Problem+Child+PC

Playgoer's Companion

Comments on the draft received in class Monday night

Michael Woodside

George Walker and the 'Black comedy'

"Problem Child" is a part of the genre known as dark comedy or black comedy. Black comedy commonly utilizes topics and events that are usually regarded as taboo and are treated in a satirical or humorous manner while retaining their seriousness. A playwright can use black comedy as a tool for exploring important issues by combining amusement, discomfort, and serious thought in their play. Some popular themes of the genre include rape, murder, suicide, war, drug abuse, terminal illness, abuse, insanity, disease, racism, disability, both physical and mental, chauvinism and crime. Writers such as William Faulkner, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut and Warren Zevon have written novels, poems, stories, plays and songs in which profound or horrific events were portrayed in a comic manner.

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Quotes on George F. Walker's //Problem Child//

"First and foremost, an audience wants to be connected . . . They connect emotionally." "I want to make sure they have a pulse. I don't want the intellectual approach to my work that I think is a big deal in Canadian theatre." - George F. Walker

"George F. Walker has a knack for creating astonishing, vivid characters that exist beyond the confines of the stage. After seeing his plays, you leave convinced that these people were not simply dissolved into nothingness when the play concluded. Their lives continue on, as is sometimes most obvious when Walker revisits his characters down the road." -

Ben Savoie

**The Author:** Is a Canadian playwright, born August 23rd, 1947 in Toronto’s East End working class district. He has had an unusual rise to prominence in the theatre world. Originally a taxi driver in downtown Toronto, he caught wind that The Factory Theatre Company was looking for new and original authors. He submitted his first play, //Prince of Naples//, and it was subsequently produced and performed in 1972. His plays are often influenced by the works of Eugene Ionesca and Samuel Beckett. Mr. Walker is now a prominent figure in Canadian theatre. His works have been performed coast to coast across much of North America and have also been translated into German, French, Hebrew, Turkish, Polish and Czech to be performed worldwide. He has twice brought home the Governor General’s Award, he has won four Doras, seven Chalmers Awards and in 2006 he became a member of the Order of Canada thanks to his immense contributions to Canadian theatre. He is currently working on a number of projects, including writing for several Canadian television productions, most notably “Due South,” “The Newsroom,” “This is Wonderland,” and “The Line.” Mr. Walker has three children and lives in Toronto with his second wife, actor Susan Purdy.
 * George F. Walker**

( [|__www.canadiantheatre.com__] ) ( [|__www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com__] ) ( [|__http://www.rattlestick.org/pastShows/40__] )

Ang Moore

**Theatre Venues for //Problem Child// ** When George F. Walker heard that the “Factory Theatre” in Toronto was looking for new, fresh playwrights, he took this opportunity to send in one of the first play he had written, //The Prince of Naples.// This play caught the attention of the company and Walker’s play was performed by the theatre company in 1972. This was the first of much collaboration between the Factory Theatre and Walker. The Factory theatre was founded by Ken Gass and is the first company in the history of this country to only produce Canadian Plays. In 1998 Walkers suburban Motel brought the Factory Theatre to life and the theatre really took off from them. In the Theatre’s new found fame, Gass had enough money to buy out the candle factory he was renting and in doing so established a his theatre company with a new name. Walker’s plays have also been performed by innovative theatre groups that have taken on the “Suburban Motel” series. Another ambitious theatre company called “Rattlestick Productions” tackled Walker’s plays that were set in the one room motel. Rattlestick’s mandate and mission is to produce and develop innovative new plays in their Off Broadway format. Rattlestick Production promotes new writers and have received critical acclaim for its innovative works. RATTLESTICK PLAYWRIGHTS THEATER is a multi-award-winning organization and recipient of the 2007 Ross Wetzsteon Memorial Obie Award. []. []

The //Suburban Motel// series is one of Walker’s most interesting productions //which include six plays performed on one s //tage, featuring the play //Problem Child. The plays // all taking place in the same seedy motel room. Each play stands alone, although some characters do pop up in more than once. According to the New York Times, it is rare that the six plays are produced at the same time; three plays are selected and produced for one season, and the remaining three are to be produced in the following season. George Walker said that he plans to make many more plays for the Suburban Motel collection. Walker’s Suburban Motel series began as one play, //Problem Child,// but once the play was finished he was inspired to continue using the same setting. He found the experience “incredibly liberating, because I don’t have to recreate the world. The world is that room, and there’s nothing between me and the characters, no narrative pressure, because the story is only what happens in that room. It can’t be anything else”. The motel is described as a neutral space, that people of all backgrounds could visit, and besides the location, another interconnecting theme is the despair the characters feel. From prostitutes to the unemployed, all characters of the series use the motel as a spot for “carnivalesque” behavior that would not necessarily be permitted in the outside world. After being stuck in a personal rut, the characters use the room to try to transform their present state of being. [] [] Charles Lindsay & Michelle Chisholm