Review: Merge (The New Colony)

Intriguing but disconnected world premiere

Review by Lauren Whalen

Merge makes a promising first impression. Audience members walk into The Den Theatre's Upstairs Main Stage and are immediately transported into a 1970's arcade game, complete with neon tones, lights and the telltale screen. Sadly, it's all downhill from there. Merge is an intriguing story - the rise and fall of Atari - and playwright

Spenser Davis' telling attempts a mashup of "The Social Network"and Hamilton. However, Merge lacks a crucial ingredient that made its inspirations iconic: apart from a historical retelling, the play cannot decide what it wants to be.

Named for a command in a Japanese board game, Atari was founded in the mid-1970's by engineers Nolan Bushnell (Wes Needham) and Ted Dabney (Jeffery Owen Freelon, Jr.). While video games weren't exactly new (the first tennis simulation was invented in the 1950's), Atari put their commercialization on the map, first with arcades and then at-home consoles. Their company culture was even more distinctive, with rampant drug use, hot tub parties and flip-flops at meetings. The party comes to an abrupt end, however, when Atari must sell out to Warner Bros. to stay afloat, and Nolan Bushnell is ousted as CEO. presents a classic case of good versus evil, especially in the video game terms that are second nature to Atari's freethinking, freewheeling staff.

What begins as an intriguing story into a groundbreaking form of entertainment and the minds behind it, quickly devolves into a mishmash of yelling, dropped lines and pacing that alternately rushes and drags. Because of the constant screaming, it's difficult to discern character names or keep everyone straight. A climactic scene takes the form of a video game (interesting, but would have worked better as a recurring motif introduced earlier in the play) combined with a spoken word battle (strange and inexplicable). Other major plot points (most significantly when Bushnell is fired from his own company) are all but completely skipped over. The actors try their best - standouts include Needham, Freelon and Kevin Stangler, the latter as a frustrated game designer - but can't overcome the inconsistent writing and messy direction. Neither can scenic designer John Wilson, though his aforementioned life-size game reimagining is distinctive and beautiful.

Is a dark comedy? An oral history? A Shakespearean tragedy? No one knows, least of all the playwright. Though Hamilton is a hip-hop biography of a Founding Father, it's also about flawed heroes. "The Social Network" is about ambition as much as it is about Facebook. As I watched , I wanted to locate Davis and say, "but what is this about? And don't say Atari." With more layers, could be fascinating. Instead, the play is as two-dimensional as Pong.

continues through November 13th at The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee (map), with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays 3pm. Tickets are $20 (students & seniors 25% off), and are available online through Vendini.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com ). More information at TheNewColony.org. (Running time: 100 minutes, without intermission)

Will Cavedo (Stuart Nygard), Fin Coe (Joe Keenan), Jeffery Owen Freelon, Jr. (Ted Dabney), Daria Harper (Rita), Wes Needham (Nolan Bushnell), Lindsey Pearlman (Patti York), Michael Peters (Joe Seltz), Esteban Reyna (Al Alcorn), Robert Salazar (Bill Nutting), Omer Abbas Salem (Manny Gerard), Stephanie Shum (Dawn Kessler), Kevin Stangler (Henry "Hen" Parker), Kristi Parker-Barnhart, Victoria Perez, Evan Sesek, David Weiss (ensemble)

behind the scenes

Andrew Hobgood (director), Zoe Benditt (stage manager), Kira Gaudynski (asst. stage manager), Patriac Coakley (asst. director), Ryan Oliveira (dramaturg), Garth Moritz (production manager), Liam Fitzgerald (technical director), John Wilson (scenic design), (lighting design), Paul Deziel (projections design), Ben Zeman (projections assistant), Steve Labedz (sound design), Nathan R. Rohrer (costume design), Will Cavedo and Michael Peters (violence), Stephanie Shum (producer), Evan Hanover (photos)

Tags: 16-1027, Andrew Hobgood, Atari, Ben Zeman, Chicago Theater, Daria Harper, David Weiss, Esteban Reyna, Evan Hanover, Evan Sesek, Fin Coe, Garth Moritz, Jeffery Owen Freelon Jr., John Kelly, John Wilson, Kevin Stangler, Kira Gaudynski, Kristi Parker Barnhart, Lauren Whalen, Liam Fitzgerald, Lindsey Pearlman, Michael Peters, Nathan R. Rohrer, Omer Abbas Salem, Patriac Coakley, Paul Deziel, post, Robert Salazar, Ryan Oliveira, Spenser Davis, Stephanie Shum, Steve Labedz, The New Colony, Victoria Perez, Wes Needham, Will Cavedo, Zoe Benditt