'Bot

This new play by C. Michele Kaplan is about people trying desperately to connect in a world where technology is evolving faster than the human intellect. At least that is the starting point. The script also examines bulimia, writer's block, the numbing effects of designer mood drugs, altruism, and morality. Tying all of this together is Charlie, a socially awkward teenager, using his abnormal genius to build a virtual reality "bot" that merges the best of human and machine. At its core is the impending sense that humans must become one with computers to survive, essentially chasing immortality and becoming God. It's Matrix meets Gattaca meets Harold Pinter. On stage, Charlie dispenses a lot of overwhelmingly dense scientific philosophy through live video diaries and this increases the feeling of lonely disconnect inherent in the script. Director Chris Smith deftly counters this by creating an interconnected web of very human characters searching for love and trying to find one another amid the technology that is slowly separating them. — Nathaniel Eaton