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Morris Panych

Playwright, actor and director Morris Panych has been described as “a man for all seasons in Canadian theatre.” He has appeared in over fifty theatre productions and in numerous television and film roles. He has directed over thirty theatre productions and written over a dozen plays that have been translated and produced throughout the world. He has twice won the Governor General’s Award and has won the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award fourteen times for acting and directing. He has also been nominated six times for Toronto’s Dora Mavor Moore Award and three times for the Chalmers Award.

The 2009 Off-Broadway production of his play Vigil opened to rave reviews. Under the title Auntie & Me, Vigil was also produced in London in 2003–04; and in French at Théâtre La Bruyère in Paris in 2005; and his classic 7 Stories ranks 9th among the ten best selling plays in Canada, outselling the Coles version of Romeo & Juliet.
For more information on the work and career of Morris Panych, visit his website.

April 2013 : Girl in the Goldfish Bowl Down Under!

April 2013 : Can Hardly Wait For Vigil!

March 2013 : The Ends of the Earth at Vertigo Mystery Theatre!

December 2012 : Announcing Modern Canadian Plays, Volume Two, Fifth Edition

November 2012 : Hibernate With In Absentia, Seeds, and Billy Bishop Goes to War Redux!

November 2012 : Lawrence & Holloman Starts Filming!

October 2012 : Dalhousie Welcomes The Ends of the Earth

October 2012 : The Scottish Play! Or Italian Opera! Or Whatever!

June 2012 : Wanderlust Hits Stratford in June

June 2012 : Vigil Comes to PAL Vancouver

March 2012 : Vigil is at Montreal's Segal Theatre

March 2012 : Chalk It Up to City Hall‬!

January 2012 : Jillian Fargey In Absentia

April 2011 : The Trespassers Finds Realism in the Absurd

March 2011 : Gordon and Paradise Garden Have Arrived!

March 2011 : Talon Drama at the 2011 Quontas!

February 2011 : Welcome to the World of Morris Panych

January 2011 : The Ends of the Earth - That's in the Belfry

January 2011 : The Trespassers - That's in the Belfry

October 2010 : Soulpepper Is Nothing to Sneeze At

September 2010 : Back to The Ends of the Earth

BOOK AWARDS

Winner of the 1996 Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Play or Musical (Arts Club Theatre)

BOOK AWARDS

Finalist for the 2007 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama

BOOK AWARDS

Winner of the 2002 Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Play or Musical: Large Theatre (Gateway Theatre)

Winner of the 2003 Dora Mavor Moore Award General Theatre: Outstanding New Play (Tarragon Theatre)

Winner of the 2004 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama

BOOK AWARDS

Winner of the 1994 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama

BOOK AWARDS

Finalist for the 2005 Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Play (Arts Club Theatre)

Finalist for the 2005 Jessie Richardson Award for Sydney Risk Award for Outstanding Original Play

QUOTES OF NOTE

“This mystery story is a powerful meditation on the nature of lost love and grief, depicting a woman whose dire circumstances force her into deep contemplation of her marriage.”
– McGill Daily

“As heavy as it sounds and affecting as it is, [the play] has an uplifting vibrancy coming from an embracing narrative … While the story deals with profound loss, it’s much more about the redemptive power of love than the difficult process of grief.”
– Sacramento Bee

QUOTES OF NOTE

“A small masterpiece.”
—Globe & Mail

“A devilishly funny play [that] laughs in death’s face.”
—Maclean’s

“This is one of those rare, liberating plays that actually breaks a taboo. [Panych] gives voice to the silent thoughts that hover around many death-beds.”
—National Post

“literate, incisive, edgy and lots of good, naughty fun.”
—Syracuse New Times

“…It causes us to think about, and perhaps appreciate in a new light, all the small things in life that ultimately define the relationships that matter most.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

QUOTES OF NOTE

"That’s the thing about Panych. He makes you laugh about the oddest things,
at the strangest moments, sometimes leaving you feeling guilty at being so
amused by the pathetic or the macabre … a riveting production of a brilliant
new play by one of Canada’s top playwrights." — Montreal Gazette

"With crackling dialogue that recalls the muscular work of David Mamet, Gordon is a play about masculinity and power. Its characters inhabit a messy moral landscape where the only way out might just be to destroy each other." — The Vancouver Sun

“A beautifully dark and chillingly funny exploration of … the implications of bringing children into this world.” —Segal Centre for the Performing Arts

“Bitter but often bitingly funny … On full display is Panych’s knack for crisp, smart dialogue.” — Globe & Mail

“A dark yet humorous family drama that is both explosive and tender.” —Hour.ca

QUOTES OF NOTE

“Full of juicy epigrams and insights that linger.”
— Globe & Mail

“…a cause for celebration…”
— Toronto Star

“With The Trespassers, Panych has crafted the theatrical equivalent of Johnny Cash’s final output—a melancholic, darkly humorous and wrenchingly beautiful portrait of life, death, love and family.”
— Waterloo Record

“You can see why audiences would take to this family tale of an emotionally volatile fifteen-year-old and his cantankerous—and terminally ill—grandfather who haltingly prepares the youth for life … It’s bittersweet but not terribly so, and Panych’s meaty dialogue is smoothly handled.”
— Associated Press

“Charming and, this being Panych, funny.”
— National Post

“ The Trespassers has everything going for it, and is very good entertainment indeed.”
— scenechanges.com

QUOTES OF NOTE

“A summer without a deviceful staging by dauntless extrasensory Morris Panych is … wrong.”
— Torontostage.com

QUOTES OF NOTE

“No one can make total strangers engage quite like Morris Panych can. He does so by allowing the characters to open up to their enigmatic past in clear, natural, flowing streams of consciousness. His character drawing has never been stronger, his dialogue stringing never more kooky and laconic.”

— Torontostage.com

“…a leathal mixture of black humour and social observation. When it comes to sparkling, erudite, bitchy dialogue, Panych, as a playwright, has few equals.”

— Toronto Star

QUOTES OF NOTE

“Morris Panych is … neurotic, intemperate, ambitious, talented, funny, feared, beloved … and altogether impossible to ignore.”

— Toronto Life

“Panych neatly balances existential questions with funny dialogue and pleasingly absurd characters.”

— Canadian Literature

QUOTES OF NOTE

“This microcosm of society at large is a brilliant and fascinating portrait of class as it exists at every level, even the relatively invisible.”

— Curled up with a Good Book

“A big existential present lovingly packaged in grease and suds… An anti-holiday antidote for those who take their humour black.”

— Hour

“A brilliant extended metaphor for the way our society works. The dialogue is by turns quizzical, snide, sarcastic, defiant and servilely accommodating.”

— John Simon, _Bloomberg News_

“Morris Panych’s dark comedy The Dishwashers is reminiscent of a Samuel Beckett work, complete with existential philosophizing and dialogue that prompts wince-inducing laughter.”

— Patrick Lee, _Theatermania_

QUOTES OF NOTE

“Arguably Morris Panych’s best play to date.”
— Canadian Literature

“An uncommon, quirky blend of humour and compassion … ”
— National Post

QUOTES OF NOTE

A superbly mounted Panych attack.
— National Post