The Works
“Theatre-of-the-absurd magic.”
- Montreal Gazette
June 8 – 17, 2007
*Runner-up - Best Production*
Centaur Theatre Frankie (Montreal fringe) Award,
Presented at the 17th Annual Montreal Fringe Festival.
By Joseph Shragge, Directed and Dramaturged by by Alison Darcy. Assistant Directed by Joseph Shragge.
Stage Managed by Melanie St-Jacques, Original Score by Brian Lipson and David Oppenheim, Set Design by Thomas Barker, Costume Design by Susana Vera, Wardrobe assistant Allison Freedman, Lighting Design by Cathia Pagotto.
Cast: Andreas Apergis, Daniel Brochu and Daivd Potter.
Musician: David Oppenheim
Photo credits: Alison Darcy. Featuring David Oppenheim.
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.
"If Samuel Beckett and David Lynch ever teamed up to write a prison drama, this would be it.”
- Audience Buzz review
