Move Fast And Break Things ★★★★★
Move Fast and Break Things offers a powerful and thought-provoking exploration of high tech and the digital self
Why would someone invent the technology underpinning today’s leading online search engine – earning Google $trillions in the process – only to virtually disappear from the internet? Yet that’s exactly what data scientist Amit Patel, Google’s “seventh employee”, did. In Move Fast and Break Things, the award-winning Freight Theatre search both for him and the reasons that led to his digital vanishing act.
Initially, this is a seemingly straightforward tale of two romantically-linked characters – superbly portrayed by the sole two cast members, the tremendous Julia Pilkington and AK Golding – and their quest to track down Patel. Yet things become ever more complex and increasingly sinister. Tension builds as the couple’s knowledge of what happened to the disappeared data scientist, leading them to become evermore aware of their own inner thoughts and behaviours. Reverberating perhaps how our own online personas advance over time.
Innovatively using a multitude of media – including live projection, physical theatre, and even puppetry – this is a performance that packs a lot into 60 minutes. Yet these techniques, that could be gimmicky in lesser hands, are never distracting. As the narrative develops, at points drawing upon the ‘play-within-a-play’ and even nodding towards Becket’s Waiting for Godot, the audience is increasingly left to wonder what is real, what is virtual, and what might actually be fake. Ultimately, all three states collide in a dramatic finale.
Powerfully exploring the blurred intersections between physical self, digital self and our increasingly becoming Big Tech’s data-mined cash cows, you might resist reaching for your mobile by the play’s end. Move Fast and Break Things was once Facebook’s motto. When the house lights go up, audiences can be forgiven for concluding that it is online technology that has moved too fast, resulting in society becoming broken.
The Recs has searched through the data and the result is a must-see ★★★★★ (5 stars) for Move Fast And Break Things
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