Dark descent into the internet age.
Although the advent of social media is such a recent phenomena in our history, we can’t help but see that there is something primordial about the way it twists our human nature.
“Guidelines” invites you into the dark abyss that is the internet like a Brothers Grimm folk character leading you into a black forest. After years of development, this debut work by writer Pip Williams and director James Nash, under the new company Conglomerate, is brought to the New Diorama stage, standing as both a fantastic introduction to the company and a cracking example of New Diorama’s championing of multi-disciplinary performance.
Rachel Leah-Hosker and Alexandria McCauley are the lead performers who invite us into this world. They take us through the ‘guidelines’, the terms and conditions of the contract that we all unwittingly make when we use the internet. The threat of corruption is always there, but we are encouraged to turn a blind eye to it. Leah-Hosker and McCauley bounce about the stage with satirical abandon, keeping this rendition of the Metasphere darkly comic.
But what happens when the guidelines we have agreed to abide by are manipulated and abused? A video of two girls in a forest at night circulates on social media, the reality behind which is obscured but the ripple effects are very much felt. We are made to question the outward effects of exposure to violent content, on an audience in a theatre and to children online. The evocation of this forest crafts an insidious world, one we step into every time we log online.
Nash’s direction, in tandem with the creative decisions offered by the rest of the team, not only compliment the world Williams has wrought into being, but stand as the very foundations of it. Patch Middleton’s sound design is atmospheric and unsettling, assisting in keeping an audience on the edge of their seats for the sixty minute duration. Coupled with Adi Currie’s evocative lighting design, which pulses with unnerving energy, the deepness of this forest is rendered on stage, filling you with dread as to what may lie beyond the trees. Jida Akil’s work on the set is simple but effective too, utilising swinging ropes from the ceiling to evoke both the vines of the forest and the insidious tendrils that reach down into the bowels of the internet.
“Guidelines” is a haunting expression of the ancient depths of the human psyche, made eternal and present by the all-encompassing grasp of the internet age.
Running until 14th February at New Diorama Theatre.