“Selfie!” a Sketchbook audience member yelled when asked to toss out a word that best sums up the state of civilization. The word also happens to accurately describe Sketchbook 14: 2049, Collaboraction’s festival of 17 new short plays. As the “2049” might indicate, this year’s fest has a postapocalyptic theme, but the offerings seem to mirror our current digitally driven times, giving us many a self-absorbed character high on pain, loneliness, and futility.
Lengthwise, this year’s fest has been sheared down to two 90-minute programs—a huge departure from the nine-hour opening day of last year’s overstuffed fest. Some of this owes to Holter’s decision to include several very short plays, a few of which run no longer than a minute. But for the most part these bog the show down rather than speed it along, and a couple seem designed for purely commercial purposes: in the case of two minis—one where a man kills himself before he realizes his friends have thrown him a surprise party and one totally unnecessary bit about NSA agents—you can pay $500 to play a walk-on role, part of Collaboraction’s attempt to meet a $5,000 June fund-raising goal. It’s a move that adds a layer of ick.
Through 6/15: Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 7 and 9 PM, Sun 7 PM; also Sun 6/15, 3 and 5 PM Collaboraction Theatre Company 1579 N. Milwaukee 312-226-9633collaboraction.org $30, $50 for both programs
