Trigger Warming: The Unicorn’s Backwards Forwards Back uses video game framing to deprogram the trauma of war

Backwards Forwards Back. // Photo by Cynthia Levin/Unicorn Theatre

A few years back, I co-wrote a book about the tenuous connection between video games and violence. The basic through-line was that, for as long as we’ve had school shootings, we’ve had politicians who jump to blame violence in video games as the cause, because video games and heavy metal music are easy to blame whereas tackling mental health or guns is…. an up-hill fight in America.

One of the most fascinating experts I spoke to about data/research in this field was an Australian ethicist. He did not believe in this direct line of causality from digital violence to real world violence, but he had one big hesitation: If there is no link at all between video games and violence, then why does the United States military spend soooo much money on video games? From their own self-produced titles to their increasing investment in the Call of Duty franchise, our armed forces see a lot of potential in something here—ranging from encouraging enlistment to changing public perception to (an unknown degree of) field training.

With veterans of foreign wars returning to the U.S. to find themselves lacking the support they need—as VA services as backed up by years—and with vets facing a suicide rate more than double the regular population, it only makes sense that the army would start utilizing the influence of games media to address trauma and PTSD. But, like everything else around the armed forces, the majority of money is invested in getting people into service, not helping anyone reacclimatize to normal life on their way out. Can the low-budget alternative to traditional therapy possibly save lives?

That’s what the new play Backwards Forwards Back (performing at The Unicorn Theatre through April 7, 2024) hopes to examine.

Backwards Forwards Back. // Photo by Cynthia Levin/Unicorn Theatre

When a soldier returns from Afghanistan carrying the ghosts of their tour, they face an overwhelming shift in reality. Grocery stores, family events, fireworks, and life’s casual ebb and flow only serve as the backdrop to a constant rush of unmanageable trauma responses, including panic attacks and hallucinations. The soldier’s attempts to suppress the horrors of battle culminate in a moment where they commit a horrific blast of violence, with a young family member as the accidental victim. Now, faced with the threat of getting help or being forever exiled by their family, the soldier begrudgingly enters therapy through the VA. Overworked doctors and therapists don’t have the time to invest in genuine help, so the soldier winds up in a mandatory, VR-led rehabilitation program.

Over the course of the 70 minutes, actress Chioma Anyanwu simply owns the stage in a tour de force. Directed by Logan Black and working from a script by Jacqueline Goldfinger, Anyanwu channels every shade of despair, fear, pain, vulnerability, and hope into a performance that sets a new high bar for shows like this in KC. The ferocity on display is made manifest in a display of the physical embodiment of unwavering strength amid total personal collapse. That Anyanwu never seems to blink, barely even takes time to breathe, and takes two sips of water to make a political point—it doesn’t seem reasonable that a single performer should be capable of pulling this off in a live, realtime environment. I felt so drained at the end of the wildly kinetic production I could barely stand to applaud—how Anyanwu manages to do this daily for nearly a month feels like someone unwilling to back down from an unreasonable dare.

The production elements, from stage design to the VR sequences projected behind the performance, all create a seamless experience of an unrelenting attack on the senses—in one veteran’s frustrating struggle to simply return to the world she was fighting to protect. The idea that these dehumanized digital tactics might be the best hope of survival for millions of Americans is portrayed with measured, thoughtful consideration, while the human cost implied tips the scales in an undeniable direction.

Backwards Forwards Back runs at The Unicorn Theatre of the Jerome Stage through April 7, 2024 Unicorn Theatre. Tickets are available here.

Backwards Forwards Back. // Photo by Cynthia Levin/Unicorn Theatre