Philipps-Universität Marburg

Fremdsprachliche Philologien

WS 2014/2015 10 090 00025

“Canadian Drama: History and Recent Developments”

Prof. Martin Kuester

“George F. Walker and his works: And So It Goes and

Escape from Hapiness. Similarities and novelty

regarding style”

Attila Kachlik

(262 08 71 ERASMUS+)

MA in Nordamerikastudien

8 ECTS

kachlikattila@gmail.com

+49 15 227 484 787

10-FEB-2015, Marburg

Contents

Introduction..................................................................................................3.

Chapter I. – George F. Walker and His Style

1.1 The Author’s Biography.......................................................................4.

1.2 Inspiring Authors and Events...............................................................5.

1.3 The Period of Absence........................................................................6.

Chapter II. – Escape from Hapiness versus And So It Goes

2.1 Escape from Hapiness overview..........................................................7.

2.2 And So It Goes overview.....................................................................9.

2.3 Comparison.......................................................................................10.

Conclusion...........................................................................................................13.

References..........................................................................................................14.

Plagiarism Statement...................................................................................15.

Introduction

This work is designed to present George F. Walker as Canadian playwright

and his style, regarding the changes that occurred during his absence from the

world of artistry. In this paper the emphasis will be put on the investigation of the

influences that might have initiated the changes or have created new aspects. The

plays “Escape from Happiness” and “And So It Goes” will be the subjects of the

observation to demonstrate the differences between them.

In the first chapter an overview of the author’s life, works and of his

achievements is going to be given in parallel of laying down the main lines of the

argument that is going to be demonstrated and proved throughout the second

chapter – thus investigating the reasons for his absence and finding the causes of

his change of style in his personal life. After having described and searched his

personal life, a paragraph is going to be dedicated to the analysis of his general

style, based on authors and artists that had or may have had inspired him.

Finishing the first chapter, a few critics’ viewpoint on the author and his work will

be taken into account.

In the second chapter the emphasis will be on the two abovementioned

works that were chosen. Preliminarily, a plot and analysis-based review will help to

extract the main passages of interest from both of the plays. In this section, the

presentation and comparison of the works will take place. Whether there are more

of similarities or differences between them (concerning the style), will be revealed.

Comparing the results, the work will collect the changes and will try to

evaluate their extent, pointing at their reasons. These plays, written by a

playwright who got motivated by gallows humour, are parts of recent Canadian

literary and artistic works, trying to depict the Canadian society. Revealing,

whether the changes in his style have occurred because of the changes in the

Canadian society that happened during the ten years of his absence, I am

expecting to find interesting results, and draw valid parallels between his works

and the facts, which they have been built upon.

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Chapter I. - George F. Walker and His Style

The first chapter focuses on the brief biography of the author, on other

authors who had an influence on George F. Walker; moreover his period of

absence will also be discussed, taking into account others’ opinion on that.

1.1 The Author’s Biography

It is essential and important to have a look on the author’s biography if we

must analyse one or two of his works. It does apply for every other author besides

George F. Walker. And not without cause – his early life and upbringing hides

many traces for the reasons of his later style.

He was born in Toronto, 1947. Toronto is the largest city in Canada, albeit it

is not the country’s capital. Therefore it also functions as an industrial centre.

Comparing the population Ottawa has less than 900 thousand, Toronto more than

2 and a half million of inhabitants. Walker lived with his parents Florence, and

Malcolm Walker in this big city, and has been raised in the so-called “East End” of

Toronto, which is proven to be a working-class neighbourhood. Generally, instead

of a glamorous society and wealth, he saw the hardships, which the people went

there trough, together with the poverty and its victims. This was a good start to be

devoted to gallows humour in style and deconstructionism later.

In Toronto, he attended to Riverdale College, but he did not finish the

programme. Like it or not, the place where he grew up, certainly might have been

suppressing his abilities; other than that it is not essential to have a degree to be

successful or famous. After the college, he has tried himself at a bunch of

professions; he worked a variety of different jobs. His abilities of artistry though,

did not fade – he wrote small stories and many poems during his working years.

His true career however began in the early 1970s when, while driving a taxi in

Toronto, he noticed a poster, which called for original, authentic works or scripts

for the newly founded Factory Theatre of Toronto. He applied and in 1972 the

theatre put its future of the performance of his first play, The Prince of Naples,

initiating a long and mutually beneficial partnership (Canadian Encyclopedia).

