Review: PAPER CITY PHOENIX Gets Lost in (Cyber) Space

Paper City Phoenix

Written by Walt McGough, Directed by Melanie Garber; Technical Director & Lighting Designer, David Lucas; Set & Graphic Designer, Jeremy Goodman; Costume Designer, Cara Chiaramonte; Sound Designer, Andrew Hicks; Props Master, Paul Ezzy; Projection Designer, Vincent C. Morreale; Stage Manager, Samantha MacArthur; Assistant Stage Manager, Bailey Libby

CAST: Caroline L. Price, Danielle Lucas, Michael Fisher, David Frank, Monica Shea, Anthony Rios

Performances through July 27 by Boston Actors Theater at Boston Playwrights' Theatre, 949 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA; Box Office 866-811-4111 or www.bostonactorstheater.com

Boston Actors Theater concludes its ninth season with the world premiere of Paper City Phoenix, IRNE-nominated playwright Walt McGough's "exploration of connection and loss in the internet age," to quote the BAT press release. Set in a future where law enforcement officials investigate misuse of information rather than actual crimes, and disconnected people seek the security of community within a cult-like sect, half a dozen characters and the anthropomorphized Internet take the audience on a journey where, perhaps, no man has gone before.

Despite sounds and lights signaling that transporting is occurring, it is not always clear where the action is taking place in Paper City Phoenix and I felt adrift in cyber space, trying to get my bearings. Caroline L. Price is delightful as our tour guide Brenna who is searching for her missing soul mate, the brooding and confused Paul (Michael Fisher), but her talent and enthusiasm notwithstanding, McGough places a heavy burden on Price's slender shoulders to provide the audience with a clear road map on this futuristic trip. Her early conversations with Gale (BAT Producing Artistic Director Danielle Lucas), Paul's sister and Brenna's best friend who is busily downloading and attempting to print the entire contents of the internet, are intended as explanation, but compound the confusion. Agents Sykes (Monica Shea) and Monroe (Anthony Rios) come in with a warrant to search Gale's files and their bewilderment mirrors my own.

Let me affirm that Director Melanie Garber and the cast (also including David Frank as the anti-tech leader of the cult) convey their comfort with the script and credibly portray their characters as if the story makes sense to them. Presumably it does, regardless of my inability to stay with it, but I had no such difficulty with either of the two earlier McGough works I've reviewed. The three plays are character-driven and share an existential message, but much of what transpires in Paper City Phoenix feels forced rather than compelling. During prolonged conversations between Sal (Frank) and Paul, or Sal and Monroe and Gale, they go around and around on a point of contention until they run it into the ground and it almost doesn't matter who is right or wrong. For me, Phoenix lacks whatever makes the mind-control games of The Farm riveting and the enchanting characters, symbolism, and metaphors of Priscilla Dreams the Answer.

Price establishes that her IRNE nomination for Best Actress in a Drama for Priscilla was no fluke, and Fisher shares good chemistry with her. Following her bit as the frustrated FBI agent in the first act, Shea does a spot on robotic turn as The Internet in act two, complete with blank stare and computerized-sounding voice. Rios and Lucas are computer geeks who butt heads with Frank's tech-phobic Sal, but their characters are comparatively one-dimensional. Technical Director/ Lighting Designer David Lucas and Sound Designer Andrew Hicks help with the futuristic components of the production, and Cara Chiaramonte's costumes distinguish the cops, the cult, and the computer crew from one another.

The premise of the play is a good one and certainly timely as there needs to be a national conversation about how little we are connected with each other in an age when everybody is constantly plugged in to something. McGough suggests that information on the internet will reach a critical mass, everything will explode, and we will return to a bygone era of lower tech with higher personal satisfaction. It seems an unlikely outcome and he doesn't sell it well enough to achieve suspension of disbelief, but I'd be willing to visit that world if McGough improves the infrastructure.

Photo credit: Boston Actors Theater (Monica Shea, Caroline L. Price, Michael Fisher)

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