Social Media Dependence Takes Center Stage In Philadelphia Play
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - What happens when phones are away and people are forced to talk to each other is the subject of a new play in Philadelphia.
Center City native and New York Times best-selling author Josh Piven is best known for his 1999 book "The Worst-Case Scenario."
His latest project -- a stage comedy called "Muddled" -- is set in Brooklyn, but is inspired by Hop Sing in Chinatown.
"The comic possibilities struck me because, you know, we're all so attached to our phones and we're always on social media that I thought it might be funny to set a play in a bar that doesn't allow you to use cell phones," explains Piven.
The play also explores the similarities and differences between two cultures: what it was like in the 80's before the internet and modern hipsters.
"The main character is a young kid who actually works at Facebook and then gets fired after a drunken incident that, of course, goes viral on the internet," says Piven, "and then things really start to fall apart for him and that why he decides to follow his passion and open this bar."
Piven says he just wants people to laugh:
"It's a comedy, there's not a lot of heavy lifting, but I think the play has some interesting things to say about our media saturated culture, about whether or not it's actually possible or desirable to run a consumer orientated biz that doesn't have any social media interaction but also maybe to think about the things that are lost in our current broadcast culture. How difficult it is for people to sit down and get off their devices and just interact in person."
The show opens Saturday night at Drexel URBN Annex and runs through June 26th. Tickets are available here.
