THE
WASHINGTON
POST
.
FRIDAY,APRIL
1, 2022
EZ
16
On Stage
CHRIS BANKS
BY GEOFFREY HIMES
C
inema would seem to have
an insurmountable ad-
vantage over theater in
telling stories set in a fu-
ture or alternative universe. With
their special effects and big de-
sign budgets, movies can evoke
those other worlds in ways that
plays can’t. But Knud Adams, the
director of “Private” — a new play
by Mona Pirnot, now having its
world premiere at Mosaic Thea-
ter — insists that the stage can
bring something special to sci-
ence fiction.
“Just think about two of my
favorite sci-fi films,” Adams says.
“[Stanley] Kubrick’s ‘2001: A
Space Odyssey’ set the template
for the movies that followed, but
the Russian version of ‘Solaris’
suggested another path, an effort
to pull the focus away from tech-
nology and onto relationships,
more like movies such as ‘Scenes
from a Marriage,’ ‘A Woman Un-
der the Influence’ and ‘Kramer vs.
Kramer.’ The cinema hasn’t fol-
lowed the ‘Solaris’ model, but thetheater has. The best plays about
the future are like ‘A Doll’s House.'
They look at social issues through
the lens of one relationship.
Mona’s play does that.”
In “Private,” Pirnot has created
a world very much like our own,
except that surveillance has be-
come so pervasive that privacy is
a commodity that can be pur-
chased or bargained away in ne-
gotiations with employers, spous-
es or Big Tech. The relationship
that Pirnot examines is between
Corbin (Eric Berryman), a frus-
trated engineer, and Georgia
(Temídayo Amay), a frustrated
artist. When Corbin lands the job
of his dreams, Georgia is able to
quit her day job and concentrate
on music. What Corbin hasn’t
told her is that he has given up all
rights to the couple’s privacy as a
condition of employment.
“The key to staging a play like
this is to treat all the aspects of
the future as a given,” Adams
explains. “You have to comb
through the play for hints about
the new world, and then you
SEE PRIVATE ON 17A world where privacy is a commodity
Mosaic Theater offers a compelling sci-fi play
set in a society not too different from our ownIf you go
PRIVATE
Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333
H St. NE. 202-399-7993, ext. 2.
mosaictheater.org.
Dates: Through April 17.
Prices: $20-$68.ABOVE: Eric Berryman,
right, and Temídayo
Amay in “Private” at
Mosaic Theater. LEFT:
Playwright Mona Pirnot,
left, and Knud Adams,
director of “Private.”
The play portrays a
world where
surveillance has greatly
expanded and privacy is
a commodity. “The key
to staging a play like this
is to treat all the aspects
of the future as a given,”
Adams says.PHOTOS BY MOSAIC THEATER