Play the Moment Productions from Orlando Florida presented Bytes at the Orlando International Fringe Festival. Aradhana Tiwari wrote this play that explored the relationship between a gaming nerd and a virtual companion. Michael Marinaccio played the digitally obsessed gamer, and Tymisha Harris played his virtual companion.
The gamer would spend countless hour at the computer and his digital companion shared his gaming obsessions. She shared and understood all of his wants and needs which became comedic in the way she wanted to fulfill his every need. What made her so unrealistic as a companion was her endless focus on him while her needs were never addressed. Being a virtual recreation, she really didn’t have needs.
She was programmed to satisfy is passionate fantasies and she kept pushing for this intellectual intimacy. At one point she did convince him to participate in the equivalent of sexting and the stage went dark as their intimate exchange built to a climax.
The next day was awkward. He wanted nothing to do with her. There was something very unsatisfying with the level of intimacy he had experienced. As the relationship developed, he began to isolate himself more and more, spending all his time at the computer screen. Developing a friendship with this digital companion resulted in him pulling away from friends and family.
He did keep one small sign of true life near him with his goldfish which was on his desk at all times. If he could keep that fish alive, then perhaps he could find his way back to a balanced life with flesh and blood community. He had a niece who loved that fish.
Spending all his time with his digital companion resulted in a deepening depression. The depression lead to suicidal thoughts. Since his digital companion couldn’t see him or touch him, she was clueless when he considered self harm. This scene hit me hard since I had recently sketched a court case in which a mom was suing Google and the start up company that developed a program that had Game of throne characters that children could chat with. Her son fell in love with Daenerys Targaryen. He wanted to have a suicide pact with his virtual love and when she said , “Come home to me sweet prince”, he took his father’s gun and shot himself. I feared that the gamer in Aradhana’s play might do similar harm. A programed companion can not understand the complexities of human emotion.
Bytes was an exceptional play about the dangers of relying on the digital world for companionship.
Bytes, written and directed by Aradhana Tiwari, took home the Critics’ Choice Award for Outstanding Original Script.