By Malcolm Murray
Comedic, satirical, and at times solemn, The Philosopher showcases the range of human complexity from nonsense to wisdom. Murray’s characters range from a philosopher in chains brought up from the basement to entertain guests to a psychologist who assists a traumatized patient to become more self-aware, only to result in greater angst. Provocative, perceptive, and rife with questions about the motives and morality of our everyday conduct, The Philosopher ultimately deals with the search for meaning and our need to believe. Murray writes, “Believe what though? Politics. Religion. Sports. It’s obvious that content doesn’t matter. It’s just belief itself. What they fear most is not believing. No one can stand that.”
Apart from being a playwright, Malcolm Murray is also a fiction writer and philosopher. His produced plays include “Art of Posing” (2014), “The Abettor” (2013), “The Philosopher” (2012), and “Chop Wood, Carry Water” (2008). He is the author of five philosophy books including Morals and Consent (2017). Malcolm lives with his wife, a cat, a dog, and recently, though less agreeably, a raccoon. He teaches Philosophy at the University of Prince Edward Island.
April 2019
6 x 9, 224 pages, softcover, perfect bound, $24.95
Island Studies Press at UPEI
ISBN 978-1-988692-22-7
Also available as a PDF
PURCHASE THE BOOK HERE or at your local bookshop
NEWS
The next step for P.E.I. Playwright Malcom Murray, The Guardian, April 18, 2019
Playwright Caberet and Book Launch, Saturday April 27, 2019
Review in Canadian Notes and Queries, Fall 2019
A collection of one-act plays “that sustains interest for the solitary reader who can linger over deliberately off-kilter lines, bitterness and touches of menace….Satire is often conservative, its aim being to correct mores so that a rosier past might be resurrected. Murray’s own views aren’t what you’d call prelapsarian. Everyone is damaged and the universe is lawless.”
Jeff Bursey, Canadian Notes and queries, Fall 2019