Mansel Robinson


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Selected plays In alphabetical order by title: Bite the Hand Collateral Damage Colonial Tongues Downsizing Democracy Ghost Trains The Heart as It Lived Picking up Chekhov Scorched Ice Spitting Slag Street Wheat Trigger Happy To request a copy of any of these plays please contact the playwright directly by via email To inquire about performance rights for any of these plays please contact the playwright directly via email Bite the Hand by Mansel Robinson Style: Comedy Number of Acts: Full-length one act Length: 90 mins Total actors required: 4 Men: 2 Women: 2 Synopsis: Guns, drugs, booze, border patrols and dangerous women - just a normal road trip for two Saskatchewan writers. A satire about playwrights and critics. Based on a story by Mansel Robinson and R.P. MacIntyre. The Saskatoon Star Phoenix called Bite the Hand a "caustic, rule-breaking, highly inventive comedy ... it's like nothing you've ever seen ... a roiling writer's cauldron of wit, righteous indignation and audacious inspiration." Production History: Produced in October 2009 at Persephone Theatre, Saskatoon. Directed by Richard Wolfe. Return to list Collateral Damage by Mansel Robinson Style: Drama Number of Acts: Full-length one act Length: 90 mins Total actors required: 4 Men: 1 Women: 3 (one non-speaking) Synopsis: A young Canadian couple - he Anglo, she Francophone - are locked in cell for no easily discernable reason. They wake one night to find that another prisoner has been thrown in with them - someone even more powerless than they are. "Collateral Damage uses French, English and Other in an original way in an object lesson in the transmission of hostlity... a sanguine prognosis... " Edmonton Journal Production History: Collateral Damage premiered at Theatre Network, Edmonton, directed by Ben Henderson. It has been produced in Hamilton, Regina and Toronto. Return to list Colonial Tongues by Mansel Robinson Style: Drama Number of Acts: Two acts Catalog: Playwrights Canada Press Amateur rights: Playwrights Guild of Canada Total actors required: 5 Men: 3 Women: 2 Synopsis: I was on a train, heading back to Northern Ontario for a visit. About an hour from home, I looked out the window expecting to see the small lumber town of Kormak. But the town was gone, bulldozed under. I'd played hockey there, had friends who grew up there. Now, thanks to a simple business decsion, the town was gone. Years later, at a kitchen table in a ghost town, the Barnetts ask the questions I had started to ask on that train ride: about community and family; about those who fight to stay and those who can't wait to leave; about resistance and regret; about home. "... a highly original, literate and emotional portrayal ... remarkable writing ..." Saskatoon Star Phoenix "... seethes with rage ... the script's greatest strength is the way Robinson personalizes issues such as economic change and war ..." NeWest Review " ... a loving lament ..." Theatrum Magazine Production History: Colonial Tongues premiered at 25th Street Theatre in Saskatoon, starring Kent Allen, Sharon Bakker, Richard Hughes, Rob Roy and Michelle Wilsdon, directed by Rod MacIntyre. Subsequently produced at GCTC in Ottawa and Occassional Arts in Thunder Bay. Return to list Downsizing Democracy by Mansel Robinson Style: Historical Number of Acts: Two acts Total actors required: 1 man or woman Synopsis: "Capitalism is the conduct of war by civil means." Bill Thorsell, former editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail. Using this idea as a starting point, Downsizing Democracy explores the political world of debt and deficits, slash-and-burn social policy, neo-conservative rhetoric, class war - and the delightful wit and wisdom of Conrad Black. "... a genuinely radical experiment in conveying the here and now ... " Edmonton Journal Production History: Downsizing Democracy was commissioned by DD Kugler at Northern Light Theatre and premiered there in 1998, directed by Sandhano Schultz. Return to list Ghost Trains by Mansel Robinson Style: Musical Number of Acts: One act Catalog: Thistledown Press Amateur rights: Playwrights Guild of Canada Total actors required: 1 male - plus one musician (male or female) Synopsis: Ghost Trains is a country/roots cabaret: an ailing father, an outlaw son, the romance and the poety of the railroader's life - and death. With songs by Stewart MacDougall. "This play stinks - of grease, of diesel fuel, of a thousand miles of steel and memories. Dougie McCrae, train man, gives a eulogy for his dad and for trains in the bargain, and by the time he's done, you'll weep for both ... pure transcontinental magic ..." See Magazine Production History: Ghost Trains has played on the Fringe in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Edmonton, and was produced in Melfort by Last Exit Theatre. The CD, Ghost Trains: All of the Songs and Some of the Story, was released by Stewart MacDougall in 2003. Return to list The Heart As It Lived by Mansel Robinson Style: Drama Number of Acts: Two acts Catalog: Playwrights Canada Press Amateur rights: Playwrights Guild of Canada Total actors required: 5 Men: 3 Women: 2 Synopsis: Annie is a cranky, puritanical spinster who has never questioned the status quo - until the night