The Film Society
by Jon Robin Baitz

Name: The Film Society
Brand: Jon Robin Baitz
SKU: 9780573662294
Rating: 1 (1 reviews)

The Film Society Book Cover — The Film Society Cover

Highlights

Small Cast

Female

Male

1970s Unit Set/Multiple Settings American Comedy

Synopsis

New York critics lavished praise upon this play and called Baitz a major new voice in theatre.

Blenheim is a provincial South African private school modeled on the British education machine.

It is 1970, a time of complacency for everyone but Terry, a teacher who has lost his job because he invited a Black priest to speak at commencement.

Terry tries to involve another Blenheim teacher, but Jonathan cares only about keeping his film society going at all costs even if it means limiting programming to non objectionable films.

When Jonathan's mother promises to donate a substantial amount of money to the school if Jonathan is made headmaster, he must choose which side he is on: Terry's or the establishment's.

Press Reviews

"Using the school as a microcosm for South Africa, Baitz explores the psychological workings of repression in a society that has to kill its conscience in order to persist in a course of action it knows enough to abhor but cannot afford to relinquish."
— The New Yorker

"What distinguishes Mr. Baitz' writing, aside from its manifest literacy, is its ability to embrace the ambiguities of political and moral dilemmas that might easily be reduced to blacks and whites."
— New York Times