Family Container follows the story of pregnant single mother Terra, living with her 5 children, navigating the complexities of housing while living in a Women’s Abuse Shelter. Terra has been looking for months to find a new home for her family, but has had no luck. Tension rises when the shelter gives her one month to move out. With her eldest daughter navigating sexual health, a son dealing with bullying, and three other children dealing with the sum of the family chaos, Terra, in her mid-thirties, has a lot on her plate, and just when things start to look up for this family, issues arise when abusive father Donavan forces himself back into the picture.
Will Terra and her children survive? Will she be able to break generations of struggle to provide for her children? Only the end will tell. Family Container deals with themes of mental health, domestic abuse, housing, and prejudice.
In this play, resilience is expressed through love, family, and determination.
Keywords: Black Theatre, Family, Shelter, Housing, Women, Toronto, Brampton, Sexual Health
Produced by Theatre Kingston, Kingston ON, April 2025
Winner, JCW Saxton Prize in Playwriting, 2023
Genre: Comedic Drama/Dark Comedy, Theatre for Young Audiences
Acts: 3
Run time: 90 minutes
Suitable for students 14+
Content notes: There is vulgar language, themes of mental health, sexual health, and abuse. This play uses humour to cope with events that may be triggering.
Cast size: 10 actors
Male roles: 5
Female roles: 5
Casting notes:
The children can be played by adult actors.
The children can be played by any gender.
The landlord and the Doctor can be played by the same actor.
Most effective if you try to cast to resemble a family.
Patois is spoken various times; actors who can use this dialect should be considered.
"By bringing his story to the stage, Irons not only honours his family’s resilience but also helps carve out a space for underrepresented voices in the Kingston arts community."
-- Cloey Aconley, Queen's University Journal
"The play is about resilience, and touches on weighty themes such as domestic abuse, housing and prejudice, there’s also humour that “pulls us out when things get a little heavier in the show”..."
-- Peter Hendra, The Kingston Whig Standard
"Family Container portrays a household dealing with a list of struggles long enough to fill this review and more... But at its heart is a beautiful picture of people who are working through difficult times, where you never lose faith that they’ll get through it together. "
-- Aiden Bruce, Kingston Theatre Alliance