History
One of the most incredible stranger-than-fiction crime dramas ever to unfold on Canadian soil is about to invade Fredericton theatre stages. On April 3rd, 1989 New Brunswick police seized 1100 pounds of cocaine with a street value of $25 million dollars, and two Columbian pilots were arrested after their twin engine Commander 1000 plane crash-landed near an airstrip in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The men pleaded guilty to possession with the intent of trafficking charges and were sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Fiction
It’s 1989 in Fredericton, and the sky is full of salsa music and failing engines. A plane carrying millions of dollars of cocaine has crash-landed outside city limits, and powerful members of the Colombian Medellin drug cartel are locked up in York County jail. Two teenagers, two pot dealers, a government employee, and a young Stalin look-alike try to make it through the Medellin apocalypse, but the cartel members have a plan: to mess with everyone. Thoroughly.
Fact
Cocaine Plane! is an original Canadian two-act play written by local rising star Emily Bossé. Emily Bossé is a recent graduate of the MA in Creative Writing Program at UNB. She is the three time recipient of the David Adams Richards prize for prose. Her story Last Animal Standing on Gentleman’s Farm appeared in the 2014 spring edition of The Fiddlehead, and she is currently The Fiddlehead’s nominee for the 2015 Journey Prize. WHERE WERE YOU ON APRIL 3rd, 1989?
Cocaine Plane! | The Black Box Theatre | March 5 – 8, 2015 | 7:30PM | $15 Adults – $10 Students/Seniors
