The Party & the Candidate - by Kat Sandler (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In these two entwined, fast-paced plays, the hilarious goings-on behind the scenes of a controversial election chaotically unfold first at the fundraiser that will decide the party's nominee and then months later at a debate the night before the election.

The top candidates for the Left are Bill Biszy, a gay Black man who's also the star of the Sharkman film franchise, and Heather Straughan, the tough woman who's still hampered by the public knowledge that her husband cheated on her many years ago. Both are the guests of honour at Butch Buchanan's fundraiser--whomever he decides to donate to will get the party's nomination, and will run against his brother, the leader of the Right. But so many things stand in Bill and Heather's way before the night ends. Many months later, when the final debate ends in the need for extreme damage control, it's clearly the worst time for everyone's secrets to be revealed, but what fun would it be without some election-day drama?

With a large cast of frenzied characters and piercing dialogue, The Party and The Candidate will make sure you never look at politics the same way again.

Review Quotes

As ambitious and complex a theatrical endeavour as you could imagine...This is an ingenious, audacious, fun and delightful concept.
--Marsha Lederman, The Globe and Mail

The media and celebrity culture and politics, in the sack together in an ungodly three-way, political correctness platitudes and their vicious old-school reverse, earnest idealists and pop culture trash-talkers...they all get teased or defrocked or compromised in the course of The Party and The Candidate.
--Liz Nicholls, 12thnight

About the Author

Kat Sandler is a writer, director and Artistic Director of Theatre Brouhaha. She has written fifteen original plays since 2011, and directed fourteen of them. She was a member of the 2014 Tarragon Playwrights Unit, where she developed Mustard, which won the 2016 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play (General Division), and her play Bang Bang was nominated for the same award in 2018. She was the 2015 recipient of NOW Magazine's Audience Choice Award for Best Director and Best Playwright. Kat is a graduate of the Queen's University drama program. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, and writes in coffee shops and bars.