The Buzz Intro Interview

Ben Firke / Playwright

I think everyone is kind of in the mood to see a tech guy experience a public meltdown. Fits the national vibe.

I’m a firm believer that “American theater” and “NYC” are not synonymous. I want to get out of that bubble and see how the work is received, and to see work created by people from as many other communities as possible.

I’ve had a bone to pick with Silicon Valley for a while. I was inspired a lot by Malcolm Harris’s book Palo Alto, the films of Adam Curtis, and a lot of left wing political theory that would probably get me on A List somewhere. I also wanted to do a piece that played with indeterminacy and forced me to give up control of the narrative a la the “cut-up” technique or the I Ching. The goal was to put the audience/random chance in charge of what order the middle scenes appear in. I’ve also gained a lot of insider knowledge of how the venture capital world works through friends and family. They are the real villains of the story. The commodification of drugs and supplements, from Adderall and LSD to psychedelics to snake-oil like Nootropics––this whole idea that we can “hack” our brains and unlock doors that aren’t really there (not that drugs aren’t fun and cool and stuff). Finally, I was inspired by the book Theater of the Unimpressed, and its critique of the traditional well-made North American play.