Saint Francis of Esplanade
Subtitle: a play
By: by Sonja A. Skarstedt.
Edition: First
Publisher: Empyreal Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Montreal
Language: eng
Format: Paper
Number of pages: 112
First sentence: Curtain rises on the interior of a typical Montreal rooming house of the 1980s. Dark wooden claustrophobic walls and floors predominate; the walls are slightly askew, as if the building itself is off-center.
Description: Sixty-two year-old Francis Amable is a born-again Catholic. His thirty-three year old neighbour Lazarus Fricker is a nightclub tripper. Francis considers it his god-given duty to reform all sinners. Lazarus, considers it his sacred right to convert everyone to his own brutally-honest perspective. These two opposites conduct their daily verbal battles within the confines of an Esplanade Street rooming house. Between boisterous, warm-hearted Marguerite Feuille, former janitor's ghost, and homophobic neighbour George Parko, the situation reels from one extreme to the next. 
Notes: I finally had a chance to read SAINT FRANCIS OF ESPLANADE and was very impressed with its literary quality and dramatic intensity. It reads well and kept my interest; the stagecraft is very effective — even things like George's threatened violence and the late-arriving ticket to Australia are the kinds of complications that keep the audience/reader on his or her toes; the characters are fully realized, and one can sympathize with and enter into their lives. The play is first rate. Its theme is intelligent and compelling. 

Peter Burnham, The Long Story