A CUTTING SATIRE CONCERNING THE DEATH SPIRAL OF THE WHITE, MALE IDENTITY With his divorce nearly finalized, the surprise success of his first book on the wane, and his ill-advised affair with grad student Lara Kitts put to bed, Dr. Barker Samuel Stone is on the precipice of a cozy tenure-track existence. All in all, none too shabby for a straight, aware, middle-class white dude, amirite?

Then an enigmatic e-mail sends Barker's life spiralling along an unanticipated trajectory. Summoned to a late-night confab at the campaign office of controversial mayoral candidate Baz Randell - folk hero to some, populist blowhard to everyone else - Barker is looped in on an epic scandal that the politicos in Baz's employ hope Barker might be able to mitigate.

In the midst of mounting chaos, Barker is informed that an anonymous complainant has levied a claim of sexual misconduct against him. Given the university's embarrassing record of botching cases of harassment and assault, Barker is advised that the administration is looking to bring the hammer down on someone - anyone - hard.

In his whole life, Barker has never before felt so much like a nail.

Jason Patrick Rothery is Calgary-based writer and with nearly twenty years of experience as a professional theatre artist.A graduate of UBC’s Creative Writing program, and holding an MA in Humanities from York, Jason was a resident dramaturge at Playwrights Theatre Centre (Vancouver), resident playwright of the Soulpepper Academy (Toronto), the co-founder and Festival Director of the Calgary International Fringe Festival, and the Artistic Director of Ghost River Theatre (Calgary). He has enjoyed dozens of professional productions of his work and collaborative creations. His adaptation of China Miéville’s The City & the City enjoyed a sold-out premiere run at the 2017 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Inside the Seed won several Jessie Richardson Awards, including Outstanding Original Script, and was published by Talonbooks in April 2016. After multiple mainstage mountings, Birth: EE Cummings in Song toured to New York City’s 42nd Street Theatre in July 2017. Rothery’s first novel, Privilege, was published by Enfield & Wizenty in 2019.

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"Topical, hilarious, controversial, Privilege is an unheralded gem" - Winnipeg Free Press