Published Works

The King of Nothing- Podcast- Episode One by Adam Henderson and Sally Clark

A tragical comical epic about the life of Edward de Vere, secret son of Queen Elizabeth I… and also her lover. But if he’s writing a play about a romance with the Queen it might be best to use a pen name, something bold like Spear Shaker. Now if he can just prove he’s Royal – he will then be Divine – and none of this will be a sin.

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https://on.soundcloud.com/QJFWS

Life Without Instruction

2 act Play
Based on a true story and a real trial.
Artemesia Gentileschi’s father, the late-Renaissance painter Orazio Gentileschi, takes the unusual step of having his daughter trained in painting under the instruction of his friend, AgostinoTassi. Tassi rapes Artemesia, and is taken to trial. A revenge comedy.

“Like most good playwrights, Sally Clark doesn’t offer any one answer, but rather asks interesting questions. What is the nature of respect in any relationship? Is telling half the truth a whole lie? Is it in the nature of art to deceive? If one has the ability to respond, and one does not, is this then irresponsibility?”
— Duncan McIntosh

“Sally Clark’s great talents as a playwright are her seemingly effortless ability to shift from light to dark and her finely tuned understanding of life’s rich ambiguities.”
— Toronto Star

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https://talonbooks.com/books/life-without-instruction

Lost Souls and Missing Persons

2 act play

A housewife and mother goes missing while on holiday in New York City. As her husband searches for her, she becomes a gibberish-speaking street person. Flashbacks of her past alternate with scenes from her present. Tragical comical.

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https://talonbooks.com/books/lost-souls-and-missing-persons

MOO

2 act play

Winner of Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Play

When the feisty and rebellious Moragh (Moo) meets the intriguing Harry, she decides nothing will ever separate them… and Harry has been running ever since. MOO is an unconventional comedy about love and obsession.

“… very droll and very funny play … one of the highlights of the Toronto theatre season.”
—Globe and Mail

“Moo bristles with ferocious energy.”
—Victoria Times Colonist

“… well written, laced with black humour and filled with a host of sharply drawn characters.”
—Toronto Star

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https://www.talonbooks.com/books/moo

Saint Frances of Hollywood

2 act play

Her star rising as a Hollywood diva, Frances Farmer refuses to be ‘just another pretty face’ and champions Socialist causes. This raucous, non-conforming movie star was pursued by the government for her alleged communist connections and finally incarcerated in a Seattle psychiatric hospital. Comical Tragical.

“It is this mix of fact and fantasy that Clark has captured so brilliantly and used to striking advantage … the effect is brutally chilling.”
—Variety

“A searing tragedy …”
—Toronto Star

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https://talonbooks.com/books/saint-frances-of-hollywood

The Trial of Judith K.

2 act play

Nominated for Dora Mavor Moore Award and Governor General’s Award for Best Play

Roughly based on The Trial by Franz Kafka, this black comedy transforms the lead character into a modern business woman

, Judith K. who finds herself accused of an unknown crime. The more she delves into the bureaucratic nightmare, the more her world unravels and the more she is entangled in the increasingly obscure process of the trial.

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https://talonbooks.com/books/the-trial-of-judith-k

Wanted

2 act play

It is 1897, and word of gold on the Klondike has spurred a frantic rush of miners to cash in on the riches. But by the time the prospectors arrive, all the claims have been staked. Desperation sets in over the landscape and people will do literally anything to survive.

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https://www.talonbooks.com/books/wanted

WASPs

2 act play

Val McIntosh, a sane sensible librarian marries in haste and repents at leisure. A drawing room farce for distempered times.

WASPs is one of those plays where the whole is quite literally much greater than the sum of its parts—so much so that it becomes, in retrospect, the subject of the play, “what the play is about,” and that doesn’t hit you until youare half-way home after a fun evening of bizarre, exotic, and hilarious entertainment.

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https://www.talonbooks.com/books/wasps

Waiting for the Revolution

It’s the summer of 1974. Straight-laced Jay doesn’t like beer, doesn’t do drugs, and finds the whole hip revolutionary concept a little convoluted. She’s an artist, but her realistic outlook and painting don’t fit in with the art scene. It comes as no surprise that when she follows her high school crush from Victoria to the University of Toronto, expecting to fall in love, she is instead overwhelmed by throngs of hippies, judgmental art teachers, and boy-crazy sorority girls. With freewheeling attitudes towards sex and love swirling around her, Jay could not possibly be more confused about where she stands in the grand scheme of things. Sally

Clark’s novel perfectly captures a sexual and social revolution that was not all it was cracked up to be.

Published by Cormorant Books in 2010.