It's All Tru
Acha Bacha
Everybody Just C@lm the F#ck Down / Everybody Just Calm the Fuck Down
Forget Me Not
Is My Microphone On?
Wasp
Body So Fluorescent
Eraser
The Millennial Malcontent
Gay Positive
Let's Run Away
Honour Among Thieves: A Monstrous Comedy
What Difference Does It Make?
Myth Of The Ostrich
The Unbelievers
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Have you ever found the perfect part? Or read a scene that speaks to you? Or seen a play where the actor on stage matched the writing as if made-to-measure? Don’t you wish it happened more often?

Parallel Play is a tool to help smooth the search for material that really fits. Fits actors, directors, teachers, students, writers, readers and theatre enthusiasts in their quest to find parallels between cast and character.

Parallel Play draws from an extensive database of culturally diverse plays and playwrights. Its foundation is a collection curated by theatre people and designed for all. With new plays added regularly, we think you’ll find our collection unparalleled!

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DiscoverPlays and Playwrights

In our database, there are more than 1000+ plays. Search by title or playwright. Click on a playwright's name to see more of their works.

  • Discover plays with Mixed Race Characters

    Who You Callin' Black, eh?
    Women of the Fur Trade
  • Discover plays with characters of Unspecified Culture

    Antarctica
    Speed Dating for Sperm Donors
  • Discover plays with d/Deaf, and/or Person(s) with a Disabilities Characters

    The Crackwalker
    Deafy
  • Discover plays with African + Diasp Characters (including Egyptian)

    Reaching for Starlight
    Body So Fluorescent

Discover Styles, like 'Stylized'

Pretty Goblins play banner

Stylized

Pretty Goblins

From holding hands in the womb to holding each other’s hair back when they puked, twins Laura and Lizzie grew up only having each other. They couldn’t count on their practically feral mom, absent dad, or even the boys they liked. They’re polar opposites—Laura’s reserved while Lizzie’s reckless—but their shared mischievous giggles and dreams for the future kept them going. One day, Laura finds a familiar book of poems in Lizzie’s apartment and is dragged through their turbulent past. Together, the sisters relive their complicated history in an effort to make sense of the present. Framed by the beauty of a well-loved poem, this story of ferocious sisterhood, addiction, and the aftermath of trauma will leave howls echoing in your ears.

by Beth Graham, 2019
Characters: 2
Family
Gender
Do This In Memory of Me play banner

Stylized

Do This In Memory of Me

Twelve-year-old Genevieve has been having a hard time at home, and all she really wants is to be an altar server at her church. Except it’s 1963 and Father Paul tells her that’s not allowed. After having her dreams crushed and being made fun of by her classmate and star altar boy Martin, Genevieve prays to God hoping for an exception. Instead, a fourteen-year-old martyr from the fourth century, St. Pancras, appears and promises to get her an answer from God. But with her mom missing for weeks and Martin disappearing on his way home from school the next day, she fears her prayers have been answered in dire ways. This dark comedy dives into the expansive time between childhood and adolescence, exploring questions about the realities of home life to the possibilities of unknown worlds. Do This In Memory of Me is for anyone who has ever questioned the relationship between faith and trust or wondered where they fit in the bigger picture.

by Cat Walsh, 2021
Characters: 3
Community
Discrimination
How It Ends play banner

Stylized

How It Ends

Most of us, when faced with death, wish we could just have a little more time. But what if this is the little more time that we wished for? What are you going to do with it? Grieving siblings Natalie and Bart have differing views on how we die. Natalie, a palliative care nurse, knows how drugs can help ease someone’s pain, and do so on their own terms; Bart, a minister, believes that surrendering to what may come can bring peace and wisdom. Through this immersive show about end-of-life choices, Natalie and Bart are guided by a disabled angel who helps them address their mother’s final decision and understand their own hopes and fears about death. Packed with relatable existential questions, this joyously engaging and reflective play offers a welcoming space to think about what comes next.

by Debbie Patterson, 2023
Characters: 4
Cultural Issues
Death
The Breathing Hole play banner

