Players

Intercon Q, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Warwick, RI

by A Nakama, Haz Harrower-Nakama

Counterculture takes many forms, not the least of which is revolution.

It's the 1910s in New York City - the apple of the world's eye and one of the best examples of the great American social divide.

On the top tier were the 'haves:' the old money and industry tycoons, whose salons provided the super-rich a place to philosophize, hold intellectual discourse, and find ways to keep the political machine churning in their favor. Then there were the 'have-nots:' the immigrants, the poor, the laborers, the philosophers and free-thinkers who huddled in dingy bars and basements instead of luxury apartments.

One thing these two wildly different classes had in common, however, was women. Married. Unmarried. Wealthy, poor, nouveau-riche. And those who weren't provided for (either financially or emotionally) banded together for huddled whispers of their own. Men had the right to everything, even their wives and daughters, and the political machine had no room for the voices of mere property - for now.

Change was coming. Some feared it; some welcomed it - others demanded it.

But of course, with so many different backgrounds and opinions, there's bound to be trouble. Big trouble, in fact - street gangs of rebellious young women roam the city at night, racial and social divides causing clashes and violence despite having common goals of equality. They get thrown in prison, threatened with deportation, have their homes and businesses defaced, and fall into flat-out fistfights over anything and everything that gets their increasingly short-tempered blood going. Society isn't going to stand up for them; they've got to take matters into their own hands and say 'up yours' to centuries of cops, politicians, and patriarchy.

Time to decide how much each person is willing to sacrifice for social progress... or to stop it.