Writer: Tim Etchells
Cold Sweat, performed by Forced Entertainment, is drastic, comical and absurd. Yet, the Sheffield-based company known for its mission of playing with possibilities in theatre and performance somehow manages to use the oddity of it all to create a subtle exploration of AI in our lives.
The performance, which debuted in 2025, follows a similar format to their 2024 show Signal to Noise, where the artists lip-sync to AI voices speaking Tim Etchells’ wacky texts. The guise of a story lies in the setting: a room strewn with tinsel, discarded paper cups, boxes, overturned tables and blow-up furniture. The three cast members (Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall and Terry O’Connor) each arrive wearing a different coloured ruffled wig, and we watch them pick up the tables and set out bottles of alcohol, preparing or cleaning up a party of sorts.
As Marshall starts with her drone-like American AI voice blasting out of the speakers, we enter a first monologue on the very awkwardness involved when being the first one to speak, in a room in complete silence, all while staring the audience down. The effect is ridiculous, jarring and funny, as we see the overly expressive features of the actor attempt to give life to a painstakingly slow and repetitive text. The effect multiplies, as, in turn, Lowdon reprises the lines with his own American AI voice, which features a slightly different pacing and emphasis. O’Connor, sitting at the table, chimes in herself, overlapping these same absurdist lines in a cycle, making the words themselves more nonsensical and almost musical.
The music, composed by Etchells, helps suggest scenes, as we alternate between electronic, dance, classical music and sound effects such as horses and laughter, which are at times embodied by the actors (notably Lowdon’s uncontrolled laugh synced to the track). These shifts are accompanied by shifts in lighting (Jim Harrison) and costume changes, as we see tattered wigs removed and switched out. As the overlapping monologues continue, sometimes angry, warning, or pitiful, each spoken directly to the audience, reactions vary, while the drone of intonation-less repetitive voices also becomes uncomfortable and distressing.
Is this a vision of a possible AI future? Is it a warning, or just a reaction? It is, in any case, unsettling, and as these rituals unfold, it is hard not to see this as performance art, clearly still alive and well. Though it is important to give space for unconventional exploration, the performance is sure to divide opinions. And yet, we can’t help but wonder if the looming omnipresence of AI leads to an even bleaker future.
Runs until 10 October 2026
