Mandy Fason and Diana Angelina (Photo by Doug Engalla)
Reviewed by Lovell Estell III
The Lonny Chapman Theatre
Through July 14
The action takes place in a Chicago suburb, and spans five years. After years of debilitating epileptic seizures, Margaret (a terrific performance by Mandy Fason), has been offered hope for a cure when she signs up for a clinical trial offered by NeuroView that would implant a chip into her brain. The procedure would require extensive monitoring, but Drs. Kenilworth (Jason Madera) and Atchison (Stevie Stern) are eager to succeed—for the patient, as well as for their own aggrandizement, big money, and the prospect of bringing more patients into the program. Also receiving an implant is Trevor (Davino Buzzotta), who was brain damaged in a car accident and is confined to a wheelchair.
Both patients are initially pleased with the results; Margaret is transformed into a vibrant, loquacious woman, while Trevor sheds the wheelchair and is a ball of unconstrained energy and attitude. But, as the saying, goes, Caveat Emptor. Gradually, Margaret begins to exhibit increasingly strange and disturbing effects from the procedure. She has acquired a staggering vocabulary, which enables her when speaking to often befuddle those around her; she develops an unhealthy attachment to her implant, claiming that it is a separate person, and even giving it a name, Genie; and she and Trevor have developed a language of their own. To top it off, Margaret gives herself a new name, Pegeen. These changes become increasingly alarming to her mother Barbara (Diana Angelina), and to the doctors who performed the operation. And, at the end of Act I, bad news intrudes, as Margaret learns that NeuroView has gone bust, is filing for bankruptcy, and that the implant has to be removed.
Playwright Suzy London has used source material for her play based on actual events, which makes the narrative all the more unsettling. As she remarks in the press notes, the play,” is a cautionary tale about merging the human brain with inorganic artificial intelligence and the unexpected consequences that can arise from such a union.”
The problem is with structure and content. The script meanders quite a bit, lacks an intensity of focus, and there are too many gratuitous scenes that contribute very little to the heart of the story.
Act II attempts to present a coherent picture of the dense thicket of legal, medical, ethical and personal issues that arise from the company’s insistence that the chips be removed from all patients (Including a class action lawsuit that is thrown into oblivion by the desire of one recipient that the chip be taken out). In this, it only partially succeeds, mainly because the subject matter is so complex and defies presentation in an approachable dramatic format. On balance, cast performances are very good under Kathleen R. Delaney’s direction.
Lonny Chapman Theatre 10900 Burbank Blvd. N. Hollywood.(upstairs stage, no wheelchair access) Thurs.-Sun.7 pm, Sat. 4 pm, thru July 14. www.thegroup.com Running time: one hour and 50 minutes with one ten minute intermission.
