Anniversary

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

Carol Shields is one of Canada’s most acclaimed writers. A recipient
of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle fiction award,
and the Governor General’s Literary Award, she has written eight
novels, two collections of short stories, three volumes of poetry, and
five plays. David Williamson, the author of three novels and several TV
plays, has recently published a collection of short stories. Like
Shields, he works in an academic milieu in Winnipeg.

Anniversary is a funny and moving play about human relationships. It
centres on two couples—one married and pretending to be close to
separation, the other separated and pretending to be married.
Complicating matters further, the separated couple are still very much
emotionally united, while the married couple seem to have exhausted the
possibilities of their relationship.

Although billed as a comedy, the play raises a number of important
questions: What is the nature of friendship, and what are its
boundaries? What are the criteria for a successful marriage, and how
negotiable are those original vows? What marks the end of a marriage or
friendship? And what masks do people don in order to hide their true
feelings? In presenting us with flawed but sympathetic characters,
Anniversary encourages us to consider these questions not only in
relation to the two couples, but also in relation to ourselves.