Consider this our Mission Statement.
Many people have joined our Sleeper Facebook Page--and most of them have no idea what they're "liking" exactly. So let us enlighten you.
Sleeper is more than just a webseries. It's more than just entertainment. It is an question of personality and identity, a research of human nature that constantly evolves throughout the series. When David Gregory awakes after a five-month coma, he has absolutley no idea who he was, and more importantly, who he is. He struggles to remember the simplest things--what is his favorite food? What was his family like? And, of course, there are the bigger questions--what events in his life turned him down the path of intrigue and deception? How does he truly discern reality from fiction?
The other main characters have equally pressing queries: how does Zaire, the cell's contract killer, find peace for her troubled conscience? How can the cell's leader, Ronli, set aside all human emotion in the name of honor and duty? How do the other cell members ignore the ghosts of their pasts? Who can they trust when personal loyalty and friendship is strictly forbidden? How do they find meaning in a world that technically doesn't exist? How do they create the veneer of normal life without caving under pressure?
While we can't answer these questions now (it'd be a major spoiler!), we do want to impart our basic plotline to our growing fanbase. We believe in exploring human nature in all of its complexities--the good, the bad, the ugly, and the parts we keep locked away from the rest of the world--and we hopefully have found an engaging way of doing so. As performers, we first and foremost hope that we entertain you, but we also pray that it doesn't stop there. We want audiences to think about the episode long after it has ended. We want audiences to question what they know about themselves and why they know it. Because as Socrates famously said, "The unexamined life is not worth living."
The existentialist writer Albert Camus often talked about living la vie engagée, or "the engaged life". He believed that people should be active participants in their lives, continuously interacting both physically and mentally with their surroundings. While it isn't always easy, it is a continual process that creates a better awareness and understanding of the world around us. But what does that even mean? And how on earth are we going to do that?!
The first step is to recognize our world for what it truly is. It holds both good and evil, dark and light, right and wrong. The creative team behind Sleeper strives to take your preconceived notions about these concepts and turn them around. We hope to show you that there are people who do bad things for good reasons and people who do good things for bad reasons.
The next task is a bit harder: after recognizing the yin and yang of human nature, you must decide how you will react to life's unpredictable circumstances. We will boldly go into the gray area--as our characters face tough decisions, ask yourself: "What would I do in that situation?"
Now don't get scared by all this cerebral dialouge. We will present these deep, searching questions in a format that entertains and intrigues--it will be a journey, but one that continues long after the episode is over. Of course the choice is still up to you: will you become our audience engagée?
