A passionate encounter between a grieving mother and a troubled soldier just back from France illuminates Wild Mouth, a new play by Maureen Hunter. Anna is a British-born immigrant who returns to her brother's prairie farm in 1917 to help with the harvest and to try to heal. There she meets Bohdan, a young man of Ukrainian descent who changed his name to Smith in order to get to the front. Anna's desperation to understand her son's death propels both of them to the edge of an abyss. This seven-character play explores the enduring connections between love and war, beauty and horror, creation and destruction.

Maureen Hunter is one of CanadaÂ?s most accomplished playwrights. Her work has been produced extensively on CanadaÂ?s major stages, as well as in Britain and the U.S. and has been nominated for two Governor General*#146;s Awards, two Dora Mavor Moore Awards (Outstanding New Play) and the Elinor and Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. Her plays include Atlantis, premiered in English by Manitoba Theatre Centre/Theatre Calgary in 1996 and in French by Theatre de la Manufacture, Montreal, in 1999, and Transit of Venus, which received its Canadian premiere at MTC in 1992 and in 1993 became the first Canadian play ever staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company of Britain. It received its U.S. premiere in 1998 at the Bershire Festival, Stockbridge, Mass. Other plays include Vinci, Footprints on the Moon, Beautiful Lake Winnipeg, and I Met A Bully on the Hill (coâ??written with Martha Brooks). Maureen lives in Winnipeg, where she is currently at work on a new play, Wild Mouth, set in Saskatchewan in 1917, and a libretto of Transit of Venus for Manitoba Opera.

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