Author: Beth Graham

Beth Graham is a Canadian playwright, actor, and dramaturg whose work has been produced across Canada and beyond. The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble premiered in 2013 in a Factory Theatre and Obsidian Theatre co-production directed by Philip Akin. The play gathers Bernice and her three children around a family announcement about her early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis, with middle child Iris trying to hold the household together. Graham balances the difficult subject with humor, memory, and the everyday ritual of preparing a familiar casserole. The play later received the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Alberta Literary Award and was shortlisted for the 2015 Governor General’s Award. Playwrights Canada Press published the script in 2015, and subsequent productions carried it to several Canadian stages. Graham’s background in acting and dramaturgy is visible in a four-character structure that depends on shifting family reactions rather than spectacle. The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble has become one of her defining works, pairing formal economy with emotional breadth.