Open-Ended Run, An
University of Regina Press / 17 January 2025

An Open-Ended Runby Layne ColemanPublished by University of Regina PressReview by Brandon Fick$22.95 ISBN 9781779400260 Layne Coleman’s An Open-Ended Run is a deep dive into one man’s love, grief, ecstasy, failings, and triumphs. The entire range of human emotion is on display in this short memoir. Dramatic and morally complex, the book traces Coleman’s life from his fundamentalist upbringing in rural Saskatchewan to becoming a noted actor, playwright, and theatre director in Toronto. It is an intensely felt love story between Coleman and French Canadian arts critic and novelist, Carole Corbeil, whose premature death from cancer in 2000 upended his life. In wake of that loss, Coleman had to navigate being a widower and single father, and by far, the relationship with his daughter Charlotte is the most touching part of the memoir. Yet he does not skimp out on less savoury memories of sexual encounters, questionable decisions, drug and alcohol addiction, physical health challenges, even his own sense of vanity. Reading an aging actor’s memoir may not sound like most people’s idea of fun, but I assure you, if you give An Open-Ended Run a shot, you will be shocked and moved in equal measure. Truly, this is one…