LOSER

Read 12 Rules for Life while cuddling your Waifu body pillow. Your harddrives labeled “research” are full of saved OnlyFans leaks. Reddit and self-help brain rot your brain. Dopamine loops and blackpill spirals. Funko Pops, dog-eared volumes of The Sandman annotated in gel pen, YouTube grinds, biohack broadsides, a browser history equal parts productivity porn and existential flailing.

LOSER thrusts audience members into the basement bedroom of Lee, a recent suicide victim. His cousin digs through the e-waste wreckage searching for meaning in masculinity, algorithmic gospel, and a dopamine-optimized browser history. 

Performed by Soren Royer-McHugh, this staging marks Patrick Kennelly’s return to directing at Highways Performance Space & Gallery, where he also serves as Artistic Director. Originally devised and written by Ceaseless Fun’s Artistic Director Derek Spencer and company member Royer-McHugh, LOSER premiered at ArtShareLA in May 2022, under Spencer’s direction.

Drawing on a diverse web of writers—from Friedrich Nietzsche and Siegfried Kracauer to Thomas Bernhard and Sam Shepard—the piece unravels the loose threads connecting personal happiness, public performance, and social malaise.

LOSER is performed in an intimate setting as a direct address to a small audience.