I, Claudia follows the precocious 12-year-old Claudia as she finds refuge from her parents' recent divorce in the basement of her school. As she opens up her vulnerable "pre-teen" psyche to the audience, she relates her experiences, both hilarious and heartfelt. The character revealed is, like many girls of her age, funny, intelligent and wounded by the numerous pitfalls that populate the difficult journey of discovery to adulthood. Along the way we meet her absent-minded grandfather Douglas, who wouldn't mind taking another spin around the block; her father's new fiancée Leslie, who wants everything just perrrrrfect for her wedding day; and the immigrant school caretaker Drachman, former artistic director of the National Theatre of Bulgonia.

 
Awards
o Winner of the 2001 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play
o Winner of the 2005 Canadian Comedy Award for Writing
 

Reviews
"...komisch und anrührend. ..."
-- Petra Hallmayer, Süddeutsche Zeitung

"Kristen Thomson is the real theatrical thing... she can rock her audience - she certainly rocked me - on a regular basis with lines and moments that are hilariously funny, totally unexpected and impeachably true."
--Robert Cushman, National Post

"Thomson blends the humorous and the painful in a single sentence, and she's adept at shifting us from raucous laughter to pin-drop stillness. Thomson's rich characters grow in performance, painted through voices and physical and verbal rhythms. "
--Jon Kaplan, NOW

"Kristen Thomson's portrait of a wonderfully winsome young woman trembling on the cusp of adolescence is one of the freshest things to hit the stage in many a season... I, Claudia is blissfully funny and unexpectedly touching."
-- Richard Ouzounian, The Toronto Star

"To the pantheon of extraordinary young, female protagonists - which includes The Member of the Wedding 's Frankie Addams and To Kill a Mockingbird 's Scout Finch - there must be a new addition: 'official pre-teen' Claudia. She's the creation of uniquely talented Toronto stage actor Kristen Thomson and the central character of her touching first play, I, Claudia ."
-- Rachel Giese, Eye Weekly
   
©2007 BeMe Theatre