Don’t miss Jewel, the one woman play by award winning Canadian Playwright Joan MacLeod, at this years Ottawa Fringe Festival. Let it Land Theatre, the producers of the 2000 Fringe festival smash hit The Drowning Girls, present Joan MacLeod’s bittersweet and humorous story of love and loss. Performances are at the Arts Court Library (2 Daly Avenue) on June 16th at 11:00 pm (Special Fringe 2 for 1 Opening Night Performance), June 17th at 4:00 pm, June 18th at 9:00 pm, June 22nd at 6:00 pm, June 23rd and 24th at 8:00 pm. 

      It was Valentine’s Day, 1982 when the Ocean Ranger was hit by a terrible storm. Eighty-four men perished off the coast of Newfoundland and countless hearts were broken. Jewel, based on this real-life catastrophe, places us in Fort St. John, three years after the terrible event. Marjorie Clifford (Chantale Plante), an Ocean Ranger widow, is awakening to the world that memories and a dead husband have kept her from. It’s a heart-warming reflection of love and letting go set against a woman's struggle to reconnect. Can she remain faithful to a memory as the realities of life and sensuality collide? Directed by Maureen Smith, Jewel is a Valentine to the human spirit. 

      Joan MacLeod's play, Jewel premiered at the Tarragon in 1987, was nominated for both the Chalmers and Dora Awards and was subsequently produced for radio in English, French, German, Danish, and Swedish. Her other plays include Homechild, The Shape Of A Girl, 2000, Little Sister, The Hope Slide, Amigo's Blue Guitar, and Toronto, Mississippi. She also wrote the libretto for The Secret Garden and has written several scripts for C.B.C. television. She has won several awards including the Governor General's Award for Drama, two Chalmers' Canadian Play Awards, the Jessie Richardson Award, Betty Mitchell Award and Dora Mavor Moore Award. For seven seasons she was a playwright-in-residence at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. The Shape Of A Girl has been touring since its premiere in 2001 and has been translated into six languages. Joan lives with her family in Victoria B.C. and is an Assistant Professor of Writing at the University of Victoria. 

      Tickets are $10 and are available at the door at the Arts Court Theatre Box Office, 2 Daly Avenue. Advanced tickets may also be purchased in person between June 1 and June 15th, at the Fringe Festival Office. For more information, call (613) 744-6908.