Tighten the Traces — A Play

by Robbie O'Neill with Leo Kennedy • photos • 64 pages

IN OVER 500 ACCLAIMED PERFORMANCES, this remarkable play has woven itself into the fabric of Maritime life. Hailed from Guysborough schools to the London, England stage, in Scotland, Australia, and on CBC television, Tighten the Traces is the voice of Leo Kennedy, whose fierce persistence overcame cerebral palsy to win a living as a beloved door-to-door salesman in eastern Nova Scotia.
    Based on interviews in 1982 with this peddlar and storekeeper from Canso, Robbie O'Neill recreates for audiences Leo's stories and his engaging charm, sharing hilarious and touching moments from a robust life. And the book includes photographs from performances, plus interviews—touching and humorous—with Leo's friends.
    "Literature of the luminous soul in the shattered body... [Tighten the Traces] establishes O'Neill as an artist of considerable skill and integrity."—The Globe & Mail