Omniscience

By Tim Carlson

A phenomenal critical success when first produced by Western Theatre Conspiracy in 2004, Omniscience is much more than a murder-mystery set in a quasi-familiar contemporary landscape of high-tech urban warfare. The plot, not surprisingly optioned already for a movie, is redolent with untrustworthy "embedded" journalists manufacturing positivist pseudodocumentaries about the ongoing victories of our military forces over any and all stripes of vaguely defined terrorists, hell-bent on destroying the "wellness" of our contemporary "free society." We recognize immediately the storyline's seamless meld with everyone's favourite post-9/11 reality TV show, the Evening News. On reflection, however, that recognition is strangely discomforting if not downright threatening.

Omniscience subtly and relentlessly begs the question of how many of our freedoms we have already lost to the institutions engaged in our surveillance "for our own protection" and the uses they make of the power over our lives we have voluntarily abrogated to them through our support of such phenomena as The Patriot Act, anti-terrorism legislation and Operation Enduring Freedom. But ubiquitous surveillance has become a fact of our everyday lives not only in our public acts, but also in our private spaces where increasingly every conversation we have is monitored for the purposes of corporate and careerist "quality control." What is so unique about Omniscience is not its patently transparent storyline, but its dialogue which so utterly reconfigures language that nouns become verbs, making all human actions a reflection of "industry standards" and corporate "best practices," and verbs become nouns, so that no one can do, and everyone just is--no independent thought or action is conceivable that is not based on its ideal and preconceived corporatist template. What is so unsettlingly disturbing about Omniscience is how perfectly accomplished Tim Carlson is in his "dialoguing" of the corporatist, military-industrial Newspeak of our age.

Cast of 2 women and 3 men

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0889225621
• ISBN13: 9780889225626
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Talonbooks
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Reviewed by Barb Radmore

Omniscience was performed as a play in 2004 by the Western Theater Conspiracy. This volume is published by Talon Books, a leading publisher of quality work by Canadian authors. On the surface it is the story of a possible murder, a missing man or maybe not. But it is the underlying themes that create this drama. It looks at life in modern society, one where the government can spy on its citizens all in the name of security. There is no section of life that can avoid the all seeing, all hearing agents of the government. In a time of war the media is being used to emit the message they want the people to hear, whether it is the truth or not. It portrays how the media can twist and alter reality to suit any purpose, to show one perspective at an advantage over others. Warren is the media man trying to make a documentary on the progress of the war. But what he sees in the video shot by the missing reporter does not seem to match what he is being told happened. His wife has been allowed to return from her job as soldier but she is not settling back into civilian life well. As the story unfolds it can be seen that they may both be threats to the administration as they each have a question on the progress of war. Carlson is able to use short, abrupt dialogue to tension and fear of the plot. It is a warning for the future, a glimpse of what could await the citizens if current security measures are not questioned. Tim Carlson is co-founder of the Theater Conspiracy. He also has written Diplomacy, another drama performed at the Theater.

"Trust is the key to access."

In an otherworldly dialog, a futuristic ensemble plays out the not-too-distant future, where war is endemic, a way of life, the media engaged in sound bites and commercials to promote public awareness and support, PR more important than accuracy: "Remember when war was something strange? Something foreign?" Four main characters relay the message of the play: Warren, a documentary film editor aspiring to become an "information specialist" (journalist); Anna, Warren's wife, a soldier trained in special ops who has just returned from the front after a friendly fire incident and a serious case of delayed stress; Channel One's Wellness director, Beth De Carlo ("reconfigure your belief for wellness"); and finally, George Ellis, an intelligence operative and the ubiquitous voice of power, who conducts a condescending series of interviews with Beth concerning Warren and Anna, suggesting his growing suspicion that they are part of an active terrorist group, Blood of the Light. Since Warren is a protégé of Beth's and his wife, the nerve-wracked Anna, subsisting on anti-depressants and mood stabilizers, appears to be hiding significant details of her last mission, the Wellness director is a source of pertinent information . Eerily familiar, this post-9/11 drama has all the earmarks of a society that exists from day to day in war mode, constant surveillance to an unconscionable degree acceptable and unquestioned. There is no privacy, every room equipped with listening devices, the latest in technology; the government intrudes to question actions and motives with impunity and any reluctance is viewed with suspicion. This is Brave New World on steroids, a murder mystery where the victim is society itself, personal freedom relegated to history. The watchfulness is pervasive, every action recorded, filed and sifted through later to build arbitrary cases against citizens whenever necessary. So it goes for Warren when George's suspicious eye lands on his recent editing activities. Using archival and current footage, Ellis builds a circumstantial case against Warren, the lack of real evidence unimportant in the pursuit of terrorists. What is so disturbing about this play is its familiarity, especially the characters, the authoritarian figure, the bureaucrat, the would-be journalist and distraught soldier with a story she doesn't dare tell. All is perception, winning the war, public morale, controlled media coverage and the use of advanced technology to intercept every communication. The inhumanity of authority is chilling, each individual's interactions carefully monitored for weakness or betrayal, an efficient, high-tech environment that has utterly subsumed civilization. If Carson's disturbing and provocative play is a rehearsal for the future, and it is too recognizable to suggest otherwise, then technology has trumped democracy, one freedom at a time. Luan Gaines/2007.