A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Fast Company

Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy  /  2w, 2m

Carla Ching

Mable Kwan is the best grifter that ever lived. She taught sons H and Francis to be the best roper and fixer around. When youngest daughter Blue puts together the score of the decade, will they all get in on the action or who will walk away with it all?

Fast Company

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 2m
  • Duration
    Duration
    90 minutes
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Mystery/Thriller
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult
Accolades
Accolades
  • Winner of the Edgerton New American Play Award
    Seattle Times Footlights Award for one of the year’s best New Plays on a Small Stage

Details

Summary

Mable Kwan is the best grifter that ever lived. She taught sons H and Francis to be the best roper and fixer around. When youngest daughter Blue puts together the con of the decade, will they get in on the action together or will one of them walk away with it all?

History

Workshops with EST, Partial Comfort and Lark Play Development Center 
Pacific Playwrights Festival 2013
World Premiere, South Coast Repertory Theatre, 2013
New York Premiere, Ensemble Studio Theatre 2014
Seattle Premiere, Theatre off Jackson, Porkfilled Productions 2014

Keywords
Performing Groups

An Asian American Family

BLUE - early to mid 20s, an ivy league student
FRANCIS - mid to late 20s, the magician
H - late 30s, the sports writer
MABLE - 55-60, the con man

2M, 2F

  • Time Period Contemporary, Present Day
  • Setting

    New York City, Rio de Janiero, Providence, RI, Hollywood, CA

  • Features Contemporary Costumes / Street Clothes
  • Additional Features No intermission, Stage Combat, Special Effects
  • Duration 90 minutes
  • Cautions
    • Alcohol
    • Strong Language
    • Smoking

Media

REVIEWS

"Ms. Ching reveals the real affection that these characters feel for one another, even as they lie, cheat and steal with skill and avidity. Here, the family that cons together, belongs together." - New York Times, Read More

"What makes this play so delightfully funny is the playwright's canny sense of what the audience can and can't anticipate — the playwright’s the best con artist of all:  she knows what we will and won’t figure out, and that, as the play continues and we catch on, we’ll get smarter — so she ups the ante." - Yvonne Korshak, Read More

"This game gets twisted, while being turned into a Mad Hatter’s tea party of misdirections. The audience laughs and thrills to this carnival ride of manipulation and greed, spinning rapidly to its effervescent conclusion of how families exploit vulnerabilities for their own selfish motives." - Times Square Chronicles, Read More

"The swindlers in Carla Ching’s savvy, sharp-fanged and entertaining one-act 'Fast Company' fail to heed that advice. And it gets worse: Their marks are members of their own family. ... Ching...has a flair for crackling noirish dialogue laced with plenty of swindler and applied math jargon." - Seattle Times, Read More

 

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $110 per performance

Scripts

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Authors

Carla Ching

Carla Ching
An LA native, Carla stumbled upon pan-Asian performance collective Peeling at the Asian American Writers Workshop and wrote and performed with them for three years, which she still considers her first theater training. Her plays include NOMAD MOTEL (2015 O’Neill Playwright ...
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