Happy Birthday Baby J

By Nick Green

On a sunny summer weekend, Gary and Louise invite friends and family to celebrate the second birthday of their child J, who they are raising without a gender. As the day awkwardly unfolds, grudges are revealed and secrets bubble uproariously to a head. Nick Green’s staggering new comedy explores the possible future we are setting up for our children.

"Nick Green’s script pulls no punches in its exploration of the social dynamics at play between the assembled characters...Intelligent, funny...It’s potent medicine for these troubled times."

Mel Priestly

"...a stunning exploration of parental choices and gender identity."

"Playwright Nick Green’s newest work is a powerful piece that pierces through society’s standard conventions like shards of glass ripping through fabric. And at times it’s very uncomfortable...But despite all the name-calling, broken relationships and emotional devastation, Green ends the play with Louise speaking quietly to a sleeping Baby J. It’s a powerful image that delivers a hopeful note of understanding and change."

St Albert GazetteAnna Borowiecki

"Gender Wars Reach Fever Pitch in Hilarious Happy Birthday Baby J"

"Green is a very funny writer and Happy Birthday Baby J is a well-crafted play."

"The playwright’s spiky, original dialogue sparkles from beginning to end..."

"Happy Birthday Baby J unpacks a wealth of emotions and is both absorbing and compelling."

Gigcity.caColin MacLean

"prickly new comedy by Nick Green... It’s well worth the catching..."

"Happy Birthday Baby J is what happens when a clever playwright adds a genuinely provocative new ingredient, with unknowable side effects, to a withering social satire of class, race, privilege. This new wrinkle is to be found in the multi-faceted sexual politics of gender — diversity and choice. Green’s comedy of manners comes with teeth marks."

"Green has a sharp ear for funny dialogue"

12thnight.caLiz Nicholls

"The premise is richly layered with comedy and satire. But it is also full of meaty sub-themes that suggest fostering an environment of openness is not all it’s cracked up to be."

StAlbertToday.caAnna Borowiecki

“It’s very topical and right on point, and it’s very funny...It’s a little bit like a cross between Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and God of Carnage. It has that acerbic wit... 'Happy Birthday Baby J' is a super-smart play for adults. People will have a lot to talk about after the show..."

John HudsonArtistic Director, Shadow Theatre

Production Details

3 Male

2 Female

75 minutes (no intermission)

By Nick Green

Production History

Happy Birthday Baby J was developed through Factory Theatre’s Natural Resources Development Lab.

The play had it’s world premiere at Shadow Theatre (Edmonton, AB) in their 2019/20 season.

David Ley & Chantal Perron. MARC J CHALIFOUX PHOTOGRAPHY/Photo

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