12-year-olds Cora and Debbie meet at a public speaking competition. They are not friends. They never will be. And yet, they’ll never be able to forget each other, and what they saw that day.
Set over a ten-year period, Cora and Debbie encounter each other at 12-, 17- and 22-years-old in an attempt to understand the circumstances under which they met and and its effect on their lives.
Part absurdist comedy, part mystery, Margaret Reid explores how we learn to talk about ourselves, the stories we choose to tell, and those we don't. Expect cue cards, a trophy and about six Little Debbie cakes.
Keywords: women, friendship, girls, public speaking, adolescence
Produced by Here For Now Theatre - Stratford, Ontario, July 2023
Cover art by Mark Uhre
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Mystery/Thriller/Farce
Acts: 1
Run time: 75 minutes
Suitable for students 16+
Content notes: There is one instance of swearing and references to death.
Cast size: 3 actors
Female roles: 3
Casting notes: The role of Margaret Reid must always be triple cast with Plumber and Barista.
"What’s real? Who can you trust? Do we create our own truth or are we at the mercy of the truth of others? Margaret Reid, Madeleine Brown’s anarchic, surrealistic, and meta-theatrical examination of these existential questions may not answer them, but she sure gives us a lot to ponder...Brown is clearly a serious playwright worth watching." —OntarioStage.com
"In Margaret Reid playwright Madeleine Brown has created a wild, absurdist comedy with a touch of unsettling mystery." - The Slotkin Letter
"Absurdist, bonkers-beautiful comedy/mystery. Margaret Reid takes all your lies and neuroses and hands them back to you." —John Doyle, formerly The Globe & Mail