After Class: Parents Night and The Bigger Issue

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

These two plays take a hyper-critical view of the public education system. Parents Night is a scathing, bold look at the inside of an elementary school classroom. The Bigger Issue turns its eye towards the fragile ecosystem of junior high.

George F. Walker is one of Canada's most popular playwrights.

Reviews

"As in all of Walkers best work, there is a lot happening here on several levels. We laugh at the foibles of parents and teachers as Walker piles misfortune on coincidence on looming disaster. It is extremely funny and bitingly satirical. But then we are aware of a deep sadness under the surface. These are human beings struggling to survive against harsh odds and in the most taxing of circumstances. There is also abundant compassion for teachers. Deeper still is Walkers smouldering anger at the floundering educational system and at a society that actively discriminates against the poor and the marginalized ... extremely funny and bitingly satirical ... see it and rejoice; a new George Walker cycle is something to be celebrated." Robert Crew, Toronto Star

"George F. Walkers plays dont allow audiences to simply sit back and be entertained. Satiric, questioning, occasionally absurd but always with sympathy for his characters, Walker focuses on our social frameworks and the ways were messed them up." Jon Kaplan, NOW Magazine

Author Bio

George F. Walker is one of Canada's most popular playwrights and the king of black comedy. Since beginning his career in the 1970s Walker has written more than thirty plays, most of them fast-paced tragicomedies that expose and satirize the selfishness and aggression of modern urban life. Walker's awards and honours include the Order of Canada, two Governor General's Literary Awards, five Dora Mavor Moore Awards, nine Chalmers Canadian Play Awards, and the Governor General's lifetime achievement award. He has been the subject of a volume of the series Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre in English, a collection of academic writing on his plays. Walker's plays have been presented in more than seven hundred productions across Canada, the United States, and around the world; they have been translated into French, German, Hebrew, Turkish, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, and Japanese.Moore Awards; and eight Chalmers Canadian Play Awards.

(2016).