Disruption review

Zoë Hurwitz’ sleek, sinister set resembles a series of intersecting blank screens, its glossy black surfaces meeting at tilted, severe angles. Occasionally, a large area of the back wall becomes transparent, revealing the sterile control room from which the characters’ lives are analysed and manipulated. Animated projections, designed by Daniel Denton, crawl constantly over the walls and floor, displaying satisfyingly complex graphs and strings of binary code that sometimes resolve into legible phrases – AI-generated predictions of lines that the characters will later speak.

It could seem bleak, yet the playful, committed actors relentlessly wring humour from it, humanising their deeply flawed characters with quirky and affectionate interactions. Debbie Korley provides the story’s moral centre as Suzie, the person who knows Nick best and trusts him least. Seeing his devious sales pitch for what it is, she tries her best to dissuade the others from buying in and surrendering their free will. As she battles to retain her agency, Korley convincingly captures the inner struggle of a sceptic clinging to optimism in a world spinning out of control.

Oliver Alvin-Wilson is brilliantly charismatic and horribly believable as Mephistophelian tech-bro Nick, going to desperate, despicable lengths to convince his friends to invest in his unethical social experiment. At times he trembles with impatient excitement, imagining the wealth and power that his programme will bring him. But there’s a subtle undercurrent of fear beneath his charming façade, a gnawing doubt that – without proper safeguards – the technology he’s bringing into the world may end up enslaving humankind rather than setting us free.