As the lights dim in the intimate venue of Camden People’s Theatre, three actors enter the space and stare at the audience. Faint smirks are visible on their faces as they subsequently reveal their inside joke from underneath a section of the set. It’s a puppet. A small, jointed, semi-naked old-age pensioner that they manipulate to portray the character of ‘Mikey’ aka ‘The Ghost’ – an ex-hitman from New York with a black sense of humour. The three-strong operation team is an impressive collaborative spectacle as they bring Mikey to life with intricate, well-rehearsed manoeuvres of his head, arms and feet. It is slightly disappointing that the puppet’s mouth never moves, a fact that means the audience find it difficult to connect the characterful voiceover performed by Tommy Luther with the dummy he controls. However, this does not make the content of Luther’s narrations any less intriguing.

Through the medium of the puppet’s anecdotal monologues, Dissonance explores psychologist Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance. After hearing the phrase uttered by an arch-enemy on her death bed, Mikey decamps to a public steam bath to contemplate its meaning. Here he has a serendipitous encounter with an enigmatic character, who explains Festinger’s theory digestibly to the audience. It’s the ability to hold two opposing truths in one’s mind at the same time, but Mikey dismisses the old man’s ramblings, until he himself has a revelation… in the aisles of Toys R Us. He realises how this theory of dissonance permeates our everyday lives, and more importantly how it can be utilised by businesses, governments and other powerful entities to psychologically manipulate the general populous.

It is evident that the concept has been thoroughly researched, and the piece’s psychological assertions are corroborated by the artistic team’s collaboration with an academic research partner, Dr. Nathan Heflick, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Lincoln. Yet Dissonance is not to be mistaken for a scientific lecture. The main enjoyment for the audience derives from the black humour that permeates Mikey’s speeches (the most laughter being in response to a description of being initiated into a gang by shoving a flaming copy of the New York Times up his posterior) and also the comic characterisation of the puppet as a stereotypical New York gangster. It is at times questionable whether the humorous nature of the piece supersedes the scientific intentions, as sometimes the psychological message is diluted in favour of a quip or joke.

The performance concludes with a brief “afterword” from Mikey, who breaks the dramatic illusion, refers to himself as a puppet and more formally “lectures” about the nature of cognitive dissonance. This epilogue sufficiently makes up for any of the message that may have been lost during the more metaphorical dramatic performance, and helps to ensure that Dissonance’s aim of “spreading a little bit of science in an entertaining way” is truly achieved.

Dissonance played at Camden People’s Theatre on 18 March as part of Sprint Festival 2016. For more information see the Camden People’s Theatre website. Photo: Mark Dean