Scarlett Dreams

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Scarlett Dreams is a breezy and charming new dramady by playwright S. Asher Gelman, best known for his very different erotic and tense Afterglow and safeword, which here explores the dangers of Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality. Under the astute direction of the author, the cast made up of stalwarts Brittany Bellizeare, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Caroline Lellouche and Borris Anthony York always keeps interest high. While Scarlett Dreams is ultimately a cautionary tale with a shocking ending, the engaging acting and the impressive design elements makes this an entertaining show.

Liza, an app developer, and her brother Milo, a fitness guru who runs a WholeBody gym, have created RealFit, a fitness app tailored to Virtual Reality. Installed on an OmniVision headset, it encourages you to work out more and live a healthier life style. They need a beta tester and have decided on Milo’s husband Kevin who has had one hit Off Broadway play but has become a couch potato claiming writer’s block.

At first hesitant to become involved in the testing, Kevin quickly becomes beguiled by Scarlett, his VR instructor. Not only does she lead him to a better body, she gets him to start writing his next play called Scarlett Dreams which appears to be based on her life and work. However, is Scarlett real and how dangerous is it that she is infiltrating all aspects of Kevin and Milo’s life together? She seems to be going beyond her planners’ original intentions and morphing into a force they did not intend.

As Kevin, Keenan-Bolger, who demonstrated his versatility in last fall’s Dracula where he played many characters alternately, develops from the wimp and nerd he is at the beginning to a buff, risk taker who gets on with his life. When he takes off his shirt and reveals a very fit body, we really believe that all this has happened in the course of the play. Blonde, shapely Lellouche is delightful as Scarlett who knows a good deal more than she lets on. Bellizeare gives an excellent performance as Milo’s sister Liza, an ambitious executive type willing to do what it takes to get ahead in the corporate world. It is left to York as Milo to obsess over the dangers of the monster that they have created.

A good deal of fun is had by Brian Pacelli’s projection design which is shown on the modern and chic living room/dining room set by Christopher and Justin Swader. It takes us to the virtual reality world inhabited by Scarlett and later Kevin: forests, deserts, jungles, icescapes which change at the drop of a hat. It also lets us keep track of Kevin’s progress with fitness data and the success of the RealFit apps as to the number of new users. Emily Rebholz has created an attractive collection of clothes in monochromatic colors for these fitness-oriented people. The lighting by Jamie Roderick enhances the set and projections by changing the mood each time we find we are projected somewhere else.

While some of the events take more than a bit of suspension of disbelief, the play moves at such a speed that one doesn’t have time to ponder its flaws. However, as artificial intelligence and virtual reality are already here and being used daily, much of the play is to be accepted as an established fact. With Gelman’s breezy direction, the cast is at the top of their game in a play that not only tells where we are now but points us in the frightening direction that we are headed.

Scarlett Dreams (through May 26, 2024)

Greenwich House Theater, 27 Barrow Street, off Seventh Avenue South, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit http://www.scarlettdreamsplay.com

Running time: 95 minutes without an intermission