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Jon
By George Saunders
Directed & Adapted by Seth Bockley
Produced by Collaboraction
At The Building Stage
412 N. Carpenter Street
Chicago, IL
Call 312.226.9633 or www.collaboraction.org
Tickets $25 – 30. A special offer of $15 tickets is available
for people ages 25 and under
Thursdays thru Sundays at 7:30 pm
Running time is 90 minutes without intermission
Through December 20, 2008
Futuristic take on teen coming of age is expertly produced.
Collaboration’s World Premiere of George Saunders’ “Jon” directed and adapted for the stage my Seth Bockley is a excellently staged show that smartly uses high tech almost as a character. Too often theatre troupes fall in love with electronic enhancements that distracts from the power of live stage performances. Not here. Bockley uses tech to enhance the atmosphere of the story. It creates a futuristic world where big corporations rule.
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“Jon” is a futuristic fable about teenage love in a corporate universe where television commercials replace life experiences. This world premiere production invites the audience into a multi-media test-marketing laboratory, and unfolds a surreal and strangely moving coming-of-age story. “Jon” and his five fellow participants live and work the ultimate corporate focus group—marketing research firm. The teens were sold to the marketing firm and they spend 24/7 at the corporate facility never leaving the facility. They have adult handlers who use every conceivable electronic device and mood altering drug to control the teen’s life. “Jon” is a cautionary tale about how tech, medicine and corporate marketing can control the lives of the mass-marketing consumers by experimenting of a small control group of teens.
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The staging and effective use of sound (by Mikhail Fiksel), video (by Mike Tutsj), lighting (by Jeremy Getz) on the sterile set (by Courtney O’Neill) paints a scary tale of big corporate influence over consumer’s lives. We witness the six teens---3 boys and 3 girls as the ‘work’ doing surveys, focus groups and medical experiments designed to help marketers design winning products. The story revolves around Jon (Lucas Neff)—the prototypical white male teen and his love interest Carolyn (Kelly O’Sullivan)—the white blond female and their associates. When sex becomes an overwhelming obsession for Jon and Carolyn, the corporate handlers have a plan geared toward keeping the group together. This script has several unique twists concerning the power of individuality over mind control. The urge for control of one’s environment sparks truthfully in Carolyn. Jon is confused by love and sexuality.
The production vividly and effectively portrays the power of technology and medicine to shape our lives. Lucas Neff’s Jon is a guy we relate to and Kelly O’Sullivan is strong as the determined young mother. The real winner in this show is the high tech atmosphere that is a scary reminder of the potential of corporate greed. This show is work a look. It is geared toward the 20-30something crowd who’ll be faced with controlling this monster.
Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed; November 2, 2008
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