The Selkie Wife (Scirocco Drama)

An ancient Celtic myth explodes in the centre of a modern Canadian family in this strikingly original drama by Kelley Jo Burke.

When Mary gets a surprise visit from her old friend Gen, we learn that Mary has a secret that could threaten her life with husband Cal and teenage daughter Brigit.

No ordinary secret, this. As it turns out, Mary is a “selkie”—a seal who sheds her skin to mate with a human male, then returns to the water with her offspring. But Mary, happy with Cal, decided to stay on land. And now, twenty years later, Gen has come to take her back into the water.

Accompanying Gen is Dylan, her vital young seal lover (in human form), whose animal attraction to Brigit is immediately evident. In a very short time, the ordinary world Mary has built is turned upside-down.

The situation is ripe for laughter, and there are moments of uproarious comedy throughout the play. But Burke’s themes are serious, and the questions her characters face go to very the essence of their lives; The Selkie Wife is a dramatic meditation about love and sex, about freedom and oppression, about making concessions and making choices.