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.