Games: Who Wants to Play?

By Linda Griffiths

In the aftermath of a local high-school boy’s mysterious death, Dan and Marion Metcalf are increasingly worried about their son Zach. He’s apathetic and shuts himself away in the basement to play video games and spend time with Keira, his virtual girlfriend and confidante, giving his parents more to worry about than their own insecurities and lacklustre sex life. When Zach’s best friend, Micky, begins to spend more time around the house, bonding with Dan and flirting with Marion, even Keira cannot anticipate the depth of Zach’s rage and sense of alienation. Will his repressed feelings culminate in a violent act that is sure to go viral?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press
• Release date: Sep 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781770914209

Linda Griffiths

Playwright/actor Linda Griffiths is the winner of five Dora Mavor Moore Awards, a Gemini award, two Chalmers awards, the Quizanne International Festival Award and Los Angeles's A.G.A. Award for her title performance in the John Sayles film Lianna . She's been nominated twice for the Governor General's Award. Her twelve plays include Chronic, Alien Creature, The Duchess: a.k.a Wallis Simpson and Maggie & Pierre . She is the co-author (with Maria Campbell) of The Book of Jessica .

Book preview

Also by Linda Griffiths

Age of Arousal

Alien Creature: A Visitation from Gwendolyn MacEwen

The Book of Jessica (with Maria Campbell)

Chronic

The Last Dog of War

Maggie and Pierre & The Duchess

Sheer Nerve: Seven Plays (includes Maggie and Pierre, O.D. on Paradise, Jessica, The Darling Family, A Game of Inches, Brother Andre’s Heart, and The Duchess)

Contents

Production History

CHARACTERS &SETTING

PROLOGUE

ACT ONE

SCENE ONE: THAT THING

WITH HIS FACE

SCENE TWO: VIRAL

SCENE THREE: NEWS OF THE WORLD

SCENE FOUR: MARION PLAYS THE GAME

SCENE FIVE: INSOLENCE

SCENE SIX: S(T)IMULATION

SCENE SEVEN: FREEDOM OR DEATH

SCENE EIGHT: PLAYING HOUSE

SCENE NINE: FAILING EVERYTHING

SCENE TEN: SOMETIMES YOU EAT AND SOMETIMES YOU SLEEP

SCENE ELEVEN: BETRAYAL

ACT TWO

SCENE ONE: KEIRA IS IN LOVE

SCENE TWO: HARMLESS

SCENE THREE: BONDING

SCENE FOUR: FASHION RUNWAY

SCENE FIVE: REROUTE MY SON

SCENE SIX: KEIRA IS GONE

SCENE SEVEN: TRANSMOGRIFICATION

SCENE EIGHT: FAMILY DINNER

SCENE NINE: VIRAL 2

SCENE TEN: CUDDLES

About the Author

Copyright

Games: Who Wants to Play? was first produced at Alberta Theatre Projects’ Enbridge playRites Festival in Calgary from March 7 through April 5, 2014.

It featured the following cast and creative team:

CHARACTERS

Marion Metcalf: Forty-eight years old. A white, middle-class woman who works freelance in event planning.

Dan Metcalf: Fifty years old. A white, middle-class corporate project manager.

Zach Metcalf: Fifteen years old. Marion and Dan’s son.

A white, middle-class adolescent boy.

Micky Chen: Sixteen years old. A Chinese Canadian upper-middle-class boy.

Keira: Zach’s virtual girlfriend. Beautiful, delicate, young. The girl next door. Keira only appears onscreen.

SETTING

A medium-sized North American city. Now.

PROLOGUE

ZACH:

There was a boy in a cave. He was reading a book. Do you know what a book is? He wanted to read a book. A cave is a good place to read a book—as long as you take a candle along. He climbed a cliff along a gorge to get to the cave, digging his feet into crevices, hanging onto roots. The cave was small but with a great rock to lean his back against while he read. Through the opening of the cave he could see the whole valley and the river rushing below. Later, it got dark. The boy decided to build a fire. He climbed from the cave to the lip of the rock, looking down into the deep gorge. He was very high up. But before he could light the fire, it got dark. It got too dark to see.

ACT ONE

SCENE ONE: THAT THING

WITH HIS FACE

The kitchen. Evening. MARION and DAN are chopping vegetables. She looks at him.

MARION:

It’s boys? Is it boys? Is it all boys? Every news story you see. And now Michael Ferguson. It could have been Zach. I don’t know. What? You’ve got