A Family Dinner

Presented as part of the joint international stage project “Ukraine – Canada” 

That quiet and seemingly perfect evening gave no hint of the storm to come. The wife was preparing to visit her mother, while the husband, silently delighted, looked forward to a clandestine rendezvous with his mistress. But then – the telephone rings and everything changes...

A single untruth is a small lie; a few deceptive phrases – a grand falsehood. But the distortion of reality? That, one might say, becomes an irresistible game. As one of the characters observes, “It’s a game called ‘The Happy Family’. Typically played after dinner. Everyone pretends to be related to the same people, while secretly entangled in affairs with others. The objective is to guess who’s whose relative and who’s whose lover. The more lovers you have – the more points you score.”

People who play games always believe they are in control. But sooner or later, the game begins to take on a life – and rules – of its own. Especially when the players have secrets they are desperate to keep from one another…