Name: Behind the Moon: An Evening with Playwright and Novelist Anosh Irani
Start: 2025-03-18T18:30:00-07:00
End: 2025-03-18T20:00:00-07:00
Location: Vancouver Public Library

Behind the Moon: An Evening with Playwright and Novelist Anosh Irani

Anosh Irani is a playwright and novelist who was born in Bombay/Mumbai, India. In 2023 Irani was awarded the Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award that recognizes a “mid-career writer in recognition of a remarkable body of work, and in anticipation of future contributions to Canadian literature.”
His newest play Behind the Moon is a story of love and loss, freedom and faith, the meaning of brotherhood, and how we begin a new life. In a Mughlai restaurant in Toronto, a late-night visit from a mysterious stranger rattles the cage and shatters the peace. Now the restaurant's employee Ayub must face reality, the family he’s left behind, and the dreams he’s abandoned, all while keeping the restaurant shiningly clean.
Anosh will be in conversation with Lois Anderson, Artistic Director at Touchstone Theatre for a delightful evening around the playwriting process and the Canadian theatre scene.
Anosh Irani has published four critically acclaimed novels: The Cripple and His Talismans (2004), a national bestseller; The Song of Kahunsha (2006), which was an international bestseller and shortlisted for Canada Reads and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize; Dahanu Road (2010), which was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize; and The Parcel (2016), which was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. His short stories have appeared in Granta and the Los Angeles Review of Books. His nonfiction has been published in the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the Guardian, and the New York Times. His work has been translated into eleven languages, and he teaches fiction and playwriting in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.
In 2023 Irani was the recipient of the Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award. His latest play, Behind the Moon (2023), was a finalist for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play.
Lois Anderson is the Artistic Director of Touchstone Theatre, and an Adjunct Professor at UBC in the Department of Theatre and Film. She won the Jessie Award for Best Direction (Pericles, Bard on the Beach) and the 2019 Critic’s Choice Award for Innovation (Lysistrata). She has worked extensively in Canada and Australia and has been an artistic associate with The National Arts Centre most recently directingYou Used to Call Me Marie by Tai Amy Grauman. Her directing credits include Henry V, Taming of the Shrew (Bard on the Beach), Medea, Timothy Findley's The Wars, Iphigenia at Aulis, CHILDISH, Gertrude and Alice, and The Graduate, My Granny the Goldfish, Buffoon, Fun Home (Arts Club). With Quelemia Sparrow she co-wrote Lysistrata and Camas Lilies, winning the Nathan Cohen Award for Outstanding Critical Essay.
In partnership with Touchstone Theatre.
---
Please register. Registration is not required to attend, but it helps us anticipate attendance and send a reminder the day before the event, or any updates about this program.
*This event takes place in the Montalbano Family Theatre on Level 8 at Central Branch. Take the main elevator to Level 8 and turn left twice, the theatre is on the left hand side.