What would happen if Woody Allan’s Sleeper met Frank Black from Soylent Green and the two of them tried to start a revolution by the way of Les Miserables, but got  intercepted by Agent Smith?  Too complex of a concept?  Too heavy?  Too depressing?  Greetings and salutations, my dear citizens of One World. Welcome to DYSTOPIA GARDENS , a part futuristic fantasy, part dead-on reality taking place in One World, its citizens huddling under the gigantic domes built to protect them from the irreversibly polluted planet – a distorted reflection of our own realm, where we all live under the same cupola of the so far still blue sky.  One World is a brand new world where the most respected profession is a watcher, who records the activity of every citizen with hidden cameras and computer screens, installed in every nook and cranny of the domes.  One World is led by an almighty leader, who loves slurping nana cream from baby food jars and who gets cloned and re-cloned, his brain transplanted into a new body, losing a few more screws with every iteration.  People are fed food pills from food tubes, everyone is required to wear white robes and children who ask too many questions get electrocuted so that their parents can attempt to produce a perfectly conforming citizen, only they do it by the means of bodily fluids exchange through plastic tubes attached to their genitals.  “Three times the charm,” says the father when he calls his wife to tell her that Bobby failed the test and got zapped.  “Get ready, I’m coming home.”  Their blissful indifference makes sense – after all their match was made in electronic heaven by a computer at the DMV – Department of Marital Vows.

This dark yet inspiring comedy is the brain child of Will Nunziata and Jerry Miller, who had been worked together for the last eight years on various projects and finally decided to produce a baby of their own.  Unconventional, thought-provoking and challenging the status quo, the play is brilliantly written and hilariously funny.  If you’ve been feeling down lately, this is the play for you.  If you’ve been unhappy with your life, the economy and the universe, this is the performance you should see.  If you’re furious at what’s going on it the country and the world, and are about to go postal, come join the riot.  It won’t cure your angsts, but at least you’ll know you’re not alone.  Maybe for that reason every performance of DYSTOPIA GARDENS has been a sellout, and there’s only one left, so hurry!  Plus you can go to Mustang Sally’s after the show and ask Will and Jerry - the playwrights slash directors slash producers slash actors slash costume and set designers slash singers slash female impersonators any wicked questions you may have.  Like, how did it feel to exchange bodily fluids through plastic tubes on stage? 

What’s the message DYSTOPA GARDENS , a fantasy about an unpleasant future, is trying to deliver to us, the citizens of one planet Earth?  I'm running out of fingers.  Leaders don’t have the answers.  Neither does the TV, nor your computer.  Don’t be a droid, think for yourself, there’s such a thing as a brain, after all.  You were born with it before you plugged yourself in.  Is one world, one big WTO-governed world a good idea?  Is individuality a thing of the past and today we all must look the same, dress the same, eat the same burgers, fries and pills, and conform to whatever our glorious leaders tell us from the evermore glorious TV screens?  Maybe it’s time for a revolution, at least that’s the finishing accord of the play, where the actors sing The Song of Angry Men, the lyrics of course reflecting One World’s idea of angry.  Is freedom a brand or is it not?  That’s for us to decide.  Humanoid, use thy brain and don’t be a droid!

DYSTOPIA GARDENS is playing at the PIT theater at 154 W 29th St , last show this Saturday at 8pm, book your tickets at (http://dystopiagardens.tumblr.com/ before they sell out again!  And, if you’re unlucky to miss it, Will and Jerry are planning to turn it into a movie this summer.  Stay tuned – more crazy shit is coming down the food pipes!