Grace

David E. Kemp, former drama professor at Queen’s University, is the
author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

Michael MacLennan is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and
director who works primarily in British Columbia. As he explains in an
introductory note, Grace is about the tender act of watching, about
society’s ability to care for itself, about the nature of home and
what living in a city does to us, and about the remarkable web of often
seemingly casual relationships of which we are largely unaware.

The play charts, with considerable technical expertise, the lives of
six people over a 24-hour period. As their paths intersect, these
perfect strangers affect and transform one another in astonishing and
often hilarious ways. Their achievement consists in making human
connections within an environment that discourages the meaningful and
encourages the transitory. Fittingly, this haunting and lyrical play
makes references to angels—not the benevolent guardian spirits of
popular mythology, but rather strangers of startling intelligence who
sometimes bring unwelcome messages and, as a consequence, are ignored,
mocked, or feared. MacLennan’s is a truly original voice.