About the Play:

Open House is a full-length comedy by Drew Hayden Taylor. Five individuals show up at an open house, hoping to find their perfect home. Each feels the most deserving to win the prize. Debate ensues and emotions ignite. With wry humour, Open House deftly navigates current conversations about oppression, colonization, and middle-class aspirations.

Open House takes place at a real estate open house located in the big city. The real estate agent, a white woman, is there making sure the place looks great. Hoping to snag their perfect home in a red-hot housing market, one by one, the interested buyers arrive: A Black man, a Chinese man, a Jewish man, and his Indigenous wife. Each potential buyer feels most deserving of the prize. Due to an incident in the neighbourhood, the police ask everyone to remain in the house for an extended period of time. As they sit there waiting, conversations about issues in their life pop up, starting an almost comedic debate over which of their cultures has faced the most discrimination and exclusion in Canadian history. Passions run high and opinions clash. Open House is a literal and philosophical examination of our tendency to compare and compete, frequently along cultural lines, and the human tendency to attach ourselves emotionally to the concept of land-ownership.

Open House premiered in 2024 by Infinithéâtre at Factory Studios in Montréal.

Cast: 3 female, 2 male

What people say:

"Drew Hayden Taylor is credited with being able to bridge the gap between cultures by tickling the funny-bone. When you see one of his plays you know exactly what that means." — The Hamilton Spectator

"Open House was an idea I've had for a while now, exploring the concepts, humorously, of which culture could claim the right to have been the most oppressed in Canadian history." — Drew Hayden Taylor

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.