confirmationConfirmation could just as well be called confrontation. Because that’s what it is and how it feels.

Devised by Chris Thorpe in collaboration with Rachel Chavkin of Brooklyn-based ensemble The TEAM, it takes its title from confirmation bias, the psychological phenomenon that explains why people tend to seek out information that confirms their existing beliefs.

If we look at Confirmation as an experiment, Thorpe’s hypothesis is simple. He wants to know whether it is possible to have an ‘honourable dialogue’ with someone he fundamentally disagrees with. Given that Thorpe is a left-wing, liberal type this means going to meet Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind, a book about confirmation bias, and having conversations with a white supremacist and Holocaust denier.

The main thrust of the piece is the conversation between Thorpe and white supremacist, ‘Glen’, who has been interviewed extensively. This is an individual whose views are irreconcilably opposed to his own and, presumably, those of his audience. But Confirmation takes care to prime us for the ethical challenges that conversation presents, with Thorpe running us through a series of psychological number games and thought experiments which serve to lay the groundwork for what is to come.

It may sound more like a presentation of research than a piece of theatre, but like all of Thorpe’s work, Confirmation is a fascinating experiment in theatrical form. In a traditional end-on configuration, the audience can sit happily in the dark and adopt their familiar role of passive receivers. Not here. Thorpe implicates his audience by having them read aloud from sheets of paper or squaring up to them from a chair. The piece sparks to life during these moments of genuine liveness, with Thorpe demanding his audience to negotiate subject, text, interaction and communication all at once.

Although he is careful not to make anyone do anything they don’t want to, there is an inherent confrontation in this mode of presentation, as Thorpe performs both a version of himself and of Glen with a violent, vociferous energy. He is, at times, genuinely intimidating.

Along with seeking out information that confirms existing beliefs, confirmation bias also has to do with the way in which people filter out potentially useful facts and opinions that don’t coincide with their preconceived world views. Or, indeed, how people interpret existing facts or figures and twist them to their own purposes. This is fundamental in a section which sees Thorpe recollect a conversation he had with a Holocaust denier.

It is by far the most ethically challenging sequence of the piece and it feels like genuinely dangerous theatrical territory. There were two walkouts – whether due to poor time-keeping or revulsion I don’t know –  but their departure points to how demanding, in all senses of the word, Confirmation is.

At the end of the barrage, it is unclear exactly what has changed, with Thorpe having sucked it and seen and spat it back out again. His own views confirmed, we can all go home happy – right? Or maybe not.

Whether or not Thorpe succeeds in his experiment, Confirmation confirms Thorpe as one of the most exciting voices in contemporary British theatre.

Confirmation is at Northern Stage at King’s Hall (Venue 73) until 23 August. For more information and tickets go to the Edinburgh Fringe website.