Stylized

The Breathing Hole

Stories of the Canadian Arctic intersect in this epic five-hundred-year journey led by a one-eared polar bear. In 1535, Hummiktuq, an Inuk widow, has a strange dream about the future. The next day, she discovers a bear cub floating on ice near a breathing hole. Despite the concerns of her community, she adopts him and names him Angu’řuaq. In 1845, Angu’řuaq and his mate Ukuannuaq wander into a chance meeting between explorers from the Franklin Expedition and Inuit hunters. Later, when the explorers are starving, the bears meet them again. By 2035, entrepreneurs are assessing degrees of melting ice for future opportunities. Angu’řuaq encounters the passengers and crew of a luxury cruise ship as it slinks through the oily waters of the Northwest Passage. Humorous and dramatic, The Breathing Hole is a profound saga that traces the paths of colonialism and climate change to a deeply moving conclusion.

by Colleen Murphy, Siobhan Arnatsiaq-Murphy, 2020
Characters: 46
Colonialism
Empathy
Six Essential Questions/”6 Essential Questions” play banner

Stylized

Six Essential Questions/”6 Essential Questions”

6 Essential Questions tells the story of Renata as she travels to Brazil to reunite with the mother who abandoned her when she was just five years old. In Rio, Renata discovers more than she bargained for in her quest to uncover the truth of who abandoned whom. She is continually tossed about by her undead grandmother and a semi-invisible uncle as they choreograph the ultimate dance of mother and daughter, both of whom must confront their dreams before they can ever attempt to confront each other. Imaginations run wild in this strangely beautiful and funny story loosely based on Uppal’s critically acclaimed memoir, Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother, a finalist for both the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

by Priscila Uppal, 2015
Characters: 4
Family
Greif
Sultans of the Street play banner

Stylized

Sultans of the Street

When young orphans Mala and Chun Chun encounter brothers Prakash and Ojha on the busy streets of Kolkata, they are immediately at odds. The brothers come from a lower-middle-class family and spend their time flying kites instead of attending class, while Mala and Chun Chun can only dream of going to school, a goal Aunty promises will be fulfilled if they beg for money from passersby. After a petty fruit-stall heist lands Ojha in Aunty’s cunning hands, the brothers are blackmailed into begging alongside Mala and Chun Chun, forcing the children to interact. Though they find each other nuisances at first, the kids soon realize their strength in numbers as Aunty’s scheming is slowly revealed.

by Anusree Roy, 2016
Characters: 5
Class
Crime
The Goodnight Bird play banner

Stylized

The Goodnight Bird

Lilly and Morgan Beaumont are comfortable in their routine until Parker, a homeless man, lands on the balcony of their new condo. After scaring the older couple half to death, he pours himself into the holes of their relationship, agitating them with talk of sex—talk that drives Lilly out into the night and sends Morgan on the road to another heart attack.

by Colleen Murphy, 2013
Characters: 3
Empathy
Marriage
Watching Glory Die play banner

Solo show

Watching Glory Die

Glory is a troubled teenage inmate who, in her solitary prison cell, is tormented by hallucinations. While she battles the creature in her mind, her adoptive mother Rosellen struggles to remain connected to her daughter, believing that she can sense Glory’s feelings no matter the distance. In the prison halls, Gail, a working-class guard, glides between her conscience and her professional duties, knowing her actions could ultimately lead to a tragic end.

by Judith Thompson, 2016
Characters: 1
Death
Family
The Doorman of Windsor Station play banner

Realistic

The Doorman of Windsor Station

Francisco will forever be haunted by the sight of his best friend Juan lying on the floor of a train station, pierced by five bullets. He’ll remember that sight as he flees the political uprising in Uruguay that night. He’ll remember when he’s holding a dying homeless man in Windsor Station in Montreal eight months later. He’ll remember when he’s a successful architect. He’ll remember when he’s having an affair with a Québécoise pianist named Claire. He’ll remember when he’s much older, a vagrant sleeping in a café that was once part of Windsor Station, where he meets his son, an activist in the student strikes in Quebec. As he tries for a better life, Francisco’s past keeps finding him, until it blurs with the present in a series of hallucinations, challenging him to reclaim his identity and his rights.

