Theory

by Norman Yeung

Is there a limit to free speech? Who gets to decide?

Isabelle's film theory students are stunned that she would open an unmoderated online discussion group to complement a controversial syllabus. Her intention was for them to learn from each other, but when an anonymous student starts to post racist comments and offensive videos on the forum and others challenge Isabelle's methods, she is forced to decide whether to intervene or to let the social experiment play out. But the posts soon turn abusive and threatening to Isabelle's relationship with her wife, Lee, causing her to take matters into her own hands.

In this thrilling exploration of the intersections and divisions within liberalism, a young tenure-track professor finds herself in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse that has her questioning her beliefs and fighting back for her life.

96 pages, Paperback

Published February 2, 2021

Reviews

[Melinda Worfolk]

I’m finding this difficult to review fairly. I am very far from a free speech absolutist, so I found it kind of hard to sympathize with the main character. Her lack of self-awareness and refusal to acknowledge her own privilege was breathtaking. On the other hand, her comeuppance was (while believable) so extreme that it was hard not to feel sorry for her. Perhaps my own biases are making me feel there’s not a lot of nuance here, though I do believe a nuanced examination was the playwright’s intent. I would have liked to see more buildup to things going wildly wrong for her regarding the unmoderated forum. The issue for me was that things seem to go wrong almost immediately, so rather than leaving me thinking, “hmm, too bad it went wrong; I can see the pedagogical benefits of her approach,” I immediately felt like, “Well there you go! What did she THINK was going to happen? I could have told her it would be a disaster.”

Generally, however, I think this is a play that really needs to be seen in order to shine. There were a lot of intriguing descriptions of the staging, and I could see what an interesting play it would be to produce and direct.