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Literary Criticism Drama

Essays on George F. Walker

Playing with Anxiety

by (author) Chris Johnson

Publisher
Talonbooks
Initial publish date
Jan 1999
Category
Drama
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780921368823
    Publish Date
    Jan 1999
    List Price
    $29.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781772010596
    Publish Date
    May 2016
    List Price
    $24.95

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Description

From his plundering of elements from B-movies and melodrama in early plays like Zastrozzi and Beyond Mozambique to the uneasy satire and the class politics of the East End and the Power plays, and now most recently in the shape of “Suburban Motel,” a cycle of six new plays, George F. Walker has not only created a substantial and impressive body of work, but impressed it all with his unique “Walkeresque” stamp—brash, assertive, perceptive, genuinely perverse, often wonky, and very, very funny. Toronto’s most-produced and internationally recognized playwright, Walker’s plays have appeared on stages in London and New York, across North America and around the world.

About the author

Chris Johnson is a professor of English literature, specialing in Canadian drama and theatre, at the University of Manitoba. He recently co-directed Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead with Margaret Groome for Stoppardfest 2007. Johnson was one of the first writers to bring the work of George F. Walker to critical attention, and he continues to write and give papers on Walker and dark comedy in Canadian drama.

Chris Johnson's profile page

Editorial Reviews

“This book is … both very welcome and long overdue. … Johnson covers all of Walker’s twenty-seven plays [prior to Heaven]. He also provides a thorough account of Walker criticism … a valuable guide to extant scholarship.”
– Harry Lane, for Modern Drama

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