About the Play:

The Art of Building a Bunker is a full-length comedic drama by Guillermo Verdecchia and Adam Lazarus. A viciously funny and tragic story recounting a week in the life of an average Joe with the not so average name of Elvis as he endures mandatory workplace sensitivity training. One actor plays all the roles including angry, uptight and, yes, intolerant Elvis. The Art of Building a Bunker is an equal opportunity satire where nothing is sacred and no one is spared.

The Art of Building a Bunker is a one-man, multi-character play about a desperate outsider named Elvis Goldstein who is incapable of experiencing love and the consequences that follow. His namesake, of course, was the King of Rock n' Roll. This civil servant is the King of Pain. He is also a vicious bigot who takes out his fears and frustrations on those around him. And so Elvis has been forced to take a week-long sensitivity training program. He finds himself surrounded by a group of characters that is diversely bizarre and bizarrely diverse. Elvis struggles to meet the demands of Cameron, the sensitivity training leader, and to work with the whole cast of HR-friendly characters that surrounds him without revealing anything about what he really feels or believes. His struggles culminate in a radical oration delivered on the last day of the course to the sensitivity group and workplace colleagues.

The Art of Building a Bunker was first presented in 2013 at the Toronto Festival of Clowns. It became a hit at Toronto's 2013 SummerWorks Festival and as named Best of the Fest for Outstanding Production by NOW Magazine. It transferred to a hit run opening the Factory Theatre's Mainstage 2014 season in Toronto and then in 2015 to the Vancouver East Cultural Centre during the rEvolver Theatre Festival.

Cast: 1 male

What people say:

"Pleasantly amusing and smartly satirical." — Toronto Star

"The chuckles here are rarely easy or comforting, and sometimes the most unsettling ones are the most revealing." — NOW Magazine

"One may never agree with the protagonist or his views, but his journey does give one unexpected insight into the concepts of human fear and vulnerability." — Artsvox.ca

"This satire is sharp and welcome. And the show is at its edgiest in its exploration of what we are and are not allowed to say these days ... Its politics and its sensibilities aren't freeze-dried. Thank God." — The Georgia Straight

About the Playwright:

Guillermo Verdecchia is a Canadian writer of drama, fiction, and film, as well as a director and actor. He is the recipient of a Governor-General's Award for Drama for his play Fronteras Americanas and a four-time winner of the Chalmers Canadian Play Award. His work has translated into Spanish and Italian, produced in Europe, Australia, and the US, and is studied in Latin America, Europe, and North America. As a director and actor he has worked at theatres across Canada, from the Stratford Festival to the Vancouver East Cultural Centre.

Adam Lazarus is an award winning Canadian actor, director and acting instructor whose work has been showcased nationally, in the USA and Europe.