Anyone into computer geekery, particularly the online role-playing games like World of Warcraft, will probably find GAM3RS /the play hilarious. But even those — like Chief Justice John Roberts — who don’t know the difference between email and a beeper will likely find the short work, Ion Theatre’s new late-night offering, good for lots of laughs.

GAM3RS /THE PLAY.

^{Courtesy photo}

Brian Bielawski, who co-wrote the script with Walter G. Meyer, plays a college-ager who works in phone tech support but is consumed with his leadership role in an online fantasy/war game. He’s planning “the biggest battle in videogame history” to recapture the Relic taken from his Realm by Elven forces. And he’s counting on a sneaky strategy: He’ll attack from work — after surreptitiously installing the game on his office computer — because he’s figured that one-half of the enemy forces will be at work while the other half is at school. His “troops,” he believes, have taken the day off to fight.

His war preparations and generalship, however, keep getting interrupted by such mundane concerns as the computer-help calls he’s paid to answer, his mother frequently phoning to remind him to complete his readmission form to MIT, and three unseen characters: his oft-complaining boss, his neighbor in the adjoining cubicle, and his girlfriend, who comes in for their planned “anniversary” lunch (which he’s forgotten).

The mirth comes in watching Bielawski’s exquisite timing as he frantically multitasks, juggling his actual and fantasy lives. He zips from keyboard and mouse to cell phone to headset, all the while gulping from bottles of Mountain Dew (one of which he eventually uses to relieve himself so he won’t have to leave his desk at a crucial moment). Along with videogame addicts, Bielawski spoofs help-desk operators — caller-unheard belches and -unseen nose-picking — and the sometimes-clueless phoners.

Computer jargon and slang abounds, and the more familiar you are with such terms, the funnier the play. But there are plenty of non-computer gags, some tech-y (his cell phone misunderstands his voice command to “Call Nick”) and some typical (he’s on hold and gets a song he hates but then keeps on humming).

The program contains no directing or tech credits, so GAM3RS is probably a Bielawski-Meyer traveling show featuring the casual dress, cluttered cubicle and desk typical of computer-help offices; the sounds of computer voices and message alerts; and lighting distinctive only in a smoky, silhouetted entrance.

FWIW, my verdict on the show: LOL.

The program