THE STORY: Lilly and Steven are smart, talented, and charming. Their new neighbor is not. After moving into a new apartment, they meet the man they now share a wall with—Mark Manners, an aspiring fiction writer and longtime tenant of the building. Lilly and Steven proceed to Google-stalk Mark and have a field day mocking his website…only to realize the walls are thin. Did he hear everything they said about him? When they try to resolve the newfound tension, it escalates in ways none of them could ever predict.
“Caren…keeps surprises and red herrings in constant churn while having a high time with a symbolic pair of fish in a bowl.” —Los Angeles Times.
“The characters in Jonathan Caren’s contemporary comedy NEED TO KNOW use Facebook and the internet to glean information about others, but while technology plays a pivotal role here, the playwright’s primary concern is ethics: specifically, how we treat the misfits among us—those who may not conform to conventional standards of beauty and behavior.” —LA Weekly.
“NEED TO KNOW is a play for the 21st century with some subtle…gaffes at society’s perpetual attachment to cell phones, lap tops, social media, and Googling. Additionally, some hysterical but sobering questions are raised about privacy—or the lack thereof—in today’s world. Playwright Jonathan Caren brilliantly blends funny and frightening with serious topical concerns.” —L.A. Splash.
“Seductively suspenseful…a provocative psychological cat-and-mouse game with some neat Hitchcockian touches…[Caren] knows how to keep us guessing…” —Stage Scene LA.
