Bring “God is an Iron” to Worldcon

god is an iron posterBlack Box Montreal, an independent theatre company that produces and adapts classic science fiction stories for the stage, wants to perform its version of Spider Robinson’s story God is an Iron at this year’s Worldcon in Spokane.

Money would help.

They’re lining up donors and seeking grants, and they’ve also turned to Indiegogo to find another $2,000 for travel expenses and publicity, as well as costume and prop building and sourcing.  The Indiegogo appeal is here.

Robert J. Sawyer backs the fundraiser:

I saw the Montreal Fringe version of this play in 2014, and it blew my socks off. Seeing it again at Worldcon will be fabulous.

Matthew David Surridge outlines the basic story in his Black Gate review of the 2014 Montreal production:

In the near future, a young man, Joe, enters an apartment and finds a woman, Karen, near death. She’s plugged into a machine stimulating the pleasure centre of her brain, an addictive high common in this future, and one that often leads to death as the addict comes to prefer the ongoing pleasure to food or drink. Joe gets Karen out of the machine and tries to lead her back to health. Who is she? Why did she plug herself into pleasure, knowing it could lead to her own death? Who is he, and why does he care? The set-up gives us questions, and over the course of the story we come to find out the answers. Some are profound, and the last is almost a punch-line: like a punch-line, it collapses all the pathos of the story and the themes into a sudden and surprising realisation.

The tale’s a meditation on empathy and pleasure; more precisely, on empathy and hedonism. Living for pleasure is self-directed. So what drives us — as human beings seem to be driven — to be social animals? Is there some merit to living for others beyond pleasure? Cano’s script, a faithful adaptation of the story using much of the original text, tries to probe these questions.

Donors are offered an escalating series of perks. If someone ponies up $500 —

We can offer one very lucky person the opportunity to be a part of the show! In addition to all the above perks, we’ll cast you in a high-visibility non-speaking role in one of the longer video segments. You’d be credited in the program amongst the cast as “Wireheading Patient”, and you’d have our eternal thanks. Also, we’ll buy you dinner.

They have raised $545 of the $2000 goal as of this writing.

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