A brilliantly written tragicomedy, imbued with bitterness and ironic insight into the modern world. Chasing money, career at all cost, casual sex, life at its best, constant adrenaline - these are the goals of the characters. At the same time, Burzyńska's play is part of the literary current attempting to describe and define the world of male priorities and stereotypes. The main idea behind the play art is based on a perverse idea, since the protagonists are "remotely controlled", they are also the heroes of a computer game, which gives a simple, but thus extremely accurate metaphor for our functioning in the world in general. The play is written very skillfully, briskly, the author perfectly imitates the contemporary newspeak of young yuppies.
Summary:
In the PROLOGUE, a female voice coming from off-stage presents the characters of the play as if they were males in a dating show. These are the representatives of the contemporary generation of young conquerors, these are the luxurious males, the world belongs to them - they are handsome, they have great jobs, they have money, they can get any woman they want (and they know it), but most of all they are the owners of something that in today's world is a capital of undeniable value - namely, perfect well-being. The uncompromising and concrete Kris (formerly Christopher) is a headhunter, Art (formerly Arthur) is a tough guy who poses as a romantic, his domain is real estate trade, while the life creed of Alex (formerly simply Olek), a sales representative, is: you can sell and buy anything, even baldness, Mateo (formerly Matthew), a would-be conceptual artist, makes huge money on pseudo-artistic commercials.
The first part of the play is entitled LOVE GAME. Four friends meet in a bar, over a beer, they are relaxed and eagerly indulge in the favourite pastime of men of all ages, simply put, talking about women. The dynamically written dialogue has the characters peacocking, the men brag about each other's successes in winning over numerous representatives of the fair sex. Every now and then, they are interrupted by cell phones ringing (boss, client, SMS contest, boss, client, contest, etc.), which causes the scene to go on at a shaky, fast pace. When finally a voice from off-stage commands them to turn off the mobile phones, the men are reluctant to follow the order. At this point, Art talks about a new affair with a certain stewardess, who can talk about her sexual experiences in an extremely poetic way (e.g. as if the tongue of a chameleon was crawling down her neck, and the smell of walnuts was in the air, or that she felt like a silvery barracuda dancing on tidal waves). However, it soon comes to light that this poet is in fact Monika, Kris's wife, and immediately afterwards it turns out that she has also been Alex's new girlfriend for two weeks. A pathetic finale for the well-being of males.
The next part of the play is entitled THE STRATEGIC GAME, the action takes place in Kris's new office. He invited his friends to celebrate his promotion. Kris is just on the eve of a significant success - he recruited an excellent employee for a huge corporation of the latest generation. Each of them is talking on the phone, and at some point it turns out that one of them has called the other and looking at each other they are talking to each other on their mobile phones. A customer calls Kris with the news that he is giving up his lucrative job. Kris is devastated, and if he comes to the next day's meeting empty-handed, it will mean the end of his career. He decides to recruit one of his friends to a meeting with Global Progress representatives. He starts a cynical game with them, trying to make them feel dissatisfied with life. The men quickly take the bait, but the game between them takes a completely different direction than Kris assumed. In the end, there is a fight, and Kris is left alone. A voice from off-stage tells him that he hasn't solved the crisis and will be dropped three floors below. Ah! And one more thing, Global Progress doesn't exist. Have a nice day!
The third part entitled WAR GAMES takes place in the gloomy interior of a ruined factory. The men are divided into two pairs and play paintball. The tense, truly warlike atmosphere of danger is finally unleashed by the final battle of the opposing "teams". Unexpectedly, the friends find a girl's corpse. Mutual suspicion begins. The girl is covered in blood. Did anyone have live ammunition? They want to remove the corpse from the scene of the accident, but they realize their car is gone. They decide to call their mutual friend Monika for help, but... but the sound of the phone is coming from where the body is. They're all scared. The tension becomes so unbearable that there's a fight. Kris, Alex and Art fall unconscious one by one. Mateo cries trying to revive Monica, then he realizes that it's not a body, but an inflatable doll. A voice from off-stage says: What a pity you can't see your stupid face! The rest of the characters wake up slowly, lie down embracing each other, but don't have the strength to get up. Mateo hugs the doll, which slips out of his hands and floats up. A voice from off-stage says that the characters didn't live up to its expectations, that they are only characters in a game where the rules have no meaning. In a moment, I'm going to extinguish your mood indicators... You will stop feeling anything... Maybe that's better? Sex? Career? The war? What a cliché... Delete... Game over.
In the last scene, instead of the voice from off-stage, a young woman can be shown sitting with her back to the audience and playing a Sims game on the computer.