Archer: Book Three of on the River of Time

Archer portrays two years in the life of Ray Archer, a fictional Canadian actor/director dedicated to exploring performance styles with his diverse company. First seen in a Canada-wide tour of King Lear performed in mask, Archer researches en route his next project: an epic work on the history of Canada. A tour of this new piece takes him across Canada and to Ireland, during which he is forced to confront changes to his life that he could not have imagined. Written in both modern and traditional poetic styles to evoke the Canadian experience both today and in the past, Archer is Book Three of the epic trilogy On the River of Time, which examines three figures - one mythical, one historical, and one fictional - from different time periods spanning almost three thousand years: Odysseus in ancient Greece; Spenser, the Elizabethan poet, in Ireland; and Archer, a fictional actor/director, in Canada. Through the journeys and struggles of these three individuals, we explore the nature of human perceptions and drives, our use of the Mask in our lives, encounters with the Other, acceptance or denial of the consequences of our actions, and the continuity over the millennia of these universal human attributes.