Genre: Drama/Comedy, Stage Play

Length: Two hours, one intermission

Casting
All characters are late twenties-thirties.
1 woman, Black
1 man, White
1 woman, any race but Black
3 men, any race but Black

Synopsis
Seven young friends have been getting together for dinner monthly for years. Six of them are computer security experts who hire themselves out to help companies protect themselves against malicious hacks, but at heart they are hackers themselves. The woman who hosts the dinners is black. Her partner, a plumber, is white. Among the group is an awkward loner who is a vocal libertarian and a secret racist. There is a male gay couple, one of whom suspects the other of infidelity. There is also a single woman embittered by a string of failed relationships. Tensions prompt some of them to hack others, setting off a mutual hacking frenzy, and the bonds of friendship and love start to snap amid the revelations of secrets.

Excerpt
Sylvia: It’s honorable for you to hack not just me, but my client, and Black Lives Matter . . . but it’s not honorable for me to hack you?
Aristide: And my finances and my school records.
Sylvia: And that’s not all.
Aristide: I was not going to do anything with what I got.
Sylvia: Just an academic exercise, huh?
Aristide: Pretty much, yeah.

Production needs summary
Set
Apartment living room, lightly furnished with sofa and chairs, and three doors: front, kitchen, bedroom. Other locations to be indicated by moving furniture and changing lighting.

Costumes
Modern casual.

Props
Dishes, glasses, food. Cell phone for each character. Two laptop computers.

Sound
Doorbell.

Production History
Hackers & Lovers has had several staged readings and Zoom readings. It has not been produced.