• View Cart
  • $17.95

    ISBN: 9780889224698 | Paperback

    128 pages | Pub. Date: 20020915
    6.00 W × 9.00 H × 0.35 D inches
    Backlist | Drama | Bisac: DRA013000
    Rights: WORLD

    Or find Halo in your local bookstore

When an image of Jesus appears on the side of a Tim Hortons restaurant in Nately, Nova Scotia, life is forever changed. The town’s inhabitants are challenged to ask difficult questions about faith, life and love with sometimes moving, sometimes hilarious results. Complicating the matter, of course, are the more mundane questions of whether this appearance is a miracle, an accident or quite possibly even a hoax.

At the centre of this wickedly entertaining play resides the more existential and personal question of what has happened to our notion of meaning and ethics in the strip-mall culture of concrete and crass competition which has replaced a more pastoral and rural life of care for the earth, the cycle of the seasons and its festivals, and the blessings of renewal in the family. Has religion lost the ability to mediate these two conditions, or did it ever really have that power?

Halo is a brilliant examination of the need to believe and the power of forgiveness. Cast of three women and four men.

Short-listed 2004 Merritt Theatre Award for Best Play

Halo successfully melds faith, drama and honour...very funny and quite moving.”
—Halifax Daily News

Halo is theatre at its very best. There is not a false note in this high-wire act of comedy and tragedy with beautifully-written, believable characters who never lose their balance in script or performance. [MacDonald] is a writer to watch.”
—Chronicle Herald

“Brimming with humour and humanity, Halo retains a serious, poignant core that resonates deeply in a post 9/11 world. Beautifully constructed, it’s a homegrown work that’s slowly but surely establishing a North American-wide reputation.”
—HFX Entertainment Guide

“As gullible faith and hard-hearted defeatism collide in the face of a possible miracle, Canadian playwright Josh MacDonald’s warmhearted Halo finds its way to genuine moments of human reconciliation and acceptance.”
—Los Angeles Times

Halo is selling out most nights—a reflection on the true nature of miracles that is anything but pious.”
—Vancouver Sun

“Beguiling ... Josh MacDonald has crafted an emotionally rich tale. Halo is a fine example of why intimate barebones theatre can be the most rewarding theatre of all.”
—Edge Los Angeles

Halo is a very significant dramatic achievement of the last five years, and the best new play I’ve seen produced and published in that time. Halo ’s ongoing success across Canada bears witness to the fact that this play has touched a universal chord— its funny, yet challenging exploration of faith and small-town life marks it as a Maritime Our Town .”
Michael Melski, Playwright

By Josh MacDonald

Josh MacDonald is a playwright, screenwriter, actor and teacher. Published by Talonbooks, Halo, Whereverville and The Mystery Play are curriculum titles at Canadian high schools and / or universities.

Read more about Josh MacDonald


news | 2011-11-25
Fangtastic News for Josh MacDonald's The Corridor!

…the movie based on MacDonald’s play Halo – Faith, Fraud & Minimum Wage – is airing …


news | 2011-08-16
The Best Canadian Feature for Horror!

…Wage, the film version of MacDonald’s play Halo will be airing on The Movie Network, and will be …


news | 2011-02-22
Screening The Corridor in Halifax

…Minimum Wage, based upon MacDonald’s play Halo, is also available as a Canadian Film Circuit …


news | 2010-12-02
Nova Scotian Filmmaker Makes History at Workshop

…Wage, based on Josh MacDonald‘s play Halo, and starring Martha MacIsaac and Callum Keith …


news | 2010-11-12
Return of the Prodigal: Faith, Fraud & Minimum Wage

…The film version of Josh MacDonald‘s play Halo is returning to its Easterly origins at the start …


news | 2010-09-15
Donut Girl Sees Jesus!

…film adaptation of Josh MacDonald‘s play Halo will be screened at the following film festivals: …


news | 2010-07-19
A Good Sign for Faith Fraud & Minimum Wage

…based upon Josh MacDonald‘s original play Halo. The film features Martha MacIsaac (Superbad) as …


news | 2010-06-17
Halo Over Shanghai

…Based on his play Halo, Josh MacDonald‘s film Faith Fraud and …