Review Fix Exclusive Downtown Urban Arts Coverage: Anghus Houvouras Talks ‘A Civilized World’

Review Fix chats with playwright Anghus Houvouras, who discusses his production, “A Civilized World.” Detailing its origin and goals, Houvouras lets us know why its pull np punches style will resonate with many.

About the Production:

An opioid addict is sentenced to death in the near future where being an unproductive member of society is a capital offense.  The play centers on the condemned, Eleanor Reed, and her final conversation with Andrew Goodman, a lifelong government shill tasked with explaining the value of her sacrifice.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this project

Anghus Houvouras: I hit a point in my life where I became frustrated with how comfortable society is with the suffering of others.  Every day people die horribly, suffer needless, starve, suffer from undiagnosed mental illness or are bombed into oblivion by drones.  And those thoughts barely register. At some point our general disregard for our fellow human beings became smothering. We humans don’t really value life all that much, outside of our own friends and family.  Life has so little value in the modern world. I started thinking could society get to a point one day where the disenfranchised are sentenced to death after being deemed ‘unproductive’. That simply by not being a productive member of society, the Government could end your existence. At first, it felt like a far-off concept, something that feels like 1984 or Fahrenheit 451.  But then it started to feel like something that could become a reality. We as a society sentence people to death all the time. The opioid addicts who overdose. The veterans who come back from wars and are all but forgotten. The mentally ill, the poor & the homeless who can’t get help because they can’t afford care. We sign their death sentence by our perpetual inaction.

My epiphany moment was hearing the words “We’re all monsters, some of us just hide it better” and then started to construct a story about two people who represent both the disenfranchised and the civilized society who believe they have no value in this world.

Review Fix: What makes this different or special?

Houvouras: I think there are a few things that make this different. First, in spite of the subject matter, it’s not preachy.  I have no interest in setting up a soapbox and screaming my views at people. What I’m interested in is the people who exist in this world and how they exist within the framework.  The message of the show only exists for people who want it to. If they actually consider the events unfolding before them and pick a side. I also think it’s different because it’s a piece written by someone who has clearly watched his generation embrace ambivalence as the world gets worse around them.  It’s directed by Rachel Deutsch, someone who is from a younger generation that seems far more interesting in declaring “this is bullshit.” I suppose that’s also what makes it feel special. That I get to write something about the failures of the civilized world and watch it brought to life by someone who comes from a generation that seems hell-bent on being part of the solution.

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this process?

Houvouras: That hope is meaningless when it’s not paired with action.  Hope isn’t going to save us, people are. People who look at a corrupt system and say ‘enough.’  People who shake the dust off of their soul and start devoting time and resources to a cause that make a difference.  I think I always knew that this world we live in is a lie. That to maintain our sanity we have to become comfortable with the concept that other people suffer and die every day and we can do nothing about it. Before the internet, there was more of a protective veil with our conscience.  But in the information age, we see these tragedies unfolding in real time and are still do so little to affect change. It used to make me chuckle. How silly humanity is and how we’re so absorbed with ourselves and our tiny lives that we can’t be bothered with things like injustice or genocide.  Through the process, it became a lot less humorous and a lot more unsettling. And i think that’s what i was looking to confront when I wrote it.

Review Fix: What are your ultimate goals for this production and for the future?

Houvouras: I want this production to knock the wind out of people.  We’re living in this amazingly divisive time, and i see people saying words like  ‘compromise’ or ‘find common ground’. Totalitarianism. Injustice. The plight of the disenfranchised.  These aren’t battles that shouldn’t involve concessions or compromise. I want to make people uncomfortable and question the nature of what it means to be a human being in a world populated with billions of other human beings.  I want people to question the nature of their institutions and why they put so much faith in them.

For me, I want to keep writing things that feel honest & real.  Whether you’re writing a comedy or a drama the one thing that makes it resonate is honesty.  I also want to get A Civilized World on as many stages as possibly and start some conversations.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Houvouras: I like to play in different mediums, so i’m working with A Civilized World Director Rachel Deutsch on a film version of the show and continuing to write and looking for organizations like Downtown Urban Arts Festival to partner with to create interesting and challenging theater and film.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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