Writer: Kevin Kautzman
Director: Lydia Parker
Reviewer: Christine Stanton
“Vast Potential“
3 / 5
Remove, suspend, report is the cycle the social media content moderators have to do every single day, after watching some of the darkest, most disturbing posts on the internet. Turning up for their shift is always stepping into the unknown – will it be mainly hate speech they’re confronted with today, violent videos, or something even more depraved?
He (Robbie Curran) has been at the company for a long time now, feeling mostly desensitised to the content he consumes each day, though any outsider can see it’s clearly affected him. His erratic mood swings, his paranoid nervousness, and the growing belief in media distrust and conspiracy theories signifying that he’s not quite as removed as he believes he is. But his mission to become management is a goal he refuses to back down from, taking on his second direct report as a way to prove his credentials and impress the suits upstairs. She (Alice Victoria Winslow) needs the job to make money for her sick mother, always dreaming of a role in tech – and although this is a very low rung on the tech ladder, it’s a good enough start, right? But sitting behind the monitor each day, watching the horrific content she’s forced to report starts to take a toll on her, can she really do this as a long-term career or is it best to get out now before she’s sucked into the system like He is?
Writer Kevin Kautzman and director Lydia Parker do a good job of creating the isolating, clinical atmosphere of the basement – the starkly bright lighting and emptiness aside from the workstation immediately setting the tone for the Dystopian job the pair embark on each day. Curran and Winslow are purposefully quite robotic in the way they speak to each other at points – machines for the company, they are there to do a job, and the few sparks of a friendship are dissolved quite quickly with a harsh remark or reference back to the company handbook. But, when they’re not completely following the rules, they do manage to incite some interesting conversations together, never fully letting the other into their life with much detail, but still enough to maintain the friendly (albeit, obviously on edge and teetering) working relationship they share. Both performers never falter – the intensely paced script keeping both of them alert and on guard at all times.
As the storyline progresses – not enough changes from the earlier scenes, which diminishes the potential of the narrative massively. The duo continue working and conversing during their breaks, and although there are a few riskier conversations or revelations that alter their chemistry somewhat, it often plays it very safe, never pushing enough to really create shock or intensity, which closer to the final scenes, is what the show is crying out for. At one point a gun is produced, ramping up the tension and reeling the audience in with the promise of some excitement, but it fizzles out quite fast, dragging on the suspense for a beat too long and losing the momentum to result in some quite underwhelming final scenes.
That being said, the potential is definitely there, and the discussions sparked both within and from ideas in the show are important and relevant. The perils of social media, the harm from consuming doom scroll content, the impact of the digital world on the physical world are all brilliantly interesting aspects that deserve a platform. Although the surface is brushed within this performance, it feels almost like an introduction, rather than a fully formed show as it currently stands, but the possibly to expand further is wonderfully intriguing.
Runs until 5th April 2025
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