It is 1897, and word of gold on the Klondike has spurred a frantic rush of miners to cash in on the riches rumoured to be found there. But by the time the prospectors arrive, all the claims have been staked. Without enough supplies or expertise to endure the harsh conditions of the north, hundreds of lives are devastated by starvation, exhaustion, and disease. Desperation sets in over the landscape and ushers in a harsh social climate of chaos, opportunism, and competition, with people willing to do literally anything to either survive or find a way out.

Very few women joined the scramble, and those who did usually found themselves in high demand as cooks, washers, and objects of entertainment. Little romance filled the air, and those women independent and strong-willed enough to break free of their traditional social constraints acquired great power over the men who attempted to buy and trade them like the most valuable of commodities, “worth their weight in gold.”

In its celebration of one woman’s determination to triumph over all who seek to possess her, Wanted is far more than a period-piece history play. Resonant with echoes of the contemporary global village in which every one and every thing, including body parts and functions, have their cynically and openly advertised price, it is a portrait of raw desire, greed, and lust for acquisition stripped of every veneer of civilization and reduced to a confrontation of the will to power in a world utterly indifferent to what is either fair or just.

Sally Clark
Born in Vancouver, Sally Clark is a critically acclaimed playwright who has been dazzling audiences with her penchant for dark humour, ironic wit, and sharp character portrayals. Her plays, typically presented in a series of short, vivid, and fast-paced scenes, seamlessly combine comedic and tragic motifs to tell the stories of strong and adventurous women. In Saint Frances of Hollywood and Life without Instruction, she demonstrates her knack for dramatizing the lives of historical figures, providing a feminist re-visioning of what it means and what it costs to be a heroine. Clark has been playwright-in-residence at Theatre Passe Muraille, the Shaw Festival, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Nakai Theatre, and Nightwood Theatre. She is also an accomplished painter, director, and filmmaker. When she was a resident artist at the Canadian Film Centre, she wrote and directed her award-winning short film Ten Ways to Abuse an Old Woman.

Clark moved to Toronto in 1974 but returned to Vancouver in 1994 and has been residing there since. For more information on the work and career of Sally Clark, visit her website.

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