The Went team wastes no time in throwing their audience members deep into the trenches. Kemp, played by Tyler Norwell Felix, opens the play by giving the audience a taste of what’s to come—this emotional jolt is delivered with sharp comedic levity and thought-provoking questions that together create a soft place for the audience to land. Kemp’s raw vulnerability bridges the gap between audience and play: a language that quickly becomes crucial for surviving every. single. scene. I both appreciate and am impressed by the Went team and their efforts in caring for their audience through an unpreparable journey.

Though a dark, chaotic web spins in front of our very eyes, Target, portrayed by Christopher Dylan White, shines through. White’s combination of humor and charm disarms hot head, Miller, portrayed by Zachary Desmond, with the grace of a bomb squad.

Truthfully, the myriad (myriad, nice) of threads to follow leaves me slightly intimidated to post any type of reaction— and someday, when I can eventually read the script, I’m sure my eyes will become privy to the many layered details missed in one viewing (though I do hope to experience this production again in their extended run this December. Until then, here are just a few of the loudest questions left stirring in my head:

• What are the internal links we are too afraid to cross, and why do we desperately need to? Target, Miller, and the others on the first act’s Discord call displace this consideration onto the world, their loved ones, and each other. I found difficulty sitting in the front row, mere feet away from Target— how I wished to shield her as she grew into her name.

• What makes a person whole; how much of a person needs to exist for a body to be worth fueling? This question is first posed by Kemp in his first scene, then its twisted and disfigured beyond recognition. It’s first asked, then morphed by all: Miller’s treatment of this same question has left a rotting knot in my stomach. Oh, how we would be so much better if we could only listen to our bodies and each other. We all want the same thing: to no longer be alone.

• Euphoria vs. Dysphoria and their consequences: We all crave definitive answers, so why do we find ourselves getting lost in the tension? Is that really what we are after? As a long gender confused person myself, Target’s journey both healed and ripped up my soul. Thank you for the new appreciation for the moment we live in-between.

• Holy shit.

• Where do the parts that cannot exist in our bodies go? And do we need others to awaken this dead thing in us? And when we get there— what do we do with the pain? The play’s last act suggests that sometimes, we must seek new bodies to inhabit.

Questions of this intensity leave an audience weighted with new burdens of their own. And it’s one that is not easily shaken— as any good art does, this piece will cling to you and get under your skin. Degenerates opens up this common ground of shared loneliness and takes us through an absolutely wild journey.

Congratulations to the Went** Family and the entire Degenerates team!

**Went Family: Please let me know if either of you ever hosts any kind of writing or creation classes; y’all are amazing!