A gloriously depraved peek inside the world of an Insta-holic

If there was ever a show to make the case that ring lights have a direct correlation
with the worsening of our generation’s mental health – this is it. Eleanor Hill’s one-
woman show Sad-Vents comes to Greenwich Theatre after pit-stops at the White Bear, VAULT and Edinburgh Fringe festivals.

For a show that has moved around various fringe venues, the tech is really
impressive and the lifeblood of the piece. Hill’s dishevelled bedroom sits in front of
constant projections, an often overlapping mesh of TikTok thirst traps, late night
messages to exes and the overwhelming sprawl that sits on most of our social media
feeds. Hill and the projections become a double act; together they build a humour
that feels fresh, chaotic and – funnily enough – actually funny.

The feeling of chaos permeates the whole production. Matt Powell’s video design burst through with moments of sporadic intensity, punctuating and furthering Hill’s mania. Constance Villemot’s set design – a tight bedroom littered with wine bottles and discarded prescription packets – adds both a claustrophobia and a messiness that contrasts the character’s picture-perfect social media existence.

Hill’s performance is furiously energetic, twisting and pushing the ‘angry young
woman’ trope – a Flea-batshit. Not without reason; the trauma of her dead mother
and abusive partner accelerates her downward spiral to alcoholism, drug abuse and
suicidal thoughts. It flirts with becoming heavy-handed but there is enough levity
from the projections to keep the show from tipping into fatalism.

Whenever a show is advertised as ‘most of these things actually happened to me’,
the voyeuristic brain of an audience member immediately becomes self-aware. Hill
does well to play with this self-consciousness, often turning the action onto the
audience, but it can be difficult to engage with some moments without feeling
uncomfortable; like peering at some mystery meat that could well be human remains
– Schrödinger’s trauma porn.

In spite of how finely the show treads the line of fact/fiction, Sad-Vents is a
breakneck, anarchic production that will resonate with many and horrify pretty much
everyone. I got an apple thrown at me and octuple-texted in the Insta DMs and thus
felt more immersed than most ‘immersive’ theatre going at the moment.