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Benevolence
Benevolence
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Author: Morris Panych Publisher: Talonbooks Format: Softcover # of Pages: 128 Pub. Date: 2008 ISBN-10: 0889225842 ISBN-13: 9780889225848 Cast Size: 2 women, 3 men
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About
the Play:
Benevolence is a full-length drama by Morris Panych.
Maybe he should have given at the office. A simple act of street
charity triggers trouble. Full of excruciatingly comic twists and
turns of both fate and manipulative, perhaps even malicious intent,
this dark comedy of 'trading places' resonates with a cascade of
uncomfortable truths about how we see (or don't see) the people we
live with every day.
Benevolence is a parable about the perils of a random act
of kindness to a stranger. Fastidious and fussy shoe salesman by day,
and secretive aspiring film screenwriter by night, Oswald Eichersen's
dreams of success are as grandly inflated as his self-esteem is
hopelessly deficient. Just outside Eichersen's place of work, street
person Terence Lomy has sat encamped for two years – an indelible
fixture on the sidewalk with a cardboard sign round his neck with the
word 'hungry' scribbled on it in a hapless hand. Eichersen's passed
him on the street a million times before. Only on this day, on an
irrational impulse, having ignored the beggar for years, Eichersen
gives Lomy a hundred dollar bill, and a simple act of generosity
becomes a life-changing event for both the recipient and the
benefactor. As he helplessly witnesses his entire life disintegrate,
only to be co-opted and appropriated by everyone around him,
Eichersen ends up abandoned and penniless, on the lam for a murder he
didn't commit, absurdly preparing a lecture on Benevolence for
the sole patron of the dark and dingy theatre of his nightmares –
all masterminded by the fascinating and devious Lomy, who wants to
return the favour to his new friend.
Benevolence premiered in 2007 at Tarragon Theatre in
Toronto.
Cast: 2 women, 3 men
What people say:
"No one can make total
strangers engage quite like Morris Panych can. He does so by allowing
the characters to open up to their enigmatic past in clear, natural,
flowing streams of consciousness. His character drawing has never
been stronger, his dialogue stringing never more kooky and laconic."
— Torontostage.com
"…a lethal mixture of black
humour and social observation. When it comes to sparkling, erudite,
bitchy dialogue, Panych, as a playwright, has few equals." —
Toronto Star
About the Playwright:
Morris Panych is one of Canada's most significant
contemporary playwrights. He has written more than 25 works for the
stage and directed nearly 100. He is the winner of two Governor
General's Literary Awards for Drama, the country's most prestigious
literary honour. He has won 14 Jessie Richardson Awards, three Sidney
Riske Writing Awards and five Dora Mavor Moore Awards.
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