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We the Family

By (author): George F. Walker

Introduction by: Chris Johnson

Canada’s master playwright applies his trademark black humour and incredibly crisp dialogue to the family and multiculturalism.

We the Family follows the ripple effects within two culturally and racially divergent families when their children wed. The list of characters in We the Family reads like an ethnic joke, which, indeed, it is, at least in part: the son of the main characters, David and Lizzie Kaplan, a Jewish–Irish-Catholic mixed marriage, marries the daughter of Jenny Lee, a Chinese-Canadian widow. The supporting cast includes a Russian, a Palestinian, and an Italian, with Pakistanis, Sicilians, and still more Russians offstage in the wings.

By the end of the play, Walker has deconstructed the dysfunctional Kaplan and Lee families and family love as well. Through the play’s pervading treachery, with family members and lovers betraying each other in horrific ways, he satirizes the hypocrisy of expounding family values while behaving with vicious preoccupation. These hyphenated Canadians certainly aren’t “nice,” and no quantity of “sweet-and-sour matzah balls” (which the Kaplan matriarch serves at the multicultural wedding reception) can hide the nasty taste.

Cast of 3 men and 7 women.

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AUTHOR

George F. Walker

George F. Walker is one of Canada’s most prolific, decorated, and popular playwrights. Since beginning his theatre career in the early 1970s, Walker has written more than 30 plays, including Suburban Motel, Love and Anger, and Nothing Sacred. His plays have been translated into more than ten languages and have received many hundreds of productions around the world.


AUTHOR

Chris Johnson

Chris Johnson is a professor of English literature, specialing in Canadian drama and theatre, at the University of Manitoba. He recently co-directed Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead with Margaret Groome for Stoppardfest 2007. Johnson was one of the first writers to bring the work of George F. Walker to critical attention, and he continues to write and give papers on Walker and dark comedy in Canadian drama.

Reviews

Walker’s finest work: it is both endlessly relatable and completely over-the-top; sharp yet sympathetic; dark and macabre without verging on sentimental pathos. As a family member in 2015, you must see this play.” – Novella


If you have a taste for cynical and irreverent humour, death and depravity with a drum roll, this darkly comic culture clash will be right up your alley.” – Mooney on Theatre

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Excerpts & Samples ×

Canada’s master playwright applies his trademark black humour and incredibly crisp dialogue to the family and multiculturalism.

We the Family follows the ripple effects within two culturally and racially divergent families when their children wed. The list of characters in We the Family reads like an ethnic joke, which, indeed, it is, at least in part: the son of the main characters, David and Lizzie Kaplan, a Jewish–Irish-Catholic mixed marriage, marries the daughter of Jenny Lee, a Chinese-Canadian widow. The supporting cast includes a Russian, a Palestinian, and an Italian, with Pakistanis, Sicilians, and still more Russians offstage in the wings.

By the end of the play, Walker has deconstructed the dysfunctional Kaplan and Lee families and family love as well. Through the play’s pervading treachery, with family members and lovers betraying each other in horrific ways, he satirizes the hypocrisy of expounding family values while behaving with vicious preoccupation. These hyphenated Canadians certainly aren’t “nice,” and no quantity of “sweet-and-sour matzah balls” (which the Kaplan matriarch serves at the multicultural wedding reception) can hide the nasty taste.

Cast of 3 men and 7 women.

Reader Reviews

Details

Dimensions:

128 Pages
8.5in * 216mm * 5.5in * 140mm * 0.5in13mm
170gr
6oz

Published:

March 15, 2016

City of Publication:

Vancouver

Country of Publication:

CA

Publisher:

Talonbooks

ISBN:

9780889229822

9781772010473 – PDF

9780889228061 – EPUB

9780889229839 – EPUB

9781772010657 – Kindle

9781772013016 – EPUB

9781772010466 – Kindle

9781772010671 – Kindle

9780889229556 – EPUB

9781772014723 – EPUB

9780889227569 – EPUB

9780889229297 – EPUB

9781772010596 – EPUB

9781772010664 – Kindle

9781772010602 – Kindle

Book Subjects:

DRAMA / Canadian

Featured In:

Plays for World Theatre Day

Language:

eng

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