her solitude is invaded by a charming young hustler named Zak who breaks into her house. When Annie discovers that Zak is the grandson of her estranged sister, she is forced to confront the events surrounding the Regina Riot of 1935 and face the consequences of decisions she made more than sixty years ago. "... as shocking as being doused with a bucket of cold water ... a distrubing piece of political theatre that pulls no punches ... Robinson offers some tender, loving moments, but they are in stark contrast to the hard edge and black comedy of much of the play ... bitter and tart tongued ..." Martin Morrow, Calgary Herald. Production History: The Heart As It Lived premiered at Alberta Theatre Projects in 1997 and has been produced in Edmonton, Kitchener, Sasktatoon and Prince Albert.. Return to list Picking up Chekhov by Mansel Robinson Style: Drama Number of Acts: Two Acts Length: 120 mins Total actors required: 9 Men: 4 Women: 5 (two young performers) Synopsis: Picking Up Chekhov is a picaresque black comedy about a two-bit repo-man, his angry ex-wife and their smart-alec teenaged daughter whose lives collide with an enigmatic hitchhiker named Chekhov and a kid with a serious grudge. “… Robinson steers his story with crazy confidence, keeping us in suspense with a mystery plot and in stitches with his oddball characters and witty, acerbic dialogue … his final message of understanding and reconciliation comes poignantly seeping through … exuberantly theatrical … ” Martin Morrow, FFWD Weekly “Robinson knows how to write like a fiend with no shortage of scorching lines, snippets of the sharpest dialogue I’ve heard since George F. Walker and a deep understanding of, among other dynamics, the father-daughter relationship.” Globe and Mail "A sharp and tightly written work … quirky and inspired black comedy … a steadily darkening combination of mystery and modern morality play …” Calgary Herald Production History: Picking Up Chekhov premiered at Alberta Theatre Projects Enbridge playRites Festival, January-March 2006 in Calgary. The play was developed at the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre, Alberta Theatre Projects, the Banff Playwrights Colony and the On The Verge Festival in Ottawa. Return to list Scorched Ice by Mansel Robinson Style: Drama Number of Acts: Full-length one act Length: 90 mins Total actors required: 5 (one non-speaking) Men: 3 (one boy) Women: 2 Synopsis: Scorched Ice is the coming of age story of a young girl under the threat of nuclear war. "... a story about three wars, and about every war. It's about one man, or any man, who has seen too much; and it's about a girl, or any teenager, who can not see hope for fear. Mansel Robinson's anti-war cry is another triumph from the Saskatchewan playwright of the brilliant Spitting Slag and Ghost Trains." Joanne Paulson, Saskatoon Star Phoenix Production History: Premiered at Last Exit Theatre in Saskatoon. Directed by Ben Henderson. Starring: Robert Benz, Skye Brandon, Jamie Lee Shebelski, Pam Bustin, and Aiden Searle. Return to list Spitting Slag by Mansel Robinson Style: Drama Number of Acts: One act Catalog: Thistledown Press Amateur rights: Playwrights Guild of Canada Total actors required: 1 male - plus one musician (male or female) Synopsis: A miner hunts for justice - or revenge - after the death of his son. With live music. "Spitting Slag is a gripping, intelligent, fierce and moving tale, beautifully performed (Robert Benz) and eloquently written - and one of the best pieces of theatre ever to hit the fringe. Ever. An amazing journey from hate to love, punctuated by sex and bad jokes and all the terrible mistakes made in every stratum of society." Joanne Paulson, Saskatoon Star Phoenix Production History: Spitting Slag premiered at Dancing Sky Theatre with Ian Black and Cam McConnell. The play was subsequently produced at the Winnipeg and Saskatoon Fringe Festivals with Robet Benz and Scott Triffo. Return to list Street Wheat by Mansel Robinson Style: Drama Number of Acts: Two acts Catalog: Coteau Books Amateur rights: Playwrights Guild of Canada Total actors required: 6 - plus one musician Men: 4 Women: 2 Synopsis: "Street Wheat is hard-hitting, left-leaning play with more than a few laughs depicting the struggle of a farm family to stay in business ... a highly effective cinematic quality ... a very good play ... when it's cooking you're practically in awe." Saskatoon Star Phoenix Production History: Street Wheat was commissioned by Dancing Sky Theatre, Mecham, Saskatchewan, and premiered there in 2001. The following year it toured Saskatchewan to sold-out houses. With songs by Rocky Lakner. Return to list Trigger Happy by Mansel Robinson Style: Comdey Number of Acts: Two acts Amateur rights: Playwrights Guild of Canada Total actors required: 6 Men: 4 Women: 2 Synopsis: Trigger Happy is a black comedy about gangsters, academics, God, a really pissed off waitress, a killer with carpal tunnel syndrome in this gunhand - and the motor-mouthed spin doctor who brings them all together. Production History: Trigger Happy has had three public readings: The 2007 SPC Spring Festival of New Plays; the Trans-Canada Reading Series at Factory Theatre in 2007; the Ten Days of Madness Theatre Festival at the University of Alberta in 2008. Return to list

