ObJects

At the end of a Nation. The United States, 50, maybe 70 years from now, tops. The country is ruled by geographic/corporate fiefdoms that can’t hold the place together anymore (and a practically non-existent government), with a populace so overwhelmed by technological future shock and infotaining bread & circuses that it has lapsed into near-catatonia, and can no longer actually do anything anymore. One visionary, an eccentric capitalist diva, Mrs. Franklin – founder and CEO of The Kronos Corporation – secretly plans with brilliant young biohacker Miss Lee Lightfoot to create a “positive plague” – a modified contagious disease that will infect the brains of US citizens and make them process the modern world better and faster (and make them once again better producers and consumers). The top dozen members of Kronos – a collection of MBAs, surgically-modified psychics, backbiters, yuppies, and body servants — debate the pros and cons of the plan, and try to figure out how to make their names and/or fortunes as part of it, as the disease turns out to have unexpected consequences . . .

A dense, dark, science-fiction satire, Ian W. Hill’s ObJects drops you in a world where the underlying tensions of America in 2011 have only intensified, where corporate rule is now wholly sanctified, where the class war has been won (even if the losers don’t know it), where computers run on human blood, and where man-eating robots are destroying cities (don’t worry, they’re being contained in the southwest). This year’s collection of shows from Gemini CollisionWorks, The Collisionworks 2011: At The Ends (aka 3 Terminal Plays or 3 Ultimate Plays), focuses on finality, mortality, and the conclusion of all things, with the caveat that all endings bring the possibility of new beginnings. ObJects (and, yes, the odd spelling is intentional) attempts to meld Heartbreak House with Brazil by way of a David Cronenberg gene splicer, presenting the horrific end of the USA as a matter of no great importance to those who cause it, as class will always have its privileges, including the ability to escape the evil it sows.