Review: "Archive of My Own" Takes a Glee-ful Dive into Fan Fiction
Archive of My Own Written by Annabel McConnachie Directed by Zoé Zifer Presented at The Tank 312 W 36th St., Manhattan, NYC March 17, 2025 Annabel McConnachie and Kevin Smith. Photo by Charlotte Shenassa. Many consumers of media, if they are aware of fan fiction–fan-written narratives that use characters and worlds from commercial works, including novels, tv shows, video games, and more–probably imagine a genre stuffed with x-rated stories of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock having a torrid affair. In actuality, as Australian writer and actor Annabel McConnachie's play Archive of My Own points out early on, not all fanfic consists of pornographic fantasies involving copyrighted characters, as readers of the massive fan fiction repository Archive of Our Own (referenced in the play's title and known as AO3 to fanfic fans) can no doubt attest. However, the play's unnamed protagonist–credited as Girl and played by McConnachie in a delightful, often dryly humorous turn–instantly a...