About the Play:

Daddies has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Male Monologues as well as it's 'two-hander' structure and its brisk, demanding dialogue.

Daddies is a full-length comedic drama by Douglas Gower. The biological father visits the home in which his children live with their mother and her current companion, who has "daddied" the two kids for the past year. They both assert their legitimate claims to the love and loyalty of two small children and question one another's motivations, testing gracious behaviour with their various fears and needs.

Daddies is a two-character play that revolves around George, who has been living with a woman for the past year and assumed the paternal role for her two small children, as he awaits the arrival of Carl. The play takes place during that most kid-oriented of holidays, Christmas, and the mother and children are out of the house. Carl is the deserted husband and the biological father of the children. He is also a member of a fundamentalist religious sect called The World Family Church. When Carl arrives, George is torn between ridiculing him as a harmless crackpot, and fearing him as a very real threat to his role as father. Carl, on the other hand, is concerned with the spiritual welfare of his children. The resulting confrontation is at times funny, at times heartbreaking; and ultimately, the plight of George, a man desperate for love and normality in a broken world, is deeply affecting. Daddies is a play that addresses the changing nature of the family in our society.

Daddies was first presented in 1977 at Julian Theatre in San Francisco's North Beach district and premiered professionally later that same year at the famed Actors Theatre of Louisville as part of the annual Festival of New American Plays, an influential showplace for playwrights. The New York premiere was in 1983 at Vineyard Theatre off-off-Broadway in New York City. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has been performed in fringe festivals and regional theatres and in high school and college theatre productions as a showcase of student talent.

Cast: 2 male

What people say:

"A well-written, well spoken dissonant duet between two men with nothing more in common than their love for the same woman and her two young children." — LA Weekly

About the Playwright:

Douglas Gower is an American playwright and screenwriter. His plays have been staged in New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Houston, and San Francisco, including such venues as the Julliard Theater Center, Vineyard Theatre, and Actors Theatre of Louisville. He has been a recipient of an NEA Fellowship.