Conspiracy, Underbelly Cowgate, review

The three investigators are a well-balanced ensemble, lead by Rose Wardlaw as the perfect control freak, know-it-all. To her sides, Azan Ahmed plays the naive one, while Shannon Hayes is the joker who gives off a cooler vibe. It is a group that weirdly works, and manages to carry the discussion on and on in a chaotic attempt to fight the system – and each other – with pictures, cheap reveals, bluetack and conjectures.

Who is right? Who is wrong? We start to understand pretty soon that they are all losers in this game; when anything and nothing is plausible, reason is lost and truth starts to lose its value. The dynamics of the discussion work most of the time and the cast is obviously strong, but Barrel Organ’s Conspiracy does not give much satisfaction throughout the play: dead ends, ridiculous connections, awkward silences work up until a certain point. But – and it is a big but – the ending is a perfect climax and cleverly manages to put the whole play into perspective.

I am not going to lie, I don’t think I really got the message of the show. Are they attacking capitalism? Conspiracy theorists? The Americans? Elvis? Who knows. It sure is a lot of fun though. Conspiracy goes around in circles, down one rabbit hole after the other, one more absurd than the other. It’s also just a joy to see a young yet so experienced company actually play around with an idea. And props to them for being able to keep up the momentum, always reaching for crazier, more ridiculous heights each time.