The W.I.G of Life: A Conference – Camden People’s Theatre, Euston

Reviewer: Christine Stanton

Writers/Directors: Francesca Fatichenti, Christof Hofer, Arielle Zilkha

“Fun Idea, Played Too Safe”

2 / 5

There is one hour left before biological life as we know it is completely extinct, with only one organism remaining to potentially repopulate the world. An emergency conference has been called to discuss the merits of either letting humanity perish forever or bringing it back to flourish once more.

As audience members arrive they are given the opportunity to select from a variety of different wigs, glasses or accessories in order to compile their avatar appearance while in the conference. This is a fun idea that automatically creates a buzz in the lobby and sparks intrigue for the show ahead. Once inside, everyone scans a QR code that allows them into a quiz, that unlocks various questions to be answered throughout the show such as ‘what technology has had a negative impact on your life’. Alongside the interactive elements there are a variety of standalone cenes woven into the show (both live and projected from a TV screen) – a mix of contemporary dance pieces and quirky performances. The culmination of the responses leads to the final decision of whether humanity should be restored, which could of course change at every show.

Written, directed and performed by Francesca Fatichenti, Christof Hofer and Arielle Zilkha (who needs specific mention for being fantastically believable as an AI character) this is a unique concept with a lot of creative ideas behind it, but it never quite reaches its full potential. The addition of accessories makes it seem like it would be really fun and quirky, while the subject matter itself makes it seem like it could be really thought provoking and philosophical – but in execution, it’s neither of these two avenues. The scenes and interactive questions play it too safe, not wild enough to encourage comedic or exciting audience responses, but also not poignant enough to really dig deep and force a discussion about humanity and where we’ve gone wrong. Instead, the questions are quite bland and don’t have the weight behind them to spark either laughter or reflection.

The scenes are very abstract, and again could really be used as a driving force of creativity to either put forward their own message or help to ignite opinions from the audience but instead they are strange collections of conversations that don’t really have much to do with the main plot at all. Some examples are excerpts of witches and chickens being put on trial, or a game show that allows you to win happiness. These are possibly supposed to be standalone comedic sketches but there needs to be more humour integrated into these sketches for them to work overall.

This original idea can definitely be re-worked for future performances to fit their objective of being playful and thought-provoking, and as a starting point, it does well in creating the futuristic, quirky atmosphere – it just needs to push the boundaries a little more to really fit with the concept.

Runs until 30 August 2023