Writers/Directors: Hamish MacDougall, Julian Spooner and Matthew Wells.
The opening of Project Dictator is deliberately misleading. There is a cosy nostalgic feel with Susan (Sarah Spencer) greeting the audience with effusive smiles while playing well-known standards like The Girl From Ipanema on a keyboard. Actually, the opening could be a tribute to Morecambe and Wise. Straight man Martin (Matthew Wells) is anxious to stage, and star in, a play what he wrote, ‘How to Solve the Problem(s)’, while his colleague and dogsbody Jeremy (Julian Spooner) is starting to resent his role as ‘Everything Else’.
However, Project Dictator (which has an alternative title of Why Democracy Is Overrated And I Don’t Miss It At All) was conceived by co-directors and performers Wells and Spooner, and co-director Hamish MacDougall in collaboration with a group of international artists, all living under oppressive regimes. The first act is, therefore, a satire on how populism supports totalitarianism while the second is a stark, dramatic depiction of life under such an intolerant regime.
Starring in “the play what he wrote”, Martin plays a politician described as a cross between Emmanuel Macron and Jesus Christ who believes the public should be talked at rather than to and that speeches should be aimed over their heads. Jeremy, however, breaks character and, as he is unable to cope with the complexities of the problems facing society, appeals direct to the audience that they should be treated as jokes. His solution to the energy crisis is to generate energy by having the audience play with balloons.
The parallels between the situation onstage and the rise of populist politicians like Boris Johnson and Donald Trump, whose appeal to an alienated electorate was they were perceived as not being part of the political establishment, are obvious. The success of Project Dictator is, however, the way in which the play creepily implicates the audience in the rise of an intolerant regime. There is a high degree of audience involvement in the play including one participant (or possible plant) making a very decent attempt at sketching a portrait of the increasingly messianic leader.
Gradually the mood darkens. To avoid critical enquiries from the media the leader invites audience members to ask pre-scripted and adulatory questions. Worse follows as the audience is required to denounce neighbours who do not seem fully committed to the leader.
The shift from edgy humour to dark drama is sudden and disconcerting. Although Wells and Spooner are dressed in full Pierrot make-up and costumes, they behave as puppets rather than clowns. The second act opens with the pair as political prisoners, hooded and half-naked, and compelled to perform in accordance with instructions barked from a loudspeaker. Deviations from the script are not tolerated. It is a powerful sequence – a tormented Matthew Wells looks to be on the edge of tears throughout. As with the first act the audience is involved also – applauding in accordance with neon instructions over the stage. There is the grim conclusion that compromise with totalitarian regimes is not possible- the only options are submission or rebellion.
Although short, Project Dictator packs a great deal into the limited running time. The combination of satire and dark drama leads to the conclusion that populism is a joke which is not funny anymore.
Reviewed on 21 September 2023
