Erin Shields
Erin Shields is a Canadian playwright best known for radical adaptations of classical texts, which bring neglected female characters centre stage, including the Stratford Festival's 2025 production of Ransacking Troy. In 2023, her additional text for Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing on the Festival Stage gave a voice to the silenced Hero at the climax of the play. Erin’s illuminating and entertaining adaptation of Paradise Lost premièred in the Studio Theatre in 2018 and went on to win the Quebec Writers’ Federation Prize for Playwriting. Queen Goneril, which played in rep at Soulpepper Theatre with King Lear, centres Lear’s stifled daughters as they contend for power in a world that insists they remain powerless. And her harrowing tragedy about sexual violence, If We Were Birds, won the Governor General’s Award for playwriting. Other plays include Jane Eyre (Citadel Theatre), Piaf/Dietrich (Mirvish Productions/Segal Centre), Thy Woman’s Weeds (Repercussion/Centaur), Beautiful Man (Factory Theatre), The Lady from the Sea (Shaw Festival), The Millennial Malcontent and Soliciting Temptation (Tarragon Theatre) and Instant (Geordie Theatre). Erin’s plays are published by Playwrights Canada Press, and you can read more about upcoming projects on her website: erinshields.ca.
