Full Circle Theatre Company’s production of Scenes From Plays I Never Wrote is a play with a lesson, and it’s delightful, It’s playing at Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace as part of the 2016 Fringe Festival. I really enjoyed it.
Greta Papageorgiu wrote and directs the play. In the program notes she said that she was part of the chorus lamenting the scarcity of good roles for women. This is her first finished script. It’s wonderful and there are certainly good roles for women in the piece. And one good role for a man.
Katherine (played by Brittney A. Filek-Gibson) is a playwright who can’t ever finish a play. She has a stash of 40 incomplete plays. She meets Juice (Ayesha Mansur Gonsalves), her ‘creative unconscious’, who offers to help her finish one of the plays.
Juice suggests that they recruit two ‘unemployed actors’ – Arlen Aguayo Stewart as Chantal and Mat Valois as Michael – from the audience to read the parts.
It takes Katherine a while to realize that Juice isn’t as benign as she claims to be. This leads to a terrific fight scene. Kudos to Fight coordinator Louisa Zhu. It was one of the best, if not the best, fight scenes I have ever seen.
It’s a joy to see such a talented cast working so well together.
The script is terrific, funny and fast-paced, but I have to say that Juice has the best lines and Mansur Gonsalves delivers them with relish. Plus she gets to wear red pants and matching lipstick.
Definitely one to add to your must see list.
Details
- Scenes From Plays I Never Wrote plays at the Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace. (16 Ryerson Ave)
- Tickets are $12 at the door and in advance, and can be bought online, by telephone (416-966-1062), from the Fringe Club at Honest Ed’s Alley, and — if any remain — from the venue’s box office starting one hour before curtain. The festival also offers a range of money-saving passes for serious Fringers.
- Be aware that Fringe performances always start exactly on time, and that latecomers are never admitted.
- Content Warnings: Gunshots, Realistic Violence or Gore, Mature Language.
- This venue is wheelchair-accessible.
Performances
- Sunday July 3rd, 01:45 pm
- Monday July 4th, 07:00 pm
- Wednesday July 6th, 09:15 pm
- Thursday July 7th, 12:00 pm
- Friday July 8th, 04:00 pm
- Saturday July 9th, 11:00 pm
Photo of Ayesha Mansur and Brittney A. Filek-Gibson by Mike Last Photo
I have been to many previous TO fringe fests and also in other cities – so it is safe to say that I have seen lots and lots of Fringe. Unfortunately this was easily the worst play I have ever seen. It was painfully repetitive and I could not wait for it to be over. It had a good premise and a few interesting and creative aspects… but it was a play that should have been 15 minutes which instead was painful dragged out for an hour.
By watching this play, I learned (paraphrasing Homer Simpson) that violence is the cause of and the solution to all of life’s problems, particularly writer’s block.