Leveling Up!

"Leveling Up" by Deborah Zoe Laufer is very interesting play. It brings up question of what it means to have a real life for people of the millennial generation. Also it blurs the lines of reality and video games. it accomplishes all this through its main character Ian. he is told he does not have a real life even though he is a professional game. That is not considered to be real. He then gets a job operating drones. Now while he is doing almost the same tasks as when he is playing, there are major differences in the consequences. Ian's reality becomes infused with the game he is playing, making him unable to distinguish work from pleasure. The inability to relax is driving force behind the major conflict at the end. He is always at odds with one or more of the other characters because he cannot find a way to get out of work mode. His fragile mental state leads him to attack Jennie both virtually and in real life. 

The play has a great concept, and at times a good script. But, there are moments where it feels that Deborah just gave up on writing a scene and took and easy way out. The dialog gets bland and repetitive. Also you can tell the script was written by someone who did a lot of research on gamers, but was not a gamer herself. The lingo was right; it was just slightly off. It was just a little unsettling. Also her sentence structure at times could be a little strange. She ordered words in ways that people would not actually say.

         The play as a whole was very good. She could have spent a little more time fleshing out lines and a little more research on how gamers actually speak. With those little addition it would be an amazing play.