Lansing Community College gets edgy with ‘Cosplay’

When strangers Leslie and Michael meet in the online role-playing game “Zombie Apocalypse,” they form a digital partnership, uniting their favorite avatars to fight against zombies and other nefarious enemies. While gamers especially will relate to “Cosplay,” running at Lansing Community College’s Black Box Theatre 7 p.m. Friday (Nov. 15) and Saturday (Nov. 16), the show’s themes of isolation and connection in the digital age are universal.

The play opens with a digital abandoned house, displayed on the scrim. Avatars Mary (Savanna Adams), a blonde starlet with a torn 1950s-style dress, and Jim (Camilla Trudell), a hyper-fit action-hero type with a colorful assortment of weaponry, take shelter in the kitchen of the old house. Through their gaming sessions, we gradually learn that 20-something Leslie (Denisse Huguez) lives with her mom, has recently lost her job and, like many people her age, is looking for a purpose. Meanwhile, Michael (Shane Curtis), a remote consultant, has some serious baggage that keeps him at a distance from others.

Through the safety of their characters, the two work out an amiable partnership as long as Michael, the more experienced of the two players, is directing the game play. As soon as Leslie demonstrates some unconventional and creative moves of her own, Michael pulls away. The real trouble, however, comes when the two agree to meet up at a cosplay convention dressed as their avatars.

The set is arranged in a proscenium style. The gamers’ stations are at opposite ends of the stage at the same level as the audience, while a platform just beyond the gamers transports the audience into a world of zombies, laboratories and post-apocalyptic urban chaos. The set design forces the audience do some serious neck swiveling as the volley of gamer dialog shifts in either direction. It would be nice if the audience was instead looking down on the gamers, or if their stations were situated closer together. Despite this, and some glitchy technical issues, the performance boasts a few slick combat scenes, especially Mary’s flip off the stage, and a perfect “Stranger Things”-esque musical selection arranged by sound designer and director Paige Tufford.

The relative inexperience of the actors generally works to convey the stilted dialog of the script and the ambiguous ending. As a feminist, I find the script to be problematic — especially Leslie’s big break coming from modeling for a questionable cosplay photographer. I suppose I understand why they take off their clothes at the end, but it feels gratuitous, like a “Brady Bunch” episode where Alice the housekeeper advises one of the kids to get over their stage fright by imagining the audience naked. The best line of the performance was delivered by the guy two seats down, who said, “Is that how they’re going to end it, naked and afraid?”

No amount of acting skill can hide an unbaked plot, but the players do an admirable job conveying the vulnerability of human connections, the zombies have a terrific dance routine, and a fun night is had by all.