Through the Eyes (Hardcover)

Through the Eyes is award-winning playwright Don Druicks acclaimed tour de force for a solo actor. Set in the Versailles of the Sun King, this play is the story of the great Italian artist, Gianlorenzo Berninis visit to France in 1665. The Italian finds himself in an opulent and dangerous world, bristling with cruelty and intrigue, tyrannized by passion and violence. Bernini is commissioned to carve a bust of the king; the resultant clash between these two great egos is fearsome to behold. Survival itself becomes a compelling issue.

Critical Comment

The script reveals Druicks verbal artistry: the evocation of the various characters and episodes is vivid; each interpolated character has its own rhythm; and the two-act piece is carefully constructed as a coherent whole through variations in pace and tone that are inscribed in the text.

U of T Quarterly, Winter 2006

Druicks play.... is a series of miniature scenes crackling with emotion and politics, created with tiny, subtle brush strokes.... Music and a sense of rhythm infuse his work.

Jon Kaplan, Now

.... one of Canadas finest playwrights....

Robert Crew, Toronto Star

You can.... almost smell the danger of the place.

Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail

From its very first moments, Druick conjures up the poisonous atmosphere of a world ruled by fear and rumour where truth is merely the whim of an absolute monarch.

Christopher Hoile, Eye

Druicks script is vivid and delicate, a sensitive and sensuous piece of writing alive with colour and texture, its images polished like marble until they gleam.

Jill Lawless, Now

The magic of Through The Eyes is that it captures the obscene opulence and the intricate, repressed relationships of the Court of Louis XIV... using only one actor and a bare stage.

Elisa Kukla, Eye