Daniel MacIvor’s How It Works introduces us to four unforgettable people: Al, his ex-wife Donna, his new partner Christine, and his troubled daughter Brooke. Brilliantly weaving past and present, the play illuminates these four lives as they come to terms with their own stories.
“As far as I can figure, the way that it works is this: everyone has something that happened to them. The thing that we each carry. And you can see it in people, if you look. See it in the way someone walks, in the way someone takes a compliment, sometimes you can just see it in someone’s eyes, in one moment, of desperation, of fear, in one quick moment you can see that thing that happened. Everyone has it. The thing that keeps you up at night, or makes you not trust people, or stops love. The thing that hurts. And to stop it, to stop the hurt you have to turn it into a story. And not just a story you play over and over for yourself, but a story that you tell. A story’s not a story unless you tell it. And once you tell it, it’s not yours anymore. You give it away. And once you give it away it’s not something that hurts you anymore, it’s something that helps everyone who hears it. It’s the kind of thing that’s hard to explain. It’s probably best if we just show you how it works.” –From How It Works
News & Reviews
“… a spiritual experience as MacIvor invokes the power of storytelling to heal broken lives.” —Chronicle Herald
About the Author
Daniel MacIvor was born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He is the author and director of numerous award-winning theatre productions including See Bob Run, Wild Abandon, 2-2-Tango, This Is A Play, The Soldier Dreams, Are Here, How It Works, A Beautiful View, Communion, and Bingo! From 1987 to 2007 with Sherrie Johnson he ran da da kamera, a respected international touring company that brought his work to Australia, the UK and extensively throughout the US and Canada. With long time collaborator Daniel Brooks, he created the solo performances House, Here Lies Henry, Monster, Cul-de-sac, and This Is What Happens Next. Daniel won a GLAAD Award and a Village Voice Obie Award in 2002 for his play In On It, which was presented at PS 122 in New York. In 2006, Daniel received the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama for his collection of plays I Still Love You. In 2008, he was awarded the prestigious Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. His screenplays include Trigger and Weirdos.