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1.2 Inspiring Authors and Events

Amongst his first plays we can find several, which have been influenced by

the European playwrights, the Romanian Eugene Ionesco and by the Irish Samuel

Beckett. Both of them were a devoted post-modernist and member of the avant-

garde movement; they lived in Paris for a while. His style has also been influenced

by so-called B-movies (low budget films), comic books, melodramas and film noir,

as a basic style.

Beneath the messages of his plays he has been often hiding some of the

moral dilemmas of nowadays’ modern society. He has written 30 stage scripts, but

in parallel he has been working for TV-channels, producing television shows, radio

shows and also some movies. His motivation was mainly instrumental, having

faced the way of living in East End. The film Niagara Motel from 2006 is a

Canadian drama, and has achieved several positive feedbacks outside of the

country’s borders too.

In 1984 a slight change in his writing style was observable. With the plays

Criminals in Love, Better Living, Beautiful City, Escape from Happiness, Love and

Anger and Tough! He introduced the East End plays, which were mainly set in

Toronto’s working-class district, but the exaggerated characters of his earlier plays

got more recognizable figures from the everyday life. Here the reader or the

spectator can observe a different style, a more personal aspect of the main topic.

In the Suburban Motel, a six-play cycle from 1997, the same the same trends can

be found regarding the style.

It can be stated that his first plays, from The Prince of Naples; through

Ambush at Tether’s End, Sacktown Rag, Bagdad Saloon, and Gossip till Zastrozzi,

The Master of Discipline, as an author, he embodied the artist that based his

works mainly upon the influences and the trends that others have created. But with

the introduction of the East End plays, he finally found himself, his own way and

trend of depicting different aspects. Nevertheless, his later absence was still to

bring some other changes, which makes the differences between And So It Goes

and Escape from Happiness (Canadian Encyclopedia).

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1.3 The Period of Absence

An unexpected pause has come into the artistic life of the author, which has

lasted for more than ten years. In this absence Walker mainly wrote for television,

designing TV-shows and several scripts.

“George F. Walker has been having a recurring dream. A man knocks on his

door, says "I just hate your stuff," and offers him a million dollars to stop writing.

Walker gleefully agrees, then cuts a side deal by which he can write all he wants

but must hide it away in a drawer, never to be seen. Presto: Walker's in paradise”

– begins his article James Bradshaw, at The Globe and Mail. A hidden meaning

could be observed here, that states, Walker did the pause to earn money, which

means that he could not make his living put of artistry as a playwright. Whether it

was too much, everyone can decide himself, but it is true that there is only room

for passion and artistry, hobbies and all these occupations, when there is no need

to count the coin. Walker knows that, he saw it in his early life, he wrote it in his

plays.

Walker is not a celebrity kind of person and does not like stand in front of the

audience. Whether it was illness or an important meeting, most of the times he

managed to get away from his unfolding plays. He states that the TV gives him

rest and less fear, in parallel more distance, and more anonymity. During his 10

year absence (12 to be sure), he was thinking to quit writing plays. Nevertheless,

he had been motivated by the economic and mental health issues what the

society’s majority struggles. He wouldn’t have been himself, if he hadn’t got

motivated by such a negative factor, thanks for his sarcasm and gallows humour.

Anyway problems are always there, and without talking about them – or depicting

them, as the author did – the solution would never be found. He said "this play just

kind of escaped from me. … It came out really fast, like in about 10 days"

(Bradshaw).

After And So It Goes he wrote King of Thieves (2010), Dead Metaphor

(2013), The Burden of Self Awareness (2014), The Ravine (2014), and Parents

Night (2014), which proves to be a respectable amount of work in four years. He

must be certainly amused by what he does – and the audience too.

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Chapter II. – Escape from Hapiness versus And So It Goes

The second chapter contains the overviews and brief analyses of the plays

and seeks to find the differences regarding style, moreover tries to understand the

reasons behind them. It will also try to estimate the efficiency of its work regarding

popularity.

2.1 Escape from Hapiness overview

This piece of work is slightly longer compared to And So I Goes, having more

characters too. Nora the mother, who keeps the play’s family together in her own

way, then there are the three daughters, being totally different from the other:

Elizabeth, the oldest, bull-like, bi-sexual independent woman who handles the

family’s finances; Mary Ann in the middle is seemingly hopeless, having her child

in the orphanage for she is not sure about her own will regarding future, and the

youngest, Gail, who is a sceptic one, but at least does take care of her own

daughter, living together with Junior her husband. The play contains five more

characters, the “prodigal” father, Tom; Dian Black and Mike Dixon policemen, and

Rolly and Stevie Moore, absentminded thugs.