by Julie Vincent, 2017
Characters: 8
Ageing
Class
The Shoe play banner

Stylized

The Shoe

In The Shoe, a weary mother, her perplexing son, their shy dentist, and his cocktail-sipping receptionist find themselves drawn together to face problems too daunting to deal with alone. From meltdowns to moments of tenderness, each of them are called on to find reserves of strength and empathy they never knew they had.

by David Paquet, 2022
Characters: 4
Empathy
Family
Wildfire play banner

Stylized

Wildfire

In Wildfire, three odd triplets, two misfits, and one misunderstood woman are all burning with solitude and desire. Through an exploration of heredity and fate, these seemingly ordinary characters choose to struggle against their isolation in extraordinary yet relatable ways.

by David Paquet, 2022
Characters: 6
Empathy
Family
Under Wraps play banner

Stylized

Under Wraps

The moment Mark meets David his world is thrown off balance. Who could have predicted finding love in a furniture store, or finding it with an unemployed lifeguard? But despite their immediate connection, Mark isn’t sure if David is gay. Mark isn’t even sure if Mark is gay. As he falls deeper in love, Mark works desperately to make David nothing more than a friend and to make that enough. Filled with hopeful exhilaration and devastating missed opportunities, Under Wraps nimbly tracks one man’s tumultuous quest to finally love himself and let it all out.

by Robert Chafe, 2014
Characters: 2
2SLGBTQI+
Identity
The Magic Hour play banner

Solo show

The Magic Hour

The Magic Hour is a solo multidisciplinary performance spell that uses magic to investigate sexual violence, trauma and transformation. Working with traditions and practices of magic ranging from ancestral sacred charms to top-hat-and-rabbit illusions, the work presses the boundaries of public and private, hidden and revealed, to make visible what is not seen. The Magic Hour proposes a radical healing through the ritual of theatre by creating expansive acts that alter the meaning of materials and memories, and enacting power through invocation, repetition, witnessing and participation.

by Jess Dobkin, 2017
Characters: 1
Cultural issues
Diversity
Dirty Plötz: Witness the Hidden Vagenda play banner

Solo shown

Dirty Plötz: Witness the Hidden Vagenda

"Tricksters, witches, whores, hags and the Holy Bitch all feature prominently in Dirty Plötz. “Anasyrma” is a word you will hear in this work. The definition of this word is to lift one skirt’s to curse the viewer. There is no similar word for men – men cannot curse people with their genitals. Syrma herself is the star at the hem of the constellation Virgo’s skirt. You will meet her and she will tell you her own story. You will also meet a live embodiment of the Sheela na gig, a small sculpture found on churches in Ireland and an expression of a pre-puritanical female empowerment. And of course, The Designated Hand Wringer will be available to be outraged on behalf of your oppression." - buddies in bad times theatre

by Alex Tigchelaar, 2017
Characters: 1
Cultural Issues
Discrimination
Broken Brain One-O-One/”Broken Brain 101″ play banner

Solo show

Broken Brain One-O-One/”Broken Brain 101″

Broken Brain 101 is a burlesque exposé on clinical madness throughout women’s history, where the heroine reveals her splendour in a free but alarming way. Trapped in a lemon-yellow straightjacket, she takes back her own dignity by totally giving herself in front of the audience, revealing her whole body and soul through shamanic and ecstatic transformations.

by Nathalie Claude, 2017
Characters: 1
2SLGBTQI+
Mental Health

Discover Tags, like 'Racism'

Graceful Rebellions play banner

Realistic

Graceful Rebellions

"Graceful Rebellions, playing in the SummerWorks Festival, tracks experiences of (and with) queerness in war-torn Afghanistan to Canada through two generations and four characters. We start with an idealistic fourteen year old, probably around sixty years ago, imagining her own future wedding on the eve of her sister’s. She is so good-natured and naïve that it is hard for us, the audience, who know her reality will not be able to meet her fantasy." - Mooneyonthetheatre.com "In this brilliant and engaging one-woman show, playwright and performer SHAISTA LATIF transitions seamlessly between distinctly complex characters in a deeply personal work. Moving across cultures and generations, Graceful Rebellions tells the stories of three Afghan women, each bartering for small joys and challenging the cultural norms that exist under Afghanistan’s patriarchal rule. Shaista lovingly portrays characters, by turns funny and heartbreaking, who struggle in a world where women commonly have no power, in a culture that has long been dominated by war." - National Arts Centre, Ottawa

by Shaista Latif, 2017
Characters: 4
LGBTQ2S+
Cultural issues
Reasonable Doubt play banner

