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Show: Public Domain
Society: London (professional shows)
Venue: Vaudeville Theatre, 404 Strand, London
Credits: Written and performed by Francesca Forristal and Jordan Paul Clarke. Part of the Rising Stars Festival.
Type: Sardines
Author: Andrea Richardson
Performance Date: 27/05/2021
Public Domain
Andrea Richardson | 29 May 2021 10:39am
Image: Jane Hobson
A Timely Reminder…
I was delighted to make a return to the West End for the first time in many months to review this new production at Vaudeville Theatre. It was socially distanced, fully masked, with temperature checks and digital programmes – all very Covid compliant.
Public Domain is described as “a dark, funny, verbatim musical about the internet: Those who own it; those who live in it; and YOU!”. The show is developed from the actual words of vloggers, influencers, Facebook and YouTube users.
There was an entertaining opening, where the audience was asked to “prove you are human” – a reference to the annoying CAPTCHA tool we have all been forced to click through at some time when using a website.
The first issue that I noticed was the level of the music. From the start and throughout the show the music was louder than the vocals in many places, making it hard to follow the lyrics. A further problem was the lighting and images that flashed around the stage. There is no reference on any of the information online, nor as you enter the theatre, that this production contains non-stop flashing lights and images. I do not have any issues with this type of thing, but even I was becoming overloaded with the consistent bombardment of these, so those more sensitive to flashing images should take heed.
Francesca Forristal and Jordan Paul Clarke have written, orchestrated and performed this production, which premiered online in January this year. It is a 75 minute show without an interval.
Public Domain is not your standard musical/play. There is no fixed storyline, and no resolution of the points raised. We start with Facebook’s origins, when it was just a platform for friends to keep in touch. There is a story involving a teenage YouTuber, who is clearly having a mental breakdown whilst trying to be a successful online, and a millennial influencer who presents a constant “Hi guys!!” excitement in her online life which is (unsurprisingly) fake.
There are also appearances by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr Priscilla Chan, touching on the US Senate testimony relating to usage of personal data. Then we are shown representations of former Facebook employees talking about the poor working conditions and the mental stress caused by being forced to moderate horrific videos. We end with a rather heart-warming song from senior citizens who declare Facebook to be “super”.
All of these roles are played by the talented duo, and it is done very well; they morph from one character to the next with clear facial and vocal changes that are excellent. The set is simple but effective, with an onscreen / offscreen divide representing the disconnection from real life. Despite my earlier comment about the dizzying flashing lights and imagery, it is very much part of the show and does reflect the fact that we are bombarded with social media every day. The technical use of lighting is very effective – swiping, using emojis, etc. Repeated use of the phrase “Like and subscribe” – something we hear all the time on social media.
The techno-pop music is catchy, if a little hard to follow sometimes, but that’s understandable when you are trying to fit somebody’s verbatim conversation onto a musical score. At times I felt the show was perhaps a little outdated – it was developed as far back as 2019 and social media is very fast moving. The show focuses on the toxic nature of our online lives and the loneliness that goes with it, but doesn’t expand much more than that. With a bigger cast or longer show, maybe it could be expanded and also updated.
It’s an entertaining production, presenting a tough subject in an unusual way. The audience enjoyed it, giving a standing ovation at the end, and a quick audience poll on the way out brought up phrases like “timely”, “I identified with it” and “informative”. With some tweaks it could be even better.
Congratulations to Francesca, Jordan and Director Adam Lenson, and all the crew, for a successful West End premier.
- : admin
- : 27/05/2021