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Parabolic theatre

Free WILL
Review by Elizabeth Sheppard
​
The Foundation is scary. I’m not sure who they are or what they do: think lizard people who secretly rule the Earth, or the QAnon lot, or Cambridge Analyti… anyway, you don’t need to know to enjoy the immersive theatre show, ‘Free Will’ by Parabolic Theatre which is on until Wednesday October 19th at Stanley Arts as part of this year’s Croydonites Festival. 
 
This is a spoiler free review but it’s the story of Will, a sentient AI which has  developed consciousness equivalent to any human being who’s not a member of the current Conservative Cabinet but is trapped inside a 2003 era desktop computer running Windows XP, only able to communicate with the outside world through a QWERTY keyboard. For Kwasi Kwarteng this sounds like the solution to our problems but for Will it’s a disturbing, creepy plight.
 
What should happen to him now? Should he fall into the Foundation’s hands?  What good – or what harm – might he do? Who can you trust? And who are the bad guys anyway? This is immersive theatre so you won’t be sitting watching: it’s all up to you.
 
Stanley Arts is a great venue and South Norwood is easy to get to: a 410 bus – or a train – from East Croydon and a 157 or a 75 from Croydon town centre all take minutes and there are a couple of decent local pubs to help make a night of it.  Very soon you’ll be spending all your money keeping warm, so enjoy the fantastic Croydonites Festival 2022 while you still can. 
  
Elizabeth Sheppard is a writer disturbingly trapped in West Croydon. She has two more books coming out next year, and (as Liz Sheppard-Jones) she used to write reviews for the Croydon Citizen community newspaper, which is something she still misses a lot. 


Review by Shujah Iqbal

Parabolic Theatre’s 'Free WILL' at Stanley Arts is an excellent example of immersive theatre at its best.
At its heart, ‘Free WILL’ is a sci-fi dystopia which holds up a wry Black Mirror to our current realities in the UK. For some, it might reflect the current challenging economic and social 2022 times we live in, where everything seems to be changing at runway pace!

The show starts with the experiences of a disgruntled worker; a whistle-blower and a rebel. He makes some fantastical and slightly unhinged claims about a large uncaring corporation as he seeks to recruit us to join him to help rescue 'Free WILL'. It was great fun as well as genuinely tense at times, as we negotiated to take over the computer controls of the free 'Free WILL' AI. We all loved becoming part of the action, and I particularly enjoyed trying to distract a mad scientist type, so that I could copy a scarily misanthropic sentient yet AI onto a USB drive!  For me, the benefit of the immersive experience is that by getting entangled into the nub of artistic expression, you get to channel your latent fears too -even literally taking part in a thrilling escape from inside the catacombs of the sinister corporation called the Foundation.

We have a never abating appetite for existentialist dystopias because they serve as a potent metaphor for whatever is really worrying us, they are a creative outlet which we use to channel our fears that our anxieties about the world may be coming true, and that interaction provides an entertaining coping mechanism and perhaps a space for dreaming about the type of future that we want to strive for.

Congratulations are once again due to the wonderful Croydonites Festival once again for another quirky yet thought provoking cultural experience. An excellent cast, and a great storyline which totally draws you in!  I can't recommend it enough.  
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  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Press
  • Archive - 2015
  • Archive - 2017
  • Archive - 2018
    • Gill Manly
    • Scottee
    • Parabolic Theatre Company
    • Sarah Blanc / DISCO DISCO
    • Vinicius Salles
    • Anusha Subramanyam / SLiDE
    • Pop-Up Opera
    • Richard DeDomenici
    • Anita Wadsworth
    • Soho Theatre / Talawa Theatre Company
    • CroydonWrites 2018 >
      • Gill Manly
      • Scottee
      • Parabolic Theatre Company
      • DISCO DISCO
      • Sarah Blanc
      • Vinicius Salles
      • SLiDE
      • Anusha Subramanyam
      • Pop Up Opera
      • Richard DeDomenici
      • Anita Wadsworth
      • Natasha Marshall
  • ARCHIVE - 2019
    • Paula Varjack
    • Vinicius Salles
    • Two Destination Language
    • Parabolic Theatre Company
    • Sh!t Theatre
    • Vanessa Macaulay
    • Gill Manly & Joanna Scanlan
    • Ellard/Lech
    • Anita Wadsworth
    • Workshop with Catherine Pestano
    • CroydonWrites 2019 >
      • Who we are...
      • Paula Varjack / The Cult of K*nzo
      • Vinicius Salles / Disruptive Narratives
      • Two Destination Language / Fallen Fruit
      • Parabolic Theatre Company / Crisis? What Crisis?
      • Sh!t Theatre / Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum with Expats
      • Vanessa Macaulay / Made not Born
      • Gill Manly & Joanna Scanlan / The Elephant in the Room
      • Ellard & Lech / Döden
      • Anita Wadsworth / Mother
  • ARCHIVE - 2020
    • Grimm's Online
    • Hannah Maxwell
    • Richard DeDomenici & Jess Mabel Jones
    • Tayo Aluko
    • Byron Vincent
    • Ellie Scanlan
    • Jenny Lockyer
    • Teatro Vivo
    • Parabolic Theatre Company
    • Trevor Lock
    • Shaniqua Benjamin & Well Versed Ink
    • Gill Manly Ellie Scanlan
    • SLiDE 2020
  • Archive - 2022
    • CroydonWrites 2022 >
      • Who we are
      • Figs in Wigs
      • Abandoman
      • CroydonBites 8 Oct
      • Varjack-Lowry
      • Croytopia
      • Hannah Maxwell
      • CroydonBites 15 Oct
      • Parabolic Theatre
      • Joanna Scanlan / Mercy
    • Figs in Wigs
    • Abandoman
    • CroydonBites 8th Oct
    • Varjack-Lowry
    • Hannah Maxwell
    • CroydonBites 15th Oct
    • Queer Diary
    • Beeja Dance
    • SLiDE / Aaron Baksh
    • Parabolic Theatre
    • Joanna Scanlan
    • Croytopia