Seven Hours to Sundown Book

198. Building Jerusalem by Michael Redhill
Set on New Year's Eve in 1899, in the home of the writer Goldwyn Smith (The Grange), this play brings together four real life characters who never did meet in real life, along with a fictional character to hold things together. They are very different: Karl Pearson is a scientist and into rationality, Darwinism and eugenics; Adelaide Hoodless is a campaigner for milk pasteurization, young women to learn domestic science, but not receive the vote (she also founded the Victorian Order of Nurses); Silas Tertius Rand is a fundamentalist missionary who is anti-progressive and calls his charges "savages"; and Augusta Stowe-Gullen, a suffragette doctor who is the daughter of the first female doctor in Canada. Smith does not show up and the guests play parlour games and sing songs to pass the time and speculate what New Year's 1999 will be like. And midnight is coming, along with the future. This play may not appeal to people who don't have a background in Canadian history. It takes effort. For me, it was worth it, but for others, some research may be necessary.

Walker is one of my favorite living playwrights. Despite the crude violence and language that is sprinkled throughout, his work elevates humor to its darkest and most insightful level. "The East End Plays: Pts. 1 & 2" together represent some of his most potent writing. Watching petty criminals orbit each other in cheap hotel rooms lays bare the futility of human endeavor in the most hilarious way. You'll spend half your time trying to diagnose the mental proclivities of the characters, and the other half laughing at the ridiculous tactics they try to get out of the messes they create. His words jump off the page, alive in your mind as if the show were being staged somewhere in your frontal cortex. Honestly, these plays are downright funny - not because they mock the mental health of their characters, but because they represent mental issues accurately as leading to real-world dilemmas that we can all relate to. The fact they effectively carry deeper messages about habit, routine and mental health demonstrates Walker's strengths as a storyteller.