Words: Rosie Hall

3 stars

r/Conspiracy is a theatre piece designed for the internet age. Our protagonist Alex (played by writer Ella Hällgren) is chronically online. We meet her scrolling a conspiracy forum where she discovers a new post: a grainy photo of a man, taken in her local park, supposedly wielding a machete. Intrigued, Ella digs deeper, piecing together a suspected conspiracy which soon becomes all-consuming.

Throughout the play the audience learns more about Alex, catching glimpses of a life that she is desperately trying to escape during her midnight dives on the forum. The sound and lighting totally transported the audience to her subterranean internet world. We open to the ethereal neon purple of Alex’s bedroom; watch her blink in the stark, cold light of morning. We are captivated by the bright white beam of her phone screen illuminating her face in an otherworldly glow. The voices of the other users on the forum jabber in an absorbing, overlapping cacophony, accompanied by incessant pinging notifications. The lengthy inoffensive synths, though, were distracting and flattened the impact of the actor’s speech.

Though perhaps a big ask of a show with a tight 60-minute runtime, it is disappointing that r/ Conspiracy doesn’t really consider the darker potential of online conspiracy rabbit-holes, notably the pipeline to extremism. The plot is tightly wrapped, but the stakes never feel pressing or urgent. The play teeters on the edge of something bigger, never quite falling into the depths of the conspiracy it promises.

r/Conspiracy
Ruby at Gilded Balloon at Appleton Tower
15.00
30th July – 24th August