Rogues Theatre is keeping with what it knows this season, performing two shows from acclaimed writer John Patrick Shanley, whose work the company has performed in the past.

Shanley’s work will be familiar to both theatre and movie goers for his classic work Doubt: A Parable, which was performed at Theatre Calgary last year and was also a major motion picture starring Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Rogues is presenting two works with a common theme: love.

First of the season is The Dreamer Examines His Pillow (Oct. 28 to Nov. 7), a story of two young lovers and their on-again off-again romance.

“The young man, aged 27, hasn’t really grown up yet to take on the responsibility of what a full-time relationship might be,” says Rogues director Joe-Norman Shaw. “Of course, his girlfriend Donna is trying to motivate him to step up to the plate and part of that has to do with finally going to her father and getting some sage advice; even with the threat of, you know, if you don’t step up Tommy, my dad’s going to kick your butt.”

The second, and last, play of the season is Italian American Reconciliation (Feb. 24 to March 6), which still follows the love theme, but with a more grown-up flavour.

“The character of Huey was married to Janice and he wants to get her back. He enlists the best friend to go and kind of neutralize her so when he gets there, he’s not going to take the heat,” says Shaw.

“The friend doesn’t want to do this but he goes there and tries to seduce her because he doesn’t want his friend to get back with her because he thinks it’s a bad idea.”

This was the first play performed by Rogues. This performance will take place almost 10 years to the day of the company’s original production.

It may seem strange to perform two plays by the same playwright in a single two-play season, but Shaw doesn’t think so. He says the two productions are a natural fit and a good tribute to 10 years of Rogues Theatre.

“I think, what it does for us, in terms of the theatre we like to do, it gives you a great sense of authenticity, in terms of the performance, yet at the same time, because the plays are so human, the characters are both funny and touching at the same time,” he says.

“While they’re great date pieces, guys love these pieces because there’s a muscularity in the characters, there’s passion, there’s intensity, its got that New York street thing kind of going on.”