★★★★☆
Runtime: 1hr 40minutes
We are introduced to the Troll Farm in a modern sanitised office incandescently lit by Marcus Doshi. A window allowing characters to be surveilled sits behind a row of sparse desks with uniform computers. Alexander Dodge’s set informs us of its location in Russia with aportrait of Putin on the wall and Russian coffee in the kitchenette. A number of projected screens above the stageare utilised to depict the social media posts of the workers by Jared Mezzocchi.
Russian Troll Farm by Sarah Gancher explores thecharacters behind the Internet Research Agency in St Petersburg, commissioned to sow disinformation and cognitive dissonance during the 2016 US election. We meet Masha (Renata Friedman) a disillusioned pragmatic journalist, being interviewed by Ljuba (Christina Lahti) an FSB (KGB really) stalwart and current manager of the team. Ljuba tests Masha on her American internet knowledge and familiarity with online etiquette and lingo. We are presented to the other archetypes of the troll farm; Egor (Haskell King), an obsessive deadpan coder,Steve (John Lavelle) a nihilistic boorish agitator and Nikolai (Hadi Tabbal), a pseudo-intellectual hipster screenwriter. Masha and Nikolai strike up a romanticconnection, whilst Steve taunts and goads Egor into using their skills in online misinformation to manipulate and scheme within the office to further their own careers. The characters drunkenly debate the meaning of their roles in a karaoke bar. Later, the team pumps out incendiary tweets at their desks as we descend into the world of internet propaganda. The projections, using mostly real tweets written by real agents, allow Russian Troll Farm to accomplishthe difficult feat of telling a story about social media on stage with
punchiness.
Each character receives a section dedicated to their own agenda;Masha and Nikolai’s affair and downfall, Egor’s desire to use his online presence to be someone else (an African American), Steve’s disdain for western ideology, equality and white-supremacist beliefs. Finally, Lubja’s chilling backstory and the legacy of Stalinism. Direction by Darko Tresnijak handles the varied tone in character’s sections by embracing the differences and altering the style whilst maintaining a familiar rhythm during ensemble scenes. Absurd as it is devastating, the witty dialogue carries the office moments, particularly Steve and Egor’s twisted synergy. Losing itself in the pacing of more serious plotlines, Russian Troll Farm hits home with a brilliant finale that is poignant and comical as we see the winners and losers of the office and the election. The satirical depiction of how social media legitimised insanity is shown in a costume change (Linda Cho) that left the audience in no doubt of the truth of the Russian troll farm.
Originally written in 2020 as a zoom play, the piece expressesa retrospective on the era defined by online disinformation. Despite forgetting to be funny in moments and over-packing the characters, the story engages and entertains in this contemporary farce with memorable insults and chilling re-enactments as the characters desperately scheme and manipulate the US electorate as well as each other in this slick satirical comedy. Bring a gen ‘z’ or millennial friend for best effect.
Available at the Vineyard Theatre from the 25thJanuary to 25th of February 2024.