Philadelphia Weekly

The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival has offered plenty of unconventional productions over the years, but there has never been anything quite like FATEBOOK: Avoiding Catastrophe One Party at a Time, a category-
defying new work from local troupe New Paradise Laboratories.


A “cross-media” work, FATEBOOK exists in three parallel and allied universes: real space (the cavernous performance area at 919 N. Fifth St.), social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) and online at fatebooktheshow.com. PW spoke with NPL’s artistic 
director Whit MacLaughlin about the company’s unique exploration of space.


What was the genesis for FATEBOOK? 


I’ve been fascinated by the way cyberspace has changed some of the ways we think about communication. Online, we have access to others 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No need to make appointments. There is something inherently theatrical about how people present themselves in social networking sites. There is display and there is disguise. I wanted to make a piece that takes place in both realms: real space and cyberspace. I wanted to smash cyberspace right into real space.


Do you see social networking sites as similar to theater in that each give us an opportunity to pretend we’re someone we’re not? 


Well, disguise is a tricky notion. I’m afraid I’m guilty of being several people all the time. I can never tell which one is going to come out ... the good papa, the wicked sinner, the crazy cleric, the pornographer. I like masquerade parties where I get to be somebody else, but don’t have to wear a mask. And I believe that people perform in cyberspace. I often find rather dour people incredibly funny when they comment on other people’s status updates.


Is there a “script” for the show? 


Yes, but it takes place in three locales—on a Web site, online social networks and in real space in a theater. We worked in cyberspace for five months, writing characters online together. Then we compiled all of the writing and reposted it as status updates. It’s a script of sorts.


How does FATEBOOK differ from a conventional theater work? 


The curtain is already up and it doesn’t come down. You can watch it online now or you can watch it online later, or you can not watch it online at all. The material there is intrinsic but not necessary. The lines dividing the actor from the audience, a fictional character from a real one, are blurry in the piece. We rehearsed the play before it was written, shot it before it was rehearsed and will perform it before it is finished.


What will audiences encounter at the live show? 


Twelve characters performing simultaneously over two hours of media along with really cool musical underscoring. It’s as if all the scenes of a movie were played simultaneously in a 3-D projector. There’s a story that’s part supernatural, part noir. Each 
audience member gets to choose an individual path through the show, kind of like being in an online multimind-narrative.


Could you explain a little about how the show 
explores cyberspace versus real space? 


The live real-space performance comes right out of the live cyberspace performance. They’re linked in many ways. The theater performance takes place in a space between the cyber and the real that we’ve devised. I’m trying to understand the difference between the two experiences, from a physical point of view. I’m wondering what the upshot will be—from our current obsession with all things online.


The social networking component allows audiences 
to interact with the characters far more than a typical live performance would allow. 


I’ve become fascinated by proximity. And the forces that bring us together into physical closeness in this life. It used to be that physical presence was the whole thing. Now we don’t need to be physically near anyone to create intimacy. If I know what movies you like the best, and in what order, I know something about what makes you tick in this really fast and intimate way. 


At its heart, I think FATEBOOK is about physical danger. When you’re on a computer, you’re pretty safe physically. When you go outside—that’s when all bets are off. ■