★★★★
Potentially one of the loudest shows at the Fringe this year, Screaming into the Void is an absurdist play exploring what it means to be a woman on the internet. Set in the Void of the internet, we meet three influencers. First is Trad Wife (Arlene McKay), a loving mother who gives up her dreams of becoming a doctor to be a stay-at-home mum, making organic recipes to share on the internet. Next is Clean Girl (Eva Ellis), an ultra-organised, ultra-fit influencer sharing her tips for productivity and clean living. Finally is Divine Feminine Goddess (Abi Price), who lives and breathes all things spiritual, encouraging her followers to denounce men and find their inner goddess. When Relatable Queen (Marnie Horne) comes along, she questions their motivations, and their entire existence starts to come undone.
Kira Mason’s script is witty, making the characters complete parodies of the internet trends they are copying. They spout internet jargon constantly, especially Clean Girl who is constantly praising the others for being girl bosses. It’s scary the lengths they go to in order to be “healthy”: Clean Girl adds washing up liquid to her green smoothies, while Trad Wife makes black pudding using her own period blood. Amazingly, not one of the disciples is annoying. Trad Wife is refreshingly intelligent, rebutting Relatable Queen’s arguments that staying at home goes against feminist principles by rightly stating that feminism is about a woman’s right to choose. Mason evokes sympathy for Clean Girl by delving into her low self-esteem and body image issues. Divine Feminine Goddess is simply brilliant, delivering one-liners that make the audience roar with laughter, and encouraging Trad Wife to have a lesbian affair. Despite their very differing lifestyles, they act more like colleagues than enemies.
Relatable Queen provokes a huge question: what does relatable even mean? In her words, it’s showing your authentic self on the internet, flaws and all. She’s “not like the other girls”, but not in a pick-me way, of course, yet she tries to tear them down, claiming it would be cathartic (spoiler alert: it’s not). Clean Girl gets the brunt of this, with Relatable Queen calling her the worst and generally seeing her as a project to be fixed. The trolls eventually turn on her too, pointing out that a slim, White, blonde woman is not relatable to everyone. It just proves that women on the internet cannot win, no matter what they brand themselves as.
Screaming into the Void challenges our assumptions, forcing us to think about our own views of social media and how we consume it. It doesn’t present a solution, and there isn’t necessarily a conclusion to the story. It’s messy and chaotic, just like the online world itself.
Screaming Into The Void will be performed at theSpace on the Mile – Space 3 until 22 August (even dates only) as part of Edinburgh Fringe.
Words by Ellen Leslie
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