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Max Yu isn’t trying to cheer you up. Commissioned by Shaking the Tree Theatre to write a new play, Yu created In a Different Reality She’s Clawing at the Walls, a paralyzing portrait of how technology devours our souls as well as our time.
The play, as directed by Rebby Yuer Foster (who’s also the theater’s associate artistic director), begins before a single line is spoken, which is fitting for a work that relies on movement, sound and projected images more than plot, characters and dialogue.
After waiting in a lobby, the audience is led like sheep around the block and into the theater. Inside, pulsing techno music provides an ominous soundtrack for the three actors, who are sitting onstage on a gray couch and are all mesmerized by their devices. Welcome to the zombies’ lair.
Well, two of the characters, Jane (Kiana Malu) and her partner Brandon (Heath Hyun Houghton), aren’t total zombies…yet. Jasper (Akitora Ishii), though, who lives with them (if you can call it living), has already lost his mind to video games and is incapable of doing much else.
Brandon, with his cheerfully smug refrain that he has “over 1,000 LinkedIn connections,” urges Jasper to create his own profile, get a job, and start paying his share of their expenses. Jane pleads with Jasper for the same reason and also because he’s her younger brother and she cares about him.
In an effort to extract Jasper from the clutches of game world, Jane convinces him to do an online meditation with her. Houghton, doubling as the meditation guru, puts on a comically blissed-out voice that guides meditators to see a sheep: “The sheep is the light. You are also the light. Baaaaaaaaa.”
Needless to say, such ridiculousness doesn’t help Jasper or anyone else. In fact, Jasper eventually becomes so overwhelmed by his angst that he grasps his stomach and starts writhing on the floor and gasping for breath. Before long, the others join him, and the three characters jerk and roll like the damned souls depicted in Renaissance paintings of hell.
Having lost the ability to express original thoughts, the roomies’ dialogue becomes a collage comprising sounds taken from self-help, activist jargon, news and shopping sites: “Leonard Peltier,” “$9.99 a month” and “regular exercise” are just a few of their utterances.
What’s more, a figure who’s been lurking on a red-curtained platform descends to the stage. Dressed in a red jumpsuit and miles of chiffon ruffles, the unnamed character (played by Alanna Fagan) lurches around with arms upraised. As some sort of internet deity, the character keeps the others in her thrall, preventing them from unplugging their minds. When they try to resist her pull, she says, “I’ve already won.”
The grim finale recalls Hamlet’s high body count, but In a Different Reality is even more disturbing than that classic tragedy. Although technically alive, its characters are alone and reduced to texting OMG’s and smiley faces until, presumably, they’ll all be ghosted someday.
Still, the production offers some signs of life. All the actors are impressive physical performers who add touches of humor, like when a clueless Jasper fumbles with a lint roller. And Malu, with her expressive voice, dyed red hair and bare arms, breathes some warmth into the cold cyber world.
Throughout the play, Y2K-era dial-up sounds beep away and projected images restlessly shift from traumatized faces to a game of solitaire and archaic Windows screens. Are they there to remind us of the origins of our current technological obsession? Yu seems more interested in creating questions than serving us answers.
As they leave the theater, some audience members may feel bludgeoned by Yu’s bleak vision, while others may be more determined than ever to embrace non-virtual reality. Which is maybe what Yu intended all along. Instead of offering hope, does he trust that we, unlike his characters, still have enough creativity and determination to find a way to resist the siren call of screens? If so, his play isn’t doomsday porn, but a rare act of optimism.
SEE IT: In a Different Reality She’s Clawing at the Walls plays at Shaking the Tree Theatre, 823 SE Grant St., 503-235-0635, shaking-the-tree.com. 7:30 pm Thursday– Saturday, 5 pm Sunday, through June 17. $5-$33. 16+.