by Caroline Hicok

The beginning of man as intellectual creature can be traced to the first asking of the question "What should I believe?" You could see a play any day of the week that attempts to answer that question. Dan Bonfitto's 12-part industrial espionage series questions that question by answering with an ambiguous "Nothing." If that makes no sense, you're using your senses well. If the statement "nothing's true" were true, then the statement would be false because it has provided truth. This is the Liar's Paradox, and it is not the last one you will find in Flame Failure: The Silent War.

Episode 5, like every episode of Flame Failure, begins in darkness. Its characters sneak all around you through the catacombs where a cult called the Mechanical Fellowship offers purity through labor. Some are cultists; some are agents working for the government; and some are members of the Syndicate, an organized crime group. Their struggle is for possession of a book of ultimate knowledge based on Goedel's theory of Inconsistent Systems, the modern mathematical legacy of the Liar's Paradox. The book is an appropriate Holy Bible for contention between these characters, any of whom might tell you "We are all liars."

As you are slowly re-introduced to the light, your natural reaction would probably be to identify the setting so that you may place yourself and the characters. Give up now. The scene is a futuristic one illuminated by television sets and images of medieval Catholic pageantry. The characters are all antagonists in an epic with no heroes. Be careful when trying to discern who's working for whom. One of the conditions of The Silent War is "trust no one." Some of the characters have multiple affiliations among the three groups. The question of loyalty is further muddied in a world where computers interface directly with the brain and an "implant" can cause anyone to be controlled by someone else.

It's true, the whole series is a "Huckleberry Beanstalk" -- a game of hide-and-seek introduced in Episode Two in which the thing hidden must be in plain view. But the Downstage Players are a dedicated group who keep the wheels turning in this twisted Trojan Horse. Between the bloody fight scenes, beautifully choreographed by Paul Schimmelman, the unconventional use of stage and set, and a "plot so twisted that the X-Files is envious," there's enough meat here for any Austinite hungry for an action-packed theater experience.

Episode 5: Filter for Zeal ends with the elusive Book in the trash. What is its potential for whoever may be so lucky as to possess it? Episode 6: The Algebra of Sacrifice will address that question, but don't expect an answer. In a world fighting for order under inconsistent systems, there is no such thing as absolute truth.

Flame Failure will continue at The Public Domain Theater at 807 Congress Avenue the last two weekends of every month through May '98. For reservations, call 459-3825. Check out the website first at members.aol.com/DSPlayers.