FAIT ACCOMPLI written and performed by Jason Kyle Fuller, directed by Lynn Zeelenberg. Presented by Hopeful Monster at the Alumnae (70 Berkeley). Runs to September 20, Thursday-Saturday 8 pm, matinee Saturday 2:30 pm. $15, matinee pwyc. 416-966-8539. Rating: NNN Rating: NNN
Sometimes fate brings people to gether in various sorts of collisions. That’s the narrative and thematic key to Fait Accompli , the first play by writer/actor Jason Kyle Fuller . It marks the premiere of a new company, Hopeful Monster . As a piece of writing, it’s auspicious. As a performance, it needs more work.
Fuller plays a trio of figures: a troubled husband driving down the highway with his infant son in the back seat, a psychic who decides to help those in pain around him and an unborn fetus, aware of the world outside and philosophical about his position. Add the first guy’s wife, an important variable in the equation, and the quartet makes for explosive theatre.
The script’s climax is too drawn out, but there’s still lots to admire.
Fuller’s expressive writing is often poignant, thoughtful and funny. One figure escapes into alcohol and refers to his gin as the Windex of the soul. The fetus celebrates the emergence of his fingers and, out of boredom, decides to push down on his mother’s bladder.
The portraits, though, need sharper definition in the playing. The ever-energetic, involved Fuller and director Lynn Zeelenberg haven’t sufficiently differentiated them in physical and verbal ways. Things improve in the last 15 minutes, but all the characters are so strongly written that we should see their clear outlines early on.
