F Off review – all rise for the people vs Mark Zuckerberg

Underbelly, Cowgate, EdinburghThe National Youth Theatre’s dynamic and maximalist meditation on social media puts the Facebook CEO on trial – and makes him tap danceIn a recent New Yorker cartoon by Emily Flake, a man is unpacking boxes of T-shirts branded with the slogan: #TeamFeralHog. Another man stands behind him, looking disapproving. The caption reads: “I think you may have miscalculated the length of the modern attention span.” A week is a decade online, as the National Youth Theatre demonstrate in this scatty meditation on social media, politics and data usage. “It’s all about attention,” they tell us. However messy this ambitious meta drama is, NYT firmly sustain ours.The audience are asked to be the jury in the trial of the people vs Mark Zuckerberg, when Facebook’s CEO is accused of data theft. Alongside this, we see technology’s interference with democracy reverberate through domestic narratives: a mum standing to be MP starts working with a conniving tech company, while her daughter starts DMing a stranger on Twitter. Tatty Hennessy’s script attacks both ends of the political spectrum, with the overarching suggestion that whatever your politics, likes now overrule morals. Continue reading…
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