Posted October 21, 2026

The Interview – Colleen Murphy

Colleen, on October 2, you became a Member of the Order of Canada, which honours those who make extraordinary contributions to our nation. The citation reads, in part: “Colleen Murphy is a unique and fearless voice in Canadian theatre. A foremost playwright, she has worked across media, creating plays and operas, as well as writing and directing film. Her award-winning and ongoing body of work tackles difficult subjects and explores calamity in society. Committed to the future of playwriting and theatre, she is a stalwart supporter of young, emerging writers and women in the arts.” What does being invested into the Order of Canada mean to you?

Well, I’m a person that doesn’t like a lot of attention on myself, and you know, there are many, many wonderful playwrights. But it means, I guess, that I should keep writing plays. And it’s an honour!

What was the ceremony like? Can you walk us through the big day?

It was a wonderful ceremony. Louise Arbour is the new Governor General, and she is a great, great woman. I was reading her biography; not only was she working in Canada as a prosecutor, but she was working in the International Criminal Court. She prosecuted the first case of sexual harassment as a crime against humanity. So just being within two feet of her was quite a thrill. The other thrilling thing was that so many of the recipients were people in the medical sciences, math, business — people who had created things that had not been brought into existence before. People who had spent their lives chasing after one thing and finding it, something that everybody benefits from. I thought it was a very beautiful ceremony.

Were there any other recipients from the world of theatre?

There were two other theatre people: Toronto-based theatre director Richard Rose, and a Montreal-based woman whom I met there, Marcelle Dubois, who has been running an incredible theatre, Théâtre aux Écuries, developing a gazillion young playwrights and their plays. She was amazing to meet. It was nice that people who worked directly in the theatre were given attention.

In other news, Scirocco Drama published your powerful play Jupiter this month. Can you tell us a bit about Jupiter?

Jupiter is a family play that takes place in the living room in three different eras, spanning almost fifty years. And also, there’s a real dog in it. I set the play in in Alberta, and it’s about a working-class family, quite dysfunctional, and you know, lots of things happen. I come from a working-class family, and I feel like there are no more working-class characters on stages in Canada. You know, there’s so much lens on the middle class, and the upper class, or the lower-upper class, or the upper-middle class. So for me, it felt quite close to the bone to write this play. And yes, it is a dysfunctional family, but don’t tell me the rich aren’t, because they are. It was a joy to go into that world and explore this family and their dreams, and their hopes, and their despair — that, and their resilience.

You’re speaking to us today from Montreal, where you’re in rehearsal for the world premiere of a comedy called Holiday in Zurich, soon to open at the Centaur Theatre. What can you tell us about the play?

Brian Dooley is a very good colleague of mine. And for the last three years or so, he kept saying, “Colleen, write me a play.” I don’t write plays for actors. I can’t; it limits my imagination. But two months later, there’s Brian again, “Hey Coll, write me a play.” I kept saying “No, I don’t do that!” Then, another six months later: “Hey, Colleen, write me a play.” And then one morning I wake up, and I’m crawling to the kitchen to get the coffee going when I suddenly realize I’ve got a whole play in my head that’s unfolding, and I have to find a piece of paper and a pen to scribble it down! So I wrote it down, and I could barely read it. But that’s the play. It’s set in Montreal [where Brian Dooley lives] and everything. As I say to Brian sometimes in rehearsal, “I blame you!”

It’s a comedy, but it’s very poignant, because underneath, it’s about love and death. You know how we have the mask of comedy and the mask of tragedy? But you never see those two faces separately. You never see just the comic face, you always see them together. It’s my belief that comedy is closely attached to tragedy and vice versa. It’s not easy to write a comedy, though, you kind of have to let it free-flow.

And then working here in three dimensions, you realize the precision necessary for comedy. There’s a little more leeway in drama, I find. In comedy, the actor’s carrying the subterranean layer of the piece, but at the same time they have to land everything perfectly, like a violinist in an orchestra. It’s amazing to watch. But it’s very hard to do — and trust me, I’m not going to be running out and writing five comedies because that’s not in my head going forward. But it was a really interesting experience because once you start with the comedy, you can’t suddenly change it into a tragedy. You have to follow the characters, and they make us laugh because of what they’re doing (or not doing) and how they fumble about until finally it’s resolved.

Holiday in Zurich is about two characters, a couple, and we have two Montreal actors playing them, Danielle Desormeaux and Brian Dooley. Micheline Chevrier, who directed December Man and Pig Girl, is directing; I know her and we work together well. It’s been exciting but also nerve-wracking. A lot of playwrights don’t want to be in rehearsals all the time. But I believe, and I tell this to playwrights, “Look, it’s your premiere. This is your production. You have to be in the room, and you have to speak up.” I hear playwrights say, “Oh my God, I saw the play and I hate it. They got it all wrong!” Well, you, were you in the room? You know, it’s a collaborative art form. You’ve got to be in the room.