The play that launched the career of Judith Thompson, a University of Guelph professor and celebrated playwright, will return to Toronto this week under Thompson’s direction.

The Crackwalker officially opens March 24 at the Factory Theatre and runs until April 10. The theatre’s artistic director is Nina

Aquino, a U of G alumna from the School of English and Theatre Studies (SETS).

The play offers a glimpse into the lives of two down-and-out couples in Kingston, Ont.

The Crackwalker debuted more than 36-years ago and has become a Canadian classic.

Thompson is known for her complex and sometimes disturbing works that give voice to human failings and accomplishments.

A SETS professor since 1992, Thompson has written 19 plays. In 2014 she returned to acting after a 35-year hiatus, performing in her own one-woman play, Watching Glory Die.

Thompson has won the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award and was the first Canadian to receive the international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

A two-time winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, she has also received the Dora Mavor Moore Award, the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award, a Toronto Arts Award and the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts.

She’s been nominated twice for both Genie and Gemini awards.

Thompson is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and officer of the Order of Canada, and the subject of The Masks of Judith Thompson, a book by U of G theatre studies professor Ric Knowles.