Dark Play or Stories for Boys
Written by Carlos Murillo
Directed by Anthony Moseley
Flat Iron Arts Building, 1579 N. Milwaukee (map)
thru Feb 26 | tickets: $25 | more info
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As riveting as it is horrifying
Collaboraction presents
Dark Play or Stories for Boys
Review by Catey Sullivan
Collaboraction delves into a dark and freaky true-crime tale with Dark Play or Stories for Boys, a simultaneously repellent and ultra-compelling saga of teens in twisted love. That is, if one can be in love with someone who doesn’t really exist. Inspired by a February 2005 Vanity Fair article, Dark Play is also a cautionary tale about the hugely addictive, potentially noxious and virtually unlimited powers of a medium where anyone can be anyone. What Carlos Murillo’s drama does so chillingly is show how predator can become prey in the inversion of society that takes root in online forums. It’s a fascinating story of a viper who winds up gorging on its own tale, not realizing his own grotesque degree of self-mutilation until too late and he’s gnawed his way up to a
Carillo’s play isn’t without flaws. The exposition is at times clunky, the opening scenes, slow moving. For long enough to be annoying, Dark Play seems like it is going to be dominated by the solipsistic, self-important first-person narration of an arrogant college kid who (in the youthfully self-important fashion of so many 20somethings) thinks he’s a lot more interesting than he actually is. It’s not until Nick hurtles from his dorm room into a flashback of his 14-year-old self that things start to get interesting. The story that unfolds is that of a troubled boy who almost engineered his own murder, a stabbing preceded by what has to be one of the most elaborate and deviantly brilliant mind-fucks perpetrated in the history of the internet. Sickness and creative genius go hand in hand in Dark Play – as sick as Nick’s behavior is, there’s no way to deny his monumental gifts as a storyteller and a master manipulator.
Director Anthony Mosely succeeds in pulling the audience into a narrative that grows ever more fantastical as its leading anti-hero morphs from a sullen adolescent playing juvenile internet pranks into a dangerously needy sociopath, intent on inciting his own death while simultaneously destroying the life of a gullible 16-year-old who has no idea what he’s become tangled with. That’s the nature of the “Dark Play” of the title – As Nick learns in drama class, a dark play is a game wherein not all of the players realize that they are, in fact, playing a game.
When Nick (Clancy McCartney) finds lonely, innocent, idealistic Adam (Aaron Kirby) in a chat room, he’s located the perfect player for his own dark game. Adam’s initial post: “I want to fall in love” speaks volumes to the youth’s sweetly guileless nature: He’s never been in love and he honestly believes he can find the virginal, good girl of his dreams in a chat room. His fantasies are adorably chaste, most involving nothing more involved than holding hands on a beach at sunset.
Nick plays him like a virtuoso, pretending to be a girl named Rachel and tailoring her so that she’s a perfect fit for Adam’s starry-eyed desires. In the real life story, Rachel was just the beginning of Nick’s creations. After police arrested Adam on attempted murder charges, they found a staggering amount of archived text messages and chat room conversations. Thousands of pages of narrative , dozens of characters embroiled in a soap opera that involved spies, still-births, incest, kidnappings and murder. It was a world of Nick’s creation, and one that Adam was convinced was utterly real.
Dark Play streamlines events with clarity, starting with the problem that arises when Adam insists on meeting the girl he’s fallen in love with. Ever inventive, Nick creates an incestuous stepfather the threatens to kill both Rachel and Adam should their romance progress. He also gives Rachel a brother – himself – and invites Adam to his home with the tantalizing promise that Rachel might arrive at any moment.
And here’s where the story starts really twisting. Nick the manipulator becomes a victim of his own game, growing even more obsessed with Adam than Adam is with the fictitious Rachel. In McCartney’s performance, the feelings are complex and difficult to stomach: Nick may be in love with the handsome, innocent Adam, but he also wants him as a possession.
Being bombarded by increasingly horrific reports of just what Rachel’s “step-dad” is doing to her, Adam becomes increasingly unhinged. And when he learns Rachel’s ultimate, horrible fate (with accompanying crime scene photo), Adam ‘s transformation is complete. The happy, well-adjusted if naïve teen from the start of the play is gone. In its place is a broken, frightened young man reeling over the violent death of the woman he loved. And confused about the drunken sexual encounters he’s been having with his love’s brother. By the time a mysterious FBI agent shows up in cyber space, Adam is damaged enough to believe – and do – just about anything. It’s a formidable character transition, and one that Kirby makes wholly authentic.
If you’re guessing that none of this can end well, you’re correct. In real life, both boys were charged as juveniles (Adam with attempted murder, Nick with the bizarre, unprecedented crime of instigating his own murder) and put on probation. Carillo doesn’t get into the court system’s eventual dealings with both boys, focusing instead on the psychological fallout of Nick’s web of lies. That’s more than enough make for a drama that’s as satisfying as it is disturbing.
Rating: ★★★½
Dark Play or Stories for Boys continues through February 26th at the Flat Iron Arts Building, 1579 N. Milwaukee (map), with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 7pm. Tickets are $25, and are available by phone (312-226-9633) or online here (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More info at Collaboraction.org.
All photos by Cesar Moza
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