Riot

by Andrew Moodie

A dramatic and often humorous look at six black Canadians of diverse backgrounds who share a Toronto house. Their lives unfold against the backdrop of civil unrest, which erupted when the Los Angeles police ofÞcers on trial for the beating of Rodney King are acquitted. The fracas outside keeps intruding as characters clash, collide, and swap jokes about everything from racism to the status of Quebec as a distinct society, from Malcolm X to The Road to Avonlea .

Genres: Plays

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 16, 1998

Reviews

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know when you read a book, and it’s still relevant even to today? Well, Riot is one of them! (In this case, if you produced this play today, you really wouldn’t need to change much, thanks to racism).

Plays are always hard to read, as they’re meant to be performed, however that wasn’t as big an issue as I thought it was going to be for this! It was very dynamic, and even though I was reading the words, I really felt the emotions that are meant to be seen, if you know what I mean!

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great play! Set in Toronto at the time of the LA riots, the audience gets a good sense of the impact the events of and after Rodney King’s beating had on both black Americans and Canadians. The characters in the play range in age, gender, orientation but are united through their living in the same rooming house and their experiences dealing with anti-black racism in Canada. The plot unfolds over a few days and offers a consistently tense and dialogue-driven exposition of the events that occur, leading up to a surprising ending that only makes the audience realize the circular nature of systemic racism in North America. For me the only downside was that the play is so clearly of its time and place, younger readers won’t get a lot of the references.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

one to come back to
a play about race in Canada in the 90s - although still relevant to today.

[Amaro Rogel cruz · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my final Grade 10 drama exam I did the last monologue by Alex on the last page and it actually went very well

[Joti · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice short read with substance - very relevant with the Black lives matter movement.