Review | The Narcissist at Minerva Theatre, Chichester: 'A fascinating look at modern life'
How are you reading this review? For many of you, the answer I imagine will be on your mobile phone.
They are an inescapable part of modern life: simultaneously making us better connected yet more isolated than ever before.
The impact this technology has had on humanity, from our identity and relationships to the way society itself functions, is laid bare in this brand new play by Christopher Shinn.
Jim, a former political consultant who worked on the failed presidential campaign of a female Democrat in the 2016 elections (you fill in the blanks) is writing a book with his best friend about what went wrong.
But it is not long before he is tempted out of self-enforced retirement by an ambitious senator who is looking for a fresh pair of hands to map out her path to the presidency.
She is inherently hopeful; he is a hardened cynic who is addicted to his phone.
Over the course of two and a half hours, their hotel room debates about the US, present and future, collide with the world in Jim’s phone and the text messages he exchanges with his family, potential love interests and friends.
The staging illustrates this superbly, with the actors appearing in glowing boxes when Jim is ‘texting’ them.
The dizzying switch between ‘real life’ and online conversations creates a low level thrum of anxiety and dramatic irony which reverberates through the play and underlines the addictive nature of our mobiles.
Game of Thrones and Doctor Who alumni Harry Lloyd leads a strong cast as Jim, giving a suave and assured performance – until the many plates he is spinning all begin to crash around him and the cracks begin to show.
My favourite scene, between Jim, the jaded establishment figure, and a young waiter, a principled socialist, provided a powerful reminder of how deaf we are to differing opinions online and how rare these kind of personal breakthroughs have become.
By the end of the first act, I was gripped – but I have to confess the second act felt slightly rushed, leaving me with some loosening, if not loose, ends.
Nonetheless, this was a fascinating look at modern life through the lens of our phones that has plenty to write (or text) home about.
Until September 24.