Originally from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island,[3] Garnhum worked in art and theatre in Charlottetown before moving to Toronto in 1981.[1] His other plays and performance pieces have included Building a Post-Mortem Birdhouse,[4] How Many Saints Can Sit Around? (1987),[5] Twenty Minute History of Art (1987),[6] Surrounded by Water (1991),[1] The Incredible Red Vase (1991),[7] one word (1997)[4] and The Hermits (1998).[8]
In 1992, Beuys, Buoys, Boys was included in Making Out, the first anthology of Canadian plays by gay writers, alongside works by David Demchuk, Sky Gilbert, Daniel MacIvor, Harry Rintoul and Colin Thomas.[9] Pants on Fire, one of the early AIDS-themed plays in Canadian literature, was the first play Garnhum wrote after himself being diagnosed HIV-positive in 1993.[10]
He has also regularly worked as a set and costume designer, both on his own shows and for other playwrights;[4] he garnered Dora Award nominations for set design in 1994 for a production of The House of Martin Guerre,[11] and for both costume and set design in 1996 for Gloria Montero's Frida K.[12]
