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Viral
Reviewed by Vanessa Cate
Moving Arts & Bootleg Theater
Through Feb. 6
RECOMMENDED:
Just as the internet is inundated with information pulling us in all directions, from work emails to celebrity tweets to Buzzfeed’s list of 7 best superfoods, so is Mac Rogers’s Viral markedly confused in terms of theme, pulling us from sexuality to artistic purity to the value of human life and so on. However, Darin Anthony successful directs a flowing journey that helps us navigate the treacherous waters of Viral.
Ambitious Colin (Daniel Dorr) dreams of making it big and creating the perfect piece of art. In Los Angeles, I’m sure we all meet a Colin every day or two. Or maybe not, because along with his girlfriend Geena (Mariel Higuera) and her brother Jarvis (Oscar Camacho), their passion lies not just in your run-of-the-mill filmmaking. They lure Meredith (Alicia Adams), a stranger they meet on their website, to their ramshackle apartment.
Meredith wants to kill herself. She is hoping this trio can assist her, keeping her company and making sure the end is painless. The three are happy to oblige, but on one additional condition: that they get to video tape her killing herself and distribute the piece to those with a fetish for death.
The characters seem to have a strong conviction in some higher meaning to what they’re doing, refusing to term their video a “snuff film” and insisting the importance is watching the transition from life to death. And when big-time distributor Snow (Mark Kinsey Stephenson) offers to line their pockets in exchange for nudity, sparks fly.
Viral is a sort of impressionistic play that forms an image that is not quite clear. But the impressions themselves are powerful. If we believe in the value of life, but also in the value of artistic expression, and add in the value of being able to make your own choices, where does that leave us morally in this world?
Alicia Adams is truly wonderful, infusing her character with power and resolve while adding the believability we need to be able to digest the story. This play is worth seeing for Adams alone, and her singular journey almost out-trumps the rest of the plot.
While at the end of the play we might not be exactly sure what it is Mac Rogers has to say about sex, life, art, and the Internet, we may be just a little bit clearer on how we feel on the topics ourselves.
Bootleg Theater, 2220 Beverly Boulevard Los Angeles CA, 90057; Thurs.-Sun., 7:17p.m.; through Feb. 6. (213)389-3856; www.bootlegtheater.org & www.movingarts.org
