Speaking with Governor General Award-winning playwright Erin Shields this past week about three shows she will have treading the boards in Toronto over the next few months remains a personal and educational highlight.
She is highly optimistic about the future of the Canadian theatre industry and says it will be bright. Ironically, as there is a move towards the digital and AI world, Erin believes people and audiences are craving experiences and embracing opportunities to be in communion with others anywhere, without (and then she points to hers, and I retrieve mine) a cellphone, as we wait for the beginning of a live story.
Here are her three plays that will open right up to June:
You, Always (a new play) is part of Canadian Stage’s New Work Development Program. It opens January 31, 2026. Directed by Andrea Donaldson, the production features Maev Beaty and Liisa Repo-Martell.
Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary opens in a world premiere at Crow’s Theatre on April 7, 2026. Directed by Ellen McDougall, the production features Michelle Monteith, Nancy Palk, Sabryn Rock, Amaka Umeh, and Belinda Corpuz.
Medusa opens June 16, 2026, at Soulpepper Theatre in collaboration with Outside the March. Directed by Mitchell Cushman, the world premiere production features Oyin Oladejo in the title role.
Erin says she’s feeling really good about where she is with the production of her plays right now. She’s taking the entire process day by day. She’s deep into rehearsals for You, Always. She adds, “This play is with dear old friends (Maev and Liisa). I feel like I’m starting off in a really good, safe place.”
Her website states that her work highlights the negation or misrepresentation of women in classical texts by adapting these stories through a feminist lens for a contemporary audience. Erin was more than pleased to say how this statement connects to all three of her upcoming plays.
You, Always is the furthest from this statement because it’s a personal story for her. Shields has three sisters. They’re very close and have impacted each other’s lives throughout their time together. The play’s premise is a deep dive into what it means to have a sister or close siblings. She adds:
“It’s like when you get in argument with one of your adult siblings, you’re teenagers all over again, wrestling for the remote control. Or if you’re in your twenties trying to shape your life.”
The play goes from one scene to the next in a sort of constellation, so you’re getting a 360-degree view of a relationship over fifty years.
Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary is about all the Marys in the New Testament. Her spark to write this play? Erin finds it funny how all the women in the New Testament are all named Mary. Shields grew up Anglican, so she and I are right beside each other (me as a Roman Catholic). When she went to church with her family as a child, Erin was always fascinated by the stories of the Old and New Testaments. Once again, she adds:
“How radical it was actually to have all these men and women travelling together at that time and examining the role of the women in that three-year period leading up to the death and Resurrection of Christ…the play becomes a story of how to conceptualize oneself as a member of a group and then what happens when that’s over.”
Medusa is the most misrepresented character, according to Erin, maybe of all of them. She’s a horrible monster.
The staging of Medusa is clever. In the first half, set in classical times, the audience will wear headphones. While Medusa does not have serpents growing out of her head as of yet, the idea is to have the audience wear headphones to hear the snakes’ inner voices as she goes about her day. Erin says, “That is going to be quite the theatrical experience to watch.” The second half of the play is completely different and set in contemporary time in a rage room, a place where to go and destroy things to dissipate rage.
Medusa and Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary were written during the COVID-19 pandemic, without a home in mind. Erin wanted to keep going during that long hiatus and survive internally. She’s grateful the plays have already found homes, while You, Always was commissioned by Canadian Stage. Erin pitched the idea of the play to them and wrote it in conversation with the company.
Shields says all three of these plays are theatrical in various ways, which was fun to try different types of writing and work with completely different directors to create three very different theatrical experiences:
“It’s not just the stories that are very different, it’s the mode of theatricality. The language of the pieces is very different so that’s what very exciting about doing three plays back to back.”
She then says what I’ve always believed all of us should do:
“Explore and take risks.”
Erin believes it’s essential for the playwright to sit in on the rehearsal process as the script is still in development, particularly in the first two weeks of rehearsal. The script changes quite a bit during rehearsal, even right up to previews:
“Once actors and directors get in there [the script] and filter it through their own artistic craft, they’re really vying for the story and the inner journey of the character. It’s like having many editors saying Oh, yeah, that’s not right…I’m going to tweak that.”
When the play reaches the stage where it’s presented in front of an audience, the creative team also learns a lot about how they interact with it, and that’s a whole other ballgame. Shields has been very happy with how rehearsals for You, Always have gone. The actors and creative team are now into their third week. She ran into a dressing game for our conversation. I could tell where she was, as there was a makeup table behind her. While the actors in You, Always are stellar, Erin says that director Andrea Donaldson is amazing.
The ultimate antidote for Erin in this time of change and upheaval is to be in a theatre to laugh and escape, which is a really great reason to attend. It’s also fine to go in and think deeply about something.
As You, Always approaches its opening, she says, “For me, [the play] deals with deep, personal connections to other people, whether that’s through siblings, parents, partners, spouses or friends in our lives. Despite whatever’s going on in politics and the world, we’re all trying to negotiate the things in life that happen, the highs and lows.”
Is the play going to make audiences cry?
Erin says with a smile:
“I’m going to make you cry, and I’m going to make you laugh.”
To learn more about Erin Shields, visit her website: erinshields.ca. To purchase tickets for her upcoming productions, visit crowstheatre.com, https://www.soulpepper.ca/ and canadianstage.com.
