Leveling Up
Leveling Up
By Deborah Zoe Laufer
Directed by Mark Routhier
UCF Conservatory Theater, Orlando FL</strong>
They say kids spend too much time playing video games, but don’t realize it’s a viable career opportunity today. Look at Ian (Patrick Sylvester) – he gets paid to “level up” rich people who don’t have enough time to game. He’s even created some high priced, high powered virtual weapons even if his dopey best friend Zander (Patrick Mounce) sells them for far below market prices. Zander’s no good with money but is a natural salesman, and he has an actual live three dimensional girlfriend Jeannie (Gracie Winchester). How did he score this coup? By talking to her as Ian and Chuck (Vincent Hannam) stared awkwardly at their shoes when they all met at Radio Shack. (I think Chuck still had his Free Battery Card). Now the NSA is after Ian, they want him to fly drones out of their secret bunker in the Nevada desert. Meanwhile Zander gets involved in a dubious pyramid scheme and Chuck is semi-successfully hitting on Jeanne. This precarious pile of personalities is propped up in insomnia and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and is about to topple. Ian isn’t a real warrior, he can lay wastes to entire digital civilizations but breaks down when the bullets are real and the corpses are “collateral damage” with real families to mourn them. Is a paycheck worth the hassle of losing one’s sanity?
In this little hermitic world, Ian is the notional adult; he brings in money, pays the rent and provides the high-power gamming consoles from his tournament winnings. Mr. Sylvester plays the roll with an exasperated anger, and I see his reaction to Zanders foolishness akin to dad glaring at you for a bad report card. Mounce is more flighty, he attacks when he has an angle but runs away when trouble flairs and he levels down to mom’s basement. If you think about it, he’s a sort of a mole man who might shrivel if the sun ever struck his pale skin. The calm center here is Hannam, he’s genial, does just enough to get by, and sees a low grade opportunity with Jeanne. She resists, but just enough keep her real world honor even if she’s sinned digitally. She’s the one who gets off the addiction, and as the show wraps up, she leads Ian and Chuck up that long stairway to the light.
There’s a not terribly subtle theme here, and that’s the line between reality and fantasy whether its digital warfare, sleazy business “opportunities” or why we think we are in love. The gaming world is an anodyne to the real one, you get as many do overs as you want, the gratification is quick but doesn’t last, and death doesn’t hurt or persist. But reality always lurks on the edge of perception, and you are never that far from real blood, painful death and total bankruptcy. Cheat on your boyfriend out here, and he’ll leave. No do overs here.
For more information on UCF Conservatory Theatre visit http://www.theatre.ucf.edu