My friend Chris D'Amato is raising money to film a web-series adaptation of his play The Information War, which he co-wrote and performed in for a sold-out run in the 2018 New York Fringe Festival. Here's the official synopsis:
America. Present Day- the age of misinformation. Madness has besieged the nation. What is fact? What is fake news? One thing is certain: There is a war on for your mind. Famed alt-right conspiracy theorist and radio personality Alex Jones, has made an excellent living for himself capitalizing on the fears and paranoia of an increasingly divided populace. From his "InfoWars" studio in Austin Texas, Alex is not only going to foil the globalist scheme to poison, cripple, and enslave the population, but he's going to sell you bottles of "Super-Male Vitality" and "Caveman True Paleo Formula Bone-broth" while he does it. Little does Alex know however, that the frenetic fervor he has whipped up among his followers has physically manifested itself into something dark, powerful, and very alive. A great evil has been birthed into this earthly realm, and Mr. Jones is about to be thrust to the front lines of a new kind of war where his wealth, marriage, sanity, and our entire civilization hang in the balance.
As mentioned in the pitch video, The Information War was originally conceived as a one-man show, with some pre-recorded voice-overs. While this was an economical choice for a theatre production, it also translates into a safe production choice for COVID-19 — it minimizes contact between people, while still providing opportunities for a lot of actors, who are largely unable to work because their professions simply don't exist right now.
Chris sent me a copy of the original script years ago when they were still trying to find a place to produce, and I thought it was an utter delight. We've known each other since middle school, and though we differ on a lot of things politically, we also have a lot of wonderful, thought-provoking discussions about those issues; I'd even go as far as to say his Libertarian views give him an even closer perspective on Jones and his followers, making him more uniquely able to tear them apart. As much as The Information War makes a caricature out of Jones himself, it also works as a sort of black mirror for the audience to reflect on the worst instincts of American culture, and themselves.
Also his impression of Jones is eerily perfect.
The Information War Web Series [Chris D'Amato and Louis Aquiler / IndieGoGo]
