London
Teh Internet Is Serious Business: Tim Price
Royal Court Theatre,

Jerwood Theatre Downstairs,
Sloane Square,
London SW1W 8AS

Mon-Sat 7.30pm; Thurs, Sat mats 2.30pm

Captioned perf: Wed, Oct 15, 7.30pm
Audio described perf: Sa,t Oct 25, 2.30pm

Runs: 2.45 mins incl 15 min interval: to 25 10 14

TICKETS 020 7565 -5000
In person: Mon–Sat, 10am-start of perf or 6pm if no show
On-line: www.royalcourttheatre.co.uk

Age guidance: 14+

Mondays all tickets £10; concs £5 off two top prices on daily standby; for 25s and under; School and HE groups of 8+; groups of 6+
Access: £12 + companion
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability

Review: by Carole Woddis of performance seen Sept 23, 2014:

Ground breaking, personally puzzling, a Royal Court fanfare
The cast list takes some deciphering – which is nothing compared to the show just opened at the Royal Court’s Downstairs Theatre. I’ve just seen the future and I hardly understood a word of it.

This is nothing for me to be proud of. It’s simply that the world of the internet and of hackers is one that thus far has only come within my compass insofar as I tolerate it for everyday business, emails and simple transactions.

Until last night, I knew nothing of memes. Pedobear was unknown to me. So too Socially Awkward Penguin or Sad Storm Trooper for that matter. Anonymous and LulzSec meant little or nothing. The fact that two teenage hackers had hacked into major British and USA institutions and had been sent to prison had registered. But not with any deep comprehension as to its implications.

Thanks to Tim Price (The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning; Protest Song about the Occupy movement) and director Hamish Pirie’s extraordinary neon lit, mother-board backed, all dancing, all singing production, I now see a little more clearly if still with some difficulty.

What I’m absolutely certain of is that Pirie’s production is ground-breaking as, to an extent, was the National’s Jerry Springer: the Opera a decade ago. It’s certainly a milestone in Vicky Featherstone’s Royal Court tenure, creating as it does a new theatrical language in a show that speaks to, and of, the next generation and its cultural tropes in all their messy, irresponsible, unrepentant and rebellious spirit.
And, for all its dark incomprehensibility and anarchic chaos, too, I couldn’t help warming in the end to the two youngsters, Jake Davis (a consultant on this show) and Mustafa who sitting in their bedrooms – and now in prison cells – made the establishment quail and shudder. The mischievous look they exchange says it all.

On the way to that look, the story of teenage precocity, their excitement with the workings of computers all become dramatised and physicalised in a display of prodigious versatility on the part of the company whether bursting out of side-doors
and trap doors as computer icons, website signatures or even, real life mothers and police officers. Amazing.

Teh Internet Is Serious Business
By Tim Price

Cast:

Anons: Kayla, Hive Anon,
Memes: Grumpy Cat, Advice Dog
IRL: Emily Sinclair, Barrister 2:
Kae Alexander

Anons: AVUnit, Anonymous
Memes: Anxiety Cat, Advice Dog
Websites: Alice
IRL: Barrister 3
Natalie Dew

Anons: Anonymous
Memes: Socially Awkward Penguin, Rick Astley
Websites: Hollywood
IRL: Met Police Officer
Amir Giles

Anons: Hive Anon
Memes: Grumpy Cat, Nappa, Advice Dog
IRL: Mrs Barr, Undercover Police Officer
Sarah Golding

Anons: Topiary
IRL: Jake
Kevin Guthrie

Anons: Tflow
IRL: Mustafa
Hamza Jeetooa

Anons: Tuxedo, Ryan Cleary, Hive Anon
Memes: Vegeta
Websites: Designer, Hollywood, PBS
IRL: Gregg, Ben Ali, DJ, Barrister 1
Ferdinand Kingsley

Anons: Pwnsauce, Hive Anon
Memes: Pedobear, Socially Awkward Penguin
IRL: Solicitor 1
Kerr Logan

Anons: Hive Anon
Memes: Y U No Guy
Websites: Hollywood, The Sun
IRL: Anton, FBI, Solicitor 2
Lanre Malaolu

Anons: Sabu, Hive Anon
Memes: Sad Stormtrooper
Websites: Piratebay
IRL: Jayson, Hector
Nathaniel Martello-White

Anons: Hive Anon
Memes: Advice Dog, Anxiety Cat
IRL: Kid Barr
Faith Prendergast

Anons: Hive Anon
Memes: Rick Astley, Y U No Guy
Websites: Hollywood
IRL: Police Officer
Yuyu Rau

Anons: Hive Anon
Memes: Y U No Guy, Rick Astley
IRL: FBI
Quang K Van

Anons: Narcotroll, Hive Anon
Websites: Mary D’Arcy
IRL: Mum, Mrs O’Shea, Jennifer Emick,
Teacher, Mrs Barr, Shirley Phelps, FBI
Eileen Walsh

Anons: Hive Anon
Memes: Condescending Willy Wonka, Y U No Guy,
Tom Cruise
Websites: Queen’s College London, Scientology Website, Jeff Nevin
IRL: Met Police Officer, Restaurant Manager, Shetland Mental Health,
Aaron Barr, FBI
Sargon Yelda

Director: Hamish Pirie
Designer:Chloe Lamford
Lighting Designer: James Farncombe
Composer: James Fortune
Sound Designer: David McSeveney
Choreographer: Emma Martin
Consultant: Jake Davis
Assistant Director: Debbie Hannan
Casting Director: Julia Horan CDG

World premiere of Teh Internet is Serious Business at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Sloane Square, London, Sept 17, 2014.

For more info see: www.royalcourttheatre.co.uk

2014-09-25 09:40:02