Through The Looking Screen: Fringe 2012
Live Review
Underbelly Cowgate

At best, this is a case of misclassification, for Though The Looking Screen is an attempt at opera with a modern theme, with only the mildest of comedy elements. I counted a total of six laughs, plus a smattering of mild, wry titters, throughout the entire show.

It’s a tale of modern romance through the internet. Our lovelorn heroin Annabel is addicted to social media and online dating, obsessed with projecting the right image through her profile and falling in love with men for the digital footprint they leave, rather than engaging with them in real life.

As a premise, it’s rich with potential about the modern way of communicating through countless electronic channels, without actually transmitting any meaningful emotion. But here the idea is underplayed, offering little further insight.

Annabel is a singleton who spends her life in front of a keyboard, slugging back white wine from a box in her lonely flat, as she cultivates the perfect online existence,  ‘I was the first to tweet about 50 Shade Of Grey!’ she exclaims boastfully – the script notching up an easy pop culture reference.

As writer and composer Anne Chmelewsky’s story buries itself in a rut, it relies on such hack-comedy namechecks for its mild chuckles. #bitboring. How ironic that a script about nor communicating much, doesn’t communicate much.

Annabel manipulates her likes and dislikes on Facebook to try to match those of her colleague Sebastian, the man of her dreams she admires only from afar, her infatuation confined to cyber-stalking. Eventually, she picks up the courage to send him a message, believing that a well-placed LOL puts her in the same bracket of  romantic fiction as Jane Austen – then waits the nervous wait for his response.

It’s very well-presented. Classical singer Amy J Payne, who alternates with Claire Presland in the main role, has a powerful voice and fine manic shriek, and the minimal graphics projected on screen neatly mirror the changes Annabel makes to her profile.

But on comedy terms, this is a ‘Dislike’.