Young Adult Fiction — Review

Matthew and Stephen

by Jean-Rock Gaudreault, translated by Linda Gaboriau
Playwrights Canada Press, 2005
ISBN 0-88754-764-8, $13.95, 52 pp, ages 10+
www.playwrightscanada.com

In this two-character play, Matthew and Stephen become friends when they meet on the street outside Stephen’s new home. Matthew is sick, and because of his sickness, everyone is afraid of him. He doesn’t go to school, and lives with his aunt and uncle because his mother is already dead from the sickness. Stephen is not afraid, and the two boys discuss life and death, sitting together on Matthew’s front steps, using their imaginations as they try to make sense of their world. With no trace of sentimentality, Matthew and Stephen face the inevitable difference in their lives—Matthew preparing to die, and Stephen looking forward to life.

Matthew and Stephen was awarded the Théâtre Jeunesse de Radio France prize. It has been staged 250 times in French throughout Canada, France and Belgium. The English-language production premiered in New York on Broadway, then went on to Philadelphia and Toronto.

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