Edgerton Foundation New Play Award: Morris Panych, The Shoplifters (Winner)

In this riotously funny new comedy from Morris Panych, we meet Alma, a seasoned career shoplifter who prefers the five-finger discount over some lousy seniors’ day deal. But it’s not just an empty wallet that leads Alma to a life of petty crime – it’s also her strong convictions about social justice and economic inequality.

Along for the ride is Phyllis, Alma’s frazzled accomplice who lacks her mentor’s cool demeanour and snappy comebacks. It’s Alma who does the talking when the pair is apprehended at the grocery store by Dom, an overzealous rookie security guard. Guided by the strictness of his born-again Christian belief, Dom is ready to handcuff the culprits and call the police, but his affable senior partner, Otto, intervenes with a more sympathetic view of the crime: “It’s just a couple a steaks.” As Alma, Phyllis, Dom, and Otto share their wildly different takes on the situation, complex views on morality and ethics begin to emerge.

With its cast of oddball characters, Panych’s comedy offers biting observations about society’s haves and have-nots and how much they might actually have in common.

Cast of 2 women and 2 men.

Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Morris Panych is arguably Canada’s most celebrated playwright and director. His plays have garnered countless awards, including two Governor General’s Literary Awards for Drama (for The Ends of the Earth and Girl in the Goldfish Bowl), fourteen Jessie Richardson Awards (Vancouver), and five Dora Mavor Moore Awards (Toronto). His plays have been produced in over two dozen languages and across the globe. Mr. Panych has directed over ninety productions across Canada and the US. He was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award in 2021 for his CBC Gem webseries Hey Lady!He has appeared in over fifty theatre productions and in numerous television and film roles. He has directed more than ninety theatre productions and written over a dozen plays that have been translated and produced throughout the world. The 2009 Off-Broadway production of his play Vigil opened to rave reviews. Under the title Auntie & Me, Vigil was also produced in London in 2003–04; and in French at Théâtre La Bruyère in Paris in 2005; and his classic 7 Stories ranks 9th among the ten best selling plays in Canada, outselling the Coles version of Romeo & Juliet.For more information on the work and career of Morris Panych, visit his website.

Morris Panych's profile page

• Winner, Edgerton Foundation New Play Award

“Economic inequality isn’t funny. Thank God The Shoplifters is …”
—Washington City Paper

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“The Shoplifters is a gem in a minor key, as a work of literature and a play.”
—The Georgetowner

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“Gripping comedy … this hilarious battle of wills brings the nature and meaning of shoplifting to new scales of justice and calls of a closer examination of the human condition."
—TheatreBloom.com

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“The Shoplifters gives a woman of a certain age the kind of riveting gravitas almost always written for men.”
—metroweekly.com

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“The Shoplifters packs a comic punch.”
—DC Theatre Scene

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“Stocked with terrific jokes.”
—DC Metro Theater Arts

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“The Shoplifters is a hoot … a hysterically funny play, with biting wit and sharply rendered characters.”
—womanaroundtown.com

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“Panych can definitely write jokes”
—Calgary Sun

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“The play is enormous fun and, through all the laughter, it inspires an interesting conversation about the world we find ourselves in today.” – the Prince George Citizen