Diane Flacks is a critically acclaimed Canadian writer and performer whose work spans the realms of theatre, TV, radio and fiction. Although Canadian audiences may recognize her work for its lightness, wit and comic frankness especially in her solo shows such as Bear With Me, Flacks is broaching a more difficult subject with her new two-act drama, Waiting Room, opening at the Tarragon Theatre on Jan 14.

The play, inspired by Flacks and her wife’s own experience dealing with their youngest son’s serious illness, is about life in the waiting room of a major children’s hospital, centering on the microcosm of six characters in critical situations who oscillate between hope and despair.

“Waiting Room began percolating as an idea almost seven years ago as I sat in a coccyx-crushing rocking chair in a neonatal intensive care unit with my baby son,” says Flacks.

“During our nine-month sojourn there and in the years to come, I could not have imagined the suffering I would witness or the deep humanity I’d encounter both from the medical staff and other parents. It speaks to tricky, often insoluble questions of humanity that both patients and doctors confront when they find themselves on the precipice of life and death and contemplate whether they should risk or refrain.”

Flacks was prompted to write the play because of the universality of the health care experience. It’s something everyone experiences at some point.

“Really, there is no one who gets out of this life without having a very intimate, difficult interaction with the medical system, and so I really wanted to speak to that,” she says.

In Waiting Room, Flacks weaves two storylines together: she introduces a couple dealing with their baby daughter’s brain tumour diagnosis and the roller coaster they ride through and two doctors’ who are involved in the treatment — Dr. Malloy, a “brilliant, gorgeous but arrogant neuro-oncologist who has terrible bedside manner” and Dr. Ayan, who, on the other hand, is “a compassionate carer.” The audience is left to contemplate their different views.

Flacks is known for her solo theatre shows and she has written and starred in several Canadian TV series and was nominated for a writing Emmy with The Kids in the Hall.

With Waiting Room, Flacks hopes that parents who are dealing with children in crises don’t beat themselves up, no matter how difficult the situation might be.

“You go over and over and over again how you’re reacting. Am I doing enough?” she explains. “And I wanted just to say it is so hard. Be easy on yourself, hang in there.’”

Facing life’s trials and tribulations with a helping of humour is Diane Flacks’s prescription: “because you can’t help it.” Having lived through her own trials, she still believes humour helps to deal with all the pain, stress and anguish.

Waiting Room, Jan. 14 to Feb. 5, www.tarragontheatre.com.