Docudrama

Reasonable Doubt

"A significant moment in Canadian history is portrayed in this documentary musical about race relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Weaving hundreds of real interviews conducted with Saskatchewan residents and the court transcripts surrounding the killing of Colten Boushie and trial of Gerald Stanley, a kaleidoscopic picture is formed of the views of the incident, the province, and relationships between all people in Canada. A verbatim play with music created by Joel Bernbaum, Lancelot Knight, and Yvette Nolan, Reasonable Doubt provides a space to honestly talk to each other about what has happened on this land and how we can live together." - from the publisher "In 2015, playwright and journalist Joel Bernbaum was commissioned by Persephone Theatre to gather interviews with local citizens for the purposes of writing a documentary play on race relations in our province. Then, in 2016, Colten Boushie, was fatally shot on Gerald Stanley’s farm near Biggar, SK. and the interviews changed dramatically." - persephonetheatre.org

by Joel Bernbaum, Lancelot Knight, Yvette Nolan, 2022
Characters: 6
Cultural issues
Discrimination
The Making of St. Jerome play banner

Realistic

The Making of St. Jerome

When Jason De Jesus discovers his younger brother Jerome was the victim of a senseless shooting, his world is filled with questions surrounding Jerome’s death. Was his brother a threat or a casualty of racial profiling? Was he an innocent bystander or someone other than his family’s shining star? Internalizing his survivor’s guilt while reflecting on their strained relationship, Jason’s quest for truth and justice is tainted as he discovers there are no simple answers. Inspired by the shooting of a Filipino Canadian teenager by a police officer in Toronto, The Making of St. Jerome is a poignant look at the aftermath of an untimely death, the media’s role in the truth, and one family’s attempt to reconcile a haunting reality.

by Marie Beath Badian, 2017
Characters: 6
Cultural issues
Death
Forgiveness play banner

Historical

Forgiveness

Mitsue Sakamoto and Ralph MacLean both suffered tremendous loss during WWII: Mitsue as a survivor of a Japanese Canadian internment camp, and Ralph as a prisoner in a Japanese POW camp. In order to rebuild their lives and their families after the war, Ralph and Mitsue must find the grace and generosity necessary to forgive those who have wronged them. Their paths eventually cross in 1968 when Mitsue’s son and Ralph’s daughter begin dating, and Ralph is invited to Mitsue’s home for dinner. This soaring adaptation of Mark Sakamoto’s award-winning memoir affirms the power of forgiveness and shows us that in our challenging times characterized by political divisiveness, xenophobia, and race hatred, the story of Mitsue and Ralph’s personal triumphs over hatred, injustice, violence, and bigotry remains vitally relevant and urgently necessary.

by Hiro Kanagawa, Mark Sakamoto, 2023
Characters: 30
Empathy
Family
The Sister Op play banner

Realistic

The Sister Op

The Sister Op begins in France and ends in Halifax in 1938. It follows the efforts of Beatrice, a private detective known as a ‘sister op’, to smuggle Miri, a thirteen year old German Jewish refugee, out of France into Canada to her waiting Uncle Max.

by Shelley M. Hobbs
Characters: 10
Crime
Racism
Viola Desmond play banner

Historical

Viola Desmond

1946 New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. A black beautician from Halifax refuses to sit in the balcony of the segregated movie theatre and is sent to jail and convicted of tax evasion for the $ 0.02 difference in price. The conviction is upheld by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

by Marcia Johnson, 2009
Characters: 20
Class
Cultural issues
The Sender play banner

Solo Show

The Sender

Cil Brown loves her work. Her job as a Sender on a global racism-elimination project has resulted in a peaceful, logical and sustainable world. However, she encounters technical difficulties when a Sendee objects to restrictions on the lives of residents of White Supremacist Island.

