Tag Archives: Chris Thorpe

Feed
★★★★

VAULT Festival

Feed

Feed

The Vaults

Reviewed – 7th March 2019

★★★★

 

“an innovative, disturbing, sharply relevant piece that implicates viewers in the content they watch”

 

If you’ve ever wondered what being online would look like as a staged performance, then Theatre Témoin are one step ahead – they’ve replicated the internet in this pitch-black comedy devised by the cast (Jonathan Peck, Louise Lee, Esmee Marsh, Yasmine Yagchi) and directed by Ailin Conant. The storylines are constantly disrupted by bite-size, gif-like moments: Peck skips by in a neon green bodysuit. Lee and Marsh wear giant duck-head masks while playing golf. Windows light up at the edges of the stage for sidebar ads. The performers often freeze, rewind, and repeat, as though someone is editing a YouTube video.

While Feed may have brilliantly captured the chaos of the internet, the play is not the total anarchy its aesthetic suggests. This show is highly intentional, skilfully crafted, and very clever about communicating its message, which condemns fake internet activism: the people who vie for followers and fame by generating shallow sympathy (crying emoji) for tragic causes.

The story centres around a news article about a murdered four-year-old Palestinian boy named Nabil. The article goes viral, and its author, Kate, receives an avalanche of new followers. Eager to use her new celebrity for good (or perhaps just high on the attention), Kate becomes an extreme internet activist. Kate’s technology-averse girlfriend Clem watches helplessly as Kate becomes so obsessed with ‘likes’ and ‘views’ that she loses touch with reality.

Meanwhile, beauty vlogger Mia, moved by Kate’s article, posts a heartfelt message about Nabil and the situation in the Middle East. Mia quickly becomes the voice of justice for Nabil, #FeelForNabil. To continue to raise awareness for the plight of Palestinians (or perhaps to keep her spot in the limelight), Mia resorts to increasingly ‘shocking’ stunts for her vlog posts, including cutting her arm and painting her face with blood. Mia and Kate’s stories switch back and forth, sometimes so fast it feels like toggling between tabs.

On set, long blue drain hoses are used to represent ethernet cables. They wrap around the space, and eventually around the characters themselves. At the beginning, there’s a scene involving an argument about foie gras vs. the vegan faux gras. And at the end, when Kate has one of the hoses in her mouth, it’s a shrewd visual metaphor that perhaps we are all overfed content that advertisers (or more ominous sources) use to extract money and data from us.

As both Kate and Mia spiral out of control, the play escalates to a frenetic pace, becoming more and more outrageous and gory in its bid to keep our attention. The ads increase too, triggered by the characters’ words: ‘Pain’ sets off a commercial for Nurofen. ‘Talk’ gives us an ad for ‘TalkTalk’ – an ingenious mimicry of the algorithm for targeted ads.

Feed is an innovative, disturbing, sharply relevant piece that implicates viewers in the content they watch. Theatre Témoin is warning us all to wake up and smell the foie gras.

 

Reviewed by Addison Waite

Photography courtesy  Theatre Témoin

 

Vault Festival 2019

Feed

Part of VAULT Festival 2019

 

 

 

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Yet

Am I Dead Yet?

Soho Theatre

Reviewed – 9th November 2017

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2

 

“combines storytelling, comedy, and songs in an informal environment”

 

How are you going to die? None of us really know how or when we are going to kick the bucket and the shock of a death feels like falling over in the dark. Perhaps that’s why we don’t like to talk about death and dying in our everyday lives. If you are not a fan of the subject or think it is morbid to talk about dying, this is not the show for you.

Yet

Brought to the Soho Theatre by Unlimited Theatre and developed in collaboration with Dr Andy Lockey, Am I Dead Yet? combines storytelling, comedy, and songs in an informal environment to talk about what it means to be dead. Lots is packed into this tight 55-minute show including some shocking percentages as well as a quick lesson on CPR. At times the show feels like a cross between a play and a TED Talk.

The staging is uncomplicated with only a few stools, piano, guitar and a couple of mics echoing the laid-back cabaret-style nature of the show. Effective lighting (Katherine Williams) and subtle sound (Pete Malkin) transform the space just enough to complement the story without being distracting.

Jon Spooner and Chris Thorpe have a great chemistry on stage, changing the pace and atmosphere of the show seamlessly as they bounce off each other. The rate of suicide gets a noteworthy and necessary mention between the two men (and stats show us this is a conversation that needs to be had). The storytelling is compelling and while the songs feel a little out of place, the final number is heartfelt and comical despite the subject matter.

The show transgresses into the philosophical as we think about the future. Will we ever reach a point where death doesn’t faze us? Will we simply get upgraded like a phone, switching failing organs for a new model?

However we end up going, – whether in a tragic accident; happy in bed; or choking on a Freddo – perhaps it’s time we talked about death more. Am I Dead Yet? is a great catalyst for those conversations.

 

Reviewed by Sarah Fox

Photography by Richard Davenport

 

Soho Theatre thespyinthestalls

 

 

AM I DEAD YET?

is at the Soho Theatre until 18th November

 

 

 

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