★★★★★
Sad-Vents is a deeply clever and dark exploration of the worst parts of our human relationship with social media. By mouthing along to snippets of tiktok-esque songs, projecting some smatterings of internet screens behind her, and constantly live-streaming herself from her phone, the creator, Eleanor Hill, successfully emulates the online content we’re all used to, and uses it to genius effect.
The choice to openly allow the audience to take photos and be on their phones throughout (I confess I wrote a few notes for this review mid-show) is wholly where the magic lies. At the start, we were all invited to connect with Hill’s character, to message her live, on our phones, and as an audience we just kinda didn’t. It made me confront how passively we were all consuming the protagonist’s genuine, traumatic breakdown as it unfolded, and how the medium of the internet had de-sensitised me to what I was watching. I think this was perhaps where the ‘comedy’ of this tragicomedy lost me slightly, through no real fault of writing, directing, or acting. It’s just difficult to make live audiences laugh when you’ve conditioned them to barely see you as human.
As for the character of the woman, she doesn’t learn. She seems to get happier, a bit healthier, by the end of the play. But she isn’t kicking the internet habit. She remains desperate for our attention, a connection, with someone, anyone, online or in-person. Chillingly, however, nobody in my audience gave her a speck.
Sad-Vents is on at the Underbelly, Bristo Sq. – Jersey till August 28th
Review by Rachel Elphick
