A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

If You Can Get to Buffalo

Full-Length Play, Satire/Political Satire  /  8any gender (adult)

Trish Harnetiaux

“ If You Can Get to Buffalo finally deflates the utopian pretenses of cyberspace by reminding us that human technology also carries in it its makers’ most craven impulses.” - Stage Raw

If You Can Get to Buffalo

Request license
Get the Script
  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    8any gender (adult)
  • Duration
    Duration
    75 Minutes
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Experimental, Docudrama/Historic
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult

Details

Summary

Few know that way back in the day, 1993 to be exact, a text-based social network “mansion” called LambdaMOO was hijacked by a “Mr. Bungle,” who single-handedly detonated the new world utopia by misbehaving most grievously at a virtual party. Somewhat based on the real story of the first instance of virtual rape, the attempt to deal with the perpetrator, and the awkward Charlie Rose episode that followed, If You Can Get to Buffalo explores our fascination with hiding behind a keyboard, the impulse to be bad, and the anonymity that made it all possible.

History

 

If You Can Get to Buffalo premiered in a production by The Acme Company in Baltimore, MD in May 2013 under the direction of Eric Nightengale.

Keywords
Performing Groups

“STARSINGER”
“DR. BOMBAY”
CHUCK PETAL
JULIAN
JOHN FROM THE NEW YORKER
“BAMBI”
WIFE
“BILL GATES”
“MAN”
“LEGBA” (Male)
“LEGBA”
“JUNIPER”
“MR. BUNGLE”
“PURPLE GUEST”/”GRENDLEFISH”

The cast should be played by 8 actors.

One actor plays “STARSINGER”, another “LEGBA”, another “JUNIPER”
The actor playing “DR. BOMBAY” also plays JULIAN
The actor playing JOHN (FROM THE NEW YORKER) also plays “BAMBI”
The actor playing WIFE also plays “BILL GATES” and “PURPLE GUEST”/”GRENDLEFISH”
One actor plays CHUCK PETAL
“MR. BUNGLE” plays “MAN” and “LEGBA” (Male)

  • Time Period 1990s
  • Additional Features No intermission
  • Duration 75 Minutes
  • Cautions
    • Strong Language
    • Mild Adult Themes

Media

REVIEWS 

"A deep topically relevant exploration of cyber drama." - DC Metro Theater Arts, Read More 

"A fine morsel of eclectic humor. Fast moving and funny, witty and thought provoking, If You Can Get to Buffalo takes us back to the beginnings of the internet." - Discover Hollywood, Read More 

 

“If You Can Get to Buffalo finally deflates the utopian pretenses of cyberspace by reminding us that human technology also carries in it its makers’ most craven impulses.” - Stage Raw

"The early ’90s was the dinosaur age of the Internet: Dial-up modems whined, the ‘information superhighway’ was common parlance, and multi-user dimensions – the fledgling ancestors of virtual worlds – were just emerging. Trish Harnetiaux isn’t nostalgic for that time in her new play, If You Can Get to Buffalo, but she makes an amusingly pertinent case for revisiting it, and more specifically, LambdaMOO, a nascent chatroom that witnessed one of the world’s first virtual crimes and began the debate on internet rights.” - Village Voice

“It is strange to think back on the internet as a text-based phenomenon, and Harnetiaux brilliantly captures the ambivalence of that moment right between the pre-internet world and our world, where we are inundated with it, drowning in it, allowing this now-ancient-seeming past to articulate the questions that are even more pressing today.” - City Paper

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $110 per performance

Scripts

Available Formats:
Get the Script

Add-Ons

Take a look below at how you can enhance your show!

Authors

Trish Harnetiaux

Trish Harnetiaux

Trish Harnetiaux is a playwright, filmmaker and podcast creator. Her narrative podcast The MS Phoenix Rising, about the relaunch of the cruise ship industry, is available on Playwrights Horizons Soundstage. She's developing the TV pilot this summer through The Orchard Project ...

View full profile

Community

Now Playing

Community Experiences