New Releases by Sharon Pollock

One of the most intriguing theories about the identity of the infamous London murderer, Jack the Ripper, is that he hid behind the skirts of respectability, social position, and perhaps, even royalty ... In Saucy Jack, the author of Blood Relations and Doc, Sharon Pollock, implicates the most upper echelons of British society in the brutal murders of London''s prostitutes. In a stately Victorian drawing room, two old friends, James Kenneth Stephen, a scholar, and his former pupil, Prince Albert Victor, Queen Victoria''s nephew and heir to the throne, dance around the truth of the identity of London''s most notorious killer, and while a tale of psychological intrigue is played out, an unravelling of tested friendship, betrayal, duplicity, and motive is revealed. With the single female character of Kate, an actress hired by James to re-enact the death throes of the prostitutes, Pollock creates an ominous presence, both disturbing and haunting. Saucy Jack undoes the mythology surrounding the killer, weakens his place in the ranks of history''s powerful, and instead, gives a voice and a face to his anonymous victims.

"Sharon Pollock is Canada''s best-known woman playwright." -from Cynthia Zimmerman''s introduction

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.

Set in Vancouver circa 1914, End Dream follows the death of a young Scottish nanny employed by a member of the political and social elite of the era, a death which raises questions of murder and suicide. Moving Pictures is a theatrical tracing of the life of Nell Shipman who as an actress sang, danced and hammed her way across North America in the early 1900s. Angel''s Trumpet is a play about Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

A United Empire Loyalist family flees from Boston to New Brunswick during the American Revolution. In late October, 1785, they host a reunion, and are joined by two veterans and a stranger whom they assume also to have been a former soldier on the Loyalist side. But the stranger reveals himself to be a Rebel seeking to avenge the death of his brother; at gunpoint he demands that the others choose one among them to be executed at first light. First performed by the Stratford Festival in 1993, Fair Liberty’s Call has since been frequently produced across North America.

This brand new edition features the plays that established Sharon Pollock as a major Canadian playwright and gained her many accolades, among them, the first ever Governor General’s Award for Drama for Blood Relations in 1981. Her characters are the oppressed, from the spinster Lizzie Borden in the title play, Blood Relations, to the prisoners of One Tiger to a Hill, to Leah, "chosen" daughter/mistress of rum runner Mr. Big in Whiskey Six Cadenza.

In Saucy Jack, Pollock implicates the most upper echelons of British society in the brutal Jack-the-Ripper murders of London''s prostitutes.

From the estate of Mira Friedlander.

Scope and content: Canadian playwright and author. Biographical information available in The Oxford companion to Canadian literature, 2nd ed., p. 955-957; and The Oxford companion to Canadian theatre, p. 424-426. Fonds consists of the following series: correspondence (n.d., 1965-1984); manuscript (n.d., 1971-1984); audio (n.d., 1971-1981); works by other authors (1976-1984); and miscellaneous (n.d., ca. 1965-1984).