New City Theatre's tale of a mother's Internet deception

Theater Review |

Ah! There's great satisfaction in experiencing a daughter's success and happiness, and there's great pain in watching her suffer. But of course, a parent's greatest anguish is experiencing the death of a child. In the gripping play "my new friends," we see all the above.

Writer S.P. Miskowski teams up with performer Morgan Rowe to present a story that includes cruelty by adolescent girls, obsessive interference by an overly involved parent and the potential for deception and betrayal offered by the Internet's "friendship" networks. It's a good show, and it deserves more people in the audience than the handful who were there on a recent evening.

The play is based on a real incident. A mother created a fictitious persona for herself on MySpace and then deceived and taunted her daughter's rival. It ended in tragedy.

Morgan Rowe plays both the deceiver and the mother of the unfortunate girl. Throughout the play she switches between the two parents with little more than blackout moments that allow her to move from one chair to another.

One mother is defensive, almost cocky, suggesting that what she did was harmless; any normal person would have laughed it off. The other mother is hunched over, haunted, seeking some explanation for the destruction of all her dreams.

Bit by bit the personalities and family histories are revealed. Bit by bit, the horror of it all grows stronger. Gradually, as the story evolves, one is overwhelmed with the understanding of the harm that can be done on the Internet. Rowe quietly, with no histrionics, draws the audience deeper and deeper into the tale and lays bare its emotional power.

New City Theater previously performed at Hugo House. This play is presented in its fine, new, 2-month-old ShoeBox performance space, where there's a large stage and comfortable raked seating for 30. It works well for this excellent intimate piece and will be equally fine for larger productions.

Nancy Worssam: nworssam@earthlink.net