It’s a little surprising to when nerd-on-nerd drama becomes a fascinating introspective into love and loneliness in modern-day life.
Nevertheless, it’s a pleasant surprise to watch “Build,” a play which examines the lives of two video game programmers who can only be described as complete contrasts and total nerds.
Will (Peter Katona) is the paradigm of the Silicon Valley playboy, complete with a Ferrari and a hilltop mansion; Kip (Thomas Sadoski) is a recluse living in his late grandmother’s house who shut himself off from the world after his wife, Allison, passed away.
Will tries to force Kip to honor his contract to build a sequel to the massively popular video game that propelled their careers forward, which proves difficult. The two former best friends spar over their differences, which provides the play’s smart, Aaron Sorkin-like repartee, written in well-paced dialogues by writer Michael Golamco.
Sadoski plays the technology-weirdo perhaps a little too well, with his vociferous guffaws and slouchiness that could rival the hunchback of Notre Dame. Sadoski’s character provides those quick-paced non sequiturs that perhaps are par for the course from the actor’s role as Don on Sorkin’s “The Newsroom.”
Katona’s good looks and slick Hollywood agent-like take on his character seemed a little too suave to be plausible, but there are exceptions to every slouchy nerd rule. What the actor did capture well was that Silicon Valley pompousness of new money technological dominance, from his enunciated yelling voice to the ease with which he delivers barbs right back at his partner.
The quixotic core of all the technological speak is the A.I. (Laura Heisler), an artificial intelligence sentient being meant to replicate the artistic Allison and fill the massive hole of guilt that Kip has for having ignored Allison in favor of his work before she died.
Heisler plays the dream girl role well, with her pink hair as a reminder of how art and expression are necessary to balance the cold, mechanical world of technology. The actress aptly fulfills the robotic functions of the sentient role while injecting it with a sense of warmth, necessary to show Kip’s extreme prowess in artificial intelligence and his failure at human connection.
While the play introduces the A.I. in a rather abrupt and slightly confusing manner as she pops up randomly on stage, her presence ultimately becomes a catalyst for the emotional scenes in the show.
Both of the male characters show their raw, emotional sides as the A.I. delves further into the past and learns more about how Allison affected both of the men’s lives before and after she died. Sadoski especially does well in shedding his nerdish caricature to reveal more of a nuanced sadness that brings balance to the play’s lighter elements.
This is a dramedy that manages to appeal to both North and South campus students with its technological inside jokes and layers of emotional turmoil that slowly unravel for each of the character. While rivalry over academic majors runs deep on this campus, it’s a good bet that this play will show how one world can complement another.
– Teresa Jue
Email Jue at tjue@media.ucla.edu.