Alone in a cheap motel room in the back of beyond, a dazed bureaucrat fights the craving for a cigarette—his first since age 12. His clothes are charred and his face is covered in soot. Earlier tonight, he built a funeral pyre in the woods and laid his father’s body on it. Now he has to figure out why.
Keywords: smoking, arsonist, fire, fireworks
Production history includes Toronto Fringe (1997), Catalyst Theatre New Play Cabaret (1995), Seattle Fringe (1998), Franklin College, Indiana (2000), JCC Productions at Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs, Toronto (2004).
Genre: Drama
Acts: 1
Run time: 65 minutes
Suitable for students 14+
Cast size: 1 actor
One of NOW's 10 best plays of 1997: "A theatrical bonfire that crackles with wit and style, angular yet moving. A real and unexpected treasure." -- Jon Kaplan, NOW
"A morbid, pensive but wonderfully evocative one-man show ostensibly about addictions—to simple truths, complicated lies and primal family bonds—that seep through our bodily and emotional systems like smoke through lungs." -- Kamal Al-Solaylee, Globe and Mail
"This taut one-hander supports the adage that where there’s smoke, there’s fire." -- Vit Wagner, Toronto Star