play, premiered in Toronto in 1999, winning the Dora Award for best new play, the Chalmers Canadian Playwriting Award, and the Governor General’s Literary Award (Canada’s highest literary honour). It has been translated into multiple languages and continues to be produced regularly across North America and internationally. Healey’s other works include The Road to Hell (co-authored with Kate Lynch), Plan B, Rune Arlidge, The Innocent Eye Test, The Nuttalls, Are You Okay, and 1979. His trilogy focusing on Canadian values and politics—Generous, Courageous, and Proud—met with great critical success and have had multiple productions. In all, his plays have won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for best new play five times. He has also adapted works by Chekhov, Molnar, Hecht and MacArthur, Dürrenmatt, and Shaw for the Stratford Festival, the Shaw Festival, and Soulpepper. He continues to find work as an actor occasionally.

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"PROUD is a wonderful combination of intelligence and humor."

Theatre Review: Proud at Great Canadian Theatre Company

"Deftly written and often laugh-out-loud funny, Healey's script keeps surprising us, taking unexpected turns both in its narrative and character development."

Michael Healey wittily examines a prime minister who's more human than you'd expect

"Proud is the portrait of a buttoned-up man seen at his most unbuttoned.... Arriving with a reputation as a controversial political exposé of our current Prime Minister, Proud does score some sharp, insightful satirical barbs at Harper’s expense. But Harper-haters be warned: this play humanizes the man." --Jerry Wasserman, The Province

"Michael Healey's Proud is funny and foul-mouthed, yet surprisingly sweet."

Michael Healey's Proud is funny and foul-mouthed, yet surprisingly sweet

"...always sharp, and sometimes hilarious."

Theatre review: Michael Healey's Proud is a Pygmalion for the political age