Degenerates

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Else Went’s last play Initiative was a five-hour epic about a group of high school students from their first day to graduation. Degenerates, her new play being given its world premiere currently at Playwrights Horizons, is about another tight knit group, the incel community, that is young men who cannot find a romantic or sexual partner even though they want one. This three-hour play is difficult, challenging and has characters who are either unpleasant, unlikeable or extremely damaged. The play also includes much jargon (the script comes with a three-page glossary) that many theatergoers won’t know. Ultimately, the play is powerful and emotional but it takes quite a while to get there.

These are men who consider themselves degenerates as they are unable to find a satisfactory relationship. It might be based on early traumatic experiences, bullying or low self-esteem. They have compared themselves to Chads (men who are attractive to women) and found themselves wanting. They are sure that the system is rigged against them and have stopped even trying to meet anyone. Some of them hardly go out, while others contemplate suicide.

Degnerates is a portrait of three such men: Miller, age 28; Kemp, age 21 and Target, age 19, all of whom feel terribly alone but for different reasons. Miller is an angry violent young man who lives in his parent’s basement, holds a job, and leads a Discord chat room for other incels where he gives extreme and pessimistic advice, without any sympathy or empathy for his callers. Kemp is a Black man out of school who is considering suicide as he has never gotten over the rejection by a girl he admired in high school. He has been getting damaging advice from Miller who at least listens to his complaints. He still lives with his parents. Target is a femboy, a high school dropout, who has a streaming platform on the internet where for money he fulfills older men’s fantasies; he makes a good living though some of his online clients are getting too close. He prefers dressing as a girl and is considering transitioning. He has not left his studio apartment for the last six months and has everything delivered to him.

The play which is divided into a prologue and three acts begins with a suicide hot line that Kemp has called into. In total darkness we hear his conversation with Anna who tries to convince him he is not alone. He tells her how he stared at a gun for several hours that day. When the lights come up on Act I, the stage is split in two. On the left side is Miller’s basement room in his parents’ house from which he conducts his chatroom; on the right is Target’s all pink bedroom where he conducts his online platform. Miller is conducting his live feed with Kemp, Target (a pseudonym) and Serge, age 33, Hispanic, who may be there under false pretenses which are eventually revealed. They are listening to Kemp talk about Kayla, the girl who ghosted him after the high school prom, and who he cannot get over.

Ultimately, Kemp and Serge are gone and Miller and Target are alone using their video cams to see each other. Miller reveals that in two years when he is 30 he is planning on committing suicide. Their conversation evolved to the point that Target invites him to make the hour and a half drive to have an IRL meeting with him.  The second half of the act shows us Miller’s visit. Target is dressed as a girl in full makeup. They confide in each other and that leads to rather violent sex after which Miller disappears to go home, unable to face himself or Target.

In Act Two, Kemp and Target (dressed as a woman) meet up by accident at a boba tea cafe after Kemp has been rejected by a woman waiting for her boyfriend. Kemp considers his encounter with Target (calling herself Noelle) a success and goes home feeling good about himself. Later in the chat room, Target recognizes himself in the story Kemp tells Miller who is both abusive and pessimistic. Target first stops Miller from demeaning Kemp and then reveals their night together. Ultimately, they all are changed by their encounters.

As directed by Emma Rose Went (the author’s wife), while most of the characters are not likeable, the actors do a superb job in putting over these unpleasant, damaged people. As Miller, Zachary Desmond retains tremendous anger, hostility and violence. One can only assume that he will snap at some time. His violent sexual encounter with Target is evidence of this. His bad advice on his Discord chat room suggests deep self-loathing. Christopher Dylan White, who also appeared in the Wents’ Initiative, is remarkable as Target who seems to be both male and female. His caressing voice demonstrates how he could coerce other men on the internet. His layered performance covers many moods and vulnerabilities. He is totally believable in this difficult role.

Tyler Nowell Felix’s Kemp is a big teddy bear, desperate for love and looking for it in all the wrong ways. Olivia Rose Barresi plays all of the women’s roles: the unseen counselor, Target’s unseen sister who we hear recorded but don’t see, and Stacy, the woman that Kemp meets at the tea shop. She is able to shift gears playing three different people. We never see the devious Serge played by Juan Arturo but he later appears in a quick cameo as the boyfriend of the woman at the Boba cafe.

Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams’ set at first seems cluttered and confused with both Miller’s almost empty room and Target’s room (littered with pink plushies, walls covered with posters and strings of colored lights) onstage simultaneously but eventually during Miller’s visit to Target the two halves become one room. Then when they split apart again we understand their different lives. In the second half of the play, their rooms disappear and we see a boba tea cafe that has tables outside. The minimalism is a welcome relief after Target’s cluttered pink room. The costumes by Kindall Almond are spot on for these characters defining how they see themselves. Sound designer Angela Baughman has a great deal to do considering much of the play is online chat rooms with two of the participants onstage and two unseen.

Else Went’s Degenerates is a difficult play for many reasons and not an easy play to like. Its extreme characters are not ones you would want to know in real life. However, by the end of the play you know these people intimately and have a better understanding of the incel community. The game cast makes this extremely real during the long conversations meant to be online.

Degenerates (extended through November 8, 2026)

Playwrights Horizons

Peter J. Sharp Theater, 416 W. 42^nd Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit http://www.my.playwrightshorizons.org/events/degenerates

Running time: three hours including one intermission