In 1978, Alan, a Jamaican man, was killed in his Toronto home by police. And for the women in his life – his widow, daughter, and mother – the memory of the event still reverberates, fresh and raw. Winner of the 2011 Griffin Poetry Prize and NAC Playwright in Residence, Dionne Brand evoked this heartbreaking experience based on her lyrical poem, thirsty. Her gripping adaptation for the stage, presented at Canada’s National Arts Centre, adds a new dimension to this story of loss, suffering, and abandonment, revealing the scars left on the family and society. Cultural confrontation turns into tragedy, captured in the victim’s dying word: “thirsty”.
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