John (Will Spence) did not want to go out, but his flatmate Carolyn (Katie Piner) made him come along. Now that he’s here, he might as well have a bit of fun. But he’s not that kind of a guy. He’s not really sure where to put his feet, or even his hands. Let’s face it: he’s lost.
Clinging to his shot glass, he’s trying to make conversation with this pretty girl, Jodie. But she’s more concerned about the Likes on her new profile picture and the article she just posted.
I Nominate tells the story of four adolescents, just about to dash off into a life full of virtual facades. We fear for them, especially Jodie (Rebecca Watson) seems to have lost any connection to the real world. She’s obsessed with social media, living for the perfect Facebook account.
In between her status updates and tweets, she seduces John. The ever so apparent fear to be alone lingers in the look she gives him before fading back into the loud music.
But there’s more to her obsession. She’s psychoanalyzing the virtual world, trying to make sense of Like-Behaviour and Share-Fear. She gazes into the audience, almost begging them to make sense of it. Her anxiety almost becomes a physical matter.
Does she believe the hype? Maybe she does. But she seems to be too intelligent to fall for world slip, why she needs to play John once in a while.
And then there’s John’s elder brother, Chris (Christian Amos). The cool guy, moving swiftly through the club and through life.
Like in Goethe’s Elective Affinities, an inexplicable force draws the four characters to each other. Whether they will eventually find a way to overcome their anxieties is hard to tell. Never much more then a metre apart, Sophie Sparke’s protagonists are elusive.
Very cinematic and as overloaded as the world it depicts, I Nominate is definitely a play to watch out for. It’s not quite obvious whether the play hails or condemns the virtual world. And that is very refreshing.
Apart from that, it’s great strength is its cast and its pace. Their roles might have been intended as stereotypes, but their liveliness adds personality and depth. We feel as if we know them, as though we had encountered these people somewhere before. That saves them from merely becoming caricatures of the so-called virtual generation.
I Nominate is loud, it’s quick and it’s intense. But beyond the flashing lights, there’s a profound melancholy in these amiable characters.
I nominate will run from Tuesday 12th of May to Saturday 16th of May at the BT
