HOLIDAY IN ZÜRICH
A tender and darkly funny portrait of a happily married couple in their 70’s on the brink of a jam-packed trip to Switzerland, where romance, mortality, and wildly different ideas about “one last adventure” collide at the edge of goodbye.
Event Times
November 4, 2026 - 8:00 pm
- A Adult $59
- A Senior $54
- A 35 & Under/Arts Worker $34
- B Adult $49
- B Senior $44
- B 35 & Under/Arts Worker $24
- All My Relations $15
WORLD PREMIERE · 2026 TOM HENDRY COMEDY AWARD FINALIST
By two-time Governor General’s Award winner and Member of the Order of Canada Colleen Murphy
Centaur Theatre presents
HOLIDAY IN ZÜRICH
By Colleen Murphy
Directed by Micheline Chevrier
With Danielle Desormeaux
and Brian Dooley
Set, Costume & Prop Design by
Julie Vallée-Léger
Lighting Design by
Luc Prairie
Stage Manager
Danielle Laurin
Assistant Stage Manager
Elyse Quesnel
Holiday in Zürich is a tender and darkly funny portrait of life, love, and confronting the inevitable. It follows a happily married Canadian couple in their 70s, Frank and Clementine (Tiny), as they prepare for a hard-earned, jam-packed trip to Switzerland.
Frank is travelling toward the most difficult challenge of his life while Tiny—ever hopeful, and eager to avoid a hard truth—has planned a holiday full of sightseeing, romance, and European cuisine, holding fast to the vacation of their dreams.
As they pack their suitcases, their different expectations for the trip come into direct and often disarmingly funny collision.
Set almost entirely in their bedroom, the play compresses a lifetime into a single spotlit moment where love is tested, not through grand gestures, but through small negotiations, unspoken fears, and the ways in which ordinary people try imperfectly but bravely to meet the end of things together.
With wit, warmth, and emotional precision, one of English-speaking Canada’s most celebrated playwrights explores what it means to keep choosing each other when time is no longer on your side.
Ultimately, Holiday in Zürich is a deeply human story about a couple facing their fate with humour, tenderness, and the messy but miraculous endurance of “The Power of Love” — yes, the Céline Dion reference is very much intended.
WHY YOU NEED TO SEE IT
A heartbreakingly funny and deeply humane portrait of what happens to a couple when time is no longer on their side.
Holiday in Zürich is a heartfelt and piercing romantic tragicomedy about love, mortality, and what it means to keep choosing each other when time is no longer on your side.
A 2026 Tom Hendry Comedy Award finalist, Holiday in Zürich receives its world premiere at Centaur Theatre, starring Montreal theatre luminaries Brian Dooley and Danielle Desormeaux and directed by acclaimed director Micheline Chevrier.
This new work from Colleen Murphy—two-time Governor General’s Award winner and Member of the Order of Canada— balances tenderness, real humour, and difficult questions about love and the end of life.
The production also brings together a new Canadian play with an acclaimed Montreal cast and creative team, continuing Centaur’s longstanding commitment to bringing Canadian work and Montreal artists to the stage.
FROM ARTISTIC DIRECTOR EDA HOLMES
“Colleen Murphy is one of Canada’s most celebrated playwrights and Holiday in Zurich brings her immense wealth of talent and experience as a storyteller to one of the most delicate topics for our times. In the hands of the exceptional artists creating this production, Colleen’s ability to find the gentleness, love and real humour in the conversation about the end of a life is how great theatre is made.”
Eda Holmes, Artistic Director
THE STORY BEHIND HOLIDAY IN ZÜRICH
“I am not known for writing comedy, but two and a half years ago, Brian Dooley, a Montreal actor and a dear colleague who has acted in three world premieres of my plays, starts bugging me. ‘Hey Col – write me a play!’ As much as I love working with him, I said, ‘I can’t write a play with a specific actor in mind. It limits my imagination.’ A few months pass then he bugs me again. ‘Hey Col – c’mon, write me a play.’ I said, ‘It’s never gonna happen.’ A few weeks later, ‘Hey Col – write me a play.’ ‘No, Brian, so stop bugging me about it!’ A couple of days later I wake up and, as I was crawling into the kitchen to make coffee, I realized a whole play was unfolding in my head in real time, so I grabbed a pen and started scribbling. The writing was illegible but those two characters – Frank and Tiny Pelletier – found a permanent home in my imagination.”
Colleen Murphy
DANIELLE DESORMEAUX & BRIAN DOOLEY
Two acclaimed Montreal performers. One extraordinary relationship at the heart of the play.
Danielle Desormeaux and Brian Dooley star as Tiny and Frank, a couple whose decades-long marriage faces one final, deeply challenging journey.
Both bring extensive experience on Canadian stages to this intimate world premiere. Desormeaux has appeared at Centaur, the Segal Centre and the National Arts Centre, and has previously collaborated with director Micheline Chevrier at Centaur.
Dooley’s career spans more than four decades as an actor, director, producer, and champion of new Canadian theatre, with a longstanding connection to the work of Colleen Murphy.
Together, they bring warmth, humour, tenderness, and emotional depth to a story in which the smallest exchanges between two people can carry the weight of a lifetime.
Dying is Easy, Comedy is Hard
Behind the Play: A Conversation with Colleen Murphy
Program
Cast & Creative Team
ENHANCE YOUR EXPERIENCE
Centaur After Dark
Saturday, November 14 – Grab a drink in the gallery with guests from the Montreal theatre community, then enjoy Holiday in Zürich, a post-show concert, and end the night with discounts at Old Montreal pubs & clubs.
Centaur+ Music Series
Saturday, November 14, 9:30pm – FREE post-show concert in the Centaur Gallery curated by Sarah Segal-Lazar and featuring folk singer-songwriters The Co- Conspirators.
Centaur+ Film Screening Series
Monday, November 16, 6:30pm – FREE film screening in the gallery presented courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada.
Art in the Gallery: Body’s Endured
Vernissage: November 5, 5–8 pm. On view November 6–December 6, 2026. Through lived experiences of chronic illness and pain, this group exhibition explores society’s perceptions of pain, its physical and psychological dimensions, and the often unknowable complexities of life with illness.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Thursday Pre-Show Convo
Thursday, November 5, 7pm – with director Eda Holmes and the designers of Holiday in Zürich
Sunday Chat-Up
Sunday, November 8, 12pm – with journalist Lucinda Chodan and special guest.
Post-Show Talkback
Thursday, November 12, 9:30pm – with the cast of Holiday in Zürich
Post-Show Talkback
Sunday, November 15, 3:30pm – with the cast of Holiday in Zürich