Tom Walmsley

Tom Walmsley (December 13, 1948 – April 17, 2025) was a Canadian playwright, novelist, poet and screenwriter.

After four years in Liverpool, Walmsley came to Canada with his family in 1952, and was raised in Oshawa, Ontario, and Lorraine, Quebec.

Walmsley's most recent play, The Nun's Vacation, "questions the relationship between actions and identities." It premiered in Toronto in 2012, starring Stephen Chambers, Glen Matthews, and Sandy Duarte.

Walmsley's style of writing ranges from the naturalistic to the poetic and, at times, the absurd. He moves easily between dramatic and comedic, and some of his "darkest" work is treated with a cutting sense of humour. His most common themes include sex (both hetero- and homosexual, often involving sado-masochistic fetishes, adulterous affairs, and, in the case of Blood, incest), violence, addiction (to alcohol and heroin in particular), and God (from a Christian perspective). He rarely deals with politics directly, although he openly displays a distaste for middle-class morality and social conservative interpretations of Christianity.

Walmsley died in Toronto on April 17, 2025, at the age of 76.

Plays

The Workingman, 1975 The Jones Boy, 1977 Something Red, 1978 White Boys, 1982 Getting Wrecked, 1985 Mr. Nice Guy (with Dolly Reisman), 1985 Maxine, 1995 (performance piece) Blood, 1995 Delirium, 2006 3 Squares a Day, 2006 Descent, 2006 The Nun's Vacation, 2012

Poetry Rabies, 1975 Lexington Hero, 1977 Sin, 2005 Honeymoon in Berlin, 2005 What Happened, 2007 Concrete Sky, 2009 Rich and Dead as Dogs, 2012 Sunday, Monday and Tuesday Weld, 2013

Novels Doctor Tin, 1979 Shades, 1992 Kid Stuff, 2004 Dog Eat Rat, 2009 (978-1-894469-42-5)

Screenplays Paris, France, 1993 Blood, 2004 (adaptation by Jerry Ciccoritti)

Libretto Julie Sits Waiting 2012