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Theater review by Raven Snook
Rating: ★★★★★ (five stars)
Ticketing: Buy tickets here
For the lost and sexually frustrated, the manosphere can be seductive. Else Went's thrillingly disorienting Degenerates forces us to grapple with why so many men end up there, and to humanize some of the detached souls whose hatred of women is surpassed only by palpable self-loathing; this nearly three-hour deep dive into incel subculture surfaces into something unexpectedly touching.
An unsettling call to a suicide hotline, staged in total darkness, sets the desperate mood. Only then do the lights then go up on Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams’s evocative set: a side-by–side pair of hilariously different bedrooms that reflect the sensibilities of their occupants.
The gawkily intense Miller (played with chilling charisma by Zachary W. Desmond) lives in a spartan space with a Smiths poster on the wall and dirty laundry on the floor; this is the dingy hovel from which he operates an online platform for men who feel oppressed by women—even though, at the age of 28, he still lives with and gets fed by his mother. (“Just like, just some nuggies and flamingo sauce,” he orders through the door.) Meanwhile, the effeminate agoraphobe Target (Christopher Dylan White, in a wondrous performance) is a barely-legal teenager who surrounds himself with pastel manga posters and Hello Kitty plushies, and makes a good living as a camgirl, crossdressing just credibly enough to give his viewers “plausible deniability.” (One favorite costume: a sexy cow.)
As these loners connect online, joined by the disembodied voices of two other men, they alternate between cutting each other down and egging each other on. Their conversation, thick with insular incel argot—there's a glossary in the lobby—is so ugly that it's almost laughable, especially Miller's pseudoscientific pontificating. Although they may not have much else in common, they are bound by a shared enemy; femoids, as they sneeringly call women, are the sources of their misery and the objects of their fury.
When Miller and Target find themselves alone in real life, though, the vibe shifts drastically; loneliness gives way to longing, perhaps even to love. The scene in which these two misfits meet is breathtaking—awkward and funny, scary and sad, electric and erotic—and Desmond and White imbue their characters with a discomfort so realistic that watching them feels almost voyeuristic. And when intermission hits, it's impossible to predict where Degenerates will go next; if the final act wraps things up a bit too neatly, it generously gives some of its inhabitants a chance to evolve and embrace change.
Went, who identifies as nonbinary, has uncommon empathy for people who are struggling with notions of masculinity that have been thrust upon them—and with their own constructions of femininity. As in Went's five-hour epic Initiative, they prioritize people over plot, giving the characters the time and space to be knotty, naughty, funny, infuriating and, yes, even sympathetic. Their wife and frequent collaborator, director Emma Rosa Went, elicits fearless performances from a cast that also includes Tyler Nowell Felix, Juan Arturo and Olivia Rose Barres, who plays several female roles and—perhaps to suggest how deeply these men feel controlled by women—reads wry, slightly mocking stage directions in voiceover.
Especially since the pandemic, which sent screentime soaring, vulnerable young men have been wading through a virtual swamp of misogyny. Went’s play, in examining both the personal and the systemic, reminds us not to dismiss them all as isolated monsters.
Degenerates. Playwrights Horizons (Off Broadway). By Else Went. Directed by Emma Rosa Went. With Zachary W. Desmond, Christopher Dylan White, Tyler Nowell Felix, Juan Arturo, Olivia Rose Barresi. Running time: 2hr 50mins. One intermission.
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