Theatre N16 24 – 28 January. Reviewed by Claire Roderick
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Tom Hartwell’s comedy is a delight from start to finish. If the first thing you do in the morning is check your phone, then this play is right up your street. I am a complete technophobe, and even I understood all of the references
David has elevated procrastination to an art form, spending more time online than with his girlfriend. When she breaks up with him, he responds with hashtags. When a photo of him kissing another girl is shared on Facebook and Charlotte finds out, David tries to sort his life out. But he is visited by personifications of applications that distract him and try to prove their worth. Instagram (constantly taking selfies), Youtube (filming everything in case it goes viral), Hotmail (apparently we all need him?), Snapchat (never standing still for more than 10 seconds), Farmville (providing updates on the fate of Dave’s potatoes and cows) and Tinder (swiping left when things don’t go her way) are all desperate not to follow Myspace into obscurity. Facebook is a Mephistophelean presence, manipulating David’s profile and buying up the smaller apps to maintain his influence on the world, and David.
The script is sharp and clever, drawing laughs and groans of recognition from the audience, and the energetic cast are very funny. Hadley Smith is a scream as shambolic and desperate Hotmail – he seemed to be on a mission to trash the entire set during the play, and Katie Dalzell’s dour and doom laden Farmville is a real treat.
This is a play full of insight and belly laughs, and well worth seeing.