Amigo's Blue Guitar

David E. Kemp is head of the Drama Department at Queen’s University.

MacLeod’s two previous plays (Toronto, Mississippi, and Jewel) were
powerful, funny, and quite obviously written by an author with a deep
understanding of how to communicate through the medium of theatre.
Amigo’s Blue Guitar is even more assured in its writing, construction,
and style.

MacLeod (writer-in-residence at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre and winner
of the 1991 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama for this play)
has, for four years, been active in sponsoring and resettling refugees.
She has drawn on this aspect of her life for Amigo’s theme and has
written a subtle, funny, and ultimately deeply moving play.

Set on an island, a short ferry ride from Vancouver, the play deals
with Sander, a 19-year-old boy, whose life is given meaning when he
chooses to sponsor a Salvadorean refugee for his sociology class.
Thinking that the refugee, Elias, will never make it to Canada, Sander
learns what it means and feels to be a refugee when Elias actually turns
up. And it is not only Sander who is affected. The arrival of Elias
forces Sander’s whole family to learn how to relate to someone who has
endured such intense personal grief. Sander’s father, grandmother, and
especially his sister, find themselves both moved and threatened by the
thought of accepting this stranger, and so do we. One of the play’s
strongest attributes is its ability for force us to consider how we
would react if faced with a similar situation.

MacLeod is totally conversant with the techniques of drama. It would
scarcely be possible to find a more timely play; that it is also
extremely well crafted makes it a double delight.