Liar

Ian C. Nelson, Librarian Emeritus, former Assistant Director of
Libraries (University of Saskatchewan) and dramaturge (Festival de la
Dramaturgie des Prairies).

Brian Drader is a Winnipeg actor, writer, and dramaturge, and the
recipient of a host of awards and award nominations. Liar was a finalist
in the Joyce Dutka Foundation Playwriting Competition in New York, and
it is possibly as powerful as his much-feted Prok (with Alfred Kinsey as
the subject).

In Liar, we are presented with a striking initial scene: a young man
unsteadily balancing on the edge of a building, then the sound of a beer
bottle smashing on the street below. The synchronicity of omissions,
secrets, and lies (however intentioned) by the people in this man’s
life draws a tighter and tighter net around this scene, while each
revelation suggests new motivations and provocations. The man’s
friend, Mark, is described by turns as a chameleon, a confidante, and a
mystery. Although he appears most saliently to deserve the titular
epithet of liar, it is gradually revealed that each of the other
characters has acted in ways that stray from the simple truth. Mark
remains, however, most overtly worthy of the title, possessing a
frightening ability to infiltrate himself into the lives of others in a
way that bears echoes of John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation. One
question recurs dramatically throughout the piece: is Mark also the
murderer of Jeremy, the young gay man who falls to his death?

In the end, the mystery is left for the reader to ponder. With this
dramatic plunge Drader marks another ascent in the arc of his
distinguished playwriting career.