The boys are not doing so hot. In an obscure corner of the internet, they form a community on the bedrock of their shared and infinite miseries, offering each other proofs that the game is rigged against men, it was over before it began, there is no love in the world for them, better just to lay down and rot. When an unexpected relationship shakes the foundations of their miserable fraternity, the consequences of their fatalism are revealed.
CONTENT WARNING: Incel communities are hotbeds for hatred along all demographic lines, as well as for the promulgation of violence, self harm, suicidal ideation and suicide. While no explicit violence is depicted in the play, Degenerates contains extreme language and imagery which may be troubling to some viewers.
Else Went (they/she) is a Brooklyn based playwright and sound designer. They are a member of the 2021-2023 Emerging Writer’s Group at The Public Theater. Former fellow at MacDowell Colony, Playwrights Realm, Trans Theatre Lab @ WP & The Public, and Living Room Theatre. Commissions include the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation via MTC (An Oxford Man), Weston Playhouse (Mirror Game; short), and Parity Productions (Boxcar). Else has received residencies from Stillwright and Barn Arts Collective. Semifinalist for ASC’s Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries (Courage! To the Field!) and the O’Neill Conference (Initiative). Finalist for ASC New Contemporaries (Whate’er). Her work has been previously developed with The Tank, International Shakespeare Center, Florida Studio Theatre, and The Brick, among others. Else is the co-founder and playwright of The Renovationists, an artistic collective dedicated to queering traditional modes of theater.
Emma Rosa Went is a New York based freelance theatre director who makes new and classic-text plays. Recent work includes: Romeo and Juliet (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Spring Tour ’23;) An Oxford Man (Ted Snowdon Reading Series, MTC;) Kit Marlowe (Revelation Reading, Red Bull @ TFANA;) Much Ado About Nothing (Opera House Arts;) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Connecticut Shakespeare Festival, 2021 Regional Broadway World Award for Best Direction of a Play;) and readings or workshops with NYTW, Mercury Store, Red Bull, Hunter College, and other venues. Also upcoming with Else: Initiative, in the Spotlight Series at the Public, May 8th & 9th. Emma is currently under commission from HVSF, working on The Two Noble Kinsmen. Drama League Classical Directing Fellow 2020, Drama League First Stage Residency 2019. SDC Associate Member. More at www.emmawent.com