As prior information there is nothing given, it unfolds during the play itself.

The father was a drunk according to the mother, who was keeping his daughters in

constant fear. Mary Ann hardly comes over this terror, Gail became sceptic and

Elisabeth turned into a hostile, aggressive woman. Finally the father had deserted

the family and tried to set their house with on fire (and the family inside). He left for

a while and his wife pretended that he was dead. When he suddenly returned, he

played himself as he was demented and dump, however this was just a disguise.

He tried to creep back into the family house and stay safe there for a while,

regarding his doubtful and illicit affairs.

Nevertheless, the play begins with Nora in the kitchen with her daughter Gail,

her son-in-law lying on the floor beaten-up, mumbling to the women. At this point

no one understands the meaning of it, they pretend as if Junior were drunk, albeit

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her wife is circling around him anxiously. Nora suggests that he can stand up

himself and tell them what has happened (Escape from Happiness).

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Two policemen come to investigate what might have happened, but they not

only high-minded with each other, they treat the present family members as

criminals. Trying to play the hard-skinned policeman, Mike Dixon insults his

colleague and the citizens several times. Then thugs and drugs are coming out

from the basement, after the police gone, not even sure whether they want to take

the women as hostages or not. Later on a secret plan of the father Tom and Junior

is revealed. At the end everyone confesses his sins and finally the father said, it

was all for the family, and he wishes to stay with them, he promises to change.

Escape from Hapiness is not a happy play about a happy family. It is about a

family, which struggles for survival, its members having personal and mental

problems as parts of a level in the ill-structured society, where all this is normal.

The only moments where humour appears are the ones, where the sisters

Elizabeth and Mary Ann – the personal counterparts – are arguing whether

Elisabeth is lesbian or not, for Mary-Ann did not know anything about this fact, and

as she does not know anything about herself either, she decides to investigate the

reason for her sister being a lesbian and she wants to become one as well. The

hilarious halfwit tempts the red-eyed bull by doing so, which ends up in some

funny scenes.

Regarding the title, the mother mentions once, that they should not chase

happiness all the time, maybe it is exactly the happiness that meant to find them.

And they are the ones who meant to wait for it, and accept what it brings, value

and value every moment of it. With their behaviour they are just “escaping from

happiness”, as if they were afraid of it or did not know the meaning of it. They are l

all lost souls, who are trying to find the spirit of life on the short-run, – or in

Elizabeth’s case that would be a “short rum”, if she was not found of scotch

instead (Escape from Happiness).

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2.2 And So It Goes overview

After the abovementioned absence, George F. Walker had come up with a

story of a middle-class family, facing financial ruin and mental problems, causing

the loss of their daughter at the end. Topics, which we can find amongst the

varying themes of the play, are facing the capitalism and fighting with the

consequences of the loss of a job thus – the insecurity caused by poverty;

moreover bitter satire and gallows humour inspired scenes, aggression and

carelessness in between the family members.

There aren’t too many characters in the play except from the main members

of the family. Ned is the father, Gwen is the mother and Karen is the daughter, but

the most important person that forms the play into the required form is the ghost of

the late American writer, Kurt Vonnegut, who is famous of his satire, and

postmodernist aspects. He is the one, with whom fist Gwen, and then later on Ned

talks to. Karen does not “face” the author in the play, she is being rather amused

by the illusions and the imagined characters whom the effects of drugs – that she

has been taking – had created.

The carelessness towards other family members can be observed at each of

the characters: if it is not responsibility that drives the parents to be interested in

their daughter’s well-being, than nothing. The contact between them had been

reduced to a rather basic and peeving form, but only until their last child is gone.

She must have been a prostitute and a drug addict too. For their parents barely

know anything regarding this matter.

Back to the “psychiatrist” Vonnegut, he tries to help to the parents to get on

with each other well; sometimes together, as both of the parents are fond of

“taking the other” to the counselling – at which point schizophrenia can be

suspected at the couple too. Whether it is the material insecurity or the presence

of deprivation within the family, or just genetics that has caused this mental illness

is up to the spectator/reader to decide. But the presence of Kurt Vonnegut is far

more than just an effect of the insanity that is going on in the play. Knowing him

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makes obvious that he act as a stylistic device too. He is the “living” post-modern

in this work, indicates the presence of deconstructionism (And So It Goes).

