| Six Critics- Perplexed Respect |
At the Royal Court |
| Tim Price- Teh Internet Is Serious Business , Royal Court , September 20, 2014 |
"Teh Internet Is Serious Business" was certainly something different for the usual critical group.The veteran critic Mark Shenton for the Stage: "It's certainly bold, but I'm afraid that I tuned out of it more often than I tuned in." Patrick Marmion for The Daily Mail: "Precocious, puerile, thought-provoking and disreputable, Price's play has everything it needs to go viral." Dominic Cavendish for The Telegraph: "Much of what is said may, to the untutored ear, sound almost like Jabberwocky gibberish. But there's a beauty in the mystery - computer code is recited like poetry, while actors dance and flex in tune with different keyboard functions." Henry Hitchings for The Evening Standard:: "Tim Price's new play does a credible job of evoking the maverick spirit of hacktivism — the practice of using cyber attacks for political ends. Based on the testimony of members of the LulzSec collective, a vigilante offshoot of the Anonymous movement, it's an anarchic experience, laced with a caustic sense of humour. "Its two main characters are gauche Jake (Kevin Guthrie) and stammering Mustafa (Hamza Jeetooa). These teenage loners are blessed with technical wizardry and an instinct for mischief. Hamish Pirie’s production boasts a turbo-charged ensemble. But its boldest feature is the absence of computer screens. Instead of pixels or projections we’re treated to a smartly metaphorical vision of the internet’s messiness — its hoaxes, fads and jargon, as well as the gang mentality it engenders. And while Chloe Lamford’s set hints at the perils of the dark web, a pool full of plastic balls downstage is an inviting playground. "Although you don’t need to be conversant with phenomena such as 4chan and Botnets to grasp what’s going on, parts of the play will feel esoteric to anyone not steeped in digital know-how. In the second half we focus on the authorities’ bid to stifle the hackers, but the more wide-ranging and bloated first half is a rowdy, gag-filled, jubilant tour of cyberspace’s in-jokes. "There’s an incomplete sense of both the chaos LulzSec caused and their intelligence. Yet this is a timely piece, entertaining and unsettling." Susanna Clapp for the Observer: "The LulzSec hacktivists featured in Teh [sic] Internet Is Serious Business were...dispersed, anonymous and not centrally organised. They were also extremely effective in causing chaos. All this makes it absolutely right of the Royal Court to put on Tim Price’s play as part of their revolution season. "The story is mysterious and paradoxical, encapsulating some of the most arresting current phenomena: the person who sits alone talking to unseen hordes; the brilliant student regarded as a pest by his teacher; the way in which the 21st century despises privacy but advocates anonymity. "The slipperiness that makes this story fascinating also makes it hard to stage. This should be one of the most disturbing and liberating of plays. It is not. It does convey the freewheeling, catch-all quality of the enterprise. Hamish Pirie’s antic production, set on a grey stage above a brightly coloured ball pond, projects manic excitement, a jumble of the trivial and the significant. It takes in blots of misogyny (“there are no girls on the internet”) and of heartlessness (a suicide raises a chuckle) as well as the beginnings of revolt in Tahrir Square." "...Pirie’s production eschews the digital – there is not a screen in sight – and translates the virtual into flesh and fabric. Well-known memes – Grumpy Cat and Socially Awkward Penguin – caper around as if at an uninviting fancy-dress party for tinies. The paradox of such literal representation may be part of Price and Pirie’s point. But I could have done with more stage rage." Michael Billington for the Guardian: "How on earth do you dramatise internet culture, and in particular the disruptive activities of hackers? I’m not sure Tim Price has a definitive answer but his new play, like his earlier The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning, blurs fact and fiction and throws a wealth of material at us. "The result is messy, confusing, overlong and yet strangely liberating. I found much of the first half, with its embodiment of the merry mayhem of imageboard sites such as 4chan, totally bewildering. But it gradually becomes clear the play is following the fortunes of two dedicated young hacktivists: Mustafa, a 16-year-old London schoolboy, and Jake, a reclusive 18-year-old Shetlander. We also learn a lot about their involvement in two particular networks, Anonymous and LulzSec. Between them these two internet gatherings hack into a variety of targets, ranging from the Church of Scientology and Fox News to the FBI, before being undermined from inside, with arrests being made. "Teh Internet Is Serious Business (typo intentional) throws up a mass of issues it only partially addresses. If hacktivism can, as in many of the cases cited, be used to attack corporate culture and government agencies, could it not also be deployed against liberal causes? And is it legitimate to turn from exposing organisations to harassing individuals? Price’s answer seems to be that the internet is a neutral facility, impossible to control or censor. Even if that is open to question, however, the play captures the teeming chaos of cyberspace and dramatises the reality of a global network of bright young people dedicated to challenging existing values. At one point someone says: “You’re just a bunch of geeks in basements.” Price suggests they can also be the instinctive enemies of bigotry, greed and oppression." Extracts from the full reviews which can be read at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/sep/28/the-angry-brigade-teh-internet-is-serious-business-review-theatre-royal-plymouth-royal-court https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/sep/24/teh-internet-is-serious-business-review-royal-court-london-tim-price |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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