Sequence (Second Edition)

By Arun Lakra

• Sequence continues to get new productions and university class studies since it premiered in 2013.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press
• Release date: Mar 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9780369100740

Arun Lakra

Arun Lakra has three jobs. Writer. Doctor. Dad. He hoped one of them would be easy. (He was wrong.) In addition to his work as a playwright, Arun has written a book on laser eye surgery, a supernatural thriller screenplay, a song to protest the demotion of Pluto (unsuccessful), and his share of illegible prescriptions. He has also written and directed an award-​winning short film, Probability, based on his play Sequence. Arun lives in Calgary, Alberta, with his wife and two kids, and divides his work week between his creative endeavours and his ophthalmology practice. You can find out more at www.arunlakra.com or follow him @arunlakraOU.

Book preview

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Winner of the

2014

Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama

Winner of the

2013

Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding New Play

Winner of the

2013/2014

Woodward/Newman Drama Award

Winner of the

2013

Calgary Theatre Critics Award for Best New Script

Winner of the

2011

Grand Prize in the Alberta Playwriting Competition

Finalist for the

2012

STAGE International Script Competition

Longlisted for the

2014

James Tait Black Prize for Drama

"Sequence is a smart, funny, fast-paced play on the nature of luck and love that will leave both your head and your heart spinning."

— Vern Thiessen, award-winning author of Vimy

"Lakra’s writing style is a little bit Aaron Sorkin . . . a little bit David Mamet . . . and a whole lot of Tom Stoppard . . . all coming at you like a cavalcade of playwriting’s greatest hits over the past three decades. Sequence balances smart and heart."

— Stephen Hunt, Calgary Herald

"A thought-provoking drama . . . The central metaphor of the life-determining coin toss, and the combination of brainy concepts with acerbic wit, conjure Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. If you like brainy plays that challenge you to keep up and give you lots to pick apart afterwards, grab some clever friends and get along to this one."

— Karen Fricker, Toronto Star

"Sequence is about as intellectually stimulating as it gets . . . The story represents a seismic shift in staging while entertainingly challenging the validity of faith and science. Playwright Arun Lakra has everything to gain and nothing to lose in this smartly calculated and humorously winsome presentation, pleasing miracle loyalists, probability theorists, and the serendipitous deficient."

— TorontoStage.com

Delightful, philosophically-engaging, and inventive.

— Megan Mooney, Mooney on Theatre

"Lakra’s quick-witted script is often funny . . . this dynamic experiment in narrative is worth the ride. Sequence is a modern, intellectually-stimulating piece that sparks conversation."

— Lauren Gillett, Theatromania

"Absolutely one of the most dynamic and intriguing shows I’ve seen this year . . . Sequence doesn’t underestimate the audience’s ability to intelligently engage with the notion of luck and coincidence . . . This play challenges the audience with smart dialogue about complex ideas . . . The entertaining results will give you much to think and talk about long after the play is done . . . It will be one of the most interesting and well-conceived shows you’ve had the pleasure of seeing."

— Jessica Goldman, CBC Radio

Witty, intelligent, and remarkably funny.

— Doris Lynch, Bloomington Herald-Times

An intellectual Rubik’s cube that challenges us to consider some of our most profound questions in a search for some kind of alignment.

— Colin MacLean, Edmonton Sun

Lakra’s script is elegantly written and refuses to spoon-feed the audience.

— Mel Priestley, Vue Weekly

A dazzling high-wire act . . . A play and a playwright that deserve to find international acclaim.

— Louis B. Hobson, Calgary Sun

"So often the answer to a play or story is predictable, hidden obvious in the text as the tale unfolds. Here, as the stories twist and twirl, as parallels emerge and cross each other, the solution seems reachable, even evident, and yet unknowable. [Sequence] climaxes in a moment that bursts the heart, conjures infinity. It answers its questions in a way that is loud and immediate, satisfying and yet unexpected."

— Cathy DeDe, Glens Falls Chronicle

"There’s something exotically sexy about a psychological thriller . . . [In] the best of the best, the ones I remember long after the curtain falls, the ones I long to see again and again, it’s in the final seconds that I discover I am wrong. Completely wrong. I had nothing figured out. To me, that’s total brilliance. I got a taste of such genius in Arun Lakra’s new play, Sequence. I want to see it again. Actually, I need to see it again. I can’t stop thinking about the final fifteen minutes. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been in love with intelligent, complicated and ominous psychological thrillers. The ones that give me chills and make me jump at the slightest provocation for days afterward . . . Sequence does not disappoint."

— Kathleen Phalen-Tomaselli, The Post-Star

Sequence

Arun Lakra

Playwrights Canada Press

Toronto

Sequence ©

2014

by Arun Lakra

First edition: March

2014

. Second edition: March

2020

.

Cover design by Sidekick Creative

Diagrams by Jeff Kulak

Playwrights Canada Press

202

-

269

Richmond St. W., Toronto,

ON

M5V

1X1

416.703.0013

:: [e-mail] :: www.playwrightscanada.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, downloaded, or used in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except for excerpts in a review or by a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca.

For professional or amateur production rights, please contact:

Michael Petrasek at Kensington Literary Representation

34

St. Andrew Street, Toronto, ON M

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T

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K

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[e-mail]

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Sequence / Arun Lakra.

Names: Lakra, Arun,

1966

- author.

Description: Second edition.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print)

2020018220

X | Canadiana (ebook)

20200182218

| ISBN

9780369100726

(softcover) | ISBN

9780369100733

(PDF) | ISBN

9780369100740

(EPUB) | ISBN

9780369100757

(Kindle)

Subjects: LCGFT: Drama.

Classification: LCC PS

8623

.A

4246

S

46

2020

| DDC C

812

/.

6

 — dc

23

Playwrights Canada Press acknowledges that we operate on land, which, for thousands of years, has been the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Wendat, Anishinaabe, Métis, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Today, this meeting place is home to many Indigenous peoples from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work and play here.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts — which last year invested $

153

million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country — the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), Ontario Creates, and the Government of