“Degenerates” extended for a second time Off-Broadway: Else Went’s play about the “incel” community runs until November 1

Else Went’s “Degenerates”, the play that descends into the closed world of the “incel” community, is enjoying a second extension Off-Broadway — as Playbill announces, the Playwrights Horizons production will now run until November 1. The show was originally scheduled to close on October 11, was then extended to October 18, and now adds another two weeks because of strong audience demand.

The world premiere began previews on September 16 and opened officially on September 29. Directed by Emma Rosa Went — the author’s wife, with whom she also collaborated last year on “Initiative” — the work digs into “the language and pain of the extreme side of the male loneliness epidemic”, according to the press notes. The author had begun researching this virtual world during the pandemic, spending time also helping people who expressed suicidal ideas online.

The production’s cast consists of Juan Arturo in the roles of Serge and Chad, Olivia Rose Barresi as Stacy, Zachary W. Desmond as Miller, Tyler Nowell Felix as Kemp and Christopher Dylan White as Target. “The isolation of the individual is the main project of American capitalism at this moment,” Else Went says in her press statement. “The driving force of the internet is the production and amplification of anger and discontent, and the figures who manage to capture this rhetorically in virtual space find a great deal of power there, where in the real world they feel they have none.”

Playwrights Horizons artistic director Adam Greenfield describes the show as “a play that screams to be heard”, adding that through “the fundamentally communal act of live theatre”, the play finds “a spark of light and life” even as it plunges into the darkness of male anxiety. Tickets for the added dates are on sale at PlaywrightsHorizons.org.