Scraping the Surface: Three Plays

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

Lyle Victor Albert is an award-winning author of 10 plays. Of the three
plays in this collection, two—“Scraping the Surface” and
“Objects in the Mirror Are Stranger Than They Appear”—are one-man
shows.

“Scraping the Surface” documents how the simple act of shaving
becomes a turning point in a man’s acceptance of his cerebral palsy.
In this poignant and humorous play, Albert, who himself has cerebral
palsy, also deals with the challenges and emotional shocks that
accompany the passage into young adulthood. “Objects in a Mirror Are
Stranger Than They Appear,” which is structured as a series of
distinct but connected anecdotes, moves back and forth in time, with
episodes ranging from the protagonist’s childhood attempts to escape
the family farm to the liberation resulting from a broken relationship.

The third play, “Cut,” is a funny and insightful farce that centres
on characters allegedly “cut” from famous plays. Among the
“lost” characters are Hamlet’s older brother, the sisters of King
Oedipus’s sisters, and Stanley Kowalski’s mother. Here, as in the
other two plays, Albert has created vibrant characters with whom
audiences will readily empathize.