Love and Human Remains/Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love

Sarah Robertson is an associate editor of the Canadian Book Review
Annual.

This volume includes the stage and screen versions of Brad Fraser’s
play about a group of young people looking for love in a city (Edmonton)
that has recently fallen prey to a serial killer. Paralleling the
physical mutilation of the killer’s female victims is the
psychological mutilation of the seven characters, who dread and long for
intimacy in roughly equal measure. This ambivalence is perhaps most
successfully embodied in the character of David, who has the most to
lose when the identity of the killer—a cast member—is revealed.

Fraser’s introductions to the two texts provide a compelling record
of the genesis of Human Remains, the warlike rehearsal process that
preceded its premiere in 1989, the international success it went on to
achieve, and its evolution from stage to screen under the direction of
Denys Arcand. The screenplay is Fraser’s version of the story (readers
are invited to compare it with Arcand’s film). The two texts
reproduced here reflect the very different demands of stage and film
while sharing the author’s staccato rhythms, conflict-driven plots,
and abrasive humor. Taken as a whole, this book offers some fascinating
insights into the inevitable tensions that arise between the artistic
vision and the selling of that vision.