Semi-Automatic SmokeShow at Edinburgh Fringe ★★★★
★★★★ Semi-Automatic SmokeShow | Greenside @ George Street
A searing, satirical exploration of what’s left of the American dream, social media pressure-selling for no rewards, and postmodern malaise.
Delaney Conway shows off her broad range of comic performance and playwriting talent in this American dystopia, created for you live on the imaginary app she creates. The relentless need for influencers to sell goods, guns and their soul for little real reward is put on the slab for dissection in a riot of philosophical ideas for our times.
Semi-Automatic SmokeShow show gives a feeling of revolutionary despair aimed at the USA which has been largely missing from this year’s fringe. The fierce and abstract quality of this satire is reminiscent of an early incarnation of the epically talented Brooklyn experimental theatre troupe The TEAM, who went on to great worldwide success.
The first non-verbal section of the piece is a little drawn out, but once we get into the main narrative of our social media-driven fallacy, the pace starts to get going. We then descend into the nightmare of a beauty content creator forced to eventually sell off horrendous goods in the name of getting the ultimate American dream of a husband, a house and a gun to protect it all with.
The true rise in women owning guns, and some other haunting realities, aren’t really deeply explored – but the tone is darkly funny (bulletproof swimsuit anyone?) and keeps the audience interested with sardonic humour, rather than descending into a depression spiral. With a little editing and refinement, this piece could definitely go on to the Bush Theatre, Soho Theatre or another great advocate of offbeat contemporary new-writing works.
Semi-Automatic Smokeshow is a rare chance to watch an up-and-coming star make contemporary theatre seem relevant, with useful home truths and critical reflections on America.
I am Joint Editor at To Do List. I like free, cheap & offbeat London, especially: cabaret, art, theatre, pop-ups, eating out, quirky films, museums, day trips, social enterprise & much more.
