This is the Cat is a deeply darkly humorous tale as shared by one Bridie Savage. Bridie is struggling to recover from a toothache of the heart "...always a Bridie, never a Bride..." when she loses her job. At a time when many of her friends are thinking about retiring Bridie finds herself trying to convince Walmart that they need a Playwright-in-Residence. Then her beloved Uncle Beeswax passes away and instead of finding money in the walls of his old homestead she finds she's carted away a pack of ghosts, both figurative and literal. One of her cats needs expensive allergy shots from the vet "...the cat creeps in on little fog feet the little frigger, cats are the original false advertising..." and the normally docile neighborhood is suddenly very popular with the local hookers. A series of mysterious and disruptive e-mails begin to turn up and Bridie begins to wonder about her state of mind. This intricate story weaves by turns comedic, heart-warming and sometimes heart-breaking voices, telling the intriguing saga of one life gone askew and asks if being askew isn't perhaps all right in the end. It examines the foibles and failures of memory and memories, throws comedic caution to the winds and makes the case that playing on-line Scrabble every morning helps to save the world.With "This is the Cat" Berni Stapleton embraces an intimate, humorous and provocative style evocative of the work that won her accolades for "They Let Down Baskets." Creative Book Publishing released this award-winning book in 1998. It combined the photographs of Jamie Lewis, a CD of a radio documentary from Chris Brookes, and the revealing journals of Berni. This intricate story weaves by turns comedic, heart-warming and sometimes heart-breaking voices, telling the intriguing saga of one life gone askew and asks if being askew isn't perhaps all right in the end.
Berni Stapleton is a Newfoundland- Labrador writer and performer of unique distinction. She is a past recipient of the WANL award for best work in non-fiction for her contribution to the book They Let Down Baskets. (Published by Creative Book Publishing and co-created with the esteemed Chris Brookes and Jamie Lewis.) Her short stories and essays have appeared in Riddle Fence and The Newfoundland Quarterly. She is a recent recipient of the Ambassador of Tourism award from Hospitality NL. Berni was the Artistic Director of the Grand Bank Regional Theatre Festival for 11 years on the south coast of Newfoundland and is credited with having built during her years there a flourishing theatre and tourist attraction. She has been a playwright-in- residence with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights' Workshop Montreal, Alberta Theatre Projects, CanStage, PARC and other national companies. Her plays are regularly produced across the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and she is currently working on several new works. "Brazil Square" is her homage to the iconic boarding house district of St. John's, NL and will be produced next year for Resource Centre for the Arts Theatre Company. For Rising Tide Theatre she is writing "The Margaret Duley Story" about the woman some might consider to be the Harper Lee of Newfoundland. "Our Fanny" is inspired by France Cluett, the World War 1 Nurse from Newfoundland who served overseas and is being produced in 2016 by Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador. She is celebrating 25 years as a playwright with the creation of a new one woman show called "The Remarkable Life of Clementine Parsons."
