Faye's Room
Faye's Room is a one-act play about neurodivergent solidarity, intergenerational bonds, and internalized ableism, and thrusts viewers into the autistic lens, a world of living mannequins, travelling rooms, and ghosts.
The play follows Faye Murphy, an autistic lesbian who works at a queer cafe... and happens to have the power to summon and hide in a magical sensory room at will. When she becomes trapped in this room with her least favourite coworker, son of the founder and token heterosexual Chase McLure, an unlikely bond forms, and the two find themselves having a bit more in common than they'd thought.
And I wrote it, baby!!! And it's been staged TWICE and is getting FULLY PRODUCED after that!
So here's a bunch of info about it. :)
The Faye's Room Scoop
Characters
- FAYE MURPHY - SHE/HER - 20S - An autistic lesbian with a fondness for butterflies. You, the audience, are one of her various coping mechanisms--who else is she gonna snark to? Most recently portrayed by Victoria Urquhart.
- CHASE MCLURE - HE/HIM - 20S - Sweetbuns Cafe's token heterosexual and nepo baby, being the son of the founder. Loud, energetic, and scatterbrained, Faye avoids him when she can--but they're more alike than she's willing to admit. Most recently portrayed by Mason Temple.
- MINA MCLURE - SHE/HER - 40S - The cafe's founder, an older trans lesbian who's spent much of her life advocating for herself and her community. Maternal, but also a silly billy. Most recently portrayed by Sabrina Symington.
- ARI - SHE/THEY - 20S - A waitress at Sweetbuns. Incredibly cool--moved to the city a year ago, already has a lot of friends and plays the bass. Faye is head over heels for her. Most recently portrayed by Kaitlyn Yott.
- THE PROFESSOR - SHE/HER - ??? - A ghost. Generally double-cast with whoever plays Mina.
Production History
- May 10, 2024 - Staged Reading at The Roundhouse with Realwheels Theatre and The Frank Theatre
- May 13, 2023 - Staged Reading at BMO Theatre Centre with The Arts Club, as part of the LEAP Playwriting Program Level 2 Showcase
Trivia
- A good deal of the fun facts about butterflies used in the play were from Animal Crossing's Museum descriptions of certain species.
- It took until the second staged reading for Chase to get a costume for the costume party scene.
- The second staged reading perfectly coincided with a rare sighting of The Nothern Lights in BC, and I got to watch them after the show!
- The names for this play are very very straightforward: Faye's a name I used to use for myself (and some sonas/avatars still use it!), Chase is called Chase because he literally chases Faye into her own room, and the names Mina and Ari were just chosen on vibes.
- I'm now one degree of separation from Ginny and Georgia through this play and I don't know how to feel about that.
- The Professor is based on a true story--also, she's double-cast with Mina because initially she turned into Mina, because she was also preying on Chase's issues?? But I figured that didn't make any sense. (Sabrina killed it as both Mina and The Prof, though, so the double casting remained!)
- Chase and Faye's D&D characters are both based on characters I used in past campaigns (Ritza the Deserter and Elsie Ruaki my beloveds)
- The play was originally called Faye's House (as you can see on the moodboards) but I decided to downsize a bit for the sake of future set designers everywhere.
- Faye's surname was originally Buckley, after Robin Buckley from Stranger Things. I changed that because I don't like Stranger Things anymore (though I'll always have a soft spot for Robin, who got me my first Autostraddle byline!). Her name is now Murphy, as in Murphy's Law.
Page Credits
BG is from @timey on tumblr, and the divider is from graphic.neocities.org :)
