Gertrude and Alice
QUEER COMEDY
Anna Chatterton forefront, Evalyn Parry in back, photo by Jeremy Mimnagh
“A genius is a genius is a genius.
Genius is not talent and genius is not success, genius is not pages: genius is genius, it is the way you see that is your genius so it does not matter whether you were not writing or you are not writing, it is neither here nor there: you were a genius, you are a genius, you will always be a genius. So in that case what is the question?”
Visiting the audience in the present day, Gertrude and Alice come to find out how history has treated them. The couple recounts stories of their forty-year relationship; of meetings with iconic artists and writers; and of Alice’s overwhelming, consuming devotion to Gertrude’s genius. Before they leave, they want to find out what has become of their artistic and cultural influence, and how their lives and work are—or are not—remembered.
QUEER COMEDY, 1 Act, 85 mins / Cast 2 women
Production History
Premiered at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Directed by Karin Randoja, 2016
Remounted at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 2018
Produced by the United Players, Directed by Lois Anderson, Vancouver 2024
Upcoming, produced by Western Gold Theatre, Fall 2025
Co-created by Anna Chatterton, Evalyn Parry and Karin Randoja
Written and performed by Anna Chatterton and Evalyn Parry
Buy the play: Gertrude and Alice
Awards And Reviews
Nominated, Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, 2018
Awarded, Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress: Anna Chatterton, 2016
– Globe and Mail, Kelly Nestruck
“Talent is talent is talent is talent, to echo Gertrude Stein’s well-known statement about a rose. You’ll find plenty of it, along with humour, satire and affection, in the Independent Aunties’ take on the lives and work of perhaps the best-known lesbian couple of the early 20th century, writer/thinker Gertrude Stein and her devoted partner, Alice B. Toklas. ”
—Jon Kaplan, NOW Magazine