“Rat Cage” @ Annex Theatre

Do you hear that scurrying up on 11th and Pike, just past Vermillion and up the stairs to the home of Seattle’s longest-running fringe theater? It’s Annex’s world premiere of “Rat Cage,” a form-breaking satire from Filipinx actor/writer Coco Justino (“The Last Rites of Uncle Manny”).

“‘Rat Cage’ is something of a genre hodgepodge play that I think will speak to today’s audiences,” Justino told The Ticket. “It aims to whip viewers from comedic moment to unhinged moment to sobering moment in an erratic pattern that, if all goes well, both mimics and deconstructs our relationships with internet-age information overload.”

The pop culture and tech-savvy work, which Justino describes as “musings on the profoundly painful by way of the profoundly absurd,” follows Vendetta Payne (“her stage name for definitely-not-stripping”) as her reality slowly becomes threatened by famous business-investing moguls from the “Shark Tank”-like television show that gives the play its title.

“‘Rat Cage’ also happens to be a love story,” Justino adds. “The relationship Vendetta (Kasi Gaarenstroom) and Jamelle (Tony Simmons) find themselves fighting for asks the question: Is human connection a strong enough force to combat what we, in the rehearsal room, have dubbed ‘The Technological Nightmarescape’?”

The six-person cast is amplified by some of the city’s best creative talent. “I absolutely adore director Em Majewski’s vision. Immediately when we began collaborating, Em both understood the crazy rollercoaster I wrote and brought an entirely fresh lens to it.” With innovative and unsettling “representations of consumerism, mass surveillance and algorithmic predation” coming at you fast and furious, “Expect to experience the satirical and ridiculous brand identities of in-universe companies and products, hear originally composed snippets of songs from a musical that doesn’t exist and doubt your own senses each time a flicker, blink or buzz feels…off…”

Speaking of the musical-within-the-play that “doesn’t exist,” it might still ring a little familiar. “I like to joke that ‘Rat Cage’ is an elaborate justification for why I, begrudgingly, enjoy the musical ‘Miss Saigon,’” Justino concludes.