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2.3 Comparison

After having described both the plays’ plot and have analysed them briefly,

the comparison and the evaluation can take place, concerning the changes in the

author’s style and the way he set up and wrote these plays. Exactly twenty years

has passed between the births of these works. And what has changed in the main

theme? Not much. Still it is clear, after a deeper analysis, that there are certain

differences between the topics of the main problems.

George F. Walker likes to deal with family themes; it is a reoccurring motive

in his works. The gallows-humour and the bitter sarcasm are crucial parts of the

plays too – through them the author expresses the essence of his work; otherwise

his plays would be no more than stories. Regarding the social background of the

characters, he often creates the ones, who struggle to earn the minimum wage, to

feed themselves. Mental illnesses are neither extraneous to the fundament of his

works (Glenn Sumi).

Concerning the author’s independence on other inspiring works and authors,

it is certain that by the time he wrote Escape from Happiness, he was more distinct

form Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco in style; still in And So It Goes he was

able to create a more authentic piece of art. Incapable fathers and mothers,

drunkard characters, drug smuggling – these are usually negative ought-to-be

elements of a negative postmodern drama, however Walker’s latter work shows a

certain maturity: in parallel he uses less characters but expresses more meaning.

And So It Goes has less story in it, but it puts the emphasis on the revelation of the

characters’ inner self. He has combined postmodernism with gallows-humour,

related to intertextual trivia, including Kurt Vonnegut as a stylistic device,

facilitating the stream of consciousness, disguising it as schizophrenia (at least he

lets the spectator to do so). From this point of view the ghost of the dead author

had multiple roles. He was the symbol of dark humour, in parallel being the one

with whom the characters could talk. This can be another satirical motive,

speaking to a dead man is fun, and impossible. But it is more real-like to make

stream of consciousness come onto the stage in the skin of the late writer.

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There are parts in the plays which share the same ideas or the same way of

expressing bad, but the most important and obvious similarity is that they have

been written by the same author, and there are not many changes in the matter of

theme, or topic. These plays are both present collapsing, ruptured families in the

context of the modern age society.

In overall, in the reality it is not as bad as it is depicted in Walker’s often

sarcastically pessimistic plays, but the truth is that the basis of these works is not

dealing with false problems – there are people who actually got worse fates.

Whether they are based on real time topics or just negative fates in general is not

a question in a certain layer of the society as people come and go, but the

problems remain there for the newcomers.

So far it is clear that there are two families and these families are in bad luck,

or they are just destroying what they have got. The character of the father is

neither positive nor negative in And So It Goes, whereas in Escape from Hapiness

he is depicted more as a bad guy – albeit at the beginning even the audience is

deceived by his state and behaviour. But it is obvious that neither of them is suited

to have a family. Both of them selfish for an extent, but at the end of the stories

they are the ones, who are trying to carve together what has remained of their

family. The fathers have one more common urge in them, as they are both trying

to materialize the future in both families (in illegal or more legal ways). Regarding

selfishness, each of the characters of both plays are selfish. They lock themselves

up behind their artificial and built-up selves, acting as if they were not caring about

anything, and as if they were invulnerable, moreover immune to the load of

negative impacts that attack them.

The second most important characters are the mothers. It seems that in

Escape of Hapiness Nora is more mother-like, than the phlegmatic ignorant Gwen,

Karen’s mother. Nora is negative sometimes, and sarcastic too, but she would

never see one of her daughters become a prostitute, and then a drug addict as

well: finally a corpse. Nora is saner, more realistic and clear sighted. Whether

Gwen is schizophrenic or not is up to the spectator to decide, again, Vonnegut

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might be a stylistic element, the walking past, bringing post-colonialism into the

play.

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The third important category of characters in these plays are the children, or

“the girls” so to say. Neither Gail or Mary Ann, nor Elisabeth has such a dark

destiny as Karen does. It can be said that the sisters of Escape from Happiness

have mental illnesses, but at least not diseases. They are sceptic about their

father and not without cause, but Karen seems to be deprived from both of her

parents (having no sibling anymore). In her case it is even more serious as she is

condemned and locked up into her mind, from where it is seemingly really hard to

ascend to initiate contact with the society that surrounds her, or at least with her

parents, who (when they discover her problem), are also trying to get rid of their

ignorance and artificial self to save their daughter – without success.

