Ottawa's National Arts Centre is premiering Cape Breton playwright Bryden MacDonald's newest work, Divinity Bash/nine lives. The co-production by the NAC and Halifax's Neptune Theatre, is in Ottawa for a ten-day run, from January 27 to February 7.

MacDonald's is author of the award-winning, Whale Riding Weather,, one of the most critically acclaimed plays to come out of Canada's east coast in years.

The new Divinity Bash tells the story of Albert, who is definitely having a bad day.The man he hired as an assistant has succeeded in getting him fired, and in one swift corporate coup he's been tossed from the executive suite to man-on-the-street. Before he can even access his email, someone knocks him flat and steals his briefcase, laptop and cell phone. With the help of some unconventional new acquaintances, Albert adapts to his new lifestyle and plots his revenge.

The Halifax Herald raved about the play, calling it a "beautifully written, structurally powerful play, marked by MacDonald's signatures of passionate intensity, crackerjack definition, a well-timed chiseling at poetry with comic undercuts and a view of the world that can embrace Sable Island ponies as a metaphor for survival, Kraft Dinner, loveable quirks and the rough language of the streets."

The cast features some small theatre notables, including Tom Barnett, Caroline Gillis, Neil Hicks and Shawn Wright and Jordan Pettle (the latter made a splash at Stratford playing the Fool to William Hutt's King Lear.) Divinity Bash/nine lives is at the NAC from January 27 to February 7. For tickets call: 416 755-1111.

By Mira Friedlander
Canadian Correspondent