The final one act presented by Third Eye Theatre Presents: Dylan Hillerman’s Grand Guignol is Under My Skin written and directed by Ira Kortum. In this horror installment we are thrown in the midst of chaos and the beginnings of a total breakdown of society.
Under My Skin depicts Man as his own worst enemy, be it Man vs. Individual, Man vs. Society, or even Man vs. Nature. And certainly Man will use Nature, Society and Individuals as tools and weapons to bring about the destruction of his intended target.
So what is left? Society will protect itself at the sacrifice of the individual in order to preserve itself; nature is no respecter of persons, and for individuals it is everyone for themselves. And so we have the uneasy assurance that we are all expendable for other’s survival in the face of a disastrous crisis. Under My Skin places us in the middle of this crisis, although it is unknown exactly its nature at the start. What is evident is that society is reaching a structural breakdown and the institutions designed to protect and preserve us are turning against the human collective.
In the face of this, even family structures and the closest human bonds imaginable, family, lovers, spouses, all fray and fall aside like a house of cards in the face of terror and fear of the unimaginable. And we are the worst enemy to each other, once the familiar is stripped away and we become essentially strangers once more. Under My Skin depicts a future in which we have been stripped down to having nothing but strangers for neighbors, family, lovers and we react in the most animalistic ways possible when faced with such an existence. Even so, there can be no steps taken by the individual to ensure protection from this kind of breakdown. If Rome burns Rome burns.
Maybe some of us will be left…