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The story of a teenage girl who has an incurable case of head lice while her mother is dying of cancer

Émilie Cormier; Photo by Jeremie Battaglia (La Petite Lilicorne)
Scratch

Scratch

By Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman

Being a teenager is hard enough, but add to the mix a persistent case of head-lice, raging hormones, and a terminally ill mother, and it becomes impossible. When fifteen-year-old Anna is told that her mother is dying of cancer, she responds in the only way she knows how—by ignoring the issue. Friends and family are unable to understand her reaction and Anna is increasingly frustrated by their attempts to help her, escalated of course by her persistent itching. Told by Anna with assistance from her best friend, father, aunt, and her dying mother, Scratch is a fresh, funny, and realistic play about the urgency of life and the need to live it to the fullest extent.

Production History

Scratch opened Factory Theatre’s 2008/2009 season (Dir. Ahdri Zhina Mandiela).

Published by Playwrights Canada Press, 2010.

Translated into French and directed by Sebastian David and presented at La Licorne (2014).

Produced in Vancouver 2015 (Dir. Genevieve Fleming, Theatre Plexus).

Produced in Newfoundland, Off-Broadway Players (2017).

Ran at Isabel Bader Studio Theatre, produced by 5th Company Lane at Queen’s University, Kingston, ON (2018).

Produced by King’s Theatrical Society, running at the Pit at the University of King’s College, Halifax, NS (2018).

Awards

  • Winner of the 2007 Herman Voaden Award

  • Nominated for a Dora Award in the category of Outstanding New Play in 2009

  • Nominated for the Governor General's Award for English-language drama at the 2010 Governor General's Awards

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