“Up, Up, Down, Down” Review: No Contra Code Needed

Ben Williams and Allyson Morgan in Barton Bishop’s “Up, Up, Down, Down” presented by the New York Theatre Experiment. Directed by Erik Pearson, Photo by Leah Reddy

Televisions were placed in all the right spots, while box sets of animated sitcoms the likes of South Park and Family Guy were placed on shelves nearby, just askew enough to catch the eye. Video game and comic book posters depicting everyone from Batman to the Street Fighter gang were plastered on the walls.

They were not quite straight, but they were not quite crooked either.

Just like you used to have in your room back in the day.

In spite of being an Off-off Broadway performance, the set design in Barton Bishop’s “Up, Up, Down, Down” is so surreptitiously awesome that when you first walk into the Access Theater on the fourth floor of 380 Broadway, you feel like you’re at someone’s home and not a theatrical performance. However, as the play goes on, you see how integral the scenery is to the performance.

Eventually, the set design isn’t the only reason why you feel so comfortable.

Combining stellar performances from Allyson Morgan, Ben Williams and Amy Tribbey, with hilarious supporting roles by Carter Gill, Jonathan O’Brien and Christopher T. VanDijk, “Up, Up Down, Down,” is easily the best independent production in New York City right now.

A performance that initially appeals to the video game nerd, with a plethora of inside jokes [Morgan’s character, Joy often suffers from panic attacks and recites the Konami code of Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start, to calm herself down], is quickly transformed into a piece about life, love, trust and the human condition. Over the course of two hours, there will be plenty of laughs and possibly even some tears, depending on how mushy you are.

Because of this, it’s a play that can be enjoyed by an eclectic range of personalities, all of whom will get something different out of it.

Christopher T. VanDijk and Ben Williams in Barton Bishop’s “Up, Up, Down, Down” presented by the New York Theatre Experiment. Directed by Erik Pearson. Photo by Leah Reddy

This is mostly due to the duality Morgan provides her character. She can be an insecure, pill-popping loser who’s crush on her co-worker Ian [Williams] and mommy issues have destroyed any chance she has at happiness one second, only to be transformed into a hardcore gamer with the courage to stand up for her convictions and be bluntly honest to the people she cares about. Seeing her grow as a character is quite possibly the best reason to see this play. As a matter of fact, they’ll be often times during this performance that in spite of your differences with her, you can see your own life through her eyes.

The same thing goes for Williams, who starts the performance off as a hilarious, but narrow-minded obsessive gamer, before ultimately growing into the man Joy’s character needs to escape her perils and find the happiness they both deserve.

Though the plot is a bit wacky at times, with terrorist plots and gamecubes finding themselves in the same sentences, the dialogue and development of the action has a kind of Kevin Smith-feel to it that makes it weird, but totally believable and so quirky that you’ll hang on the breaths of every character throughout.

As a result, “Up, Up Down, Down,” manages to do more than immerse you in its world, it makes you think more about yours.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 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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