Investigating domestic life through theatre

Haber began acting professionally immediately after graduation. She quickly met her husband, actor and director Alain Goulem, and soon had two children.

While pregnant with her second daughter, she shifted her artistic outlet to writing.

“I really wanted to stay creative,” Haber says. “I wrote my first play, Birthmarks, in half-an-hour periods at a time when my baby was napping.”

After the success of Birthmarks in 1995, Haber pursued writing as a parallel path to her acting career. She applied, and was accepted, to her first writing unit, Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal, where she continued her craft with the support of other writers.

Working in a unit brought a level of accountability to the solitary act of writing, with the expectation a certain amount of script be brought every time the writers group met.

“What’s also helpful is that you get to hear your words out loud,” says Haber. “You want to make sure that what you’re hearing in your head is the same as what people are going to hear on stage.”

As her career progressed, Haber followed opportunities and requests that eventually had her writing short stories, radio dramas screenplays and adaptions of novels for theatre.

“I don’t think a lot of people think about playwriting as a career,” she says. “It’s not an obvious choice unless you’re really exposed to theatre.”

Haber adds a female voice to the performance arts, something she feels is often lacking. “I get frustrated when you turn on most movies or television shows and it’s usually a story about a man or a boy or boyhood,” she says.

“Not to say they’re not good movies, but I get tired of seeing that viewpoint. I think it’s time for a shift.”

On This Day takes place in one night and weaves together various themes of modern life. The story follows two couples meeting to celebrate a birthday. On their way, one couple may have hit a girl with their car and, in the confusion, they decide to take her to dinner.