The Passage of Sono Nis

collected plays by J. Michael Yates

Synopsis

The plays for stage, radio, and television of J. Michael Yates have entertained people around the world, including the Middle East and Asia, for forty years. They have been produced or mounted by CBC, BBC, Radio-diffusion France, Radiotelevisione Italia, Romania Râdio Cultural, Nippon Hoso Kyokai, NRK (Oslo), Sveriges Radio (Stockholm), DR (Copenhagen), Westdeutscherrundfunk (Köln), Sarländische Rundfunk (Saarbrücken), Senderfreies (Berlin), Norddeutscher Rundfunk (Hamburg), Süddeutscher Rundfunk, ALMO (Antwerpen), Algemeene Vereeniging Radio Omroep (Amsterdam), mounted by Factory Lab Theatre, Memorial Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, and the Scarborough Players.

Some of the plays have been published in book form, such as Night Freight, The Net, Search for the Tse Tse Fly, The Calling, and Quarks. Others have been published in magazines – Performing Arts in Canada, The Fiddlehead, Mundus Artium, and Harper's. Most of these are one-act plays; they are not only compared to Beckett, Albee, and Pinter, but they are most often mounted or produced with these writers. The Passage of Sono Nis: Collected Plays by J. Michael Yates is his thirty-second book.

Excerpt

HE: You say while we're in bed together, I'm thinking of the telephone.

SHE: Isn't it true?

HE: Perhaps... sometimes.

SHE: Of course it's true.

HE: Then why do you want me to come back to bed?

SHE: Put the phone down and come to bed.

HE: But does it ever occur to you that sometimes while I'm on the telephone, I think of being in bed with you? (In to phone) Forgive me, I have these lapses... distractions come and I'm so susceptible. I started to say: we men find expression so difficult. We don't trust words. We begin with magnificent intentions of honesty, but something happens, you know? Always we must turn to words when, that is, even though, we don't believe in them. As soon as we've said a sentence, we're astounded that we've said it. Or perhaps we're fascinated by the shapes of words and their sounds. Before we know it, we're changing the arrangement of the sentence. Finally, the sentence is beautiful, but... it bears no relation to what we so honestly wished to say.

SHE: What must I do to coax you back to bed? (Moving to the side of the bed nearest the telephone)

HE: Believe me, I want to come to bed.

SHE: Then come.

HE: I can't.

SHE: Why?

HE: The telephone wire isn't long enough. (She begins to cry) Please don't do that, you know I can't stand it when you do that, it closes a door between us. Why are you crying?

"Beside the plays of Yates, those of Beckett, Pinter, and Albee pale to insignificance."
– Saskatoon Star-Phoenix

About the Author

After ten years of living near the Coast Mountain trail-heads in Squamish, BC, J. Michael Yates returned to Vancouver and spent the next ten years tutoring languages, literature, and history of ideas with his wife, Hongyun, and sons, Myron and Kavan.

He continues to teach and has formed an international team to reinvent book publishing and promotion. He functions as Senior Editor of Libros Libertad which is owned by the writer wizard, Manolis Aligizakis.

Mikey Yates has been everything from a Distinguished Professor of Literature to a much commended SWAT-team member. Interspersed are jobs as a logger and a demolitions man in the Charlottes, motorcycle racer, and broadcast executive both for the CBC and private media in the United States. He is holder of two International Advertising awards and he rides an 1800cc metallic blue Gold wing.

More about J. Michael Yates

Praise

"Yates is a fiery comet blazing through the Stygian intellectual space of our existence."

– Doug Ramsey
world-renowned jazz critic

"This young writer, unlike most, is fearless in matters of dangerous themes and dialogue."

– Arthur Miller, judge,
Major Hopwood Award for Drama

"Dangerous minds investigate dangerous places in the mind. Most of your work lives in these places."

– Yehuda Amichai