Almighty Voice and His Wife, Second Edition (Playwrights Canada Press 2009) IBSN 978-0-88754-897-0
The play shakes up a familiar story from the Saskatchewan frontier, reimagining it from the postmodern late twentieth century. The 'renegade Indian story' transforms into both an eloquent tale of tragic love and an often hilarious, fully theatrical exorcism of the hurts of history. A modern classic about the place of First Nations people in Canada.
Kyotopolis, a play in two acts (Exile Editions 2008) ISBN 978-1-55096-116-4
Daniel creates a darkly comic, consistently theatrical fantasia about the ways we communicate and the future of the Native identity in the Global Village.
A Song of the Tall Grass, a play in one act, pages 89 - 133, Exile, the Literary Quarterly, Volume 31, No. 2, Toronto, On., Autumn 2007.
A Song of the Tall Grass, a 'bright tragedy', retells and expands an old Lakota ghost story, using a contemporary First Nation a capella singing style with roots in powwow, jazz and spirituals, to find healing for the wounds our wild hearts cause us.
Almighty Voice and His Wife (Playwrights Canada Press 2001) ISBN 0-88754-604-8
A young Cree couple woo and wed, but it’s 1885, the generation after the Riel Rebellion. It’s hard for any Indian to live happily ever after, unless one goes into show business. A retelling of historic incidents to create a play about the place of Native People in Canada.
Coyote City and City of Shadows: Necropolitei, two plays (Imago Press 2000) ISBN 0-96975551-1Coyote City, a play haunted by myth, unravels the love story of Lena and Johnny. Lena, at home in the bush, receives a call from Johnny who asks her to come to him in the city - and she agrees. There is only one problem: Johnny has been dead for six months. Coyote City was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama 1991.
City of Shadows is a play of voices, haunted by love, a theatrical séance that calls up the spirits of a half dozen urban Indians, including Lena and Johnny, to revisit the scenes of their happiness. In the process, they come back home.
Original painting used for production poster image 'Class Concious/Unconcious', oil on prepared paper, 17 3/4 x 24 1/4 inches, c.Eric Ladelpha 1990
Brebeuf’s Ghost, a tale of horror in three acts (Exile Editions 2000) ISBN 1-55096-529-8 1649 brings bad news to Lake Nipissing - the Iroquois are on the warpath, killing Christians at Sainte Marie. Guess who’s going to be next? The shaman’s worried about cannibals, the Black Robe about the fires of hell - worlds collide in this rich and strange epic of early Canada. (also available at Playwrights Guild of Canada)
Big Buck City, A Play in Two Acts (Exile Editions 1998) ISBN 1-55096-244-2‘In this dark comedy, a house is possessed by the spirit of the season, but for the Bucks it does not look like Christmas. In Big Buck City Canadian native playwright, Daniel David Moses, skewers salvation, family, greed and even plumbing - all of which come together (or is it apart?) as the Bucks seek to become upwardly mobile in the city.’ (available at Playwrights Guild of Canada)
The Witch of Niagara, a confabulation in one act, copyscript (Playwrights Union of Canada 1998) ISBN 1-55173-969-0
‘There’s a sickness in the village, one the old trader promises to cure, if he can marry her, that sickly girl no one else wants. Will she say yes or head her canoe over the Falls into the arms of the Thunderer, the Iroquois god of cloud and rain? A retelling of the story of the Maid of the Mist.’
Brebeuf’s Ghost, copyscript (Playwrights Union of Canada 1996)
1649 brings bad news to Lake Nipissing - the Iroquois are on the warpath, killing Christians at Sainte Marie. Guess who’s going to be next? The shaman’s worried about cannibals, the Black Robe about the fires of hell - worlds collide in this rich and strange epic of early Canada.
