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.

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"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

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"...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

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"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

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"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

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"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

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“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