The Jungle
Description
Can Jack and
Veronyka ever get ahead? In this all-too-relatable love story in a city
suffocating under late-stage capitalism, a young couple is pitted against odd
after odd in a way that isn’t about testing one’s character anymore—it’s simply
reality.
Jack, a second-generation
Chinese Canadian cab driver meets Veronyka, an undocumented factory worker and
waitress from Moldova, as he’s bringing her from one job to the other. Their
chance encounter blooms into an unlikely romance, stolen in moments between
shifts, and then a hasty marriage, which solves migration issues but brings the
pair even deeper into the challenges of providing for themselves and their
families. The painful death of both of Jack’s parents and the sense of
helplessness that has dogged both of their families leads Jack and Veronkya to
desperate measures to escape. Some hard work mixed with some political
blackmail brings them to a new life, but at what cost?
Reviews
“This play isn’t about Jack and Veronyka: their love story is the bait—well, let’s call it an invitation—for audiences to consider how it is that systems consistently fail decent people.”
- Karen Fricker, Toronto Star
“[A] powerful
- Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine
political parable.”
“A punch to the gut: very real and very much told with eyes wide open . . . It moved me and kept me thinking, long after curtain call.”
- Isabella O’Brien, Mooney on Theatre
“The Jungle is a boldly political new play, argumentative and direct and a bit radical. It is also a touchingly honest drama, brimming with humor and pathos.”
- Louis Train, BroadwayWorld