BANG BANG

Lila, a young Black ex-cop, has been on leave from the police force ever since she shot an unarmed Black youth. She’s moved back in with her mother, Karen, and is drinking beer for breakfast. So when Tim, a white playwright, shows up at her door to casually inform her that his play inspired by her experience is being adapted into a movie, Lila’s trauma is dragged out for speculation once again. The star of the film, their ex-cop bodyguard and Karen are pulled into the fight, leading to an epic metatheatrical standoff in a living room play about a living room play about gun violence, police, art and appropriation.

This dark, fast-paced dramedy by the author of Punch Up and Mustard traces the responsibility we have as artists in storytelling and the impact of what it means to be inspired by true events.

AUTHOR

Kat Sandler

Kat Sandler is a writer, director and Artistic Director of Theatre Brouhaha. She has written fifteen original plays since 2011, and directed fourteen of them. She was a member of the 2014 Tarragon Playwrights Unit, where she developed Mustard, which won the 2016 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play (General Division), and her play Bang Bang was nominated for the same award in 2018. She was the 2015 recipient of NOW Magazine’s Audience Choice Award for Best Director and Best Playwright. Kat is a graduate of the Queen’s University drama program. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, and writes in coffee shops and bars.

Reviews

“Sandler—one of the most talented and prolific playwrights of her generation—explores how power, privilege and intersectionality complicate discussions around the big, important issues of the day.”

“Sandler’s play turns a skeptical eye on the truism that art builds bridges, but is clearly driven by a belief that it can reflect the confusion, prompt laughter, and perhaps crack open perceptions of the experience of others.”

“Sandler’s explosive new play takes current issues like police violence against Black men, voice appropriation, mental illness and white male privilege and combines them to make a dramatically charged and very funny show.”

“Unsettling, intense, and very, very funny.”