The Indian Medicine Shows, composed of the plays The Moon and Dead Indians and Angel of the Medicine Show, traces the journey one young settler makes to and across the spiritual divide of American frontier. In the first play, a mysterious stranger (modeled after Billy the Kid) arrives at a farmhouse in the foothills, bringing music and unwelcome memories to a lonely widow and her son. In the second play, the performers in a medicine show, including an Indian, get run out of town and are left to search for healing and safety in the wilderness. The New Mexico territory of these syphilitic westerns is haunted by the ghosts of Indians, anguished desire and failed dreams.
Theatre critic review of The Indian Medicine Shows:
Kate Taylor, The Globe and Mail’s theatre critic wrote that Moses is ‘a coroner of the theatre who slices open the human heart to reveal the fear, hatred and love that have eaten away at it. His dark play….can leave its audience shaking with emotion.’
ISBN 1-55096-036-9
The Globe and Mail’s Top 10 Theatre productions awarded #7 to The Indian Medicine Shows (Theatre Passe Muraille) in 1996.
| Read excerpts from The Indian Medicine Shows: | |
Excerpt from The Moon and Dead Indians. |
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City of Shadows, copyscript (Playwrights Union of Canada 1995) ISBN 1-55155-200-9
City of Shadows is a play of voices, haunted by love, a theatrical séance that calls up the spirits of a half dozen urban Indians, including Lena and Johnny, to revisit the scenes of their happiness. In the process, they come home again.
Kyotopolis, copyscript (Playwrights Union of Canada 1993) ISBN 1-55155-201-7
Who was that young woman we saw riding the space shuttle last night, riding it right into orbit - and the obituaries? An Indian Princess? A New Age Shamaness? Or just little Babe Fisher? Even her family isn’t sure anymore. A gently satiric fantasia about the ways we communicate and the future of Native identity in the Global Village.
Almighty Voice and His Wife: A Play in Two Acts, (Williams-Wallace Publishers 1992) Out of Print
Belle Fille de l’Aurore (The Dreaming Beauty - French) copyscript, (Playwrights Union of Canada 1991) IBSN 1-55155-719-3
Animal, vegetable, mineral and human spirits people this Iroquoian spin on the themes of the Sleeping Beauty. An allegory of the rebirth of Native cultures. The French version of The Dreaming Beauty.
Big Buck City, copyscript (Playwrights Union of Canada) ISBN 1-55155-049-0
A house is possessed by the spirit of the season, but to the Bucks it finally doesn’t look much like Christmas. A Native family meets city life in a farce that rides right off the edge.
Coyote City, A Play in Two Acts (Williams-Wallace Publishers 1990) ISBN 0-88795-0-90-6 Out of Print (Reprinted with City of Shadows by Imago Press 2000)
Nominated for Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama 1991
Ronald Bryden, professor at the University of Toronto’s Graduate Centre for Drama, reviewed the short-listed plays for the Governor General Awards. Referring to Coyote City, he wrote, ‘I’ve read nothing that coveys so powerfully how Canada and the future look to the young native men and women who choose the company of their own dead in preference to life in a society with no place or role for them. Should Coyote City win the Governor-General’s Award, you are bound to hear wiseacres say knowingly that it’s a timely political choice. Don’t listen. Hit them, or tip over their rocking chairs. It’s not just the best Canadian play I’ve read this year, but the best for several years.’ (Books/Literary Supplement)
The Dreaming Beauty, copyscript, (Playwrights Union of Canada 1990) ISBN 1-55155-149-7
Animal, vegetable, mineral and human spirits people this Iroquoian spin on the themes of the Sleeping Beauty. An allegory of the rebirth of Native cultures.
Coyote City, copyscript, (Playwrights Union of Canada) ISBN 1-55155-107-01
A ghost, a Coyote story and impossible love impel a reserve family into the depths of the city and the Silver Dollar bar. Moving, funny and mysterious.
The Dreaming Beauty, (Impulse magazine Vol.15 Number 3, pg. 18-41 1989)
Animal, vegetable, mineral and human spirits people this Iroquoian spin on the themes of the Sleeping Beauty. An allegory of the rebirth of Native cultures.