As a tool for dramatic development, the cell phone is clearly on the in. In an earlier post we mentioned the Japanese teen supersleuth who fights crime with her cell phone every Sunday night on Japan?s BS-I channel.

Also in an earlier post, we described Sheron Wray’s Textterritory, a performance in which the audience has control over physical bodies (dancers and musicians) along with lighting, music and midi system at specific times in the performance by means of their cell phones.

Here?s another, a theater work, “Two Tracks and Text Me” by Sol B. River presented at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds England in October 10 to November 1, 2003, where an SMS message plays a central role in the plot.

A young girl held captive and abused sends a desperate text-message to a stranger she hopes can help her. A hip mixed-race gang of friends receive the call, and eventually do something about it.

Nowhere near as imaginative in its use of the mobile phone as the earlier mentioned works, “Two Tracks and Text Me” none-the-less sends the message that the mobile phone is a great way to move ahead a plot that might otherwise fall on its face.