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Helen's Necklace
by Carole Fréchette
Translation by John Murrell

Directed By Vanessa Porteous
Starring Elinor Holt
Set, Lights, and Costumes By Cimmeron Meyer

MAY 7 to 17, 2008

Pay-What-You-Can Preview May 7th, 2008
Opening Gala May 8th, 2008
8:00 p.m. curtain Tuesdays through Sundays nightly
2:00 p.m. matinee Saturdays & Sundays

Tickets $20, $15 Students/Seniors

Tickets available at www.pumphousetheatre.ca
or by calling 403-263-0079

Helen’s Necklace is a contemporary exploration of loss and hope, and - set in an unnamed Middle Eastern city - deals explicitly the western world’s indifference towards the plight of this tumultuous and war-ravaged territory. This is a poetic, hopeful and touching play about personal and cultural loss.

At its core, Helen’s Necklace examines the chaos of our contemporary world and human connection. Helen loses her necklace in a city very much like Beirut or Baghdad. The necklace is irreplaceable. As she searches for it she meets locals who have lost much more than she’ll ever know as a Canadian Woman. The city is a maze of danger and emotion, especially for Helen who just came to this city to attend a conference. Time and reality are slipping through her fingers.

As a modern parable on loss, this play will bring the complexities of the world we live in alive for our audience here in Calgary. A deceptively simple elegy, Helen's Necklace deftly and succinctly distills a slew of complex social and political conflicts into a series of concise, haunting scenes: topical, relevant, empowering, pensive, sad, conscience-ridden, uplifting, intimate and challenging.

“…Language as shimmering as the strand of pearls itself. Fréchette’s lyrical, nuanced text - sometimes dialogue, sometimes first-person narrative - keeps taking us layer by layer into the psyche of this superficially kind, unwittingly self-centered character.” - NOW Magazine Review

“If you’re looking for a piece of theatre that’s simple yet profound, then look no further than Tarragon Theatre and Helen’s Necklace." - Toronto Star Review

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