Here's a trend that may eventually help create a strong Canadian theatre scene for the 21st century. Last year Morris Panych's The Overcoat toured five Canadian cities. Just this month, Larry's Party opened in Toronto and in the coming months will play two other cities. And now we have the world premiere of an important play in Ottawa, and it will move on later to Toronto and then hopefully other cities.

The play in question is David Young's Clout, a co-production of the National Arts Centre, the Necessary Angel Theatre Company and the Factory Theatre (both of Toronto). It's described as: "A satire about men, sex and power ... and a woman who wins." Young most recently wrote an historic play about Sir Robert Scott's ill-fated 1912 expedition to the South Pole and a jazzy new work on the life of Glenn Gould. With Clout, Young's turning to fiction. This provocative play explores the relationship between democracy and a free press.

And yet many in tonight's audience will be reading between the lines to see if Young based either of his characters on any well-known Canadians. The plot has a powerful newspaper magnate, Lionel K. Biggar, thrown into an unlikely relationship with a dying journalist who is ghostwriting Biggar's autobiography. People who saw a reading of the play at last spring's DuMaurier World Stage festival said the plot was quite intriguing, with a lot of humour and s suspense ending.

Bringing the show to life this winter is actor R.H. Thomson, a regular in Young's plays, and Eric Peterson. The same cast brings the play to Toronto in mid-Feb.