Overview

From the author of Bears comes two dark comedies that expose the effects of disturbing the natural order and what we're capable of when pushed to our breaking point. Set in the aftermath of the disaster that nearly destroyed Fort McMurray in 2016, After the Fire centres around two couples whose lives have been deeply affected by the ruin. Sisters Laura and Carmell have been channelling their devastation after the disaster into their daughters' hockey team . . . maybe a little too much. Their Indigenous oil-worker husbands Barry and Ty are fighting their own demons as they try to sort out how to move on, while digging a very big hole. In The Particulars, a week's worth of daily routines for an insomniac is disrupted by a mysterious home invasion. Gordon battles his invaders on two main fronts--in his home, where he believes he is dealing with vermin, and in his yard, where insects have taken over his garden. By day, Gordon forges ahead, in control of every aspect of his life. But by night, the scratching he has begun to hear in his walls is unravelling him, driving him to the edge of cosmic desperation. The sharp commentary in these two plays will shock and satisfy the temptation of taking matters into your own hands.

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After the Fire may have one of the greatest surprise endings ever in a Canadian play--and certainly has one of the most Canadian surprise endings ever to a play . . . It is also good writing that alters your perception of all of the characters, the state of their relationships--and maybe Fort McMurray as well. --The Globe and Mail [The Particulars is] smart, strange and stirring, in exactly the right ways. --The New York Times Moving and funny, audaciously strange . . . Suffice it to say that it's as if Martin McDonagh took up writing the kind of Canadian family plays where revealing dark secrets of the past usually tends to be the way forward. Basically, [After the Fire] blows that Canuck m.o. into smithereens, while slyly seducing us into feeling its embrace. --12thnight.ca The Particulars entices you with its details, but it's the exploration of life's biggest mysteries that will break your heart. --Toronto Star The writing [in The Particulars] stands on its own--I like how our narrator speaks of himself in third person--and MacKenzie effectively brings the cyclical smallness of a life to life. --Edmonton Journal

After the Fire may have one of the greatest surprise endings ever in a Canadian play--and certainly has one of the most Canadian surprise endings ever to a play . . . It is also good writing that alters your perception of all of the characters, the state of their relationships--and maybe Fort McMurray as well. --The Globe and Mail [The Particulars is] smart, strange and stirring, in exactly the right ways. --The New York Times Moving and funny, audaciously strange . . . Suffice it to say that it's as if Martin McDonagh took up writing the kind of Canadian family plays where revealing dark secrets of the past usually tends to be the way forward. Basically, [After the Fire] blows that Canuck m.o. into smithereens, while slyly seducing us into feeling its embrace. --12thnight.ca The Particulars entices you with its details, but it's the exploration of life's biggest mysteries that will break your heart. --Toronto Star The writing [in The Particulars] stands on its own--I like how our narrator speaks of himself in third person--and MacKenzie effectively brings the cyclical smallness of a life to life. --Edmonton Journal

""After the Fire may have one of the greatest surprise endings ever in a Canadian play--and certainly has one of the most Canadian surprise endings ever to a play . . . It is also good writing that alters your perception of all of the characters, the state of their relationships--and maybe Fort McMurray as well."" --The Globe and Mail ""[The Particulars is] smart, strange and stirring, in exactly the right ways."" --The New York Times ""Moving and funny, audaciously strange . . . Suffice it to say that it's as if Martin McDonagh took up writing the kind of Canadian family plays where revealing dark secrets of the past usually tends to be the way forward. Basically, [After the Fire] blows that Canuck m.o. into smithereens, while slyly seducing us into feeling its embrace."" --12thnight.ca ""The Particulars entices you with its details, but it's the exploration of life's biggest mysteries that will break your heart."" --Toronto Star ""The writing [in The Particulars] stands on its own--I like how our narrator speaks of himself in third person--and MacKenzie effectively brings the cyclical smallness of a life to life."" --Edmonton Journal

Author Information

A citizen of the Métis Nation of Alberta, Matthew MacKenzie is a multi-award-winning playwright from amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton). Artistic Director of Punctuate! Theatre, Matthew is the founder and Artistic Associate with Pyretic Productions and Canadian Liaison of the Liberian Dance Troupe. Matthew has had nearly a dozen of his works produced across Turtle Island.

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