By DCist guest reviewer Nathan Kurz

Kristine Quinio’s iLust for G-Love: An Auto-Ethnography has set off quite a bit of buzz at Fringe, in part because of one critical review and the crew’s response. I found its social commentary for the quintessential millennials among us is spot on. It’s not about whether an avocado joke works or not, but rather that ellipses and emoticons determine more about our romantic lives than we’re comfortable admitting.

Through six acts, iLust whisks the audience through a series of scenarios that rely quite heavily on technological props to tell stories. In almost every case, the vignettes’ most dramatic scenes play out, not through verbal dialogue, but on the screens of iPhones and Macs. The show’s most compelling sketch used this creativity to great effect. Two female best friends and co-workers profess their love for each other through chat messages and texts, set in comedic contrast to the wildly monotone speech patterns of their parody-of-corporate-America boss.

We’re reminded that information technology can provide us with immediate gratification, along with (hilarious) pitfalls. Who can’t relate to seeing the totally overeager dude succumb to his anxiety and send eight texts in succession, seeking some validation from last night’s date? And then freaking out about whether his texts had been read and resorting to Facebook stalking to see if she was seeing other guys? I heard lots of genuine laughter at the familiarity with this totally pathetic behavior.

I can’t endorse iLust without mentioning that it falls flat on its face at the end. The final act featuring the strange behavior of a lovelorn sleepwalker was a major letdown and concluded what had been a pretty attentive 70 minutes with a nonsensical dance party. I also had problems with the overlapping character names, leading me to expect continuity between acts that never materialized.

Still, the writing is strong and the actors get their humor across. Emily Crockett particularly shines, performing the voice of an artificially-intelligent computer and belting out her self-composed ode to autocorrect during a scene change.

Remaining performances:
Saturday, July 27, 1:45 p.m.
At Goethe Institute – Main Stage, 812 7th Street NW
Get tickets here.