←Recommendations of MODERATION

There is a wonderful power in being taken into a hidden world in a play, and in Kautzman's riveting "Moderation," we are plunged into the world of content moderators: the nameless individuals who remove the traumatic and disturbing images from social media. The play is a gripping two-hander, with beautiful lines, and a complex, ever-evolving relationship played out on stage. Kautzman's style blazes on every page.

I saw this read at Valdez Theatre Conference and was struck by the wit and tension throughout. Thoroughly enjoyed the dialogue, language, and dark clouds of shifting power dynamics.

I haven't read a two - hander with this kind of dark precision since I read Mike Bartlett's "Contractions". By precision I mean the gleaming language, the wit, the overall structure, but also the specificity of the nightmare he invites us to enter. A nightmare which we thought we already knew because we live it every day on the internet, but discover it's so much worse than we thought.

I saw a reading at the Valdez Theatre Conference. This is a play that will stick with you. You have two characters sharing a workspace on a job that needs emotional release. Yet your own release is the person who sits next to you who may not be the person you want. And there is a minor power dynamic. A very good psychological study. Easy to produce as a student production at a college in a small space.

WATCHED AT VALDEZ THEATRE CONFERENCE
A harrowing and tense play about the doom spiral of conspiratorial thinking, the desperation to be remembered in a digital ecosystem designed to discard you, and the creep of one doubt becoming a doubt of all reality. Kautzman’s script perfectly replicates the frustration at a world that doesn’t seem to care, while taking a terrifying look at the residual damage we can do in our attempts to regain control.

A while ago I remember watching a video about Facebook content moderators and the psychological toll their job takes on them, and I thought that seemed like a special kind of hell. MODERATION illuminates the corners of that hell in skin crawling, precisely calibrated detail. Kautzman presents a world that feels not that far removed from our own, illustrating the dehumanizing effects of technology and its corrosion of the soul. It's a horrible job that, so far, only a human could do.

Absolutely stunning work! The tension between the two characters and the world had me quickly turning pages. The back and forth is sharp and the ending is haunting. I'm sure to be thinking about the points made for a long time. Highly recommend!