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The Unnatural and Accidental Women

By Marie Clements

The Unnatural and Accidental Women is a surrealist dramatization of a thirty-year murder case involving many mysterious deaths in the “Skid Row” area of Vancouver. All the victims were found dead with a blood-alcohol reading far beyond safe levels, and all were last seen in the company of Gilbert Paul Jordan, who frequented the city’s bars preying on primarily middle-aged Native women. The coroner’s reports listed the cause of death of many of these women as “unnatural and accidental.”

Marie Clements reconstructs the lives of these women as shaped by lost connections—to loved ones, to the land, to a way of life—lives of at times desperate, at times tender yearning for ties of communication, belonging and shelter gone dead. These are precariously vulnerable lives, so easily drawn to their end by the heat and light of a flame, lives that thirst for an end of searching in forgetfulness.
Cast of 11 women and 2 men.

ISBN 13: 9780889225213 | ISBN 10: 889225214
5.5 W x 8.5 H inches | 128 pages
$17.95 CAN / $17.95 US
Rights: World
Backlist | Drama | Bisac: DRA013000

QUOTES OF NOTE

“Poetry, multi-media, inventive staging, and arresting choral works honour the women’s lives and seek empowering narratives beyond the victimizing tropes of the media.”
— Canadian Literature

AWARDS

Winner of the 1998 Jessie Richardson Award for The P.T.C. Award – Outstanding Original Play in Development

About the Contributors

Marie Clements is an award-winning Métis performer, playwright and director whose work has been presented on stages across Canada, the United States and Europe. A fellowship award from the BC Film Commission enabled her to develop the film adaptation of her stage play, The Unnatural and Accidental Women. She is also a regular contributor on CBC Radio. The world premiere of Copper Thunderbird is the first time Canada’s National Arts Centre has produced the work of a First Nations playwright on its main stage.

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