(left to right) Daniel Chenard, Robert Koon, Londen Shannon and Ayanna Bria Bakari. Photo by Joe Mazza/Brave Lux.

The New Colony has announced casting for its world premiere season opener, FUN HARMLESS WARMACHINE, an exploration of online masculinity cults written by Co-Artistic Director Fin Coe and directed by James Fleming.

FUN HARMLESS WARMACHINE will feature Ayanna Bria Bakari, Daniel Chenard, Robert Koon, Emily Marso, Victor Musoni, Londen Shannon, Ian Smith and Laura Sturm.

(top, l to r) Ayanna Bria Bakari, Daniel Chenard, Robert Koon and Emily Marso
(bottom, l to r) Victor Musoni, Londen Shannon, Ian Smith and Laura Sturm

The production team includes Sotirios Livaditis (scenic design), Rachel Sypniewski (costume design), Claire Chrzan (lighting design), Eric Backus (sound design), Omer Abbas Salem (props design), Zoe Benditt (dramaturg), James Fleming and the cast (choreography), Ella Silverman (assistant director) and Jennifer Aparicio (stage manager).

By day, Tom works a dead end job for the man and can’t get a date. But by night, he’s top of the leaderboard, a master gamer. Othered and lonely, Tom is sucked into the Order of the Sword, an online community that seems to promise him his digital persona in real life. Inspired by Gamergate and other online hate movements, FUN HARMLESS WARMACHINE is billed as a “cautionary tale of the power of fear and the seductive pull of the alt-right.”

“When Fin began working on this script as part of the 2015 Summer Session of The Writers’ Room, we were immediately struck by the timeliness and depth of this story about online hate,” said Co-Artistic Director Stephanie Shum. “More than three years later, as we prepare for its world premiere, it seems more prescient and current than ever.”

The show will play October 3 – November 4 at The Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee in Wicker Park. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, September 4, 2018 at www.thenewcolony.org.