Theatre / chris thorpe
Mayfest 2015 review: Confirmation
There’s one man on a stage with a mic – and he has something to say. Ideas that will confound you, challenge the way you think about the world, and bring you nose-to-nose (literally, if you’re sitting in the front row) with some beliefs you might find repellent – mainly because a white supremacist and holocaust-denier gets quite a bit of airtime. Are you ready to listen?
Written and performed by the electrifying Chris Thorpe, Confirmation gives centre stage to the phenomenon of confirmation bias – the tendency we all have to seek out information that confirms the beliefs we hold, and to ignore information that doesn’t quite fit with those beliefs.
Within Thorpe’s quickfire, often angry delivery, it’s sometimes hard to tell which character he is inhabiting, leading to moments of panic (who the hell am I nodding along to?). The audience is arranged in the round as though at a political meeting, and individuals are given cards to read, cleverly putting words into their mouths. What this show illustrates quite brilliantly is our frequent complacency – and the rocky foundations beneath what we all believe to be right. See it if you can.
Confirmation was at Bristol Old Vic Studio from Friday, May 22 to Sunday, May 24 as part of Mayfest 2015.
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