THEATRE REVIEW: A Machine They're Secretly Building ★★★

A Machine They’re Secretly Building

Wednesday 27th April 2016

Warwick Arts Centre

Entering the room to two females on stage, one sat down on a table and one facing a camera set up to the side of a screen, with a test card projected with the words ‘Please Stand By’ with the image of a face with a pink beanie over their head, I was unsure what I had stepped into, but as I sat down, I stayed open minded. This was ‘A Machine They’re Secretly Building’ from Proto-Type, a theatre company I have only recently been made aware of, but really felt in awe of the productions that they produce, so I was very excited about going to watch this production!

‘From what might be a news desk, an office, a bedroom, a bunker under a mountain or a theatre, two people – reporters, senators, freedom fighters, or just… well… concerned citizens like you – think about what it is to speak up, speak out, blow the whistle and lift the veil.’

Above is how the show was advertised, and is pretty much spot on exactly what happened, charting the history of surveillance and top secret documents from WWI intelligence, right through to 2013, coursing through events like 9/11, a cafeteria at CERN, as well as Edward Snowden and the future for us and surveillance, right up to 2079.

I really enjoyed this show, but not because it had me smiling and laughing with laughter, even though there were funny moments, but by how thought provoking but scary at the same time, because this wasn’t made up, this was real, it’s our world, the one that we live in, being layered by the years and events that have, and will, have us worried about how our surveillance and intelligence, as well as everything from social media to emails, will be handled, and that really is a scary thought.

Rachel Baynton and Gillian Lees were the performers in the piece and completely carried it with their stage presence, articulation and projection, especially on the points where the audio started crackling, to which even then they were not phased by the technical error, but more or less boasted them to perform even stronger. The visuals that were projected, designed by Adam York Gregory, were also very fitting to the words accompanied with them by Rachel and Gillian, especially in moments like the 1972 Chess World Championships.

Overall, A Machine They’re Secretly Building was an insightful, thoughtful, thought provoking piece of theatre, and one that I have never seen before, with the the depth and research on our whole lives that felt very real and makes us almost worried about what the future may hold for us.