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‘Conspiracy’ review

  • Theatre, Experimental
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Conspiracy, Barrel Organ, Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019
© Richard Davenport
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Time Out says

3 out of 5 stars

Surreal experimental comedy about a trio of conspiracy theorists

This review is from the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Fringe regulars Barrel Organ have shifted shape yet again for this likeable, slight show about a trio of conspiracy theorists.

Actors Rose Wardlaw, Azan Ahmed and Shannon Hayes play themselves as a trio of pernickety theorists, grappling with the truth behind one very specific event – the taking of the photograph ‘Lunch Atop a Skyscraper’, the famous 1932 snap of workers on the Rockefeller Center in New York taking a precarious lunch break hundreds of feet in the air.

It’s a good choice of conspiracy: there’s nothing too ethically dodgy about it, and there’s also definitely some truth to it, insofar as the photo was almost certainly staged, and there are questions as to who actually took it. 

Ultimately, although almost all of writer Jack Perkins’s dialogue concerns the trio’s increasingly deranged speculation as to the true nature of the photograph, it would be wrong to say that this is actually what Dan Hutton’s production is about.

Instead it’s about the three’s behaviour: Wardlaw plays herself as an enthusiastic but uptight ringleader who has properly drunk the Kool-Aid; Ahmed is dedicated to the cause, though more to the sound of his own voice; Hayes doesn’t seem to take it very seriously at all, much to the others’ annoyance. Most of the play is about the three rubbing each other up the wrong way as they present their theories, often passively-aggressively shooting down each other’s ideas as the tension in the room mounts.

In an age where we’re pretty much governed by conspiracy theorists, there is some clear social resonance here. Ultimately, though, ‘Conspiracy’ comes across as a rather benign art comedy that lacks some of the heft and bite of previous Barrel Organ shows. 

Or is that just what they want you to think?

Andrzej Lukowski
Written by
Andrzej Lukowski

Details

Address:
Price:
£16, £3 JSA. Runs 1hr 15min
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