''Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love'' is a 1989

stage play A play is a work of drama, usually consisting mostly of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and intended for theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Reading (process), reading. The writer of a play is called a playwright. Pla ...

written by Canadian

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Brad Fraser Brad Fraser (born June 28, 1959 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian playwright, screenwriter and cultural commentator.Gaetan Charlebois and Anne Nothof"Fraser, Brad" ''Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia'', June 2, 2019. He is one of the most widely pr ...

. Set in

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchor ...

, the comedy-drama follows the lives of several sexually frustrated "thirty-somethings" who try to learn the meaning of love — during a time in which a

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

is terrorizing the city. ''Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love'' was published in 2006 by

Playwrights Canada Press Playwrights Canada Press is a Canadian publishing house founded in 1984 by the Playwrights Guild of Canada. It was incorporated in 2000 as an independent company. Notable books *''The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God'', Djanet Sears ( ...

as ''Love and Human Remains''.

Characters

Candy, a

heterosexual Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to ...

woman trying to meet the perfect man but who along the way finds herself experimenting with

lesbianism A lesbian is a homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with fema ...

; David, her

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

roommate, who no longer believes that love exists; Kane, a sexually confused teenager who idolizes David; Bernie, David's troubled best friend; Jerri, a lesbian who falls in love with Candy. Benita, a

prostitute Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

with

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...

abilities. Robert, a bartender who takes an interest in Candy Sal, a past friend of David's. An actor.

Plot

Using and subverting elements of various genres, including thriller, situation comedy and grade-B horror film, the piece is written with cynical humor, but is serious in tone. A group of friends, both old & new, live their lives in a Canadian Metropolis. David & Candy are two roommates looking for love, perhaps in the wrong places. Bernie is David's best friend. Kane is David's coworker. Jeri is a lesbian that Candy meets. Rick is a bartender, with a secret, who takes an interest in Candy. Benita is a psychic whose talents feature heavily in the last moments of the film. As the action happens around the group of friends, a

is making victims of various women in the city.

Production history

First presented by Alberta Theatre Projects at the playRites '89 Festival in

Calgary, Alberta Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Canadian Prairies, Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,30 ...

, ''Unidentified Human Remains'' was immediately controversial for its violence, nudity, frank dialogue, and sexual explicitness. It nevertheless received critical acclaim; it was named one of the 10 best plays of the year by ''

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

''. The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre's 1992 production starred

Erica Ehm Erica Miechowsky (born September 30, 1961), known professionally as Erica Ehm, is a Canadian writer, actor, songwriter, entrepreneur and TV host. She is best known as a pioneering video jockey at the Canadian cable television station MuchMusic. ...

as Benita and Derek Aasland as Kane. Over the next 15 years, productions in many languages have been mounted from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. In November 2004, a 15th anniversary revival of the piece took place in

Film adaptation

A film version, ''

Love and Human Remains ''Love and Human Remains'' is a 1993 Canadian film directed by Denys Arcand and based on Brad Fraser's stage play ''Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love''. Fraser also wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation. The film version ...

'', was released in 1993. {{DEFAULTSORT:Unidentified Human Remains And The True Nature Of Love Plays by Brad Fraser 1989 plays 1996 books Canadian LGBT-related plays Canadian plays adapted into films