Kilt

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

Jonathan Wilson is a comedy writer and the author of two one-act plays,
and. His one-man show, My Private Oshawa, had an extended run in Toronto
and was nominated for both a Chalmers and a Dora Mavor Moore Award.

The title of Wilson’s latest play refers a kilt worn by a young
Glaswegian soldier during the World War II Battle of Tobruk in 1941. In
the present day, the soldier’s gay grandson, Tom, wears the kilt to
spice up his performances as Tartan Tom, an exotic dancer who works at a
gay-friendly establishment in Toronto. When the old soldier dies, Tom is
forced to return to Glasgow for the funeral. In Glasgow, Tom comes face
to face with the past in the persons of David, an old army buddy of his
grandfather’s, and Mary, his mother’s sister.

In this idiosyncratic, moving, and thought-provoking play, Wilson blurs
the line between past and present by having the same actor play both Tom
and his grandfather.