REVIEW: Data (Arena Stage)
Time for some lore: I worked in tech for a while. Was quite deep in that sort of culture for years, from about 2015 through the pandemic. Spoiler alert: it sucks. Consider the toxins of wild west capitalism, and roll them into a snug burrito with an unbelievably powerful cabal of brainiacs that struggle to elocute just how its entire product works to the lay person, to the point that meaningful regulation becomes practically impossible. You’ve seen the videos of elected officials struggling to grasp that Instagram can in fact connect to home internet — this is all real-life, and it’s a culture I’m relieved to have broken out of. But it’s also one I wish I saw more media about. Some TV shows pull it off to some degree, such as on Silicon Valley, but theatre is a medium that hasn’t embraced a monster as threatening as the data cartels of now. I was thrilled to see Arena Stage would be tackling the subject in Matthew Libby’s Data, a world-premiere one-act thriller currently running at their Kogod Cradle.
Book
Maneesh has just started a job as a UX (user experience) engineer — pretty low on the ladder. But despite his humble corporate stature, he’s a big name in the machine learning world: his undergraduate thesis was a groundbreaking prediction algorithm that could take baseball stats and predict their season performance with exceedingly good accuracy. Instead of put this genius to use, as so many prospective industries seek him to do, he resigns to a life of UX. When an old classmate and current Athena analyst Riley discovers his covert employment, he is headhunted to join a top secret project in the secretive Data Analysis department that completely upends his perception of the work he does. To avoid spoilers, I will stop there. But what follows, I can attest, is a solid tech thriller with real stakes and moral quandaries. Where the book for Data falters is its loose characters and seemingly unfinished nature. In a rare case, I actually think this piece could use a second act— to escalate things even further and inflict dramatic fallout of the cyber world within the show. Neesh, as the protagonist is known, holds genuine concerns as both the pressured child of immigrants and programming wunderkind, but much of his decision making is out of sight. He lacks a scene of vulnerability in defiance of his situations, something that breaks through the facade of “fight, flight, or freeze”. Riley, his colleague, similarly has sparks of connectable writing that expose harsh truths about the realities of women in tech spaces, but is frustratingly cast to the side when we need her insight — the events of the show are her plan, after all— the most to focus instead on a Neesh who is continually indecisive. The two other hands, Neesh’s mentor Jonah and Data Analysis head Alex, are a tale of two techies. Alex is a mysterious antagonist whose motivations remain muddy even when explained in the final third. Some scenes, though, indicate a far more layered character that is never explored. As for the former: I’m convinced Jonah isn’t even necessary as a character at all. Irritating as he is under-utilized, he is seemingly made important mere minutes before the show ends. A fuller structure could save him, but for now, he and the high-stakes story need more fleshing out (and potentially less ping-pong). 4/10
Acting
For this being Karan Brar’s stage debut, you could be fooled: he’s good. A bit stiff at times, but good; I think that more roles will acclimate him to stage acting. He does has a long resume of screen appearances stemming from his breakout role in Disney’s Jessie about a decade ago, so it’s not like he’s new to this. His timid presence as Maneesh is felt as he shivers in chairs and stutters on phones in a position he never sought to find himself in, and helps wind the tension into palpable stress. Isabel Van Natta, the other Athena youngblood Riley, is a more accomplished actress who provides a more commanding delivery as she masterminds the fight against Athena. She skittishly answers questions and clacks at keyboards in ways highly reminiscent of my days in computer science office hours, providing a more battle-worn guidance to Brar’s fawnlike avoidance—a balance that I appreciate, and wish we saw more of.
Production
Marsha Ginsberg’s sterilized set took a minute to appreciate. It’s just a cavernous white box: nothing occupies it other than a few pieces of furniture here and there, and a snack bar that appears on the side sometimes. Some could call it uninspired, but I won’t; I think it perfectly represents the soullessness of tech culture. It helps that the sharp lightwork by Amith Chandrashaker is loud and saturated, waves of lush color splash in each scene. It’s and eye-catching, but also a bit overdone — the lighting is strongest when it leans back in its chair to paint a more realistic scene, such as the few that take place outside under fluorescent city lamps. 5/10
Viz
The deep blues and bright red that contrast on the program alongside white streams of code babble are a good, forward touch. (The red/white/blue combo is excellent foreshadowing.) And while the big, barren box is a lot to take in, I appreciate sound designer Mikaal Sulaiman’s commitment to tension via the use of a blaring Jamie xx house track to set the vibe — something that continues, positively, through the rest of the show. I mean great praise when I say it was giving the soundtrack to Challengers. 8/10
Verdict
Data can help kick off a wave of great tech-oriented stage dramas— but for now, it needs more definition to follow-through on its gripping premise. 24/40