Mansel Robinson has been writer in residence at the Berton House in Dawson City, the University of Windsor, Regina Public Library, and the Surrey Public Library. He lives in Saskatoon.

Selected plays
In alphabetical order by title:

Bite the Hand
Collateral Damage
Colonial Tongues
Downsizing Democracy
Ghost Trains
The Heart as It Lived
Picking up Chekhov
Scorched Ice
Spitting Slag
Street Wheat
Trigger Happy

To request a copy of any of these plays please contact the playwright directly by via email

To inquire about performance rights for any of these plays please contact the playwright directly via email

Bite the Hand
by Mansel Robinson

Style: Comedy
Number of Acts: Full-length one act
Length: 90 mins
Total actors required: 4
Men: 2
Women: 2

Synopsis:
Guns, drugs, booze, border patrols and dangerous women - just a normal road trip for two Saskatchewan writers. A satire about playwrights and critics. Based on a story by Mansel Robinson and R.P. MacIntyre.

The Saskatoon Star Phoenix called Bite the Hand a "caustic, rule-breaking, highly inventive comedy ... it's like nothing you've ever seen ... a roiling writer's cauldron of wit, righteous indignation and audacious inspiration."

Production History:
Produced in October 2009 at Persephone Theatre, Saskatoon. Directed by Richard Wolfe.

Return to list

Collateral Damage
by Mansel Robinson

Style: Drama
Number of Acts: Full-length one act
Length: 90 mins
Total actors required: 4
Men: 1
Women: 3 (one non-speaking)

Synopsis:
A young Canadian couple - he Anglo, she Francophone - are locked in cell for no easily discernable reason. They wake one night to find that another prisoner has been thrown in with them - someone even more powerless than they are.

"Collateral Damage uses French, English and Other in an original way in an object lesson in the transmission of hostlity... a sanguine prognosis... " Edmonton Journal

Production History:
Collateral Damage premiered at Theatre Network, Edmonton, directed by Ben Henderson. It has been produced in Hamilton, Regina and Toronto.

