Words: Caitlin Todd

3 stars

Set in the year 2026 on the fictional planet Earth 2, Operation: Destroy Beff Jezos is an ambitious, app-driven musical that blends interactive technology with sci-fi satire. Audiences are invited to participate via their smartphones, connecting to the venue’s Wi-Fi, and guided through the process with instructions and a pair of light-up glasses that, while visually fun, serve no real interactive function beyond aesthetics.

The central premise, that the audience can influence the course of the story, is an intriguing one, offering a novel take on interactivity in live performance. The show leans into this with a voting system that lets the crowd decide between options at key moments. However, in practice, this mechanic is uneven. It appears that only the first person to vote triggers the result we see, rather than the overall majority, which undercuts the promise of collective decision-making.

Narratively, the piece hits familiar beats. The usual sci-fi futuristic setting with a narrator called Beep, a hacker, a hard-edge leader, a rejected henchman, and a British robot sidekick who uses strange slang. The main villain, of course, being Beff Jezos, who has taken over the world with mind control. While the concept shows promise, the execution falters, especially in the final act. The final battle offers a poor outcome, and an uncomfortable feeling that lingered.

Some interesting ideas here but ultimately, the storytelling doesn’t match the innovation of the interactive format.

Operation: Destroy Beff Jezos
Venue 45 at theSpace @ Venue 45
23:00
18th -22nd August