Teresa is sexy, seductive, and mentally challenged. Worshipped by her boyfriend, she turns tricks at $5, is addicted to Tim Hortons' doughnuts, lies without thinking, and overflows with endless kindness, but she continues to hold on to her limitless innocence. The Crackwalker captures the music, the dialect, and the unpretty realities of the inner city. First produced thirty years ago, Thompson's striking portrayal of the discarded class in Canada continues to move audiences today.
Judith Thompson is a two-time winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for White Biting Dog and The Other Side of the Dark. In 2006 she was invested as an Officer in the Order of Canada and in 2008 she was awarded the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her play Palace of the End. Judith is a professor of drama at the University of Guelph and lives with her husband and five children in Toronto.
"The Crackwalker's [characters] are mesmerizingly real. These people live with you."
"Exudes vitality."
"Judith Thompson has captured the corrosive imagery and exploding rhythms of life in Kingston's lower depths, where spiked heels are dangerous weapons and salvation is driving a cab in Calgary. Thompson so clearly demonstrates an ability to expose the deepest roots of the theatrical experience… its language and humanity make the play a minor masterpiece."