An event like Ottawa’s Extremely Short Play Festival can often be variable in its pickings, and you must be prepared for the possibility of disappointment with some entries. On the plus side, the very nature of this event carries the promise that the disappointment will be short-lived as one 10-minute play gives way to another which may prove more compelling

A further plus factor — and the more important one — is the simple pleasure of discovery, which in the current edition of the festival can be applied even to those pieces which don’t quite make it. But, of course, the greatest pleasure lies in an encounter with an item like Pierre Brault’s Coach Of The Year, a beautifully realized play which zeroes in on an issue of growing concern — sexual abuse of young athletes by their coaches. Brault provides further evidence here that his mastery extends beyond the creation of one-man shows for himself. With this play, his fresh and unsettling insight into a sadly familiar theme is further bolstered by sterling performances from Brian K. Stewart as the coach whose appalling past is catching up with him, and from an anguished Eric Craig as a former victim now consumed by a pathetic need. …

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