Results tagged “kengass”

Well, the snow has melted, which means it must be about time for Factory to remount another George F. Walker show. This year, it's 1974's Beyond Mozambique, which hasn't been performed by Factory in thirty years. As the title implies, this early piece by the seminal Canadian playwright is many miles away from more popular, recent Walker plays, such as the Suburban Motel and East End Plays cycles, which typically focus on working-class Torontonians inhabiting a gritty and realistic, if darkly funny, theatrical world. But don't be fooled into expecting a didactic political work exploring a foreign tragedy.

As the Luminato Fest continues, two more George F. Walker plays open at the Factory. Escape from Happiness is the sequel to already-opened Better Living, while Tough! is another one of Walker's East End Plays, focusing on a different group of characters. The entire play, which is only about an hour and twenty minutes long, is composed of a single scene: a confrontation between three young people in a park. Tina knows Bobby cheated on her at a party, which makes her especially mad because she's pregnant with his child, something Bobby is about to discover. Tina brings her friend Jill along for back-up, who has a long-standing grudge against Bobby and could happily "kick him to death".

George F. Walker, one of the country's most prolific and most produced playwrights, not to mention the creator of the sadly defunct CBC drama This is Wonderland, hasn't written a play since 2000's controversial Heaven, and he claims he may never write one again. But that doesn't stop him from getting produced at Factory about every year. This year, as a part of the innaugural Luminato Festival, Factory will be producing three of his East End Plays—Better Living, a remount of last year's Escape from Happiness, its sequel, and a workshop production of Tough! with a cast of 12 multi-racial young actors.