Real, virtual worlds intersect in Bricolage's 'Neighborhood 3'

by Alice T. Carter

Neighborhood 3 is a community where distinctions between virtual and actual reality are intriguingly murky. It's as difficult to tell them apart as it is to separate the living from the living dead.

Set in a suburban subdivision with identical houses, Jennifer Haley's play "Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom" tracks the movements of a group of teens addicted to an interactive online horror game.

The goal is to escape from the neighborhood after obliterating the army of zombies who threaten to overrun an increasingly familiar suburban subdivision.

As concerned but ineffectual parents watch the game take over their kids' lives, real and virtual worlds intersect in horrifying ways.

The Bricolage Production Company's production of "Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom" begins performances Friday at the company's performance space Downtown.

"It's a cool show about zombies," says Matt M. Morrow, a self-confessed zombie and horror fan and the show's director. "I believe I've never read anything like it."

In August, Morrow directed a staged reading of "Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom" for Bricolage as part of its six-play staged-reading series. Its popularity with audiences earned it the fully staged production that opens the night before Halloween.

"This will be a complete oral, visual and visceral experience. It's going to completely surround (the audience), and that is reflected in these characters who are pulled into the video game and taken out of their world and pulled into something both extraordinary and recognizable," Morrow says.

Will the audience actually see the zombies?

That depends on your interpretation, Morrow says: "I think you do in a sense. Jennifer Haley is using it as a metaphor for who you become in the mindless suburban world."

There's more to the play than zombies, violence and gory thrills, Morrow says.

"This has an arc. The world changes throughout the course of the show, and people react to that. They interact, relate and transform," Morrow says. "The show is about connections and the inability to face your community and your family members."

It's also very funny, he adds.

"I don't think you can have true horror without comedy. ... Both are visceral, gut reactions. I think it's about being put on edge and made vulnerable. In that experience, laughter is a defense."

As a preface to the performances, Bricolage is turning its outer lobby into a game arcade.

Beginning at 8:30 p.m. on performance nights, ticket holders can test or display their gaming skills while enjoying snacks and cocktails, which will be available for purchase.