Writer & Director: Clare Duffy
A female footballer has been stabbed by a man yelling about ‘retribution’ – two young men who witnessed the attack struggle to come to terms with what they’ve seen, and how they reacted. This shocking news report sets the scene for Many Good Men, a remarkable evening of theatre, digital technology, improvisation and debate. Scenes take place in and around Dunfermline Athletic FC’s stadium, using spaces in and under the stand as well as indoors, and throughout there is audience participation, choice and collaboration. We’re asked to scan a QR code enabling us to vote via our phones, selecting videos to be projected around us and directing the action. There’s audience participation of a different kind in the workshop/discussion at the end, where we’re challenged to suggest ways in which the characters’ fates could have been nudged onto a different trajectory. Actors and members of the audience improvise around these alternative storylines, skilfully facilitated by Gavin Crichton as the presiding ‘Joker’.
Friends Han and Peter (played with clarity and presence by Andrew Marley and Anthony O’Neil) decide to delve into some very murky corners of the internet, initially with an aim of subverting the incel culture they find so horrifying. Bombarded by content full of misogyny and extremist depictions of masculinity, they are quickly drawn in. A scene between Peter and his girlfriend Sam (Lori Stott) shows the red flags becoming shockingly obvious. The audience votes on whose story to follow to the end, with a real local news story used as context.
Directed by Clare Duffy, Many Good Men began as a project culminating in a performance at Hearts FC in 2024. Civic Digits, an Edinburgh-based company blending performance, participation and digital technology, has co-created this latest edition with school pupils from Dunfermline High School and there were a number of young people in the audience – and it has to be said, this seemed to be a very engaged and well-informed audience, based on contributions during the final forum. Let’s hope this stark warning about the dangers of online radicalisation can reach out to as wide an audience as possible. Faced with Andrew Tate and his ilk, do we look away (understandable), or will we be the person who confronts the casual misogyny and toxic nihilism in the street, the playground, the home? Calling it out is uncomfortable, even risky. But not calling it out? That’s a choice with consequences too.
This is an excitingly innovative and multi-faceted production, tackling issues that society cannot afford to ignore, and challenging us all to play our part.
Runs until April 3rd 2026 | Image: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
