Lion in the Streets is a two-act play by award-winning Canadian playwright Judith Thompson, workshopped as the first Public Workshop Project at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, Canada in May 1990. It was then produced in its current form one month later at the duMaurier Theatre Centre, also in Toronto, as part of the duMaurier World Stage Theatre Festival. Music for the production was composed and performed by Bill Thompson. Its central character is the ghost Isobel, a nine-year-old Portuguese girl who is searching for her killer by observing and occasionally interacting with her neighbors seventeen years after her murder, revealing their dark, horrific, emotional, and very private experiences. Lion in the Streets was published in 1992 by Playwrights Canada Press. Characters There are twenty-eight or twenty-nine characters with speaking parts of varying lengths. The original ensemble was composed of four women and two men who split the roles up roughly as follows (there is some confusion in the Playwrights Canada Press printing, as some character names in the initial list do not actually exist in the play, and some characters who do speak are omitted entirely): Women: Isobel Nellie, Laura, Elaine, Christine, Sherry Rachel (who is also Rose for two pages), Lily, Rhonda, Ellen, Scarlett Sue, Jill, Joanne, Joan (an optional character) Men: Scalato, Timmy, George, Maria, David, Rodney, (Edward?), Ben Martin, Bill, Isobel's Father, Ron, Father Hayes, Michael, (Edward?) Plot Isobel's ghost wanders around lost, in a playground. "Is my house but is not my house is my street but is not my street my people is gone I am lost." (Thompson, Lion in the Streets, line 11–13) A woman named Sue comes to her rescue from other kids picking on her. Before Isobel follows Sue home she sees her father, and recalls that he is dead. After Sue's son Tommy makes some depressing comments, Isobel follows Sue on to a dinner party with her husband. Sue calls him to come home and finds out he's been having an affair with a woman at the party. Isobel realizes Sue's inability to care for her and calls the audience for someone to take her home. Isobel stays with Laura, the dinner party hostess, and witnesses a flashback to when Isobel's mother, Maria, found out about Isobel's father's suicide. As Maria tells of her vision of her husband dying, Isobel dramatically acts out her father falling onto the train tracks.