Winner of the 2016 Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama

Finalist for the 2015 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama

“Exceptionally well written. The storytelling is intense, poignant, and exceptionally nuanced.” —Winna Tse, Charlebois Post

“Honest, revealing and darkly funny.” —BroadwayWorld

Iris Trimble is trying to hold it all together. She may very well fly off the face of the earth if she doesn’t hang on to the kitchen counter.

Iris Trimble is trying to hold it all together. She may very well fly off the face of the earth if she doesn’t hang on to the kitchen counter. At least that’s how she feels after her mother, Bernice, a lively, recently widowed fifty-nine-year-old breaks the news that she has Alzheimer’s. In an effort to cope with the stress, Iris makes her mother’s famous Everything That Is Bad For You Casserole, a childhood favourite. Her siblings, on the other hand, are on opposite sides of the spectrum: Sarah, the eldest, irately demands a second opinion, while Peter, the youngest, seems completely unfazed. As for Bernice, she’s still as vivacious as ever, always up for a good laugh, and, most of all, ready to finally put herself first.

The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble is about the tricky nature of family dynamics and the effects of mental illness seen through the eyes of a young woman who’s searching for her own feelings amidst the whirlwind emotions of her family.

Beth Graham was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and raised in Cochrane, Alberta. She is an actor and playwright who graduated from the University of Alberta’s BFA acting program in 1998. She is one of the co-creators of The Drowning Girls, a play that toured across Canada and continues to be produced nationally and internationally. The Drowning Girls was nominated for the Carol Bolt Award and received the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama. Beth lives in Edmonton with her husband Patrick and their twelve-pound Pomeranian cross, Oscar.