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The heroine in Josephine K

And The Algorithms (Peacock, is faced with a man entering her home telling her she’s under arrest. For what? He won’t say, but apparently, it’s not important. But he knows everything about her through surveillance and her internet use. Every private move, purchase, word, idea, has been mapped, and she’s been found possibly guilty of something. Welcome to the world of constant exposure via modern gadgetry you wear or use. The play, by Stacey Gregg, roughly based on Kafka’s The Trial, presents a world in which every loose act may be used to incriminate you for things you barely remember. Orla Fitzgerald was the confused Josephine and Carl Kennedy played her almost robotic interrogator and various other voices. Was he even a person or an algorithm, or both? This nightmare world is disturbing and yet the thought occurred that if women pestered by men had that kind of information themselves, their word might be more readily believed and the gropers, rapists, sharpsters and celebrities could have the tables turned more quickly. A nice touch was the Kafkaesque way we had to enter the Peacock through a side door down winding paths to the re-shaped theatre. The play is a good think-piece and was intriguingly staged, but it finally gave the impression of an idea needing more expansive treatment.

Michael Moffatt