A work unfinishing: Margin Notes: Bitcoin Bad Boy

Bitcoin Bad Boy

Foreground: Gianna Hoffman as
Sallie. Background: Jack Orrico as
Dan and Gloria Sangirardi Jung
as Barbara. Photo courtesy of the
production.

Seen on: Wednesday, 10/21/26.

Plot and Background

As part of Chain Theatre's Factory Series, Inferno presents Ben Schiller's sequel to the 2024 Happenstance. At a Bitcoin World conference in Vegas, Charlie Schwagg--newly released from prison after writing a code that constituted money laundering--is hailed as a liberated hero of cryptocurrency. However, with his release contingent on his selling certain talking points in his keynote speech, notably those in service of a corrupt politician, his crisis of conscience leads him to instead flee the city, expose the truth, and bring the news to the world not only online but also to a stadium audience in New York. Playwright Schiller used his decade of experience in crypto journalism to inform Charlie's two poles: a "free" market of cryptocurrency about to be regulated and dismantled, and the hope of something purer and cleaner, a return to the free without any malingering corruption.

Thoughts:

Play: Well, it's a lot. It's a lot of moving pieces and a lot of players with questionable motives, from Charlie's parasitic and opportunist brother and parents, to two aggressive fans-slash-muggers in a parking lot, to the strong-arming from the power suit-wearing politician, to Charlie's redemption in the form of his spiritually-inclined ex-girlfriend. When Crypto Czar points out the flickering neon lights of Vegas to Charlie, he asks him what that looks like to him. Charlie responds, "Hell?" "No," Butch replies, "that's freedom." At the center of it all, Charlie seems more a shiftless wavering soul rather than an anchor, a core around which the other characters orbit. Perhaps that's the point: it is only when he finally crystalizes his beliefs that his posture transforms from a constant side-to-side shuffling to standing tall and still. That being said, I'm not sure the arc is fully earned. The scenes tend to meander both within the moments as well as the fade from one space to another. The family's transformation from using Charlie to supporting him moves too quickly to absolve them of their corruption, and a reconciliation never makes it onstage. Girlfriend Sallie's redemption of Charlie, meanwhile, feels as shapeless as her hippy-dippy world view (she's absconded from Burning Man to rescue him, based on a psychic revelation). I suspect some of these relationships are more rewarding for an audience already familiar with these characters from Happenstance, but coming at them fresh with only this play leaves me with a lot of unknowns. That being said, while the emotional resonance of the relationships runs on the light side, playwright Schiller does an admirable job of catching the viewer up on the backstory itself. The most strikingly drawn conflict and tension of this play lies between Charlie and politician Butch, whose villainy is clean-cut and merciless. But with his absence from the final reckoning, the weight of that conflict reaching its climax with more a whimper than a bang.

Cast: The performers uniformly have a strong sense of their individual characters: who they are, how they move through the world, and what drives each of them over the course of this play. Dennis Brito is particularly excellent as Crypto Czar Butch Pine, owning his high status position in any space he occupies by the minimality of his movement. He doesn't have to stand close to you to intimidate you. He doesn't have to gesture widely with his hands to prove a point. He can stop, hands in his pockets, turn his head, and deliver an iron-heavy threat with a hint of a smile. Stillness can be very hard to hold onto while sharing a stage with a cadre of loud and kinetic characters, but Brito is a pro who holds his own. The challenge all the players are facing is the rather sedentary pacing of the play as a whole. Director Gomez-Campbell needs to do more to shape the scenes so each is an arrow on a tightly-strung bow, shooting forth to the next scene already primed and ready to go. But as it currently is, the stakes never fully feel as catastrophic as they should, and characters' epiphanies and decisions aren't sharpened in the way they should be. Crypto is a fast-moving world, and this play should be, too.

Design: Seo Yun's costume design is clear and straightforward: politician Butch Pine in a classic power suit of blue jacket/trousers paired with a sharp red tie. Charlie Schwagg, our resident crypto hero, soon eschews his luxe tie and button-up shirt for the more tech-bro look of an ironic tourist t-shirt saying "I [heart] Las Vegas." Match these two against activist Rashida in her crocheted vest and the inevitable keffiyeh, and you know exactly which world you're in. While Hope Debelius's lighting design leaves something to be desired (too often are the actors' faces in darkness), Gavin Strawnato's projection design has a strong and effective point of view, showing what digital and projection media can do when well-utilized (as opposed to lazily standing in for scenic design). Flashing against the back wall of the space are alternately the empty deco wall of the hotel room, the grey-scale flashing neon signs of Vegas, Charlie's teleprompter (of which he immediately goes off-script), a digitally-influenced Grand Canyon, and the bustle and chaos of New York with the added threat of government surveillance with individual faces in the crowd framed in isolating squares. This viscerally and vividly bright intruding outer world pairs excellently well with Eleanor Williams's beautifully understated scenic design: we start with both the Schwaggs's and Butch Pine's hotel suites sporting identical impersonal but expensive-looking tufted white living room set and corner bar, and when these are evacuated in favor of the more rustic wood and metal chairs, the transition naturally follows Charlie's own journey of rejecting a hollow luxury in favor of a more honest simplicity.

***

Running: Now playing at Chain Theatre: Factory Series (Inferno) - Opening: October 17, 2026. Closing: October 25, 2026.
Category: play
Length: 1 hour, 30 minutes, no intermission.

Creative Team

Playwright: Ben Schiller
Director: Meg Gomez-Campbell
Team: Ben Schiller (Executive Producer), Brie Albright (Associate Producer), Jenna Rowell (Dramaturg), Liz Hetzel (Stage Manager & Sound Designer), Erin Mee (Assistant Stage Manager), Eleanor Williams (Scenic Designer), Seo Yun (Costume Designer), Hope Debelius (Lighting Designer), Alex Rice (Lighting Assistant), Gavin Strawnato (Projection Designer), Dief De Falco (Props), Paul Siebold, Off Off PR (Public Relations).
Cast: Chris Chene, Jack Orrico, Gloria Jung, Jonathan Curelop, Dennis Brito, Kelechi Udenkwo, Gianna Hoffman, Cianna Castro, Annie Conolly.