The side-characters are also worth to mention as they all help to add an

accent to the atmosphere here and there. Whether Kurt Vonnegut himself is a side

character is a quandary itself, as he is not really a character, but if he was, he

could be the centre on the stage. Mike Dixon, Dian Black, Junior and the two

“thug” Rolly and Stevie Moore together worth a ghost-Vonnegut. Walker certainly

used them to amuse the audience, and to expand the storyline. But so far,

Vonnegut is a good character in And So It Goes, the others from Escape from

Happiness, neither good nor bad – at least they are not evil, but this attribute can

make hero from any of the characters in Walkers world.

Concerning the place where these people live it is not a secret, that in

Escape from Happiness (as it does belong to the East End plays), the “family

house” is probably in the east end of Toronto. This means that they are not rich

and are obviously underclass people, whereas in And So It Goes the family is in a

strong middle-class layer. Till the end of the play however, the situation of Karen’s

family drastically changes, as her father loses his job. The car, the furniture is

gone, then she dies herself, and her parents become “homeless, out of job and

fucked up” (And So It Goes). The ending thus is worse in the latter, but it still holds

a little hope for the future.

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Conclusion

This paper has given an account of the differences and the similarities

concerning George F. Walker’s plays And So It Goes and Escape from Happiness.

The purpose of the current research and observation was to present the

connection between these plays, thus to show the way of the change in Walker’s

style over his absence.

It is stated, that the problems that Walker deals with are common in a certain

layer of the society, however they are not as frequent as we might think. The

havoc caused by ignorance, selfishness and poverty is less in the first play, for it

provides more humour to it, even if it is dark. And So It Goes is more depressive,

and it seems that it deals with social problems, from which the material ones

coming.

The findings undeniably enhance our understanding of the changes that

Walker probably went through under his absence. As he embodies and sets the

core problems of the society out to the stage, he also observes and notices the

changes that are going on in the life of the current society. As he stated, it came

out from him in less than ten days, which obviously reveals, that he did not pay

much attention to writing during his years at the TV. But nevertheless, the

problems what he sees are much more serious than twenty years ago; regarding

his style he became more serious not only at depicting feelings and sorrow

situations but integrating trivia and initiating a self-made stylistic device, with

“whom” the audience has to get along on their own.

Considerably more work will need to be done to determine all of the key

thoughts and ideas that formed these plays. Moreover, further research could also

check the relevance of such social problems based on query and statistics.

Searching for more clues in the life of the author and the people he writes about

could also provide further and well-hidden information.

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Bibliography

“And So It Goes”. Now Magazine. 2010. Glenn Sumi, n.d. Web. 05 February 2015.

“George Walker is back where he belongs”. The Globe and Mail. 2010. James

Bradshaw, n.d. Web. 05 February 2015.

“Historica Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. 2013. The Canadian

Encyclopedia, n.d. Web. 3 October 2014.

Walker, George F. And So It Goes. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2010. Print.

Walker, George F. Escape from Hapiness. Toronto: Coach House Pr, 1992. Print.

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Plagiarism Statement

Versicherung

Ich versichere hiermit an Eides statt, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbständig verfasst, ganz oder in Teilen noch nicht als Prüfungsleistung vorgelegt und keine anderen als die angegebenen Hilfsmittel benutzt habe.

Sämtliche Stellen der Arbeit, die benutzten Werken im Wortlaut oder dem Sinn nach entnommen sind, habe ich durch Quellenangaben kenntlich gemacht.

Dies gilt auch für Zeichnungen, Skizzen, bildliche Darstellungen und dergleichen sowie für Quellen aus dem Internet.

Bei Zuwiderhandlung gilt das Seminar (PS, SE etc.) als nicht bestanden – keineScheinvergabe.

Ich bin mir bewusst, dass es sich bei Plagiarismus um schweres akademischesFehlverhalten handelt, das im Wiederholungsfall weiter sanktioniert werden kann.

Marburg, den ........................................ .......................................Datum Unterschrift

Confirmation of Authorship

I hereby formally declare that the work submitted is entirely my own and does not involve any additional human assistance. I also confirm that it has not been submitted for credit before, neither as a whole nor in part and neither by myself nor by any other person.

All quotations and paraphrases but also information and ideas that have been taken from sources used are cited appropriately with the corresponding bibliographical references provided. The same is true of all drawings, sketches, pictures and the like that appear in the text, as well as of all Internet resources used.

Violation of these terms will result in failure of the seminar and no credits will be awarded. I am aware that plagiarism is serious academic misconduct which can lead to further sanctions on reoccurrence.

Marburg, _________________ _________________________(Date) (Signature)

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