Review of First Floor Theatre's World Buliders

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called World Builders. It was by Johnna Adams and it was directed by Jesse Roth. It was about two people named Max (Andrew Cutler) and Whitney (Carmen Molina) who were both patients/lab rats at a hospital. The doctors were trying to find a cure for their condition where they make up a world and live in that world even though that world doesn't exist outside their own minds. But they want to keep their worlds. It was about what people consider diseases, friendship, and creativity. I really liked this show. I thought it was very intriguing and interesting and I saw the deep relationship between the characters.

Each person with this condition has their own world, and all of them are very different. Whitney's is kind of like science fiction. There are different characters who have romances and there are thousands of people on different planets. She has so many people that some of them just have to be background characters. There are also wars and opposing planets and there is a government and all of these rules. She knows all these rules even though there are so many of them. And in Whitney's world she can go back to different times and change what people said and what they did. She is in control. But Max just believes that when something happens in his world it just happens. And he feels like he doesn't have control over his world. And his world is not as big as Whitney's; his world is just a room. But it is still complex because of the details of the person in the room. It is also very creepy because his world is just a room where a woman is locked in and one day she is just gone. I thought the differences between their worlds, which they had long conversations about, were very intriguing. Max's world is like being locked in a room with monitors, but Whitney's world is like a science fiction novel that she is writing and can revise as much as she wants.

I think that the relationship between Max and Whitney was very complicated because I was rooting for them even though I wasn't sure if it was a healthy relationship. It might have been healthy because both of them had worlds so they wouldn't think the other one was a weirdo. Usually someone who has an alternate world that they spent most of their time in would be kind of weird to another person. It might have been unhealthy because two people who have worlds might not have time for the other person and it would make them sad that their partner's world was more important than them. It could also be dangerous because if two people have worlds at the same time and aren't paying attention, bad things could happen. They say in the show that people have died because of their worlds. But I'm rooting for them because they seem to genuinely love each other and they understand each other a lot too.

The last scene had a lot of impact on me because it really showed their devotion to each other, which was very sweet. I'm not going to be too specific, because it is the last scene of the play, but if you have seen the play you'll know what I'm talking about. Max is willing to make a sacrifice for Whitney, even though Whitney won't make that same sacrifice for him. Instead, she tries to make a way so they can both have what they want. And I found that so beautiful and I thought it was a very sweet ending to the show.

People who would like this show are people who like powerful love stories, science fiction, and touching sacrifices. I think people should go see this show. I thought it was charming, beautiful, and it had a lot of hope.


Photos: Evan Barr