Soho Theatre 16 May – 6 June. Reviewed by Claire Roderick
Charlotte Josephine’s intense play should be put on the National Curriculum. Never mind the mechanics of sex, the dangers of digital technology are laid bare in this show. The impact of shares and comments made anonymously in front of keyboards and phones, venting vicious and misogynistic bile, is portrayed unflinchingly, making the audience question why people feel the need to shame or destroy someone they’ve never actually met.
Charlotte Josephine and Daniel Foxsmith portray 5 characters whose lives are affected by social media. A woman whose teenage sister is the victim of revenge porn, a father struggling with his daughter’s sex education and his addiction to porn, a shy girl who takes photos of herself and naively shares them, a woman who is ghosted by her boyfriend and decides to post revenge porn, and an IT guy whose uselessness and sexism leads to a social faux pas that snowballs into a campaign of rape threats from strangers on Twitter.
The need to share and belong, to not feel invisible, and to try to live up to the unreal lifestyles of celebrities is personified sensitively in the girl whose nude photos are shared online. There are no main characters named – creating an atmosphere conducive to the anonymous and disconnected world of the internet – and the fast pace of the interchanging stories does feel like you’re flicking idly between apps or windows keeping track of various feeds at once.
The IT guy gives a lecture on how to design apps, and Josephine includes some of the neurological research used when creating apps that focus on the reward centre of the brain and ensure our need to keep using the app. Scary stuff.
Both actors are phenomenal, working up a sweat as the pace of the narrative gallops at breakneck speed towards an exhausted and downbeat finale. Josephine gives each of her characters distinct body language and accent, and takes your breath away as the big sister erupting in fury and frustration. Foxsmith manages to keep your sympathy as the two, frankly useless, male characters, excelling at their more clueless moments, and Josephine cleverly gives the father a chance to explain why he turned to porn that is completely believable.
Director Edward Stambollouian keeps things tight and slick, and James Turner’s design is stunning in its simplicity – with the characters performing on a familiar red circle and flanked by cameras and light boxes.
Fun, fierce and frantic, Blush looks at the darker side of our digital world and mob mentality of cyber bullies with honesty, horror, humour and a whole lot of heart. Unmissable