WASPs

WASPs is one of those plays where the whole is quite literally much greater than the sum of its parts—so much so that it becomes, in retrospect, the subject of the play, “what the play is about,” and that doesn’t hit you until you are half-way home after a fun evening of bizarre, exotic, and hilarious entertainment. Although signified only by one minor character in the play, described by the head librarian as “one of our multicultural patrons” (and, of course, by the rather more obvious acronym of the title itself), this is a play about the elements of our constructed tribal identities: incest, fashion, fetishism, style, populist art, amateur psychobabble, and a fearful, murderous fascination with the other, hovering behind the cupboards over the sink, in the basements of suburbia, and in the filing cabinets of your local travel agent.

Cast of 4 women and 2 men.

AUTHOR

Sally Clark

Born in Vancouver, Sally Clark is a critically acclaimed playwright who has been dazzling audiences with her penchant for dark humour, ironic wit and sharp character portrayals. Her plays, typically presented in a series of short, vivid and fast-paced scenes, seamlessly combine comedic and tragic motifs to tell the stories of strong and adventurous women. In Saint Frances of Hollywood and Life Without Instruction, she demonstrates her knack for dramatizing the lives of historical figures, providing a feminist re-visioning of what it means and what it costs to be a heroine. Clark has been playwright-in-residence at Theatre Passe Muraille, the Shaw Festival, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Nakai Theatre and Nightwood Theatre. She is also an accomplished painter, director and filmmaker. While a resident at the Canadian Film Centre in 1991-92, Clark adapted and directed a movie version of Ten Ways to Abuse an Old Woman, which won the Special Prix du Jury at the Henri Langlois Short Film Festival, held in Poitiers, France. Another short by Clark, The Art of Conversation, won the Bronze Award for best dramatic short at the Worldfest Charleston Festival.