Award-winning play opens

Jason Grote thinks technology is turning 2001 into an Orwellian 1984. His latest script, "The New Jersey Book of the Deadk" explores the pervasive nature of technology and how it can be used to infringe on our freedoms as individuals. At least that's the issue he addresses first in his Reva Shiner Playwriting Award-winning play at the Bloomington Playwrights Project.\nThe problem with "The New Jersey Book of the Dead" is it never really settles on a plot. At first it is about unionizing a group of temps at an office. Then it becomes more about the relationship between the main character, Diana, and her lesbian lover. However, the entire time it is interspersed with the hallucinations of Diana's schizophrenic husband in scenes Grote calls "shamanic trances." Most of the time these "shamanic trances" come out of left field and simply interrupt the story with overly cerebral symbolism and dialogue. One of these scenes, in which two of the characters are shown masturbating, is so out of place that one wonders if it was placed there just for shock value.\nThis play does make some interesting points about technology when it is not getting caught up in the surrounding melodrama. One of the driving forces of the play is the implementation of a corporate surveillance device called "Omnivore" in the workplace. This is a commentary on a similar program the FBI has developed called "Carnivore," which is used to scan e-mail accounts for possible terrorist activities. Had Grote decided to stick with this as the topic of the play, he would have had the opportunity to make an interesting point on how we are losing our civil liberties without even knowing it. Instead we are left with a soap-opera version of "1984."\nFor the most part, the acting in the play was quite good. Meredith Mills is good as the main character, Diana. Richard Perez, who is also the artistic director of the BPP, did a wonderful job in his role as the antagonist, Alvero. He creates a sympathetic character even though Alvero is the source of most of the problems in the play. Tim Ryder does a nice job as Diana's schizophrenic husband, Oscar, playing him with child-like innocence. The only acting problem was Roshaunda "Ro" Ross, who played Elizabeth. She had a tendency of overacting, often interrupting the flow of the play. \nOverall, "The New Jersey Book of the Dead" is an adequate play with some interesting points to make, but don't expect to see it making its way to Broadway any time soon.