Writer: Matt Morrison
Director: Hanna Berrigan
Disrupting the orthodoxy and rejecting the usual way of doing things is not a wholly invalid approach when attempting to find that one breakthrough that could change the world. Lately, however, it feels as though movements are on the rise that reject any basis in factual, evidence-led science. More and more, we see radicalised people react to being called out as wrong, not as an admonition, but as a badge of honour.
One such person is Guy (Phil Cheadle), an oncological scientist who, after being removed from his research post after an ethical scandal, has now started live streaming on YouTube on a channel he calls Outside Voice – also the name of Matt Morrison’s piece of new writing. As Guy moves more and more towards the conspiracy theory end of the internet, his former colleague, Dan Starkey’s Mike, describes him as the UK’s “answer to RFK” – a reference to Robert F Kennedy Jr, an anti-vaccine, anti-5G, anti-pasteurisation conspiracy theorist and who is now President Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Meanwhile, his philosopher wife, Helen (Viss Elliot Safavi), is juggling her love for her husband and her disagreement with his scientific conclusions, trying to support the principle of open debate without lending her weight to his more fringe beliefs. Matters get more complicated when Mike’s daughter Eve (Elle O’Donnell) – also Helen’s goddaughter – surreptitiously asks Guy to get her some unapproved treatments that might help with her Stage 3 cancer.
As with any piece that might seek to deal with ethically thorny dilemmas, Morrison’s work tends towards dry conversation, especially in its first half hour. The four players’ stances are set out starkly, positioning Guy as a rather egotistical man who is more concerned about his channel’s engagement rates than he is about the veracity of the claims he and his guests make. But there is at least a spark of genuine character about him, especially in Cheadle’s interactions with Safavi as his wife. Starkey’s rationalist colleague is afforded no such luxury, with his position as an ethicist and evidence-led scientist often reduced to shouts of impotent rage.
The most intriguing character is O’Donnell’s Eve, representing the sort of member of the public who, faced with a life-threatening condition for which conventional medicine cannot guarantee a cure, is apt to find themselves listening to the dissenting, sceptical voices at the fringe of science. Morrison and director Hana Berrigan don’t quite pull off the rationale for Eve keeping her quest for alternative medication secret from her godmother, making that subplot feel like it springs from the need for tension rather more than it does from character.
Some scene transitions, requiring manhandling of Nicky Bunch’s box-like set design to the accompaniment of sound designer Ed Lewis’s urgently pompous jingles, tread on a previous scene’s impact; rather than being able to sit with a revelation or twist, we’re subject to an onslaught of sound and motion. But it does at least ensure that the piece as a whole keeps a tidy pace.
And with that, Safavi eventually comes out on top as her character wrangles with complicated feelings towards her husband. It is at the expense of the characterisation of Guy, though: with any inklings of humanity dissipating, Cheadle’s character descends into one-dimensional caricature.
That said, the portrayal of how and why radicalisation into the depths of internet conspiracy can unfold is Outside Voice’s strength. Are those who head down that road just impressionable people who are vulnerable, or is it a path that panders to a sense of righteous ego that was always there? The play may take its own view, but it also encourages us to think for ourselves about that.
Continues until 5 July 2025
