The premise of this play is simple. A high school student, Micah, as played studiously by Ava Morrison, is finishing her essay on The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. She has only to complete the final paragraph. But what follows is a madcap romp through the Internet. Instead of just reading the book “Stone Age” style, she is sucked into a rabbit hole of distractions worthy of Alice in Wonderland’s journey down the rabbit hole. With additional distractions by her pal Taylor, played with humor by Dune Halstead, she is prodded into a dizzying search for two questions: what was the color of the light that represented Daisy in the novel? And what would be a good quote to use in her summation?

This prompts first a search of Wikipedia, who is portrayed ably by Ally Forbes, as a scholarly, even stuffy, source of all knowledge. But when Ally veers into a discussion of how the green light was inspired by Kermit the Frog, Micah realizes that nothing is as it seems. Soon every app aspiring to enlighten and entertain Micah jostle for her attention. Google, HBO, Twitter, Amazon Prime Video, Corbin, Instagram, Bing, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, Tik Tok, Snapchat and Hulu all vie hilariously to get her to click on them. These others are played to the hilt by, variously, Lauren Condor, Sadie Bigelow, May Shade and Nora Tracy. Boxing cats! Suave, sophisticated NYC cats! (May Shade.) You must try a 15 – 75-minute tutorial on make up! People respond with a dog vomit emoji, then a dead dog emoji. Google suggests seductively that they, and only they, are the legitimate search engine. The minor app Bing, played amusingly by Sadie Bigelow, appears when called, spilling papers and coffee as she attempts to be competent.

When Dune tells Micah to try watching the movie The Great Gatsby instead, all the streaming channels clamor that they don’t have it, but chatter at her about how they have similar movies instead, like Pearl Harbor and Game of Thrones. (?) Try Titanic! It has Leonardo di Caprio!

When Micah finally resorts to the, in this version, hopelessly outdated source Email, she finds Nora Tracy, a true cowgirl, with cowgirl hat, cowgirl boots, a bandana and an old-fashioned mailbag with a delightfully hick accent, suggesting the pony express. Poor Email is drowning in unread emails, and begs Micah to clear them out, but Micah has no time. Her mom keeps coming in, threatening Micah to get off the Internet and finish the paragraph herself, but Micah is addicted. A character is introduced, Corban, (Ally Forbes) who is a full-time gamer and throws herself to the floor to show how she only sleeps in ten second intervals, in case she misses any action from South Korea, way out of our time zone. As each useless and inane app toots its own horn, they also remind viewers that they sell your information all over the world and take your picture without your permission. Facebook is portrayed as hopelessly out of date, offering only your aunt’s cute baby pictures and your uncle’s political rants.

Micah finally resorts to the last option she can count on – the old-fashioned telephone landline. The apps, frustrated by her desertion, gathered round her like demented zombies, grabbing her head and refusing to let go. Taylor and Micah push them away by throwing stuffed pigs at them, props leftover from a tasteless video game called “knock granny over.” The hysteria ends when Micah finishes her last paragraph and agrees to go to school. Her mother, relieved to have gotten her daughter off the Internet, closes the laptop. Then, the mom wonders what slander is going on about the Holliston School Committee in town. SHE sits down at the laptop, and Google, played nefariously by Lauren Condor, gives out an evil, sinister laugh. So, this cautionary tale about the seductive and mind warping influence of too much time on the Internet comes to an end.

These seven actors, ranging in age from 6th to 9th grade, were directed by Amanda Bigelow. Amazingly, in only five weeks she trained them to memorize this hour long play of rapid-fire dialogue. It was so quick it was sometimes hard to discern, especially if the viewer does not know video games! But Amanda delightfully snuck in a current reference. She is herself on the Holliston School Committee.