Theater Beat : ‘Burning Chrome’ Invades Cyberspace

The technically flashy “Burning Chrome” at Sacred Fools gives a futuristic spin to hard-boiled noir, with mixed results.

Based on a story by William Gibson, the celebrated progenitor of cyberpunk, this stage adaptation by Steve Pickering and Charley Sherman preserves Gibson’s stylistically experimental, computer-influenced techno-jargon.

And that’s a problem. Cyberpunk may be the cutting edge in sci-fi fiction, but the technological double-talk that characterizes the genre doesn’t always cut it as theatrical dialogue. Despite impressive technical effects, the visualization of cyberspace remains amorphous.

Unwieldy exposition sets the dystopian scene, a dehumanized society in which computers have supplanted religion as the opiate of the masses. Brilliant “console cowboy” Bobby (David Holcomb) persuades his reluctant partner Automatic Jack (Adam Bitterman) to rip off Chrome (Tenny Priebe), a mobster queen with vast financial holdings and a lethal reputation.

Chrome’s cash is hidden deep in the Matrix, a glorified Internet where world commerce, legal and non, is conducted. First, the partners must hack through the “black ice”--the deadly countermeasures--protecting the dough. The scam is complicated when both guys get a yen for Rikki Wildside (Piper Henry), a free spirit who has come to town hoping to star in “simstim”--a virtual reality medium in which the actors replace their eyes with cameras. Although Jack’s love for Rikki is true, he’s destined to download the blues.

Impelled by driving rock music, Scott Rabinowitz’s carefully syncopated staging is meant to be comically overwrought, and succeeds. Aaron Francis’ set and lighting design, Mary Hayes’ fetish-inspired costumes, and J. Warner’s sound are wildly inventive, as are Stan Freitag and Darrin W. Jaques’ props and Gene Lushtak’s original video, which opens the action.

*

* “Burning Chrome,” Sacred Fools Theater, 660 N. Heliotrope Drive, Los Angeles. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 16. $10. (310) 281-8337. Running time: 1 hour,30 minutes.