The Works

Montreal Fringe Festival
June 8 – 17, 2007

Written by Joseph Shragge
Directed by Alison Darcy

Set in an abstracted, crumbling, old totalitarian-style prison, Abalex and Keterin are two hapless turnkeys stuck with the task of guarding Penser, their not-so-submissive prisoner. Confounded and threatened when Penser starts sliding them cryptic notes under the cell door, the guards decide they must assert their authority. The dilemma is…how? With force? Threats? Feigned indifference? In a hectic atmosphere of mounting paranoia and frustration, the guards resort to increasingly absurd intimidation tactics. The result is poetic delirium and a comedy of self-defeat.

The Works was first workshopped at the Montreal Playwright’s Workshop, and given a reading under the direction of Emma Tibaldo in May 2005. A workshop production was performed at the Montreal Anarchist Theatre Festival in May 2006, directed by Joseph Shragge and starring Jesse Todd, Danny Brochu, and Mike Hughes. The play was then produced by Scapegoat Carnivale at the 2007 Montreal Fringe Festival.

Credits:

Written by Joseph Shragge
Directed by Alison Darcy
Music by David Oppenheim and Brian Lipson
Cast: Andreas Apergis, Daniel Brochu, David Potter
Designers: Cathia Pagotto and Thomas Barker
Stage Manager: Melanie St. Jacques
Wardrobe Aid: Susana Vera and Allison Freeman
Poster Designer: Allison Freeman

Reviews/Awards:

“Theatre-of-the-absurd magic.” (Matt Radz, The Gazette)

“If Samuel Beckett and David Lynch ever teamed up to write a prison drama, this would be it.” (Montreal Fringe Festival audience review)

Runner-up, Centaur Theatre Best Production award