Fun, immersive theatre that empowers its audience to stand up to fascism.
In the small black box space beneath the iconic Curtains Up! Pub in Baron’s Court, Shh theatre invites its audience in to participate in an hour of theatre which surprises and challenges, ensuring all viewers leave with something to think about.
Arriving into the space, the walls are adorned with missing posters, and you are given a newspaper, a pouch and a number. I was charmed by the care and consideration given to every part of their set dressing – you are taken into their world from the get-go, and their world is an authoritarian futuristic society which divides humans from their sinister monster counterparts – who can be anyone, hiding in plain sight.
After taking to their seats, the audience is invited to take part in a series of votes, a Civic Assembly, to determine which of our fellow audience members are ‘monsters’; monsters being a scourge on society, to be exiled, and made identifiable by a yellow raincoat. The votes started innocent enough, but soon became more ethically challenging in their nature and we were allowed to pass notes and confer as to how to vote, all under the watchful eye of Silas Venn, the leader. As the show progressed and several audience members were carted off, it led to a feeling of uncomfortable complicity in the room. Indeed, one audience member refused to participate in further votes, the feeling was so strong, which speaks to how effective the production is. What is our responsibility as citizens? Do we stay silent or do we defend our neighbours? The play, in the context of rising fascism in many countries, is very impactful, making the audience question our susceptibility to groupthink, othering and self-preservation.
The audience members taken off experienced a part of the play I wasn’t privy to (as a non-monster) but speaking to an audience member afterwards, this sounded like a fun immersive experience, being encouraged to rise up against the powers that be, and I liked that there were different ways to experience this show – all audience members had a slightly different show.
Unfortunately, I do think the show was let down by limitations of the space and failing to idiot-proof the show. When relying so heavily on audience participation, you do need to make sure all of the audience can engage – the people next to me sadly gave all the cards in the first round, so couldn’t vote for subsequent rounds, and there was an important piece of paper in the pouch I didn’t see to the end which would have been useful to read beforehand. The small space all made the voting process quite disruptive, as we were climbing in and out of seats up to the stage frequently, and couldn’t mingle to discuss our answers easily. It feels a shame to mark it down for these flaws, as I do feel this has the goods to be an even more thought-provoking, immersive experience in the right atmosphere.
Still, that didn’t dampen my enjoyment. Until Proven Human offers a fun, different evening at the theatre, that fully immerses you in its experience.
Until Proven Human runs at Baron’s Court Theatre until the 12th September.