Return to list

Colonial Tongues
by Mansel Robinson

Style: Drama
Number of Acts: Two acts
Catalog: Playwrights Canada Press
Amateur rights: Playwrights Guild of Canada
Total actors required: 5
Men: 3
Women: 2

Synopsis:
I was on a train, heading back to Northern Ontario for a visit. About an hour from home, I looked out the window expecting to see the small lumber town of Kormak. But the town was gone, bulldozed under. I'd played hockey there, had friends who grew up there. Now, thanks to a simple business decsion, the town was gone. Years later, at a kitchen table in a ghost town, the Barnetts ask the questions I had started to ask on that train ride: about community and family; about those who fight to stay and those who can't wait to leave; about resistance and regret; about home.

"... a highly original, literate and emotional portrayal ... remarkable writing ..." Saskatoon Star Phoenix
"... seethes with rage ... the script's greatest strength is the way Robinson personalizes issues such as economic change and war ..." NeWest Review
" ... a loving lament ..." Theatrum Magazine

Production History:
Colonial Tongues premiered at 25th Street Theatre in Saskatoon, starring Kent Allen, Sharon Bakker, Richard Hughes, Rob Roy and Michelle Wilsdon, directed by Rod MacIntyre. Subsequently produced at GCTC in Ottawa and Occassional Arts in Thunder Bay.

Return to list

Downsizing Democracy
by Mansel Robinson

Style: Historical
Number of Acts: Two acts
Total actors required: 1 man or woman

Synopsis:
"Capitalism is the conduct of war by civil means." Bill Thorsell, former editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail.

Using this idea as a starting point, Downsizing Democracy explores the political world of debt and deficits, slash-and-burn social policy, neo-conservative rhetoric, class war - and the delightful wit and wisdom of Conrad Black.

"... a genuinely radical experiment in conveying the here and now ... " Edmonton Journal

Production History:
Downsizing Democracy was commissioned by DD Kugler at Northern Light Theatre and premiered there in 1998, directed by Sandhano Schultz.

Return to list

Ghost Trains
by Mansel Robinson

Style: Musical
Number of Acts: One act
Catalog: Thistledown Press
Amateur rights: Playwrights Guild of Canada
Total actors required: 1 male - plus one musician (male or female)

Synopsis:
Ghost Trains is a country/roots cabaret: an ailing father, an outlaw son, the romance and the poety of the railroader's life - and death. With songs by Stewart MacDougall.

"This play stinks - of grease, of diesel fuel, of a thousand miles of steel and memories. Dougie McCrae, train man, gives a eulogy for his dad and for trains in the bargain, and by the time he's done, you'll weep for both ... pure transcontinental magic ..." See Magazine

Production History:
Ghost Trains has played on the Fringe in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Edmonton, and was produced in Melfort by Last Exit Theatre. The CD, Ghost Trains: All of the Songs and Some of the Story, was released by Stewart MacDougall in 2003.

Return to list

The Heart As It Lived
by Mansel Robinson

Style: Drama
Number of Acts: Two acts
Catalog: Playwrights Canada Press
Amateur rights: Playwrights Guild of Canada
Total actors required: 5
Men: 3
Women: 2

Synopsis:
Annie is a cranky, puritanical spinster who has never questioned the status quo - until the night her solitude is invaded by a charming young hustler named Zak who breaks into her house. When Annie discovers that Zak is the grandson of her estranged sister, she is forced to confront the events surrounding the Regina Riot of 1935 and face the consequences of decisions she made more than sixty years ago.

"... as shocking as being doused with a bucket of cold water ... a distrubing piece of political theatre that pulls no punches ... Robinson offers some tender, loving moments, but they are in stark contrast to the hard edge and black comedy of much of the play ... bitter and tart tongued ..." Martin Morrow, Calgary Herald.

Production History:
The Heart As It Lived premiered at Alberta Theatre Projects in 1997 and has been produced in Edmonton, Kitchener, Sasktatoon and Prince Albert..

Return to list

Picking up Chekhov
by Mansel Robinson

Style: Drama
Number of Acts: Two Acts
Length: 120 mins
Total actors required: 9
Men: 4
Women: 5 (two young performers)

Synopsis:
Picking Up Chekhov is a picaresque black comedy about a two-bit repo-man, his angry ex-wife and their smart-alec teenaged daughter whose lives collide with an enigmatic hitchhiker named Chekhov and a kid with a serious grudge.

