David Fennario

David William Fennario (born David Wiper, 26 April 1947 – 16 September 2023) was a Canadian playwright, best known for Balconville, his bilingual dramatization of life in working-class Montreal, for which he won the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award. A committed Marxist, Fennario was a candidate for the Union des forces progressistes in 2003 and for Québec solidaire in 2007. He has been the subject of two National Film Board of Canada documentaries, David Fennario's Banana Boots and Fennario: His World On Stage.

His pen name, "Fennario," given to him by a former girlfriend, is from a Bob Dylan song, "Pretty Peggy-O."

Fennario died on 16 September 2023, at the age of 76.

Works

Without a Parachute (1972) (journals) On the Job (1976) (play) Nothing to Lose (1977) (play) Balconville (1979) (play) Joe Beef (1984) (play; based on the life and times of Joe Beef) Doctor Thomas Neill Cream (1988) (play) The Murder of Susan Parr (1989) (play) The Death of René Lévesque (1991) (play) Gargoyles (1997) (play) Banana Boots (1998) (play) Condoville (2005) (play) Bolsheviki (2010) (play) Motherhouse (2014) (play)

Electoral record