Playwright Neil McGowan gives a futuristic spin to the age-old question “What would you do if you could live forever?” in his gender-bending, race-bending, relentlessly clever dark comedy Disposable Necessities, a Rogue Machine Theatre World Premiere.

The year is 2095 and not only do the top 1% still control 99% of the wealth, they can now remain forever young simply by downloading their aging selves into newer, fresher “modules” (i.e. recently deceased bodies) whenever the urge for rejuvenation strikes.

It’s a technology that has allowed 80something Alice Totten to inhabit three different modules so far, the latest being that of 30ish Al (Billy Flynn), who at long last gets awarded the respect the business world had previously denied her as a woman.

Al’s once famous novelist husband Daniel (Darrett Sanders), on the other hand, has only switched bodies once, which is why he now looks at least twenty years older than his (same-sex) spouse, and despite Al’s pleas that his/her hubby follow suit, Daniel remains content with the status quo, no matter his body’s age-related aches and pains.

The couple’s 55-year-old son Chadwick has been downloaded into one new module after another more times than his parents can count, most recently as a 20something African-American male (Jefferson Reid) if only to discover whether it’s true that “once you’ve gone black, you never go back,” and Daniel’s lifelong best friend Phillip Fain’s latest incarnation is a curvaceous, leggy young female (Claire Blackwelder) who still goes by Phil.

All of which makes the Tottens’ lesbian daughter Dee’s (Ann Noble) decision not to trade in her now 50-year-old body even more inexplicable, at least to those who thrive on being Forever 21 (give or take a decade).

And if things weren’t already complicated enough, Dee has life-changing news to impart, and she’s not the only one who’s about to shake her father’s life to the core.

Playwright McGowan peppers his script with more than a few cleverly thought-out details. (Those with the means to afford it can upload their “digitized” personalities, memories, and souls into an invisible cloud, then visit showrooms to pick a new-and-improved module, and if necessary take advantage of user manuals written specifically those flipping genders.)

Along the way, McGowan scores laughs with such delicious one-liners as the newly distaff Phil’s “I hate not being able to pee standing up and obviously it’s only a matter of time before I become a horrible driver” and his “No child should die before a parents’ second module.”

More importantly, Disposable Necessities imagines a not-too-distant time when the bottom 99% will “live like rats in megacities, hoping the ocean doesn’t swallow them up or the entire electrical grid doesn’t break down for good,” a world in which “diseases of every kind, including ones previously thought eradicated, have flourished” because “regulating the cost of health care and funding research is of little concern to those who have the means to do it.”

Heady stuff indeed, and just one reason why Disposable Necessities proves such a thought-provoker.

It’s also entertaining as all get-out, splendidly directed by Guillermo Cienfuegos, and performed by an all-around terrific cast headed by Sanders’ combative, conflicted, compelling Daniel and Noble in one of her all-time finest and most fiery performances.

Two-time Best Lead Actor Emmy nominee Flynn (of Days Of Our Lives fame) explores his feminine side to engaging effect, Blackwelder is a hoot as a macho man discovering the pluses and minuses of being a woman, and Jamie Foxx doppelganger Reid has great fun with Chadwick’s attempts to be more gangsta than Ice T.

Scenic designer David Mauer, costume designer Christine Cover Ferro, and projection designer Michelle Hanzelova have made the wise decision to mostly forego imagining a sci-fi style futuristic world.

Matt Richter (lighting) and Christopher Moscatiello (sound) complete a top-notch production design.

Disposable Necessities is produced by John Perrin Flynn. Amy-Helene Carter is co-producer. Rayce Lopez is assistant director. Katilin Chang is assistant lighting designer. Myrna Gawryn is movement director.

Casting is by Victoria Hoffman. Amanda Bierbauer and Ramon Valdez are stage managers. Mauer is technical director and Bierbauer is production manager.

Arriving precisely when virtually all L.A. theater comes to a Christmas halt, Disposable Necessities is everything the die-hard theatergoer could wish for this time of the year. That it’s something well worth seeing no matter the season is icing on the cake.

Rogue Machine (in the Electric Lodge), 1416 Electric Ave. Venice.
www.roguemachinetheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
December 14, 2019
Photos: John Perrin Flynn

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Neil McGowan, Rogue Machine Theatre