Brad Fraser

Brad Fraser (born June 28, 1959) is a Canadian playwright. He is one of the most widely produced Canadian playwrights both in Canada and internationally. His plays typically feature a harsh yet comical view of contemporary life in Canada, including frank depictions of sexuality, drug use and violence.

Career

Fraser was born in Edmonton, Alberta. His most noted early play was Wolf Boy; first staged in Edmonton in 1981, its 1984 production in Toronto by Theatre Passe Muraille was later noted as one of the first significant acting roles for Keanu Reeves.

Fraser first came to national and international prominence as a playwright with Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love, an episodically structured play about a group of thirtysomethings trying to find their way through life in Edmonton, while the city is haunted by a serial killer. Written while Fraser was playwright in residence with Alberta Theatre Projects, it was a hit at ATP's '89, and became his national and international breakthrough.

Coming three years after the 1991 Robert Mapplethorpe controversy in Cincinnati, Poor Super Man inspired international headlines when the board of directors of Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati temporarily cancelled the production because of its anticipated obscenity. After a public outcry, the production was reinstated. Poor Super Man opened without incident.

Fraser also has written two films, Love and Human Remains and Leaving Metropolis, which were both adaptations of his plays; Denys Arcand directed Love and Human Remains, while Leaving Metropolis was Fraser's debut as a film director. He has also written for the television series Queer as Folk; As of 2021, two film adaptations of Kill Me Now were in development in Canada and South Korea.

A memoir by Brad Fraser, All the Rage, was published by Doubleday Canada in May 2021.

He is a two-time winner of the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award, in 1991 for Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love and in 1996 for Poor Super Man. He won the Genie Award for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 15th Genie Awards for Love and Human Remains.

Fraser won London's Evening Standard Award for Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love in 1993.

He is a two-time nominee for the Governor General's Award for English-language drama, receiving nods at the 1995 Governor General's Awards for Poor Super Man and at the 2016 Governor General's Awards for Kill Me Now.

Personal life Fraser is openly gay, and his plays often focus on LGBTQ storylines.

Plays Wolfboy - 1981 Chainsaw Love - 1985 Young Art - 1987 Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love - 1989 Prom Night of the Living Dead - 1991, with Darrin Hagen Poor Super Man - 1994 Outrageous - 2000, musical with composer Joey Miller Snake in Fridge - 2000 Cold Meat Party - 2003 True Love Lies - 2009 5 @ 50 - 2011 Kill Me Now - 2014