Wed. March 24, 2010
By John Olson
A recent book by Professor Mark Bauerlein of Emory University expresses alarm at the hold the Internet has on teens and tweens. He contends the Internet's ability to keep kids connected with their peers 24/7 causes them to be isolated from adults and removes them from the influence and supervision of parents and teachers to a greater degree than ever before. Bauerlein's concern is the damage this isolation does to the education and personal development of youth. This is not the theme of Trust, but his observations about the way the Internet and digital communication facilitate the maintenance of an alternate teen world free of adults illuminate its story of a 14-year-old girl's rape by an online predator.
Had the parents been more aware of Annie's online conversations, they most likely would have sounded an alarm when Charlie gradually admits to being not in high school, but in college—then changes his story again to say he's 25. They might have doubted his explanation that a broken webcam was the reason he couldn't talk to Annie via video chat. When the parents take Peter off to college, leaving Annie and Katie home with an aunt, Charlie comes out to Chicago to visit Annie and the visit has dire consequences. It turns out Charlie isn't 25, he's 35 (or so he says, he's probably much older) and he persuades her to have sex with him, even though every instinct in her heart and mind is telling her not to.
In the program notes, Schwimmer explains that he's been on the Board of the Rape Foundation of Santa Monica for over ten years and that his inspiration for this project and this specific story came from the testimony of a parent whose daughter was attacked by an online predator. He says they researched the topic through interviews with counselors, victims, the police and the FBI. Their research shows, laying out in harrowing detail the sophisticated ways in which the predator preys on a young kid's insecurities and natural distance from her parents in order to first win her trust and then avoid detection by the authorities. Schwimmer and Bellin's commitment to the cause is evident as well. Each performance is followed by either post-show discussions or panel discussions and information, and fact sheets are offered in the lobby by a consortium of legal and social service agencies.
Whatever theatrical or dramatic flaws one might find in Trust, it ultimately delivers, through the power of its final scenes and the intentions of its creators to educate on the dangers of online predatory practices and to spark individual change to prevent them. Education is a very legitimate purpose of theater (even if it is seldom practiced in professional theater) and the people behind Trust are to be commended for giving audiences not only such an enlightening lesson, but through the efforts of their social agency partners, the resources to take action.
Trust runs through April 25, 2010, at Lookingglass Theatre, inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. Discounted parking is available for Lookingglass patrons at nearby Olympia Centre Garage (161 E. Chicago Ave.). To purchase tickets, call the Lookingglass Theatre box office at (312) 337-0665 or visit lookingglasstheatre.org.
Photo: Amy Carle, Philip R. Smith, Allison Torem and Morocco Omari (by: Sean Williams)
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