BWW Reviews: Plenty of MISTAKES & MEDIA at Source

Source Festival's collection of six ten-minute plays entitled MISTAKES & MEDIA sets out to make a statement about the impact of technology on society, and while that statement is loud and flashy, it is hardly ever substantial or thoughtful. For a night of short plays curated from submissions from around the country, MISTAKES & MEDIA feels surprisingly uniform and single-minded. What its four comic shorts lambasting cell phones, millennials and the internet all have in common are a one-dimensional mentality that favors cheap laughs at hashtags, memes and pop culture events no one remembers over any sort of meaningful insight that weighs the amazing advances of technology with its costs, while the two dramas fail to make an impact deep enough to outlast their comedic counterparts.

Prince and Rapunzel and Connected offer that the key to happiness is disconnecting from Twitter, Minecraft and other such frivolities. Rapunzel suggests taking a walk while Connected endorses throwing a party, and though these aren't unhelpful recommendations, they're hardly revolutionary or even uncommon for the generation that invented the digital sabbath. That and Rapunzel's basic "what if" premise of speaking in hashtags doesn't seem as original as when Jimmy Fallon was doing it on network television two years ago. Overall, all the work attempts to be topical, but doesn't succeed when references to ebola or Urban Outfitter's Kent State sweatshirt controversy are already outdated, and at the end of the day, doesn't theater resonate most strongly when its themes are universal and timeless? These plays also decide to ignore outright any concept that the internet has also brought the world closer together and because of that their conclusions feel fast and easy. These aren't conversations or dialogues about media as much as they are one-sided arguments attacking and poking fun at the expense of the younger generations.

Next in the lineup, Palm tugs at heartstrings but weaves a flawed narrative that in ten minutes raises multitudes of questions and answers none, and is followed by The Death of a Stupid Man or How I Became an Internet Sensation, an attack on viral video culture. In both plays, characters representing millennials behave viciously, heartlessly, and completely implausibly. The Sad Funeral is a breath of fresh air, foregoing the technofear to bring a good old fashioned conversation between two well rounded characters that fully encompasses the nights advertised theme of mistakes and media.

Putting on six consecutive plays is a production feat that Source handles admirably, with the cast jumping eagerly into each character, although performances did get sloppier towards the end of the show. The plays that flowed best were the ones with the least props, sets and costumes to get in the way. The last play, The Sales Rank Also Rises, tried to pack a lot on a small stage and the result was cardboard Amazon boxes continuously falling over for the last few minutes and distracting from the night's finale.

In general, this year's opening to the Source Festival came off as slightly hypocritical by railing against smartphone culture while shoving screens in the faces of the audience. In the end, MISTAKES & MEDIA perfectly resembles the culture it attempts to speak out against: it's loud, has a short attention span, is obsessed with pop culture and completely unable to step away from it's smartphone, even in the theater.

Runtime is approximately 80 minutes with one intermission.

Photo by Daniel Corey.

MISTAKES & MEDIA runs June 11 and 13 at 8pm, June 21 at 4pm, and June 26 at 6pm as part of the Source Festival at 1835 14 St. NW, Washington, DC. For tickets call 866-811-4111 or go online.

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