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 & The Candidate will make sure you never look at politics the same way again.

Kat Sandler is a writer, screenwriter, director, and the artistic director of Theatre Brouhaha. She has directed fourteen of her original plays, including the Dora Mavor Moore Award–nominated Bang Bang, the Toronto Best of Fringe hits Bright Lights, Punch Up, Help Yourself, and Delicacy, and Liver, Cockfight, and Retreat. Her play Mustard won the 2016 Dora Award for Outstanding New Play. She was the 2015 recipient of NOW Magazine’s Audience Choice Award for Best Director and Best Playwright. She is the Canada Council Playwright-in-Residence at Tarragon Theatre and is currently working on two television productions with Shaftsbury and eOne. Kat is a graduate of Queen’s University. She lives in Toronto.

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“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