VIRULENT EXPERIENCE
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CONWAY HALL ETHICAL SOCIETY - LONDON - 2012
Written & Directed by John Harrigan
THEN:London, 2012: CCTV on every corner, missile batteries on the roof of council blocks for national security during the Olympiad. Every moment of your life logged and regulated by governments and corporations trying to sell you things through your smart-phone and browser while people you haven’t seen in years can follow your life moment by moment online.
NOW:London, 2040: The Ministry of Information's Emotional Experience Act is in force. In an effort to stop the nation tearing itself apart, the government has instituted ENGLAND REBORN — for your Safety, Security & Sanity. Thanks to the Sure Heart implant technology gifted to newborn citizens, all disruptive, antisocial and negative emotions and rogue experiences are now prohibited, isolated and catalogued within the Virulent Museum of Human Experience via real time analysis of your lives.
No longer do the self destructive impulses of the nation manifest in the phenomenon known as Virulent Novelty. Always connected, never alone — watched over by the ubiquitous BLAKE.
Truly it is a Green and Pleasant Land.
On the eve of the London 2040 Olympics, FoolishPeople invite you to enter and explore the Museum in an immersive production combining theatre and art which highlights technology's impact on the mind, imagination and free will of human beings.
Questioning the ethics of regulation, experimentation and morality, Virulent Experience imagines a future disturbingly familiar. Expose your mind, body and heart to a haunted archive of forbidden emotions.
The Age of Emotional Prohibition has begun.
“Your journey into the mid-21st century will take you from the museum's basement to the roof, and past a dizzying array of disturbing art and challenging performances... I found Virulent Experience both confusing and exhilarating in equal measure, the most intense theatrical event I've attended this year — believe me, it is way, way out there!”
— Londoneer
"The Ministry of Information’s Emotional Experience Act means that, through the power of implants, all disruptive, antisocial and negative emotions and rogue experiences are now banned throughout the UK. BLAKE watches over the population, monitoring for signs of dangerous “Virulent Novelty” which are captured and archived in the Museum. BLAKE, though, has started to exhibit strange behaviour which could affect everyone. That’s all part of the mystery, one that takes in the Black Farm, Sure Heart technology, curious engrams and an emotional aptitude test for all Museum visitors."
— Londinist
Virulent Experience at Conway Hall.
