The Idiot Box portrays the structural demise of a group of Friends-esque roommates living in an alternate realm of televised situational comedy (complete with predictable jokes, stereotypes, accepted sexism, and laugh tracks) that slowly collapses under the weight of the crude reality of the modern human condition. This Open Fist Theatre production has all of the traditional markers of a really good drama: Michael Elyanow's new play is a carefully crafted quagmire of complex, yet well-structured writing that painstakingly deconstructs commercialized apathy; Jeremy Cohen's complementary stage direction subtly juggles all of the unnerving discomfort, painful associations, and concocted awe that the Idiot Box inherently emotes with the tact of a Twilight Zone junkie; and the cast skillfully completes the production, straddling both exaggerated artificiality and awakened intensity as their paradigm shifts from that of a sit-com world to one of war, terrorism, poverty, racism, psychological crises, mediocrity, self-loathing, and fear. more ›