by AMY BARRATT

I was feeling a particular affinity with George Boyd when I spoke with him on a recent morning, because we had both been up since 5:30. This, he explains, is his best writing time, when the world is quieter and the brain less cluttered. It's a routine that seems to work well for the playwright, who has been produced across Canada and been nominated for a Governor General's award.

Nova Scotia-born Boyd has been living in Montreal for three-and-a-half years now, the last year as playwright-in-residence at Black Theatre Workshop. Next week, the fruits of that collaboration will be seen on stage at the MAI in Wade in the Water, a new play that Boyd has adapted from his own short story, "Ice Nelson Johns."

The piece is inspired by historical events such as the migration of American blacks to Canada (particularly Nova Scotia) around the time of the American Revolution, and also the "return" - beginning in 1792 and continuing until after the U.S. Civil War - of many Nova Scotian blacks to Africa, where they founded Freetown, Sierra Leone.

BTW artistic director Rachael Van Fossen encouraged Boyd to adapt the story for the stage and acted as its first dramaturg. The original plan had been to produce Boyd's GG-nominated play Consecrated Ground, but "limited resources" led them to Wade in the Water instead. Not that this won't be a full production; it's just that the cast is smaller.

"I originally thought it was going to be a one-man piece," says Boyd, "until I realized, I can't write a one-man piece! I basically ran into Rachael's office one day and said, ‘It's a two-man piece,' and ran back out again." The hike in costs incurred by the extra salary couldn't be helped, Boyd explains, a little apologetically. "I'm used to casts of five or six, so even keeping it to two was difficult."

Both Van Fossen and Boyd are happy with the actors they've got for this production. Tyrone Benskin plays Nelson Johns, a former slave (and son of a slave owner) who travels from Georgia to Nova Scotia and finally to Africa, and Nigel Shawn Williams plays at least three other characters. These roles include a white master, although the actor is black: a bit of cross-cultural casting that Boyd thinks may shock some theatregoers.

Asked what brought him to Montreal, Boyd says he just "outgrew" Halifax.

"They were doing a lot of Broadway musicals there, and I don't like musicals. I had to move along, and I love Montreal." In addition to the gig with BTW, Boyd will see Consecrated Ground produced in Toronto in June 2004. "I don't think these options would have been open to me," he says, "if I had stayed in Halifax."

Wade in the Water is being directed by well-known Nova Scotian actor-director Richard Donat. The show also boasts set and costume design by Katka Hubacek, lighting by Eric Mongerson, and a sound design by Marlon Grant.

Boyd and I will both make an effort to attend the premiere, even though the 8 p.m. start is almost our bedtime.

WADE IN THE WATER, OCT. 30–NOV. 9 AT THE MAI (3680 JEANNE-MANCE), $15–$20. SPECIAL HALLOWEEN PERFORMANCE OCT. 31 (WEAR A COSTUME AND GET A $2 DISCOUNT ON YOUR TICKET), 932-1104

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