by Cheryl Foggo, 2023
Characters: 1
Black Experience
Class
Other People's Heaven: The Viola Desmond Story play banner

Historical

Other People’s Heaven: The Viola Desmond Story

Viola Davis Desmond (July 6, 1914-1965) was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She was an African- Canadian who ran her own beauty parlor and beauty college in Halifax. She has been referred to as a Canadian version of Rosa Parks. Desmond’s story was one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Nova Scotian and Canadian history. On November 8, 1946, Viola Desmond refused to sit in the balcony designated exclusively for blacks in a New Glasgow theatre. Instead she took her seat on the ground floor where only white people were allowed to sit. After being forcibly removed from the theatre and arrested, Desmond was eventually found guilty of not paying the one-cent difference in tax on the balcony ticket from the main floor ticket.

by Beau Dixon
Characters: 6
Black Experience
Crime
Once A Flame play banner

Historical

Once A Flame

Once a Flame tells the harrowing story of the defiant black slave Marie Joseph Angélique who was executed for arson in Old Montreal in 1734. This one act play recalls the events that took place before and after her trial.

by Beau Dixon
Characters: 1
Black Experience
Black Lives Matter
Sisters Inc. play banner

Historical

Sisters Inc.

Sisters Inc. is a girlsè road trip, only the girls, one Jewish, one Christian, one black Muslim, are all in their 60’s. The girls revisit some tense moments they experienced throughout the course of their long-time friendships.

by Rita Shelton Deverell, 2017
Characters: 3
Ageing
Diversity
Smoked Glass Ceiling play banner

Realistic

Smoked Glass Ceiling

A little black girl from the US South lives through the civil rights era, becomes a broadcast executive in Canada and tells all.

by Rita Shelton Deverell, 2005
Characters: 1
Black Experience
Cultural issues
Who You Callin' Black, eh? play banner

Realistic

Who You Callin’ Black, eh?

Who you Callin Black Eh? is a coming of age play set in Canada’s largest, most multicultural, multilingual city, that is not about sexuality, but about colour. Wherever Our Heroine goes, she is not Black Enough or White Enough to find her people.

by Rita Shelton Deverell
Characters: N/A
Black Experience
Identity
My Place Is Right Here: Hugh Burnett and the Fight for a Better Canada play banner

Historical

My Place Is Right Here: Hugh Burnett and the Fight for a Better Canada

"This play is a research-based, dramatic exploration and celebration of little known African-Canadian hero Hugh Burnett's personhood and human rights legacy. The setting of the play is the world of Hugh Burnett's memory and our memory. Like our dreams, it is not confined by space or conventional rules. Through the interplay of text, theatre and movement, it is hoped that Hugh Burnett may speak his memory and our memory even as memory shifts and changes like the countless grains of a sand dune." - from the publisher

by Aaron Haddad, 2019
Characters: 3
Empowerment
Justice
Serving Elizabeth play banner

Historical

Serving Elizabeth

Serving Elizabeth begins in Kenya in 1952, during the fateful royal visit of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh. Mercy, a restaurant owner, is approached to cook for the royal couple. As a staunch anti-monarchist, how can she take the job? Decades later, Tia, a Kenyan-Canadian film student interning in the London office of a production company doing a series about Queen Elizabeth, discovers that there may be more to the story of the royal visit than we have been led to believe. Although she’s been a fan of princesses all her life, Tia learns that fairy tales and real life are very different things.

by Marcia Johnson, 2020
Characters: 10
Black experience
Colonialism
Beneath Springhill: The Maurice Ruddick Story play banner

Solo Show

Beneath Springhill: The Maurice Ruddick Story

Beneath Springhill is the incredible story of Maurice Ruddick, “the singing miner,” an African-Canadian who survived nine days underground during the historic Springhill mining disaster of 1958. This multi-award-winning chamber musical recalls the events during the disaster, the effect it had on Ruddick’s family, and the racial tensions in the town of Springhill. The play is a celebration of hope, courage and community.

by Beau Dixon, 2021
Characters: 1
Black Experience
Community