Dramar: The Shipbuilder by Ken Mitchell (1979) or Tommy (1986)

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Essay on Drama
The Shipbuilder is a play that seeks to elaborate on the hostilities that some of the characters do face because of their identity. Moreover, the play stresses on heritage and how some of the individuals decide to adopt other cultures as a result of migration to another country. This paper focuses on the above play and expounds on the happenings that took place in regard to hostilities and heritage among the characters and also describing different character traits of individuals in the play. In addition, it also describes characters with distinguished identities and traits in the play.
In The Shipbuilder,Jaanus Karkulainen, who is the main character in the play, faces hostility in form of rejection from the Canadians due to the controversy that arises due to his name. Jaanus strongly believes in heritage and he is never ready to change his name for any price or for whatever reason. Interestingly, his brother Jukka whose identity is Canadian is unable to convince him to change his identity regardless of the relationship between them. Jaanus still maintains his identity as a Finn. This subjects him to hostility that he faces throughout the play and even in the court when the judge calls him Johnny Crook; he insists that he is Jaanus Karkulainen. Moreover, he believes that since he was born a Finn he will die a Finn. The hostility is also as a result of the low number of Finns in the land of Canada. The author in this case tries to bring out the passion in Jaanus and determination that the character has.
The historical context of the characters is clearly shown especially in the main character. The play portrays him as a Finn living in Canada but at the same time he treasures a lot his heritage. This also explains the historical context of the character by showing his place of origin in the play. In this case, the author ensure that the identity of different characters in the play is known hence creating more understanding of the play. Moreover, his brother who considers himself to be a Canadian is also a Finn who migrated to the land of Canada but later changed his identity from a Finn to Canadian. In this context, the central characters have been portrayed by the author in their historical context. Therefore, despite the play being done in Canada, the characters origin has also been put in a historical context showing their origin and the perception that the Canadians have towards the Finn.
Some of the information regarding the life of Jaanus has been left out. The play has been centered on the controversy o...