Published Works

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

https://on.soundcloud.com/uC4VXTcqm8bALYkXA

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.

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

Visit Website:
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.

Visit Website:
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

Visit Website:
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

Visit Website:
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.

Visit Website:
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.

Visit Website:
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.

Visit Website:
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.

Other Plays

The King of Nothing
A Trilogy
The story of the real Shakespeare, Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford. A cheeky, dark irreverent view of life in Shakespearean England. Tragical Comical

Click here for more info

Fire in the Heart
2 act play
The story of Armenian-born American artist, Arshile Gorky and his demons. A play about what it is to be an artist.
Cast requirements: 4 Men and 3 Women (with doubling)

Click here for more info

Flotsam
2 act play
A satirical sex farce set on a cruise ship. Sarah, a romantic young woman goes on a cruise looking for her Big Romance. Marta, a cynical older woman goes on the same cruise, hoping to find her husband. So she can kill him.
Cast requirements: 4 Men, 4 Women (with doubling)

Click here for more info

Jehanne of the Witches
2 act play
Christianity vs. Paganism provides the backdrop for this play-within-a-play centering on the relationship between Joan of Arc and the reputed mass murderer, Gilles de Rais (Bluebeard).

Click here for more info

The Widow Judith
2 act play
A retelling of the Bible story of Judith and her victory against the Assyrian general, Holofernes. A dark comedy about globalization.
Cast requirements: 5 Women and 4 Men (with doubling)

Click here for more info

Ten Ways to Abuse an Old Woman
1 act play
A black-hearted look at the relationship between a woman and her elderly mother.

Click here for more info

Trial of a Ladies Man
1 act play
Four women get revenge on the “Ladies Man.”

Click here for more info


Literary representation

Michael Petrasek
Kensington Literary Representation
34 St. Andrew St
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
M5T 1K6
(416-848-9648)

kensingtonlit@rogers.com