Distant Memories of the Near Future, Acrola Theatre Review
Written by Jasmine for Theatre and Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
David Head’s first one-man performance is an imaginative thought experiment about how humanity, tech, and capitalism could coincide in the not-so-distant future.
Combining projects, audio and even a bit of sculpture, Head’s production is able to build an alternate world and stretch across planets with very few props. Laura Killeen’s direction clearly connects different objects and spaces with different characters’ stories, so that as the story jumps between them it can feel seamless and easy to follow.
Head’s writing also has a clever way of drawing you in - you become the victim of the patronising and often sniping government mandated advertising breaks, and in the first story it is even told to you as something that ‘you’ are doing. This grounds you firmly in the shoes of a citizen of this new world, before the other stories go into the third person and we feel the world increase in scale.
The insertion of the AI also manages to feel really human as we learn more about where it comes from and how it is made, presenting us with more depth than shows about future worlds often do, without losing itself in the details. Jessica Munna’s performance is really effective, as she gives you an AI with real depth, without losing the sense that they are something other than human.
What stands out in the storytelling is how familiar, how mundane life still is even in the far-fetched circumstances - mining diamonds on another planet is just a job, done for the cash, creatives still live in strange, not quite meant to be lived in, places marketed as ‘creative communities’, and love stories still start on blind dates in coffee shops. The grounded elements of the emotional story are key to the show’s premise - essentially that no amount of technological advancement will dilute our inherent humanity, with its contradictions and unpredictability. Head knows there are few better ways to communicate that than through love stories, and though the show has a healthy dose of cynicism, that is the one thing not worth being cynical about.
For this reason, the emotional moments of the show do pack a real punch and the idea that our undeniable humanity will be the cure to the dystopia which might come is ultimately a comforting one.
At Arcola Theatre until 30 November 2024
★★★★
