I Wish I Was Lonely

I Wish I Was Lonely is a layered and playfully experimental look at whether technology is drawing us closer, or pushing us further from the world around us. It’s an interactive show where, for once, you’re encouraged to leave your phone on – and not just on vibrate. Hannah Jane Walker and Chris Thorpe want to hear every buzz, ding and ring, with no exceptions. In fact, taking phone calls and replying to texts in the middle of the performance is welcomed, but do be prepared for the other 35 people in the room to listen intently until you’re done.

Walker and Thorpe are out to challenge our dependence on technology, question its place as a fifth limb in our lives, and ask ‘what if?’. What if everyone we loved wasn’t just a swipe and click away – and what if Alexander Fleming had called his lab and asked them to throw out those petri dishes he’d forgotten about?

With gentle poetry they probe at the barriers that technology creates. We might opt to send a cat GIF rather than talk about our feelings, and emotional and important conversations can now be had through text messages, devoid of the intonation of a friend or family member’s voice. We can bury ourselves in a deluge of social media, spend hours liking statuses or watching videos of people we will never meet.  We can post and comment to our heart’s content, sign petitions and like videos to express our support but “Assad won’t read your retweet” Thorpe tells Walker.

Our mobile phones lay together in a circle in the middle of the room – they look lost, vulnerable, wanting of a human hand. With hesitant glances at each other, we reluctantly part with them – fearing for the safety of our digital lives. They flash and bleep throughout the show, demanding our attention and diverting our focus with every dingle – each audience member glancing down slyly to check if it might be theirs.

I Wish I Was Lonely forces us to connect with others. We send texts to strangers we may never speak to, leave voicemails for people who may be sat next to us, and pass Chinese whispers from ear to ear. Through a series of clever and cunningly devised participatory exercises we are forced to appreciate and experience both the convenience and power of technology – its ability to save lives, but also it’s potential to destroy and confuse our relationships. Both its limitations and advantages are called into question, although with significantly more focus on the negative impacts of it – is our reliance on handheld devices really making us less content? Does the ability for constant and instant communication actually stop us missing people? Whilst it might not do exactly that, Thorpe and Walker certainly make us question it.

 

I Wish I Was Lonely is playing at Battersea Arts Centre until Saturday 15 March. For more information and tickets, see the Battersea Arts Theatre website.