Shakespeare it isn’t. Google Flow picture morphing The Bard with Meself.
I was reminded of one of my favourite Peter Cook quotes, when seeing a preview of this one.
I go to the theatre to be entertained… I don’t want to see plays about rape, sodomy and drug addiction… I can get all that at home.
I also predicted with word perfect accuracy what Janie would say as soon as she felt able to express her opinion on the play:
Everything but the kitchen sink…
…and of course, kitchen sink drama should be what The Royal Court is all about.
I’m being a tad unfair, but only a tad. The core subject matter(s) of this play – sexploitation, sexual violence and the nether worlds where computer/AI fakery morph with human fakery – are hugely important topics in 2026 and worthy of coverage in drama.
The problem I have with a 65 minute long play, depicting 52 (that is not a misprint) different scenes, is that the drama is barely able to emerge through the fog of scene and personnel changes on stage.
It reminded me a bit of Martin Crimp‘s work – but unfortunately the Crimp that baffles us rather than the Crimp that does the business for us.
The actors did their best and several of them are among the best stage actors around at the moment; Lucy McCormick, Maimuna Memon and Nicholas Rowe stood out for me.
This relatively short run has sold out ahead of even opening, so my thoughts on the piece won’t be affecting readers go/no go decisions anyway. In any case, the formal reviews (which are starting to come out and which the search term if you click here will find) are surely less harsh than my and Janie’s judgements.
Georgie Dettmer clearly has a lot to say and is surely capable of saying the things she wants to say through playwriting. I would like to see how she gets on with chunkier scenes, trying to explore some of those dramatic depths.
I go to the theatre to be entertained… I don’t want to see plays that jump around a myriad of important topics at a rate of 50 matters per hour… I can get all that at home.