Else Went’s nerve-tingling new play Degenerates, running at Playwrights Horizons under the direction of Emma Rosa Went, dives deep into the malignant corners of the internet. Featuring performances by Zachary Desmond and Christopher Dylan White, the production explores the dark anatomy of modern misogyny and nihilism.
The Bottom Line
The Production: Degenerates makes its premiere at Playwrights Horizons, directed by Emma Rosa Went and written by Else Went.
The Cast: Zachary Desmond and Christopher Dylan White lead a five-person ensemble.
The Cultural Context: The play examines the evolution of online involuntary celibate subcultures.
Inside the Dark Architecture of Internet Subcultures
Twelve years after Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured fourteen more in Isla Vista, California, after posting a Facebook status proclaiming that the “Incel Rebellion has already begun,” the lexicon of online radicalization has shifted from obscure forums into the mainstream. Playwright Else Went spent years lurking on these digital boards to research the language of these communities. The production features a glossary in the lobby of Playwrights Horizons.
The play’s staging mirrors this. Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams’s set splits into two distinct bedrooms at stage left and stage right, expanding from scruffy realism toward abstract bleakness. Here, characters exist in isolation, weaponizing jargon that traces back to a 1997 blog chronicling its author’s “involuntary celibacy” before being co-opted by men who wielded it as a banner of their misogyny and nihilism.
A Terrifying Duet of Misguided Nihilism
At the center of the five-person ensemble is a dynamic between two characters. Zachary Desmond stars as Miller, a hardline “black pill” zealot who acts as an online guru for the group. Desmond follows up his stellar turn in Ivanov with another fearless exploration of tragically fucked-up masculinity, portraying a young man who has fully surrendered to the belief that happiness is unattainable.
Opposite him is Christopher Dylan White as Target, an 18-year-old barely out of childhood who is deeply enmeshed in Miller’s digital orbit. White, who delivered a quietly wonderful performance in Initiative, brings heartbreaking vulnerability to a character starved of affection. Miller dismisses any notion of comfort, snapping at newcomers that the group is not a hugbox for delusions, but rather a space dedicated to facing the bleakest realities of their perceived station in the sexual marketplace.
The Theatrical Examination of Radicalization
The narrative wastes no time softening its blows. Miller outlines his fatalistic timeline to fellow members like Kemp, whose voice is heard in the dark talking to a suicide helpline at the start of the performance. Believing that his life has a strict expiration date, Miller treats his fatalism as a form of radical honesty, admitting that while he won’t commit acts of mass violence himself, he harbors a hollow dream of being name-dropped by someone who eventually does.
The Wents demonstrate a talent for eliciting fully released, brazenly exhilarating work from actors. Degenerates captures the tragic mechanics of how impressionable young minds trade community for absolute nihilism.
| Role / Element | Contributor / Detail |
|---|---|
| Playwright | Else Went |
| Director | Emma Rosa Went |
| Venue | Playwrights Horizons |
| Cast Members | Zachary Desmond, Christopher Dylan White, Tyler Nowell Felix, Juan Arturo |
| Scenic Design | Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams |
The Continuing Cultural Aftermath
By bringing these subterranean digital forums onto the stage, Degenerates forces audiences to confront the human cost of online radicalization. The production succeeds precisely because it refuses to look away from the desolate interior lives of young men caught in cycles of self-loathing and weaponized despair.