“… Robinson steers his story with crazy confidence, keeping us in suspense with a mystery plot and in stitches with his oddball characters and witty, acerbic dialogue … his final message of understanding and reconciliation comes poignantly seeping through … exuberantly theatrical … ” Martin Morrow, FFWD Weekly

“Robinson knows how to write like a fiend with no shortage of scorching lines, snippets of the sharpest dialogue I’ve heard since George F. Walker and a deep understanding of, among other dynamics, the father-daughter relationship.” Globe and Mail

"A sharp and tightly written work … quirky and inspired black comedy … a steadily darkening combination of mystery and modern morality play …” Calgary Herald

Production History:
Picking Up Chekhov premiered at Alberta Theatre Projects Enbridge playRites Festival, January-March 2006 in Calgary.
The play was developed at the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre, Alberta Theatre Projects, the Banff Playwrights Colony and the On The Verge Festival in Ottawa.

Return to list

Scorched Ice
by Mansel Robinson

Style: Drama
Number of Acts: Full-length one act
Length: 90 mins
Total actors required: 5 (one non-speaking)
Men: 3 (one boy)
Women: 2

Synopsis:
Scorched Ice is the coming of age story of a young girl under the threat of nuclear war.

"... a story about three wars, and about every war. It's about one man, or any man, who has seen too much; and it's about a girl, or any teenager, who can not see hope for fear. Mansel Robinson's anti-war cry is another triumph from the Saskatchewan playwright of the brilliant Spitting Slag and Ghost Trains." Joanne Paulson, Saskatoon Star Phoenix

Production History:
Premiered at Last Exit Theatre in Saskatoon.
Directed by Ben Henderson.
Starring: Robert Benz, Skye Brandon, Jamie Lee Shebelski, Pam Bustin, and Aiden Searle.

Return to list

Spitting Slag
by Mansel Robinson

Style: Drama
Number of Acts: One act
Catalog: Thistledown Press
Amateur rights: Playwrights Guild of Canada
Total actors required: 1 male - plus one musician (male or female)

Synopsis:
A miner hunts for justice - or revenge - after the death of his son. With live music.

"Spitting Slag is a gripping, intelligent, fierce and moving tale, beautifully performed (Robert Benz) and eloquently written - and one of the best pieces of theatre ever to hit the fringe. Ever. An amazing journey from hate to love, punctuated by sex and bad jokes and all the terrible mistakes made in every stratum of society." Joanne Paulson, Saskatoon Star Phoenix

Production History:
Spitting Slag premiered at Dancing Sky Theatre with Ian Black and Cam McConnell. The play was subsequently produced at the Winnipeg and Saskatoon Fringe Festivals with Robet Benz and Scott Triffo.

Return to list

Street Wheat
by Mansel Robinson

Style: Drama
Number of Acts: Two acts
Catalog: Coteau Books
Amateur rights: Playwrights Guild of Canada
Total actors required: 6 - plus one musician
Men: 4
Women: 2

Synopsis:
"Street Wheat is hard-hitting, left-leaning play with more than a few laughs depicting the struggle of a farm family to stay in business ... a highly effective cinematic quality ... a very good play ... when it's cooking you're practically in awe." Saskatoon Star Phoenix

Production History:
Street Wheat was commissioned by Dancing Sky Theatre, Mecham, Saskatchewan, and premiered there in 2001. The following year it toured Saskatchewan to sold-out houses.

With songs by Rocky Lakner.

Return to list

Trigger Happy
by Mansel Robinson

Style: Comdey
Number of Acts: Two acts
Amateur rights: Playwrights Guild of Canada
Total actors required: 6
Men: 4
Women: 2

Synopsis:
Trigger Happy is a black comedy about gangsters, academics, God, a really pissed off waitress, a killer with carpal tunnel syndrome in this gunhand - and the motor-mouthed spin doctor who brings them all together.

Production History:
Trigger Happy has had three public readings: The 2007 SPC Spring Festival of New Plays; the Trans-Canada Reading Series at Factory Theatre in 2007; the Ten Days of Madness Theatre Festival at the University of Alberta in 2008.

Return to list

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Mansel Robinson