Trust Lookingglass Theatre Company
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David Schwimmer and Andy Bellin adapted the script from a screenplay by Bellin and Rob Festinger. According to the program, Schwimmer has shot the film and is finishing it up now; he codirects this stage version with Heidi Stillman. The play bears telltale signs of its cinematic origins: a lot of 30-second scenes, multiple location changes, banal dialogue modeled on everyday speech. But worse than that, it bears signs of having been based on a pamphlet about Internet safety and a manual from a rape crisis center. Its admonitory tale of a 14-year-old girl who falls prey to an online creep, and of the encounter’s shattering effect on her and her family, lacks the kind of specificity that distinguishes a compelling drama from a case study.
That said, Trust manages to evoke a crucial aspect of how we live now. The suburban family at the center of the play is inundated by media at all times. Computers, cell phones, televisions, iPods, and video-game consoles are nearly always on. The way the family’s three kids—Peter, who’s about to leave for college, high-school freshman Annie, and ten-year-old Katie—divide their time among screens reminded me of an Onion headline from last summer: “Report: 90% of Waking Hours Spent Staring at Glowing Rectangles.”
In the program, Schwimmer says he consulted with law enforcement officials, people who treat rape victims, and some of the victims themselves in order to “faithfully convey . . . the experience of a parent when their child is victimized” and “the many conflicting emotions and complicated psychology that a child experiences both in grooming and recovery.” This is admirable. But in conveying the experience of “a parent” and “a child,” the script erases the uniqueness of this parent and this child. We end up relating to them as representatives rather than individuals. What’s missing are the telling details, contradictions, and frequently maddening idiosyncrasies that bring a character to life and let us experience the full monstrousness of the crimes they suffer. v
