Geek Theater: Viral

By Teresa Jusino

It’s the most hilarious play about assisted suicide I’ve ever seen! That’s what I said to a friend of mine after seeing the final performance of Gideon Productions’ Viral, which was part of the 2009 New York Fringe Festival.  But that glib one-liner sells this play short.

Viral tells the story of a woman (Geena), her boyfriend (Colin), and her brother (Jarvis), all of whom share the same sexual proclivity:  they get off on watching people peacefully end their lives.  A woman named Meredith Googles “painless suicide”, and finds these three who are willing to help her end her life – if she will let them film it.  And sell it.

Sounds gimmicky, doesn’t it? Yet it doesn’t feel that way.  Playwright Mac Rogers deals with myriad themes intelligently: thirtysomethings trying to make their way in the world by trying to achieve a kind of fame online, women finding their strength, people fighting to hold on to the joy in their lives, and sexual fetishism, among others.  As was true in his Universal Robots, he excels in his dialogue and his characters, and it is this that grounds story elements that could have been sensationalized.  In Viral he’s not only come up with a great concept for a story, but he’s created these funny, achingly sweet, depressed, pretentious, annoying, beautiful, flawed human beings that I found myself hoping for, if not rooting for, even when they’re at their worst.  The play isn’t flawless.  Some family issues are hinted at between Geena and Jarvis, and as Meredith comes closer to her time of death, she talks about a mysterious “Alice.”  Both are mentioned in passing, and both should have been pursued further.  Still, the story is handled with such care and humor that it can be forgiven.

Director Jordana Williams deserves praise for keeping this play about dying crackling with life.  Though the play deals with maudlin subject matter, it opens with the main trio at a laptop and continues at the pace of Google searching.  We spend the entire first half of the play laughing at rapid-fire jokes, and we aren’t allowed to process the gravity of what’s being done, because the characters aren’t allowing it of themselves.  Williams skillfully balances the play’s humor and melancholy.

While each member of this cast is talented, Viral belongs to its women.  From the moment Amy Lynn Stewart steps out on stage as Meredith, she conveys an emotional depth even as she doesn’t speak as much as the others, and throughout the production she is the epitome of dignity in sadness.  Yet, the real standout is Becky Comtois as Geena.  I’ve seen her in other off-off Broadway productions, and she’s generally cast in comedic, bubbly roles, at which she’s wonderful.  However, in Viral she takes all that comedic, bubbly charm and uses it to staggering dramatic effect.  She is heartbreaking and enthralling in this role, and I look forward to seeing her in more roles like this.  Casting people, take notice, please!

While the sold-out performance I saw was the last for this run, there’s already talk about it being performed again elsewhere.  If it is, make sure you get tickets quickly.  You won’t be disappointed. Viral is an intense, poignant story about dying, and living, with dignity.

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TERESA JUSINO was born on the same day that Skylab fell. Coincidence? She doesn’t think so.  As a writer, her work has appeared in Elmont Life newspaper, and on the sadly defunct website, CentralBooking.com. She is a founding member and editor of The Revolving Door Commune Blog, is currently at work on a collection of short stories, and is writing a web series for Pareidolia Films called The Pack, which is set to debut this fall! As a geek, Teresa loves all Star Trek, Lost, Fringe, comics, and anything Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, and Neil Gaiman ever touched.  She is also an aspiring fangbanger. Get Twitterpated with Teresa, or visit her in The Red Room.

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