EDINBURGH 2023: Review: CHATHAM HOUSE RULES, Pleasance Courtyard

Host has taken a job at an ultra secretive convention in the English countryside. Billionaires and politicians have gathered to discover some new AI technology, and the staff are working hard to keep the curious wolves of social media and the press at bay.

Former meme king and avid TikTok watcher, Host suddenly sees the potential of being in the right place at the right time. Scarred by his viral fame but with a relentless craving for it, he sets off to take a personal revenge  on the man who ruined it for everybody.

What might seem like a silly little comedy about millennial dread at first becomes a pointedly anti-Tory invective in Louis Rembges’s Chatham House Rules. It’s a production for the chronically online, anti-Brexit internet addicts, and those who simply want to have a laugh before they’re thrown into a vortex of political discourse. The zillennial experience is summed up with funny videos that ease its constant doom. Full of viral references and deliciously cynical, the monologue deftly handles poetic interiority and iconic dark humour.

Rembges swiftly jumps from tragedy to farce with impeccable comic timing and a flair for the dramatic. He is a profoundly gifted playwright, showing uncompromising socio-political awareness and a clever approach to engaging new audiences. It will most probably be a piece of its time (that’s the risk when using digital pop culture), but its multimedia creativity has the gift of allowing the writer to update it with the most recent trends and memes. It’s an excellent example of original writing that doesn’t conform to the traditional constraints of theatre.

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