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In a World Created by a Drunken God

In a World Created by a Drunken God
Your Price: $17.95 CDN
Author: Drew Hayden Taylor
Publisher: Talonbooks (cover image may change)
Format: Softcover
# of Pages: 127
Pub. Date: 2006
ISBN-10: 0889225370
ISBN-13: 9780889225374
Cast Size: 2 male

About the Play:

Finalist for the 2006 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama (Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize)

In a World Created by a Drunken God is a full-length comedic drama by Drew Hayden Taylor. The the story of two half-brothers, one white, living in the U.S., the other a First Nations man living in Northern Canada. The young men's father needs a kidney transplant and the American son comes asking his First Nations brother to be a part of the miracle. In a World Created by a Drunken God raises powerful questions that transcend issues of culture, morality and history – they cut to the ethical quick of what it means to be human in a chaotic world stripped of the comfortable security of identity politics.

In a World Created by a Drunken God is about two half-brothers who meet for the first time. Jason Pierce, a thirty-one-year-old Canadian half-Native man, is packing up his urban apartment to leave it all behind for his romanticized vision of a return to life on the reserve where he grew up. As he's leaving, he is paid an unexpected visit by a thirty-four-year-old American man, Harry Deiter, who awkwardly introduces himself as Jason's half-brother. What Harry wants from Jason is bizarre: to be compatibility-tested for a possible kidney donation to their dying non-Native father, a man Jason has no memory of ever meeting and who, after a brief and secret affair, abandoned Jason's mother when he was two months old. Both Jason and Harry are about to have their most fundamental and sustaining beliefs shaken to the core by their respective relationships to the biological father they inadvertently share. Harry, the naive historical positivist, buoyed up by a lifetime of relative privilege as a member of the dominant imperial culture, encounters in Jason the anger and bitter resistance of the exploited and abandoned colonial, in terms of both Jason's Native and his Canadian heritage and identity. Embroiled in the irreconcilable absurdity of their dilemma, Harry is forced to acknowledge that the father he has loved and respected all his life has concealed from his American family his capacity for an absent, heartless cruelty. Jason, on the other hand, must wrestle with the possibility that the man who so thoughtlessly exploited and abandoned his Canadian Native mother and their son may in fact have the capacity to be a loving and present husband and father.

In a World Created by a Drunken God premiered in 2004 at Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon. Since then the play has been successfully staged at several professional theatres across Canada.

Cast: 2 male

What people say:

"In Drew Hayden Taylor's compelling drama, two half brothers meet for the first time. Jason is a half-native Canadian. harry is a non-native American. This well-crafted work pits exploitation and abandonment against privilege and comfort, in an ethical debate that surmounts stereotypes of status and culture." — 2006 Governor General's Literary Awards Jury

"Drew Hayden Taylor adheres to the dictates of classic, riveting theatre by presenting stellar characters struggling with hardcore moral questions, while inviting the audience to continue the dialogue after the curtain has dropped…. The presentation sure is masterful." — Quill & Quire

"Taylor… is a dramatist with a biting sense of humour and a keen eye for irony, particularly in his ... play, In a World Created by a Drunken God… a play that is by turns quite sad, touching and thought-provoking…. The play isn't just full of funny faux pas or insults; it is a powerful story of two men confronted by the sins of their father, literally…. In a World Created by a Drunken God tackles the thorny subjects of culture, morality and history to raise the more basic question of who we really are, apart from convenient labels and identity politics." — Surrey Now

"Drew Hayden Taylor has a deft touch for mixing comedy and commentary in an entertaining and all-Canadian form of social satire. — Vancouver Sun

"Taylor has succeeded in creating an intriguing and thought-provoking story, with in-depth characters and mind-wrenching questions." — The Multicultural Review

About the Playwright:

Drew Hayden Taylor one of Canada's best known and most prolific Indigenous writers. An Ojibway born on Curve Lake First Nation near Peterborough, Ontario, he has worn many hats in his literary career, from performing stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., to being Artistic Director of Canada's premiere Aboriginal theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. He has been an award-winning playwright (with productions of his work in Canada, the US, and Europe), a journalist/columnist (appearing regularly in several Canadian newspapers and magazines), short-story writer, novelist, television scriptwriter, and documentary filmmaker.

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